Mötley Crüe’s Mick Mars says people thought he was a “crap” guitar player

Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars said in an interview with Guitar World that back in the 80’s people thought he was a “crap” guitar player because he didn’t knew how to read music. The musician also recalled everybody was only playing all scales.

Mötley Crüe’s Mick Mars says people thought he was a “crap” guitar player:

“Everybody and their mother was playing all scales. ‘Oh, I’m a great guitar player now!’ And everybody’s playing the same lick over and over and over. “Was I kinda overlooked or put in a different category? Yes. My schooling, I don’t know how to read music. It came from how I felt about the song and following the melody of the song.”

“Playing something that fit and something that was memorable. It has a melody line to it, not just a barrage of notes. And because I didn’t play all the scales or do this or that, you know, people thought that I was this crap guitar player. But it’s okay.“

Journalist Brad Tolinski also talked about the 80’s scene, saying:

“Guitarists personalizing their instruments was always popular in country music, and then in the ’60s you had people like the Beatles, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page painting on their guitars. But when Van Halen appeared with his striped ‘Frankenstein’ strat, I think that it really established this idea that your instrument should make a bold visual statement.”

“That coupled with the rise of upstart guitar companies like Charvel, Kramer, and Jackson, who were jazzed about creating wild new ‘pointy’ guitar shapes and actually interested in catering to the hair bands, really opened up the floodgates. A guitarist could order an axe with virtually anything painted on it — which, if you’re twenty-two and horny, just might be a Trojan condom wrapper . . . or something even less tasteful.“