Mick Mars

Mick Mars
Mick Mars, Hollywood, CA on March 20, 2012
Background information
Birth name	Robert Alan Deal
Born	(1951-05-04) May 4, 1951 Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.
Genres	Heavy metal, hard rock, glam metal, blues
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter, recording artist
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1974–present
Labels	Mötley, Eleven Seven Music, Elektra, Leathür, Pure Energy, S.O.M.T., Warner Music Group
Associated acts	Mötley Crüe
Website	mickmars.tv

Mick Mars (born Robert Alan Deal; May 4, 1951, in Terre Haute, Indiana) is the former lead guitarist for American heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. He played with the band until their breakup in 2015.

Career

Mars was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, but his family moved to Huntington, Indiana soon afterward. Before he was 9 years old, his family relocated again, this time to Garden Grove, California. He dropped out of high school and began playing guitar in a series of unsuccessful blues-based rock bands throughout the 1970s, taking on menial day jobs. After nearly a decade of frustration with the California music scene, he reinvented himself, changing his name from Robert Deal to Mick Mars and dyeing his hair jet black, hoping for a fresh start. In April 1981 he put a want ad in the Los Angeles newspaper The Recycler, describing himself as "a loud, rude and aggressive guitar player". Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee, who were putting together a new band which would soon become Mötley Crüe, contacted him. After hearing him play he was hired for the band.

Mars performing in Glasgow Scotland on 14 June 2005

After an occasional split of Mötley Crüe in 2001, Mars dealt with worsening health problems and depression, and reportedly gave up guitar playing. Mars' situation improved with the reformation of Mötley Crüe, kindling the desire to play again. Mars underwent hip replacement surgery in the autumn of 2004, followed with intensive physical therapy. Despite his precarious health condition, he was able to perform in the Carnival of Sins tour in 2005 and the Route of All Evil Tour with Aerosmith in 2006.

Mars has contributed songwriting to John LeCompt, the former member of Evanescence and the other band members of Machina, and to the Swedish band Crashdïet. Their second album entitled, The Unattractive Revolution, was released on October 3, 2007 and featured two songs co-written by Mars.

Mars played guitar on the title track of Hinder's 2008 album Take It to the Limit, and contributed a guitar solo to the song "Into the Light" by Papa Roach, on their 2009 album Metamorphosis. Mars also contributed a guitar solo to the song "The Question" on Rock Star: Supernova runner-up Dilana's U.S. debut album Inside Out. In 2010 he co-wrote a song with Escape the Fate for the band's self-titled album, which was instead withheld from the album and reserved for a later release.

Health

For most of his professional career, Mars has openly struggled with ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic, inflammatory form of arthritis that mainly affects the spine and pelvis. It was initially diagnosed when he was 17 years old and has increasingly impaired his movement and has caused him a great deal of pain. This led to hip-replacement surgery at the end of 2004.

Over the years, the illness has caused his lower spine to seize up and freeze completely solid, "...causing scoliosis in [his] back and squashing [him] further down and forward until [he] was a full three inches (7.6 cm) shorter than [he] was in high school."

External links

• Mick Mars official site
• Mick Mars at the Internet Movie Database