THE DEAD DAISIES HIT AUSTRALIA IN DECEMBER for a whirlwind tour which received a huge response from the crowds that packed each of their shows across the Country, it was a great ‘welcome home’ after a whirlwind eighteen months where they shared stages all over the world with the likes of Def Leppard, Bad Company, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kiss and played to the younger crowds at the Rockstar Uproar Festival in the US.
The next we heard the band was in Cuba, not fronted by Jon Stevens who we had seen in December, but by old friend of The Rockpit – John Corabi currently in Sydney recording vocals for what will be the DEAD DAISIES second album. It was too good an opportunity to miss to catch up with John and find out about both DEAD DAISIES and what will have been an intensely busy two years since we last interviewed him.
Mark: Hi, John thanks for taking the time to talk to us again. The last time we spoke was a couple of years ago, and you’d just released your solo album, and it seems like a lot’s been happening for you in those couple of years!
John: Yeah, I’ve been quite busy actually! I did an acoustic record and I’ve been pretty much touring constantly. I’ve been to Europe several times, Russia, South America, and all over the United States, so it’s been very cool. Then about six months ago, I started with my full band in America, doing the Motley record in its entirety, I was getting ready to go in and start recording an album, and my manager suggested putting that thing together, just going out, because Motley are doing their farewell tour, and he suggested me going out and doing that material because it was the twentieth anniversary, and Motley aren’t going to play any of that material from the record, so that’s been going insane! Then, obviously, about a month and a half ago, I got a call from The Dead Daisies, so, I’ve been a very busy boy!
Mark: I was going to ask you how that came about, I watched the band here in Australia, in December, and they were sensational live, with a great line up. So, how did you get involved? The first thing we saw was that you were singing with the guys in Cuba, and I suppose we all assumed down here, that it was a temporary fill in thing!
John: Well you know what, after my stint with Motley, it made me!! You never know!! All I know is that I was hanging around in Nashville; I live in Nashville, Tennessee, and I’d just got back from a run of shows with my band, and the phone rang, I was actually bringing groceries home for my wife at the time! My phone said Marco Mendoza, and I hadn’t spoken to him in a few years, so I picked up the phone and he talked to me about doing this gig, and as far as any of the prior history of the band, I don’t really know what’s going on between the guys and Jon, but I’m here, I did the Cuba thing, and they asked me to come to Australia, and help them write and record a record, and that’s what I’m doing. Basically I’m a singer, I don’t know anything, people just tell me to go places and I do whatever they tell me to do!! Because most singers are brainless, brainless human beings anyway!!
Mark: I think you’re being a bit disingenious there! You’re a great guitarist as well, as we all know, with your time with Ratt and bands like that!! It’s interesting that you are in the process of recording a new album, because that’s one of the things we spoke about, the last time we spoke to you, so did that album get you fired up again for writing new material?
John: Well, honestly, I just wanted to do an acoustic record, do something different. I don’t normally do things that are, I guess, the “norm”. I just wanted to do an acoustic record so that I could just basically set myself up to do whatever I wanted to do. I’m very excited about a lot of the ideas that I have, some are for my solo record, and some are for the Daisy guys. Right now my focus is on, I’m here in Australia for a month, I’ve been here since March 12 until April 12, and my focus is right now making this record sound as awesome as possible! After that, I’ll eventually get started on, I have some songs recorded, but then I’ll get started on finishing my solo record as well.
.jpg)
Mark: That’ll be wonderful, The Rockpit actually get to see you a couple of times this year, as we are covering the Monsters of Rock Cruise as part of our usual US Festival coverage this year.
John: It’s funny, I get home from this, April 12, and then April 16 I head down to Florida for the Monsters of Rock Cruise! Then I’m only home for a few weeks, and then I have two runs of gigs, I just do weekend stuff with my band. I then pack up and fly to LA and start rehearsing with the Daisy guys for our run of shows that we’re doing with Kiss in Europe.
Mark: That is the big news; you’ve got the European gigs starting June 2 in Hamburg, running through to Madrid on the 22 June, and then later in the year you’re coming to see us first for the Australian tour with a date at Perth Arena on October 3, and finishing up in Brisbane on the 13th. It’s a busy time! Just quick questions about the cruise, what material are you going to be playing there? Are you doing the Motley show, or a mixture of material?
