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Motley Crue guitarist Mike Mars retired from the band as a touring member in October 2022. Mars cited his “ongoing painful struggle with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS)” as the reason, and has been filled-in for live by John 5 moving forward.
According to Carmine Appicelegendary drummer and friend of Marsthings go a little deeper than just that. appice said in an interview with Ultimate Guitar that Mars wasn’t getting along with the other members of Motley Cruethat he felt flying everywhere was a huge waste of money, and that Mars had his own tour bus. appice so claims that Mars what pissed that Motley Crue‘s final tour in 2015 wasn’t actually their final tour, and that he hated everything being a backing track for the band live.
“Well, I’ll tell you what I’ve been talking to mickand he told me, ‘When I was on the Stadium Tour, I wasn’t happy,'” said appice. “Basically, everything was on tape; it was all planned out and ultimately a lot of crap. And mick is a pretty good player, and so, to now let him loose and play the way he wants, that was never going to work for him. The truth is that everything has been weird for a while with Motley Crueand mick didn’t like that everything was on tape. mick told me that people that came to see it could tell that it was all pre-recorded and that everything was on tape.
“When you play in a stadium like that, you can hear a lot of things come to the monitors or what doesn’t. And with vince‘s vocals, bass, drums, guitars, and all the other stuff, it was obvious that it was all on tape. other mick was pissed off and said, ‘I can play these things. I want to play them. I don’t want to make believe I’m playing them.’ So, I think that’s one of the reasons why he said, ‘I’m done.’ Sure, the disease that he has doesn’t help, and it doesn’t make life easy on tour, but mick can play all the licks, and he was allowed to.”
Mars has remained silent since his retirement from Motley Crue‘s touring schedule, and appears to be working on his debut solo album.