Mick Mars Biography

Mick Mars, born Robert Alan Deal, is an American musician, best known as the lead guitarist of the band ‘Mötley Crüe.’ He has been with the band since its inception in1981. He dropped out of high school in the early 1970s and began playing the guitar in a series of unsuccessful blues and rock bands. He then took on a wide variety of menial day jobs, as his performances did not pay him much. One of the bands he played with, ‘Whitehorse,’ often used the name ‘Mottley Croo’ in order to avoid paying fines for performing at non-union clubs. It also had a vocalist named Micki Marz. ‘Whitehorse’ seems to have inspired Robert Deal’s stage name. After nearly 10 years of playing for different bands in the California pub and club scene and feeling like he was going nowhere, Robert Deal decided to reinvent himself. He did not just adopt a new name but also acquired a new musical style and a whole new persona. In April 1980, the reinvented “Mick Mars” put an ad in ‘The Recycler,’ a Los Angeles-based classified newspaper, promoting his talent by proclaiming himself as a “loud, rude and aggressive guitar player.” Robert Deal had been none of these things, but “Mick Mars” was determined to change all that. Over the past 40 years, he has proved true to the promise of that ad in ‘The Recycler.’