Project Description

Interview with

JOHN CORABI

from

MOTLEY CRUE

by Brittany Long

.

.

Rock ‘n’ roll journeyman, JOHN CORABI, is no stranger to hard rock fans as vocalist of THE SCREAM, ESP (the Eric Singer project), UNION (with ex-Kiss guitarist, Bruce Kulick), RATT and his current role as the front man of the DEAD DAISIES. Widely acclaimed as one of the great rock voices ever, Corabi’s hypnotic and charismatic live swagger also make him the consummate frontman.

For many though, he really came to prominence when he landed the high-profile gig of replacing MOTLEY CRUE front man, Vince Neil, in 1992.

It was during his short tenure with MOTLEY CRUE that the band released their self- titled album, MOTLEY CRUE, in 1994 (often referred to as Motley ’94) as the follow up to the hugely successful, Dr Feelgood album. Whilst the album did not reach the heights of its predecessor, it is regarded as a re-invention of sorts and long considered a fan favourite, with Corabi bringing extra guitars to the fold and a gruff, ragged edge to the vocals. The album was simply more mature, heavier and rougher.

Now, on the 25th anniversary of the album’s release, JOHN CORABI embarks on his first ever solo tour of Australia, with his band, performing the album in its entirety, a real treat for both MOTLEY CRUE fans and rock fans in general.

.

.

.

Good morning John, How are you?
I’m alright, how are you?

I’m good thank you, Where do I find you today?
I have a day off, I’m in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and I’m on my acoustic tour and I’m sitting in my tour bus, actually no, I have a new puppy here that’s chewing on my foot as I talk to you. I’m in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania on a day off, I play tomorrow and then I head to Nashville, rehearse with my band, then I’m heading off to Australia, to hang out with you guys for a few days.

How exciting!
Yeah it’s gonna be awesome! I’m looking forward to it!

Australia is very excited too! So how are you feeling about embarking on your first solo tour of Australia?
I’m excited man, you know I’ve done a couple of interviews before you and I’m just telling everybody like,I’m just hoping that these shows are a success for everybody.  I want to thank Danny from Silverback touring for bringing us down, and I’m just hoping that it works out for everybody, and there’s a good crowd and you know at the end of the day, like I’d love to establish myself as a solo artist so I can come there. I love Australia and I love coming there. I’ve been there probably a half a dozen times. I know it’s a long flight, but my ultimate goal would be to do some shows in Japan maybe once a year, and then hit Australia once a year and just do some shows, then come home. All the fans down there are awesome you know, but for some reason it’s so far away. A lot of bands don’t come there, I don’t understand it, in this day and age why the routing can’t be worked out where you know, you do hit Japan and Australia and Pacific rim. You know there’s tonnes of rock fans down there, so let’s go down and play for them. I’m really hoping that these shows do well so I can come back on a somewhat regular basis.

Yes, I find that Australia do often miss out on plenty of bands, and so I’m sure us Aussies would be ready to welcome you back with open arms every time. So that sounds amazing!
I hope so. I’ve done nothing wrong haha.

Are there any plans to put out a solo album?
You know, honestly my plan so far, I’m doing acoustic shows I’ve done Europe and the UK already, I’m in America, I’m taking a little break. I’ve got one more show tomorrow in Pittsburg, as I said I go back to Nashville, rehearse with my band and then we’re coming to do the four shows, then I have about ten more shows I have to do after that, here in America. At which point I’m taking a well deserved break, I’m celebrating my birthday and I’m relaxing for two weeks. Then in May I wanna just write and record a new, full band, electric solo record and then hopefully, it probably won’t be out this year but if it did it won’t be till the end of the year. But I’m looking at probably early next year. But I want to get out and start playing in August. Full band, turn it up loud and go out and have some fun. My son is my solo drummer so I wanna get out and have some fun with the kid. Ya know what I mean.

That sounds absolutely amazing! So, how was the recent European tour? 26 shows in 30 days, some might call that insanity?
You know what, about halfway through I was saying that to myself haha so. But you know what I had fun man, like you know honestly I love going to Europe, trying all the different wines and foods. It was literally me and a tour manager, I had an acoustic guitar on my back, and a suitcase, and we were flying, we were taking some flights, mainly trains, but I loved that. Because I actually get to see stuff. So ya know it was cool, I had a good time. Then I come home, I went and I did the Monsters of Rock Cruise, and I saw a bunch of familiar Australian faces there. So it’s been great, everything’s been awesome so far. Now I’m doing this run in America with Mike Tramp from White Lion, and it’s been great. So now the next step is Australia and the Motley shows. So, hopefully again like I said it’ll be packed everywhere we go, and all the guys in my band will have a good time and see Australia at its best.

Australia is ready to welcome you that’s for sure!
Well I can’t wait.

