THE BEAST

In a new interview with Tone-Talk , former OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist Jake E. Lee said that Nikki Sixx  and  Tommy Lee  wanted him to replace  Mick Mars  in  MÖTLEY CRÜE .

He recalled:

“I quit RATT . I had nothing going on. I was going to  MÖTLEY ‘s f*cking gigs… Nikki  and  Tommy  wanted me in the band. They actually wanted me to replace  Mick — which you can understand that. [I was] f*cking better looking and f*cking better playing.

“They wanted me to replace Mick .  Mick ‘s in-law or whatever was funding the band, so that didn’t happen. And there was [talk of  MÖTLEY CRÜE ] maybe [having] two guitar players, which even then, I was, like, ‘ MÖTLEY CRÜE . Two guitar players. I don’t know about that.’ So, anyway, it kind of started with that. ‘Cause there was that thing going. Whether somebody denies it or not, that’s what started the rift between me and  Mick .”

A couple of years later, MÖTLEY CRÜE  ended up supporting  Ozzy on a U.S. tour.

“I’m not saying I had a big deal to do with it, but I remember Sharon [ Osbourne ] saying, ‘This  MÖTLEY CRÜE . What do you think about [them] opening?'”  Jake said. “I said, ‘F*cking MÖTLEY CRÜE . I think they’re gonna be the next big deal.’ So  MÖTLEY CRÜE  is opening for us now. At at one point, I’m out partying with… I think it was  Tommy … It might have been  Vince [ Neil ]. Who knows? Whoever  Mick ‘s roommate was. We go back to the room, and  Mick ‘s in his pajamas and he’s very upset with us.

“It was with RATT  too — I remember  Robbin  [ Crosby ] was there, Stephen [ Pearcy ] was there.  Mick , being the old man, as everybody joked about [him], he made a complaint. I’m not sure what I said.

“I think just called him ‘the old man’ and [told him to] shut up. And he did look over at me and said, ‘At least I’m not a slant-eyed Japanese bastard.’ And I did not like that — did not like it. I hadn’t heard it, actually, since I was in grade school — the whole ‘slant-eyed Japanese’ thing.

“And it pissed me off. I walked over. I was gonna beat the f*ck out of him. And it was Robbin Crosby , who was six-five, he came up to me, picked me and said, ‘C’mon,  Jake . None of that sh*t matters.’ And he carried me out of the room.”

Jake  added that he and  Mick  “made up after that,” and he stressed that he didn’t believe  Mars was “so much racist as he [just wanted to] attack me ’cause I was younger, better looking and I was a better guitarist.”

Via MetalAddicts