Mick Mars Speaks Out on Motley Crue Lawsuits: ‘I Can’t Believe They’re Pulling This Crap — I Carried Those Bastards for Years’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Frank Ocean’s divisive Coachella headline set after sharing a multi-cam fan edit of the performance.Ocean headlined the closing night of the first weekend of Coachella Festival earlier this month. It was his first live gig since 2017 but the reaction to Ocean’s performance from fans was mixed, with the show starting late and getting abruptly cut short.

Bonnie Raitt has postponed several of her tour dates in order to undergo surgery.The blues musician has been advised by doctors to rest for a couple of weeks following the procedure. It means that she will no longer perform at Brandi Carlile’s Mothership Weekend (May 12-14) and has been forced to move her own headline shows.Raitt’s representatives wrote via her Twitter: “Bonnie has a medical situation that requires surgery to address.

Prince Harry is expected to depart the UK within a couple of hours of his father being crowned king, the British press report this weekend. 

In less than a week’s time King Charles will be crowned, and new information provided by organisers reveals that the hordes of people watching, both in person and on screen, will be invited to join a “chorus of millions” in swearing allegiance to the King. 

A couple say their 'creepy' neighbour's comments about their sex life 'nearly killed' them - and forced them to leave the country.

A man whose sister was brutally murdered five years ago has been jailed for a recent crime spree after his family 'never fully recovered from her death'.

Hollyoaks actor David Tag is set to become a dad again after revealing that his partner Abi Harrison is pregnant in a sweet family snap. Taking to Instagram, the star, 38, posted a black and white photo of Abi and their one year old son Reuben. Abi can be seen showcasing her blossoming bump as she held hands with Reuben by the sea.

Katie Price and her daughter with Peter Andre, Princess, 15, are reportedly hoping to give fans a glimpse into their unique relationship with a brand new TV show. Ex-glamour model Katie and her eldest daughter, aspiring model model Princess, are said to be in talks with the BBC about a potential joint series which will centre on growing up with a famous mum.

Manchester City will have the chance to move above Arsenal in the Premier League table when they take on Fulham at Craven Cottage on Sunday afternoon.

If there's one make-up product we buy on repeat above everything else, it's mascara. Not only is it a "can't step out of the house without it" essential for so many of us, it's also something that very, very quickly gets past its best. You might be able to get away with having eyeshadow palettes older than your kids (no judgement), but you can guarantee that even the best mascaras wil be drying up within a few months of first unscrewing the tube.

Soon-to-be mum-of-two Kate Ferdinand and husband Rio have already picked out the name for their baby daughter - with the help of Rio's kids. The former TOWIE star 31, announced her pregnancy back in January when she shared a black and white clip to her Instagram page, in which she showed off her baby bump. She penned the caption: "We’ve been praying for you …" and added the audio to the song Lovin' You by Minnie Riperton.

