1988.12.03 - Interview with Duff and Steven

This interview was recently uploaded

"Duff and Steven explain a la Bill & Ted about the significance of "G N' R Lies" and Axl's allegations that other members of the band needed a bit more supervision. Of course, the record shows that both guys would later leave or asked to leave the band... Steve Harris interpreted. The interview was done on Dec. 3, 1988 at the Roppongi Prince Hotel in Tokyo, Japan."


Transcription:

Interviewer: Press it [interrupted]

Someone: The EP?

Interviewer: Yeah, well, the latest one.

Someone: Oh nice.

Interviewer: It's kind of daring in that, you know, it features some of the earlier recordings along with a lot of acoustic [interrupted]

Duff: Good, ok, what it's all about is, uhm, there's nothing really daring about it just because, uhm, what are we daring?

Interviewer: I mean you could have stuck to the same formula that succeeded with 'Sweet Child O' Mine' and 'Wecome to the Jungle'.

Duff: Yeah, but that's, what also the EP is, is just between two albums [interrrupted]

Steven: Fun. Good fun.

Duff: Yeah, for the fans you know. And we saw the live stuff, the earlier stuff, being sold now -- because it was a limited release -- being sold in L.A. for 150 bucks a copy which is ridiculous. What fan of ours can afford that? So we re-released that and put out this new stuff which is just another side to us, we do play sometimes acoustic, we do acoustic shows, so and the daring part of, we've never really kind of clung to the commercial, I mean, we've never clung to that road that like Whitesnake say or something like that would take.

Interviewer: Right. [?] feel compelled and all, I mean, after you the first album did so well, to take a lot of time, put together a really slick package, you kind of go out there and know double the success of the first album [?] I feel the pressure you do that [?]?

Steven: No, we did all of this in just an hour. We sit around when we get we're at home together, we drink and you know we have bongos and tambourines and all kinds of percussion stuff, acoustic guitars, we sit around at home, you know, get drunk and write stuff, so we say, "Hey, let's record some of this stuff, maybe the kids might like it."

Duff: Yeah, so we just did it in like two days. We recorded that. This is not our next album, you know, I must clarify that, it's just an in-between. The next album we'll start recording in January. That's when we're gonna to take a lot of time, months, okay? So this is just...how do I word this, I don't wanna say it's filler because it's not, but it's just in between the two records, it's a different side of us.

Interviewer: To hold us over till dinner?

Duff: Yeah, exactly! It's a snack!

Steven: It's something we want to put out for ourselves.

Interviewer: For yourselves?

Steven: It's for the kids, the fans! But this is something, you know, we're hanging out, and we had no gigs, nothing up, and you know we were hanging around and said "Hey, let's just go in the studio and record this." [?] "Let's go and do it, see what happens." And that's what happened.

Interviewer: I was impressed by the acoustic side of the album, I thought it was something that was possible because you guys had kind of matured, you've matured to the point where you can make something like that, but actually, that's what the band's been all about.

Duff: That's how our songs are written, exactly. So now we have come to the point where the industry, we're accepted now in the industry, something we actually despise, but we can do, the success that we have gotten we can do really what we want to do now, you know. And which is both sides, you know, acoustic stuff, you know, I'm sure kids are interested if they're interested in the album they're gonna be interested in some acoustic stuff and how the songs are written and all that, and it's just, you know, it's not to be taken seriously.

Steven: It's just fun. It's just a good time. You hang out, drink, and play.

Interviewer: Do you think the real second album will lose some of the metallic edge the first one had?

Steven and Duff: No.

Duff: I mean, there's a [interrupted]

Steven: We're not [?]

Duff:  [Humming]

Steven: We got all kinds.

Duff: It's gonna be all kinds of stuff. Again, the success and the respect that we've gotten from the industry and from our company will just give us more time and more of ourselves to put into the next record. You know, we'll be able to write...like, the first one it was rushed, and while "these guys ain't shit, they gonna do shit," you know, and blah blah, so, and so we were kind of rushed, in a way mentally, and, and, eh...

Steven: Physically. 'Cause we were going on tour [?]

Duff: Do you guys want some sake?

Interviewer [?]: No thanks.

Duff: Sake?

Interviewer: No, thank you.

Steven: On my side of it, as a drummer I'm very lucky to play and know my band, because they're all exceptionally well players and I doubt very, very much that anything that we put out can be bad because, like I say, as a drummer I'm lucky to have a great band. They can't do nothing wrong. You now, so I am the lucky one.

Interviewer: What exactly was the, you say, that you put out this album, this most recent one, just to kind of keep the fans happy until the next one comes out, the real second one? Is that the reason?

Steven: No. 'Cause we wanted to do it.

