Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee laments lawsuit and praises Mick Mars

After Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars, who suffers from ankylosing spondylitis (AS)—a chronic inflammatory form of arthritis that primarily affects the spine and pelvis—announced his retirement from touring with the band in 2022, a legal battle between him and his bandmates began. Initially, it was announced that he would remain a member of the group while John 5 would tour in his place. However, six months later, Mars filed a lawsuit against the band, alleging that the other members had attempted to remove him as a significant stakeholder in the band’s corporation and business holdings through a shareholders’ meeting.

At the beginning of 2026, the band announced that they had won what they described as “a decisive victory” against Mars, saying that “a final arbitration award rejected every claim Mars made against the band and ordered him to pay damages.” In an interview with Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Mötley’s drummer Tommy Lee lamented the legal feud and praised Mars as a musician.

Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee laments lawsuit and praises Mick Mars

“For me, that whole thing was awkward and really hurtful, to the point where people were saying untrue things and kind of doing that, and I was, like, ‘God, this sucks’. I’m not into that kind of stuff. It’s, like, why can’t we just all… You go do your thing, we’ll go do ours. It’s all cool. That part of it sucked. I guess that’s like a divorce or whatever. It sucks in any format. But there is only one Mick, and he’s an insane player, and it saddens me just on a personal level for him that this insane bone disease or spine disease slowly started dementing his shape.”

“He started to get locked into being hunched over. Good thing it was forward instead of backwards. At least you’re looking at the guitar neck. (He went through) a lot of pain, and watching him struggle, and then all of a sudden, I think it takes a toll on… And maybe his age, too, you kind of mix all that in, he started to… He came to us saying, like, ‘I don’t wanna do this anymore. I can’t.'”

He continued:

“I always try to put myself in Mick’s shoes, and I got nothing but love for that guy — nothing but love. I just wish it didn’t get so… and unfortunately, that’s just the way things go. When people are threatened or hurt, they fight back. But it’s all good. I have to give props to John 5, because him coming in was the exact shot of adrenaline and life and energy and fire that we were missing, because it was really becoming a struggle.”

(On the 2022 ‘The Stadium Tour’) I’d be counting off ‘Live Wire’ and Mick would start ‘Wild Side’. He started to not know where he was (in the song). (It was a) trainwreck. And I’ve had to stop songs — just stop songs. I’m, like, ‘Dude, we gotta restart this because he’s playing the wrong song, and he doesn’t know it.’ It’s, like, oh my God.”

Tommy Lee continued:

“John has been a fan for a long time. He knows all the music inside and out, loves Mick… To me, dude, I don’t give a shit how talented you are, if you’re an (asshole), I don’t have much respect for that. If you’re talented and you’re a sweetheart (like John 5 is), you’re my favorite person,” Tommy Lee said (Transcribed by Blabbermouth).