As Motley Crue carries on with new guitarist John 5, Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen makes it more than clear that it was Mick Mars' decision alone to quit the road. It was announced last fall that Mars had retired from touring, but that the 71-year-old guitarist will remain a part of the band. For years, Mars has been suffering from Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.), a crippling degenerative disease, which affects the spine.
Blabbermouth transcribed some of Rick Allen's chat with the Appetite For Distortion podcast, as he shed light on his recent tourmate on the massive “Stadium Tour”: “It was Mick's decision to really move on and just get to the next part of his life. And we all know that Mick has suffered terribly, terribly with pain; you see it on his face all the time. And I think the only time I ever saw him truly in his element (was) when he was up on stage playing with the band. It was more his decision. That must have been a super hard decision.”
He went on to say, “It would have been different if the guy was being thrown out of the band, but it wasn't like that at all. It was a personal choice that he made. And you can't say that that's wrong. It was right for him at the time. . . it must have been a very difficult decision for everybody to have to go through that.”