Nick Snelling of Australia's Beat magazine recently conducted an interview with MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

On how "Saints Of Los Angeles" stacks up against the band's back catalog:

"Most of it, I really like. There's a couple of songs on there, like every album that we've done, that I call 'fillers'. But for the majority, I think it's a really good direction and step that we've taken."

On the writing and recording process for "Saints Of Los Angeles":

"It was mainly constructed in the studio as a couple of the other guys had prior commitments to do other things, so Nikki [Sixx, bass] and I did a lot of writing, along with James Michael and DJ Ashba (Sixx's partners in the SIXX: A.M. project), using ProTools. It meant that we got to explore a lot of our ideas without any limitations. In the old days, we'd rehearse and then sit down to record it, and if we went 'oh, I wonder what it would sound like if put the chorus where the verse is' then we'd have to re-record it. Nowadays, you can just chop it, move it around, listen and go ‘oh no, that sucks' or ‘yeah, that works', you know? It gave us a lot more freedom.”

On MÖTLEY CRÜE's longevity:

"I think from the very beginning, even back in the early ‘80s when we were really naïve, our goal back was to be like the STONES and stay together. But what we didn't know about was all the rough spots along the way; drugs, alcohol abuse, egotistical stuff….but now, we've all reached a point where all four of us know where home is — and that's MÖTLEY CRÜE. Generally, I think we all share that goal now, and it also okay for us all now to go off and do other things, experiment, have solo projects, but there's always something in our minds saying 'this is our real gig, right here.'"

On the occasional squabbling between bandmembers:

"I think there's nothing wrong with it. Everybody's human, and there are days when we're all being a complete ass, having a bad day or whatever. But we've learnt to cope with that, because we all know each other really well. We still make mistakes, but the bottom line is we understand each other a lot better now than we used to.”

On the fact that he no longer parties as hard these days:

"The other guys have some fun, but Nikki and I have girlfriends that we really love, and although that might sound wimpy, it's just we choose not to. Put it this way, I have things I like to think about more than feeling bad the next day from getting high.”

On whether he has ever considered returning to his roots and making a blues album:

"Absolutely, and I am going to do that. My plans are a little different from what the other guys in the band have done with their solo stuff. Have you heard the albums 'Pet Sounds' by the BEACH BOYS, or THE BEATLES' 'Sergeant Peppers' or 'Electric Ladyland' by JIMI HENDRIX? Those albums have something more to them that just the music, something special that stands out. What I wanna do is record with a lot of my friends who I've met over the years, a bunch of really different talented musicians, to all come in and do something. Different singers, guitar players, bass players from all types of bands — kinda like what HENDRIX did on 'Electric Ladyland' — and then I'm gonna record it at Electric Ladyland studios, and you can only get it on vinyl. I've got it all worked out."

Read the entire interview at www.beat.com.au.