John Corabi has been knocking around this musical cosmos for the best part of 40 years now. Yet despite being the man who replaced Vince Neil in Mötley Crüe, he can still roam the streets with relative anonymity. That might take a slight shift in gear with the release of his first full-length album, New Day.
John Corabi – New Day
Release Date: 24 April 2026
Words: Brian Boyle
Corabi’s CV is bloody impressive. He currently pays the bills with rock’s favourite recruitment agency, The Dead Daisies. But he oiled up his rock ‘n’ roll piston long before that with Angora, Union, The Scream and of course saving the bacon of Messrs Sixx, Lee and Mars.
But as you will hear straight off the bat on the rapturous title track, he does not take the all-guns-blazing, crotch-grabbing route. An authentic concoction of blues, soul and classic ’70s American rock performed with a genuine personal feel makes up this album’s DNA.
Having renowned producer/multi-instrumentalist and good friend Marti Frederiksen on board does not do any harm. Corabi’s relaxed flow on That Memory and the soul-loaded Faith, Hope And Love are evidence that the whip was not cracked in the studio to satisfy a pasty-faced executive with a deadline.
There is a contented air in Corabi’s voice, and Frederiksen must take some of the credit for that.
While a song with Springsteen/Mellencamp traits like When I Was Young has been done a thousand times before, hearing Corabi getting lost in the nostalgic lyrics makes it a more relatable listen.
His penchant for dirty rock ‘n’ roll is never far away. One More Shot and 1969 are retro in every sense of the word, but are not the work of a man yearning for those times. That said, they exude the quality of the finest classic rock gold.
With the album recorded in Nashville, it is no surprise that Laurel, Good To Be Back Here Again and Love That’ll Never Be have a subtle and mood-setting country aura about them.
The last Dead Daisies album was recorded in Nashville too, but as Light It Up stressed out the amplifiers with hard-hitting mega-rock, surrendering tracks like Cosi Bella and Everyday People are genuine green shoots of their surroundings.
Despite being synonymous with the rock and Metal genre, there is plenty of evidence here to suggest this direction may be his true calling. He sounds comfortable in his own skin, just letting his inspiration shoot the breeze.
The fact that he and his band slummed it around Europe like the Scooby-Doo gang in various snug-fitting vans shows the belief Corabi has in these songs.
New Day is undoubtedly a record that is a labour of love, and if these tunes strike a chord with you on an emotional level, then John Corabi has done his job.
John Corabi releases New Day on 24 April 2026 via Frontiers Music s.r.l. The album is available from ffm.bio/johncorabi_newday.