Doctors have explained two potential symptoms of the latest Covid variant which has hit 29 countries across the world.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It may take a greater elixir than anything Dr. Feelgood has to offer to elicit positive vibes in the war of words — and writs — between Motley Crue guitarist Mick Mars and the other three members of the group. Following a headline-making lawsuit filed by Mars against the band last week, lawyers or managers for both sides have spoken with Variety at length about the positions they are doubling down on. If you had to sum it up in a hard-rock song, it might be: “Grievances Grievances Grievances.” Until now, the Crue camp had only issued brief statements and a frustrated tweet from Nikki Sixx. But the band’s manager of 29 years, Allen Kovac, was so angered by an interview Mars gave Variety after the suit was filed that he agreed to go on record addressing what he believes are the musician’s most scurrilous accusations — including whether or not the group’s performances are largely on tape. “I have a lot of regret that I’m having to do this,” the attorney says, pointing out that he talked Nikki Sixx, the group’s unofficial leader, out of talking to the press himself, wanting the bassist to keep “taking the high road.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In a development that may land somewhere between Woodstock 1999 and “Staying Alive” on the list of all-time unnecessary sequels, Billy McFarland is promising that there will be a “Fyre Festival II,” even though there was never a Fyre Festival I. “Fyre Festival II is finally happening,” the promoter posted on Twitter alongside a flame emoji. “Tell me why you should be invited.” The immediate responses or quote-tweet comments includes such remarks as “Imagine having this level of audacity,” “I’ll just wait for the documentaries” and “Because I hate myself.” McFarland was released from prison in 2022 after doing four years of a six-year sentence as a result of pleading guilty to charges involving defrauding investors and scamming ticket buyers. He was fined $26 million, as well, and has vowed to find a way to pay the investors he owes.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Amazon has come on board this month’s Stagecoach Festival in California to provide a livestream of the country music gathering. Live action from the April 28-30 festival in Indio will be streamed on both Prime Video and Amazon Music’s Twitch channel. It marks the second year that the festival will be extensively streamed, albeit the first involving Amazon. In 2022, Stagecoach livestreamed most of the main attractions on its own YouTube channel. In some years prior to that, Yahoo had had exclusive rights to stream select artists’ sets. Coverage from the festival will begin at 3 p.m. each of the festival’s three days. Stagecoach and Amazon did not immediately reveal how many or which sets will be streamed from the festival; a press release promised that performances from the Mane Stage will be seen.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Eddie Vedder-founded Ohana Festival in southern California will again feature the Pearl Jam frontman as one of the top attractions in 2023, as is customary, along with a heavy-hitting selection of rock names in the top slots and an eclectic lineup for the undercard slots. The Killers and Foo Fighters join Vedder as the headliners for the three-day festival, taking place Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at Doheny State Beach in Doheny Point. Haim, the Chicks and the Pretenders are the second-billed acts across the three days. Other marquee attractions in the idyllic beachside setting will include Father John Misty, the War on Drugs, Japanese Breakfast, Goose and Rainbow Kitten Surprise.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Brandi Carlile has been added as a participant in the NAMM Show in Anaheim, Calif. Thursday, where she will be interviewed about the insights she has gleaned into record production over her career. The biggest annual conference for musicians is taking place at the Anaheim Convention Center Thursday through Saturday. Her session, “Brandi Carlile on Producing and Uncovering the Artist in the Studio,” will take place Thursday from 1-1:50 p.m. and will have the singer-songwriter-producer being interviewed by producer/engineer/mixer Dave Way, who has worked on Fiona Apple’s “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” and “Extraordinary Machine” as well as albums by Ringo Starr, Pink and others.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic God only knows it was a matter of time until the Recording Academy picked the Beach Boys as the recipient of one of its annual all-star tributes, and the group’s legacy isn’t done any shame with “A Grammy Salute to the Beach Boys,” airing Sunday night at 8 ET/PT on CBS (and for on-demand streaming on Paramount+). No wrong harmonies are struck, literally or figurative, in a two-hour show that starts out feeling a little bit by-the-numbers but eventually lands on a series of knockout covers fit for a Wilson. Are you surprised that Brandi Carlile would be the highlight of a tribute special? Then come out from under your rock and do stay up late enough to catch both of her performances on the show, since she is one of a handful of artists granted both solo and duet slots in the setlist. First in the running order, she has a version of “In Your Room” that can’t really be considered “solo,” since she’s joined by bandmates Phil and Tim Hanseroth for an arrangement that has their modern mastery of three-part harmony paying homage to the Boys’ sub-incarnation as a balladic vocal trio. You hope for something transformative in tribute performances like these, and you know you’re getting the moment Carlile lends her perfectly subtle vibrato to the “roo-oo-oom” and “a-frai-ai-aid” to some of the opening lines. She and the Hanseroths make the bridge feel you’re doing a gentle waltz while enveloping yourself in a self-assuring hug, before the falsetto ending spoils that warmth with a chill down your spine. Yeah, it’s that good.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Muse was making its eighth visit to downtown L.A.’s Crypto.com Arena, frontman Matt Bellamy reminded the audience, shortly into the trio’s return engagement Thursday night — except rather than call it by its current name, he said the venue would always be Staples Center to the band. He added a joking, mumbled reference to “weird fucking con artists,” presumably a reference to his lack of faith in the state of cryptocurrency. Digital assets are fleeting, but office supplies are forever, right? There is some kind of loose analog there — no pun intended — to the situation with Muse, which is forever using futuristic imagery in its shows but reigns as one of rock’s best bands by its rootedness in a slightly pre-digital past.

Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars has spoken out about his recent legal battle with the band, following the lawsuit he filed against them over his share of profits.In a new interview with Variety, Mars detailed his thoughts on the ongoing arbitration, as well as his feelings towards his ex-bandmates.“Those guys have been hammering on me since ’87, trying to replace me,” he said. “They haven’t been able to do that, because I’m the guitar player.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic A touring production of the stage version of “The Bodyguard” was brought to a halt and canceled in Manchester, England on Friday night after patrons would not stop singing along with the musical’s songs, leading to house lights coming up during the climactic number “I Will Always Love You.” Two women were forcibly pulled out of the theater by security, and several police cars arrived to oversee the evacuation of the theater after what patrons on social media described as “fights in the aisles” and even “a mini-riot.” According to news reports out of Manchester and tweets from those inside the Palace Theatre, the show — based on the hit 1992 film — had already been temporarily halted once during the first act because of the disruptive audience sing-alongs, but was resumed. Later, though, with only about 10 minutes to go before the end, it was put on pause again while its star, Pussycat Dolls member Melody Thornton, attempted to sing the climactic song made famous in the movie by Whitney Houston, “I Will Always Love You,” over the sound of semi-tuneless howling coming from audience members. Thornton’s mic was cut mid-song, the house lights came up and offenders were evicted — struggling against being pulled out by their shoulders, in video footage captured by attendees — and the show was officially called off.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In 2002, director Sam Jones made what is widely considered a benchmark for 21st century music documentaries with “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco,” a movie that lucked into just about all the subject matter that could make B-roll footage of the making of an album into A-list material. It had conflict within the band, between an auteur and another member of great talent; conflict with the soon-to-be-ex-record label, over the basically unwanted classic-to-be “Yankee Foxtrot Hotel”); and said auteur doing his own demon-wrestling, outside foils notwithstanding. Now, it’s easier to see that Jones’ good fortune in happening upon all that wasn’t all luck. More than 20 years later, Jones has come up with another gold-standard music doc, in the form of “Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed,” newly streaming on HBO Max. This time, as the creation of another amazing record — Isbell’s “Reunions” (recorded in late 2019 and released a few months later) — is put under the filmic microscope, there are no record-company bookkeepers as unseen baddies in the backdrop to a making-of. Major labels and the conflicts that come with them are so 2002, right? But one common thread is intra-band tension… as it probably will be in most good rock docs now or 20 years from now. It gets more interesting than that, though. In this instance, the difficult vibes are between bandmates who double as a married couple — Isbell and his fiddler-spouse, Amanda Shires. Here, unlike the by-now iconic beefing between Jay Tweedy and Jay Bennett, we know no one’s ultimately going anywhere, right?

Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars has filed a lawsuit against the band over his share of profits.Mars has alleged that he was “unilaterally” removed from the band after announcing his retirement from touring due to ongoing struggles with an arthritic disease called ankylosing spondylitis last October. As a result, he claims his profit share was cut from 25 per cent to five percent.According to legal papers filed in Los Angeles County’s Superior Court yesterday (April 6) Mars’ attorney, Edwin F.

