Born Robert Alan Deal in Terre Haute, Indiana, on May 4, 1951, Mars says he first picked up the guitar at 3 years of age and eventually learned to play by ear. After playing in a series of blues bands, none of which managed to get airborne, he reinvented himself by changing his name and dyeing his hair jet black then placed an ad in a local California newspaper for a band looking for a "loud, rude, and aggressive guitar player". It’s been almost three decades now since Nikki Sixx answered that ad.
Mars once played a Fender Strat that was pieced together from three separate guitars--a ’63 body with a ’65 neck and ’64 pickups. He switched to Stratocasters when Gibsons became too heavy. He likes his guitars to have a little character. Favors them a bit beat up and broken in. Someone from the Fender Custom Shop caught Mars playing his Strat on the road once and made him a couple replicas of it to have as backups. His main guitar these days is a highly customized early ’60s Strat.
Mötley Crüe. Grimy, sleazy, raucous hellcats. Playboy Bunny bait. Survivors. All of these are true of this legendary band, and because of an extraordinary interlude by Mick Mars, I throw grace into the mix. Grace and Mötley Crüe. Who’d have thought.
Mötley Crüe set out on the winter leg of their SOLA tour beginning February 2nd in San Diego, California. There are 29 shows scheduled throughout North America, including Madison Square Garden, with the final stop on March 18th in Portland, Maine. Joining them will be special guests Hinder (with whom Mick Mars recently collaborated), Theory of a Deadman and The Last Vegas, an unknown band Mötley Crüe has chosen to open the show. As a way of giving back, the band is extending the same opportunity to The Last Vegas that Ozzy Osbourne once extended them when he chose Mötley Crüe to open for his Bark at the Moon tour in 1984.
Also slated for the new year is Crüe Fest II and the release of the film adaptation of the band’s autobiography “The Dirt”.
