Guitarist MICK MARS On Owning The Name MÖTLEY CRÜE First - "I Wasn’t Going To Share It Until I Thought The People That I Wanted To Work With Were The Right People"
October 30, 2023, a year ago
Guitarist Mick Mars, who retired from Mötley Crüe last October due to health issues, will release his debut solo single on Halloween (October 31 at midnight EST) and BraveWords sat down with him on Streaming For Vengeance to discuss his new music, the recently-released 40th anniversary Shout At The Devil box, the Sunset Strip and how they skyrocketed to fame by just sounding different from every other band in Los Angeles. And despite the fact that he's in legal battles with the other members of Mötley Crüe (Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil), he actually owned the name Mötley Crüe first.
When asked about trying to launch a band during the Sunset Strip heyday of the early ‘80s in Los Angeles he says: “That’s kind of an easy question for me. All those other bands, didn’t impress me. They’re all playing the same thing … the same kind of this, the same kind of that. And I was thinking, ‘let’s just sound like me.’ I wasn’t going to share the name until I thought the people that I wanted to work with were the right people. Luckily, I got lucky with the right people. With all those guys. And we took off like a bat out of hell. We did. It didn’t take long. Because we sounded so different. The way that I tuned my guitar and what I use to make my tones and stuff. Tone is the biggest part for me. I played slower, whatever the heck but it was always tone. Did I want to be a shredder? Not really. I wanted to have people humming my solos when they leave a show. And remembering them. So it was the sound of the band. And it was nothing that people had heard on the Sunset Strip. Then it became not the British invasion, but the LA invasion.”
BraveWords Streaming For Vengeance chat with Mick Mars will air tommorrow morning at 9AM EST on the BraveWords Facebook page and on BraveWords Radio which can be heard on the CMS Network APP.
Earlier this year, Mick Mars revealed to Rolling Stone that his debut solo album, entitled Another Side Of Mars, will include the songs "Broken On The Inside", "Alone", "Lonely In Your Grave", "Loyal To The Lie", "Decay", "Fear", "Memories" and "Erased".
Stay tuned for updates.