During an appearance on Billy Corgan‘s “The Magnificent Others” podcast, MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee reflected on the “hurtful” legal battle between MÖTLEY CRÜE‘s founding guitarist Mick Mars and his longtime bandmates over Mick‘s exit from the CRÜE.

When Mars, who suffers from Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), a chronic and inflammatory form of arthritis that mainly affects the spine and pelvis, announced his retirement from touring with MÖTLEY CRÜE in October 2022 as a result of worsening health issues, he maintained that he would remain a member of the band, with John 5 taking his place on the road. Only six months later, however, he filed a lawsuit against MÖTLEY CRÜE in Los Angeles County’s Superior Court, claiming that, after his announcement, the rest of CRÜE tried to remove him as a significant stakeholder in the group’s corporation and business holdings via a shareholders’ meeting.

This past January, MÖTLEY CRÜE announced that it had won “a decisive victory” against Mars, resulting in “a final arbitration award that rejected every claim Mars made against the band and ordered him to pay damages back to the group.”

“For me, that whole thing was awkward and really hurtful, to the point where people were saying untrue things and kind of doing that, and I was, like, ‘God, this sucks,'” Tommy told Corgan. “I’m not into that kind of stuff. It’s, like, why can’t we just all… You go do your thing, we’ll go do ours. It’s all cool. That part of it sucked. I guess that’s like a divorce or whatever. It sucks in any format. But there is only one Mick, and he’s an insane player, and it saddens me just on a personal level for him that this insane bone disease or spine disease slowly started dementing his shape. He started to get locked into being hunched over. Good thing it was forward instead of backwards. At least you’re looking at the guitar neck. He went through a lot of pain, and watching him struggle, and then all of a sudden, I think it takes a toll on… And maybe his age, too, you kind of mix all that in, he started to… He came to us saying, like, ‘I don’t wanna do this anymore. I can’t.'”

Tommy continued: “I always try to put myself in Mick‘s shoes, and I got nothing but love for that guy — nothing but love. I just wish it didn’t get so… and unfortunately, that’s just the way things go. When people are threatened or hurt, they fight back. But it’s all good.”

On the topic of what John 5 has brought to MÖTLEY CRÜE, Tommy said: “I have to give props to John 5, because him coming in was the exact shot of adrenaline and life and energy and fire that we were missing, because it was really becoming a struggle. (On the 2022 ‘The Stadium Tour’) I’d be counting off ‘Live Wire’ and Mick would start ‘Wild Side’. He started to not know where he was. It was a trainwreck. And I’ve had to stop songs — just stop songs. I’m, like, ‘Dude, we gotta restart this because he’s playing the wrong song, and he doesn’t know it.’ It’s, like, oh my God.

“John has been a fan for a long time,” Lee explained. “He knows all the music inside and out, and he loves Mick… To me, dude, I don’t give a shit how talented you are, if you’re an asshole, I don’t have much respect for that. If you’re talented and you’re a sweetheart like John 5 is, you’re my favorite person.”