JOHN CORABI On AXL ROSE Singing For AC/DC: 'I Thought He Nailed It'

Former MÖTLEY CRÜE and current THE DEAD DAISIES vocalist John Corabi recently guested on the "TODDCast Podcast". The full conversation can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On THE DEAD DAISIES:

John: "The cool thing about the band is that we've never actually worked together until we got up with THE DEAD DAISIES, but we've known each other for so long. Doug Aldrich and I grew up in Philadelphia together, and Doug used to come and see a cover band that I was in. He was, like, 15 or 16, and I was, like, 18, 19. We've known each other for 30, 40 years, but we just now are having the opportunity to actually play together. It's the same with Marco [Mendoza]. Deen [Castronovo], I just met. They're great guys, so getting into a room and jamming, it was pretty easy. People laugh at my analogy in most cases — I go, 'Yeah, everything looks awesome on paper until you stick six guys in a submarine and go, 'Okay, go out and conquer America.' You're on a bus for long periods of time, or planes, traveling together, living together, drinking together, and then you go, 'Okay, this guy literally picks his nose at the dinner table. I hate him. This guy does not shower. He hasn't changed his socks since last Christmas.' You kind of figure things out, and it's like anything — you eventually sort it out. I think that's part of the thing. David [Lowy], when he put THE DEAD DAISIES together, if you look at the history, a lot of people comment on the amount of people that have been in the band. It's a bit misleading... there was a couple guys that fell along the wayside until up to the point where I joined, and then once I joined, it was a little more of a solid thing, but obviously, Dizzy [Reed] and Richard [Fortus] got the call to come back to GUNS N' ROSES, and it's just been a little difficult to kind of keep the lineup intact. But I think it's okay now — everybody's getting along great, and we feel like we're writing the best music that we've written. Each record's getting better and better, and we're definitely picking up steam, so we're hoping that this lineup is going to stick together for a while."

On whether the band would consider filming a documentary:

John: "Not yet. Not to sound weird, but, to me, I think it's kind of moot. I can do a documentary on myself, and it would be, like, 10 minutes. I think it's more informative or more enjoyable when the band has actually accomplished something in the musical world. As an entity in itself, THE DEAD DAISIES, we're still scratching the surface, especially here in North America. It's catching on, but we're much more popular everywhere else in the world than North America. But it's coming along, and it is definitely growing and picking up momentum. But we're not at that point. You see a documentary, you want to see it on AEROSMITH or Jon Bon Jovi or KISS, a band that's been established and sold millions of records and done something notable."

On AC/DC:

John: "I was a little apprehensive about anybody filling in [for Brian Johnson]. Bon Scott was just insane, and he unfortunately passed away, and Brian Johnson came in... I know Brian. I've hung out with Brian and wife at a wedding. Really sweet people, and I was really sad to see that Brian was out of the band, but when I heard that Axl [Rose] was in, I was a little apprehensive about it. But then, when I saw the video of it, I'm like, 'Holy shit — he's crushing this stuff.' I thought it sounded pretty good. Now, I wasn't at the shows — I was just seeing videos — but I thought he nailed it. We just did a show with GN'R in Europe, and it was awesome. They sounded awesome. Axl was singing his ass off, and the band sounded great. It was a great day."

On joining MÖTLEY CRÜE:

John: "I tell my friends, the thing about music is practice, work hard at it, just be the best you can be, but there's a huge thing called luck. I was on tour with THE SCREAM, and somebody came on our tour bus and handed me an old Spin magazine, and Nikki Sixx was on the cover. They're like, 'Dude, have you read this? Nikki Sixx loves your band!' I read the whole thing, and it was crazy — he went on this rant about how great the band was. We were just winding up that part of the tour, and our last show was in L.A., and it was weird — I came home, and I picked my phone up, and I called MÖTLEY's management to say thank you. For Nikki, I wanted to leave him a message to say, 'Thank you for the plug. At some point, we're going to be writing a new record. Would you like to write with us some time?' That was it. I left my number, left my name and I hung the phone up, and I was literally walking out the door — so, like two minutes later — [when] the phone rang... I grabbed the phone, and it was Tommy [Lee] and Nikki. Their girl immediately called them, and they told me that Vince [Neil]... wasn't in the band as of, like, two days prior to that. That was a Friday. They asked me if I could come down on Monday. I went on Monday; I jammed with them; I went back on Tuesday; I met their managers and their lawyers and everything, and we jammed again, and they had their wives there as well; and that night before we went home, they said, 'Dude, welcome to the CRÜE. You're in the CRÜE if you want the gig.'"

THE DEAD DAISIES released their new album, "Burn It Down", on April 6 via Spitfire Music/SPV.