Special
From Appetite to Chinese Democracy: all the albums reviewed and rated
Edition
The band, the manager, the A&R guy, even the Rocket Queen‌
30 years of dirty sex, bad drugs and timeless rock'n'roll
neil Zlozower/AtlasIcons.com
Features 6 The Wild Ones: GN’R – The Early Days Originally published in Metal Hammer, the inside story of GN’R’s formation.
14 10 Things You Didn’t Know About…
Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide: The facts behind GN’R’s first release.
16 The Story Behind Appetite For Destruction The only UK journalist at the LA album launch looks back at the drugs, the women and the chaos.
28 The Destruction Years (continued)
Mick Wall was the writer closest to GN’R in the early years. Here, he reports from the heart of the chaos.
32 Anarchy In The UK Hanging out with Guns in June 1987 as they hit the UK.
reviews 26 Appetite For Destruction
The best-selling debut album of all-time, reviewed. (Spoiler: it’s good.)
62 GN’R Lies
The ‘filler’ album that proved even more controversial than their debut.
78 Use Your Illusion I&II Their big moment, reappraised.
100 The Spaghetti Incident?
The ‘punk rock covers album’ that was the end of the road for Slash, Duff and Izzy
128 Chinese Democracy
38 The Story Behind Welcome To The Jungle The story behind the song that soundtracks sports events to this day…
80 Tales of Excess
In 2004, Slash and Duff looked back at the madness of GN’R, while Steven Adler spoke frankly about trying to get his life back on track…
84 The Use Your Illusion Tour
No-shows, bomb scares, police intervention: inside the volatile Use Your Illusion tour.
94 Hey, GN’R! We’ve Fixed Use Your Illusion!
UYI: there are too many songs and they’re not all gold. We got our man Sleazegrinder to narrow idown to a single album.
96 Axl and Kurt Cobain’s MTV Bust-up What happened when grunge’s poster boy and wife met GN’R’s short-tempered frontman…
102 The Izzy Stradlin Interview
In this classic interview, Izzy looks back on leaving GN’R, getting sober, and Axl’s transformation into a “monster”.
108 It’s So Big Easy Izzy and the ‘missing million’ – illustrated!
112 Why Izzy Stradlin Was The Heart Of GN’R By their former manager Alan Niven
40 The Sixth Silent Member
114 The Great Chinese Robbery
48 Why I Love Appetite
118 The Making of Chinese Democracy
50 Slash: Ever Meet Hendrix?
130 Q&A: Duff McKagen
54 The Year Of Living Dangerously
134 Q&A: Steven Adler
Guns manager Alan Niven talks for the first time about what went doen at the height of the madness.
Alter Bridge frontman and Slash collaborator Myles Kennedy on his love for the Gunners’ first album.
As part of a regular CR feature, Slash looked back at the people he’d worked with and hung out with over the years…
Inside 1988-89 as the wheels starts to come off and GN’R Lies adds to the controversy…
64 The Making of Use Your Illusion
Inside the Chinese Democracy leaks
Yoda, Buckethead and chicken coops: a weird year in the making of GN’R’s last album.
2011 and Duff talks up his new album and avoids questions about reuniting with Axl. Are relations thawing?
A happy and healthy Adler makes his comeback in 2013.
136 Not In This Lifetime: The Reunion Inside the most amazing reunion in years.
Years in the making, you’ve never heard anything like it.
How do you follow Appetite For Destruction? With TWO albums. Inside the making of GN’R’s most ambitious statement yet.
142 Duff: Ever Meet Hendrix?
132 After GN’R: A Buyers Guide
72 How I Ended Up In Get In The Ring
146 Heavy Load: Slash
Which Gunner did the best post-GN’R work?
Mick Wall on how he ended up being called out by Axl Rose.
As part of a regular CR feature, Duff looked back on the people he’s worked with.
The guitarist answers life’s big questions.
MARK WEISS
The hungry years: Guns take Appetite… on the road.
