Jagerbombs With The Crab:

John Corabi (Crab, Crabby), was born in Philadelphia, moved to Los Angeles and has been playing music for decades. He’s played in several bands including: Angora, The Scream, Motley Crue, The Vagabonds, Union (Bruce Kulick), E.S.P.(Bruce Kulick, Eric Singer), Brides Of Destruction (Nikki Sixx, Tracii Guns), Zen Lunatic, Twenty 4 Seven (Bobby Blotzer, Robert Marcello), Angel City Outlaws and now a hired gun for Ratt. He has also contributed to a large number of “Tribute” cd projects. After Ratt’s show at Shakers in Cambridge, Ohio, John hung out, did some shots and talked to Rhythm, Art & Groove.

Discography
Let It Scream (1991) Motley Crue (1994) Union (1998)	ESP (1998) Union- Live In The Galaxy (1999) Union - The Blue Room (2000)
Various Tribute Projects:
Aerosmith, Guns n’ Roses, Journey, Led Zepplin, Bon Jovi, Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick, Judas Priest, Van Halen, Rod Stewart, Scorpions, Def Leppard and AC/DC

 

Rhythm, Art & Groove - John, who were some of your major influences?

John Corabi- Absolutely the Beatles first! Then, probably Led Zepplin and Aerosmith. Lot of the” British Blues “stuff. Humble Pie and Free.

RAG- Define your style of music.

JC- For me, the stuff I write personally is like “No Frills”, heavy influence…just “shit with teeth”. I like a lot of new stuff like Soundgarden, Sevendust, Disturbed, and Drowning Pool. I’m getting ready to do a solo record and putting a new band together and I’m hoping it’ll have the influences I grew up with listening to, but something with alittle more” bite.”

RAG- Were there any differences going from your already established band The Scream into Motley Crue?

JC- Well, I started flying first class. That’s for sure! (laughing) It was pretty easy actually. The guys (Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars) were really open and totally into my suggestions and input. That record, we just kinda went where we wanted to go. No thought. Not forcing anything. So it was very easy.

RAG- Was there any input from the record label at all?

JC- None, none at all. We had a point of keeping the record label out of the loop completely. That just allowed us to do what we wanted to do. We gave them the finished product and fortunately, they liked it.

RAG- It rocked!

JC- Thank you.

RAG- Lots of people don’t know the story behind how you met Nikki Sixx.

JC- It was weird. Nikki did an interview in Spin or Rolling Stone and like you they asked him “What are you listening to?” He said,” I really dig this band out in L.A. called The Scream.” We (The Scream) were out on tour and I read the interview while I was on the road. When I got back to L.A., I called him up to thank him for the plug and it just happened to be about 2 days after Vince (Neil) left. So I had just called and left a message and about 5 minutes later, the phone rings. It was Nikki going “Hey dude, we want ya to come down here?” Apparently, they had been trying to get ahold of me and they couldn’t find me. They (Motley Crue) really didn’t want to go through proper ”channels”, because of contracts and shit like that, and I had just happened to call. I was in the right place at the right time.

RAG- In the Motley Crue book “The Dirt,” you talk about going out the door to do a show, shutting the door, the phone rings and you decide to go about getting ready to walk back in and pick it up.

JC- Apparently when I called their (Motley Crue) management office, I was on line two and Nikki was on line one going “I wish we could get ahold of the guy from The Scream”. I just happened to call and they took my number. We both hung up and Nikki called me immediately as I was walking out the door.

RAG- What was it like out on tour with Motley Crue?

JC-It was great! It was unbelievable! I had such a fucking great time. I was just at Tommy’s (Lee) house maybe a couple of weeks before we started this tour. We were reminiscing about a bunch of shit. Laughing our asses off. He’s doin a book and I’m doin a book too. It was really fuckin’ cool. We were sittin around, having a couple of “Jagers “and beer and we were just talking about all this shit.

RAG- There had to be a lot of tension towards the end in Motley Crue. Kind of like you were being pushed out, with Vince coming back. It’s cool that you’re still friends.

JC- Oh yeah. We’re totally friends. I actually had a band for awhile with Nikki called Brides Of Destruction. That was cool. It was really good, but unfortunately I didn’t feel that I was being used to my full potential as far as writing. So I just kinda bailed. They’re gonna do their own thing and I’m on the record singing back up vocals and guitars. I still talk to Tommy. I’m trying to weasel that fucker into playin’ drums in my new solo band, so we’ll see what happens.

RAG- After Motley, you were in a band called “Union” with Bruce Kulick (former KISS guitarist)

JC- Yes

RAG- How did that come to be?

JC- I knew Bruce through Nikki actually. He was goin’ through that thing with KISS…what I was goin’ through in Motley…at almost the exact same time. Nikki told me to call him and told him to call me. We just wound up talking, got together and just wrote a couple of songs to see how it would go. It was really easy. We had a really good run…but unfortunately, alot of radio stations and MTV didn’t really get into what we were doin’. So, we didn’t “knock it on the head”…we didn’t quit…we’re just kinda takin’ a little break for a little while. You know what I mean…see what happens?

RAG- How was that different than being in Motley Crue?

JC- It’s starting over again. Motley was an established name and Union was a brand new band. It was getting down in the trenches again and starting from the very beginning. It was cool. I really dug it. I had a great time. I actually talked to Bruce, to see how he’s been doin’. (Bruce Kulick, an innocent bystander, was shot outside of a club in L.A. during a drive-by shooting). We sat and talked about doin’ some writing and stuff.

RAG- How is he doing?

JC- He’s alright. He’s very lucky.

RAG- The “wrong place at the wrong time”.

JC- Yes. Unlike me and the Motley thing, “right place, right time”.

RAG- Any future plans for you and Bruce?

JC- Yeah, we might get together and do some stuff. We’ll see what happens?

RAG- You’ve played on a lot of “Tribute” albums. How did that come about?

JC- Basically, they call me up and ask. Then I ask, “What do you want me to play?”

RAG- Is there anything that you want to tell your friends or fans?

JC- Well, yeah…actually. This year I have an autobiography coming out. I’m doin a “Blues” record with some of the former members of Guns ‘n Roses, Gilby Clark, Teddy Zig Zag, and a couple of guys from Slash’s Snakepit. I’m also putting a new band together. It’s gonna be heavier and louder and more fucking kick-ass than anything I’ve ever done! So stay tuned…

 

TROY- I would like to thank Roy Kelley for all of his effort and help. (Roy is the guitar tech for the band and for several other bands. John Corabi saved his life one night, when Roy was stabbed while he and John were out on the town).