John Corabi has left his stamp all over the music industry whether it was his band The Scream, Union (with former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick), The Dead Daisies, Ratt or, of course, Motley Crue. The guy has one of the most distinct voices in all of music. After parting ways with The Dead Daisies in 2019, fans began to wonder what would be next chapter in Crabby’s musical journey. A few weeks ago, he started to tease new music and he caught some fans off guard a new track that you might not expect from him. “Cosi Bella (So Beautiful)” is such a fun, upbeat number and just goes to show you to always expect the unexpected with this guy. We had the chance to sit down for another interview with John and we talked about that single, his upcoming autobiography, his tattoos and more!
How you doing, man? Everything good?
John Corabi: Yeah, it’s okay. We’re all living in the unknown right now. I guess it’s as good as it’s gonna be.
How are your live dates? Here in North Carolina, so many people are canceling everything.
It’s the same here, buddy. I don’t get it. The guys in my solo band are out right now with Ace Frehley and he’s doing that tour with Alice Cooper. They’re full steam ahead. I’m talking about doing smaller venues and just doing cafe style acoustic shows. Mine are dropping out left and right.
So, I don’t know. Like I said, it’s unknown. Unknown world. I just live in it.
There you go! A day to day thing. It’s crazy. Let’s jump into this. It’s good to talk to you again, it’s always a pleasure. I was so excited I heard some brand new music from you. Some great tunes. “Cosi Bella” is such a cool song. Was that something that just felt like it wasn’t in the catalog for The Dead Daisies?
No. To be quite honest with you, when I did show it to the Daisies it wasn’t really a finished idea. It was just me and Marti on an acoustic guitar just scatting the melody. Historically speaking, when The Dead Daisies would do stuff, none of us really finished songs. When we brought ideas to the table, we would just stockpile riffs. Whatever everyone was drawn to, that’s what we would work on and develop and create a song with.
So I didn’t really go crazy trying to figure it out. I figured we’re all gonna get together in a week or two, at least I have a map here with Marti. Doug’s gonna put his input, Marco and David, everybody. So I kind of left it really bland, for lack of a better term. At which point, I’d played it for them but they didn’t quite get what I was trying to do. Which is fine. So I just kind of put it on a back burner.
I left the Daisies in January of 2019, that year I was just crazy busy. I was in Europe, I was in Australia with my whole band. I was doing a ton of acoustic shows. I pretty much worked the whole year. Got home. From that, we did the holidays, then 2020 rolled around and I just started talking to Marti. Said “Hey dude, I really want to do a summer record. Would you be into writing and recording?” I really do truthfully, I love working with Marti. He’s so easy to work with. He’s full of ideas all the time. He’s not afraid to go out on a limb with me and develop things. I’m sure he had a glass of wine, and I had a Jameson, and we had some edibles. (laughing)
But then the Covid thing hit. We started laying down a couple of ideas and then we’re just dead in our tracks. I got panicked. I took some money and I went and bought some computer equipment and interfaces. Different things that I would need for Pro Tools and then I took a class online to just give me the fundamentals on using it.
I just sat there and I kept looking at things and I just laid some ideas down. One of the first ideas I had was kind of an odd tune called “Laurel” and I sent that to Marti. Then some of the ideas we had started laying down, Marti finished on his end then he’d send me the track. I would do vocals then send it back. So we were doing everything by mail or email.
So it’s been a little slow, but “Cosi Bella” was one of the ones I pulled back out and I just always thought it was a cool tune. I’m obviously a huge fan of The Beatles and Queen. One of my all-time favorite songs by The Beatles is “Penny Lane” and for Queen it’s “Killer Queen.” So I just sat down and started figuring out the piano parts. The beauty of Pro Tools if I’m being honest, I’m not Freddie Mercury, I really had to figure out each chord. Even if I had a finger in the wrong place, I could go back in that grid and move that dot to the right key. I literally did one chord at a time. I got the piano tracks recorded, then I did acoustic guitar, I did electric guitars, I did the drums, and I did bass. Then I did a vocal and I had some friends of mine who sang with me on the acoustic record I did, I asked them to help me with some backing vocals. They knocked those out. Put ’em all in the pile and sent it out to Marti and that’s when he looked at it. He said “Your piano tone is somewhere between shit and okay.” (laughing) “So let me add this piano tone.” And we listened to the bass and we wanted it more McCartney-ish, so Marti replayed the bass. Then I wanted real drums on it, my son was unfortunately busy, so I got Marti’s son Evan Frederiksen. He played the drums and just knocked it out of the ballpark. Then we mixed it, mastered it, threw it out there.
