Joe Perry Was ‘Not Happy’ With John Corabi After First Meeting
Former Motley Crue singer John Corabi says Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry was "not happy" with him upon their first meeting.
Speaking during a solo acoustic show on Dec. 3 at the Backyard in Waco, Texas, Corabi said he barged in on Perry at Vancouver's Little Mountain Sound Studios, interrupting the guitarist as he was laying down a solo. Turns out, it was all part of a prank played by his then-new Motley Crue bandmates.
Corabi had gathered with Motley Crue at the Canadian studio in 1993 to work on their self-titled album, after replacing for original lead singer Vince Neil. Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx wasted no time initiating the self-described "freakish Aerosmith fan."
They convinced Corabi that an up-and-coming band was recording in the studio next door, and that they'd be honored to meet the new lead singer of Motley Crue. "You're right," Corabi remembers saying in a fan-filmed video from the Texas show. "Let's go over. Young kids, they're probably going to be stoked to meet us."
Corabi said Lee and Sixx let him enter first, which should have been his "first clue." He kicked open the studio door only to discover "a guy sitting right in front of me on a chair, with a guitar. And he turns around, and he looks at me," Corabi says. "It is fucking Joe Perry from Aerosmith, and he's not happy. I just interrupted him doing a guitar solo for one of their new songs on the Get A Grip record."
It was also during this encounter that Lee suggested Corabi quit being a "fanboy" and treat Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler like a peer and not an idol, since Motley Crue and Aerosmith were on the same level. Corabi replied, "Fuck you. That's Steven Tyler."
After telling the story, Corabi performed Aerosmith's "Seasons Of Wither."
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