JOHN CORABI has a brand new solo album coming out, titled ‘New Day‘, on Frontiers. New Day is produced by Marti Frederiksen (credits include Brother Kane, Aerosmith, Foreigner, Def Leppard, Dead Daisies….). This album is Corabi’s first full album of new rock material, and is the best new album I’ve heard so far this year, with the title track, and tunes like “Your Own Worst Enemy”, “When I Was Young”, and a cool version of Sly & The Family Stone’s “Everyday People”. In our converxation John talks in detail about the new album, the songs, the artwork, as well an update on The Dead Daisies, and a look back at Union. It was a pleasure talking to the guy; one of the coolest rockers out there. Check out ‘New Day‘, it is highly recommended listening for any rock fan. *Please also check out the links below.
I want to talk about your new album. I love it. I didn’t dawn on me that this is actually your first solo album of new material because you’ve been around for so long that there’s been other releases under your name.
Well, it’s kind of a misconception a little bit because I did do an acoustic record a few years back. And probably 60, 65% of that record was new material that I’d never released before, but I just did like an acoustic thing. There wasn’t even drums on it, it was more just percussion.
(I hold up the Live in Nashville CD).
That one was in 2014. I was doing the Motley record live in it’s entirety. And I loved being in Motley and it was a great record, but I sang this stuff like 30 years ago! So I don’t want to do this anymore, and so I recorded one show in Nashville for prosperity, put it out on a record. So, I mean, technically this is my third solo record, but this is my first one with all new material, full band, drums, keyboards, the whole bit. So, it is what it is. It’s all good.
I loved it. I think I got about eight songs through and I went on Amazon and ordered it. It’s a very upbeat album, uplifting. And I don’t think, for those people that have heard your name and the association with Motley Crue or whoever else would be misjudged or misguided to think that it’s going to be a metal album, right? It’s not, obviously it’s a very diverse, wide open album.
Yeah. in all honesty when I signed the record deal with Frontiers, I told them right up front, I said, if you’re looking for Motley Crue Part Two, it’s not going to happen. I’m not interested. And I told them what I wanted. And one of the things that I don’t want to say irritates me, but irritates me to a degree about the music business now, is that once, once you’re like, once you’re, and I say, ‘an established artist’, but once you’ve done a few things, you’re kind of locked into that box, it’s like people don’t really want you to step outside of that box.
And all the bands that I grew up listening to, you, the great bands like the Beatles, the Stones, Zeppelin, Queen was huge. Those bands weren’t afraid to experiment from track to track. I mean, if you look at the Stones considered the greatest rock and roll band in the history of music, they weren’t afraid to do songs like “Dead Flowers”, or “Waiting On A Friend” or “Wild Horses”, which technically now could be considered country songs. Even Led Zeppelin did “Hot Dog” on their last record, which is basically nothing more than an old country rockabilly song.
So what I wanted to get back to was just that time or that era where bands had the freedom to just be as creative as they wanted to be. There was no categories, no boxes, and just do what you want, man; if it’s a cool tune – have at it! If you’ve heard the record, you know, there’s a song on my record called “Good To Be Back Here Again”. And I’ve had a few people, not many, but if you go, “Oh obviously Nashville is rubbing off on you. ..You’re kind of doing a little bit of country stuff”. And I’m like, Nashville is nothing to do with it. I literally just sat down, I was playing the guitar. I came up with the first line of the song and I thought it was cool, so I just stopped. I wrote the rest of the song and then I brought it into Marty the next day and he thought it was awesome. But again, if you listen to “Dead Flowers” or “Waiting On A Friend” by the Rolling Stones, kind of the same thing. So again, I just wanted to do something that was category free, and just creative without being full of myself.
The album is very, like when you say creative, it’s very creative in that there’s so much going on. The opening track was the first track I heard. That’s a great song, very uplifting, very, it rocks, but it’s obviously it’s not a metal song. It’s not really just a simple rock song. it’s a good feel good song. So where did that sort of stuff come from lyrically?
