What rare and incurable disease caused Mötley Crüe's Mick Mars to spiral into addiction?
Keep watching to find out.
Mick Mars was born on April 4, 1955, in Terre Haute.
When Mars, who was then known by his birth name Robert Deal, was just three years old,
he saw a country music act perform at a fair in Indiana and decided that music was what
he wanted to do with his life.
In 2012, he told The Guardian that he immediately knew he wanted to play the guitar.
"I saw this country musician play at the fair; his name was Skeeter Bonn, and he had on this
orange outfit with sequins all over it, and he wore this large Stetson hat and he played
guitar and sang [...] I said, 'That's what I'm doing with my life.'"
Following the show, Mars' mother gave him an Elvis Presley haircut, the first step in
becoming a rock star.
Mars told Goldmine that he never wavered from following his dream.
"I had every intention of being who I am today.
It didn't matter how many days, or years, it took, or how many dues I had to pay."
Fans of Mötley Crüe may be surprised to learn, though, that Mick Mars' early musical
inspirations were not hard rock at all but country music.
Eventually, though, his musical tastes broadened, with some of his other early influences being
The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and legendary surf rock guitarist Dick Dale.
As a Baby Boomer, it's unsurprising that Mars is roughly a decade
older than the rest of the Crüe.
As a teen, Mars dropped out of high school and relocated to Los Angeles to pursue his
music career, performing blues rock and working odd jobs.
He even used the stage name Zorky Charlemagne in this period, as he had yet to adopt the
famous Mick Mars moniker.
One of Mick Mars' pre-Mötley Crüe projects was called White Horse.
Fatefully, the members of White Horse were once described as a "motley crew," and Mars
noted the name for use in a future project.
Around 1980, though, White Horse stalled out.
It was then that Mars placed an ad seeking musicians for a new group.
The ad read in part,
"LOUD rude aggressive lead guitarist [seeks] working band [...]”
In a scene dramatized in the 2019 film "The Dirt," future Mötley Crüe band members Tommy
Lee and Nikki Sixx responded.
Mars knew of Vince Neil from a group Neil was playing in at the time called Rock Candy,
and it was at Mars' urging that Neil joined the band.
And Mars wasn't just helping to form a new band, he was also forming a new identity,
as he stopped going by Robert Alan Deal and instead adopted the Mick Mars pseudonym.
He told Goldmine,
"I was reinventing myself [...] things were changing, and I needed to change, too."
It wasn't long after Mötley Crüe got together before they were playing sold-out shows at
Whiskey a Go Go and The Roxy Theatre, pioneering a Sunset Strip hard rock and heavy metal sound
that would take off on the radio and on MTV just a few short years later.
That later chart-topping success for Mötley Crüe was directly related to the songs Mars
either wrote or co-wrote with the band, including some of Crüe's most memorable material, like
"Girls, Girls, Girls," and "Dr. Feelgood," leading many music fans and critics to credit
Mars as the engine behind the Sunset Strip sound.
And even though he was a good deal older than the rest of the group, he didn't act like
it or think like it, which he says was key to his success.
He told Goldmine,
"My age wasn't my age.
I was 30, but I wasn't thinking like a 30-year-old.
I was thinking more like a teenager.
I was hungry, and I wanted to make it."
Soon, Mars and the band began their meteoric rise after they performed at a major metal
festival called Heavy Metal Day and were signed to Elektra Records who reprinted their first
album.
Mars told Goldmine Magazine:
"We started recording that just a few months after we were together."
By 1984, Mick Mars' band was on top of the rock 'n' roll world, opening for veteran heavy
metal singer Ozzy Osbourne on a U.S. tour.
It was at this point, though, that the Crüe reportedly considered axing their primary axman.
According to Ozzy bassist Bob Daisley, the other three members of Motley Crüe conspired
to get rid of Mars behind his back, with the goal of replacing him with Ozzy guitarist
Jake E. Lee.
But Daisley told music site Blabbermouth that he talked them out of it.
"I said, 'Well, if you want my opinion, for what it's worth, I would say do not try to
fix something that's not broken.
You've got a chemistry there.
You've got a functioning unit.
Mick Mars is part of that.
Don't f— it up.
That's my opinion.
Just don't do it.'
And I think I saved Mick's neck that night 'cause they were getting serious about getting
someone else."
Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx has disputed Daisley's story, saying it was completely
made up, but Lee has confirmed Daisley's account.
Still, Sixx clearly values Mars's friendship, as he got a tattoo of Mars on his leg.
"I wanted to honor him with this portrait tattoo."
"I wish more people could be like Mick Mars."
Professional struggles aside, Mick Mars has also managed several mental health challenges
throughout his life, as he revealed in 2001's "The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most
Notorious Rock Band," a Mötley Crüe autobiography Mars co-wrote with the other band members.
Mars wrote in the book that he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, which according to Psychiatry
magazine is characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, trouble with thinking,
and lack of motivation.
He's also struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts.
Mars also recounted a particularly harrowing experience when he was so inebriated he walked
into the ocean in order to kill himself, only to wake up a short time later.
When he returned to the rest of the band, he wondered if he might be a ghost.
Additionally, substance use disorder has also been an ongoing challenge for the musician.
"To help me get through the pain of the disease that I have, I started taking opiates.
I became dependent on them.
It turned into an addiction."
But in 2012, he told The Fix that he has since gotten sober.
"I don't smoke.
I don't drink.
