JOHN CORABI – “If I Don’t Remember, It Didn’t Happen” By Aaron Small
JOHN CORABI – best known as
VINCE NEIL’s replacement on the 1994
self-titled
MÖTLEY CRÜE album – also made a name for himself in THE
SCREAM and UNION. Now at age 53, he’s released his first-ever solo
album, simply titled Unplugged. However the shot of a clean-shaven
Corabi on the album cover was taken several years prior; he’s currently
sporting a full goatee, as evidenced by the pictures inside the booklet.
“That photo is actually from The Swedish Rock Festival, but for some
reason – I don’t know why – everybody loves that photo,” says John on
the line from Tennessee. “But I don’t look anything like that, it’s all
good though.”
“You know what’s funny,” continues Corabi. “I had an album cover
designed, and I think the last time we talked, I told you I had already
finished the record and it was going to be out on Universal. I’ve had so
many fucking roadblocks trying to get this record out! First, I did it
with an indie label here in Nashville, and then Universal wanted it. So I
was going to put it out on Universal, I signed a contract with them, I
did the artwork. It was weird, my manager Larry Morand and Joe from Rat
Pak Records were like, he’s been talking about this record for a year,
maybe we need to change things up a little bit and just do something a
little different. So Rat Pak put that album cover together, and at that
point I didn’t even care, I just wanted the record out. If they would
have taken a picture of a dog’s asshole and said,
John Corabi Unplugged,
I would have said, fine, awesome, go. I just wanted to put the record
out.”
Facial hair or lack thereof aside, the cover of Unplugged depicts
Corabi smoking a cigarette. In 1982, nobody would have cared. But now in
2012, the “anti-smoking police” are everywhere; it’s become so taboo.
Yet the potential negative consequence wasn’t ever a concern. “No, I’m
proud to admit that I’m part of the leper colony, so it’s all good.
Actually, honestly, I quit smoking for probably three and a half years,
and I just recently started again. It’s hilarious! I went to Europe on
the last ESP (ERIC SINGER PROJECT) tour, and my tour manager asked,
‘have you ever had Grappa?’ And I hadn’t. So he says, ‘come on, you’re
fucking Italian and you’ve never had Grappa!’ So he took me to this bar
in Italy that had 11 different flavours of Grappa. If you don’t know
what Grappa is, it’s literally the residue of the bottom of the fucking
barrel when you get wine; so it’s really strong! But John Corabi doesn’t
know this ‘cause he’s a fucking idiot. So I say, yeah, I’ll try it. And
they set up 11 shot glasses and pour me a little bit of everything. I’m
thinking, it’s just wine, how much damage can this do? So I drink all
11 flavours – vanilla, lemon; all these different things. Well, Grappa
is kind of like bourbon; but wine. So I get completely inebriated, and
at some point in the evening, I caved after three and a half years of
not smoking – and I decided to have a cigarette. So I had my cigarette,
and then I decided to buy a pack of cigarettes. So the next morning, I
wake up with a hangover and this really weird, familiar taste in my
mouth. Fuck, I totally smoked last night. I roll over, pack of
cigarettes in my room. So, fuck it. I don’t remember buying them. I
don’t really remember smoking them; so if I don’t remember it didn’t
happen. So I throw the cigarettes away, at which point I checked out of
the room with
Eric Singer and
Bruce Kulick. We got on a train and went
to Milan, and literally two hours later, I swear to God I would have
blown a farm animal for a fucking cigarette! I am totally hooked again.
How did that happen? So I’ve been smoking now for the last seven or
eight months again, but my New Year’s resolution – which you know is,
whatever – is to try and quit again.”
Unplugged houses a wide collection of music, including five new
originals and seven re-recorded classics - consisting of two Mötley Crüe
songs, three songs from The Scream, and two Union songs; thereby
spanning Corabi’s entire career. This could have easily been a greatest
hits package made up of previously released material, but these are
all-new versions of those older songs. And to hear the Crüe song
‘Hooligan’s Holiday’ stripped down and done acoustically, is really
enjoyable. “It’s funny; it’s been hot and cold. Some of the people I’ve
done interviews with are like, ‘I don’t know if I like Hooligans? I’m so
used to hearing it the other way.’ Of course you are, ‘cause that’s the
original way and it’s electric with drums. This is a different version;
acoustic guitars with a conga. I don’t expect everybody to like
everything on the record. But I’ve been doing a lot of acoustic shows
lately, for the last year and a half or two years. And I’ve always
wanted to do an acoustic record, so I figured, fuck it. Let’s give it a
shot and see what happens.”
