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Mick Mars: Undone — The Other Side of a Guitar Legend

Edward Schooley
Posted: October 9, 2026
“Undone” offers one answer. It brings together a recognizable guitar identity, a rough and emotionally charged vocal performance, and an atmosphere that moves beyond conventional hard-rock expectations.

Photo credit: Shutterstock Licensed Images

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Editor In Chief | GUITAR THRILLS MAGAZINE TAMPA, FL U.S.A.

Edward Schooley

Founded in 2021. GUITAR THRILLS MAGAZINE of Tampa, FL Guitar Thrills Magazine of Tampa, FL U.S.A. The GUITAR THRILLS MAGAZINE is excited to bring you some of the music industries finest talent. Including the world of entertainment. Our focus includes the long term goals and aspirations of artists of all sorts. We are an unbiased reporting platform. You are getting insight into the world of music. No, we are not your fathers website for music news. We have grown into our own, and rely upon decades of music experience and knowledge. Guitar Thrills Magazine is a hard act to follow.

Article was co-written by Eric Dahl | Rock and Roll Review

After more than four decades helping define the sound of Mötley Crüe, Mick Mars steps beyond thefter more than four decades helping define the sound of Mötley Crüe, Mick Mars steps beyond the legacy that made him famous. With “Undone,” we get a glimpse of a musician who still has something to say, and a guitar that has plenty left to tell us.

For more than four decades, Mick Mars helped give Mötley Crüe its unmistakable identity. His guitar was heavy, aggressive and instantly recognizable, an essential part of the sound that carried the band from the Los Angeles rock scene to international success. But there is a difference between becoming known for a particular sound and having nothing left to say beyond it. Mars has never appeared interested in accepting that limitation.

Legacy that made him famous. With “Undone,” we get a glimpse of a musician who still has something to say, and a guitar that has plenty left to tell us.

For more than four decades, Mick Mars helped give Mötley Crüe its unmistakable identity. His guitar war more than four decades, Mick Mars helped give Mötley Crüe its unmistakable identity. His guitar was heavy, aggressive and instantly recognizable, an essential part of the sound that carried the band from the Los Angeles rock scene to international success. But there is a difference between becoming known for a particular sound and having nothing left to say beyond it. Mars has never appeared interested in accepting that limitation.

When Mars stepped away from touring with Mötley Crüe, many saw the end of an era. Yet the release of his solo music offered a different perspective. This wasn't a guitarist walking away from music. It was an opportunity to explore the ideas he had been carrying for years, ideas that didn't necessarily belong within the framework of the band that had defined so much of his career.

For more than four decades, Mick Mars helped give Mötley Crüe its unmistakable identity. His guitar war more than four decades, Mick Mars helped give Mötley Crüe its unmistakable identity. His guitar was heavy, aggressive and instantly recognizable, an essential part of the sound that carried the band from the Los Angeles rock scene to international success. But there is a difference between becoming known for a particular sound and having nothing left to say beyond it. Mars has never appeared interested in accepting that limitation.

When Mars stepped away from touring with Mötley Crüe, many saw the end of an era. Yet the release of his solo music offered a different perspective. This wasn't a guitarist walking away from music. It was an opportunity to explore the ideas he had been carrying for years, ideas that didn't necessarily belong within the framework of the band that had defined so much of his career.

That distinction matters. In our earlier conversation with Mars in Nashville, he explained that when he was writias heavy, aggressive and instantly recognizable, an essential part of the sound that carried the band from the Los Angeles rock scene to international success. But there is a difference between becoming known for a particular sound and having nothing left to say beyond it. Mars has never appeared interested in accepting that limitation.

When Mars stepped away from touring with Mötley Crüe, many saw the end of an era. Yet the release of his solo music offered a different perspective. This wasn't a guitarist walking away from music. It was an opportunity to explore the ideas he had been carrying for years, ideas that didn't necessarily belong within the framework of the band that had defined so much of his career.

That distinction matters. In our earlier conversation with Mars in Nashville, he explained that when he was writing for Mötley Crüe, he was writing Mötley Crüe songs. Meanwhile, other musical ideas continued to develop in his mind. His solo career finally gave those ideas a place to live.

“I just had my own ideas floating around in my head for years and years,” he told Guitar Thrills. “And I finally got a chance to express the first step in solo.”

That first step became The Other Side of Mars, released on February 23, 2024. Among its tracks was “Undone,” a song that offers a compelling introduction to the less familiar territory Mars wanted to explore. Released as a single ahead of the album, it wasn't simply another opportunity to hear a veteran guitarist deliver a heavy riff. It represented a different side of an artist who had spent decades working within a recognizable musical identity.

A Guitar That Doesn't Need to Repeat the Past

One of the challenges facing a guitarist with Mars's legacy is the expectation that he will continue delivering what listeners already know. There is a certain comfort in hearing a familiar sound, especially when that sound has been part of the soundtrack to people's lives for decades. But familiarity can also become a cage.

Mars understood that risk. In our interview, he spoke about the diversity of the music he absorbed growing up, including blues, Gentle Giant, King Crimson and Robert Fripp. Those influences help explain why his musical interests were never necessarily confined to the boundaries of arena-ready hard rock.

He also spoke about Jeff Beck, a guitarist whose sound could be recognized without needing to see his name attached to a recording. For Mars, that individuality matters. There are countless ways to approach the guitar, and he wasn't interested in limiting himself to one narrow set of possibilities.

“Undone” reflects that willingness to explore. Its darker, atmospheric character creates a different listening experience from the straightforward hard-rock attack many associate with Mötley Crüe. The guitar isn't simply there to drive the song forward. It contributes to the tension, the mood and the sense that something unsettled is unfolding.

