The Dead Daisies are a rock n’ roll juggernaut. A collective with a fluid membership of top-notch musicians, the band has released a series of consistently great records. Their new release, called Lookin’ for Trouble, sees The Dead Daisies pay homage to their blues influences with a blistering set of classic covers. Vocalist John Corabi recently took some time to talk about the new record and upcoming plans.
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On the current lineup of The Dead Daisies – Obviously Doug Aldrich, David Lowy, Michael Devin on bass guitar, Tommy Clufetos on drums, and yours truly on vocals and I get coffee for the guys on occasion.
On what led the band to record a blues record – I personally don’t think that there is a genre of music, I think the only genre of music that I can honestly say that I don’t think it was influenced by the blues is classical. Everything else, country, music, rock and roll, rockabilly, it’s all blues. Then from there, it kind of developed or morphed into rap and r&b and all this other stuff.
It was like a happy accident. We had all seen that Netflix documentary on the sounds of Muscle Shoals. The legendary Swampers that were made famous in the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Sweet Home Alabama”. We had the opportunity when we were in, I apologize, this is a little bit of a long answer. Marti Frederikson’s Studio is part of the Mussel Shoals family tree. It originated at Fame where we recorded, the Swampers became famous. Then a few of those guys kind of left and started their own studio, which then became equally as famous as where the Rolling Stones recorded, “Gimme Shelter”, and I believe it was “Wild Horses”, few other tunes. Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, la la la, la. It’s just crazy the amount of artists that went through the doors of those two studios. Then once that place, really, the second studio really took off. A couple of those guys left and started a studio in Nashville that was called Quad. So, when Marti moved here, he bought that studio. So, it was like this recording of the two records that we did, Light ’em Up and Looking for Trouble, it was a lot of fun to see the guys that can be in the studio be creative. But it was a bit of a history lesson as well. A musical history lesson.
So, the room that we recorded in Nashville was this legendary room where, I don’t remember all the artists, but I know for a fact Neil Young, recorded Harvest in this room. It’s all you need. We were like, “Let’s, let’s pack up man, and go down to the Muscle Shoals and start from the beginning”. Our manager made some phone calls and figured it out and we were able to just go down there for, I think it was maybe nine days, 10 days. But while we were there, we were checking it out. If anybody’s ever been to Fame, it’s a functioning studio, but it’s also a museum. They give you a tour of the place and they take you upstairs to Rick (Hall)’s office where he started the publishing company and just all this other stuff. We were just so blown away at the history of the building, and then at night we would take a dinner break and normally we would go back to the hotel and chill out, but we had Uber Eats on speed dial and there was a liquor store right across the street from the studio. So, we would go get a bottle of whiskey, a couple bottles of wine, and we’d just sit there, and we just started jamming. One of the things was this room that we were in, the Allman Brothers used to rehearse for a lot of their tours in these things. So, we were like jamming some blues, just and so Marti had the foresight to keep the, I say tape, but you know, obviously it was like Pro Tools and he just kept sessions going. He was like, “Man, this stuff sounds pretty good”. We talked to our manager, we’re like, “Check these tracks out. I mean, this stuff sounds really good. Let’s fucking do a blues record”.
Honestly, we’ve been questioned on some of the songs, the choices. But these were songs that we all kind of knew off the top of our heads. At that point it was like instead of like learning stuff, it was like “Alright, how can we make this our own?” It was like a funny thing. We picked all these songs that we all kind of knew and then we would ask ourselves “What would Led Zeppelin do?” Only because you listen to things like “When The Levee Breaks”, their version of that is completely different than the original version, but it’s so brilliant. Even “In My Time of Dying” on the Physical Graffiti record, I think initially was called “Jesus Make My Dying Bed”. We just kind of looked at like how they took these songs, “When The Levee Breaks”, and that one and just kind of made it their own. We were like, “You know what, we may piss off a blues purist, but let’s just do what we do to it and just make it the Daisies”.
On if they chose a “definitive” version of any of the songs to create their cover from – No, it was weird. Once we really committed to doing it, then we started Googling and YouTubing, that was like homework at night. We’d go back and check out other versions of these brilliant songs. I gotta be honest with you, I kind of know some of the blues. The funny thing about the blues, and I just saw a documentary yesterday on a Brian Jones from The Stones, and it was weird, like they were influenced by the Blues, the Stones. I think one of their, they said one of their first number one hits in England was “Little Red Rooster”, which we covered. But it was funny, they took it over there and they brought it back over here and it made Americans more aware of something that was here the whole time.
I gotta be honest with you, when you talk to me, as a kid, I would hear songs like, “I Just Wanna Make Love To You”, I’d say by Foghat, no, that’s a cover song, dude. “Terraplane Blues”, Foghat’s version of that was great. Led Zeppelin “How Many More Times”, and just all these great songs. That was my introduction to the blues, their versions of this stuff. So, I can’t say I’m a connoisseur and aficionado, or whatever the word is, of blues music. But, doing this, I’ve really started researching and going really deep, like, “Okay, who wrote this song and why did they write it?” It was a bit of a learning lesson and just fun. It was cool. So, we’ve always done a tip of the hat to the bands that we grew up listening to in the seventies. So, what we did now is like, “Okay, we always do songs by bands that influenced us. Let’s go back even further and figure out who influenced them.” We may piss off a blues purist, but you know this is a face of a person that doesn’t give a shit. I like what we did.