Wow.
Yeah. So. It’s been a weird process. It’s not the normal hey let’s get together for a month or two and write and record. I’m just writing. Right now I have a couple of new ideas that Marti hasn’t heard, so I’m trying to get those finished and sent off to him. Then at some point I want to have my son play some drums on the new tracks. We’ll see, man.
Everything about 2020-2021 is fucking weird. I’m still trying to figure it out. I tell everybody. I’m blind man in a closet with no lights trying to find the door.
(laughing) That’s great! But you’re being creative! I talk to a lot of artists and with there being lockdowns and everything shut down, artist’s are not used to being home this much. There’s going to be a lot of creativity out of this. You have to pull a little bit of good out of every bad situation.
I think I do for the most part. At the end of the day, I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say the last 18 months has been financially scary. But I’m setting myself up for future endeavors. I was kind of productive. I did take the Pro Tools class and even though it’s slow, I’m still moving forward recording my own music. I don’t always do things right. The beauty is I can take classes again and ask questions I didn’t ask before. I can do that. That was productive. And I wrote a book! I already signed a publishing deal, I’m actually flying to L.A. tomorrow and I’m going into a recording studio. I’m recording for the next 8 or 10 days, I’m recording the audio book.
Things are moving. It’s just I’m not seeing any results right now. I’m Mr. Fucking Impatient. Then again I’ve watched every fucking series on Netflix and I’m this guy, I go right to the last episode to see how it ends. Then I go back and watch from the beginning. I don’t have 5 seasons to wait. I just need to know does he get her in the end or not?! (laughing)
That’s a great way of doing it. Will this be worth my time investment?
First go watch the last episode, then go back and recap.
Now, the book. Your autobiography?
Yes.
Did Covid help to push that along? I always wonder when someone writes one, how do you know? How do you know it’s time?
Well, I’ll be honest with you. I got approached probably 10 or 12 years ago to do a book. I started it and then I really started looking around and I realized a few bands were doing books. The “Walk This Way” book and then Joe did a book, Steven did a book, KISS did a book, Paul Stanley did a book. It was weird I was at a KISS convention 8 or 10 years ago, then it was crew guys that toured with them in the 70’s was doing books. I thought I don’t want to jump on a bandwagon here. So I just said you know what, I’m not gonna do it.
And to be honest with you, I don’t have the typical – I call them VH1 series, it’s not about poor kid becomes famous, does a shit ton of drugs, almost OD’s, goes into rehab, band falls apart, then they get back together again. I don’t have that story. But I guess in 2019 I was in Australia and I did some shows with my band down in like Sydney and Melbourne. This friend of mine, Paul Miles, who has a site called Chronological Crue. Paul kind of helped out with some editing and some research for The Dirt for the movie and the book. And he’s written a few books on his own.
I’d met Paul a few times prior, but it was really the first time we’d got to hang out at length. He really started to see my sense of humor and then we were just telling stories. And he’s the one that said “I think you need to do a book.” And I kind of walked away from it kind of kicking & screaming. Again I was concerned because I don’t have that kind of story to tell. There’s this recipe for them, band gets popular, they blow their money, they break up, someone OD’s, I don’t have that. But he said “No, I think there’s a few fans. You did have some moments in The Dirt, but you’ve largely been kind of mysterious. Nobody really knows a lot about you personally.” So, we did a book!
