Former Motley Crue vocalist John Corabi was by no means removed from the stage all through the ’90s and into the 2000s. During that point, he witnessed laborious rock fall on laborious instances as new genres, together with grunge, gained reputation.

Corabi recollects one notably darkish second whereas he was participating in a bundle tour that was promoting poorly. Previously, every of the bands may have drawn hundreds on their very own, however they had been now collectively struggling to attract lots of. “It was bleak,” he tells UCR. “I just remember getting offstage and having a panic attack.”

With the passage of time, a lot of those self same bands at the moment are benefiting from the energy of nostalgia, Corabi notes. Though a lot have declared that “rock is dead” over the years, the actuality is that the style, that includes teams each new and previous, continues to thrive. Corabi himself has been serving to to maintain that momentum with the Dead Daisies, a highly effective all-star collective that is featured gamers from a few of traditional rock’s greatest bands.

The Daisies will launch Light ‘Em Up, their seventh studio album, on Sept. 6. Ahead of its launch, Corabi checked in with UCR for a candid, wide-ranging interview. In the first a part of the dialog under, the frontman remembers his encounters with former Great White vocalist Jack Russell and shares tales of his memorable adventures with members of Aerosmith and AC/DC. 

As you and I are speaking, it has been about a day since we discovered about the demise of Jack Russell.
I do know, that sucks. It was in all probability about a 12 months in the past, I did an acoustic set. It was me, [former Danger Danger vocalist] Ted Poley and Jack with [his guitarist] Robbie Lochner. I used to be shocked. I hadn’t seen Jack in a whereas. He got here in and had two crutches and simply appeared tremendous frail. But you realize what? He bought in there, sat down on a stool and sang his balls off. I used to be similar to, “Wow.” It’s superb. He appeared bodily frail, however in the event you closed your eyes and listened to him, it didn’t sound like [any time had passed]. It appeared like previous Jack. But yeah, I used to be unhappy after I heard that yesterday.

I noticed him in 2018 and it was the similar factor. Through all of it, he all the time had that tremendous voice. I do know as a singer, you admire issues like that.
Listen, I respect anyone that may get out and do what we do and have some success at it. Great White was one among the first bands I noticed after I moved to L.A. I noticed them at the Roxy they usually had been sort of in between report offers. I feel they had been writing for what turned [Once Bitten]. They had been simply sort of in between. I noticed them play the Roxy and I used to be similar to, “Wow.” Then they did some [Led] Zeppelin stuff and I simply thought it was superb. It’s unhappy, dude. You know, you hate to see any of your heroes or musical friends [die]. We’re all getting up there in age, man. So we’re beginning to lose ‘em all.

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Things like this and the recent news that Aerosmith is retiring from the stage, it’s sobering to see. You’re a fellow music fan; these are our rock heroes.
Obviously, the big ones for me — I’m going method again — however John Bonham passing away after which a few months later [the death of] John Lennon. The lack of Bon Scott, all of those cats. It’s been taking place all alongside the method. But now we’re stepping into [more of it happening]. Mick Jagger is 81. Paul McCartney is 82. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, all of those guys I grew up listening to. We already misplaced [David] Bowie and Prince — [his death] was an accident, however nonetheless. You know, it’s laborious. These are guys that I appeared as much as, all of them. Then you begin pondering, “Well, shit, you’re 65. You need to start taking better care of yourself.” It does provide you with a sense of mortality.

