JOHN CORABI Says He Was Both 'Bummed' And 'Relieved' When He Was Fired From MÖTLEY CRÜE

In a new interview with Rock Daydream Nation, ex-MÖTLEY CRÜE frontman John Corabi, who joined the band in 1992 as the replacement for original singer Vince Neil, was asked if he saw any of the drama in the MÖTLEY camp that the band is notorious for while he was a member of the group. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "There was so much drama in that band and turmoil. And so when they told me that they were bringing Vince back, there was a huge part of me that was bummed and kind of upset, but there was another part of me that felt like somebody was… I felt like a 300-pound man was standing on my shoulders. So I was actually relieved at the same time, if that makes any sense at all.

"Yeah, there was shit like that going on all the time," Corabi continued. "And it's funny, now this interview is gonna come out and it's gonna go global and everybody's [gonna say], 'Goddamn it. He's talking about MÖTLEY again. Doesn't that guy have anything better to talk about?' [Laughs]"

Asked if any of the other MÖTLEY members "put up a fight" to keep him in the band when the record company made it clear they wanted Vince back in MÖTLEY, John said: "I don't know. I found out later that they had been secretly meeting with Vince and the whole time that they were meeting with him, I was kind of under the impression… The record label had said to them — this guy Doug Morris basically said, 'You need to bring back Vince. Get rid of that guy.' He didn't even know my name. He was, like, 'Get rid of the new guy and bring Vince back.' And they never really said that to me; they didn't tell me that till the very end. But I know from that point where we had all flown to New York — this was even before we started doing what became the 'Generation Swine' record; fuck, it was probably a year and a half before, a year before — and I was getting, 'There's no way, Crab. We're never bringing that guy back. No way, dude. No way, dude.' And then in the meantime, they were meeting with him and taking meetings and trying to work things out. And I think they were keeping me in their back pocket in case it didn't work out with Vince. Which is — to be honest with you, I get it. That's a smart thing to do.

"There was just so much drama with those guys," Corabi reiterated. "I would work out in the morning with Nikki [Sixx, MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist], and he would talk about Tommy [Lee, MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer] and Mick [Mars, MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist], and then I would go hang out with Tommy to write music in the afternoon, and he would talk about Nikki and Mick. And I was living in Mick's guest house, so then I would come home at night and I would sit and have a drink with Mick and he would talk about Tommy and Nikki. And I was, like, 'Oh my God. It's impossible to keep up with all this bullshit.' You know what I mean? So when they told me, 'Hey, dude, Vince is coming back,' I was bummed. [But] like I said, it [also] felt like someone took a 300-pound man off my shoulders."

Regarding what it was like performing live with MÖTLEY CRÜE, Corabi said: "The funny thing of it is if you watch the [MÖTLEY CRÜE biopic] movie 'The Dirt', they make it look like the band was playing in high school gymnasiums to, like, 20 people [while I was in the group], and it wasn't that way at all. Yeah, we were playing, like, 10,000-plus-seat arenas, but we were selling maybe four thousand, five thousand. So we were doing maybe quarter to half of the arena. And even that, with that three, four, five thousand, six thousand people, the response was great. Singing 'Shout At The Devil' or 'Primal Scream' or 'Wild Side', the audience was into it at the time and it was fun. It was cool."

Asked if there were certain songs from the Vince Neil era of MÖTLEY CRÜE that he refused to sing with the band, John said: "That was my first argument with Nikki. I said, 'I am not singing 'Girls, Girls, Girls'. I won't do it.' And he was, like, 'It's one of our biggest hits.' We got into an argument, and then Tommy intervened on my behalf. He said, 'Dude, if he ain't comfortable with it… He's the one that's gotta sing it, so we'll just pick something else. We don't have to do that song every fucking tour.' So we did 'Wild Side', we did 'Shout At The Devil', we did 'Home Sweet Home', 'Primal Scream'. I can't remember what else. 'Live Wire'. What else did we do? I can't remember. It's been so long. But we did a little bit of that and a little bit of the new record and then we did a couple of covers."

This past June, Corabi was asked by the "Talk Louder" podcast about the fact that he was " one of the early predictors" that Mars "was being shoved out of" CRÜE, forcing the guitarist to file a lawsuit against his bandmates over a year and a half ago. Corabi said: "This is the little quagmire that I have to deal with, and I expect it, because in the grand scheme of things, the thing that put me on the map was MÖTLEY CRÜE. I get it. And it just seems like every time they do something, I get asked a question about what they're doing. Now I've tried to do this before where in an interview, somebody said, 'Oh, hey, dude, what do you think of this MÖTLEY…?' And I said, 'Next question. I'm not answering this. I have nothing to say.' Well, that video came out, and then I started getting e-mails on Facebook and Instagram, 'Oh, dude, you ungrateful prick. Oh, you can't fucking talk about MÖTLEY CRÜE.' So, I go, 'Okay. Well, you know what? I'll answer.' Now if you go on, if I answer anything, all the comments are, like, 'Doesn't this motherfucker have anything to talk about besides MÖTLEY CRÜE?' He was in the band for five minutes and he was a loser.' And so I go, 'Fuck. Whatever.'