We went back & forth with interviews. He would type shit up and he would send it to me. I would read it and go through it and I would make some changes. We did this like 5 or 6 times. We got it to the point where we thought it flowed pretty good. It was pretty truthful. Again, I’m not one to color things. If you think I’m boring, so be it. You think I’m exciting, so be that too. We just did a truthful honest book and we put it out there. A company out of L.A. called Rare Bird signed a deal with us. We’ve done all of the edits. We’re getting photos and everything together and I’m flying to L.A. tomorrow to do the audio book.
Wow. Okay. So curious about a couple of things. Are we free to mention a title for the book?
Yes, we are. Oh. You want me to tell you what it is?
I’m hanging on the edge of my seat, I’m curious as to what you named this thing.
I thought you were going to guess! But the book is called “Horseshoes & Hand Grenades” The Autobiography of yours truly. Well it says John Corabi, but whatever.
What made you go with that? I’m real curious. I’m familiar with the saying.
I was kidding around with my dad one day. My dad passed away unfortunately in 2014. He had a really quirky kind of dry sense of humor. I go into more detail in the book. He basically said to me I think in 2013 when I was talking to him when I did my acoustic record. I told him I was going to do an acoustic record and that I really wanted to go over some of my older stuff that I felt just went overlooked and I wanted to do a different twist on them. In joking, I said to my dad “Even though I have some new stuff on there, I’m thinking about calling the record John Corabi’s Almost Greatest Hits.” He said “Or you know – you could just call it horseshoes & hand grenades.”
I was clueless as to where that came from. What the fuck does that mean? He says “You know. Horseshoes. Hand Grenades. You don’t have to be on the money, you just have to be close.” And I wrote it down when he said it. I thought what a great title. So when we were doing the book, a lot of people asked me is it a tell-all of Motley, or a tell-all about this or that. And I’m like no it’s really just a story about my life and all the things since I was about 10 years old, random things I’ve had to kind of overcome. It’s really just a story about perseverance, it’s really about a guy. And I realize that now. I’m the guy that if you could draw an imaginary horizontal line and say that everything below that line is obscurity, everything above the line is fame, I’m the guy that has been scraping my back on the bottom of that line. My whole career.
I’m okay with it now. It used to drive me crazy. Like what do I need to do to get my fair slice of the thing? I’ve always tried to do my best writing and it’s that thing where you kind of beat yourself up asking why. But I’ve realized through all of this and after a bunch of self-reflecting that you can only be in control of the things that you’re in control of. When you turn a record into a record label, you’ve got to hope that they do their job. You’ve got to hope at that point, that once they do their job, people at the radio stations do their job. The one thing people kind of forget about is that everything I do in this business there’s one factor that’s just the hidden factor in everything and that’s luck. Are all the stars lined up? John Corabi’s released Cosi Bella. Are the stars gonna line up? Is he going to have a piece of luck with this tune? Is this the one, is it the next one? Who knows?
So the whole book is about yeah I get discouraged and pissed off and pull my hair out every now & then. I still have those moments. But it’s just about not taking no for an answer and keep plowing forward.
Yeah. Like you said, perseverance.
And I’ve had great, great opportunities. My whole career I think I’ve been at the right place, but always at the wrong time. you know what I mean? One of the other things my dad used to say “When your ship comes in, don’t be at the fucking airport.” (laughing)
Oh my God. I love that! Wow. So you’re doing the audio book, do you even have a date for the release yet?
Apparently I was late to the meeting. It’s a projected date for sometime in April 2022. Again, I think we’re going to try some pre-orders probably around Nov-Dec 2021.
That’s awesome, dude! I honestly can not wait to read this. It’s kind of cool that you don’t have that story that fits that mold. It makes it different. Just a different story to read. I’m looking forward to this.
That was one of the things that really kept me from doing it, I’ve never been this crazy over-the-top person like Gene Simmons saying “I’ve slept with 25,000 women.” I was never that guy. But the things I went through as a youngster, if you’re familiar with the Motley record there’s a song on there called “Uncle Jack” and how that affected my entire family. I really go through a lot of that. But there’s also the marriage and how being in a band is really not conducive to a fucking relationship. Whether it’s your spouse or even your kids.