In your memoir, you speak about the many belongings you’ve been fortunate sufficient to expertise, and there is a point out of jamming with AC/DC and Aerosmith.
Well, the AC/DC [story]: Motley’s tour supervisor, our good buddy and day-to-day man, Mike Amato, bought married in Catalina. I had been in the band about a month and bought invited to go to the marriage ceremony. My spouse and I went over to Tommy Lee’s home. We flew over in a helicopter, which was already freaking me out. I’d by no means been in a helicopter. As we’re touchdown, I may see Mike pulling up on a golf cart. There was one other man there. He had the hat, and I’m sitting there taking a look at him, pondering to myself, “I know this guy from somewhere.” I wasn’t placing two and two collectively. Mike mentioned, “Hey, this is Brian.” I went, “Oh, hey man!” I feel I had a look on my face, as a result of Mike was like, “No, this is Brian Johnson from AC/DC.” I used to be like, “Oh, shit!” We went again to the lodge, dropped off our baggage after which Tommy and Heather [Locklear], my spouse Valerie and I, Mick [Mars] and his spouse, Emi [Caryn], Brian and his spouse, Brenda, all of us went to a Mexican restaurant. We sat there the total afternoon on Catalina, proper by the water, and we proceeded to eat after which get fully shit-faced drunk.

On the stroll again to the lodge, we walked into this bar and simply requested the guys [there] if we may use their gear. We began jamming. We had been doing “Back in Black,” “Walk This Way,” all of this loopy stuff. [As we were playing] “Back in Black,” Brian’s singing, Mick is enjoying guitar, Tommy’s enjoying drums and I used to be enjoying the bass. I had this epiphany second: “Holy shit, I’m in Motley Crue and I’m literally jamming with the lead singer from AC/DC.”

The [other moment], after we went as much as do the report, we wound up being in the studio with Aerosmith. I used to be performing some guitar elements and [producer] Bob Rock didn’t like the tone, the mic placement on my amps or no matter. He mentioned, “Go take a break.” I used to be sitting in the lounge and goofing off enjoying acoustic guitar on my own. I used to be doing [Led Zeppelin’s] “Over the Hills and Far Away,” after which I began enjoying the starting of [Aerosmith’s] “Seasons of Wither.” Right when the voice began, the place the vocals would come in, I heard the voice. I rotated and it was Steven [Tyler]. He was standing behind me and he began singing in my ear. He sat down with me on the sofa, retuned the guitar to some weird-ass tuning that he makes use of and informed me the entire story about he wrote it. Then we truly sat and performed it on the sofa collectively. I used to be like, “Fuckin’ pinch me, I can die right now.”

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Thinking about Great White introduced me again to one thing I take into consideration a lot: how all of those bands weathered the storm in the ’90s and 2000s. You noticed that in a couple of various methods, together with your time with Ratt, and the separate expertise of placing out new music with Union.
It was bizarre. You know, you say “weathered,” however I don’t assume anyone that was “weathering” at the time [felt that way]. Everybody was freaking out. I keep in mind doing a tour in 2002 the place I used to be going, “What the fuck is going on?” We had been someplace in Iowa doing this massive outside factor. It was Dokken, Ratt, Warrant, L.A. Guns and Firehouse. Five bands. I simply do not forget that we bought on the market and Firehouse went on. I’m trying and there had been possibly 12 individuals in the viewers. It was simply this car parking zone. Nobody was there. L.A. Guns went on and there had been possibly eight extra individuals, after which Warrant went on. I’m simply sitting there and when Ratt went on — we had been proper earlier than Dokken — after we went on, there had been possibly 200-250 individuals there. In an space that would have held 4,000 or 5,000. It was bleak. I simply keep in mind getting offstage and having a panic assault. I used to be going, “Any one of these bands 10 years ago, or five years ago, would have sold this out by themselves. There’s five bands on this bill and we couldn’t even break 1,000 people.”

Everybody had the similar mindset: “Fuck, what is happening?” How do you go from 10,000-20,000 arenas to being fully irrelevant? It’s a little little bit of a sting. The ‘90s and 2000s were weird. But some of these bands said, “Let’s simply suck it up. I’m going to maintain doing my factor.” Like you mentioned, they weathered the storm and got here out on the different finish. Just lately, all of those bands that no person gave a shit about, now there’s these individuals which can be reminiscing about their youth. They need the soundtrack to their youth whereas they’re reminiscing. All of those bands, your Great Whites, Motley Crues, Poison, L.A. Guns, there’s a resurgence for the stay exhibits. You know, sadly, no person’s shopping for anyone’s information anymore. It’s all about streaming. But the stay exhibits, there’s been a resurgence.