Motley Crue Guitarist Mick Mars Retires from Touring Due to 'Crippling Degenerative Disease'

Sad news for Motley Crue fans.

Earlier this week, the band’s lead guitarist and founding member Mick Mars announced that he will retiring from touring due to a ongoing, painful health battle.

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“Mick Mars, co-founder and lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe for the past 41 years, has announced today that due to his ongoing painful struggle with Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.), he will no longer be able to tour with the band,” a rep for Mick, 71, shared with Variety on Wednesday (October 26).

“Mick will continue as a member of the band, but can no longer handle the rigors of the road,” the rep continued. “A.S. is an extremely painful and crippling degenerative disease, which affects the spine.”

As of right now, no immediate replacement for Mick has been announced.

The news comes days after Motley Crue announced another another leg of their co-headlining tour with Def Leppard, which is scheduled to cover Latin America and Europe from February 2023 through July 2023.

Mick has been struggling with A.S. since he was a teenager. He’s been able to persevere through the pain, but in the early 200s, his condition worsened, causing him to lose a large amount of weight and led to a a painkillers prescription.

He later had a successful hip surgery and was able to continue touring with his band mates.

“I kept getting worse and worse, and I just stopped playing guitar for almost two years,” Mick told Metal Sludge in 2008. “Nowadays, it’s not so bad, but back then when I was high on all that stuff and Motley were having a break, I knew if I didn’t stop I was gonna die. In the end, I had to go to a neuro-psychiatrist to straighten me up and he said to me, ‘Just hold the guitar for an hour a day – don’t play it, just hold it.’ It was pretty bizarre but I got through it, and in the end I think I’m actually a better player because of it.”