“The decision is awful,” Mars’ attorney tells Rolling Stone
Mötley Crüe are declaring a decisive victory in their bitter split with Mick Mars, the founding guitarist who claims the legendary metal band unjustly fired him and cut off payments after he bowed out of a world tour due to chronic illness.
In a final arbitration award filed in Los Angeles that surfaced today, a retired judge ruled that bandmates Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, and Vince Neil were within their rights to remove Mars as an officer and director of Mötley Crüe Inc. after he stepped away from a grueling U.S. stadium tour in 2022 because he suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, a painful, disfiguring bone disease.
Mars, 74, previously told Rolling Stone that he never retired from the band entirely and remained available for a residency or studio work. But the band terminated him, he said, triggering the nasty legal fight that ultimately landed in arbitration.
In the final ruling, the arbitrator upheld the band’s firing decision and ordered Mars to repay $750,030 from an advance because he missed 69 live shows. The judge also ruled Mars must sell his ownership stake in the iconic group to Sixx, Lee, and Neil for $505,737. After subtracting the sale price, the arbitrator awarded Mötley Crüe a net payment of $244,293.
