A lot of people assumed I faded off into the sunset.
John Corabi
One door shuts, and another one opens, and you just kind of follow that path. My path has been a little curvy, but it is what it is. It's all good.
Probably about 90 percent of the things that you read that supposedly came out of my mouth in regards to the Motley guys, usually most of it is incorrect. At the end of the day, I have no ill will.
Motley never once sat down and said, 'Well, the music scene's changing. We need to make this record a little darker or heavier musically or lyrically.' It was just four guys sitting in a room like a bunch of 16-year-olds in a garage and jamming on riffs.
I don't know what he wants to do musically, but at the end of the day, I love Mick Mars - he's one of the sweetest human beings you'll ever meet in your life - and anything I can do to help him with his solo record, I would be more than happy to do.
We did wanna change the name. We were actually putting names in a hat. It was the people making an income off Motley Crue that talked us out of it. The booking agent was getting them between a half a million and a million dollars a show as Motley Crue. Then there was the manager who got 10 to 15 percent off Motley Crue.
Bands like - even Kiss to a degree - bands like Kiss and Motley, Ratt, Poison, Bon Jovi - I just think the days of those bands going out and selling ten or twelve, fifteen million records like they used to do back in the day, it's not happening.
It's weird, for me as a fan, to have a fan tell me that I'm their favorite singer. It's still a little awkward for me. I love to hear it, but I don't know how to respond to it. It's a very awkward thing to interpret what somebody else sees in me.
With technology being the way that it is right now with Pro Tools and all that other stuff, more and more people are recording stuff at home and just utilizing Youtube and Facebook.
I'm a huge Aerosmith fan.
It doesn't bother me when someone is totally unaware of anything I've ever been in or done and says, 'Hey, man, I really like your music. I've never heard of you.' That doesn't bother me at all.
When I started doing the acoustic shows, people would be yelling for 'Hooligan's Holiday' and 'Smoke The Sky,' and I had no idea of how to pull them off.
You see a documentary, you want to see it on Aerosmith or Jon Bon Jovi or Kiss, a band that's been established and sold millions of records and done something notable.
People laugh at my analogy in most cases - I go, 'Yeah, everything looks awesome on paper until you stick six guys in a submarine and go, 'Okay, go out and conquer America.''
I love giving you my opinion, but I don't like taking sides.
Motley is a great band; they're a legendary band. They're probably going to go into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame at some point.
Nothing irritates me more than going to see an artist and paying all this money and then have them rant about very specific political opinions.
When fans come to me, and they say, 'You're my favorite singer in rock music,' and I go, 'What about Steven Tyler?' 'No, I like you better.' 'What about Robert Plant?' 'I like you better.' That's kind of weird to me, because I'm like, 'No, dude - Steven Tyler and Robert Plant are gods.'
Bands have good nights, and they have bad nights. I'm not going to cover up anything or pretend. For me, personally, that's just my thought process.
I have nothing against Vince Neil at all.
My mother raised me to open the car door, open the door; if you take a woman out, you should pick up the check, and blah blah blah - whatever.
I want to show people that I'm not just that guy who can get out there and scream 'Hooligan's Holiday' and 'Smoke The Sky.'
I think we had kind of a die-hard fan base when it came out, but a lot of the people were angry with Motley for getting rid of Vince, or Vince leaving or whatever happened.
I have, at times, not been totally on the same page as some of my previous partners in crime.
I have fans that write to me and say, 'Why do you have those blonde streaks in the front of your hair?' And I'm like, 'It's not blonde. It's grey.'
If you don't like what you're doing, get out.
You've got to adapt - or get out.
Doug Aldrich and I grew up in Philadelphia together, and Doug used to come and see a cover band that I was in. He was, like, 15 or 16, and I was, like, 18, 19.
Unfortunately, the record I did with Motley wasn't exactly a huge success. But working with those guys was a huge learning experience as well as a really creative time, so I had an absolute blast during that five years of my life!
From a vocal standpoint, Glenn Hughes is just a god.
I only ever did one hotel room because at the end of the tour, I had a little less money than the rest of the guys, and the tour manager said, 'You remember that hotel room you destroyed in Iowa? Well, we had to pay for it.' And I was like, 'Ooooh. That's how it works.'
The thing I wasn't prepared for was when I wasn't in Motley Crue anymore. 'Cause as much as my phone was ringing, it stopped ringing.
Even Nikki with Sixx:A.M., I wish you the best of luck.
I've had Motley fans come up to me and talk to me about Motley. I've had other fans talk to me about all the backing vocals and the tapes. I just ask them, 'At the end of the day, did you have a good time?' That's it.
To be quite honest with you, a lot of people don't realize that Nikki Sixx and I did Brides of Destruction after the lawsuit.
The bands that do well don't get caught up in fads; they are just true to themselves.
I think the one that resonates the most with a lot of people is from The Scream album - 'Father, Mother, Son.'
I don't think anybody should be subject to any sort of harassment in any way, shape, or form.
I love trying new things and experimenting with instruments and sounds.
I had a few friends that were with me before I was in Motley that were there after I was in Motley, and it wasn't that many.
I think the thing with 'Rise Up,' something that really does bug me, is that America has become very divided.
Looking at it half-full, there was only two singers in Motley, me and Vince, and I'm still here, 25 years later. And whether I like it or not, I'm the other singer for Motley Crue, and not to sound weird, but I've gotten a lot of extra mileage, I think, out of my career because of it, so I have nothing but positive things to say.
When I was in The Scream, I thought I'd be around for 30 years playing with The Scream guys. Who knew I was gonna get a call from Motley?
Unlike a lot of my cohorts from the '80s and '90s who totally blamed the shortness of their careers on bands like Nirvana and Alice in Chains and Soundgarden and whatever, I was very into a lot of those bands.
I have a beautiful wife, I have two great kids, my career's still going, I've got my health. What can I ask for?
Everybody that I've ever played with is awesome, and I've learned from all of them, so it's all good.
There's just some things you can't change.
Everything happens for a reason. Like, I kind of hear people go, 'Man, you've been in a lot of bands.' Yes, I have. I've also been married several times, too, and every time I get into something, I think, 'This is the one.' I think that's just human nature.
I love bands like Queen, Zeppelin, The Beatles.
I'm a huge Glenn Hughes fan.
