INTERVIEW WITH

JOHN CORABI

This week we welcome John Corabi into the Smoke Shack. I wasn’t sure what to expect in this interview, being that Corabi has sold millions of albums and worked with some of the biggest names in the rock world. My fears were soon washed away as John Corabi opened up for a very in-depth interview that covers his past, present, and future.

Ever wonder what it’s like to win the lottery?  To have the worry of debt melt away and the fantasy and notoriety that you’ve dreamed of as a musician come raining down on you in a media storm of fans and riches? Such was the case for John Corabi. Back in 1993, rock supergroup Motley Crue parted ways with singer Vince Neil. Thirsting for a change in their sound, the Motley camp discovered Corabi while singing for LA club circuit favorite, The Scream. Corabi brought a welcome change to the Crue, providing strong songwriting ability and a far superior voice than that of Neil. Bandmates Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, and Mick Mars were converts to the new style that Corabi brought in; so much so that they released their new album by going out on a proverbial limb by boldly titling it Motley Crue. Everything seemed primed for a blockbuster album and tour. Judging by Motley’s past releases, it was almost assumed that everything would go swimmingly.

While the album was, for all intents and purposes, a success; its platinum status did not live up to the normal earth shattering numbers the Crue were accustomed to. Buckling under pressure for sales and not willing to make a commitment to foster the new direction of the band, Elektra records did a house cleaning and Corabi was swept away in favor of the return of original vocalist, Neil. When asked, in hindsight, if he would go back and change his decision; to stay with The Scream and turn down Motley Crue, Corabi states,

“Y’know I get a lot of compliments on that first Scream record. I don’t like beating myself up about that kind of stuff so I really don’t think about it all that much. But it was definitely a great band and I had a good time doing that stuff.”

SCREAM ALBUM COVER

When broached with the subject of the topsy-turvy affair of Motley Crue, Corabi offers the following.

“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 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 3 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 Headbangers 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 5 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.”

MOTLEY CRUE 1994

By many industry and media accounts the self-titled album and subsequent tour to promote the revamped Motley Crue was considered a poor performance for the band. But, when asked about it, Corabi has a much more positive take on the subject.

 “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.”

Stinging from the whirlwind of corporate music politics, Corabi went on to form Union with Bruce Kulick; who had recently been squeezed out of KISS following their decision to bring back original members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley for a reunion tour. They partnered with drummer, Brent Fitz and bassist, Jamie Hunting. The band released a self-titled debut followed by the releases of The Blue Room and Live at the Galaxy. While the band was popular on their home turf; selling out clubs all over the country and being voted as Metal Edge’s Best New Band for 1998, Union built a strong following in Europe and Asia; markets that are still whipped up in enthusiasm for Union today. I asked Corabi if he felt the European market embraces the band moreso than the United States.

“Absolutely. The one thing that I find about the European people and the Japanese is that there’s a little bit more of a loyalty. I don’t think they are so swayed by fads and the whole Mtv thing. Unfortunately, with a lot of these radio stations over here, Clear Channel owns almost every radio station on the planet. Then you have MTV and if you want to sell records you have to be on MTV. MTV can make or break a career. They can make you the hot new thing and then they can come and knock the legs out from under you and bring somebody else in. Europe has MTV but it’s not like America where every house has cable and every kid in America is watching MTV. They still read their magazines and they have their bands that they like but there’s a loyalty factor there where it‘s not like that “15 minutes of fame”. Y’know here in America the 15 minutes has been cut to like 5 and a half.”

UNION

When asked to compare working with diverse personalities such as Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, and Bruce Kulick, Corabi shares an answer that may surprise some.

“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 everyones 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 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 others egos and personalities. It was very easy working with him as well.”

I asked John about some of the side projects, ESP and The Cardboard Vampires, which include members Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains and Billy Duffy from The Cult. I asked about a possible future for the Cardboard Vampires.

 “Without sounding like a nitwit, there wasn’t really much of a future anyway. It was just something for Jerry, Billy and myself to do in our downtime. I talked to Jerry a few weeks and ago and saw Billy in LA. We’re all up for it though. As for ESP, actually I’m leaving here [Nashville] Sunday and I’m flying back to LA. While I was gone, Eric and Bruce called and said we got offered some shows in Australia. Tuesday and Wednesday I rehearse and then I leave for Australia for a week.”