‘Axl was distracted. He seemed apart from the rest of the group. The dynamic between them had changed. The singer’s isolation had begun.’ Axl. Nobody – not Goldstein, nor the band – seemed concerned about it. But to me it felt weird. Ever since that first time I’d met them, Guns N’ Roses looked an acted like a gang. They had that ‘us against the world’ mentality. But now Axl was on a different schedule to the others. Maybe he was just resting, as Goldstein had said. But after those rumours about Axl being kicked out of the band in Phoenix, it didn’t look good. Just 90 minutes before GN’R were due on stage, I interviewed Izzy and Slash in a large backstage toilet-come-shower room. Slash was revelling in the band’s phenomenal success. “It’s completely against the industry,” he said, proudly. “What this industry’s about in the 80s is pretty obvious – trying to polish everything up. Everything’s like techno-pop, even heavy metal stuff. We go against every standard. Even when we play live to 20,000 people, we’re like a club band. We do whatever we feel like doing. That’s just the way it is. And if people come expecting us to play hit after hit, it just ain’t gonna happen.” On this tour, however, there were some rules that GN’R had to abide by. Aerosmith, formerly the most fucked-up band in America, were now teetotal and drug-free, and in an effort to keep them sober, their manager Tim Collins had drawn up a contract forbidding Guns N’ Roses to drink alcohol outside of their own dressing room. GN’R honoured that contract out of respect for their heroes. “The vibe between the two bands is great,” Slash smiled. “These guys have been through a lotta shit and we have a lot of respect for them. And it’s funny – they don’t do drugs, they just like to talk about them. They love to ask you about what you did last 24 www.classicrockmagazine.com classicrockmagazine.com 52
night and how fucked up you got.” Izzy added, laughing: “You drag your ass into the gig sometimes and you see these guys and you think, aw, fuck! They’re eating watermelon and drinking tea and they go: ‘Man, I’ve been up since nine o’clock this morning.’ You say: ‘What drugs are you doing?’ And they say: ‘No, I just been up since nine!” I suggested to them that few people would have believed that Guns N’ Roses would have survived 14 months of touring like they had. Izzy snorted: “They didn’t expect us to last a week! But touring really doesn’t faze you. if you get twisted backstage, the walk to the bus is only a few yards, y’know? But yeah, if you get twisted every night, you start draggin’…” Of course, I had to ask them about Axl. I’d been around the band for 24 hours and I still hadn’t seen him. Slash went on the defensive. “You gotta understand that with us, excess is best and all that shit. Axl has to keep from smoking or drinking or doing drugs to maintain his voice. He doesn’t hang out that much because the atmosphere that’s created by the other four members is pretty, uh…” Izzy cut in: “…Conducive to deterioration.” “Axl just hangs out by himself,” Slash added. “He takes it pretty seriously. He’s doing well to maintain a certain sanity level, seeing as he can’t go out cos of his position in the band. If he was doing what we were doing, he wouldn’t be able to sing at all!” When I mentioned the rumours about the band firing Axl in Phoenix, Slash responded like a seasoned politician. “That’s been one of the stories that’s gotten bigger than all of us,” he sighed. “And, as little as it was, it’s past tense and it’s not worth talking about
cos it doesn’t relate to what’s going on now.” We returned to the dressing room, where Steven was drinking vials of royal jelly. “Builds up cum in your balls!” he explained. Somewhat belatedly, Doug Goldstein presented a birthday cake to Slash with a message in pink icing: ‘HAPPY FUCKIN’ BIRTHDAY, YOU FUCKER’. A pack of Marlboro Reds, his preferred smoke, had been squished into the cake. 20 minutes before show time, Slash and Izzy were jamming on acoustic guitars, Steven rattling his drumsticks on the back of a chair, when, at last, Axl arrived. He barely acknowledged the other members of the band before disappearing behind a ring of flight cases arranged in corner of the room. Hidden from view, Axl went through his pre-gig warm-up ritual, singing to a loud playback of The Needle Lies, a track from Queensrÿche’s concept album Operation: Mindcrime. The meaning in the song’s title wasn’t lost on anyone. Axl emerged from his den just as Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler entered the room, causing general panic as everyone with a beer in their hand tried to hide it. Tyler seemed oblivious: he just wanted to congratulate GN’R on their No.1 album. He hugged them all and quickly left. Axl disappeared again to change from jeans and T-shirt into his stage gear: leather chaps and codpiece, snakeskin jacket and wide-brimmed leather hat. He looked surprised when he saw me. He walked over, his bangles and spurs jingling, and we talked for a few minutes. There was no time for a formal interview. I told him what Slash and Izzy had said about him earlier, and he seemed happy enough with
IF YOU WANT IT, YOU’RE GONNA BLEED
Feature
Whole lotta Rose: as the Appetite… tour progressed, Axl withdrew into a world of his own.
