John Corabi says being fired by Motley Crue felt like "someone took a 300-pound man off my shoulders".
Corabi served as the band's singer between 1992 and 1996 after Vince Neil was fired. But the band eventually brought Neil back into the fold and Corabi was let go.
That sacking was not what Corabi wanted, but he admits it also came with a massive wave of releif due to the internal chaos that existed within Motley Crue.
He tells Rock Daydream Nation: "There was so much drama in that band and turmoil. And so when they told me that they were bringing Vince back, there was a huge part of me that was bummed and kind of upset, but there was another part of me that felt like a 300-pound man was standing on my shoulders.
"So I was actually relieved at the same time, if that makes any sense at all."
Asked how he learned he was being replaced by the very man he replaced four years earlier, Corabi says: "The record label had said to them, this guy Doug Morris basically said, 'You need to bring back Vince. Get rid of that guy.'
"He didn't even know my name. He was, like, 'Get rid of the new guy and bring Vince back.' And they didn't tell me that till the very end.
"But I know from that point where we had all flown to New York, this was even before we started doing what became the Generation Swine record. Fuck, it was probably a year and a half before, a year before.
"And I was getting, 'There's no way, Crab. We're never bringing that guy back. No way, dude. No way, dude.' And then in the meantime, they were meeting with him and taking meetings and trying to work things out.
"And I think they were keeping me in their back pocket in case it didn't work out with Vince. I get it. That's a smart thing to do."
Whatever the deals being done in the background, it's clear the internal workings of Motley Crue were chaotic,=.
"There was just so much drama with those guys," Corabi adds.
"I would work out in the morning with Nikki and he would talk about Tommy and Mick. Then I would go hang out with Tommy to write music in the afternoon, and he would talk about Nikki and Mick. And I was living in Mick's guest house, so then I would come home at night and I would sit and have a drink with Mick and he would talk about Tommy and Nikki.
"And I was, like, 'Oh my God. It's impossible to keep up with all this bullshit.' You know what I mean? So when they told me, 'Hey, dude, Vince is coming back,' I was bummed.
"But like I said, it felt like someone took a 300-pound man off my shoulders."
Neil has remained with the band since 1996 and Motley Crue are back on the road with John 5 in place of Mick Mars, who launched a lawsuit against the band.
