JOHN CORABI Wants To Make A Blues Album With MICK MARS

In a new interview with Robert Cavuoto of Sonic Perspectives, former MÖTLEY CRÜE singer John Corabi explained why the songs he recorded back in 2016 with MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars — apparently called "Gimme Blood" and "Shake The Cage" — are not included on Mick's recently released debut solo album, "The Other Side Of Mars". Corabi said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "To be honest with you, that all came about because Mick… And I don't get the [trademark] laws or whatever. But Mick started a — I think he's got his own record label. It's called 1313 Records or whatever, and he trademarked it. And when you trademark something, you can trademark it, but you have to do business as within a certain amount of time. He had written those songs prior. Except — I think there's a song called 'Shake The Cage'. I did write some lyrics for that. But Mick just said to me, 'Hey, Crab, I did these two songs. Not really crazy about the way they came out. I re-recorded them. Would you sing 'em? I wanna put 'em out,' or just snippets of them so that it kind of locked his trademark in. And I go, 'Yeah, dude. Whatever.' Well, it's funny. He did a video, or his wife actually filmed us, took some photos and they put 'em out there, and everybody went batshit crazy thinking Mick and I were working together. Now we have talked about doing some writing and recording, but my schedule with THE [DEAD] DAISIES, his schedule with MÖTLEY at the time, we couldn't put two and two together. So he put those songs out and then he went about his business and started writing with Paul Taylor and Jacob Bunton and just all these great cats. And I love the new stuff that he did. I'm just happy that his fucking record finally came out."

Corabi went on to say that he still holds out hope that he could work with Mars on a new project. "I told Mick, I said, 'Dude, if you ever wanna write, man, fucking count me in,'" he said. "I've been trying to talk him into doing something a little left of what he did, which is… Anybody that knows Mick Mars knows that he's a blues guy. He grew up on Jeff Beck, John Mayall, Leslie West, Jimmy Page, all this cool shit. So I was trying to get him to just, 'Let's sit down and write a record of riffs, like, for example, 'Never In My Life' by MOUNTAIN.' I go, 'Dude, your tone, those kind of riffs, and I'll sing on it and we'll just do a really heavy blues record.' And he seemed like he was into it. But who knows? We'll see [if we get] to it. I'm just happy that Mick put his record out. I'm sorry he's going through all this shit with the band. But hopefully they'll figure it all out."

Last October, Mars was asked during an appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" why the songs he recorded with Corabi eight years ago were not included on "The Other Side Of Mars". Mick said: "I felt the songs were just a little — not strong enough. And there is a certain person that kind of interfered with that. And I'm not gonna say his name, but he kind of like messed some things up. The songs were wrong, parts in there that shouldn't be there and blah blah blah. It isn't a long story, but it was kind of like, 'That ain't gonna fly.' So I shelved it."

Asked by host Eddie Trunk to clarify that it was a third party who was involved in the project — not Corabi — who "kind of mucked it up," Mick said: "[I was] kind of duped — that's all I have to say — by a third party. And that's it. That's all. I got rid of him and went on and searched for other people. I mean, look, I found [producer] Michael Wagener after a while. He lives just down the street."

Back in 2016, Mars released snippets of the aforementioned two solo songs. The tracks, which were recorded at Blackbird Studio in Nashville, where Mars has lived for more than a decade, featured Corabi, who appeared on CRÜE's 1994 self-titled album. Corabi later said that he didn't contribute to the writing process for the two songs, but that he was open to collaborating with Mars on some brand new material.

Birmingham, Alabama rocker Jacob Bunton collaborated extensively with Mars on "The Other Side Of Mars", which arrived in February 2024 via Mick's own label 1313, LLC, in partnership with MRI.

Bunton had previously collaborated with former GUNS N' ROSES drummer Steven Adler and CINDERELLA frontman Tom Keifer, and has songwriting credits with Mariah Carey, Steven Tyler and Smokey Robinson, among others.

Bunton sings lead on all but two of the 12 songs on "The Other Side Of Mars".

Other guests on the LP include WINGER/ALICE COOPER keyboardist Paul Taylor, KORN drummer Ray Luzier, and Brion Gamboa, who handled lead vocals on the songs "Undone" and "Killing Breed".

Bunton previously fronted the Alabama bands MARS ELECTRIC and LYNAM.