IAN TILTON
IAN TILTON
Slash’s 23rd: why have candles when you can have Marlboros instead?
that. He appeared distracted, which I attributed to him being psyched up about going on stage. But even when he broke away for Ian Tilton to take a band shot, he seemed apart from the rest of the group. The dynamic between them had changed. The isolation of Axl Rose had begun. Guns N’ Roses were brilliant that night: the best show I ever saw them play. At times, Axl was in playful mood, swapping cowboy hats with Duff. But his focus was absolute. Aerosmith might have been the headliners on that tour, but Guns N’ Roses were the main attraction, and Axl owned that stage. Just before they’d gone on, Ian Tilton had asked Doug Goldstein if he could shoot from the side of the stage. “Not unless you want to eat a mic-stand…” Ian asked me if that was a joke. I assured him it wasn’t. Guns N’ Roses whipped the Texan crowd into a frenzy. Standing beside me at the mixing desk in the centre of the arena was Slayer’s Tom Araya, a broken arm in a sling and a beer in his good hand. Even between songs he had to shout right in my ear, such was the noise from the fans. It seemed ironic that Araya was there. Just 18 months earlier, I’d gone to LA thinking Guns N’ Roses were nothing compared to Slayer. Now GN’R were on a different level altogether. Guns N’ Roses were a phenomenon. They had the world at their feet. But their enigmatic singer was already withdrawing into a world all his own. But then fame can mess with your head. Earlier that day at the hotel, Izzy, Slash, Duff and Steven had appeared in the lobby and were immediately mobbed by a group of pre-teen kids. Izzy smirked as he signed autographs. “Maybe they think we’re Bon Jovi,” he whispered in my ear. Seconds later, the kids all ran off. Izzy looked bemused until we realised where they’d gone – to the other side of the lobby, where they were crowded around another celebrity who had just arrived: A-Team superhero Mr. T. If ever Guns N’ Roses required a lesson in the fickle nature of showbiz, they got it right there. classicrockmagazine.com 53 25 www.classicrockmagazine.com
aWards 2010
Ever Meet Hendrix? He met Keith Moon when he was 11, spent a long night with Lemmy in a Soho boozer, had an unlikely on-stage encounter with James Brown, thinks Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas is one hell of a rock chick, and looks upon Alice Cooper as his rock’n’roll dad. And while all that mayhem was going on, Slash always kept his hat on…
W
Words: Jerry Ewing Portrait: Mick Hutson
hen it comes to rock royalty, Slash is pretty much a fully paid-up member. And, given the guitarist’s easy-going nature and fondness for a drink every now and then, it should come as no surprise to Classic Rock readers that he counts most of today’s bighitters among his closest companions, as well as some of rock’s dearest departed. The roll-call of guests on his recent solo album Slash reads like a modern day Who’s Who of classic rock. But for every story about Dave Grohl or Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas, there’s a tale of spending a night on the tiles with Lemmy in 80s London, seeing Ozzy get thrown out of bars, and getting Keith Moon to perform Uncle Ernie for him in front of his parents. Hold on a minute… ‘Down with the bedclothes, up with the nightshirt, fiddle about, fiddle about…’ That can’t be right?!
KEITH MOON I loved The Who. I’d seen Tommy when I was young and I thought it was great. I can’t remember exactly where it was that I met Keith, but it was in LA and at some sort of convention centre or something like that. I would have been with either my mom or my dad, as I think I’d have only been about eleven at the time. But I remember it so well because I got him to do Uncle Ernie from Tommy for me. I still remember it so well to this day because it’s my favourite moment ever of meeting a famous rock star.