Marti and I, when we were mapping everything out; we usually map the song out and then have like a loose or rough idea of what the song is going to be called. And we came up with the title “New Day”. And honestly, one of the things about being human is you can have the shittiest day ever, but the blessing that we all have is that we can go to sleep at night and reset and then get up the next day with a new attitude, new, fresh – “It’s a new day”. Just keep moving forward. And personally, I’m not a big fan of people that sit and whine and complain about how life’s unfair. I’m just like – well, if you want to change it, do something about it!
So it was just basically putting a lot of those cliched things down in lyrics and yeah, it’s positive, but it’s just like, man you’re kind of writing your own story. So if you work hard and you just keep not taking no for an answer and just keep plugging away, something positive is going to happen for you. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah. And there’s, there’s a few songs on here that you you’ve had around for a little while, obviously,
Yeah, “Cosi’ Bella” and “Your Own Worst Enemy”.
I love that song. That’s another one that kind of jumped out at me. It’s got a bit of a bit of funk to it,
It’s probably the heaviest song on the record, but it was, um, again, it’s just about, you know, I have some friends and stuff that have had issues in the past, whether it was drinking or drugs or whatever. And it’s just like, (again) you’re sitting here complaining about things, but you’re not doing anything about it. You’re your own worst enemy. So, I just put pen to paper and it just kind of happened. …But those two songs, I initially wanted to do this record. and then during COVID and all that stuff, I started to talk to Marti, and Marti was like “people are doing things different now, they’re putting a song out, let it sit while you’re working on the record. And then you put another single out and you do this like three, four times, and then you release the record”. And at the time I wasn’t even going to do a record label, I was just going to self-print the records and sell them at my shows. But I wound up getting the call to come back to the Dead Daisies, which I did and got in that span of,…well, I came back in ’23. So in three years, we’ve done three records there. And then I got offered (last year) to do this thing with Frontiers. I was like, “Okay, cool!” I need to make sure I tell my manager, I need to make sure that everything’s coordinated perfectly with the Daisies so that I don’t interfere with them – they don’t interfere with me. And then as it turned out, the Daisies said, “Hey, we’re going to take a year off.” Well, so I was “All right, this is perfect!”
At that point, we had those three songs and Marti and I just got in and started writing. There’s still a bunch of other songs that Marti and I worked on that we haven’t even looked at yet; that we started working on and we never got around the finishing. So, I’m already starting to think about record number two.
There’s a lot of different things like “Faith, Hope and Love”. Maybe it’s the backing vocals but it’s got a bit of a gospel feel at times. You got a bit of Southern rock, and blues and everything. What can tell me a bit about what you listened to or what kind of influences, when you go to do stuff.
Honestly, again, I, I hate the category thing. To me, there’s two categories of music – There’s good music and bad music. It’s really weird because I love everything. I mean, it’s not unusual for me to get on my motorcycle and listen to Zeppelin or Sabbath, or some of the heavier stuff. And then you might see me the next day and I might be listening to the greatest hits of Glenn Campbell or Bob Seger. So, when I sit down and I write, I just kind of allow things to just happen organically. I’ll show it to Marti. And then even when I’m showing it to Marti, I kind of have an idea of what I want it to sound like, but as we’re in the studio, it’s gone through this metamorphosis and it just winds up becoming what it is. I just personally, there’s so much good music out there.
And when I was doing this record, I told Marti “No categories”. And I just really want to be musical. I want to incorporate as much different influences as I can on this record.
And, without blowing smoke up my own arse, I think we kind of accomplished that.
I think it’s a very widely appealing album. I think anybody that knows you will like it. And I think a lot of people don’t know you’re going to love it, just because there’s so much in there.
From your mouth to God’s ears, buddy.
Do you write usually with a title first or… (?)