ESP ALBUM COVER

Another project that John Corabi has been working on is his autobiography. I asked how the project was going.

“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.”

You would think that performing with numerous bands and writing an autobiography would be enough to satisfy any musician. But that’s what separates John Corabi from other musicians. Not content to stay in the rock realm, Corabi has branched out. He has delved into the world of country music, writing with a cast of songsmiths in the Nashville area on and off for the past few months. When asked if he has to adjust his writing style according to the people he’s working with, Corabi offers the following,

“Not really. I just kind of throw ideas out there. I don’t cater. I just go “How bout this idea” or “How bout this sentence”. It’s funny, some of the stuff I’m writing here in Nashville right now for some of the country artists is stuff that some of the bands I‘ve been in, they didn’t get it. Unfortunately I’ve just recently realized that a lot of the stuff that somebody doesn’t get, somebody else will. I’ve probably thrown away 200 songs that I just was like “That band didn’t get it”. I’m just learning the writing process in Nashville. So, now I know if I do a solo record or if I’m in another band, whatever doesn’t work for me may work for someone else. That’s the only thing that I’ve learned but I don’t really sit down and go “Ok I’m writing or motley crue so…” This may be a bad example since obviously Motley Crue’s a lot heavier but if you listen to that album, “Drift Away” or even “Love Shine” could easily have been approached in a different manner with different players. Those songs could have been played here and a country guy could have done ‘em. Like ‘Father Mother Son’ from the Scream album or ‘Robin’s Song’ from the Union record. So, I just do what I do, I don’t put much thought into it. I just write whatever moves me at the time and go “Wow, that’s a cool song”. It’s different but it’s cool so I’m gonna hold onto that one.”

I asked Corabi how he wound up working in Nashville and who were some of the people that he was working with.

 “Actually through my manager. I met this guy named Todd Armstrong about a year ago and I met him at a celebrity golf tournament. I don’t play golf but a bunch of my buddies in LA said they had been out to Todd’s golf tournament. I guess it’s something every year that Trick Pony does. They did it down in Destin FL and Todd was one of the sponsors of it with his company, Price Oil. And this guy named Mike Fasano called me and said “I played in this golf tourney last year and it’s a great thing and it’s for the Make a wish foundation. Why don’t you come out and we’ll entertain the celebrities and corporate sponsors and play some covers?” It was me and Mike and Ryan Roxie and Eric Dover from the Alice Cooper band and Stephan Adika who played with Dee Dee Ramone and I had a blast. It was awesome. So, I called Todd and he started asking me about writing in Nashville and informed me that he owned some publishing companies and asked me to write with some of his staff writers and help me get involved with some of the people that he knew.”

“The first time I came out it was more of a hang thing with meeting different people. Then I got together with this guy Marcel Chagnon and we started working on a song. It’s one of those things where you gotta play with somebody and they start telling everybody else. Marcel had mentioned that I should write with this guy, Trevor Rosen. It just kind of spread from there. I’ve been back a few times and I’ve written with Marcel, Trevor, James Slater, and Gary Hannon who has a song on the Joe Nichols record called ‘Tequila Makes Her Clothes Come Off’. It’s just been amazing. I came in this trip to start demoing everything up. Marcel just tracked the song yesterday that he and I wrote with James Slater. And I tracked the Gary Hannon song a few days ago. I’m headed back up to Azar’s house today to track this other song and everybody seems genuinely excited about the shit I’m bringing out here. They have a little different outlook as far as lyrics and stuff goes. I’m learning from them and they are really cool people. I really want to keep my writing experience to a minimum. I just want to write with a few people. If I’m comfortable with them, that’s more important to me.”

When asked about the plan for these new songs that he’s writing, Corabi gives a detailed answer and begins to wax philosophical about the state of the music industry today and his new plan for promoting himself.