ALICE COOPER Alice Cooper made a real big impression on me when I was a young musician coming up through the ranks. I remember we opened for Alice Cooper and he kind of took us under his wing, as he seems to have done with quite a few musicians over the years. It’s kind of like having that fucked-up father figure, ha ha. But I absolutely love Alice, and he’s a perfect example of someone who has been so influential and who’s been there and done it in rock’n’roll. And he was also really cool and really in control of his fame. That had a really big impact on me.
AEROSMITH Opening for Aerosmith was a pretty big thing for me too at the time. When I was in junior high they were really my heroes, so you can imagine how I felt when Guns N’ Roses supported them. It was like a dream come true for me. I think subconsciously you take 70 classicrockmagazine.com 50
everything in that’s going on around you, no matter how oblivious you might seem, especially me. You want to see how things work and how things act in certain situations. Even the little things. I don’t think it’s a conscious thing, more a subconscious awareness. We had a lot of interaction with the band, too. I remember our first soundcheck, and Steven Tyler came over to introduce himself. We got to know the band pretty well after that. We were pretty close for the whole tour.
DAVE MUSTAINE/LARS ULRICH I remember when we played at Donington Monsters Of Rock in 1988, which was actually in the middle of the Aerosmith tour. And obviously because it was Donington we were pretty excited, but because it was also the middle of the Aerosmith tour we had to pretty much fly in and then straight back out again. In the end I think I only ended up hanging out with Dave Mustaine and Lars Ulrich on the day. I knew both Dave and Lars from earlier days in Los Angeles anyway, but they’re the only guys I can recall hanging with on the day. As I recall, we were pretty much straight out of there after we’d played.
METALLICA All things considered, the Metallica/Guns N’ Roses tour of 1992 was great inasmuch as it was the massive event that it became. It was also a serious clash between the Guns N’ Roses schedule and the ideology of Metallica. That caused… well I wouldn’t say friction, because there wasn’t really what I’d call friction between the two bands, but there was certainly a certain mood that was evident. That was really a drag, because I’d been friends with James and Lars before that tour, and I honestly don’t remember ever spending any time with them at all during that tour. And of course there was the incident in Montreal where James burnt his arm, and then Axl didn’t even show up for after an hour after we were supposed to go on. That caused a big thing. But a lot of that stuff that went down was really out of my hands. To be honest, I was really quite embarrassed by what went down. It’s not like we were on bad terms, but there was a definite silence around. Fortunately things are fine between me and the Metallica guys now.
SEBASTIAN BACH Skid Row supported us on the European leg of the Use Your Illusion tour in 1991, and we used to hang out with Sebastian a lot. Duff and Axl and myself used to hang around with him and get into all ➻
Feature Slash: the most famous man from Stoke-on-Trent who isn’t a darts player.
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sept 9, 1992
Sorting myth from fact
#19 Axl Rose and Kurt Cobain’s MTV bust-up
In the blue corner, grunge’s brand new poster boy and his motormouthed wife. In the red corner, Gn’R’s short-tempered frontman and six huge bodyguards. Gentleman, handbags at the ready… words: Johnny Black
T
he MTV Video Music Awards had long been one of the premier events in the rock’n’roll calendar, but the 1992 ceremony was a watershed affair. A change was in the air: the preceding 12 months had seen grunge drive a stake through the heart of the glam-metal scene that had dominated MTV and the US charts during the late 80s. As a prime mover in the latter scene, Axl Rose had asked grunge prime movers Nirvana to play at his birthday party and also to join Guns N’ Roses on tour with Metallica, only to have both offers rejected out of hand. Rose responded by calling Cobain and wife Courtney Love “a junkie with a junkie wife” at a show in Orlando, Florida, declaring, “If the baby [Love and Cobain’s newborn daughter Frances Bean] is born deformed, I think they both ought to go to prison.” With GN’R and Nirvana set to appear at the VMAs just five days later, the scene was set for a showdown. Matt Sorum (drummer, Guns N’ Roses): I remember Nirvana coming out. We were on the same label [Geffen]. Duff McKagan turned me on to them. He had the demos from before Dave Grohl
Kurt Cobain and (inset) Courtney Love: “I’d like to dedicate this to Axl…”
Bruce Gowers (Director, VMA Awards): We were completely unaware that there was an ongoing feud between Kurt and Axl. Amy Finnerty: At the rehearsal, Nirvana played Rape Me, which was not what the VMA people were expecting to hear.