No, not really. It usually comes with like a riff or a chord progression and I’ll start working on it. Then I’ll bring it to Marti, and then we kind of map it out. And between Marti or myself, one of us will just be scatting a melody and one of us will come up with what eventually becomes the title. I came up with the title for “1969”. Marti was just scatting something over a chord progression I had. And then he was like “when I was young”, so I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of cool’; write it down. Then we map the kind of idea out and then I’ll come home with that title. I wrote down…”when I was young”, and then I start working on the lyrics, I immersed myself in the title. How could I, how could I tie this in and make it work? So usually it’s the music first getting mapped out, and then again, between Marti and I, one of us will just be scatting just a melody idea. And then somehow the title winds up coming out. Even back with the Dead Daisies, like I was struggling for lyrics on an idea we had, and it was just something David Lowy said. We passed each other in the hallways. I was in one room, he was in another, and I just said to him, “Hey dude, how the guitar tracks going?”, and he goes, “long way to go. No time to get there”. And I immediately went back into the room and I started working on lyrics to a song, which eventually became “Long Way To Go”. So it’s usually the music first.
I find it interesting because there’s some very memorable titles here. Like you said, “1969” was the first one I thought of, and “When I Was Young”, and “New Day”, they’re all very memorable titles as opposed to 12 songs with love in the title. Who else played on this album with you?
On the record, it was mainly me on guitar, Marti on bass and his son, Evan on drums. And then whoever was better at a keyboard part or…we just kind of layered things on top. I was very fortunate to have Charlie Starr from Blackberry Smoke, he played all the lead guitars on the song, “Faith, Hope, and Love”. And then Charlie actually sent me a little phone recording while we were recording, we were doing the actual record and he sent me an idea, which eventually became “That Memory”. So Charlie’s on the record; he’s got his fingerprints on the record. But also Richard Fortus has just called me out of the clear blue. Richard and I had played together on the first Dead Daisies record that I did. He just said, “Hey dude, I saw you’re doing a solo record. If you need any help with the guitars, I’m here for you”. So I sent him a couple tracks thinking he’d pick maybe one song, and he wound up doing all three and he sent them back and it worked. Then I had Paul Taylor, from Winger play some keyboards for me on the record. And it was just, honestly, this is probably the most organic effortless record that I’ve ever done in my life. This is weird. Everything just kind of fell into place.
I’m curious to see what you do next, because obviously following this up would be interesting.
I’m curious as well. I have no idea where I’m going with this.
Obviously it’s been a long time that, like I said, in the beginning, a long time for you, you been around for so long that you finally have a full album, a rock album that’s under your name and that, do you have any plans for playing it live ?
Well, we did three and a half weeks in Europe and the UK and it went over great. I’m going back in April to do maybe five more shows. I’m ending with, Frontiers Records does a music festival every year in Milan, Italy, so I’m going to do that. And then I’m coming back over. Let me see… I play the 3rd there, the 4th I’m on an airplane, and the 5th I start with Tom Kiefer in New Jersey, Tom Kiefer and BuckCherry. We’re doing a bunch of dates together. So, I’m going to have a busy summer it looks like
How much )of the new stuff) do you actually put into the set?
Maybe somewhere between a quarter and half, because we’re doing some Scream stuff. Now it depends because there’s three different versions of this set that I need to put together because I’m doing some headline shows on my own. And then when it’s just me and Tom, I think I’m playing about 40 to 45 minutes. And then when BuckCherry’s on the bill, I’m only doing like 35 minutes. So, depending on where you see me, the set’s going to be a little shorter, longer, whatever. But, when I do a full set, when I do like a 90 minute set there’s a little bit of Scream, some Union, some Motley, some Dead Daisies. And then I focus on about four or five tracks from the new record.
You did do one cover on this album, “Everyday. People”, the Sly And The Family Stone song.
Yes. Love that!
A very interesting choice.
My wife thought so too. She goes, “I have no idea how you’re going to pull this off”. And she couldn’t figure out, she’s like, “I don’t get how you’re going to do this”. But, Marti and I came up with a version and we recorded it and I brought it home and played it forward. She was like, “Holy shit, this is awesome!” So I’m really pleased with it.
You strike me as a guy that. while growing up, you would have had a very diverse record collection.
Absolutely. I still do. Obviously now our records are on our phones and in the cloud, but I’ve got everything from Sabbath to, (like I said earlier) Glenn Campbell, Frank Sinatra… I got some Tony Bennett,. So I run the gamut of music. I just love music and a good song is a good song, a bad song is a bad song. That’s the only categories you need to know about.