“I’m probably taking the long route here to the brass ring. I’m doing a solo album project but I’m not doing an album per se. I’m not going to take it to a label and try to get a record deal. I recently started a couple of web sites. I’m catering to the people that have stuck by me for years. My manager Todd Armstrong and this guy, Pete Merluzzi who was a tour manager/accountant for ZZ Top and Megadeth have formed a new company called Rocketman Entertainment. I’m gonna write music here for some of the country artists and there’s some borderline stuff that I can do. I’ve got some rock stuff that I’m recording. I’m gonna basically put out one song at a time. I’m only doing it through the internet. There’s a company out there that has all of these different licenses (i-tunes, napster), I think it’s called Iota. Every time I record a song, I give it to their promotional department and they make sure it’s in all the right venues. They have an internet radio alliance of over 4000 stations around the world. We will deal with regular and satellite radio as well as movie soundtracks. This just seems so much easier to me. I have an 18 year old son that hasn’t bought an album in like, 5 years. It’s a modern medium to do things the old way.”

“I watched “Walk the Line” and if you watch that and  things about Elvis Presley you’ll see Sam Phillips would say “We’re gonna record a side” and they would record a song and he would personally walk it down the radio station and they would concentrate on the single . This way, you’re focusing on the song at hand, not the album. The other thing is, from a financial or political point of view, with a record company your always going to have someone over your shoulder. Ultimately, for the fans from a financial standpoint, if you go to buy an album you’re gonna pay between 10-19 bucks a record. Basically you paying all that money for an album that will have 10 songs on it and they are flying blind. The artist, after the fan buys that record and the record company takes their money, they get a buck. If I do one song at a time over 10 songs, these internet places take a third. So, for 10 songs, I’m getting 7 bucks and the fans don’t have to buy every song. They can listen to a few seconds of each song and buy it if they want it. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out.”

“The internet is a great resource for musicians if you go out and promote yourself. You can make a very good living by cutting out the middle guy. Now the movie companies are going to be releasing things that way as well. If you look at the state of most record labels, and maybe I’m wrong, but I think in a matter of a couple of years,  if a lot of the people that are calling the shots don’t figure out a way to be more involved in the internet, I think a lot of people are gonna lose their jobs and they’re gonna have to rethink things. I have a couple of these songs that I wrote that I’m gonna use for country artists. There’s no record company involved telling me that I can’t do this. The whole concept is really exciting and fresh to me. I’ve got a radio program on www.rock.com. It’s a huge website and in the next week or so I’ll be starting. They gave me free reign to do whatever I want. I’ll have a show and Dave Navarro will as well. I’ll have merch and music there also. I wanna be the guy that did what he wanted to do and did it on his own terms.”

It seems that numerous known rock musicians have migrated to the Nashville area in recent years. I asked Corabi if he knew about this and if there were any plans of his own to call Music City home.

“I was shocked! Half the guys on the last tour I did live here. I went to Tin Pan South at Mercy Lounge and saw Slaughter and Gunnar Nelson, Kelly Keagy from Night Ranger, Reb Beach, Winger, Gary Corbett. I’m like Fuck man, everybody’s here now! It’s something to be said for the city. It’s a big city but it‘s a small city and it has the small southern city mentality. Everybody’s been super friendly to me. When I come here I have friends that live in Hermitage. I’m actually thinking about getting a place here so I can go back and forth.”

I wanted to end the interview on a fun note. So, I asked John if there was a song in his large back catalogue that are filed under the “What Was I Thinking?” category.

“When I was leaving the Scream and joining Motley one of the stipulations of me getting out of the contract with Hollywood records was that I had to do 2 solo records and a track for that movie Encino Man. I can’t remember the name of the band but basically, there’s a song in there called ‘She’s so Young’. I can’t even listen to it. I just fuckin’ cringe. It’s just not me. It’s not something I would write or sing. I just wanted to fulfill my obligations and I just didn’t give a shit. These people come up to me and they’ve got all of my records and I see that one and I’m like “ah fuck!”. I’m thinking “Please tell me you’re using this as a coaster.”

I can’t begin to explain how surprised I was by the openness of John Corabi. Our conversation felt more like having a beer with a friend at the local pub than conducting an interview with a platinum selling artist. I wish him nothing but good fortune in all of his future endeavors. Special thanks go out to John, Todd Armstrong and Pete Merluzzi from Rocketman Entertainment

That’ll do it for this time.

Until Next Time, I’m out like integrity in the corporate music world.

Chris “Uncle Daddy Longlegs” Czynszak

Message from Uncle Daddy: Remember, only YOU can prevent a lame local music scene.

To contact Chris Czynszak e-mail at cczynszak@nashvillerock.net