MICK MARS: 'If I Could Just Move My Head A Little And Stand Up Straight, I'd Be A Happy Man'

Joe Bosso of MusicRadar recently conducted an interview with MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

MusicRadar: Despite the success of the band, you're never celebrated for your guitar playing. In fact, the opposite — people rag on you.

Mars: "I never got in this to be the fastest guy around. I love the blues, man. I know it's a hip thing for a lot of people to say, but I was lucky enough to hear the blues early on. Right about the time I was starting high school we moved from Indiana to Garden Grove, California, which had a real diverse mix of people: blacks, Mexicans, and us! [laughs] But there was all this different music, such a wide variety. I started hanging out with a pretty cool crowd and they turned me on to R&B, funk, soul, gospel even. The music they loved became the music I loved. But the thing I loved the most was the blues. THE PAUL BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND's first album, that record spoke to me like a secret language only I could understand. Songs like 'Born in Chicago' and 'Thank You Mr Poobah' — that was the shit. 'Walkin' Shoes', 'Got My Mojo Workin''…what a great album."

MusicRadar: Let's talk about your medical condition. It's pretty serious.

Mars: "It's no walk in the park. In fact, it's why I kind of walk like Frankenstein. [laughs] The thing about Ankylosing Spondylitis is, it's caused by a gene; you first start noticing pain in your hips, usually when you're in your teens. What it does is it slowly fuses your bones together — your spine, your ribs…With most people it stops in their 30s, when the disease is still in their lower back. In my case, I have a rare form of the disease that hasn't stopped, so it's all the way up my whole back and into my brain stem. It's literally squeezing my rib cage together, so I've lost some height. And now that it's up in my brain stem it's hard for me to move my head in any direction, be it up and down or sideways. So I can't drive, I can't do any of that kind of stuff — this isn't a 'boo-hoo', it's just the facts."

MusicRadar: But if anybody's entitled to a good 'boo-hoo', it's you.

Mars: "I'm going to get an operation at some point. There's no cure, but the doctors say they might, might be able to chip away some of the bone growth at the brain stem; it'll still grow back but I'll take any improvement. If I could just move my head a little and stand up straight, I'd be a happy man."

MusicRadar: This hasn't affected your hands or fingers?

Mars: "Nope. It's not in my hands or finger joints; I can be thankful for that. We really, really, really have to get going on stem cell research. It can help so many people — people in wheelchairs, spinal injuries, osteoporosis. There's so many diseases and conditions we could stop in their tracks if we just got serious."

Read the entire interview at www.musicradar.com.