The other thing I want to ask you about is the album artwork. I like asking those guys that actually do the album artwork and get their stories. That’s a very interesting, very colorful cover and kind of jumps out.
If you do artwork, you’ll understand this, but I feel like this is a very ’60s, ’70s type record. Originally, I just wanted to find like something like a strong word, or something poetic that I could call the album. Finally I was just sitting here; I’ve got this little area in my back patio and I was sitting here having a whiskey and I’m listening to the record, and the more I listened to the song “New Day”, I liked the message. So I called my manager and I said, “I think I want to call the record ‘New Day'”, and he goes “Awesome!” It’s got a kind of a positive meaning and there’s a line” in the song that says “It’s a new day, just let the sun shine down on you. So I decided on the title and then I went on Google and I just wanted, like, I was looking for, I don’t know if you remember or not, but when I was a kid, I’m older than you, but I just remember seeing like those Hait-Ashbury Concert posters that they used to put on telephone poles. They were really colorful, like bright orange, or the old velvet paintings that they used to do back in the sixties and seventies. So I wanted something colorful, and I wanted to include like a sun image because of the lyrics. So I typed up sun image and the first thing that came up was the sun tarot card. And I’m like, “Oh, that’s kind of cool” Showed it to my wife, “Yeah, that’s kind of cool. It’ll look cool on a t-shirt”. So what I did is I looked up the meaning and the meaning was about rebirth, growth, positivity, just all these things. Okay, I like the meaning. I sent it to a friend of mine and I asked him to manipulate it. So everybody that knows me, knows my lot of people nicknamed me ‘Crabby’, so there’s a couple hidden crabs in the artwork and we squared it off and just made it more for like a CD or vinyl record. But then the other thing that was weird is there’s a Roman numeral on the card and it’s the number 19. I looked it up and the sun card is the 19th card in a deck of tarot cards. And I was like, “Well, that’s kind of weird because this is my 19th record”. So I just kind of manipulated a tarot card. I just loved the meaning of it. It was colorful and we made like some black t-shirts for when we were in Europe and that’s just on the front and it just looks awesome. So it’s colorful. It was very ’60s retro looking and it’s got a great meaning.
I want to ask a bit about the Dead Daisies and update, because obviously I saw that announcement yesterday with Glenn Hughes doing a show. When you left the band, was it on your own, like you had things to do? I look at the Dead Daisies, I’ve got those albums and I think, That’s kind of where you belong; that’s kind of like your home. So I was kind of glad to see when you rejoined. So what is the status right now with you guys?
Well, to be honest with you, like I was told last year that they were taking a year off. So to be quite honest with you, I was just as surprised when I saw the ads for the show as well. So I have no idea what, why they’re doing a show with Glenn. Couldn’t tell you.
I have no idea. I just been kind of focused on my solo career. Like, and, and it, and it, like I said, as far as I was told, they were taking a year off, and then we were going to get back on at things. They had already posted some dates for like March of 2027. So if you’re asking why they’re doing this show, I have no idea. That would be a question for them. I didn’t know about it yesterday. I got up and my phone just started blowing up my, the guys that handle my social media and friends are like, did you leave the Daisies again? And I’m like, “not that I know of”, I couldn’t tell you. So this was a kind of a left field curve ball from everybody.
So it appears to be a one-off show… I was curious. But when you actually left the band, how much of that was merely on your own…
It was my doing, you know, at the end of the day. When I first joined the band in 2015, Marco called me to ask me if I’d be interested in singing with this band that he was working with. And honestly, I was out doing those live ’94 shows. My son was playing drums with me, and we were doing ok, it was fine. So when Marco called and said “hey, do you want to come check this band put?”, I was “No, I’m good.” And he was “well, hear me out, and come and check this thing out.” So, I flew out to LA, and I had a meeting with David Lowy, Richard Fortis, and the manager. Initially it was “we’re going to tour half the year, and then you’ve got the other half of the year to do what you want. Your thing will help our thing, and our thing will help your thing.” And I’m, “yeah, Ok, I could probably do both.” So we went to Cuba, did those shows, and then we did the first record I did with them, which was called Revolucion, and mind you, when I got asked to do The Dead Daisies I didn’t even know who they were. My guitar tech told me “Oh yeah, it’s this band I saw last year. They opened for Kiss or whatever.” So, I just assumed that they’d use me in June and July, in the summer, and then I could go tour with my band in the winter, but when Revolucion came out…I don’t want to say it blew up, but it kind of blew up and started getting gigs. And for the next 3-4 years it became Do a record, go tour for 6,7, 8 months, then come back – do a record, tour for 6, 7, 8 months…. So, I’ve got my son in one ear “Oh great dad, I moved out to Nashville to be in your band, and now I never see you!” And I had a new wife; I’d just gotten married in August of 2014, and in February of 2015 I was in the Daisies. It was like I had to call her and let her know I was coming in so she wouldn’t shoot when I walked in the door.