"[Someone] asked me a question when I was in London when my book came out [in the fall of 2022]. I was doing a book signing and they had a live audience there and they were asking me questions. And that statement had just come out from MÖTLEY, and it said, 'Mick's retiring. We're gonna continue on with John 5,' and yada, yada, yada. And all I said was, 'I will believe that statement when Mick releases it. The statement that we've been given has come from MÖTLEY and its management. This seems more like a damage-control thing than… I don't believe a word of it until Mick releases the statement.' And then someone asked me another question and they said, 'Well, why do you think that?' And I'm pretty sure it's common knowledge — I don't think I enlightened anybody about anything, because even Mick has said doing the 'Generation Swine' record [1997] was the most miserable, worst fucking time of my life and Tommy and Nikki and [producer] Scott Humphrey literally got under Mick's skin mentally and made him feel like he wasn't a very good guitar player. And at that point, I had been told that Vince was coming back. We wrote a bunch of those songs like the year prior. Vince is coming back, but the management had asked me to help them finish the record. So I said, 'Okay.' I got a call pretty much daily at, like, 9:30, 10 o'clock, and it was Tommy, Nikki and Scott all asking me to come into the studio early because they had Mick in the studio the night before and they were disappointed because they couldn't get anything out of him. So I said, 'Yeah, I'll come in and play, but only if Mick is cool with it.' They said, 'Yep, he is. We already talked with him.' 'Okay. Killer.' I went in, and Mick will tell you this as well — probably 80 percent of the guitars on 'Generation Swine' is me playing. So I know that they weren't happy with Mick during 'Generation Swine'. I don't know who played guitar on 'New Tattoo'… I don't know who played on that record, but I can tell you, after that, they did several new songs for the 'Red, White & Crüe' [compilation] record. That was DJ Ashba on guitar. They did 'Saints Of Los Angeles' — also DJ Ashba on guitar. And then when they did the soundtrack for 'The Dirt', it was John 5…. And then, as you've all seen, [former OZZY OSBOURNE bassist] Bob Daisley went on record saying, 'Dude, when [OZZY OSBOURNE and MÖTLEY CRÜE] did the 'Bark At The Moon' tour [together], they [MÖTLEY CRÜE] were trying to get [then-OZZY OSBOURNE guitarist] Jake E. Lee to join their band back then' — get rid of Mick and get Jake in. So, I'm not telling anybody anything new. This has all been in the press. Mick has stated things about the 'Generation Swine' record. There was a big feud between Tracii Guns and Nikki Sixx back in the day when they were doing BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION. He was mad that they hired DJ Ashba and not him. So I didn't tell anybody anything new, but it was funny, when I said it, everybody goes, 'Dude, you're so full of shit. You don't know what you're talking about. Mick's sick.' And I go, 'Oh, okay. We'll see.' And I have to admit the morning it came out that Mick was suing them, my phone just started blowing up: 'Oh, hey, dude. Sorry. Sorry I said [what I said].' And I wasn't gloating or anything — I didn't give a shit; I really don't give a shit. If you ask me a question, I'm gonna give you an honest answer. But I don't give a shit either way. That's their news, that's their dirty laundry they've gotta sort it out. But it was just funny. I just catch flack all the time. It doesn't matter what I say, what I do. In regards to MÖTLEY, I'm gonna be the asshole. Whatever. And I guarantee you a snippet of this will be on Blabbermouth tomorrow."

Mick announced his retirement from touring with MÖTLEY CRÜE in October 2022 as a result of worsening health issues.

Mars suffers from Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS),a chronic and inflammatory form of arthritis that mainly affects the spine and pelvis. After years of performing through the pain, he informed the other members of MÖTLEY CRÜE in the summer of 2022 that he could no longer tour with them but would still be open to recording new music or performing at residencies that did not require much travel.

When Mars announced his retirement from touring with MÖTLEY CRÜE, he maintained that he would remain a member of the band, with John 5 taking his place on the road. However, in early April 2023 the now-73-year-old musician filed a lawsuit against CRÜE in Los Angeles County's Superior Court claiming that, after his announcement, the rest of CRÜE tried to remove him as a significant stakeholder in the group's corporation and business holdings via a shareholders' meeting.