John Corabi getting fired from MÖTLEY CRÜE I was going to Kill Myself It taught him the value of friendship, loyalty and family.

John Corabi says that getting fired from MÖTLEY CRÜE taught him the value of friendship, loyalty and family.

Corabi originally joined CRÜE in 1992 as the replacement for the group’s original singer, Vince Neil, who was dismissed due to personal differences. With Corabi on vocals, MÖTLEY CRÜE released one critically acclaimed full-length CD, which ended up being a commercial failure in the wake of grunge despite a Top-Ten placing on the album chart. When Neil returned to the fold in 1997, Corabi was left on his own and formed the band UNION with ex-KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick.

Asked by the Impact metal channel what he learned from being a musician that he wouldn’t have learned had he worked a regular job, Corabi said (see video below): “Being in MÖTLEY CRÜE really made me value friends and family. When I was in the band, everybody wanted me to come to the parties, everybody wanted to go with me to the parties, people were giving me free guitars and free this and free that, and then as soon as I didn’t have that gig anymore, it was like I had a plague. I learned because the people that were with me before MÖTLEY, my friends, and that were with me after MÖTLEY, I kind of went, ‘Oh, okay. That’s a really good friend. They’re still here. They were there before and they’re still here.’ So I think I just learned the value of friendship, loyalty, family — you know what I mean? — that I probably wouldn’t have learned in a regular job. ‘Cause I didn’t have that really high ‘high’ to see all these people come out of the woodwork, like little ants and roaches. I think that’s the main thing.”

Corabi added that moving on with his life immediately following his split MÖTLEY CRÜE was “very hard. That year, the year after being in MÖTLEY CRÜE was very difficult,” he said. “But I learned, and I coped with it. And life is good still. I have a beautiful wife, I have two great kids, my career’s still going, I’ve got my health. What can I ask for?”

Corabi in 2016 said that he would avoid talking about MÖTLEY CRÜE in the future because he didn’t want his comments about bassist Nikki Sixx to descend into a feud.

In an interview with Sweden Rock Magazine, Sixx said that writing the “Mötley Crüe” LP with Corabi was a prolonged and difficult experience. He went to call it “a very unfocused record” that was “painful for me, because John Corabi can’t write lyrics, and I had to do all that work.”

This fall, Corabi will release a live album and DVD of his performance of MÖTLEY CRÜE‘s entire 1994 self-titled album, recorded in 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee.

John Corabi came very close to killing himself when he lost his job as Motley Crue‘s lead singer in 1997. At a recent acoustic concert in London, he gave the details of the firing, and the aftermath. The video is embedded below.

Believing he was going to a recording session, he arrived at the studio to discover people in suits waiting for him. “Crabby,” they said. “We love you. But unfortunately the record company are not going to support this version of the band. We have to let you go because we’re bringing Vince [Neil] back.”

Corabi was hired to replace Neil, who left in 1992. He recorded one album with the band, 1994’s ‘Motley Crue,’ which failed to build upon the runaway success of their previous effort, the multi-platinum ‘Dr. Feelgood.’ It didn’t take long for the news to sink in.

“I went out and I got into the brand new sports car I had just bought, like, four weeks before,” he continued. “I opened up the glove box, I pulled the gun out, and I stuck it in my mouth. But I didn’t load it – so that was okay.”

After regaining his composure, he went home and broke the news to his girlfriend, who then proceeded to break up with him.