He Was The Main Mötley Crüe Member
Mick Mars shredded his way to fame as Mötley Crüe’s loud (and, at times, lewd) guitarist. From his disastrous divorces to his fiery feuds with bandmates—and a crippling lifelong deformity—he’s led a grim life. But he rocked and rolled his way through it all.
1. He Wasn’t Always A Martian
Before he became Mötley Crüe’s mysterious metal man, Mick Mars was just Robert Alan Deal from Terre Haute, Indiana. Born in 1951, Mars moved around with his family a few times, eventually heading cross-country and landing in sunny Garden Grove, California.
The only thing that didn’t move was his dream: music.
2. He Knew What He Wanted To Be At Three
While most toddlers were trying to figure out shapes and letters, little Mick Mars had early drawn out his future plans. After tagging along to a local fair in Indiana, he watched the country singer Skeeter Bonn take to the stage—and had his epiphany. While the crowd saw a country act, he saw destiny.
3. He Wanted To Be Like Bonn
“He was wearing a bright-orange outfit with rhinestones all over the place,” Mars recalled of seeing Bonn on stage, “and a big white Stetson hat”. One look was all it took. “I’m doing that,” he said to himself. From then on, he never looked back.
4. He Got His First Guitar At 12
Money was hard to come by in Mars’ household, but his parents supported his early musical ambitions. So, after years of fantasizing about stardom, they scrimped and scrapped until they had enough money to buy him his first guitar. He was just 12, but his obsession had already taken hold. He practiced day and night—and night and day.
And it showed.
5. He Was A Dropout
At 14, Mars joined The Jades, a Beatles cover band, shredding on bass. With just a small taste of stardom, he dropped out of school and dedicated himself full-time to becoming a musician. Unfortunately, true rockstar status wouldn’t come easily and he spent the early 1970s bouncing through bands that all had one thing in common: failure.
Then he hit a bump—or, rather, had a bump.
6. He Became A Teenage Dad
Even if he wasn’t headlining shows or topping charts, Mars was living the rockstar lifestyle—including hanging around with groupies. At just 19, his girlfriend Sharon gave birth to their son, Les Paul. A few years later, daughter Stormy arrived. With mouths to feed, he had no choice but to take a “real job”.
It would almost cost him everything.
By MadMarlin, Wikimedia Commons
7. He Took A “Spin Cycle”
To make ends meet, Mars clocked in at an industrial laundromat. By day, he worked brutal shifts on heavy machinery. But, by night, he played clubs with his band Wahtoshi. Suffice to say, the job wasn’t glamorous. In fact, it was actually quite gory. Dangerously so.
Alec MacKellaig, Wikimedia Commons
8. He Got A Little “Handsy”
Mars’ soul-sucking day job almost ended his musical career before it truly even began. A workplace accident mangled his hand, nearly “pulverizing” it. The grievous injury to his precious guitar-strumming hand could have ended his hopes right then and there, but, miraculously, he made a full recovery.
After surviving that close call, he handed in his two weeks’ notice and, from then on, it was music or bust.
9. He Could Copy Anyone—Perfectly
In 1973, Mars joined White Horse, an underground cover band with potential. Of course, Mars was the band’s potential. Speaking years later, his White Horse bandmate Harry Clay recalled, “He [Mars] could copy parts note for note. You give him ‘Highway Star’ and he could nail Ritchie Blackmore's riffs”.
All of that talent, however, came at a terrible price.
10. He Was Always In Pain
Long before the stadium tours and screaming fans, Mars was fighting a silent battle—one that he would fight his entire life. At 14, he began experiencing a chronic searing pain in his lower back. It took him over a decade to get diagnosed—and it wasn’t good news. The doctors informed him that he had ankylosing spondylitis.
Fortunately, the disease wasn’t terminal. But his behavior might have been.
11. He Changed His Identity
Before he hit it big, Mars wasn’t making much money—read: no money. As such, he often failed to make child support payments. So, to avoid getting thrown in the slammer for his delinquency, Mars pulled a disappearing act. According to his old drummer, he started using wild aliases like “Zorky Charlemagne” when speaking to the fuzz.
But, with his talent, he could name himself whatever he wanted to.
12. He Gave Eddie Van Halen A Run For His Money
Mars wasn’t just shredding on guitar—he was tearing up the LA club scene. Before he joined Mötley Crüe, he was going toe to toe with the rock legend Eddie Van Halen. White Horse’s drummer once said, “Mick Mars and Eddie Van Halen were the two hottest guitar players in LA. There probably weren't two better guitar players on the planet”.
Mars, however, had a habit of getting into trouble.
