Former Godsmack drummer Shannon Larkin has waded into one of hard rock’s most heated ongoing debates — the use of backing tracks in live shows — and he pointed straight at Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx to make his case.
The comments came during a recent livestream on Larkin‘s official YouTube channel, where he was defending Godsmack‘s decision to bring ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini into the fold. While explaining why Godsmack has always performed without any safety net, Larkin held up Nikki Sixx and Mötley Crüe as an example of the kind of pre-recorded help he says has crept into modern rock concerts.
Larkin was discussing how Godsmack‘s refusal to use click tracks or backing tracks shapes the feel of their live show when he turned his attention to Sixx.
“And so what I try to explain to people about tempo and when you’re not a band that’s a click-track, backing-track kind of band. So Godsmack uses no click tracks, no backing tracks. It’s a thing that a lot of other musicians talk about too, I notice now. I’m really noticing it. We’ve been saying it for years as we watched the advent of everybody started adding some, the rhythm guitar or something being played, but there isn’t a guy behind the amps playing it. It’s on a track. Oh, it’s a new thing, kinda. And backups, you see Nikki Sixx up there [with Mötley Crüe]. He’s not really singing, he looks away, but you still hear his voice. Well, it’s a track playing. But in order for those things to happen, the band has to be on a click track — and the band doesn’t have to. It’s just us, the drummer. We’re on a click, so it’s always the same every night. So it’s a homogenization of what used to be the dangerous feeling of a rock show — dangerous from the band’s aspect on stage too. You don’t know what’s gonna go on,” he said.
In other words, Larkin‘s argument is that the layered, polished sound many bands deliver on stage only works if everyone locks to a click, and that Godsmack, by going without one, keeps the unpredictable, on-the-edge energy that he feels defines a real rock performance.
Larkin‘s example lands on territory that has been a lightning rod for Sixx and Mötley Crüe for years. The band has repeatedly faced accusations that its concerts lean heavily on pre-recorded elements, and the issue exploded into public view through the bitter legal fight between the group and former guitarist Mick Mars.
After Mars stepped away from touring in 2022 due to his battle with ankylosing spondylitis, a degenerative spinal condition, he later sued his former bandmates. Among the most explosive claims in that lawsuit was the allegation that Mötley Crüe‘s live shows were heavily reliant on backing tracks. Mars went as far as alleging that Sixx “did not play a single note on bass during the entire U.S. tour,” and that his own guitar parts had been turned down in the mix.
Sixx has firmly rejected that account. In a 2025 interview with the Los Angeles Times, he framed Mars‘ comments as a betrayal of the band, and drew a sharp line between enhancing a show and faking one.
“Saying he played in a band that didn’t play, it’s a betrayal to the band who saved his life,” Sixx said at the time.
He did not deny the use of some enhancements to their live show, but clarified their nature. “Anything we enhance the shows with, we actually played,” he explained. “If there are background vocals with my background vocals, and we have background singers to make it sound more like the record. That does not mean we’re not singing.”
The band’s attorney, Sasha Frid, further supported this, stating: “The fact of the matter is that Mötley always plays live. Even Mars‘s expert witness… reviewed hours of footage, agreed and said that the band played live while performing. He disputed Mars‘s own claims.”
Sixx took the dispute to social media as well, accusing Mars of lying to fans to damage the band and questioning his motives. The two camps have continued to trade blows, with Mötley Crüe‘s legal team maintaining that the band performed live throughout the tour in question.
He wrote at the time: “Read this @latimes article and find out how Mick Mars lied to you to try and hurt the band. Why would he betray you and us? Money? Wow-Read it and find out what happened to him and his dirty lawyers in arbitration.. I’m actually ashamed of him. So should you be too-More to be revealed soon.”
Earlier in January, Mötley Crüe claimed what it was described as a “decisive victory” in a legal dispute with former guitarist Mick Mars, stating that the outcome has resulted in “a final arbitration award that rejects every claim Mars made against the band and orders him to pay damages back to the group.”
In a press release issued by Mötley Crüe‘s attorney, Sasha Frid of Miller Barondess, LLP, “the arbitrator’s ruling not only vindicates the band contractually and financially but also dismantles the public narrative Mars promoted in interviews with major outlets.”
Frid also commented: “This dispute was about protecting the integrity and legacy of one of the most successful bands in rock history. With the arbitrator rejecting every claim and enforcing the parties’ agreements as written, the band has been fully vindicated — legally, financially, and factually.”
Speaking in a recent interview with the “Thinking About Guitar” podcast, John 5, who has been in the group for more than three years, addressed the ongoing debate surrounding the group’s live audio and defended the musical integrity of his bandmates.
According to John 5, the core instrumentation heard at Mötley Crüe concerts is entirely authentic, despite foerm claims from critics and skeptics.
“I’m so glad you brought that up, and people don’t wanna talk about it, but I’m so glad you brought it up, because here’s the thing. I’ve always said, ’cause there was this talk that was going on for so long, like, ‘Oh, this person’s not playing live,’ or, ‘That person’s not playing live.’ Everything — Nikki [Sixx] is playing every note up there, but it’s so funny that people don’t wanna accept that. They’ll be, like, ‘Oh, his hands aren’t even on the bass,’ and it’ll be up in the air. But it’s, like, he’s fretting a note, or it’s he’ll have this arm up, but he’s picking with this hand. But people don’t understand that. Nikki plays every single note on that stage. He messes up. You can hear mistakes. Tommy [Lee] plays everything. I play everything. Vince [Neil] is singing. And I think people just don’t wanna hear that. I don’t understand why people don’t want to accept that, but we work really hard, and the live tracks, they sound great. We play. I listen to these songs, these tracks back, and I’m, like, ‘This sounds really great.’ And that’s ’cause we work hard at it. And that’s it. Everybody plays everything,” John explained.
While John 5 insists that the primary rock instrumentation is fully live, he openly acknowledged that the band utilizes specific pre-recorded elements to bolster the sonic scale of their massive stadium productions.
“Listen, there’s backups [backing vocals] that are on track. Of course, there’s backups pumped in, there’s sirens pumped in, there is intros pumped in, but all the music that we’re playing is being performed by us. And I’m up there singing backups, and Nikki‘s singing backups, and we do our best, and it’s probably… I’m not a singer. I’ve played with some of the greatest singers in the world, but I’m doing my best with backups. But, yeah, we play all of that stuff, and I’m proud of that. I’m proud of that. And everybody just works really hard,” he concluded.
The friction highlights a divide that runs through the rock and metal world: where to draw the line between acceptable enhancement and outright miming. For a drummer like Larkin, who built his reputation on the unpredictable, click-free chemistry he shared with Godsmack frontman Sully Erna over two decades, the answer is simple — a real rock show should carry the risk of a mistake.
Whether Sixx or anyone in the Mötley Crüe camp responds to Larkin‘s remarks remains to be seen. For now, the comments add another voice to a conversation that shows no sign of quieting down.
