John Corabi discussed his firing from Motley Crue ahead of the release of 1997’s Generation Swine in a new Ultimate-Guitar interview.
“In short, Vince Neil returning. Basically, the record label was like, ‘This record isn’t selling well enough. We want Vince Neil band in the band. We’re not supporting anything until you get him back in the band.’
“Because you gotta remember right before, like, I don’t know, six months, or seven months before I joined, Elektra had given them a massive contract. But they gave them that massive contact, thinking Vince Neil was the singer, not John Corabi.
“So, the label just gave Mötley Crüe like 40 million dollars, and then they found out they’re gonna record a record without Vince Neil. Tommy, Mick [Mars], and Nikki were just like, ‘Oh, by the way, Vince is out and John is in.’
“So, we did a record, we did a tour, and while it was respectable, it was not great at all. It wasn’t at the level it was with Vince, and Elektra just said, ‘Okay, we’d let you do this one. We want our money’s worth. Give us Vince Neil, or you can go fuck off.’ And so, Vince came back, and I was out of the band.”
Generation Swine ended up bombing in sales, with Vince Neil later trashing the album.
