The four members of MÖTLEY CRÜE were recently interviewed by Metal Edge magazine for a cover story about their upcoming reunion tour. Several excerpts from guitarist Mick Mars's portion of the interview follow:

Metal Edge: Other members of the band have said that they view the reunion as something vital in your recovery process. Do you view it that way?

Mick Mars: "No, because I refuse to be exploited. We all have reasons to come back. They have their side projects, but I don't think those are anything too serious. It's really rough for me being out on the road, it's rough keeping up with the schedule. It's rough enough for a healthy guy, but I weigh 112 pounds and I'm not fully recovered yet, and I've done all this stuff already that 's really wearing me down faster than I can heal."

Metal Edge: Was it rough for you on the road the last time MÖTLEY toured?

Mick Mars: "Pretty much. There's a lot of flying around, playing live at radio stations, then playing live at night, doing promotions like Macintosh — two, three, four places in a day. Even on a Lear jet, I still couldn't get healthy."

Metal Edge: Do you feel like you're recuperating at a decent pace now? Are you optimistic about being healthy enough to head out on tour in February?

Mick Mars: "Probably by then. It all depends how much they're going to schedule in between. It's kind of like if you wake up from a deep sleep, and have to go straight to work and can't go back to sleep — you're going to be tired. You need to catch up on sleep before you can really be awake. I have to be healthy before I really start working again."

Metal Edge: It seems like everyone's got their different reasons for going back to the band. Why do you think MÖTLEY is getting back together right now?

Mick Mars: "Greed. Not on my part. And I won't say on everyone else's part, but there is greed around me. There's greed in everything, though, not just this. It's everywhere."

Metal Edge: For those that aren't familiar with the disease, what exactly does it do to you?

Mick Mars: "It changes up your spine, it affects your eyes, you can't see as clear with them. Right now, my disease has gone up to my brain stem and into my throat and stuff — I have one vocal cord working and the other is dead. I have a team of doctors trying to figure out how to get it back so that I can have a full voice again. It's like there are bones growing over your bones and shifting it up — like if you were to put a brace on your back, then try and stand up, you can’t do it. It gets to your hands, it gets in your elbows, it gets in your knees, any place there are joints. It starts in the hips, and that's why I had the one replaced and need to do another one. It has nothing to do with age — you could be 17 or 18 years old and have it, and what happens is, they need to cut it out, or it goes through your whole body."

Metal Edge: It sounds excruciatingly painful.

Mick Mars: "It is, it is… And you go to the doctor, and they give you the quick fix, so I had to get myself off that whole thing, too. They don’t try to treat it, they just give you pain pills. Well, why don't you do anything about it? Overseas they do things, they have remedies, and they work like eighty percent of the time, but over here, the doctors really don't seem to know a lot about it, and it's really upsetting."