During a recent appearance on Tone-Talk, former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee revealed that Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee wanted him to replace guitarist Mick Mars. The lengthy video interview can be seen below, a portion has been transcribed as follows:

Jake E. Lee: "I quit Ratt. I had nothing going on. I was going to Mötley's fucking gigs… Nikki and Tommy wanted me in the band. They actually wanted me to replace Mick — which you can understand that. I was fucking better looking and fucking better playing. They wanted me to replace Mick. Mick's in-law or whatever was funding the band, so that didn't happen. And there was talk of maybr two guitar players, which even then, I was, like, Mötley Crüe. Two guitar players. I don't know about that. So, anyway, it kind of started with that. 'Cause there was that thing going. Whether somebody denies it or not, that's what started the rift between me and Mick."

Subsequently, Mötley Crüe opened for Ozzy Osbourne. Jake comments on the pairing: "I'm not saying I had a big deal to do with it, but I remember Sharon (Osbourne) saying, 'This Mötley Crüe. What do you think about them opening?' "I said, 'Fucking Mötley Crüe. I think they're gonna be the next big deal.' So Mötley Crüe is opening for us now. At at one point, I'm out partying with… I think it was Tommy… It might have been Vince (Neil). Who knows? Whoever Mick's roommate was. We go back to the room, and Mick's in his pajamas and he's very upset with us. It was with Ratt too — I remember Robbin (Crosby) was there, Stephen (Pearcy) was there. Mick, being the old man, as everybody joked about, he made a complaint. I don't know. I'm not sure what I said. I think just called him 'the old man' and shut up. And he did look over at me and said, 'At least I'm not a slant-eyed Japanese bastard.' And I did not like that — did not like it. I hadn't heard it, actually, since I was in grade school — the whole 'slant-eyed fucking Japanese' thing. And it pissed me off. I walked over. I was gonna beat the fuck out of him. And it was Robbin Crosby, who's six-five, he came up to me, picked me and said, 'C'mon, Jake. None of that shit matters.' And he carried me out of the room."

"So there's a story. I like Mick, we made up after that. The fact that he called me that, I don't think he was so much racist as he was going to attack me 'cause I was younger, better looking and I was a better guitarist."