In a recent interview with Sofa King Cool Magazine, John Corabi, former frontman of MÖTLEY CRÜE, discussed the ongoing public disputes between founding guitarist Mick Mars and his bandmates.
Corabi, who joined the band in 1992 as a replacement for Vince Neil, was asked if he found the situation surprising. In response, Corabi stated that he was not surprised at all. In a previous statement made last fall, Corabi expressed doubts about MÖTLEY CRÜE’s explanation for Mars’s departure. However, he made it clear that he did not want to involve himself in Mars or MÖTLEY CRÜE’s affairs, as it was not his place to do so. During his time in Europe, where he performed acoustic shows and had a book signing event in London, a fan asked him about the press release regarding Mars’s absence from the tour. Corabi simply stated that the statement was prepared by MÖTLEY CRÜE and their management, emphasizing that he had not heard anything directly from Mars. He maintained that he would withhold his opinion until Mars addressed the matter personally, but he did express some disagreement with the information he had heard.
Here’s what Corabi said (via Blabbermouth):
“I caught a lot of flak of this. And to be honest, I don’t really wanna get into Mick‘s business or MÖTLEY‘s business; it’s not my place. I don’t know why. I caught some flak for this when I was in Europe. I was over there in November and December doing some acoustic shows, and I did a book signing in London — it was like a Q&A book-singing thing — and a fan asked me about the press release that had just come out about Mick not touring with them on the rest of this tour. And all I said was, ‘That’s a statement that’s been prepared by MÖTLEY and their management. I haven’t heard anything from Mick. And until Mick speaks, I have nothing to say about this. But I’m not necessarily agreeing with what I’m hearing.'”
When Corabi was asked about whether he has seen the new version of Motley Crue live, he said:
“I’ve seen a few videos… Honestly, dude, and I don’t mean this as a slight or disrespect or anything to MÖTLEY, I don’t care. I really don’t. Right now, we had three years of COVID. I’m happy everybody’s back to work. I’m happy MÖTLEY‘s back out on the road. I know their tour with DEF LEPPARD here in the States was highly successful. I wish them nothing but the best. I wish Mick the best. But that’s between them, man.”
Corabi continued, saying:
“It’s hilarious. I’ve been out of [MÖTLEY CRÜE] for, like, f*ck, 25 years. And it’s crazy. I get asked these questions, and you know, obviously, if you’re online at all, one of those websites will take a sentence that I say and just cut that out and run with that story for a week or two. But it’s hilarious to me. All the comments… The fans get on there and they just sit there and they go, ‘Man, doesn’t that guy have anything better to talk about? He’s still talking about MÖTLEY. He’s still talking about MÖTLEY.’ Well, it’s, like, I didn’t bring it up. [Laughs] Somebody else did. And truthfully, I’m just happy to be back to work myself. I’ve got a tour with Tom Keifer and WINGER coming up, and then I’m back with THE DAISIES. And I’m just looking forward to getting my feet wet with THE DAISIES again and getting back out and just having fun and playing some f*cking music. So, as far as the MÖTLEY stuff goes, I don’t wanna be rude or anything, but it’s, like, I really don’t think about them. I don’t care. I could give a sh*t less what’s going on in MÖTLEY CRÜE world. I could care less.”
Corabi concluded by saying that, in his view, the ongoing disputes were inevitable and unfortunate. He humorously added, “c’est la vie,” meaning “that’s life” in French.