John: I believe I’m playing three times on the boat, I’m doing an acoustic set, I’ll have to look at my schedule, I don’t know! Then I’m doing a set of everything encompassing my past, Motley, Scream, Union, solo stuff, and then we are doing the entire Motley record in its entirety, one show on the boat as well.
Mark: Any Angora stuff in there?
John: No, the Angora stuff is just funny, you know, there’s a lot of that stuff, and I go back and listen to it. One of the songs on the acoustic record is an Angora song, called “Are You Waiting?” which we reworked for the record but, obviously I was very young, and I was trying to make my name in the business, I go back and listen to it and there are some elements to it that are really great, but then I listen to the lyrics that I wrote, when I was 19 years old or whatever, and I sit there going, “God, what was I thinking?!!” “These are stupid!!” There are a couple of songs I’d like to pull out every so often, but I’ll just leave it for what it was!!
.jpg)
Mark: I’ll be waiting!! Just in case!! You posted some wonderful video footage on your Facebook page, of The Scream, which was the first time I saw you, at The Astoria in London.
John: To be honest with you, I had never seen it before! It was funny, as March 12 I arrived here in Sydney, and I had literally just checked in to the hotel, my flight was delayed, I was a day behind the rest of the band, so I just got here, threw my stuff in the room, and the manager, David Edwards, asked me to be ready to go to the studio an hour later. So, I went downstairs, and I was standing out front, and this guy just walked by, and we made eye contact just for a second, and he was wearing a Motley hat. So, he walked by me, and I could tell he was staring for a minute, and he kept walking, then stopped and said “Are you John Corabi?”, and I said yeah, so we took a photo and stuff, and apparently he wrote in to the Australian Motley Crue fan page, and he posted the photo. Then they got in touch with me via Facebook, they had a John Corabi week going on, and they posted that video! I thought oh my god, I have never seen any of this footage that was the only show that The Scream did, excluding Canada, outside of America! I thought it was awesome, and I wished we had the whole show, so I posted it, as it kind of threw me back to the past for a few minutes, and I thought everyone else would get a kick out of it.
Mark: Yeah, I never knew it existed, but, it was great to watch it up there! One of my final questions, is what does John Corabi bring to The Dead Daisies?
John: Absolutely nothing!! I make a great cup of coffee!! I don’t bring anything to The Dead Daisies at all, when the guys need coffee I’m their bitch, I can bring a cup of coffee!!!
Mark: That sounds, err, useful!!
John: To some degree!
Mark: You’ve obviously got a whole heap of other stuff going on as well; it sounds like it’s going to be a good year for you?
John: Well, from your mouth to Gods’ ears, hopefully it’ll be a great year, but I know from this point it’s going to be a very busy year, and for people with my personality, it’s definitely better to keep us busy than with idle time!!
Mark: It’s been great to speak to you again, great to see you in the country and definitely can’t wait for the new Dead daisies album, and hopefully we’ll get a chance to meet up on the Monsters of Rock Cruise. Take care.
John: Alright, buddy, I hope so, you too. Bye.
THE DEAD DAISIES 2015 TOUR DATES
EUROPEAN TOUR DATES
Tue, June 2 02 Arena (Hamburg, Germany)
Wed, June 3 02 Arena (Berlin, Germany)
Thur, June 4 Leipzig Arena (Leipzig Germany)
Sat, June 6 Rock In Vienna Festival (Vienna, Austria)
Mon, June 8 Prague 02 Arena (Prague Czech Republic)
Wed, June 10 Zurich Hallenstadion (Zurich, Switzerland)
Thur, June 11 Verona Arena (Verona, Italy)
Sun, June 14 Download Festival (Derby, UK)
Tue, June 16 Le Zenith (Paris, France)
Thur, June 18 Ziggo Dome (Amsterdam Holland)
Fri, June 19 Graspop Festival (Graspop, Belgium)
Sun, June 21 Barcelona Palau San Jordi (Barcelona, Spain)
Mon, June 22 Barclaycard Arena (Madrid, Spain)
AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
Saturday October 3 PERTH Arena
Tuesday October 6 ADELAIDE Entertainment Centre
Thursday October 8 MELBOURNE Rod Laver Arena
Saturday October 10 SYDNEY AllPhones Arena
Monday October 12 NEWCASTLE Entertainment Centre
Tuesday October 13 BRISBANE Entertainment Centre
Tickets on sale – Thursday March 26 at 2.00pm from www.ticketek.com.au & 132 849
