2002.11.08 - KISW Radio Seattle - Interview with Axl

Transcript:
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Interviewer: Well I’m at the controls and when a guy named Axl Rose calls me, that’s exactly what I'm gonna do. What’s going on, Axl?

Axl: What’s happening? Getting ready to play!

Interviewer: Yeah, man. So welcome to Seattle, dude!

Axl: Yeah, well, right now it’s beating Vancouver!

Interviewer: Do you wanna address last night at all?

Axl: Sure. We were going to play a show and the plug got pulled on us. We were fully able to meet our commitments and we don't really understand what happened right now, why the show was pulled. We have a legal team looking into it, to get to the bottom of it, and then I'll have to sort out things about the people that bought tickets and things like that. But basically, the building manager just decided - in all of our opinion, prematurely - that the show was just cancelled. And he didn't discuss it with anyone. He just announced it over the PA. We found out… My guys found out over the public address system.

Interviewer: I have read that you were, like, stuck in L.A. or something and they -

Axl: I was in the air, I was in a plane on the way to the show. It gets complicated.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Axl: The manager of the building said that the doors wouldn't open 'till he had confirmation that we were wheels up, that the plane was in the air. And as soon as he had that confirmation, he cancelled the show without telling anybody.

Interviewer: That takes some balls –

Axl: And not only did he cancel the show, he cancelled the show and before this - I don't know if it was a riot or a disturbance, whatever - started, they had police at the airport trying to find out what was going on with me. So, it's all kind of screwy.

Interviewer: Well, let's look ahead to tonight. Tonight will be the kick-off, and tonight I know it’s gonna be an exciting night for a lot people, because, you know, other than your appearance on MTV…

Axl: (Laughs)

Interviewer: You looked great on that, dude, you looked really, really good. Like, you know what, Axl has not lost – he has not lost a step, he has not lost a beat, you were on it, and tonight, people have been waiting, dude. You know, this will be the biggest night in a lot of people's lives in nine years, bro.

Axl: Oh, you’re too kind. But the MTV thing was a lot of fun. We just basically… We were working on putting that little medley together on that day, 'cause we didn't know we were playing it 'till a couple of days before it, 'cause it was still in negotiations. So we were really happy to be able to do that. It just blew all of our minds when we were out there and doing it. Like, when the curtain went up, it was like, 'Is this still really happening?' So we're excited to be doing this. This is still a prelim of trying to get some road legs with this lineup, with this band, you know? We just did a mini-tour in Asia and in Europe a little bit, and now we're doing this, and we're also out to show people that this band rocks, this band can play, this band does justice to the old material, and it's a really exciting thing to watch in its own right.

Interviewer: I gotta say, regarding the MTV thing, when you said, "Is this really happening," from a viewer’s stand-point I was saying the exact same thing.

Axl: (Laughs)

Interviewer: I couldn’t believe it. Well, what has been the biggest challenge for you, and actually on the other side of that, the best thing for you in getting the new lineup together and getting out there?

Axl: Well, the biggest challenge is that, in working with these people, I developed kind of one-on-one, individual relationships and little groups, in putting this thing together, rather - I mean, this isn't a band of a bunch of guys that met each other at a bar, or found each other through ads in a paper or anything. It's been… I carefully looked for these individual people and their personalities and how exciting each one of them is and what they bring to this project. So then the challenge was working with all those different personalities and bringing those personalities together - especially personalities that, when they have to learn how to play other people's material, then that's difficult as well. So it was a lot of challenges in bringing that together, but now everyone's pretty excited, everyone got really excited during the little mini-tour, and that brought us together more as a natural band rather than a studio band where everybody's kind of working separately, maybe even on the same songs, in little clusters here and there, but it's not the same thing as actually being a stage and road band.

Interviewer: You’ve really - it sounds like nurtured relationships with these guys, and the new disc, "Chinese Democracy"… Do you have any idea when the fruits of those labors will come to harvest?

Axl: Sometime during the next year. With the guys, I do have a really positive relationship with the individual members, and each one of them excites me with what they bring to it, creatively or just as a person, and how each one of them works really hard. Because I think anyone that watches this project at all also sees the abuse that this project goes through. And these guys shoulder that really, really well and they don't have a problem dealing with it, and I have to just respect the hell out of that with these guys.

Interviewer: Absolutely. I mean, with everything that Guns N’ Roses has been through over the decades, and now  you’re back and you’ve got the new lineup... You, yourself, Axl, I think... have you made a conscious effort over the years to remain out of the public eye, or does that just come natural to you? Because -

Axl: No, no. It didn't exactly come natural. But I would say that originally I was shy, and then we would fight through it, and, you know, a lot of substance abuse would get you out there in front of those cameras. You get like, 'Hey, I can do anything.'