Amy Finnerty (director of music programming, MTV): I was just 20, quite junior in the programming department, but I was the person who had pushed Kurt Cobain: They were going to replace us if we to get Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit video played, didn’t play Teen Spirit. so Kurt had asked if I could come along to the awards. So I was there at Kurt’s invitation. I wasn’t Krist Novoselic: The MTV people were upset. We aware of the details were being asked from of what had gone all corners not to. on before, but I do remember that Axl Amy Finnerty: There wanted to be part was a lot of discussion, of their camp. He but by the end of that extended an olive day, they had reached branch, you know? an agreement. Next The day before the morning, we had awards, all of the bands another rehearsal, at Amy Finnerty came in for rehearsals which they played and that was when things started to get difficult. Lithium, and everybody was happy. The band goes back to the trailer, we all get ready for the show. Krist Novoselic (bassist, Nirvana): Before Nirvana went on, we were sitting in a circle Nirvana showed up for the production in the artists’ tent. I was sitting next to Kurt, and he of the awards show early in the day at was pretty relaxed because he was holding Frances. UCLA, west of Hollywood. The show Courtney was across the circle, there was a few of us. was in the sports arena, and there were mobile houses set up for the performers Kurt Cobain: He [Axl] came strutting by with off an athletic field. five of his huge bodyguards and a person with a movie camera. Tabitha Soren (co-presenter, VMA Awards): The trailers were all lined Amy Finnerty: When Courtney saw Axl, she said: up right next to each other. Anybody “Axl, Axl, do you wanna be the godfather to our who wanted more space had to go child?” She was taunting him. You could tell by the outside, which forced a lot of people tone of extreme sarcasm. together who, normally, probably wouldn’t have anything to do with Kurt Cobain: Everyone laughed. We had a few each other. Two of the bands were friends around us, and he just stopped Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana, both dead and started screaming… of them at the height of their popularity. Amy Finnerty: Axl came up right behind Kurt and I. He was genuinely mad. . There was a sort of rivalry between Kurt Cobain: These were his words: “You the two camps, shut your bitch up, or I’m taking you down alternative rock to the pavement.” [laughs] So I turned to going head to head Courtney and said: “Shut up, bitch!” So I guess with the veterans I did what he wanted me to do – be a man. ➻ of heavy metal.
“Axl’s girlfriend asked Courtney Love: ‘Are you a model?’ Courtney said: ‘No, are you a brain surgeon?’”
getty x4
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came into the group and he gave me a copy of Nevermind. I remember looking at the album cover, with the image of the baby on it, thinking, ‘That is really iconic.’ We asked them to tour with GN’R and they turned us down. They called us ‘corporate rock’.
Feature Axl Rose and his then girlfriend Stephanie Seymour at the 1992 MTV VMAs.
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Why Izzy Stradlin was the heart of Guns N’ Roses Former Guns N’ Roses manager Alan Niven on Izzy Stradlin, true rock’n’roll outlaw. Words: Alan Niven
I
It was Izzy’s fuckin’ band... at least that’s my perception. Iz made the move to the city first. He packed his suitcase and went to lay the foundation of a band. Rattlesnake hide or not, you know that bag was worn and funky, not shiny, like a new Halliburton from Tim Collins. Iz was the first to take the Night Train out of small town Indiana for Los Angeles. Axl followed Izzy once he was set up in L.A. – an easy move. He then retreated back to Lafayette. Couldn’t hack it in L.A. according to Iz. He was relieved. He told me later he didn’t want to deal with Rose, who he had known since High School. Axl couldn’t deal with small town Indiana either so he moved a second time, loaded like a freight train with all his baggage. Iz was less than thrilled. So it went. On the third date of the band’s first national tour, supporting The Cult, Izzy knocked on my hotel room door. He brushed past me and flopped on the sofa. “That motherfucker makes us miserable every fuckin’ day,” he groaned. Ax was never so fuckin’ easy, but he had that voice, a voice that reeked of Middle American