Duff: Yeah. It's gonna be a while. I mean, you got to realize that Appetite for Destruction album came out July 1987, okay, now it's almost 1989. We're not gonna have the next record out until next summer, or late spring. So that's a long time. Well, another reason for that, that the record really wasn't realized by the world until last, just, five months ago, you know. But we have our hardcore following, it's kids who have followed the record since it came out, so that's a long time for them to wait for another record, so, you know, let's let's give them something and return the favor. And also, like I said, again it just shows another side to the band.

Steven: That's good, to turn the favor.

Interviewer: The original EP, was it Live Like A Suicide?

Duff: Yes.

Interviewer: You already sign with Geffen when that was put out?

Duff: Yes, we had already signed with them, but it was gonna be a while 'till...again, it was the same type of thing but on a way smaller level. Okay we had at all this press, and everything, even way before we got signed and, uh, we could foresee that we couldn't get the record out for a while, okay, took us from, when we got signed, which was May...

Interviewer: 87?

Duff: Oh, God! No...

Interviewer: Oh no, it was 86?

Duff: It was May of 86! So it took us over a year to finally get the record out.

Steven: Oh shit! That's fucking [interrupted]

Duff: So that's a long time.

Steven: I'm freaking [interrupted]

Duff:  I know, I know, it takes you a while to figure that out. It's true, though.

Steven: Wow!

Duff: So we've just went in, it was the same type of thing on a smaller level as we're doing now, you know, so we put out the Live Like A Suicide, we just went in and did it. And it was out, you know, we put no time time into it, you know, and our money, but we just wanted something of somewhat kind-of cool quality, you know, to give to the, you know, our fans and then we got signed and we can put out the record and then you reach another plateau and then you put out this EP, we just did, and now we're gonna go, you know, well, this is the last of our touring we're doing for Appetite.

Interviewer: You just wanted to kind of get something ready and put it out back then, back in 86. The quickest and most efficient means of doing that was to record a live album then as opposed to going into the studio?

Duff: Yeah, yeah. It was, I mean, yeah, it was just quick, "let's record it, its out," yeah.

Interviewer: Why didn't you do it in the studio, why did you do it live, though?

Steven: Just to do it. How many people come out with a live EP?

Duff: And also, I mean, we are a live band.

Steven: Yeah, we play much better live. More of us comes out when we're playing for the kids and seeing people, the lights, more comes out than when were sitting in the studio with the guy in the headphones and the guy in the booth is yelling at you. So, "hey, let's go out give it all we've got and we'll record it, let's go!" So it was easy, basic, and we gave the world what we're about. We just wanted to show, "hey, this is what we're about, this is what we do, you like it, you don't like."

Duff: That's that's the way we've always been. You like it, you don't like it, it doesn't matter. Even when we went in to make our record, we didn't really care. Money has never been an objective of this band. I mean we come from having absolutely no money, you know, not to sound...but we were a rock and roll band that...instead of, like, uhm, it's just, how do I explain? I mean, there's formulaic bands that try to do what they foresee how they can be successful, and they dress the right way and they do this and that. That was never our objective. Our objective was to make a good album and kick ass live, you know.

Interviewer: Do your best.

Duff: Right. In our sets every night are completely different, you know. You go see every band, you know, and his rap, the singers rap, will be the same thing every night, "hey, you in the first row," you know, "you've got big tits and that reminds me of this next song." Every night's the same thing. The same set. The bomb explodes and then [interrupted]

Steven: We had one bomb explode on us once. And we didn't even do it! The guys in Mötley Crüe when we toured with them. Scared the shit [interrupted]

Duff: Scared the shit out of me, too!

Steven: It was the first song [interrupted]

Duff: BOOM!

Steven: 'It's So Easy', and it comes in goes "bom-cha-bom-bom-cha-BOOOOM!" and I watched everybody in the band, standing in front, in one leap they were all behind me. It was so [interrupted]

Duff: It was sick. It was the last show. They did it as a joke to us.

Steven: Boom!! [?] the only bomb ever went off.

Interviewer: And the crowd loved it?

Duff: I don't know [interrupted]

Steven: I think it scared the shit out of them, too! It was weird.

Duff: Our gigs, every night, we've never had a gig with the same set. We just have a list, up in front, with just a guideline of songs we have.

Interviewer: Who calls the shot?

Duff: Well, Axl go into a rap [interrupted]

Steven: Everybody feels, however we feeling that night, or whatever goes. Sometimes we'll just play all slow songs. Every night, it will never be the same.

[cut in audio]

Interviewer: Live Like A Suicide was on a label?

Duff and Steven: Uzi Suicide.

Steven: Our own label.

Interviewer: Okay, your own label. Right. Right.

Interviewer: [?]

Duff: Yes, Geffen distributed it.