Interviewer: Yeah (laughs).

Axl: And that was like in the past. But also - a lot of this has had to also do with the… There's a lot of really difficult legal situations that have gone on over the years. And I haven't been quite the recluse that people make it out - I just don't go places where people are taking my pictures, or I know that's gonna happen, or there's gonna be interviews, or looking for the public spotlight - I have stayed out of that. There is also talking in interviews that anything I would say would turn around and be used against me in these various, behind-the-scenes court cases and they're all very, very complicated - things lasted for years in all kinds of cases that the public doesn't really know about yet - and little by little there'll be more time to talk about those things, but I'm more interested in having the music talk first and I'll say what happened later.

Interviewer: Absolutely. Let’s talk about the opening bands tonight. You've got the Mix Master from The Beastie Boys, is that right?

Axl: Mix Master Mike. He's done some work with them and he’s like - he's actually worked with Brain and Bucket in the past. But separate from Brain and Bucket having worked with him, Tommy was the person that turned me on to Mix Master Mike by having me go see a scratch show when they had this movie out, “Scratch,” and go to a performance of that, and Robin and I went with Tommy down to watch that, and it was really exciting to watch. He just moved the people in a cool way, and it was cool that Tommy and Robin really liked it so much. And they didn't know that this guy already had a relationship with Bucket and Brain, so it just kind of seems natural, because of their enthusiasm, and then the other guys already knowing him and being excited about it. And then we're also playing with CKY, which is kind of a thing that people are into right now and they have a really interesting attitude. So, it should be fun.

Interviewer: Absolutely. Looking really forward to it, man.

Axl: We wanna give people, you know, a full show of a few different things to see.

Interviewer: Those people who are sitting right now in their cars listening to this, on their way to the show anticipating what they’re gonna see... Is this gonna be a typical, in-your-face, lots-of-explosions, lots-of-loud-rock Guns N’ Roses show that we've (?)?

Axl: It's gonna be a big rock show, yeah. There's a lot going on in the staging of it, you know, and pyro and different things like that. So it will be a big show. But also, this show is something that is designed to be growing over the next couple of years. It's like, this is the start of something, but then remember, we will be putting out a record, and then, about a year or so after that, we'll be putting out another one, so there'll be a lot more material added into the set with a lot more things going on. This is the beginning, and we need to be showing people a lot of the older material, but it will grow.

Interviewer: I'll let you go, Axl, because I know - your guy told me you had just a couple of minutes.

Axl: Yeah, I’ll get down to sound check –

Interviewer: Yeah, one last question –

Axl: Before they cancel the show!

Interviewer: Yeah (laughs). One last thing: what are some of your fondest memories of the past that you hope to carry forward, dude?

Axl: What I like best about performing is when you know that you've done a show that the crowd, not like they go, "Oh yeah, Axl you were the man" or something, but [cut]

Related article in NME, November 11, 2002:

AXL ON THE ATTACK
Frontman makes claims on Seattle radio show...

GUNS N’ ROSES frontman AXL ROSE appears to have laid blame for the band’s cancelled VANCOUVER show last Thursday (November 7), which wound up with disgruntled fans rioting at the box office and clashing with police, at the feet of the promoters.

In an impromptu radio interview with Seattle rock station KISW, he is reported to have said that he was en route to the Canadian show when promoters pulled the plug, and that the band’s legal representatives are looking into the incident.

Rose is reported to have said: “We were going to play a show and the plug got pulled on us. We were fully able to meet our commitments and we don’t really understand what happened right now, why the show was pulled. We have a legal team looking into it, to get to the bottom of it, and then I’ll have to sort out things about the people that bought tickets and things like that.”

When asked by the station DJ whether he had been stuck in Los Angeles due to bad weather, which was the reason given at the time for the band’s no-show, Rose replied: “I was in the air, I was in a plane on the way to the show. It gets complicated. The manager of the building said that the doors wouldn’t open ’till he had confirmation that we were wheels up, that the plane was in the air.” He went on to say that it was “all kind of screwey” and alleged that the promoter pulled the plug after he was told that Rose was on his way to the show.

As previously reported on NME.COM, the band’s North American leg of their ‘Chinese Democracy’ world tour finally kicked off in Tacoma on Friday after the riot in Vancouver.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/guns-n-roses-343-1371114

Article in The Ottawa Citizen, November 10, 2002:

Guns N’ Roses blames GM Place for Vancouver riot

Show cancelled prematurely, lead singer says

BY SORELLE SAIDMAN

Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose, whose cancelled performance caused a riot in Vancouver Thursday night, is placing the blame squarely on GM Place, and he says he is having a legal team look into the situation.

