John Corabi Says His Motley Crue Album ‘Would Have Been Massive’ Under a Different Band Name
If Mötley Crüe had adopted a new band name after John Corabi took over for Vince Neil, would things have turned out differently?
During a recent appearance on One on One With Mitch Lafon (which you can listen to below), Corabi says the members of the band knew they were asking for trouble by keeping the Crüe name after Neil left — particularly given the new sound they acquired when Corabi stepped in. In fact, they might have started over completely, if not for the advice they received from their business managers.
"We were thinking of NC, for New Crüe," says Corabi. "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 Mötley changed the name, Mötley 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."
Money talks, as we all know, and after a few meetings with panicked advisors, the group was talked out of making a bold move. "Everyone saw their commission dwindle, and they were the ones that talked us back into it," Corabi recalls. "'You guys are Mötley Crüe, you can’t do this, you just signed a huge record deal.' They talked us out of it."
In the end, the band's sole album with Corabi at the helm didn't sell as well as expected, and fans were divided over the new lineup — a reaction he sums up by saying, "'So what was different? The singer, so it’s obviously his fault – and you shouldn’t have called it Mötley Crüe,' We didn't want to call it Mötley Crüe to begin with!"
While it may not have sold as well as the label or the band members would have liked, 1994's Mötley Crüe record has become something of a cult favorite today, and Corabi's certain fans would have come around far sooner if they'd only gone with their gut instinct. "That album would have been massive," he argues, "had it been any other name but Mötley."
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