So I just said to the guys “Look, I really appreciate the offer. I want to take a break; I want to hang out with my family, just kind of do my own thing at my own pace.” And they were like “Ok, cool”. And I was good with them. Even when they were with Glenn, there was a few times Glenn was sick, and with rehearsals I flew up to New York, and I sang whatever set they were doing with Glenn, and helped them run their paces. And then they went on tour with Glenn. So everything was good; I talked to everybody throughout the whole thing, and then Glenn decided to go back and do Black Country Communion or his Deep Purple shows, and David Lowy called and said “Hey, are you rested, are you ready to come back? Because if you’d want to come back, I’d love to have you back.” So I went back. I did the ‘Best of‘ tour with them, and then we did the blues record, and Light Em Up. I was just told we were having a year off this year. I was like “Ok, Awesome! I just got offered my solo deal. I can put out my record and go tour on it. And it won’t interfere with anything the Daisies are doing…. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! (Lol)
I interviewed you years ago, around the time the 2nd Union album came out. I’m curious if you still keep in touch with Bruce (Kulick)?
It’s like we don’t really get to see each other that often because he’s out doing his thing, guitar clinics, and conventions, and I’m doing the Daisies or whatever I’m doing at the time. We still communicate; I mean I’ll text him on his birthday and vice versa. It’s weird, I’m going to do a Kiss convention in April, in Indianapolis, and I know Brent’s going to be there, and Chuck Garric, Eric Singer, a few friends, Paul Stanley…and I was hoping Bruce was going to be there, but I’ve been told Bruce has other comittments. Everybody’s Good in Union. It wasn’t like we fought and broke up. If you followed Union, you know what I’m talking about – we couldn’t get any support from radio, MTV, nobody. So Bruce got offered a better gig with Grand Funk Railroad , and I got offered a better (paying) gig with Ratt. And it just kind of fizzled. But we’re all still good. Like i said, on occasion I’ll talk to Bruce; Jamie still reaches out, he’s been on tour with Roger Daltrey, and Brent’s been out with his band Toque, and Slash & The Conspirators. We’re all still pals; it’s all good.
I saw you guys (Union) just after the second album, you played some bar in Buffalo or Niagara Falls, NY…
If it’s the one I’m thinking of, I will never forget it. It was a small bar, and it was hotter than balls in that place!
Yeah, I think we went out the side door because it was so hot.
Yeah, it was f**king ridiculously hot in that bar. I totally remember that place.
I don’t want to ask about Motley Crue, I’m sure you’re sick of talking about that…
(Thank You)
I do want to ask if there’s any prospect of you doing anything with Mick (Mars) ?
I haven’t talked to Mick because he’s going through a bunch of bullshit with lawsuits and stuff. But Mick and I were texting a month or so ago. I would love to sit down and write with Mick – something. i had an idea of what I thught Mick should do , and he didn’t necessarily agree… I was trying to get Mick to go in more of. almost like Mountain, just a heavy guitar tone, almost like a blues base to it. But Mick wants to do a certain thing, and that’s fine. I’d love to help him out. I love the guy to death. He is truly one of the nicest people in music, period! So, anything he needs from me, I’d be more than happy to help him with.
LINKS:
https://ffm.bio/johncorabi_newday
https://www.frontiers.it/album/6095
Outsider Rock 