There is weight to the playing, but weight alone isn't the point. Mars has the experience to understand that a guitar can communicate through tone, phrasing, space and restraint just as effectively as it can through volume and speed. A solo doesn't have to be a demonstration of how many notes a player can fit into a passage. It can be a statement, an escalation, or the moment when the music finally releases the tension it has been building.

That is where the experience of a seasoned guitarist becomes important. Technique may give a player the ability to execute an idea, but experience helps determine which idea is worth playing in the first place.

The Roughness Is Part of the Story

The vocals on “Undone” add another dimension to the song. Brion Gamboa brings a rough-edged, anguished quality that feels suited to the music's darker atmosphere. There is an emotional abrasion to the performance, a sense of strain that makes the vocal feel less like a polished declaration and more like something being forced out.

That quality matters because the voice and guitar are working toward the same emotional destination. The guitar creates a landscape; the vocal gives that landscape a human presence. Neither needs to explain everything. Their interaction leaves room for the listener to interpret what is happening.

In our earlier interview, Mars described wanting diversity across the album and talked about creating different musical landscapes. He also made clear that different songs required different vocal approaches. In a separate published interview, he described wanting an angsty, desperate quality for “Undone” and “Killing Breed,” which is why Gamboa was the right singer for those tracks.

That decision reveals something about Mars as a songwriter. He wasn't simply looking for a vocalist who could reproduce a familiar hard-rock formula. He was looking for someone who could serve the emotional demands of the material.

There is a difference between a singer who sounds technically impressive and a singer who sounds as though the song has given him something he needs to express. The roughness in Gamboa's performance helps create that second impression. It gives the music a human edge, and it allows Mars's guitar to operate as more than a showcase for familiar chops.

Together, the vocal and guitar suggest that the song is interested in atmosphere and emotional tension as much as conventional hard-rock impact.

More Than a Guitarist's Solo Record

There is a temptation to approach a solo album from a celebrated guitarist as an opportunity to evaluate the playing alone. How heavy are the riffs? How memorable are the solos? Does the musician still have the technique that made him famous?

Those questions have their place, but they don't tell the entire story.

A guitarist who has spent decades working within a successful band has also spent decades learning how songs function. He understands the relationship between a riff and a vocal, between a musical hook and the moment it arrives, between holding back and giving the listener everything at once. Those are songwriting instincts, not merely instrumental skills.

Mars's comments to Guitar Thrills suggested that he wanted listeners to experience precisely that broader range. He told us that some of the album's songs were intentionally conceived with film and television in mind, and that he wanted each track to take the listener somewhere different. He even described the record as a musical landscape.

That perspective helps put “Undone” into context. Its darker atmosphere isn't simply a departure from the sound people expect from Mars. It is part of a larger effort to create music that can stand on its own terms, without having to satisfy the expectations attached to his former band.

And there is something encouraging about that decision. After decades of success, an artist could reasonably be expected to settle into the sound that brought him there. Mars chose to explore instead.

The result doesn't require us to dismiss his past or pretend that everything he has done before was merely preparation for this moment. His work with Mötley Crüe remains a major part of his musical identity. But it is not the entirety of that identity.

The Freedom to Say Something Else

During our Nashville interview, Mars spoke about feeling free to pursue whatever musical direction he wanted. He also explained that he had deliberately held on to ideas until the right time, preferring to create fresh material rather than simply revisit old songs that might have sounded dated.

That tells us something important about the motivation behind his solo career. This wasn't just about releasing music under his own name. It was about having the freedom to make decisions according to his own creative instincts.

“Undone” becomes more interesting when heard through that lens. The title itself invites interpretation. To be undone can suggest being unsettled, exposed or changed by an experience. It can describe a moment when something that once felt secure no longer holds together in quite the same way.

We shouldn't assume that the song is autobiographical or that its title refers to Mars's career. The music does not require us to make that claim. But as a listening experience, the idea of being undone sits naturally alongside the song's darker mood and anguished vocal delivery.

There is also a parallel worth considering in the broader artistic story. Mars spent decades helping build a musical identity that audiences came to recognize immediately. Now he is willing to move beyond the expectations that identity created. He isn't erasing the past; he is refusing to let it dictate everything that comes next.

That may be the most compelling aspect of this chapter in his career. The freedom to explore doesn't necessarily mean abandoning what made you distinctive. It means taking that distinctive voice into places you haven't visited before.

There Is Still More to Hear

Mick Mars doesn't need to prove that he can play guitar. His place in hard-rock history is already established. The more interesting question is what an experienced musician does when he has the opportunity to follow ideas that previously had no place in the band that made him famous.

“Undone” offers one answer. It brings together a recognizable guitar identity, a rough and emotionally charged vocal performance, and an atmosphere that moves beyond conventional hard-rock expectations. It gives Mars room to explore songwriting as well as guitar playing, and it reminds us that a musician's creative life doesn't have to stop at the boundaries of his best-known work.

What stays with me is the possibility that we have spent years recognizing Mick Mars for a particular sound without fully considering the range of ideas behind it. His solo career gives those ideas a chance to be heard.

Perhaps that is what makes this chapter worth paying attention to. Not the idea that Mars has left his legacy behind, but that he is still adding to it.

A great guitarist can leave us remembering a riff for decades. An artist with more to say can make us wonder what else we have yet to hear.

PRS Standard 24 Review from Guitar Thrills Magazine Tampa, FL The World of Rock and Blues Magazine.

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