Two of John’s brand new songs,
‘If I Never Get To Say Goodbye’ and
‘Crash’ are co-written by Corabi and Hannon. The common misconception is
that’s
TESLA guitarist
Frank Hannon, as the two have played together in
the past, but John sets the record straight. “No, no, oddly enough,
it’s not with Frank Hannon. It’s with a friend of mine here in Nashville
named Gary Hannon; he’s an amazing songwriter. I should probably put
Gary on the thing, ‘cause a lot of people think it’s with Frank. And
Frank and I have talked about possibly doing a little run together. He’s
got a new record (Six String Soldiers) out as well, and by the way it’s
amazing. The last show we did together was in Michigan, and we had a
great time. We did some of my stuff, some of his stuff, a couple covers,
some Tesla shit; it was awesome. I love Frank, he’s really laid back;
all the guys in Tesla are. To be honest, I’m a huge fan of that band; I
think they’re fucking amazing! It would be an honour for me to go out
and play with any of the members of Tesla.”
Former
KISS and
UNION guitarist
Bruce Kulick appears on two songs on
Unplugged:
‘Man In The Moon’ and
‘Hooligan’s Holiday’. “Yes,
absolutely, Bruce did a solo record in 2010 (BK3). He asked if I would
be interested in helping him write a song (‘No Friend Of Mine’) and
maybe sing on the album. We’re great mates; I still do the ESP thing
with Bruce, we still tour Europe quite a bit. So I did his thing, and
then Bruce came back to me when he found out I was doing a record and
offered to help with the guitars. So I took him up on it. Both of those
songs, we kind of trade off; I do one solo, he does another. It was
great to have Bruce involved in it; obviously we’ve got a long history
with Union. We’ve been friends forever, so why not?”
A video for one of the new tunes, ‘If I Had A Dime’, has been
released and can be viewed below. It’s not a big-budget production, but
rather home-movie type footage showcasing this heartfelt composition.
“It was funny… my bass player’s brother just came along for the ride,
that weekend we were playing. He does a lot of TV commercials, filming
and editing them. His name’s Scott Nolen and we love hanging out with
him, he’s so funny it’s ridiculous. He just video-taped a lot of the
backstage stuff, the drive, and the performance; then he went home and
made the video for us. We all watched it and thought it was pretty
fucking cool; so we put it on YouTube to show people the band live and
uncut; no overdubs. Basically it’s a hand-held camera and he edited a
video together for us.”
It’s a rather unusual move to tack a 14-minute audio interview onto
the end of an album, but John went ahead and did exactly that with
Unplugged. “Just to give anybody that’s a fan a little bit more. I had a
conversation earlier about ticket prices, and prices for meet and
greets. I know what it’s like, I’ve had success in the business but to
be perfectly frank, my career, along with a bunch of others has been up
and down over the last ten years or so. I know what’s like to have to
get up and go to work and bust your ass to go see a show. I just want to
give people as much as I can for the amount of money they have to pay
for a record or a download. It was just something extra to throw in
there to give people something else to listen to. If you don’t really
know John Corabi or his sense of humour, here’s something fun at the end
of the record; enjoy it.”
During that bonus interview on Unplugged, John discusses his
forthcoming autobiography. “I’m my own worst enemy to a degree. I don’t
like putting things out that I don’t feel are amazing. I’ve tried this a
couple of times, and in my mind it wasn’t quite right yet. Not that
long ago my girlfriend said to me, ‘you know, you’ve tried writing this
book with several different people and it’s never quite your
personality. You tell your story with a certain flair; you should just
tell your own story. Write it down and then have somebody come in to
check the grammar and spelling and put it into book form for you.’ So
that’s what I’m doing now. I’ve honestly tried to do this book three or
four times, and unfortunately I’m one of the slowest typers on earth. So
we saw this thing on TV called a dragon where you talk into it and it
prints everything out, then you can go back and edit. I’m in the process
of doing it that way, but the last two or three months I’ve been
absolutely bonkers, crazy busy. I’ve got a month off in January so I’m
going to try and get back on the book again for a couple weeks. I want
to try and get it out, we’ll see what happens.”
