MICK MARS Says His Upcoming Second Solo Album Will Be 'A Step Up' From 'The Other Side Of Mars'

In a new interview with Tone-Talk, MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars spoke about the musical inspiration for his recently released debut solo album, "The Other Side Of Mars", and the upcoming follow-up effort, on which he is currently working with engineer/producer Chris Collier. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "It has to be different. And I've said this before — on this record that I did, 'The Other Side Of Mars', was my first step to where my mind is. Especially when you listen to songs like 'Undone' and 'Killing Breed', and some of those kind of songs like that, I'll always have the bangers, but those songs are more of the place where I wanna go. On this next album we're working on now, Chris and I, is a level up, it's a step up — the next level. In other words, what I try to do is to take Mick Mars fans with me. And with going with me, like when I do the album, is I get ahead of myself sometimes, but it's like a journey. You sit down and put on the record, it takes you places. And the same with this one, but levels up."

This past May, Mars told "The Rocker Morning Show" about the variety of sounds and musical styles covered on "The Other Side Of Mars": "I think that me being on my own really doesn't give me any boundaries or any restrictions or stuff. I can take it to wherever I would like to have it. My album is pretty diverse. It shows different sides of how I write or how I approach music — just a lot of different things."

Regarding how long it took him to put together the material for "The Other Side Of Mars", Mick said: "Some of [the ideas] I had for a while, but it took me a good four years to get out what I really wanted to. 'Cause I listen back to some of my older stuff and I go, 'Ugh', and I get rid of it. 'Cause it sounds dated. I didn't wanna sound like, 'Here's an old rocker that's playing 1980s music still.' And not that that's a bad thing, but I couldn't stay there. I needed to get something different or something people wouldn't really expect from me."

Mars went on to say that he is able to have more freedom with his solo project than he would have been able to with MÖTLEY CRÜE. "I can play anything," he said. "I played everything, from country music to a lot of different things, a lot of different influences, a lot of people that I listen to, everything from classical, Mozart, Beethoven, and all those people, and country music, and all sorts of stuff. I fell in love with the blues."

"The Other Side Of Mars" was released on February 23. The effort was made available via Mars's own label 1313, LLC, in partnership with MRI.

Birmingham, Alabama rocker Jacob Bunton collaborated extensively with Mars on "The Other Side Of Mars".

Bunton had previously worked with former GUNS N' ROSES drummer Steven Adler and CINDERELLA frontman Tom Keifer, and has songwriting credits with Mariah Carey, Steven Tyler and Smokey Robinson, among others.

Bunton sings lead on all but two of the 12 songs on "The Other Side Of Mars".

Other guests on the LP include WINGER/ALICE COOPER keyboardist Paul Taylor, KORN drummer Ray Luzier, and Brion Gamboa, who handled lead vocals on the songs "Undone" and "Killing Breed".

Bunton previously fronted the Alabama bands MARS ELECTRIC and LYNAM.

This past February, Mick told Joe Rock of the WBAB radio station that he wanted to take the music on his second solo album in a slightly different direction from what he did on "The Other Side Of Mars". "Another level. It has to be that way," he explained. "I'm not a youngster. And I'm not a depressed dark guy or nothing like that. But when you start getting older, you start going, like, 'I don't wanna do that again. Let's try this or move up or go a different level,' instead of putting the same repetitious kind of thing, which is [what you sometimes do when you are stuck in an] album-tour,-album tour [cycle]. And a lot of times, when that does happen, you find yourself kind of repeating yourself, and it gets to be pretty much samey after a while. So I'm fortunate enough to be old — I made it to here — but to be able to change my music, my next step. I don't wanna stay on this level. I have to take it up a notch every time. And if I get to do a third [album], it'll be a notch again, of course."

Regarding which guest musicians he would like to possibly approach about appearing on his second solo album, Mick said: "I think of different things, I guess. I was, at one point, just kind of like fantasizing about it. I don't even know if it would work. But I was thinking, like, Slash [GUNS N' ROSES] is a bud, and calling Slash in and going, 'Hey, come on in there and goof around.' And Doug Pinnick [KING'S X], just to play bass — not to sing, but for his bass playing. And I think that the fans would kind of dig that, but I don't know what would come out of it. But I'm willing to take the chance, of course.

"As far as other things go, let's take it back a bit and go, a lot of people were expecting more of a blues album [from me this time around]," he continued. "Maybe I could throw a blues song on there, but the 'cry in your beer' kind of blues, but the kind that you just wanna get up and fight. After having a couple beers, I'm gonna beat up this [guy]. But, yeah, I can do that kind of stuff. I'm so open, and I have so much freedom to take my project anywhere, of course, and any direction. It's all open. It's a great feeling, really a great feeling just to express myself any way I want. I could go out and get, let's say, an unknown female singer and just totally have something that's so different than what you would expect from me. I don't know if people do know what they expect, 'cause I don't what I'm doing next. I do know what I'm doing next, but I don't know."

When Mars announced his retirement from touring with MÖTLEY CRÜE in October 2022 as a result of worsening health issues, he maintained that he would remain a member of the band, with John 5 taking his place on the road. However, he has since filed a lawsuit against MÖTLEY CRÜE in Los Angeles County's Superior Court, claiming that, after his announcement, the rest of CRÜE tried to remove him as a significant stakeholder in the group's corporation and business holdings via a shareholders' meeting.

Mars — whose real name is Robert Alan Deal — served as MÖTLEY CRÜE's lead guitarist since the band's inception in 1981.