It’s been a fairly eventful few months for Mötley Crüe, who started 2023 with John 5 as their new guitarist to fill in for the outgoing Mick Mars.
Mars, who stepped back from his role due to health reasons in October last year, was officially replaced by the Rob Zombie guitarist not long after, with the electric guitar star receiving votes of confidence from each remaining Mötley member.
It turns out John 5 also received a message of support from his predecessor following the announcement of his appointment, with Mars personally reaching out to him after the news broke.
Speaking to SiriusXM's Eddie Trunk, John 5 discussed his relationship with Mars, revealing the long-standing Mötley Crüe guitarist was wholly supportive of his successor, who was drafted to fulfill a handful of live commitments.
“When I was announced as the guitar player, he was one of the very first texts that I got,” John 5 recalled (via Loudwire). “He said, ‘You're going to kill it.’ It's good. It's not like it's some stranger coming in. We have a great respect for each other.”
Unsurprisingly, the support for John 5 was warranted. Having practiced his Crüe chops beforehand by sneaking in their songs to his live solo sets, and by uploading video footage of him playing a handful of their hits, John 5 soon made a spectacular live debut in February.
The relationship between Mick Mars and Mötley Crüe has soured somewhat in recent months, however. In April, Mars sued the band for conspiring to fire him, and claimed his former bandmates had attempted to remove him as a significant stakeholder in Crüe’s various businesses.
At the time, Mars also accused the band of miming onstage, saying bassist Nikki Sixx mimed all his parts, while the rest of the band – Tommy Lee and Vince Neil – did for some of theirs.
The band – through their attorney – responded to Mars by affirming that the band “always performs their songs live”, and that “retiring from touring is resigning from the band”.
In his recent conversation with Trunk, John 5 weighed in on the conversation by saying, “Not 99 percent, not 98 percent, but 100 percent – Nikki is playing every single note on that stage.
“When people say we're playing to backing tracks, I take it as a compliment because we rehearse so hard,” he went on. “We even have penalty flags if someone messes up at rehearsal – we throw a penalty flag at them.
“We rehearse so much and I take it as a compliment because it means we sound that good live. In my heart of hearts, I know that we're playing live.”
The most recent development in the exchange between Mars and the band came from Nikki Sixx, who alleged Mars was “a little bit confused and being misled by representatives”.
