JOHN CORABI Says Someone In MÖTLEY CRÜE Camp Is ‘A Little Bit Pissy’ About Him Working With MICK MARS
Former MÖTLEY CRÜE singer John Corabi says that part of the band’s camp is “a little bit pissy” about the fact that he recently spent time in the studio working with CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars.
Mars earlier in the year released snippets of two two new songs, apparently called “Gimme Blood” and “Shake The Cage”, which were recorded at Blackbird Studio in Nashville, Tennessee with Corabi on vocals.
The singer, who was featured on CRÜE‘s 1994 self-titled album, talked about how his renewed collaboration with Mars came about. He said during an appearance on the SiriusXM satellite radio show “Eddie Trunk Live”: “[Mick has] been really busy. I’ve been crazy busy. Mick went right up until New Year’s Day [with MÖTLEY CRÜE]. I had a little break off for the holidays from our last tour, and then I got to work on… I recorded one of my shows with my solo band doing the MÖTLEY ’94 material. We recorded it and did a DVD. So right after the holidays, I was mixing that and going through it with [producer] Michael Wagener, and then I went on the DEF LEPPARD cruise, and then we jumped right into [working on the new THE DEAD DAISIES album]. So I talked to Mick. I know he really wants to get going, and I just… I don’t wanna hold him up. I would love to be involved and help him write some material or do whatever he needs me to do.”
He continued: “I did two songs with Mick. I think he actually wrote ’em… I could be wrong, but I think he wrote ’em with Tommy Henriksen from Alice‘s [Cooper] band. And that’s what happened.
“There was kind of a disconnect where Mick had talked to me about writing with him and all this other stuff. And I went on tour with my solo band, then I wound up hooking up with the DAISIES, Mick was out with MÖTLEY. And then I just kind of heard that he was working with Tommy and another guy. And I was, like, ‘Oh, cool. Well, he’s putting a band together.’ I thought he was doing it with [Alice Cooper‘s bassist] Chuck Garric as well. And then I ran into Bobby, [Mick‘s] tech, when we were at Download festival [in June 2015]. And he’s, like, ‘Dude, Mick needs to talk to you.’ And I said, ‘Okay. Cool.’ And it was literally, from that point, still a couple of months when I got home and we talked. And Mick asked me to go into the studio and just re-sing these two tracks that he did.”
Corabi added that he didn’t contribute to the writing process for “Gimme Blood” and “Shake The Cage” but that he is open to collaborating with Mars on some brand new material. “[Mick] said he wants to write,” Corabi said. “I would love to write with him. We had a talk, and I said, ‘Mick, if you can be patient with me, I would love to do something with you, but right now, I’m kind of doing this DAISIES record.’ Then my record, the live one, comes out shortly after that. So I’m kind of busy. And I don’t wanna do something… I’m kind of at a point now where I don’t need to do it for the money. I wanna be able to focus and put a hundred percent into it.”
John also revealed that there may be other issues at play that could be preventing the project from going forward.
“The last time I talked with [Mick], the other thing I’m kind of concerned with is… I don’t wanna… I’m just guesstimating here, but there’s still some things that they have to get situated in the MÖTLEY camp,” Corabi said. “And I know that they all signed an agreement, and from what I’ve been led to believe is that part of that camp is a little bit pissy with me working with Mick. I don’t know [why that is]. They had to sign some thing that none of the members would ever work together again. So somehow… I don’t know. It’s, like, whatever. I don’t really care. If Mick needs help, I told him I’d help him. But I just said, ‘I think you need to make sure and sort all that out, so that all your stuff is in order.”
Corabi concluded by saying that he is still unsure what shape the project will take when it finally does come together.
“I think Mick‘s trying to figure out what exactly it is he’s gonna do,” he said. “And I can’t tell him. Everybody’s, like, ‘Ah, you should do this,’ or, ‘You should do that.’ And I’m, like, ‘You’re forgetting: it’s not my record. It’s Mick‘s record. I’m helping Mick with his record.’ So whatever he wants to do, I’ll help. But I can’t go in there and tell him what to do. So he’ll sort it out. He’ll figure it out.”
Mars said in a 2012 interview that MÖTLEY CRÜE‘s 1994 self-titled disc “was probably the best album we’ve done. Musical-wise, the songs, I felt, were strong. And just musically, to me, it was, I guess, my BEATLES ‘White Album’; that’s kind of how I feel about that one. I’m not saying that any of my other albums are crummy or anything like that — I love every album that we did — but that one just has a special thing for me.”
MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee echoed Mick‘s sentiments, telling Australia’s Beat about the CD: “It’s huge. Honestly, dude, it’s one of my favorite CRÜE records. Sonically, the songs and the playing on that record is gnarly. We worked our asses off on that record. We had so much to prove: Vince was gone, we had a new singer who also plays guitar and writes and he brought a whole new element to this. But once fans are used to a certain thing, they just didn’t want to know about any other version of MÖTLEY CRÜE. That’s understandable, but when you break it down, that record still sounds rad today.”
MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx was less complimentary about the album, telling Sweden Rock Magazine last December: I think it was a very unfocused record. It was painful for me, because John Corabi can’t write lyrics, and I had to do all that work. It was the first time I ever had to work with somebody that wanted to participate in the lyrics. And my standard is so high that it was just… It was so hard, it took months… Usually, I write a set of lyrics in an hour. And it’s all about having pent-up information and aggression and just [letting it out]. And it was just hard, because he was… a nice enough guy, but he just didn’t have that fire, and it was hard for me… In general, it felt like a great-sounding record, but a little bit unfocused. That’s just me. Like, the choruses weren’t big enough.”
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