John Corabi insists Motley Crue’s 1994 self-titled album would have been a huge success if they’d released it under a different band name.
He says they took bad advice by not following their own instincts. And they compounded the error by making their only release without Vince Neil into a self-titled work.
Corabi tells One On One With Mitch Lafon: “That album would have been massive had it been any other name but Motley.
“The band wanted to change the name. We were thinking of NC for New Crue. We were tossing around names. Nikki Sixx always wanted to call a band Christmas.
“All the people involved with the band – the record company, lawyers, agents, managers – everybody that was getting a commission saw that if Motley changed the name, Motley wasn’t going to be making $300,000 a night. They were going to have to come back down to earth and start probably in theaters for a lot less money.”
He continues: “Everyone saw their commission dwindle, and they were the ones that talked us back into it. ‘You guys are Motley Crue, you can’t do this, you just signed a huge record deal’. They talked us out of it.”
Following 6 million US sales of predecessor Dr Feelgood, 1994’s Motley Crue barely delivered US gold for 500,000 copies, and the blame game began.
Corabi reflects: “What didn’t work was a two-part thing. ‘So what was different? The singer, so it’s obviously his fault – and you shouldn’t have called it Motley Crue.’
“We didn’t want to call it Motley Crue to begin with!”
Corabi – who has been performing his former group’s album in its entirety this past year and is now working with The Dead Daisies. He recently said he understood why his addition to Crue’s lineup was too much for fans to accept. He and Crue guitarist Mick Mars are planning to work together again once the band finishes their final tour at the end of the year.
