Nikki Sixx recently spoke against Carmine Appice’s claim that guitarist Mick Mars was in a dispute with his bandmates prior to his retirement from Motley Crue.
Mars’ leaving the group was announced after the completion of their 2022 Stadium Tour, with John 5 replacing him soon after. The official reason listed for his departure was that Mars’ long term illness finally caught up with him. However, in a recent interview, Ozzy Osbourne and Vanilla Fudge drummer Appice suggested another reason.
Appice stated, “[Mars] told me, ‘When I was on the Stadium Tour, I was not happy,’ Basically, everything was on tape; it was all planned out and ultimately a lot of crap. … The truth is that everything has been weird for a while with Motley Crue… Mick told me that people that came to see it could tell that it was all pre-recorded and that everything was on tape.”
Adding that Mars, “would travel alone on a bus while the other guys flew everywhere, He said, ‘Man, these guys are pissing their money away, flying to every gig.’ They were all busy still trying to be rock stars, and Mick just wanted to play the music. … [T]here were a lot of disagreements. I think he was just done.” He also claimed that when Mars was told about Crue’s World Tour with Def Leppard, the guitarist told his colleagues, “You can do it. I’m not going out with you for this.”
Sixx appeared to respond indirectly to the comments via Twitter saying, “Love how people talk FOR us without talking TO us. This is why the media has lost credibility. Obviously by printing BS they make money off of advertising and we’re not into that clickbait game. When the truth comes out it will be FROM us.”
However, a Twitter Q&A last night had him saying, “A washed up drummer trying to speak for us? And bottom feeder media running with it to make money off of lies? Welcome to the sad new world of LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME.”
Motley Crue will be on the road for much of the year with John 5 as their guitar player.
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