I just talk about all the shit. And hopefully the fans will get a little insight into what makes me tick. And some of the shit behind the scenes that even I didn’t realize until I actually got into the box. You know what I mean? Your whole life as a kid reading stories in Hit Parader and Cream and Rolling Stone about Led Zeppelin’s jet and the groupies and the Penny Lane’s and the fucking gto’s. And you think you want to do that. You just think you get up, you do the show, and you go to bed at like 6:00 in the morning and you sleep til 4:00 in the afternoon and just show up in the venue and go on stage. Then you do it and realize this is not what I read in the magazine. You don’t realize a lot of the sacrifices that not just me, but all musicians make. The things they have to sacrifice to bring you your favorite music. You know what I mean?
So true, my friend. So true. I have a couple of fan questions I want to make sure I get these in. Jeff Koger in Virginia, is a big fan of your Union stuff. The first Union album is one of our all-time favorites. I know all the stars have to align to get you guys back together. Are there any talks about trying to do something else?
To be honest with you, we’ve talked about it. Again though in this day and age, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense. I think things are even worse now than when Union was together. You really have to kind of lay it out. Bruce and I have been talking. A couple of years ago we talked about maybe it’d be cool to go out and do some Union shows. I know Mirand, that does the Monsters of Rock Cruises had talked about having Union do 1 reunion show on a cruise. He said he thinks that would be fucking huge.
I had said I wouldn’t be against it at all possibly doing a run of shows. Just gauging to see what are we talking about here. What kind of reaction would it get. I said if it’s a great reaction then maybe we sit down and we work on a song or two and just put ’em out the way we’re doing this thing now. So we’ll see. I know there’s been some interest. I know there’s a record label that’s putting out the 2 records on vinyl. They’re coming later this year and early next year. They’re re-packaging and trying to find some cool photos.
Who knows? We never really split up. We never even got into an argument. It was just a point that Bruce got offered the Grand Funk gig, I got offered the RATT gig, and Brent & Jamie got offered the Vince Neil gig. I hate to put it in business terms, but we were offered more money to go play in those bands than we were making with Union. So we just said fuck it, let’s go do this.
You gotta take care of you. I get it. The other question. Have you ever considered doing a duets album?
What does that mean?
They didn’t actually go into explanation. They didn’t elaborate if they meant you and someone else singing, or just you & someone else performing.
No, but it’s funny though. I had a guy maybe a couple of months ago. I did one of the rare shows I’ve done in that last 18 months. I did a show in Ohio and this guy came up to me and said “I never really saw you before and I don’t know that much about you.” but a friend had brought him to the show and he said his dad is a legendary guitar player in Nashville and the guy asked “Have you ever thought of doing a country record?” I said I’d been talked to about it, but I kind of don’t really think I want to do it. This is the same guy thinking that my book wouldn’t be interesting to anybody because I don’t have the typical rags-to-riches story to tell. I have no ill will towards guys like Bret Michaels or any guys that have made that transition, but I thought it would just come across as though I’m changing directions based on what may sell. So I just didn’t want to do that.
The guy said a lot of the acoustic songs I’d played in my acoustic set would just be great country songs. So what I wouldn’t be against is taking songs like “October Morning Wind” or “Father, Mother, Son” take those songs and go into a studio and have a bunch of country guys cut the music for it, the way they do it and have different singers come in and sing the songs. And maybe if I could sing a little bit here and there with them, harmonize with them, that’d be great.
That way I won’t have completely gone “Oh. Country’s selling, let me go in that direction.” I would be just I guess I’d be sticking my toe in the water but I’m not fully jumping in. I feel like a good song is a good song. And to be honest, my wife said this to me I think it was about 5 years ago. I did a charity event for a children’s hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. It was weird the guy that booked me said he had a couple of friends that would love to sit in with me for a song or two. I shit you not, it was like out of the mountains, bluegrass, Appalachians, corn whiskey drinking guys and we just ran through everything once. As it turned out I just said man that fucking sounds great, why don’t you just do the whole set with me?
And I’m talking, I think the mandolin player was a Grammy-award winning mandolin player in a bluegrass band. My wife said “You know, I really wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out. Having a bunch of bluegrass guys playing Union and Motley and The Scream, but that was probably the most awesome fucking show I’ve ever seen in my life!” We kind of mapped it out during the soundcheck, but I’d just be like “Do a solo!” and the mandolin guy would just take off, the piano guy would take off, the guitar player would take off. It was just the completely impromptu thing and I didn’t even have to change anything. I just sang the way I sing and they just backed me up. So it was there, but I just can’t sit here and say “I’ve been a country fan my whole life.” I wouldn’t be able to truthfully sell it.
But I do know, like my wife said, a good song is a good song. And if someone hears it and can translate it to their language, then I can say I wrote it. And I can help in the production, but let somebody else sing it. I’ve been thinking about doing something like that. Some country guys take a song like “Robin’s Song” and “Father Mother Son” and just really do their thing.
But back to your original question – duets? No! (laughing)
I like it. I like the other exits in the road that you took with that.
Let me reiterate, that’s 15 minutes of your life you’re never getting back.
We always end these things with something called 3 for the Road, which is 3 kind of fun, silly questions. Are you a collector? Do you collect anything?
Um. No. I am the most disconnected, my wife laughs at me. I don’t know what it is. Things like that aren’t valuable to me. If you walk through my house front to back side to side, there is one picture in my entire house. It’s of me & wife with some friends on the back of a boat where we’d went out on a lake. That’s it. I have zero awards on my walls, there’s nothing music related in my house. At one point, some guy did me a favor when I lived in California and I was going to pay him when he came to my house. He walked in and was like “Ohh. Shit dude, you were in Motley?” I had my gold record hanging on the wall and I took it down off the wall and was going to give it to the guy. My wife at the time starts screaming “Give me that fucking record! You ain’t giving that away!” I don’t get attached to things. I have never allowed myself to get attached to things. If I need to get rid of it, if it’s become a burden, I get rid of it.
End of the day, I just say if I want one later I’ll just get another one.
Who was your first celebrity crush?
Wow. My first celebrity crush, like female celebrity crush. I’m gonna have to go with – you know it’s funny, I had a poster of Farrah Fawcett on my wall with the red bathing suit on.
Oh. That classic poster.
But I think my celebrity crush was Jaclyn Smith. I always thought she was way hotter, you know what I mean? I think I’m gonna go with Jaclyn Smith.
And she didn’t have a poster. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think she had a poster.
Didn’t need one buddy! She was in my brain.
She was in my brain, and in my socks. (laughing)
(laughing) Oh wow. Okay. Your first tattoo?
My first tattoo was because my very 1st wife, Valerie was very anti-tattoo. I went to work. I used to work very briefly a couple of weekends a month. I worked in a cover band, but a lot of times on the weekends I wasn’t working in the cover band I worked at an arcade in a town called Pennsauken in New Jersey. There was a thing called the Pennsauken Mark and it was a giant flea market and in there was a tattoo guy. I just went in on a spur and I decided to get “John & Valerie” on my upper left arm. As anti-tattoo as I knew she was, I walked in and said “I know you’re gonna kill me. Don’t care.” and I showed it to her and she says “Aww. That’s so sweet!” And then it was off to the races. I just started going ape shit and got skulls and anchors and whatever the fuck I could get. I just went nuts.
I found the door. I’m a blind man in a dark closet trying to find the door.
Thank you, John. I know we went over our time a little bit, but I appreciate you and appreciate your time today. I love the song, I can definitely hear your influences.
If you can just tell everyone, the song is actually kicking ass on streaming but don’t forget to download it! If you want to support any artists don’t forget to download it if you like the songs. Support music.
By I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price
Download/stream “Cosi Bella (So Beautiful)”
Pre-order The Scream Let It Scream on vinyl: https://lindsleyrecords.com/
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