Mick Mars countersued Mötley Crüe on Thursday and accused the band of forcing him to resign after he chose to stop touring. Mötley Crüe previously claimed that when Mars announced that he couldn't tour anymore, he was resigning from the band. However, Mars alleges that he told the band members that he could still play in a residency situation and could still record, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

The situation between Mötley Crüe and guitarist Mick Mars has turned litigious, with Mars suing his bandmates over his claims that he’s being forced out of the band.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Motley Crue has responded to Mick Mars’ lawsuit alleging that the band is trying to force him out after 41 years, with the group’s attorneys contending that Mars already is out — having resigned, effectively, in their view, when he announced he was halting touring for good. Motley Crue’s attorneys also provided Variety with signed declarations from seven members of the touring crew that was out with the band when they toured with Mars for the last time on 36 stadium dates in 2022, alleging that his performances at the shows were under par and created problems for the entire group. “After the last tour, Mick publicly resigned from Mötley Crüe,” said Sasha Frid, the band’s litigation attorney. “Despite the fact that the band did not owe Mick anything — and with Mick owing the band millions in advances that he did not pay back — the band offered Mick a generous compensation package to honor his career with the band.  Manipulated by his manager and lawyer, Mick refused and chose to file this ugly public lawsuit.”

Mötley Crüe has never been shy about sharing the dirt, but guitarist Mick Mars has revealed one big secret his bandmates may have wanted kept quiet.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Mick Mars, Motley Crue’s guitarist of 41 years, has filed legal papers bringing deep and apparently hostile divisons between him and the other three members of the band out into the open. The suit only demands that the group hand over relevant documents about their businesses in advance of arbitration. But the wealth of details in Mars’ filing offers a provocative look at the tension between him and the others, in what he says has been a pattern of “gaslighting” in an attempt to kick him out of the group. The paperwork was filed in Los Angeles County’s Superior Court Thursday filed through Mars’ attorney, Edwin F. McPherson, and says the band has deliberately withheld information about the various Motley Crue businesses that he has a 25% ownership share in. Mars says the band has demanded he sign a severance agreement that would divest him of those and other future interests, in return for a 5% stake in the group’s 2023 tour, which is going on without him.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The verdicts on the new Broadway musical-comedy “Shucked” are in, and the critics have asked you to lend them your ears — so to speak — as they’ve cobbled together their reactions to the possible sleeper hit. (Sorry, but once you’ve seen the production, it may take you six months or longer to stop speaking in puns.) Variety’s critic wrote that “with its exuberance, heart and non-stop yucks, ‘Shucked’ is the surprise delight of the Broadway season.” The New York Post’s notice trumpeted it as “Broadways’s best and funniest new musical.” Time Out said the show leaves theatergoers “gorged to satisfaction on a big, tasty bag of Broadway puff.” Entertainment Weekly wrote that “its refreshing embrace of diversity and unapologetically corny sincerity can definitely put a smile on your face.” Even one of the minority that was harder on it, the New York Times’ Jesse Green, begrudgingly admitted of the parade of laughs: “forced into submission,,” he wrote, “you eventually give in.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Tanya Tucker did not let much time slip away after the Country Music Hall of Fame announced her impending induction this week before coming out with an announcement of her own: She has a second album produced by the team of Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings coming soon, following up on a celebrated previous effort that earned Tucker her first two Grammy Awards. The album “Sweet Western Sound” will be out June 2 on Fantasy. A teaser track from the record, “Kindness” is out now. The song was written by Carlile’s bandmates Phil and Tim Hanseroth. The collection reunites the team that made Tucker’s comeback album, “While I’m Livin’,” a 2019 set that got the singer a Grammys for best country album, and its closing track, “Bring My Flowers Now,” which won best country song.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Renée Zellweger has her first co-starring role in a music video, appearing in “Two Steps,” the visual accompaniment for a new song by C M Talkington, a singer-songwriter who is only on his second album. At first glance, at least for those who don’t know their movie credits too avidly, this might seem like a case of a well-known actor doing a favor to help gain some visibility for an up-and-comer making his baby steps into a musical career. And that part is not untrue, exactly. But the backstory to their jointly making this video actually goes back three decades, and involves both parties possibly owing each other one. Because before he started making records, Talkington was (and still is) known as a filmmaker — and it was him that gave Zellweger her first big break, by going to the wall with a production company to cast her in the 1994 feature “Love and a .45,” where the indie film world first met and fell in love with her.