Joe Bielawa from MInneapolis, USA, Wikimedia Commons
13. He Made Another Martian
While White Horse chased success, Mars stayed busy in other ways. As he struggled to find his fame and fortune (and fell behind on child support payments), he added to his list of troubles. This time, he had a third child—a son named Erik—with a woman named Marcia Lea Martell. With so many obligations outside of music, it looked like he would never make it.
14. He Was A Sad Man
Despite being a local rock legend in LA, Mars was spiraling. With three kids, mounting pressure, and nowhere near the fame he’d dreamt of, his old bandmate remembered a haunting detail: “Looking into his eyes, I just saw this world of sorrow. He had such a hard life”.
It was about to get harder.
15. His Only Real Love Was Rock
In 1989, Mars’ past came back to haunt him. Martell—the mother of his third child—filed a shocking lawsuit accusing the would-be rockstar of emotionally neglecting their son. She claimed he refused to meet or speak with the boy, despite the boy’s desire to know him. Turns out, Mars’ only real love was rock and roll.
Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music, Getty Images
16. He Refused To Sell Out
After years of trying and failing to make it as a rock band, White Horse threw in their guitars—and picked up their synths. When the band decided that they were going to switch from rock and roll to disco, Mars was out. He quit the band altogether—and then made a drastic change of his own.
17. He Burned The Old Bob Deal
By the end of the 1970s, nearly a decade into disappointment, Mars hit the reset button. Instead of seeing the failure of White Horse as an obstacle, he treated it like an opportunity. An opportunity to start anew. Without a moment’s hesitation, Mars shaved off his mustache, dyed his hair black, and legally changed his name. Bob Deal was out. Mick Mars was in.
Ron Galella, Ltd., Getty Images
18. He Was Hiring
In 1980, after undergoing his makeover, Mars placed an ad in the newspapers in search of a new band to match his new identity. And this time, he was very specific. In the ad, he described himself as a “loud, rude and aggressive guitar player” looking for a band. It was blunt. It was bold. And it was brilliant.
Two soon-to-be Crüe members saw the ad—and their future.
19. He Found His New Crüe
Mars’ ad found just the right people at just the right time: Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee. The heavy metal duo were piecing together a new group when they happened to stumble across Mars’ ad. After one listen, they knew they’d found the missing member to their nascent band. Frankly, they didn’t even need to hear him shred.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images
20. He Made One Hell Of A First Impression
When Mars showed up to audition for Lee and Sixx, he didn’t even have to pick up a guitar to leave an impression. When Lee answered the door, he practically recoiled—with grim glee. “He’s standing there looking like Cousin Itt from The Addams Family,” Lee remembered. Then Lee turned to Sixx and said, “He’s perfect. He’s disgusting and scary”.
Now, the band just needed a name.
21. He Made The Mötley Crüe
With their misfit lineup locked in, they still needed a name. That’s when Mars piped up with a phrase someone had once used to describe his old band: “a motley-looking crew”. Sixx liked it and came up with the unusual spelling. Just like that, Mötley Crüe was born.
And they were making metal history before long.
22. He Made Heavy Metal History
Mötley Crüe had been the band that Mars had been waiting for since he was three years old, watching Bonn on stage for the first time. His new band didn’t just play hard—they dominated. Over the course of their career, Mötley Crüe sold over 100 million albums, racked up platinum after platinum, and blasted into the Billboard charts like a wrecking ball. For Mars, it was vindication.
For everyone else, it was mayhem.
23. He Warned Them Early
The rest of Mötley Crüe embraced the chaos that came with their meteoric rise to metal fame. But Mars? He drew a hard line—at hard substances. When smack started taking over the rock scene, Mars begged his bandmates to step away from the white line. “Please don’t ever, ever do smack,” he told them. “You can’t make music when you’re falling down”.
He should have taken his own advice.
24. He Had His Own Vices
For the most part, Mars steered clear of smack and other highly addictive substances. But he still had his demons—and he found them at the bottom of the bottle. As the band’s fame skyrocketed, so did his dependence on the hooch. Behind the snarling riffs and wild hair was a man quietly unraveling—one empty bottle at a time.
But that was just about the only thing quiet about him.
25. He Was Literally Too Loud
During the recording of Dr Feelgood in 1989, Mars truly unleashed his ear-splitting guitar skills. The heavy metal rocker cranked his amps so high that the sound of his shredding bled through the walls…right into Aerosmith’s studio next door!
26. He Refused To Turn Down
When Steven Tyler from Aerosmith and producer Bruce Fairbairn begged Mars to lower the volume, Mars laughed them off. “Hey, that's the way I play—loud,” Mars told them. And he wasn’t kidding. In fact, Mars was so loud that attentive Aerosmith fans could hear his guitar in the background of the album Pump.