So, you’ll be down in Australia playing the Motley Crüe album in full, what was it like working together with the Motley boys, and putting together, what is arguably what a lot of Motley fans believe is one of the best albums Motley Crüe has ever put out?
You know, I gotta be honest with you, it was relatively easy putting that record together. I mean it was just four guys, sitting in a room, jamming, having fun, being excited again about everything. You know for me it was just, everything was bigger, faster, and more elaborate than anything I had ever done before. So it was just, it was a crazy time but it was awesome. I have nothing but fond memories of it, and I’m very proud of the record, and you know I love, to each its own, I know there’s some people that are still never gonna embrace that album, but you know, I’m very proud of it, I think we did a great job.

Yeah look, I’m going to be honest with you, I’d honestly never heard it, and I went through and listened to most of the album a couple of days ago and just loved it. I was sitting there bopping along. It’s such a great piece of music.
Well I appreciate that, you know, and again like it is a record that, you know it’s kinda common knowledge that it didn’t do well when it came out. I mean it went Gold, but in the grand scheme of Motley Crüe just coming off the back of a ‘Dr Feelgood’ record that sold 16 million copies. Gold is quite the disappointment. It eventually went Platinum but it’s kinda a record that’s been, by the record label and even the other guys in Motley now, it’s been kinda swept under the rug a little bit. So it is what it is you know. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. Like, I am exactly where I’m supposed to be, right now. So I have no complaints about life, no regrets, I’m proud of everything that I’ve done. Whether it be ‘The Scream’, ‘Motley’, ‘Union’, ‘The Dead Daisies’. Yeah and it’s onward and upward.

.

.

You know I really understand and respect what you’re saying about believing that everything happens for a reason. I personally have had to come to terms with this over the last couple of years. I became unwell and it’s since meant I’ve had to use a wheelchair. But you know what, during this time I’ve discovered my passion for being a concert photographer and I refuse to let being in a wheelchair stop me from doing what I love.
Look man I’m sorry that you’re in a wheelchair, but you know there’s some people that that would happen to and they would look at the glass half-empty, and they wouldn’t figure out how to make a positive out of it. But because this has happened you’ve found a new passion, something that you’re really good at, something that you love and so that wheelchair has actually taken you in a different direction. But you’re loving what you’re doing. So it is what it is, again, life has a way of taking you on these paths and journeys and you make the best out of it, you do what you can and you do the best that you can. You know a lot of people ask me ‘man you’ve been in a lot of different bands’ and I’m like I didn’t plan it that way, that was the cards that life dealt me. But, I’m happy, I have a beautiful wife, I have a beautiful home, I have two great kids, grand kids, life is good. I’m still working, I’m still supporting myself and my family and like, so life is awesome man it’s really good, it’s good.

I absolutely love that. I find that too, life is what you make of it, life throws curveballs and you can either let them get you down or use them to make you stronger than ever.
Right, there’s an old adage, ‘when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade’, just keep the vodka close by so you can add it to the lemonade haha.

So, back to the music. What’s your favourite track on the Motley ‘94 album? I know it’s probably like asking you to choose your favourite child, but if you had to pick just one?
I would say, and it is like picking your favourite child. But, I think the one that encapsulates where we were at, at that time, is probably ‘Misunderstood’. Because, there’s a little bit of everything there. There’s acoustic beginning, big Zeppeliny groove. I think Tommy’s drumming was insane, Nikki’s bass playing was great, Mick’s guitar playing was great, I think everybody was just on their game. It’s that one song, there’s a little bit of everything. There’s acoustic, there’s a heavy part, there’s an orchestra in it all throughout the song. You know, I think the lyrics are great. So I think that one just takes every element from the record and put it in that one song, it just kind of showed where the band was at.

What’s the main message behind the ‘94 album for you? Like the inspiration behind it, where did that come from?
You know honestly sweetie, life! Life was the inspiration. Like ‘Hooligan’s Holiday’, that title, contrary to popular belief, a lot of people thought it was, you know a ‘soccer theme or whatever’. But it’s not, it was basically about, you know when they were having riots in LA in ‘92. Basically the newscaster said all these buildings were burning and all this stuff was going on, and she said ‘it’s a regular hooligan’s holiday out there’. So we basically took that title and we wrote a song kinda about, I guess the band. There were songs on there like ‘Droppin’ like flies’. Just things that were happening, you know, the riots, the AIDS epidemic, like all these different things were going on. You know, global warming was coming to the table. So it was just all the things that we were hearing on the news. So, it’s just about life in general. ‘Uncle Jack’ is basically about my uncle who molested a bunch of kids, you know, and it was just things that were happening with us personally, things that we were seeing on the news. So I think if I had to give a one word description, that album is totally inspired by and based on life.

