Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars announced his retirement from touring with the band in late 2022, and then leveled a massive lawsuit against his bandmates in 2023. Mars further claimed that none of his Mötley Crüe bandmates spoke to him during their 2022 tour, and that they'd been trying to fire him for decades.
Mars has also publicly battled ankylosing spondylitis (AS) for years, sadly saying in a recent interview that "I'm probably just going to live another seven or eight years." So between a strained relationship with his bandmates and battling a worsening disease, it's no surprise Mars quite Mötley Crüe. Though apparently Nikki Sixx was shocked.
In an interview with Guitar World, Sixx claims that nobody in the Mötley Crüe camp saw Mars' retirement (or firing, depending on who you ask) coming. Because apparently it's shocking when the dude you've been ignoring, and who's quality of life is deteriorating before your eyes, says "fuck it" and leaves.
"We never saw it coming that Mick wasn't going to be able to tour and was going to have to quit the band," said Sixx. "In the middle – not even the middle – of a huge tour, we had to ask ourselves, 'Do we want to let the fans down? Do we want to let Live Nation down? Do we want to let Def Leppard down? Do we want to let ourselves down because an original member of our band can't tour anymore?' We had to have a deep, deep look into what we were going to do."
Also, come on dude – don't act like you're concerned about letting the fans down. If there was really a concern about letting fans down, the entirety of Mötley Crüe would've set an ultimatum for Vince Neil to not sound like he does before they hit the road.