He was just a little too loud for some, though.
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, Wikimedia Commons
27. He Got Shut Out
In 1997, Mötley Crüe made a big move—without consulting Mars. The other members of the group decided to fire John Corabi and bring back the original vocalist, Vince Neil. Despite being the loudest Crüe member, Mars didn’t get a say. Things only got more intense from there.
28. He Got No Respect
According to Corabi, the disrespect between Mars and his other Crüe bandmates ran deep. Corabi claimed that the rest of the band treated Mars like a “grumpy old [jerk]”. Apparently, Sixx and Lee relentlessly mocked Mars’ finances and love life. The rifts between their riffs were getting wider each day.
29. He Had One Big Regret
Even if he wasn’t close with his bandmates, Mars enjoyed the music he made with Mötley Crüe—if he made any. He called Crüe’s Generation Swine his biggest regret. But not because the music was bad. It was because it wasn’t his. Mars claimed his bandmates erased most of his parts and hired session players instead.
It wouldn’t be the last time, either.
30. His Bandmates Erased Him—Again
Generation Swine wasn’t the last time that Mars’ bandmates scrubbed his recordings from an album. When Mars spoke about the band’s 2000 album, New Tattoo, he was clear: “I didn't write any of those songs, since I wasn't invited. I think I got one lick on that album”. But his bandmate, Sixx, told a different story, saying, “This is during the period that [Mars] had disintegrated into opiate addiction”.
31. He Was In Excruciating Pain
By 2001, Mars’ ankylosing spondylitis had pushed him to the brink—and then right over the edge. To deal with the pain, he regularly took a mixture of Oxycontin, Vicodin, and Lortab, washed down with bottles of hooch and topped off with a casual 45 Advil a day. Not surprisingly, his homemade remedy had some unintended side effects.
32. He Saw Reptile Aliens
With a name like Mick Mars, people expected his guitar playing to be otherworldly. But Mars might have taken that too literally. Locked away in his house and blitzed on painkillers, he started seeing visions—specifically, “giant reptile aliens” hanging out at the foot of his bed. He needed help—and he was about to get it from the unlikeliest corner.
33. He Was Spoon-Fed
Despite his differences with his Crüe bandmates, they had his back when he needed it most. At his lowest of lows, he moved in with Sixx, who quickly noticed that Mars was in worse shape than he knew. In fact, Sixx claimed that he “actually had to spoon-feed [Mars] since he was so [messed] up”.
Perhaps that was too much closeness for Mars, though.
34. He Was A Stranger To His Band
Even though they were in a band together for decades, Mars never really bonded with the other Crüe members. “Tommy came over once, and Vince just came over once—even though he lived just around the corner,” Mars once complained in a Rolling Stone interview. His closest connection was with Sixx who, after spoon-feeding him, visited “two or three times at the most”.
The band was breaking apart before his eyes.
35. He Wasn’t A Saint Of Los Angeles
The trend of scrubbing over re-recording Mars’ parts on Mötley Crüe albums continued with the band’s 2008 album Saints of Los Angeles. Most of Mars’ guitar parts were recorded by the uncredited guitarist, DJ Ashba. Sixx explained that it wasn’t personal, just practical: “Mick was struggling to play his parts”.
He was struggling to do much of anything.
Motley Crue - Saints of Los Angeles (Official Music Video), Motley Crue
36. He Didn’t Want To Tour
In 2022, when Mötley Crüe got back together for a comeback tour, fans noticed that the shows were not quite as loud as they had been. Almost as if the band’s loudest member wasn’t there—because he wasn’t. After years away from the stage—and with his body nearly crippled by ankylosing spondylitis—Mars told his bandmates that was done with the road life.
He had his reasons.
37. He Literally Couldn't Turn His Head
Mars didn’t just walk away from the reunion tour to annoy his fans and bandmates. He actually couldn’t perform. As in, he was physically incapable of turning his neck or standing upright. Mars lamented that he couldn’t actually turn his head from side to side, far less bang along a metal riff.
He was definitely living in the shadow of his own former greatness—and height.
38. His Back Betrayed Him
Ankylosing spondylitis didn’t just hurt Mars—it transformed him. As his condition worsened, his spine froze up completely, pulling his body down into a hunched position until he was actually three inches shorter than he’d been in high school. Far from performing again, he could barely perform regular tasks in life.
39. He Couldn’t Even Drive
In 2013, Mars revealed that his neck was so immobile that he couldn’t even drive himself anywhere. The condition had already forced him to undergo hip-replacement surgery back in 2004. Whenever he managed to make it on stage, he still looked like a rock god. Offstage, however, he was breaking down.