Yeah, wow. I think it’s really important when you can have like those terrible world events, and obviously the awful events that happened with your uncle, and channel them into your music, and such powerful pieces of music too.
Yeah, I mean again, didn’t plan on it. But it was, while we were doing the album my mother called and told me about this uncle, who, had not only molested other kids, but had molested my brothers and sisters. We had the riff and it was very dark-sounding and I just told the guys the story and we got right on it, and everyone was in agreement ‘yeah’. So we wrote the lyrics and we called it ‘Uncle Jack’, that was his name, Jack. So, again, it’s just life issues, life things, you know what I mean.

.

.

Wow, alright. One for the ‘Union’ fans. Union has a big fan base over here, are there are plans for a reunion?
Well, we never split up. It was just, you know Union was another one of those bands where 20 years ago, like the Motley record, you know the record came out and it was received, but not received, like by the masses. It’s just one of those things that sat for a long period of time, and, you know, the music actually caught up and people started to take notice of it. So, you know, Brent’s playing with ‘Slash’, Bruce plays with ‘Grand Funk Railroad’, I’ve been busy with ‘The Dead Daisies’ and my own solo things. So, you know, we are hoping, we’ve been talking about it now for a few years, the four of us would love nothing more than to just get back together again, rehearse a little bit, maybe putt a set together and just go out and play some shows, see what happens. So, there’s a very good possibility of that happening. We’d love to, The thing is, we never really split up, we just kind of found other things to do you know, to make money. I mean we weren’t really, there was only a few places where we were selling tickets and records. Oddly enough, Scandinavia, we were doing great, we were doing festivals and different things like that. But, there was really zero interest in America, you know, and a few places in Europe. Australia was cool, you know what I mean, but it’s just, you know. Bruce got the offer to do ‘Grand Funk’, I went and played guitar with ‘RATT’, you know, and the other guys went and found other gigs, and we basically, doing what we loved doing but we just found gigs that were actually paying us to do it. So, hopefully it’ll happen in the future.

Fantastic. So, when did you first discover that you could sing? I believe you were originally a guitarist growing up?
Yeah, it was probably, I was in a school talent show, and a singer in this band that I was in, he got punished for something, like he didn’t get good grades or whatever, so his parents told him that he couldn’t do the talent show. So I was like ‘I know the words, let me try’ and I wound up stepping up to the mic, playing guitar and singing, and we wound up winning the talent show. So, I’m like ‘I kinda did this singing thing’ you know. So, at that point I started doing both.

That’s awesome. Gives true meaning to the name ‘talent show’ I reckon. There you go, like you were saying, life has a plan for you.
Yeah, you know I just wanted to play guitar as a kid, and all of a sudden I’m in this talent show and you know, the singer that we had was told he wasn’t allowed to do it, because he was being punished by his parents, so I wound up singing and playing guitar, it was fun.

How would you describe your voice?
I don’t know, because I kind of, I don’t hate my voice, but it’s funny, like I listen back to interviews and things that I do and go ‘God, I sound like a dumb-ass’, or some very New York- Philadelphia, you know, I can hear it. I don’t hear it when I’m speaking, but I hear it on the playback, so you know. But some of the fans are like ‘dude I can tell it’s you as soon as I hear your voice, it’s you’. So I don’t know. It is what it is. It actually, it hasn’t failed me at this point, you know, I’m still here 30 years later, so I gotta be doing something right.

Yeah, definitely. I think that’s a massive accomplishment. So, Motley Crue, ‘The Dirt’ is about to drop on Netflix. How was it contributing to the book, and, have you seen the film. If you have, what do you think of it?
I haven’t seen the film. Contributing to the book was cool, you know, I’m honoured that they asked me to be a part of it. But I haven’t seen the film yet, so I have no idea whether I’m in it, whether I’m not. But I guess it comes out the day after tomorrow, so tomorrow for you. So you know, I don’t know, I’m curious to see it though, I mean when I get home I’ll check it out.

Sounds great. I’m definitely keen to check it out myself too when it drops. Final question for you, what sort of experience do you want your fans to have at your shows?
You know what, honestly just have fun. You know I’m coming down, I’m just really excited to come down, they’re gonna hear some stories during the show, I’m excited to bring my son down and just have some fun, and I want the fans to do the same. You know what I mean.

Well thank you so much for chatting with me this morning John, it’s truly been a massive privilege and a real pleasure.  Enjoy the last of your shows and have a safe trip to Australia.
Thankyou.
Alright darling, thankyou. See you next week.

.

JOHN CORABI

AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2019

Thursday 28th March – Sydney – Crow Bar

Friday 29th March – Melbourne – The Prince

Saturday 30th March – Brisbane – Crow Bar Black

Sunday 31st March – Adelaide – Enigma Bar

 

Tickets On sale now from HERE

.

AMNPLIFY – DB