Mötley Crüe‘s guitarist John 5 has spoken out in admiration of Mick Mars, who he replaced in the group for their 2022 tour.

There’s been a lot of drama between Mars and the band he co-founded, with Mars suing them in April last year, alleging that they were trying to remove him from the band following his retirement from touring a year prior.

• READ MORE: Mick Mars: Reconciling with Mötley Crüe is “past impossible”

In response, a statement from Mötley Crüe the same day denied that they’d fired him, and he was still a member but had simply quit touring. And a couple of weeks later, bassist Nikki Sixx revealed that the band were working on new material with John 5 on guitar.

But now, John 5 has told Rock Feed in an interview: “I think what’s important is that I have such a respect and fondness for Mick. And I think that if anybody was gonna do it, I think Mick would want me to do it because I love the music and I love Mick so much and I love his solos, just like the world does. And I think that’s important. I think that’s really, really important, ’cause I hold him on such a pedestal.”

He also discussed the music he recorded with his bandmates last year, and said it wasn’t what he expected. “I was, like, ‘Okay, I kind of know it’s gonna be… We’ll get in there. We’ll play in the control room,’” he began.

“I was so wrong. We all got in the live room, and I was, like… I haven’t recorded in the live room with everybody playing at the same time since [Marilyn Manson‘s 2000 album] Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death). And so we were all in the live room, and I was, like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be rad. This is awesome.’

“[Producer] Bob Rock was right in the centre and Nikki was here, I was there, Tommy [Lee, drummer]. It was incredible. And we all played at the same time. So what you’re going to hear is us pretty much just playing live. And I thought that was so special. I really thought that was so special, ’cause I didn’t think it was gonna be like that… That’s just how they did it with Dr. Feelgood and everything. So it was so cool. It was really special.”

You can watch the interview with John 5 here: