Mötley Crüe Members: Where Are They Now?

Mötley Crüe became one of the most notorious bands in rock and roll history in the 1980s for its in-your-face sound and wild offstage antics. Here's everything to know about the band

Since its inception in 1981, Mötley Crüe has never shied away from controversy. Hailed as "the world's most notorious rock band," singer Vince Neil, drummer Tommy Lee, bassist Nikki Sixx and guitarist Mick Mars are as well-known for their offstage antics and hard-partying ways as they are for their heavy-hitting rock and roll sound.

However, their fast-paced lifestyles, immortalized in the 2019 film The Dirt, didn't get in the way of their collective success. Despite having "more drama than General Hospital," according to Mars, Mötley sold more than 100 million albums over four decades, earned seven platinum albums and received three Grammy nominations.

After struggling to get signed early on, their self-produced debut, Too Fast For Love, released on Nov. 10, 1981, captured the attention of Elektra record executive Tom Zutaut.

1983's label-backed Shout at the Devil sold 200,000 copies in its first two weeks. The band gained even more notoriety in 1984 while touring with Ozzy Osbourne.

Over the next few years, they grew their catalog with 1985's Theatre of Pain ("Home Sweet Home," "Smokin' in the Boys Room"), 1987's Girls, Girls, Girls ("Wild Side") and 1989's Dr. Feelgood ("Kickstart My Heart") before creative differences and substance abuse began to weigh the band down.

Neil parted ways with the group in 1992 and didn't return until 1996. In 1999, Lee also took a five-year hiatus. However, the four founding members reunited just in time to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 2006.

They released their last full-length album in 2008, and on Jan. 28, 2014, the band signed a "group death pact" agreeing to cease touring after Dec. 31, 2015, per CNN. "It really came down to figuring out how do we bow out with dignity," Sixx told Rolling Stone.

In 2019, however, Mötley Crüe announced a 36-date tour for 2020. Delayed by COVID-19, the group's founding members hit the road in 2022 for their first onstage reunion in seven years. They also sold the song rights to the group's entire music catalog, by then valued around $150 million, to BMG in 2021.

In October 2022, Mars announced that he was retiring from touring but would remain a member of the group. Six months later, he sued his former bandmates, alleging that he was fired over his decision.

Keep reading to find out where all the founding and current members of Mötley Crüe are today.

Vince Neil, 61

Vincent Neil Wharton was born on Feb. 8, 1961, and grew up in Compton, California.

Neil became a father at 16 when son Neil Jason Wharton was born to his former girlfriend and classmate Tami. Neil then dropped out of high school and started performing with Rock Candy, a Cheap Trick cover band.

In 1981, he was recruited to Mötley Crüe over singer O'Dean Peterson, who also auditioned, per MTV.

On Dec. 8, 1984, Neil crashed his car while driving with a blood alcohol level of .17, killing his passenger, Nick "Razzle" Dinghy, and injuring the driver and passenger of the other vehicle. According to the Los Angeles Times, the singer pled guilty to charges of vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving, for which he was sentenced to 30 days in jail. He was also ordered to pay $2.6 million to the victims, serve five years' probation and perform 200 hours of community service, the Los Angeles Times reported.

By 1991, Neil had recorded five albums and toured the world with the group, but tensions between him and the band had boiled over, and he parted ways with Mötley Crüe in 1992. "Race car driving has become a priority in Neil's life," a statement obtained by Newsweek explained.

Neil reportedly told the Los Angeles Times that he was fired over creative differences, saying, "I wanted the band to continue a straight hard-rock direction but they wanted to go in a blues direction."

The musician released the first of three solo albums, Exposed, which included the radio track "You're Invited (But Your Friend Can't Come)," in 1993. It was followed by Carved in Stone in 1995, which featured a song for his daughter Skylar, and Tattoos and Tequila in 2010.

In April 1995, tragedy struck again for Neil when Skylar, then 4, was diagnosed with Wilms' tumor, a type of kidney cancer. After undergoing multiple operations, radiation and chemotherapy, she died on Aug. 15, 1995. "I've nearly destroyed myself asking if she was being punished for something I'd done," Neil wrote in an essay for PEOPLE.

He subsequently struggled with substance abuse, reportedly entering an inpatient drug program after a 2007 driving arrest, per TMZ, and was sentenced to 15 days in jail for drunk driving in 2011, according to Reuters. "I was just drinking myself to death, pills. I think I was trying to kill myself," Neil said in his 2022 documentary.

In 1996, he put aside his differences with his bandmates and reunited with the group. They released three more albums before "peacefully" breaking up in 2014.

Neil continued to tour solo and also appeared on several reality shows, including The Surreal Life (2003), Remaking: Vince Neil (2005), Skating With the Stars (2010), Celebrity Wife Swap (2015) and The New Celebrity Apprentice (2010). He was married four times to exes Beth Lynn, with whom he shares daughter Elizabeth Ashley Wharton; Sharise Ruddell, with whom he shares the late Skylar; Heidi Mark; and Lia Geradinir. In 2011, Neil began dating longtime girlfriend Rain Hannah.

Tommy Lee, 60

Lee was born overseas in Athens, Greece, on Oct. 3, 1962. His family relocated to California when he was a baby, and by age 4, he received his first set of drums.

The drummer dropped out of school to pursue a career in music. He was a teenager when he met Sixx, who was reportedly impressed by Lee's band, Suite 19, per Rolling Stone. Together Lee and Sixx, later known as the Terror Twins, started Mötley Crüe.

As the band's fame took off, so did Lee's love life: After divorcing his first wife, model Elaine Starchuk, to whom he was reportedly wed just seven days, Lee married actress Heather Locklear on May 10, 1986. The pair split seven years later.

In February 1995, he married Baywatch star Pamela Anderson in Cancun four days after meeting her, having fallen in love "at first sight."

Eight months into their marriage, Lee and Anderson were robbed. Included in their stolen goods was a personal tape they made on their honeymoon. It was leaked on the internet after a settled lawsuit with the distributor in 1997, serving as the basis for the 2022 series Pam & Tommy.

Lee and Anderson welcomed the first of two sons, Brandon Thomas Lee, on June 5, 1996. Their second child, Dylan Jagger Lee, was born on Dec. 29, 1997.

In February 1998, the drummer was arrested and charged with felony spousal abuse and child abuse following an altercation at his home, for which he served four months in jail.

While Lee and Anderson tried to reconnect, she followed through with her 1998 divorce filing. (The couple continued to date on and off for years, even denying marriage rumors in 2005, but split for good in 2009.)

Lee became the second original Crüe member to leave the band shortly after, reportedly telling MTV News, "I had … time to think about what I wanted to do with my life musically and creatively."

He released his first of two albums with rap rock group Methods of Mayhem in 1999, which included the single "Get Naked."

By 2005, he had written a memoir and was taking courses at the University of Nebraska for his show, Tommy Lee Goes to College. He also went back on tour with Mötley Crüe, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The musician briefly left the group again in 2007 but returned to record the band's 2008 release, Saints of Los Angeles. He has remained a member since.

He found love with former Vine star Brittany Furlan in 2017 and popped the question the following Valentine's Day. Exactly one year later, they tied the knot.

Nikki Sixx, 64

Nikki Sixx, né Frank Feranna, was born in 1958 and raised by his grandparents in Seattle.

Early in his career, Sixx joined Blackie Lawless' band Sister but was quickly fired. "It was his band and his vision," Sixx told Audacy Check In in 2021. "We weren't good enough. … So we formed our own band London."

London ran its course and Sixx formed Mötley Crüe with Lee. Though he served as the chief songwriter for the band, writing "Girls, Girls, Girls," "Kickstart My Heart" and more, Sixx became addicted to drugs following a shoulder injury he sustained in a car crash.

"[It] was the worst time of my life; I was in a downward spiral," he told Clash.

On Dec. 23, 1987, Sixx overdosed and was reportedly declared clinically dead before being revived. "Heroin nearly killed me. As a matter of fact, it did," he wrote in a Los Angeles Times essay. In 1998, he entered rehab.

In addition to Crüe, Sixx played in side projects including Brides of Destruction with Tracii Guns and Sixx A.M. with DJ Ashba. He also became a best-selling author, releasing The Heroin Diaries in 2007, This Is Going to Hurt in 2011 and The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx in 2021.

Following the announcement of the group's 2014 disbandment, Sixx married his longtime girlfriend Courtney Sixx. PEOPLE confirmed that the couple was expecting their first child together in January 2019, and on July 27, 2019, Ruby Sixx was born, making Sixx a dad five times over.

He shares sons Gunnar and Decker Sixx and daughter Storm Sixx with ex-wife Brandi Brandt, to whom he was wed from 1989 to 1996, and daughter Frankie Sixx with ex-wife Donna D'Errico, whom he was married to from 1997 to 2007. Sixx also had high-profile romances with Lita Ford, Denise "Vanity" Matthews, to whom he was engaged in 1987, and Kat Von D, whom he dated from 2008 to 2010.

Sixx celebrated two decades sober in 2021.

Mick Mars, 72

Mick Mars, née Robert Alan Deal, was on May 4, 1951, is the oldest founding member of the band.

When Mars was 14, he formed a Beatles cover group, the Jades. Inspired to master guitar by country western artist Skeeter Bond, Mars later played in a group called Spiders and Cowboys that caught Sixx's eye. "He was just knocked out by the way that I played," Mars told Newstimes in 2005.

Mars is credited with coming up with the group's name and integral to its songwriting. "I come up with some licks and stuff, [Nikki] comes up with some lyrics and … it becomes a song," he explained to the publication.

Though much of Mars' personal life was kept private ("My privacy is my sanctuary," he told Newstimes), he fought a public battle with Ankylosing spondylitis, a painful and degenerative disease that affects the spine.

The guitar player also struggled with addiction, telling Reuters in 2008 that his proudest moments with the band were "when Nikki got clean and I got clean. That was just like the biggest step ever."

After 41 years with the Crüe, Mars announced his retirement from touring in October 2022 due to physical limitations. "Mick … can no longer handle the rigors of the road," read a statement from Mars.

"My body just doesn't wanna do it," he told Variety.

He was replaced by John 5, and in April 2023, Mars filed a lawsuit against his former bandmates, claiming that they had fired him from the group's business affairs. "I carried those bastards for years," he told Variety, alleging that Neil, Sixx and Lee have been "trying to replace" him since 1987.

Sixx responded via Twitter, writing, "We don't deserve this considering how many years we've been propping him up. We still wish him the best…We love you Mick."

John Corabi, 64

Born on April 26, 1959, John Corabi became interested in music after seeing The Beatles on TV. He formed his first band, Angora, out of high school prior to joining L.A. rock band The Scream.

Corabi got his start with Mötley Crüe after Neil parted ways with the group in February 1992. According to The Salina Journal, he auditioned upon learning that Sixx was a fan of his music. "John's capable of singing anything and everything. That's why we chose him," Lee told the publication in 1994.

Corabi released one full album, Mötley Crüe, with the band and helped complete Generation Swine, before leaving the band in 1996. "As much as I was bummed, I was relieved," he later said.

After his departure, Corabi formed the band Union with former KISS member Bruce Kulick. He also played rhythm guitar in Ratt.

In August 2014, the singer married longtime girlfriend Debbie Sorenson. He was previously reportedly married to Layla Norris and Valerie Corabi and has at least one son, Ian.

While Corabi was featured on Sixx's 2004 Brides of Destruction album, Here Comes the Brides, things soured between the two after Corabi insinuated in an interview that parts of Sixx's 2007 memoir were not factual.

Corabi's memoir, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, was released in 2022.

Randy Castillo

Randy Castillo was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Dec. 18, 1950. According to MTV News, Castillo exhibited a knack for drums early on, playing in his elementary school marching band.

After stints with Albuquerque-based cover band The Wumblies and the Offenders, with which he reportedly released an EP, Castillo moved to L.A., cutting his teeth in the industry as a drummer for Lita Ford's 1984 Dancing on the Edge album.

Lee reportedly introduce Castillo to Ozzy Osbourne, and Castillo toured with the English singer through 1993.

He joined Mötley Crüe in 2000 following Lee's departure from the band. The album New Tattoo was Castillo's last project before his death on March 26, 2002, at the age of 51 from skin cancer.

He also joined them for several tour dates, though illness prevented him from finishing it.

John 5, 52

Born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, as John William Lowery on July 31, 1970, John 5 was fascinated as a child by the guitar-playing on Hee Haw. He received his first guitar as a Christmas gift from his parents.

"My friends wanted to be astronauts … but all I wanted to do was play and play and play," reads his website. John formed his first band, Dirty Trixx, in middle school, with which he won a battle of the bands contest. By high school, he had a new band, Vampirella.

John made the trek to L.A. in hopes of becoming a session musician. There, he began working with well-known names in rock, including Ford, Castillo and K.D. Lang, whom he was reportedly selected from more than 2,000 guitar players to work with.

In the late 1990s, John helped to form the band 2wo with Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, which produced the 1998 album Voyeurs.

He has since worked with David Lee Roth (1998 to 2003), Marilyn Mason (1998 to 2004) and Rob Zombie (2006 to 2022), to name a few.

John has also been married twice: once to Aria Giovanni and once to Rita Lowery, whom he tied the knot with on June 7, 2009. He shares kids Jeremy and Nicole with Giovanni and is also a father to son Andres.

Mötley Crüe announced on Oct. 27, 2022, that John would take over for Mars onstage. "No doubt it will take an outstanding musician to fill Mick's shoes so we are grateful that our good friend, John 5, has agreed to come on board," the band wrote on Instagram.

A quote from John read, "I'm honored to carry out Mick's legacy and I look forward to playing these songs."

In April 2023, Sixx confirmed rumors of new Crüe music when he tweeted, "Great day in the studio writing random riffs with J5."

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