A lot of classic metal and hard rock bands have periods with lesser-known singers. And, in most cases, these eras and vocalists end up being underrated in the longer run. But we shouldn’t ever forget about John Corabi’s contribution to Mötley Crüe on the band’s self-titled album. He was more than just a replacement for Vince Neil.
Over the past few years or so, he’s been getting some recognition. However, according to what he said in a recent interview on The Chuck Shute Podcast, the recognition doesn’t come from his former bandmates, Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx. So much that they ignored him when he reached out for help. Corabi explained (transcript via Blabbermouth):
“Look, at the end of the day, Tommy and I are fine. Tommy still texts me. We contact each other on Instagram. But I didn’t do anything until Tommy reached out to me first and said, ‘Hey, Crab. How’ve you been?’ Blah blah blah. Whatever. Or I posted something and he made a comment about it. And then I reached out.”
“I wasn’t mad at them. I was a little disappointed in the fact that… If you wanna be upset with me, awesome. C’est la vie. But you watched my kid grow up.”
“I reached out to them. I did not ask them for money. I did not ask them for anything. What I asked them for was… ‘Hey, you guys have dealt with heroin addiction. How do I handle this?’ I got nothing from Nikki at all — no response. No nothing.”
“And Tommy just wrote back — he just wrote back one word. He wasn’t, like, ‘Oh, shit, dude. Sorry. Fuck! Are you kidding me? Ian’s taking drugs?’ Nothing. He just wrote ‘rehab’. No, like, ‘Rehab. Good luck. Tommy.’ Like, nothing. He just wrote ‘rehab’ [and hit] ‘send’.”
As he further explains, he’s especially bummed out by Tommy Lee’s lack of response as Lee was the one who bought his son the first drum set. Corabi elaborated:
“Tommy was the one that Ian looked up to. And I just said, ‘You know what? I have reached out to those guys on multiple occasions.’ I reached out to Nikki when he divorced Donna D’Errico. I reached out to Tommy when the kid died in his pool. I reached out to Tommy when he went to prison. I reached out to Tommy and all those guys multiple times and I never got a response. But I thought maybe if they realized that there was something wrong with my son, they would just go, ‘Hey, dude. Here. Call this counselor.’ Or, ‘Hey, this guy is a really counselor. He can help you figure it out.’ They didn’t respond.“
“Okay. C’est la vie. I just said, ‘Fuck it. Whatever. I’m done with those guys. I won’t ever bother them again. I won’t ever call them again. I won’t forget it.’ I will never forget the fact that I asked what I thought were my friends to help me out. Not even with money. ‘Hey, do you have a phone number for a counselor or something that I can reach out to?’ And I didn’t get anything. So I’m, like, ‘All right. Whatever.'”
“It is what it is, dude. I’m not angry about it, but I have a very good, long memory. So it is what it is. I kind of figured out I can write to Tommy. I won’t ever bring it up. ‘Hey, how’s it going? How’s your wife?'”
“I love Tommy. But, listen, we’re all like brothers. We love each other; we hate each other. It is what it is. But that’s my story. I’m sticking to it.”
Photo: Frank Schwichtenberg (The Dead Daisies – Hamburg Harley Days 2017 19), pitpony.photography (Sixx A M Rock Im Park 2016 (6 von 15))
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