white boy outrage and anger. He had that attitude that championed individualism and every individual. Especially himself. If that was what Axl brought to the band what did Izzy bring? He brought the Night Train, Mr. Brownstone, he brought the sweet street Jungle groove. When Mike Clink hit the wall, exhausted from the Appetite sessions, a concerned Tom Zutaut asked me to check the recordings. “Mike can’t fix a mix. Do you think we have it on tape Niv?” I asked him to send me Izzy’s Brownstone. Michael Lardie and I prepped the sound board at Total Access to do a fast mix. We put the two inch reel up. It was there. The groove, the edge. We were able to cook up a mix in four hours. Clink had got it on tape. We were good. I first saw Izz on the stage of The
Troubadour. He had an effortless offhand grace in the way he handled his hollow-bodied Gibson. He played his rhythm parts with a perfect insouciance, knowing exactly when he should leave a space, syncopate the groove. I have a picture on my wall of Izzy playing with Keef and Ronnie Wood. They not only play like kin, they look like Mama’s kin. Imagine The Stones without Keef. Izzy had the casual wisdom not to inject himself into the blind obediences of a conformist’s life. As much as a C.C. Deville or a Bon Jovi might have contrived to be rock n roll outlaws, Izzy was to the manner born. His lyrics had an uncontrived, main vein, street vernacular. When Guns were slated to open for Aerosmith Izzy came to me with a concern. “Niv, this might be a bit awkward, but I used to deal smack to Joe and Steven.”
“Don’t worry Iz, if you don’t mention it I am damned sure they won’t.” Izzy left GN’R three months after I was kicked aside by Axl. Iz found me, somehow, when I was with Great White in Winterthur, Switzerland. “I can’t deal with it anymore,” he said. There had almost been a riot at a Guns show in Germany. Rose had stormed off the stage for some reason, and Izzy was freaked by the idea of submachine gun toting cops breaking heads. He had the jitters. The binding pressure and exposure of expectation and fame, the anxieties that Rose generated, were not worth it to him. They were burning him down. He was going to quit there and then. He did not intend to play the tour closing show at Wembley Stadium. “You can’t let the fans and the others down like that Iz. You’re not the bad guy. Don’t be seen as one.” I reserved and paid for a suite at the Wembley Stadium Hilton where Izzy could chill, away from the backstage area, and wait to see if Axl would turn up. Only when he knew that Rose was at the venue did he join the others for his last performance as a member of the band that was mostly built on his insight, songs and style. It was Izzy’s fuckin’ band. Izzy was the one I could reliably count on for a position on a decision – his was always the incontrovertible point of view that best served the band. He grounded them with his unimpeachable rock’n’ roll stance habitually maintained in his playing and writing. Izzy had provided the cool heart for the hot soul of the band. When the band was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Izzy set up a meeting with Axl at a L.A. Hotel. He wanted to get an agreement for the original band to play together one last time – do the fuckin’ re-union there in that moment and then say “Thank you, good fuckin’ night.” After waiting for two hours for Axl to show, he drove home to Ojai. No-show Axl had made him miserable one more fuckin’ time. A band is like a chemical molecule. Not all the elements are of the same size, power or energy, and perception does not always define significance, but remove even the slightest grain and the molecule collapses. When Steven lost his mind and got himself fired that changed the feel of the rhythm section, the rush was done, but when Izzy left it meant that the band was no longer the Guns N’ Roses that I knew and loved, the band that I was addicted to. It was just Dust n’ Bones – “just fuckin’ gone.” As I said, if it was anyone’s, it was Izzy’s fuckin’ band.
“It was Izzy’s band. When he left it meant the band were no longer the Guns N’ Roses that I knew and loved”
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Alan Niven
Alan Niven managed Guns N’ Roses from 1986 to 1991.
Feature
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Guns N’ Roses 2017, Not In This LIfetime Tour
‘I know they’re doing some recording. They’re definitely doing something in the studio.’