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus spent the last few years of interviews generally demurring on when their group, Boygenius, would ever be collectively super again. There’s been a little bit of a Boygenius time-out, of course, since the trio’s fairly spontaneous debut EP came out in 2018 and the release of their first full album as a collective, “The Record,” on March 31. But it hasn’t been for a lack of thought and effort going on behind the scenes, as the waiting world has now learned. As Bridgers says in an interview with Variety, “We realized the other day that we’ve been making this record for longer than we haven’t been, as friends,” since she dates its origin point to the week after she issued her “Punisher” album in 2020.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Tanya Tucker, Patty Loveless and Bob McDill will be the Country Music Hall of Fame’s three 2023 inductees, it was announced in a news conference at the hall’s museum in Nashville Monday morning. Tucker will be inducted into the hall in the “Veterans Era Artist” category, while Loveless will get her entree in the “Modern Era Artist” category. McDill is to be inducted in the “Songwriter” category, which is in rotation with the “Recording and/or Touring Musician” and “Songwriter” categories, each coming up every three years. Cheers went up at the announcement ceremony as well as around Nashville, as all three have long been favored for induction, and Tucker and Loveless particularly talked up as should-be shoo-ins for their historical importance as leading women in the genre.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The wheels are not close to coming off the “Carpool Karaoke” franchise, as a series of new episodes was announced Monday morning for Apple TV+, featuring stars ranging from pop singer Avril Lavigne to TV star Sheryl Lee Ralph to current Broadway queen Lea Michele. The eight new “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” episodes will bow globally on the platform June 23. While most of the installments pair up two stars, three of the episodes promise to incorporate the cast of a series: Netflix’s “Girls5eva,” CBS’ “Ghosts” and Apple TV+’s “The Afterparty.” Some of the partners in carpooling have a joint project to promote. Alison Brie and Danny Pudi, for instance, are not only mutual “Community” alumni but recently reunited for the rom-com “Somebody That I Used to Know.” Not coincidentally, a teaser that was already posted for their “Karaoke” episode has them singing the Gotye song of that same name.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic During the opening monolog at Sunday night’s CMT Music Awards, broadcast from Austin on CBS, there was a comedic bit in which Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown exchanged anniversary presents to celebrate their cohosting of the show for the third consecutive time. Brown gave Ballerini a cowboy hat, and she reciprocated by giving him a pink hat to put on in return. At least a few audience members shared a joke about the exchange: By wearing pink, would Brown be breaking Tennessee’s recently passed law that some believe would ban most drag performances in the state, if they were back home? Viewers whose minds went there during that silly opening were just kidding — but Ballerini really went there later in the three-hour telecast, when she chose four “RuPaul’s Drag Race” queens to perform with her as she sang “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too).” That song, off her 2022 album “Subject to Change,” is Ballerini’s anthem of female friendship — and, with the way the CMT Awards routine played out, she very much seemed to be counting drag performers as among those friends. The performance was playful and ostensibly non-political, and in a different year might not have raised very many shaved or unshaved eyebrows. In spring 2023, it was hard to read it as anything other than a statement of: If drag queens are brought down, the rest of us will be dragged down with them.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic A couple of members of a fresh generation of country music — Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson — came away as the top victors at Sunday night’s CMT Music Awards, broadcast live from Austin for the first time. But the biggest winners may have been CMT and CBS, putting the three-hour telecast on the map as a show packed with enough performance firepower that it does merit having made the move from a cable platform to major broadcast premiere as of last year. However much the official winners may delight a core country crowd happy to see young radio and streaming favorites get rewarded, the big draw for the CBS audience was likely a series of collaborations between country stars and their pop or rock counterparts, as has been the custom for years on the rival CMA Awards. Most notable were the all-female collabs that had Carly Pearce dueting with Gwen Stefani on No Doubt’s “Just a Girl,” or Alanis Morissette trading lines with a slate of young female artists that included Lainey Wilson, Ingrid Andress, Morgan Wade and Madeline Edwards. The all-star teamings spread to those who presented, too, with Megan Thee Stallion providing the most enthusiastic introduction imaginable for “my new besty,” Shania Twain.