During an interview with The Mistress Carrie Podcast, bassist Nikki Sixx discussed Motley Crue’s decision to recruit guitarist John 5, replacing former guitarist, Mick Mars:

“John’s a great guy. I’ve known John for a long time. I brought John in on a Meat Loaf song that I wrote, ‘The Monster Is Loose’. And then some Sixx A.M. songs. He wrote a song with me called ‘Lies Of The Beautiful People’, which was a big hit for Sixx A.M. And I brought him in to do a project that I did for Netflix called L.A. Rats with Rob Zombie and Tommy Clufetos on drums, a Johnny Cash cover.

”And I wrote ‘The Dirt” (movie) songs with him, and he played a lot of the guitar on those tracks. And so when this moment that we weren’t expecting happened, Mick’s leaving the band, we were in the middle of ‘The Stadium Tour’ […]

“It was one of those things that I feel bad about. It wasn’t my decision. It was John’s decision. I had been talking to John as a friend during some of the frustrations with Mick’s playing, specifically on the tour. And he was my friend. And when I called him and said, ‘Wow, we’re faced with a really bad situation.’ And we talked. And he wanted to do the next-level thing in his life.

”He’d been with Rob for a long, long time, and they were kind of coming to an end of a tour. And he talked to Rob, and Rob was not happy but understood. I still feel bad about that. That was never my intention, to go out and steal somebody from another band. That’s not what we did. But I have so much respect for Rob.

”It’s one of those things where I’m really happy and at the same time I’m, like… Sometimes this stuff’s f*cking hard. Like making a decision to move on without an original member. It’s not exactly as seamless as people would like it to seem. There’s some little bumps along the way, little bumps in the road.”