Horseshoes and Handgrenades by John Corabi – Book Review by Dawn Osborne

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades: Tales from the Other Mötley Crüe Frontman and Journeys Through a Life in and Out of Rock and Roll

Book by John Corabi and Paul Miles

This book is the life story of John Corabi, the former vocalist of The Scream, Union, Motley Crue and The Dead Daisies and now working under his own steam as a solo artist. It takes us from the gritty streets of Philadelphia, the same working class neighbourhood featured in the Rocky films where Corabi had brushes with a serial killer, to the heights of Motley Crue, and through his own personal journey as to what is important in life.

The first thing that is amazing about the book is how frank Corabi is prepared to be, from the beginning when a midwife shoved some olive oil and parsley up his ass to relieve flatulence, to killing his goldfish with a pencil, to his brushes with the law as a teenager, to family difficulties of the most extreme kind and being unlucky in love or his career, none of which is designed to flatter his ego. Indeed, sometimes details are so stark I wondered if I really needed to know that much, details of a bladder infection on a honeymoon anyone?

Another aspect of the book is the humour deriving from John’s very straightforward view of life, from asking nuns why they wanted him to have short hair when Jesus didn’t, and the confusion over British slang that got them into an almighty scrap in their first visit to the UK which had me laughing out loud.

A particular area of interest is the stories about the metal scene involving bands like Cinderella, Britny Fox, Steve Vai, Gene Simmons, Poison, GNR, Faster Pussycat, Hurricane, Dangerous Toys, the Ramones, Nirvana, Ratt, Brides of Destruction and Tigertailz. There is also, as you would expect quite a bit of detail and stories about Motley Crue, but curiously not much dirt, I guess you already have that in ‘The Dirt’ itself, but there is a striking account of the day Mick Mars shot a stripper and some hair-raising stories of just how dangerous life with Tommy Lee can be, smoking on a stack of Fireworks anyone?  Perhaps surprisingly his treatment of Motley Crue themselves is quite generous, he is clearly still fond of them, despite the way things turned out and pretty philosophical about why he thinks the universe gave him that opportunity and then took it away. Living in Hollywood there are also tales of celebrities and stars he encountered in his time in Hollywood, including Sylvester Stallone and a fantastic piece about John’s romantic meeting with Sandra Bullock.

Of course, it helps you to get to know the man himself, his love for travel and family, what motivates him and de-motivates him, what he has learned on his journey, just how many times he was the subject of good or bad fortune and what he thinks about all of it.

The book is clearly written and interesting enough to finish in one sitting which I did in about six hours including notes for my interview with John and this review. I would recommend it. Certainly I feel I know ‘Crabby’ a lot better as a result. Apparently initially he felt his story was not interesting enough for a book, but reconsidered when he had more time and less money in the Pandemic. I am glad he did: rather than being mundane, my view is that if someone made his life story a movie, no one would believe the plot due to the extraordinary nature of some of the things that happened. They say truth is stranger than fiction, this book proves the point.

Dawn Osborne