MICK MARS on Motley Crue: MANHUNTER FROM MARS REPORTS!

MICK MARS on Motley Crue: MANHUNTER FROM MARS REPORTS!

FEATURES

Sylvie Simmons

SUBJECT: Mick Mars DATA: Guitar player, Motley Crue PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Nice & easy; cadaverous features; tendency to talk in sentences of one syllable ASSIGNMENT: The serious Motley Crue interview. No “We bite the fuck out of people who come on the bus with us" quotes. No “You can't be fucking girls 24 house a day’’ lines. No “We drink and fuck and do drugs, doesn’t everybody?’’ or “Our audiences are sluts” comments. No Tommy, no Vince, No Nikki Sixx/ Delve into the past. Leave no stone unturned. Hell, just pretend it’s a Rush interview...

☆ ☆ ☆ Are you really from Newfoundland?

“No.”

When you put an ad in the local paper looking for a band to join, what sort of band were you expecting? “Exactly what I got. This is really what I was after.” What was your first reaction on meeting the others? “It was like perfect. It clicked just right. The way that we played together felt really good, and it took us only like about a week and we started

recording and stuff.” Were you a covers band to start with or did you always do original material?

“We’ve done all original with the exception of we played one cover song when we were first together by the Raspberries, ‘Tonight.’”

Where did the initial material come from?

“Nikki had just about all of it written, and he’d had it for about a year or so before the band got together."

Was the Crue a full-time job back then or did you do day-jobs too?

“When Motley got together I think Tommy was a painter or something, Nikki was doing telephone sales and I was just a bum and Vince was doing electric work, wiring houses or something.”

Even before you got the record deal, it looked like you had pretty good equipment and props and stuff.

“Basically we had fair equipment. I always had two Marshall stacks and Nikki had a couple of beat up FTPs, and then we’d like rent little odds and ends from SIR and just make it look as big as we possibly could on the budget that we had.”

You went heavily in for appearance back then, too—the black-and-white stage sets, the outfits.

“I think that looks are still important. It’s time for glam bands to really like come back again. Like Gary Glitter.”

Before the age of the Crue, most U.S. metal bands looked like shit.

“Right, like you said, it was the T-shirt and Levi thing. Like pshhhhht, out!”

Was there a lot of competition in L.A. when you started out, a lot of bands after the same audience?

“I don’t know—we kind of came up so fast. In about eight or 10 months we’d got an album out and we were pretty much in demand. It didn’t seem like the competition was that stiff.”

Still, it must have been a bit tough getting gigs, what with new wave taking over the clubs at the time?

“That’s exactly why we did what we’re doing. New wave was all that was going on,”

Pretty early in your career you hooked up with a guy in the construction business who put money into the band. How did you meet your first manager?

“That was a friend of mine’s brotherin-law. He wanted to put some money into a band and he did. But he took out more than he put in!”

“We were pretty much in demand. It didn’t seem like the competition was that stiff. ”

And before that you managed yourselves?

“Pretty much. Nikki knew the club owners from playing with London, so we got quite a few gigs that way.”

Why did you find it so hard to get a record deal initially?

“All the labels were still signing bands like the Knack, and they didn’t want to hear about us.”

So you did an independent album— oddly enough, something that was more associated with new wave than H.M. at the time?

“We knew that we could sell records and that’s why we did it. It started getting a lot of attention and made the record labels take notice.”

How much did it cost to make that record?

“It wasn’t much. Probably $10,000 or $15,000.”

How long did it take?

“Three weeks.”

Were you happy with how it sounded?

“Well, we knew that we could do better, but for the budget we had and everything, it was all right.”

Did you have to agree to Roy Thomas Baker cleaning it up in order to get a deal with Elektra?

“We didn’t have to agree to anything like that. We just thought it would be a better move, just like have a big name on the record.”

Did you have to make any concessions to Elektra?

“No, nothing. Pretty much our label let us do pretty much what we wanted to do.”

They probably didn’t know what to do with you anyway. You weren’t exactly Jackson Browne.

“Yeah.”