The day after this interview was conducted; John flew to Australia
for a series of shows – not as a solo artist, but as a member of
LOST
ANGELS. Alongside Corabi in this outfit is guitarist/vocalist
Eric Dover (SLASH’S SNAKEPIT), bassist
Eric Brittingham (CINDERELLA), and drummer
Troy Patrick Farrell (WHITE LION). “They called me, and initially I told
them I couldn’t do it ‘cause I was just getting back from Europe and
I’m trying to promote the record. Then they came back again, so I said
alright, cool. It should be fun; we always have a good time. It’s so
mellow; there’s really nothing serious about it at all. We just jam a
bunch of songs from everybody’s career, as well as stuff from
THIN
LIZZY, QUEEN, ZEPPELIN; it’s just fun!”
In January, Lost Angels are heading to Europe, but John isn’t going
with them;
Ryan Roxie (ALICE COOPER) is replacing him. Furthermore, in
February, John is joining CLASSIC ROCK ALL STARS – another super group
that includes drummers
Bobby Rondinelli (RAINBOW) and
Chris Slade (AC/DC), bassist
Greg Smith (ALICE COOPER), guitarist
Craig Goldy (DIO),
and keyboardist
Geoff Nicholls (BLACK SABBATH) for ten shows in Russia.
Did Classic Rock All Stars trump Lost Angels? “Well, it was a
combination of a few things… Rat Pak just put the (Unplugged) record
out, and I’ve got a ton of interviews to do so I’ve got to get caught up
with that. There’s talk of me possibly doing a video in January for one
of the songs on the acoustic record. And I had already committed to
doing the Classic Rock All Star thing. A couple months ago, I got asked
to come over and do a NAMM show in Russia, it was called The Moscow
Music Festival. I went over and it was Bobby, Chris, Greg, Ryan Roxie,
and myself. We each did individual clinics or performances, and then the
guys asked us to jam at the end. So we did a bunch of classic rock
songs – some
ZEPPELIN, ALICE COOPER, DEEP PURPLE, RAINBOW. We just had
fun, and there was a promoter on the side of the stage. This was a bunch
of guys who had never jammed together before, we never even rehearsed.
We just talked backstage and said, ‘do you know this one?’ ‘Yeah, I know
that one.’ We just kind of flubbed our way through it, but we got such a
great response from the fans, that the promoter wanted to bring us back
over for another ten shows. Not a lot of American or English bands go
over to Russia that often, so I said sure, let’s do it.”
Most people have a pretty good idea of what touring North America
and Europe must be like, but touring Russia is hard to fathom; questions
abound. What are the accommodations like? How’s the food? Is the
transportation reliable? And it must be cold! “It’s so funny. I tell all
my friends this – being from North America, we’re so used to… Russia
was always the enemy. I’ve got to be honest with you; I had visions of
driving through Moscow and seeing old women in babushkas, walking around
with baskets, trying to sell potatoes. So I didn’t know what the fuck I
was getting into? But at the end of the day, the fans were fucking
amazing! The hotels were amazing. Everybody over there was so happy to
have us there; they treated us like fucking kings! I’ll go play Russia
anytime. Even just for a little jam thing, we did two jams in one day,
and I bet you we played to three or four thousand people each time. I
came home and… Russia’s really not that fucking bad. It’s not what we’ve
been spoon-fed our whole lives. Those people were fucking amazing, and
it’s really sad that we’re led to believe they’re the evil empire. I’m
sure they kind of feel the same way about America. But when you meet
them person to person, they’re just like you and me. It was a brilliant
fucking trip, and I was very stoked to go back over and do it again.”
Dim 30 Déc - 11:06