In a rare interview with KISW Radio in Seattle Friday afternoon, Mr. Rose launched into the Vancouver issue immediately after being welcomed to Seattle by the interviewer.

“Right now, “ answered Rose, “it’s beating Vancouver.”

“We were going to play a show and the plug got pulled on us,” said Mr. Rose. “We were fully able to meet our commitments and we don’t really understand what happened. Basically the building manager just decided, and in our opinion prematurely, that the show was just canceled, and he didn’t discuss it with anyone. He just announced it over the P.A.”

At that point, thousands of fans, using metal barriers to smash widows, rioted for about an hour outside GM Place. Twelve people were arrested, one was charged with mischief and unlawful assembly and another with break and enter and unlawful assembly. Ten others were charged with breach of the peace.

The concert would have been the band’s first show on the North American leg of its Chinese Democracy World Tour.

Eight officers were at the arena initially but the number was increased to about 20 when it became clear to police the concert was likely to be cancelled.

Patrol cars were then called to the scene, increasing the number of officers to more than 100.

A statement issued Friday from Harvey Jones, GM Place manager of operations, said only that “a decision to cancel this show was made when it was recognized that the band could not take the stage at a reasonable time.”

The rest of the statement pertained to the prosecution of the vandals and assurances that the future events schedule would not be affected by the damage. Calls to Mr. Jones on Saturday were not returned. According to Mr. Rose, he was in a plane on his way to Vancouver when the plug was pulled. “It gets complicated,” said Mr. Rose, “but the manager of the building said that the doors wouldn’t open until he had confirmation that we were wheels up, that the plane was in the air, and as soon as he had that confirmation he canceled the show.”

Mr. Rose also made an unclear reference in the interview about the police waiting for him at the airport. “Not only did he cancel the show, they had police at the airport trying to find what was going on with me,” he said.

However, a spokesperson for the RCMP detachment responsible for the airport denied they were waiting for Mr. Rose, and added the city police would not have had jurisdiction there. Customs and immigration officials either had no knowledge of the event or were not available for comment.

Sources close to band told the Vancouver Province the plane was diverted to Seattle when Mr. Rose was notified of the cancellation. Guns N’ Roses performed Friday night in Tacoma as scheduled.

The reclusive Mr. Rose first broke years of press silence in 1999 with a statement about his new band that closed with the line, “Power to the people, peace out and blame Canada,” presumably a reference to the South Park movie playing in theatres at that time.

Meanwhile, Vancouver police said after the incident that they were “reviewing the use of force by our members.”

Special to the Citizen

MTV News, November 12, 2002:

AXL ROSE CLAIMS CANCELED GN'R SHOW COULD HAVE GONE ON
GUNS N' ROSES SINGER SAYS HE'S CONSIDERING LEGAL ACTION AGAINST VENUE.

ARCHIVE-JOE-DANGELO
11/12/2002

Axl Rose said the riot-inducing cancellation of Guns N' Roses' tour kickoff Thursday was done without the band's knowledge and he's considering legal action against the venue.

In an interview with Seattle radio station KISW-FM on Friday, Rose said the building manager of Vancouver, British Columbia's General Motors Place prematurely called off the concert without consulting the band.

"My guys found out over the PA system," Rose told disc jockey Ditch.

"The plug got pulled on us," he said earlier in the telephone interview. "We were fully able to meet our commitments, and we don't really understand what happened."

Rose isn't the only one wondering what went down last week. One thing is sure — Rose was not present at the GM Place when the doors were scheduled to open at 6:30 p.m. He was still in the air, en route from Los Angeles, according to his management company, which cited mechanical difficulties with the aircraft as the reason for the delay.

In the interview Friday, Rose never mentioned any mechanical difficulties and implied that he could have made it to the stage in time for GN'R's scheduled 9:30 start time. The concert was called off around 7:30 p.m.

According to a statement issued by Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment, which manages GM Place, the decision to call off the show was made "when it was recognized that the band could not take the stage at a reasonable time."

Rose added that he was having a legal team look into the situation.

When the crowd of thousands got wind that the show was a no-go, several of them began trashing the place. An early assessment of the damage was estimated at several hundred thousand dollars, Orca Bay's statement read.

Calls to the GM Place and Guns N' Roses' Geffen Records spokesperson, asking who was footing the bill for the damages, were not returned at press time.

Ticket refunds were made available at the point of purchase, according to a spokesperson for promoters Clear Channel Entertainment.

Guns N' Roses' second show of the tour in Tacoma, Washington, went on as scheduled.

http://www.mtv.com/news/1458653/axl-rose-claims-canceled-gnr-show-could-have-gone-on/