I don't have many vices, except playing my guitar too much.
I guess I'm kind of a boring guy these days.
But that's how I'm gonna keep going with Mötley Crüe as long as I can."
He added that while being sober has definitely helped his musicianship, it hasn't helped
his attitude.
"I'm still no gentleman.
I'm still as big an a—--- as ever."
Substance use disorder and mental and emotional well-being are not the only life challenges
managed by Mick Mars.
According to Yahoo!, Mick Mars was diagnosed at the age of 17 with a rare spinal disease
called ankylosing spondylitis, which causes parts of a person's spine to fuse together,
and in the case of Mick Mars, leads to his hunched-forward appearance.
"But it doesn't work on the back side of your spine, it works on the inside, so when you
get the disease, you come from straight to being bent."
It also causes a great deal of pain, which Mars pushes through when he performs.
He told Goldmine,
"I am able to keep touring.
I have days that are worse than others, and there is always some amount of pain with my hips.
There are good days and bad days, but it is more of an inconvenience than anything else.
I don't feel sick."
The condition has also led to Mars losing several inches off his full adult height,
and according to MTV, he had to have hip replacement surgery.
But Mars told Goldmine that there are some unexpected benefits.
"There is one thing that is cool: I ended up bent.
I can always see my guitar."
According to the Spondylitis Association of America, a combination of environmental and
genetic factors contribute to the condition, described as a chronic form of arthritis.
There is no known cure, but through early detection and treatments and therapies, progression
can be slowed and the pain caused by the disease can be managed.
Mick Mars met his first wife, Sharon Deal, when he was 19 and Sharon was only 16 years old.
The two would go on to have two children together.
The first, a boy, named appropriately enough Les Paul after the legendary guitar maker,
and the next, a girl named Stormy.
But it didn't last.
Deal divorced Mars before Mötley Crüe, and she even had Mars thrown in jail over unpaid
child support.
Mars would go on to marry Mötley Crüe backup singer Emi Canyn but they would divorce only
four years later.
Today he is married to Swiss model Seraina Schönenberger.
Being a world-famous rock star puts a strain on a father's relationship with his children.
This is particularly true in Mars' situation.
His third child, Erik Deal, keeps out of the spotlight and his biological mother has not
been made public.
For her part, Stormy Deal, who inherited ankylosing spondylitis from her father, also keeps a
low profile, while Les Paul has followed his father's footsteps to become a musician.
In the early `90s, original Crüe singer Vince Neil was fired from the band.
Replacing Neil on vocals was John Corabi, best known for fronting The Scream.
Corabi sang for Crüe on their eponymous 1994 album, and on a follow-up EP, but ultimately
left the band during the recording of their next album, "Generation Swine."
Neil was brought back in to record the vocals.
Although never as successful as earlier Crüe records were, Mars has a special place in
his heart for the one complete Crüe album the band recorded with Corabi.
He said,
"I thought that was probably — to me, and I can only speak for me, I think that was
probably the best album we've done.
Musical-wise, the songs, I felt, were strong.
And just musically, to me, it was, I guess, my Beatles 'White Album'; that's kind of how
I feel about that one.
I'm not saying that any of my other albums are crummy or anything like that — I love
every album that we did — but that one just has a special thing for me."
Mötley Crüe has had an undeniable influence on generations of young musicians, none more
so than John LeCompt and Rocky Gray, former members of the popular Millennial-era hard
rockers Evanescence.
After they left the band, both LeCompt and Gray formed Machina, and their hero Mick Mars
sat in with the group, producing a track in his home studio.
Machina drummer Rocky Gray said of the experience,
"[T]o play with Mötley and Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx and Vince [Neil], stuff like that
— it is really, really, really cool to be able to have those experiences and do that.
Play those songs that you love listening to with the people that wrote them you know.
It's awesome."
Mars has also collaborated with a number of other artists as well, including Pop Evil,
Papa Roach, and Hinder.
"Mick Mars was all for working with us, and being huge Mötley Crüe fans we jumped at
the opportunity.
We took the song to him, and he killed it!
He heard the final version and said, 'It was a beautiful thing.'
We went to his house, and it was like the Batcave — nothing but guitars and amps.
He is a vampire and so are all of us."
With all the time Mars has spent playing with Mötley Crüe, he's still managed to branch
out into some projects of his own.
A few years ago there were rumors of Mars working on a solo project, which he confirmed
in his Goldmine interview.
"Everybody is saying that I'm doing a blues record.
It will be a blues record, per se, but it will be more like how
Edgar Winter interprets the blues.
It will have a '70s kind of feeling, but I will be writing in a more current style of music.
I want to mix those two styles together."
Promotional teasers released in 2016 revealed that none other than John Corabi will be appearing
on at least one track.
And in 2020, one of the musicians collaborating with Mars on his solo debut, Jacob Bunton,
told AL that the album was almost finished.
Bunton couldn't give a release date, but he did take the liberty to describe Mars' guitar
playing:
"The power goes out it's so loud.
It's louder than anything you've ever heard in your life.
Louder than a jet engine — I'm not exaggerating.
He runs through so many cabinets and heads and everything it is insane, but his tone
is just the most incredible thing you've heard."
The solo album combined with a 2022 stadium tour planned with his old band, means we definitely
haven't heard the last from Mick Mars or Mötley Crüe.
"You're Mick Mars!
You're Mick Mars, dude!"
"Don't forget it!"
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available.
Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact
SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).