Mick Mars left the Mötley Crüe tour because of playback, Carmine Appice claims

Heavy metal legends Mötley Crüe broke their promise a few years ago to never return to the stage again, and now the band is touring the world on their comeback tour. However, guitarist Mick Mars dropped out shortly after the tour started and has been replaced by John 5, who played with Rob Zombie and others.

There has been public speculation as to the reasons for Mars’ departure. Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen, for example, speculated that Mars’ health problems were the reason.

Now, in a recent interview with Ultimate Guitar, drummer Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Rod Stewart) says the reason for Mars’ departure was frustration with using playback on tour.

“I’ve spoken to Mick and he said to me: ‘When I was on tour, I wasn’t happy. Basically, everything was pre-recorded, everything was planned and in the end, it was shit.’ And Mick is a good player, so not letting him play his own way wouldn’t have worked for him in the end. The truth is that everything had been weird with Mötley for a while, and Mick didn’t like the fact that it all came from a tape. Mick told me that people who came to see the show knew that everything was pre-recorded and that everything came from tape,” Appice says and continues:

“When you play in a stadium, you can hear a lot of things through the speakers. Vince’s vocals, bass, drums, guitars, and everything else, it was clear that it came from a tape. Mick got angry and said: ‘I can play these things. I want to play them. I don’t want to just pretend I’m playing them.’ I think that was one of the reasons he said, ‘I’m done.’ Of course, the illness he has doesn’t help, and it doesn’t make life easy on tour“, he adds.