JOHN CORABI On Still Being Asked MÖTLEY CRÜE Questions More Than 30 Years After He Joined The Band: 'It Doesn't Bother Me'

In a recent interview with Rockin' Metal Revival, ex-MÖTLEY CRÜE frontman John Corabi, who joined the band in 1992 as the replacement for original singer Vince Neil, was asked if he gets tired of still getting asked questions about his former band more than two and a half decades since he last played with the group. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It doesn't bother me because, look, at the end of the day, I do realize, first of all, I'm grateful for the opportunity that they gave me. I also realize, too, that having been a part of that has actually given me, you know, I don't wanna say 'longevity' because I've been productive. But it's just kind of kept me afloat. I can't even say that. Maybe 'longevity' would be the word; it's given me some longevity or some credibility, whatever. But the thing that bugs me more than anything is if the question, like if I do an interview and the whole interview winds up, or the majority of it winds up being about MÖTLEY, that's kind of frustrating 'cause you wanna talk about the new thing that you're doing. But the other thing that irritates me is I get asked questions about that and I give honest answers, or my opinion anyway, and it winds up becoming clickbait on — God — every web site ever. And then it's funny — you see these comments from the fans and it kind of irritates me because I've done this in the past where I said, 'You know what? I don't wanna talk about that.' And immediately all the comments after they wrote on all the clickbait channels, it was, like, 'Oh, John Corabi doesn't wanna talk about MÖTLEY CRÜE anymore.' And all these comments are, like, 'Oh, my God. What an ungrateful bastard. They gave him the opportunity of a lifetime.' But then, if I do talk about it and somebody asks me [for my] opinion and I give it, they're, like, 'Oh my God. Doesn't that guy have anything better to do? He's still talking about MÖTLEY CRÜE 26 years later.' So I've just kind of resolved myself to being, whatever way I go, I'm gonna stick my foot in my mouth, so just start learning to enjoy the taste of my socks. [Laughs]"

With Corabi on vocals, MÖTLEY CRÜE released one critically acclaimed full-length CD, which ended up being a commercial failure in the wake of grunge despite a Top 10 placing on the album chart. When Neil returned to the fold in 1997, Corabi was left on his own.

John reflected on his time with CRÜE during a November 2022 interview with Dawn Osborne of TotalRock. He said: "I'm not a Bible thumper. I'm not a religious person, but I think that I look at things, in some ways, in a little bit of a spiritual way. And I kind of look at my way as I've been blessed with a lot of great things, but there was always something to follow up a great thing, there was a not-so-great thing that actually really… Now, in hindsight, I look at it and I go it was kind of a blessing because it kept me balanced. Had I gotten the MÖTLEY gig and nothing bad happened as well, maybe I would have went nuts; maybe I would have drank myself to death, or whatever. But there was always something happening. And I find it odd — and it took me a minute to think about it this way — but I found it odd that I was offered the gig in… it was February of 1992. And just prior to that, my mother had called to tell me that she was diagnosed with cancer, maybe a month or two. And then I was offered this gig. And with the gig came a lot of money. And then my mother passed away in, I believe it was December of '96, and then shortly after Vince came back.

"So I just sat there and I went, I got to meet Glenn Hughes and Brian Johnson and some of the [other] guys in AC/DC… I got to meet all these people, mainly my musician heroes, and they were super cool to me. And I was financially able to take care of my at-the-time… Joining MÖTLEY, I also got a divorce, but I was able to take care of my ex-wife and my kids. I took care of my mother. I took care of myself. So I just have a weird way of looking at it. I go, you know what? The universe gave me something that I needed for that five years. I needed that to take care of my son, who was a diabetic, ex-wife and my family. And then when my mom passed, it was, 'Okay, we're gonna take that back now. You don't need it anymore.'"

In February 2018, Corabi released a live album of his performance of MÖTLEY CRÜE's entire 1994 self-titled album, recorded on October 27, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. "Live '94: One Night In Nashville" documents the album in its entirety along with the bonus track "10,000 Miles", which was originally released as a bonus track on the Japanese version of the "Quaternary" EP.

Last year, Corabi released his autobiography. Titled "Horseshoes And Hand Grenades", it was written with the help of MÖTLEY CRÜE historian/author Paul Miles, and was made available via Rare Bird Books.

In a 2016 interview with Sweden Rock Magazine, MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx said that writing the "Mötley Crüe" LP with Corabi was a prolonged and difficult experience. He went to call it "a very unfocused record" that was "painful for me, because John Corabi can't write lyrics, and I had to do all that work."