Singer JOHN CORABI Talks About His Days With MÖTLEY CRÜE

NashvilleRock.net recently conducted an interview with former MÖTLEY CRÜE/UNION frontman John Corabi. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On MÖTLEY CRÜE's self-titled album which Corabi sang on:

"Y'know, I just think, like with everything, there's usually a root to why things don't work. I think the album, musically, is amazing. I think everybody really came to the table for that record. Everyone's playing exceeded everyone's expectations. Tommy's [Lee] a freaking monster on that record. I think it was a combination of the fans not being prepared for the musical direction we were going in. There was also a combination of the Seattle movement and the fans not being prepared for that record. The people that were at the label, like Bob Krasnow, who had been at Elektra for 20 years, and his entire staff were pretty much cut loose, probably three weeks in when our record was released. And when I say everybody was cut loose, I mean 53 people lost their jobs and they brought a whole new staff into Elektra and we didn't have anyone there to promote and call MTV and say 'I'm bringing the guys in and have 'em do 'Headbanger's Ball',' or that kind of shit. Nothing was happening. It was just a really weird time. I can't sit here and beat myself up because I don't really believe that it was any one thing at particular. I think it was just all of the things were lined up all at that moment. We put the record out. Had we put it out five months before it probably would have been a lot better off than it was. I'm still proud of it. It still went platinum and it's definitely a piece of music to be proud of."

On the CRÜE's self-titled album's perceived commercial failure:

"It was a little hard to swallow the failure. In the record company's eyes it was a failure, but fuck, nowadays anyone would give their left nut to have a fuckin' platinum record. And contrary to popular belief, as bad as the tour was, we were still in the top 10 as far as tours that year. So could it have been better? Of course. But I try to find the positives in it. It still went platinum, it's a great album and the tour wasn't as disastrous as everyone made it out to be."

On working with such diverse personalities as Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, and Bruce Kulick:

"To be honest with you, it wasn't that difficult to work with Nikki and Tommy — during the first record anyway. I think on the second record everyone's heads were spinning. They had never had a record that just went platinum. It was weird for them, an ego thing. But they also had record companies and management breathing down on them with 'Get the old guy back.' But on the first record it was weird. We would sit in a circle and write songs. It was a very easy process writing that record. That's the frightening part. Everybody looks and Nikki and Mick [Mars] and they go, 'Nikki can't play his bass and Mick's not a good guitar player,' and all that shit. But you know what? I've never been in a more creative situation than when we were sitting there and shit was flying all the time. As far as Bruce goes, the hardest thing with dealing with Bruce is the personality part. In all honesty, I think you can tell just by the way that I look that I'm more in synch with Tommy, Nikki, and Mick than I am with Bruce. From a personality standpoint, Bruce is different than I am. But it was never really an issue. Y'know, we all have our moments. I can get up some mornings and be in a really pissy mood and so can Bruce. But ultimately we're both really respectful of each other's egos and personalities. It was very easy working with him as well."

On the current status of his autobiography:

"It's actually pretty close to being done. We're in the process of editing. I hired an outside editor, Jake Brown, that co-wrote the book with me. He is actually a Nashville guy as well. We did the book together and I didn't wanna send the book to a publishing company and have them go through it with a red pencil. So Jake sent a manuscript to both my managers and myself and we've been talking about it and making notes and tearing out things that need to be toned down. We're just doing the editing now and getting ready for it to go into a book format hopefully in the next few months."

Read the entire interview at www.nashvillerock.net.