Motley Crue recently announced plans to take the "Stadium Tour" with Def Leppard to other parts of the world next year, but one of the band members won't be coming with them. Guitarist Mick Mars has announced his retirement from touring, though he will remain in the band, revealing the news in an exclusive statement to Variety.

The statement reads as follows:

"Mick Mars, co-founder and lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe for the past 41 years, has announced today that due to his ongoing painful struggle with Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.), he will no longer be able to tour with the band. Mick will continue as a member of the band, but can no longer handle the rigors of the road. A.S. is an extremely painful and crippling degenerative disease, which affects the spine."

While the statement reveals Mars' plans to no longer tour, it did not reveal who the band intends to replace him. There have been rumors circulating in recent weeks that Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 would be joining the lineup, but as stated, no official word on who would be taking over the vacant guitarist spot was revealed.

Mars is a co-founding member of Motley Crue along with the band's current lineup of Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee. The group formed in Los Angeles in 1981. The group initially played what was meant to be their final tour in 2015, but after the success of the film version of "The Dirt" memoir, they decided to come out of retirement and tour again. Though initially announced in 2019, the pandemic forced the highly anticipated "Stadium Tour" with Def Leppard and special guests Poison, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Classless Act to this summer.

Earlier this month, the band announced another leg of their co-headlining tour with Def Leppard that would take them to Latin America and Europe in the first half of 2023.

The 71-year-old guitarist has dealt with Ankylosing Spondylitis throughout his career. Speaking about it in the 2001 biography, "The Dirt," Mars stated, “My hips started hurting so bad every time I turned my body that it felt like someone was igniting fireworks in my bones. I didn’t have enough money to see a doctor, so I just kept hoping that I could do what I usually do: will it away, through the power of my mind. But it kept getting worse.”

“Then, one afternoon while doing my laundry,” he continued, “I started having trouble breathing. At first, it felt like someone had plunged a knife into my back. But as the weeks passed, the pain kept moving around my back. Next, my stomach started burning, and I worried that my whole body was about to fall apart. I thought that there was a hole in my stomach, and acids were leaking out and destroying my bones and organs. I’d grab hold of doorknobs, anchor my legs into the ground, and pull with my hands to stretch my back and ease the pressure out.” Mars was eventually able to have hip surgery that allowed him to return to the stage.

In addition to Motley Crue, Mars has been working on solo music in recent years as well.

Motley Crue's Mick Mars Retires from Touring, Issues Statement (loudwire.com)

Floor Jansen | Facebook

Nightwish | Facebook

Photo by Florencia Giuliana Fotografía

 

Chart positions from around the world

Here they are… they’re all telling us how many feet tall UDO is 😜

Nickelback announce new album, 'Get Rollin',' share first single 'San Quentin'

Collective Soul - Vibrating

Kid Rock - Bad Reputation 

Dirkschneider & the Old Gang - Arising

NEW METAL SUPERGROUP, “ELEGANT WEAPONS,” FEATURES MEMBERS OF JUDAS PRIEST, RAINBOW, AND PANTERA

Judging from its band members’ resumes, the newly-launched Elegant Weapons will rock ferociously – which includes singer Ronnie Romero Official Site (Rainbow, MSG), guitarist Richie Faulkner (Judas Priest), bassist Rex Brown (Pantera, Down), and drummer Scott Travis (Judas Priest). The band will be issuing their full-length debut, ‘Horns for a Halo,’ in spring 2023, which was produced by Andy Sneap and issued via Nuclear Blast Records.

“It’s exciting to be part of a label like Nuclear Blast that has such a rich history and level of respect among fans and the music industry,” says Faulkner. “Monte Conner [Nuclear Blast VP A&R] knows Andy Sneap well, and Andy has always held Monte and label in very high regard. Monte has loved the record from the very early demo stages. It’s very valuable and important to me that the label I sign with understand and connect with the music. This record represents for me more of my DNA as a guitar player and a songwriter. Heavy, but moving slightly outside the realms of ‘heavy metal.’ Those roots are obvious, but I wanted to reach in a bit and see what else came out that wasn’t necessarily ‘expected’.”

Says Monte Conner, “I am such a huge fan of all the players involved, especially Richie. As a diehard Priest fan, I have enjoyed watching help breathe new life into the band and add to their incredible story and legacy. What an amazing player he is. People always focus on leads, and of course Richie is a master in that department, but I can listen to him play rhythm guitar all day long! His rhythm playing is just so tasteful and magical. I can’t wait for fans to hear this album and discover how multi-faceted he is.”

And according to the guitarist, Elegant Weapons features his “dream line-up.” “I’ve always wanted to make a record with Scott outside of Priest. Add to that Rex Brown’s unmistakable tone and attitude is something special. Having those guys as the rhythm section is a guitar players dream. The icing on the cake was Ronnie Romero. One of the new breed of instantly classic vocalists, Ronnie brought a character and a swagger to the songs that is instantly iconic, making these songs his own.
 
As for the music, Richie describes it as “a mix of Jimi Hendrix, Priest, Sabbath, solo Ozzy and Black Label Society – heavy, catchy, and with melody. Sort of old school and modern at once if that makes any sense, and actually down-tuned a whole step. The Marshall Plexi basically does one thing, but you’ve got to crank it to 11 for it to have that distorted sound. It hasn’t got a lot of bells and whistles on it or different channels and effects. It basically does one thing and does it very well. But again down-tuning creates more of a modern sound, and by using the classic sound of the Marshall Plexi, you get that juxtaposition, that contrast. All told, there are a lot of guitar solos and the songs are on the heavier side. And even though there’s a lot of melody, it’s still going to shake your bones.”
 