G
iven the uncertainty around the band, the early word coming out of Los Angeles is predictably mixed. They began work at their long-time LA base Mates, which has rehearsal space in north Hollywood and also a state-of-theart facility just off the 405 freeway in the San Fernando Valley (in early February, sources said that Axl Rose had yet to attend any rehearsals). The plan is to move into an aircraft hangar for full production rehearsals. There is little information on a set-list, although it’s believed that songs from Chinese Democracy, specifically the title track and Madagascar, are being rehearsed along with late80s/early-90s material. “It’s certainly an amazing production,” says Arlett Vereecke. But exactly who is in Guns N’ Roses in 2016, beyond the core three members is another matter entirely. The shutters came down almost immediately after the announcement was made, and requests for interviews with members of both the Appetite/Illusion and Chinese Democracy line-ups have either been ignored or politely declined. Various social media posts and stories from those close to the band have the second guitarist as either former Velvet Revolver man Dave Kushner, or Richard Fortus who was a member of the last incarnation of Guns N’ Roses and who recently quit his other band, The Dead Daisies. It’s likely Dizzy Reed will play keyboards. In January, Chinese Democracy-era guitarist/keyboard player/ percussionist Chris Pitman tweeted: “We are playing at Coachella 2016 look out!”, only to remove the tweet shortly afterwards. Of course, much of the criticism of the reunited Guns N’ Roses comes from the fact that, as of midFebruary, only three members of the classic line-up are involved. Original drummer Steven Adler has made no secret of his desire to be involved, but that will surely be militated against by his health problems and the difficult relationship that he has
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had with Axl over the years. His replacement, Matt Sorum, effectively ruled himself out due to an unspecified issue with Axl. And then there’s Izzy Stradlin, the man who many see as embodying Guns N’ Roses’ original rebel spirit. The guitarist was the first to walk away from the band, in November 1991, saying: “Once I quit drugs, I couldn’t help looking around and asking myself: ‘Is this all there is?’ I was just tired of it; I needed to get out.” He subsequently returned to guest with the band in 1993, 2006 and 2012. Whether the publicity-shy Stradlin wants to fully step back into the three-ring circus isn’t clear, although there is an unconfirmed rumour that he has been made a financial offer to appear with the band for at least part of the Coachella set. “I think Izzy will definitely show up [somewhere on the tour],” says Arlett Vereecke. “He likes to play but he doesn’t like to walk the line. He likes to live his own life. Him and Axl have been good friends and have never really had a problem. He doesn’t have a problem with anyone. He will show up. Steven would love to do it. I don’t think they will take him on tour. Him and Axl are not the best combination and never were. It depends what Axl is comfortable with. I know Duff and Slash certainly have no problem with him.” Tom Zutaut agrees that an appearance, perhaps fleeting, by the original five could happen. “I do keep hearing rumblings of a Mick Taylor scenario with the Stones, where Mick came out and did a couple of songs. I wouldn’t be surprised if Izzy rolled out Mr Brownstone. But on the other hand, this is GN’R – I would be just as unsurprised if it didn’t happen. But this is the most volatile band in the world. It might happen on the day of the show – Steven gets himself inside [the backstage inner sanctum] and they invite him for a song. Or ten hours before the show the three of them will say: ‘This isn’t right without the other two.’”
here is one major factor in the new Guns N’ Roses dynamic: sobriety. “It’s going to be a much different tour than it used to be,” says Vereecke, who feels that some of the distance between Axl and the rest of the original band was down to alcohol and drugs. “Axl was totally sober as a front person, and the rest were just partyhardy for days on end. That causes problems. Axl was not part of their entourage of partiers most of the time, so that was not a fun thing for him, I would assume. I think they’re waiting it out to see how they get along. They are going to see how it works out. It’s going to be a totally different situation this time because everybody is sober. Axl is still having a drink here and there, but Axl was never a big drinker before. Duff and Slash are totally sober. It’s going to be interesting to see how long they can actually get along, all being sober.” “Sobriety brings more clarity, that’s for sure,” says Zutaut. “Better decisions are made, though Axl has been pretty much sober – not on drugs or alcohol – since the late 1980s.” Alan Niven adds: ‘People have said to me privately: ‘Niv, how do you see this going?’ I say well, from 1986 to 1991 I couldn’t be certain of anything. How can I be certain of anything now? They are maddeningly spontaneous, and I’ve always said that my definition of management is delivering spontaneity on demand.” “Axl will not let this fail,” concludes Vereecke. “He’s been working for too long. I think it will be a good show.”