40. He Refused Help
Even as his condition worsened, Mars refused to accept pity. Or, frankly, help. When asked if he would consider using a cane or wheelchair, he snapped back: “If I can’t get up there myself, I’m not doing it”. Perhaps the only thing louder than his guitar prowess was his pride.
He was about to lose that too.
41. He Called It Quits—Sort Of
In October 2022, Mars officially stepped away from touring with Mötley Crüe. The very next day, however, the band confirmed his replacement. And they weren’t subtle about it. The other members of Mötley Crüe announced that the guitarist John 5 would take up the ax from Mars for the band’s future live shows.
Then things really got heated.
42. He Was “Out” Before He Was Out
What Mars thought was stepping back turned into a full-blown ousting. Later that same week, the band announced Mars’ full retirement—not just from touring but from the band itself. John 5, they said, was in for good and Mars was out.
But he wasn’t going away silently.
43. He Lawyered Up Fast
Mars didn’t take his ex-bandmates’ move lying down. In April 2023, he filed a lawsuit against the band, accusing them of trying to push him out behind closed doors. The “unilateral” decision, he claimed, was their attempt to take ownership of the band and brand that he had helped build from the ground up. The lawsuit also revealed some of the band’s worst secrets—but we’ll get to those details a little later.
The Crüe came back with a quick reply.
44. His Bandmates Backtracked
Hours after Mars’ lawsuit made headlines, Mötley Crüe’s camp issued a carefully worded statement of their own. According to them, they hadn’t “fired” Mars at all. He just…wasn’t touring with them. Not now or, frankly, ever again. But Mars wasn’t having any of it.
45. He Set The Record Straight
Mars didn’t waste any words letting his ex-bandmates know exactly what he was thinking. “Those guys have been hammering on me since ’87, trying to replace me,” he said. And then came the mic drop: “It’s my name. My ideas. My money. This band wouldn’t have gone anywhere without me”.
He wasn’t necessarily wrong—but that didn’t make him right, either.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin, Getty Images
46. He Couldn’t Be Bought
In an effort to put the whole mess to bed, Mötley Crüe approached Mars with an offer. But, apparently, it was an offer that he could very well refuse. The paltry deal would have given Mars a mere five percent of the band’s 2023 tour profits in exchange for him signing away all of his rights. Needless to say, he didn’t sign on the dotted line.
But he certainly could have used the money.
47. He Finally Found Love
Throughout the highs and lows of his career, Mars had tried to settle down twice. His first marriage came in 1990 when he tied the knot with the singer Emi Canyn. By 1994, however, they had split. Then, nearly two decades later, just as he had given up on love, he felt the spark again, this time with Swiss model Seraina Schönenberger.
The couple has remained together ever since and tied the knot in 2013. And it is love, for richer and poorer, indeed.
48. He Has Lost And Gained It All
Despite his wild success with Mötley Crüe, Mars claimed that he had “gone broke” not once, not twice, but three separate times! And it almost always followed a failed marriage. “They drained my bank accounts,” he recalled. “I lost my house. I lost cars. I lost guitars. I lost everything”.
Almost everything.
49. He Turned Pain Into Power
In the midst of his financial ups and downs and his ongoing feud with his former bandmates, Mars got back to what he always did best: making music. In early 2023, he returned to the studio to record a solo album—The Other Side of Mars—marking a fierce new chapter in his story.
And he proved he’s just as loud as ever.
Mick Mars - The Other Side Of Mars - New Album Review & Unboxing, Brendon Snyder
50. He’s Still Proud To Be Loud
According to country rocker Cory Marks, Mars’ solo effort marked a stunning and unexpected comeback for the heavy metal legend. “The rock world is in for something weird, special, great and loud,” Marks said. Sounds about right, for Mötley Crüe’s grim guitarist.
In addition to a well-received album, Mars has also seen some success with his ongoing lawsuit against Mötley Crüe—and the details he revealed in the document have certainly sullied the band's reputation.
Goedefroit Music, Getty Images
51: He Spilled The Beans
Mars’ lawsuit sheds light on more than just the tensions between him and his bandmates. In the 29-page document, Mars revealed some of his bandmates’ most sordid secrets. He claimed that two of them had been battling substances issues for years, while another had had a series of violent run-ins that ended a felony conviction. Mars even claimed that during the band’s 2022 tour, Nikki Sixx didn’t play a single note on his bass during their US stops. Sixx and the other band members have, of course, denied all the allegations.
Christopher Polk, Getty Images
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