Mick Mars, the lead guitarist of the glam metal band Motley Crue, is set to quit touring with the band due to his health issues. The band has released a statement in this regard which was first published in Variety.

According to the statement, “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.”

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Although the band has not yet officially released details about who is set to replace Mars, speculations are rife that John 5, the guitarist who has earlier played for Marilyn Manson and has recently stopped performing with Rob Zombie, will likely join Motley Crue on tours.

The news of Mars quitting touring with the band he helped co-found came only a few days after the next leg of a jointly-headlining tour of Motley Crew and Def Leppard was announced. From February to July 2023, the two bands will perform at various venues across Europe and Latin America.

Motley Crue had announced a farewell tour in 2014, and on December 31, 2015 had played a show billed as their last one. However, in 2019, they announced a new tour that would kick off in 2020. This tour ended up getting postponed on two separate occasions and the first leg of the same took place earlier this year.

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In The Dirt, the biography of Motley Crue, Mars had first spoken about his condition: “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.”