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here is one other tantalising detail to this story. A hint that, if true, would change the complexion of the reunion. The prospect of a new album, or at the very least, some new material. “I know they’re doing some recording,” says Vereecke. “They’re definitely doing something there in the studio. Axl hasn’t been there, but Slash is definitely in there and it’s not for anyone else [other than Guns N’ Roses].” “I hope they’ve done it already [begun recording],” says Niven. “Duff and Izzy were in the studio before Christmas doing stuff. At a casual glance I think they’ve got at least a couple of tracks down. There has to be an element of creativity. Guns N’ Roses is about a spirit, about individuality. It can’t just be purely fiscal. It must be about legacy. After all, you don’t see many hearses with luggage racks.” GN’R’s old manager Tom Zutaut is hopeful too. “Maybe being in each other’s presence, playing that great music again, will heal the past and restore those friendships. And I believe that all of them are hoping they’ll be able to move forward and do some new things, other than go out there and play the hits.”
The Not In This Lifetime Tour is scheduled to continue til Nov ‘17.
Feature
We know about Axl, Slash and Duff. But who else will be on stage with them?
Izzy Stradlin
Melissa Reese
The words ‘may be involved’ have been thrown around a lot regarding the guitarist. “Izzy will sit on the sidelines until he feels like he wants to get his toes in the water,” says former GN’R manager Alan Niven. Stradlin himself broke his silence mid-2016, joining Twitter to say that he wouldn’t be a part of the reunion because the band “didn’t want to split the loot equally”. But as Duff’s wife Susan HolmesMcKagan commented: “Never say never.”
Replacing Chris Pitman – who left under a cloud in 2016 and later sued Axl for unpaid wages – Melissa Reese is the band’s second keyboardist, playing synth, sub-bass, background vocals, and ‘programming for all electronic sounds’ for the tour. She’s GN’R’s first female member and the connection is former GN’R drummer Bryan “Brain” Mantia, with whom she’s collaborated on a miriad of projects since 2010.
Steven Adler
Bumblefoot
US radio host Eddie Trunk reckoned that the original GN’R drummer could make a guest appearance “if a deal can be worked out”. Sure enough, the sticksman joined them on July 6 in Cincinnati, for Out ta Get Me and My Michelle, the first time since 1990 that he’d played with GNR. He later joined the band at shows in Nashville, Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires.
Guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal parted ways with GN’R in 2014, after joining in 2006. He played on Chinese Democracy and appeared on subsequent tours, but his GN’R tenure was peppered with friction (describing his first months with the band, he once said: “It wasn’t the warmest welcome”). He has since focused on supergroup Art Of Anarchy. With Slash back, he’d be an unlikely guest.
Matt Sorum Adler’s replacement is remaining tight-lipped, but it’s unlikely that he’ll be involved. Discussing his chances, radio host Trunk said in January: “I have also been told consistently by many that Matt Sorum is not involved.” He also said: “Apparently there’s heat with somebody, I don’t know.” Sorum guested on fellow absconder Izzy Stradlin’s 2016 single F.P. Money, the lyrics for which are presumed to be a comment on the reunion: ‘They can fight about it, money, some bag of gold/They can fight about it, money, the big wheels roll/And I’m taking the long way home today/Really got no worries either way.’
Dizzy Reed
The second guitarist? Yep: Fortus has played guitar with GN’R since 2001 and like Dizzy Reed, he quit The Dead Daisies in January in order to focus on “a momentous project”. Now we know.
Frank Ferrer Slash fuelled rumours by posting a rehearsal picture on Instagram in which Ferrer’s drum kit was visible. He has played with the band for the past 10 years and, apart from making room for Adler guest spots, has been on the whole tour.
Angus Young The most surprising guest so far, Angus joined the band at Coachella – only the third time he’s jammed with another band since 1977 – and then in Sydney in February.
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2017 GNR Getty; AXL: NEIL ZLOZOWER/ATLASICONS.COM
The longest-serving member apart from Axl, the keyboard player has been part of the line-up since joining to play on the two Use Your Illusion albums in 1990. He has also played and parted company with his side-project The Dead Daisies. If anyone was a shoo-in for the reunion shows beyond the three core members, it was Reed – sure enough, he’s been there, joined by…
Richard Fortus