On if those historical rooms have an effect on their performance – Maybe. I don’t know. I think musicians, artists, painters, poets, whatever you want to call it, they’re inspired. But I think musicians are very emotional people and get inspired by the silliest things. I have to be honest with you, I did have a moment I was singing something in the studio when we were in Muscle Shoals and again, I was sitting there, I had a whiskey and a cigarette, and I’m singing into this microphone and I just happened to look up, I was in this vocal booth. I could see through the window the band sitting there, and while they were doing their thing, I just kind of looked up on the wall and I saw this picture of Aretha Franklin with a whiskey and a cigarette. I could be wrong, but I think she was using the mic that I was using too. So I was like, “Fuck man, this is so badass”. That’s part of the fun of it. That’s, that’s John Corabi the fan. I was just saying like my first time playing the Whisky, all I could tell myself as I was walking on stage was, “The Doors played here, Robert Plant stood where I’m standing right now on their first American tour on this stage”. You play the Troubadour, it’s like, “This is where Elton John started his career in America”. Go CBGBs, or which I’ve played, so I’ve had the opportunity to check off some bucket list things, but you get inspired and maybe it does fire you up a little bit more. I don’t know, but it’s just as a fan/
I just recently, it was crazy, we’ve heard all these stories about the Ryman. I literally just did I had a show, it was me Winger and Tom Keefer. We did a sold out show there, and I just did a little acoustic set, told my jokes and whatever, did my thing. My wife was hysterical. But I walked off and I got a standing ovation at the Ryman Auditorium, and she was like, “Oh my God, that was so amazing”. Then it kind of dawned on me like, “Holy shit, fuck, I played the Ryman”. So yeah, maybe there’s a little more oomph in the tank when you’re doing those places.
On Doug Aldrich’s amazing performance on this record – You’d be surprised. The great thing about this band is, for example, we torture everybody. Before we go on stage we’ve got a little boombox, one of those Bluetooth things, and everybody’s always playing music, but it’s funny, this band will literally play Van Halen, something from Van Halen II, then, go to AC/DC, then it’ll go to Abba and then Gerry Rafferty, the “Baker Street” song. We’re kind of all over the place and we’re just playing music.
They’ll play shit from the fifties, the sixties, The Doors, The Righteous Brothers, The Everly Brothers. That’s one of the things that I love about this band is everybody can find the beauty in you just music. I think Doug as a guitar player, let’s face it, Doug’s been writing and playing music for 80% of his life, and he’s kind of figured out, I use that term loosely “figured out”, but he knows you play for the song. Nobody wants to hear, again, I’m not taking this as a slag, but nobody wants to hear Yngwie Malmsteen on a blues track. So, Doug’s like, “Alright, I’m gonna try some different guitars here, different amps. I’m gonna try playing some more slide on this thing”, and I think he nailed it. His playing on this record is fucking awesome.
On if these songs will be worked into the Dead Daisies live set – ,Maybe at some point if we do a blues festival we’ll do (a blues set), but we’ve already been incorporating some of the songs into our set last year. End of last year we added, oh shit, I’m having a brain fart right now. We did one last year and then we added this last tour that we did, we did “Crossroads” and “Going Down”.
On possible US dates – I would hope so. The US a really funny market anymore. I mean the radio is just non-existent for bands like us, so you make do the best you can. We just went over did, I don’t know, eight or 10 shows that we couldn’t do last year and then I guess we’re gearing up for this blues release. But until they say, “Hey, you’re doing the Atlanta Blues Festival”, or the whatever, there’s some people that are gonna want to hear, “Make Some Noise”, it’s a little bit of everything.
On if he planning new solo material – Actually, yes. I definitely plan on it but I gotta be careful how I do this. I told the guys when I came back, I wanted to continue with a solo career, and they were cool with it, but there’s some coordination involved. I don’t wanna release a record right before or after The Dead Daises are gonna do it. So, I leave that up to my manager. I just want to get in, finish writing and recording this record. Give it to my manager and the record label, and you guys figure it out. Let somebody else work on the timing. I admit it, I’m a tornado with just about everything. So, that’s why you have a manager and a record label, and the Daisies have a manager. So let those guys, they’re the advanced planners. They’re the guys that are good at writing shit down. Let them handle it and just tell me where to go and when to be there.
On the short time between the last two records – It was weird. A lot of people have asked me, “How it is writing with this band?” We do shit so fast. It’s ridiculous. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a band, even from my first record Revolucion, with the band back in 15. I flew down to Australia and when we got there, the manager goes, “Okay, boys, you got a month”. And I’m like “To do what?”, “Do a new record”. I’m just sitting there going, “We don’t have anything.” But somehow, we always make it work.
Then we started working with Marti, and again, it was like three and a half, four weeks, five weeks to do an album. Well, we would literally write, record, mix, master, artwork, everything’s done. Here you go. Talk to you later. Peace out. This time we started out with Light ’em Up. We got together in Nashville. We started writing, mapping things out. We’re like, “Oh, hey, let’s go down to Muscle Shoals and check that out. Yeah, that’d be cool”. We went down there, we’re still mapping out doing all this stuff, but we actually wrote, recorded, mixed, mastered, Light ’em Up and recorded, arranged and recorded, mixed and mastered. Lookin’ For Trouble in 29 days. We did both records at the same time.