Specific to the songs, Richie explains that “Me and acoustic don’t really get along, so there’s only one mellow song on it, a sort of smoky, haunted, New Orleans kind of tune called ‘Ghost of You,’ with de-tuned 1920s piano on it. That one is about a memory, or ghost of a lost love. But that’s about as acoustic as it gets. I’m not really attracted to acoustic guitar in general. It’s mainly kind of heavy and full-on, really. There’s a song called ‘White Horse,’ plus ‘Horns for a Halo’, which is like Tony Iommi crossed with Alice in Chains. That’s about the way we justify the bad things we do. When we turn up on Judgement Day, will the angels kind of confuse our horns for halos, if you know what I mean.”
 
But really, the over-arching mandate with Elegant Weapons is to perpetuate the rich legacy of the traditional proto-power metal invented by the heavy metal titans of the ‘70s and ‘80s, most pertinently Richie’s own band, Judas Priest. And in 2023, fans will finally get to hear what this promising new band sounds like – with the arrival of ‘Horns for a Halo.’

Band art by The Art of Claudio Bergamin.

https://www.facebook.com/elegantweaponsband

I See Ya (featuring Chez as a redhead)

Show Me Your Skeleton

Reckless

Invidia

Covered in Roses

La Di Da

Fuck You

Do WTF I Like

A Shot at Redemption (H.E.A.t cover)

56 minutes ago, auslander said:

Is there a Guinness record for most guest musicians on an album?

This is a contender as well:

https://heavyharmonies.com/cgi-bin/glamcd.cgi?BandNum=3936&CDName=The Cigar Chronicles Volume 12

Impressive haul 👍

Gunshine by a country mile… Deraps would probably be my second pick

Ashes to Ashes

This is more like it…   

Still Roaring

Let’s Not Let it End Like This

Random titties

Gemini Five and Zinatra/Mennen 👍

Some that come to mind (does retired count as disbanded?)

EndeverafteR
Levara 
Krokus 
Jettblack 
Triumph
Chickenfoot 
The Last Vegas
AdrianGale
 

1 hour ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

Well, that was basically it. I quit watching after the latests Def Leppard review. He went on and on about how good it was, didn't he put it pretty close to on par with Pyro and Hysteria? And I was just annoyed. Pretty sure I told my TV to shut the fuck up. 

Everything can't be good. That's kinda the problem with our world right now. We want to be accepting of everything. Well, no, not everything is good, and we shouldn't be glorifying things that aren't good. Stop handing out "Participation" trophies. Did you know students can't fail classes in my country? This mentality pisses me off. Let's not be afraid to call something bad when it is. Now, that Def Leppard album wasn't shit, but it wasn't good either. It was ok.

Anyway, I'll stop before I rant on too long. 

It’s all just opinion; I think the Def Lep is pretty damn good myself… for you it was just ok, and that’s cool. Different strokes for different folks and all that… 

With that being said, he has actually dissed a few things here recently; he openly said that he doesn’t care for most of Jeff Scott Soto’s output when he was reviewing Ellefson-Soto, and he also spoke of how he doesn’t care for the Bangalore Choir efforts post “On Target”. He doesn’t have a lot of negative comments usually, and I’d say that’s probably more common with someone who has a WIIIIDEEE range of tastes the way he does.  
 

Anyway, I watch probably about 50% of the vids he posts, cuz he will occasionally find something that interests me. 🤷‍♂️

1 hour ago, KarpetRydOFunk said:

Is anyone here personally friends with this Snyder guy, before I openly criticise him?

Nah… 😜

(2) EverLevel Band | Facebook

After the obligatory pandemic lockdown, AOR / Melodic Rock act EVERLEVEL is back with their new album titled “Future“. While it wasn’t possible to play shows, EverLevel has been busy composing and recording their new material and are delivering here no less than 16 songs.
The original working title for the new album was ‘AorWork’, and this give you an idea of the music packed on this record alone. This is a mix of ’80s inspired melodic hard rock tunes with strong AOR melodies all over served with detailed arrangements and polished production.
EverLevel is a bunch of experienced musicians that have been working together since the mid-Eighties and under different names, however always with passion for classy, timeless AOR.

EverLevel put out an indie album in the early Nineties, then they changed the name to La Fase releasing a self-titled CD which gained a solid reputation and reviews back in the day. After that they continued playing and recording under the name Arka (one album), and then EverLevel again.

“Future” is plenty of energetic songs full of melody akin the classic era for the genre, updated to current times. The album’s new title refers to hope of better things to come after Covid-19, but judging the material on offer the original ‘AorWork’ would have perfectly fit the enjoyable music on it.

01 – Luvless Angels
02 – In Our Hearts
03 – Life Aint Easy
04 – Caution Caution
05 – Waiting 4 Love
06 – Dangerous
07 – Feelings = Magic
08 – Must Be a Sign
09 – LovinGame
10 – Always Running
11 – So I Can’t Go On
12 – Crystal World
13 – Bleeding
14 – Underground
15 – Spirit Dancer
16 – Forever Ones

Lead vocals and guitars – Javier Garcia Uriarte
Keyboards and backing vocals – Jesus Herrera Vera
Bass and backing vocals – Gonzalo Sanchez Machado
Drums and backing vocals – Alberto Rodriguez

Future by EverLevel on Amazon Music Unlimited

27 minutes ago, AlphaMale said:

Greatest cover art of all time?

Possibly… here’s another good one

Well, what a co-inky-dink… Great White continue their carousel of singers, and two former vocalists put out a collaboration 😜

One of my favorite releases of the year; will it be top 5? Not sure, but it’s definitely a contender. 👍

Here’s Mr Snyder’s take:

Crazy Days 

Ozzy has a falling out with his demon 😂