2023 marks the ten-year anniversary of the self-titled debut album by The Dead Daisies, and the group is celebrating in a big way! Not only will they be releasing a double CD / double vinyl Best Of set on August 18, singer / songwriter John Corabi (The Scream, Mötley Crüe, Union), who was the vocalist from 2015 – 2019 is back in the band. In an unexpected, yet entirely welcome turn of events, Corabi replaced his replacement, Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Black Country Communion), who stood front and center for The Dead Daisies from 2019 – 2023.

“You know what dude, honestly, it was weird. I left, and I just needed a breather,” begins Corabi. “The last couple tours that we did, it was just crazy! I don’t know how to word this without sounding arrogant… once I did that first record with The Daisies (Revolución, released in 2015), it just kind of blew up. It went from… just prior to me they had been doing large clubs, they had done some festivals. But it was consistent festivals, huge shows, trips to Europe, Japan, Australia, Israel, South America. It was just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. It was really kind of overwhelming. Then to boot, I had my son in my other ear going, ‘Dad, you suck. I thought we were going to do some fucking shows with the solo band.’ I just got off the carousel for a second. Then Covid hit, and it really… if I can be blunt, I was literally sitting here going, what do I do? There’s zero work. There’s nothing going on. And The Daisies, somehow, managed to keep moving forward.”

“They got Glenn, they went into the studio. They were very cautious about everything. A couple months ago they said, ‘Hey dude, Glenn’s going out to do his solo tour. You want to come back out and do some shows with us?’ I said, ‘Yeah man, that’d be great!’ I love the band. I always thought that the band was great. We really did some great music together. I just personally needed a little bit of a breather, and then I was going to try and go out and do some shows, like I said, with my son and my solo band. And that whole thing just didn’t materialize due to Covid. It was like three years, just sitting home. I did make due of my time; I wrote the book (Horseshoes And Hand Grenades). I took Pro Tools classes to learn how to use Pro Tools. I’m still very caveman about it, but I was productive. It was still like, fuck, man, I just want to go out and play music. They called, they said, ‘Hey dude, we’d love to have you back and do shows and stuff.’ I said, ‘Alright, let’s talk. Let’s work this out.’”

Going from one extreme to the other, The Dead Daisies currently have 39 shows booked this year. There’s North America in August and September. Japan in October and November, followed by Europe in November and December. This is not treading lightly. “Yeah, but it’s one of those things where, I think when you’re in a situation – with anything, whether it’s a marriage, a band, whatever. I was just telling Doug (Aldrich, guitarist) this a few weeks ago while we were at rehearsal. I said, ‘You know, it’s funny. I think everybody had to get away from each other to appreciate what we had. We had a very cool, party atmosphere when we did our shows. But the other thing, like I said, the schedule was so crazy! I needed to step off, as a singer, and just give myself a little rest. And I think The Dead Daisies, after working with Glenn, kind of figured out, we can be busy, without being crazy busy. So, if you look at the schedule, even now this year, it’s two or three shows in a row, and then a day off. Even (guitarist and founding member) David Lowy, when I sat down and had dinner with him, we talked about all this stuff. He even said, ‘Dude, those tour schedules that we did, when we were with you, was like insanity.’ He’s like, ‘I want to tour and be busy, but I don’t want to do it at that pace.’ So, I think we’ve all kind of grown up a little bit and figured it out.”

There’s a new addition to The Dead Daisies in 2023 in the form of bassist Michael Devin. Michael is close with both guitarist Doug Aldrich and drummer Brian Tichy, as they play together in a covers band called Steamroller. Furthermore, all three of them were in Whitesnake. Just an extended family sort of thing, bring Michael in to replace Glenn on bass. “Yeah, well, to be honest with you… it’s kind of a little weird curve ball,” explains Corabi. “I’ve known Michael since 1999 / 2000. Prior to all of his experiences, he had a band called Ball with Brian Tichy for a minute. He played with Sass Jordan, obviously Whitesnake for a gazillion years. Prior to that, Michael and I knew each other in an odd set of circumstances – he used to date my ex-wife. I met Michael, and I thought he was a really cool guy. He was kind of looking for work, so Robbie Crane and I hired Michael to be my guitar tech and bass tech for one of the last Ratt tours that I did. So, I’ve known Michael forever. Obviously, there’s some kind of dark humor between the two of us, but it’s all good. He’s a great dude! He sings his ass off, plays his ass off. Michael and I go way back. There was definitely some commiserating. He would come to my house to talk about, not with my ex-wife, but different girls that he was dating. I was going through a second divorce; he was there through that whole thing. We know each other very, very well.”

As a backing vocalist, Michael Devin will absolutely compliment John Corabi. The two voices together are going to work really well on stage. “Yeah, Michael and I, we’ve kind of worked some things out. Even just for fun, we may even trade off on some stuff, back and forth. It’s going to be cool, man. It’s going to be fun. We had a solid week of rehearsal. We still got a lot of rust to shake off. We’re going to rehearse again for a week before the tour. It’s coming together nicely, everything sounded killer. I’m excited to get back out and say hello to all the crazies that I haven’t seen for a while.”

The Dead Daisies released a pair of YouTube videos from those rehearsal sessions in New York City. It looked like everybody was having a lot of fun. The band blew the dust off some old tunes and introduced Michael to the material, but were any new songs written? “No. I mean, I’ve got a bunch of stuff. Right now, I’m trying to get my Pro Tools unit up and running. I had some stuff in storage for a minute. But I have a bunch of ideas that I want to send to those guys. I know Doug said he had some stuff; Michael’s got some stuff. Writing the record’s not going to be an issue. Right now, though, the main concern is getting this Best Of record, which is available for pre-sale now, just kind of focus on that, and really, honestly, just get back in the room and feel each other out again. It’ll be fine, the music will come. Right now, like I said, we just need to get in the room; I haven’t played with those guys in three or four years. We’re just having fun. It was really light-hearted; we were busting each other’s balls. Just doing that east coast sense of humor. My wife calls it ‘The Wahlberg Sense Of Humor.’ We’re probably about 60% there, sound-wise. We’ve got some more rust to shake off, and we’ll do that again coming up soon. Then just tighten this thing up and get it ready; get it tour-worthy.”

Adding extra appeal to the Best Of collection are two unreleased tracks – “The Healer” and “Let It Set You Free” – both are Glenn Hughes songs. “Yes,” confirms Corabi. “When I go on stage, I’m going to be singing a couple Jon Stevens songs, and I’ll be singing three or four of Glenn’s tunes, plus my own stuff that I wrote with the band. So, they sent me a link for it, and I was listening to those last two songs. I’m like, ‘Man, these are great!’ It’s going to be a good record. It’s awesome! It’s just a little taste of all versions of the band. It spans the whole ten years, and I think it’s going to be cool. Like I said, the two Glenn songs, the unreleased ones, they’re fucking bad ass! He’s a beast.”

Did it surprise you that Glenn Hughes left The Dead Daisies? “Um, yes and no. Glenn’s like… if you look at him historically, he’s always got his fingers in something. Black Country Communion, I saw a post about them doing some stuff. I don’t think there was any weirdness or bad blood between anybody. I think he just kind of wanted to go back to doing his… I guess it’s the 50th anniversary of the Burn album (by Deep Purple). So, he wanted to go do that. I think he’s got some stuff lined up with Joe Bonamassa. You know… whatever. It is what it is. I love Glenn. I’ve known Glenn since 1992. I met him with Mötley; he sang on ‘Misunderstood’ with me. Dude, I was just telling my wife the other day, I showed her the moment that I was like, ‘Who the fuck is that guy?’ I showed her a video clip of Deep Purple playing The Cal Jam (in 1974), and they opened with ‘Burn’. I showed her the video, and Glenn Hughes is in that white satin outfit, playing his guitar, and his hair is everywhere. He just steps up to the mic, and he does that middle section of ‘Burn’, and he does those screams. She was just sitting there like, ‘Holy shit!’ I go, ‘Right!’ So, if you’ve got to be replaced by somebody, or you’ve got to replace somebody, that’s the guy! I love Glenn. I wish him nothing but the best in whatever he’s doing. Hopefully I’ll get to see him and give him a hug sometime in the near future. But boy, is it a pain in the ass singing his shit! If you want to get an idea of what I’m going to sound like singing Glenn’s stuff, think Tiny Tim singing Pavarotti. Somewhere in between there, I’ll fall into that massive grey hole,” jokes Corabi.”

Back in 2019 when Corabi left The Dead Daisies, bassist Marco Mendoza also exited, at pretty much the same time. Was there ever any consideration as to bringing Marco back into the band? “I don’t know, because if I can be honest, Michael was already there when I came in. I just looked at Marco’s schedule, and he’s out doing a ton of shit this year as well. I don’t know what their plan is. I just know they called me, and said, ‘Hey, do you want to come back?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to.’ I walk into the room and there was Brian, Doug, David, and Michael Devin. It was good to see everybody. I did see Marco in November (2022). I was on tour doing acoustic stuff in Europe, and Marco and I played a festival in Scotland, in Troon, called WinterStorm. Marco and I sat down, we had dinner together, we bull-shitted for a while, and it was great to see him as well. But that guy, he’s another one dude, Marco’s always got his fingers in something. Whether he’s doing Journey Through Time, or he’s doing solo shows, or he’s doing session work. When The Daisies called me, I talked to David Lowy and he’s like, ‘Nah dude, Marco’s on tour.’ I think it was a scheduling thing to be honest with you.”

Corabi has solo tour dates this summer in June, July, and August, primarily opening for Tom Kiefer and Winger. August 18 in Nashville be his last solo show, with focus switching 100% to The Dead Daisies. “Yep. I’m on tour – how this is going to play out. I actually leave June 15, start in Atlanta. And I go all the way up the east coast. Then I go west, I get to Chicago, and a buddy of mine is going to drop me off at the airport. I’m going to fly to New York, rehearse with The Daisies for another week. Then I’m going to fly back to Nashville, and we’re going to continue the tour all through Texas, Wisconsin, Missouri. Last show is at The Ryman Theater in Nashville – which I’m going to drop right at the middle and lick the floor where Elvis stood, and I’m going to call it a day. I’m going to get on a plane the next day and fly to meet The Daisies. Although, it is going to be weird leaving my night job at 7-Eleven. But I’ve got this, I can handle it.”

(Top photo - David Pear)