It seems like Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee really loved John Corabi’s time as lead vocalist in the heavy metal band.
As per Blabbermouth, in a new interview with Australia’s Riff Crew, Lee was asked about the band’s 1994 self-titled album which featured Corabi as frontman instead of the usual Vince Neil.
The band’s guitarist Mick Mars considers the record to be one of his favourites from their discography and Lee was quick to agree: “The sounds on that record, dude. I still listen back and go, ‘My God! Fuck!’ And it is one of my favorite albums too. I’m with Mick on that one. Fuck, what a great record — really, really great record. The songs, the sound…”
On the topic of whether Mötley Crüe would ever perform the material from that self-titled album live, with Neil on vocals instead, Tommy Lee was unsure. “We’ve tried, trust me. And I get it — it’s hard for somebody to sing [songs] somebody else sang. I get that. It would like, I guess, doing a cover — singing other people’s shit. I don’t know. I get it. That’s a tough one,” he said.
Corabi originally joined the lineup in 1992, replacing Neil who was let go due to personal differences. With their new lead vocalist, Crüe released one critically acclaimed full-length record. When Neil returned in 1997 though, Corabi was left out in the cold. He went on to form the band UNION with ex-KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick.
“A lot of fans said, ‘No way I was buying that record when it came out,'” Corabi once told CantonRep.com about the Mötley Crüe LP. “I think we had kind of a die-hard fan base when it came out, but a lot of the people were angry with MÖTLEY for getting rid of Vince, or Vince leaving or whatever happened.
But a lot of fans, once Vince came back, saw it, picked it up and ended up really enjoying it. It’s still trudging along and selling and doing its thing. The best thing to me is that it still sounds as relevant now as it did when it came out.”
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Back in early 2018, Corabi released a live album of his performance of the entire 1994 self-titled album. Live ’94: One Night In Nashville documented the full album alongside the bonus track ‘10,000 miles’, which was originally released as a bonus track on the Japanese version of the Quaternary EP.
Check out Tommy Lee’s interview with Riff Crew:
