Mick Mars sues Mötley Crüe over financials, claims Nikki Sixx’s bass tracks live were all pre-recorded

Mick Mars has filed a lawsuit against his Mötley Crüe bandmates, alleging the band is screwing him over financially.

The paperwork was filed in Los Angeles County’s Superior Court Thursday filed through Mars’ attorney, Edwin F. McPherson, and says the band has deliberately withheld information about the various Motley Crue businesses that he has a 25% ownership share in. Mars says the group has demanded he sign a severance agreement that would divest him of those and other future interests, in return for a 5% stake in Mötley Crue’s 2023 tour, which is going on with John 5 replacing him.

In the lawsuit as reported by TMZ, Mars claims he originally told Mötley Crüe that he is still available to record with the band and to do limited performances. Instead, Mars said Mötley Crüe instead cut his profits down from 25 percent to 5 percent after announcing his retirement from the road. He further claims that “the band’s lawyers made him feel like he should be grateful for even that small cut, because they didn’t feel they owed him anything at all” and that Mötley Crüe unilaterally decided to “remove” him from the band.

In what might be the worst accusation, Mars says Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx was “gaslighting” him about getting worse at guitar despite Sixx not “playing a single note on bass” throughout the band’s original farewell tour. The lawsuit seeks to allow Mars to have a look at the band’s financials to see if he’s truly getting ripped off.

Mötley Crue’s reps did not immediately respond to a request for comment.