The Dead Daisies guitarist Doug Aldrich talked about what really happened with John Corabi’s exit from The Dead Daisies, where John claimed the exit decision wasn’t mutual while the band claimed John decided to leave the band himself.
Question asked: “Your previous singer and friend, John Corabi, has been making headlines on social media. In July, Corabi stated publicly that he didn’t know if he was still a member of The Dead Daisies. He seemed surprised by the whole Purple Daisies concept.”
Doug Aldrich’s responded, “He knew about it. I saw that too. I saw him on social media saying, “I don’t know what’s going on.” But that’s only cause he’s got a manager; he doesn’t actually call anybody. First of all, I love John. He’s my bro since we were kids. But he does have a manager and if he wanted to reach out, he could.”
“But he did know about the date with Glenn because we asked him about it, are you cool with this?” he continued. “At least that’s what I was told. You know John’s doing a world tour right now. His solo record is doing really well, and everybody’s really happy about it. I think there’s some killer stuff on there. I even wrote a couple things for him; there was a riff and a song idea that I sent to him.”
“He liked them both, Marti (Frederiksen, producer) liked them, but they didn’t end up getting on the record because I think they had enough material,” the guitarist explained. “But, cutting a long story short, I think the bottom line is, once that second Purple Daisies gig was announced, I think that’s when John got upset, and that’s when he started doing more social media. It was just a little bit unclear as to what happened.”
“So, immediately the fans start jumping on sides,” he added. “They’re only hearing that side of it, which is fair game. That’s up to John. But it wasn’t made clear what went down. Fans already don’t like it when there’s change. Then when you’ve got the exiting member putting out a little bit of promo; not on purpose, but it wasn’t made clear. I love John. John wouldn’t do anything facetious at all.”
“But maybe he was a little unclear about it,” Aldrich said. “The bottom line is, John sent me a text – he didn’t say why, so I can only speculate as to why, but he said, “I’m leaving the band. I just want you to know.” I wrote back, “This is a shock! But I will stay in my lane on this one.” And he goes, “As you should, buddy.” That’s what he wrote. Then I said, “Love you.” And he goes, “Love you.” He sent that off to the band, and then the band made a statement: “John has decided to leave the band.” But everybody said that “John had been done wrong, and John was a victim. It was really uncool what The Dead Daisies did to John.” And I’m thinking, what happened?”
“They were not fired,” the musician expressed. “I don’t know what the status of anything is or will be in the future. But we support John, and like I said, he left the band. It was so funny cause I read that, and it didn’t really tell the story. But it’s ok, I didn’t think anything of it. But then there starts being blowback from some fans: “What did you guys do to John? Why would you fire him?” People thought we got Glenn, we did one gig with him, and now we’re going to kick out John. That’s not it at all.”
“To be honest, a lot of times I’ll text John or reach out to John, and I won’t hear back from him – not because of anything bad, because he’s busy,” he concluded. “As far as the communication goes, he’s got a manager, The Dead Daisies has a manager. There was some other business that I think they were probably working on… negotiations and whatever. But the bottom line is, nobody did nothing wrong. John was not done wrong on anything. To the contrary, we’ve all been very lucky to be in this band together, making music, having fun, having laughs. We go on the road and we’re taken care of. It’s a blessing to be working in a band at this point. And John, as far as I can see, was really happy.”
Aldrich’s comments shed new light on a departure that left many fans divided, especially as The Dead Daisies continued with the Purple Daisies concept featuring Glenn Hughes. Looking closer at the history behind these lineup shifts helps put the recent statements into clearer context.
John Corabi rejoined The Dead Daisies in May 2023 after previously fronting the band from early 2015 until January 2019. His return marked a second chapter with the hard rock collective founded by David Lowy.
Corabi recorded three studio albums during his first run with the group: Revolución, Make Some Noise, and Burn It Down. Those records helped define the band’s sound through the mid-to-late 2010s before his initial exit.
