Motley Crue guitarist John 5 has said he doesn’t know whether the band will record another full-length studio album, even as he reiterated that he intends to stay involved with whatever the group decides to do next. The comments came in a new interview with Teraz Rock about his 2022 arrival as the replacement for the band’s longtime guitarist Mick Mars, and on the recent studio work John 5 has completed with bassist Nikki Sixx and the rest of the band.
Discussing the future of new music, John 5 said he isn’t sure what’s ahead for the band, adding: “I don’t know. I’m not sure. I don’t know what the future holds, but whatever they do, I’ll be there.”
In the same interview, John 5 described his long-running relationship with Sixx, saying the two spoke frequently for years before the lineup change and had already written and recorded together outside of Motley Crue. He also addressed the pressure of stepping into Mars’s role after four decades, while noting that he and Mars remain friends and have stayed in contact.
“I’ve known [the guys] for years and years and years and years. I was very close with them. Actually, I would talk to Nikki [Sixx] every day — multiple times a day. I don’t think there was a day that I didn’t talk to him, for years and years and years. So we were really close. And Mick was retiring, and they said, ‘Would you wanna join?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ Because I want to experience as much as I can in life. I just want to experience as much as I can. And I think that is important in life, because you don’t wanna miss certain opportunities.”
“It absolutely is,” he said. “Every single band, every single band you can think of, has a different member, like not all original members. Every band. Every single band. I can’t think of any from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s or early 2000s that have the same bandmembers. But Mick has been in the band for 40 years, and he gave a lot to the world. He gave 40 years of his life. And me and Mick, we would talk all the time too. We were really good friends, and we still are. So it was good. When they asked me to join and he was happy it was me, it was all good. It was so exciting, though, because we all love Motley Crue, and it was very, very exciting to be up on that stage with those guys. Even though I talked to them all the time, it was different being up on stage with them.”
The uncertainty over a full album arrives after the band’s 2024 “Cancelled” EP, which included “Dogs Of War” and a cover of the Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!),” was recorded with producer Bob Rock. It also follows other periods where the band has publicly acknowledged downtime, including when Motley Crue said they had “nothing planned” between major touring commitments.
Motley Crue are scheduled to return to the road in 2026 with “The Return Of Carnival Of Sins” tour, billed as a celebration of the original 2005-2006 run and the band’s 45th anniversary. With live dates locked in and no studio timetable confirmed, the next step appears to hinge on whether the group chooses to expand recent EP work into a full album cycle.