Why did you dissolve Leathur Records as soon as you got the deal—why not put out other HM bands on it?

“It wasn’t that big of a thing. It was more like, we’ve got this much money, here’s a place where the records can be pressed and stick our label on it. It wasn’t like a real record company.”

Do you think it’s generally a good idea for a new HM band to put out an indie first?

“At this point I would say no, because there’s a lot of metal bands being signed, and if the bands that are playing it aren’t getting signed then obviously they’re not going to, no matter if they put out an independent or not.”

How did it feel going from a low-budget record to having all this money to play around with?

“It goes pretty fast. You’ve got to pay the producer a certain amount of money, you’ve got to pay the engineer a certain amount of money, and then you have like a lot of people coming in setting up the microphones and things, and then you have to block out time in the studio and you’re paying $125 an hour. It becomes quite expensive.”

Did you take longer making the next album?

“Pretty much the same, three weeks. We do pretty quick when we get into the studio; in and out fast.”

Can you tell us a typical Motley Crue rehearsal?

“We block out time and we usually go in about two o’clock in the afternoon and get out about 9 or 10 at night. It isn’t constant, we’ll sit there and play for like half an hour, take a break, play again, trying out parts. Then the producer will come in and say, ‘Why don’t you try this part this way?’ so we’re constantly reshaping it until we get it right.”

You produced the first album yourself, but got Tom Werman in for the second. You’ve signed him up for the new one, too. So you prefer working with a producer?

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"I think it made it pretty much easier, much better, too. Because when you have somebody who’s like a professional coming in and he's been doing it for years and years, you say OK, I’ll try it. If he can teach me how to do things, then maybe five years down the line I can think, OK, I can produce my own album because I know what works and what doesn’t.”

Motley Crue’s got a wild reputation offstage. When it comes to going into the studio, do you all miraculously transform into professionals?

"Yes, because we know that we have to put out a good product. We’re serious about it, as we are onstage or anything else."

How would you say the shows have changed over the years?

"It's gotten more together, we know exactly what we want to do and how we want it to look. Before, we didn’t know what to expect. We’ve gotten a little more polished.”

Do you employ a choreographer?

"No, the band works it out.”

Does it hamper your guitar playing having to totter about on high heels dodging fireworks?

"No particular problems. I don’t really have to change a thing.”

You told me years ago that your ambition was to be a musician’s musician. Do you find the image this band’s got prevents you from being taken seriously?

"No, I don’t think so. I’m making a name for myself. If I did a solo album or something— not that this band is holding me back or anything, but if I was to play something, let's say like a jazz-rock fusion Jeff Beck type of thing and it didn’t fit Motley...know what I mean?”

Can you?

"Yeah.”

Sound like Jeff Beck?

“I tried to sound like Jeff Beck when I first started out.”

When did you start playing guitar?

"When I was 11,1 think.”

Do you practice?

"At least an hour a day, but that’s more to keep loose.”

Are you or any members of the band from musical or showbiz families?

"No.”

The band’s look has changed a lot since the early days of the beehive hair and stilettos. Too tatty?

"We want to keep it fresh. Standing in one spot is kind of boring.”

Who designs your outfits?

"We pretty much design what we wear and how we want to look. Pretty much what you see onstage is what we feel comfortable in.”

Those are comfortable?

"Yeah.”

Your early audiences were mostly girls with the odd punk thrown in. Have they changed much?

"I think the only way it’s changed is it’s gotten larger and more girls.”

If you hadn’t made it by now, would you be happy still playing clubs?

"If we didn’t make it by now we would probably be dispersed doing other projects, that’s the way I feel about it, because the band’s been together four years now.”

So it’s just another job?

“I don’t think any of us think of it as being a job. Every time we get together and play, we’re still like fresh. We enjoy playing together.”

What’s the best and worst thing about being in Motley Crue right now?

"The best thing is I get to see the world and get paid for it; probably the worst thing is the traveling, being in one spot one day and the next spot the next day. It gets you kind of tired.”

What would you be doing now if you weren’t a rock guitarist?

‘‘Probably carving headstones.”