Interviewer: Distributed it, yeah, okay.

Duff: Which is also [interrupted]

Interviewer: This song, we're kind of hung up on [?]

Duff: It's kind of cool for us, too. So now, in the very beginning, we've established our own label so, like, we can do all kinds of shit with that now. And Geffen and Warner Brothers will distribute it as far as, like....Slash wants to make this "slashaerobics" tape and distribute on Uzi Suicide and it's jammed with a bunch of guys, right, fat guys drinkin beer and sitting on the lazy boy recliners and the aerobics [?] 12-ounce curl and then, you know, you got that your TV breaks down and the fix-it lady will come in, and of course it is some lady with a, like, a short miniskirt and she'll be bending over, looking, you know, fixing the TV. And then the next step in our slashaerobics is, "oh the old woman, ah, so you're looking at their dress" "To your left" [?]

Interviewer: Exactly.

Duff: And of course a pizza lady will come in. And he wants to do it on Uzi Suicide, you know. And we have a lot of friends in L.A. who, promising bands, in this and that, and we can put them on Uzi Suicide, so it just opens up a lot of, you know, avenues for a lot of shit we would like to get into now, you know, friends of ours and your friends and helping you and all that.

Interviewer: Patience. You know how that song came about, Patience? How did you put that together? Did it just come about naturally [?]

Duff: Izzy had written...It's funny, there's actually two versions of that song. Izzy wrote the verse [humming the verse with help from Steven] and I wrote the part at the end, "A little patience, yeaaaaah" Okay, so that came together like that and we had it. We never really rehearsed it, we kinda just started playing it live.

Steven: Yeah. Out of nowhere. Out of nowhere. And all of a sudden [interrupted]

Interviewer: You worked out the parts and started playing and everybody joined in? [?]

Duff: Right.

Steven: Live. Like I said, you never know when you are going to play it, and Axl says, "This is a song called Patience." And we are all, "Uuuuaaaaaaa!" Whatever happens, happens. Spontaneous kind of thing.

Duff: And there's another version that I have of it. I used to have an 8 track recorder. The 'Patience's that's on that is about a girl and it is really sweet and nice. I have another version that is more of a comedy thing, you know, it was when I lived in this apartment with three people and were doing drugs and shit, we sit there, and it's kinda comedic, it's like you sit there, and you just need a little patience. Your roommate takes a shit and forgets to flush it. All you need is a little patience.

Interviewer: This is a completely different thing?

Duff: Oh yeah.

[Tom Mayhue apparently enters the room]

Steven: Tommy! My mentor.

Duff: I need to talk to you, too [directed to Tom?]. Later.

Steven: This is my mentor, Tom Mayhue. Stage manager and godsend.

Duff: Yeah, that song just came together and the only way we rehearsed it was, actually, "Whoop! Let's play it live!"

Interviewer: Okay, Bobby.

Interviewer: How did it come together, though, I mean [interrupted]

Duff: We just, we wrote it, uh, Slash, Steven, Izzy, myself in the rehearsal studio but we only rehearsed it like once. And then, the next time we played it was actually live in front of 20,000 people, or something. That's how we actually do a lot of shit. Like under pressure you thrive, you know.

Interviewer: Spontane.

Duff: Yeah, spontane.

Interviewer: Did anyone get kind of antsy about doing something that subdued, that laid-back?

Steven: Well, we all have all kinds of different moods. It's like everybody else, you know, sometimes we feel [?], sometimes we are all hyper. It all works out. It doesn't matter.

Interviewer: I think it's just one side of the band, you know, that the audience had not been expecting, this acoustic laid-back side.

Steven: Well, it's just us. Some of the songs on the album Appetite were written acoustically.

Interviewer: Like what? Remember anyone else?

Steven: Uhm, just a few of them. Some of the songs were like [?],  we're just sitting around, you know, we all live together, just sitting around jamming, and this comes up. And then we go into the studio and we'll seeing [?], you know, Slash will come in and he'll be all, you know, crazy and feel kind of hyper, and plug his electric guitar in and he'll play a slow song, you know, that was acoustic, nice and slow, and he'll play it real crazy and we'll "wow, that really cool!" So then we will work it out like that. Whatever happens, happens. We ain't got a clue.

Interviewer: Yeah, sounds good. [?]

Steven: And on the album, a lot of the takes were first takes.

Interviewer: Is that right?

Steven: Oh yeah. Like ' Sweet Child', we played it once.

Interviewer: Is that right?

Steven: I'll never forget, I was on the phone with this girl that I was going out with, she hated me, I was bummed, she hung the phone up on me. Duff says, "Come, we got to play, we got to play," I'm all depressed and sad and we go in and we play it but I fuck up on it, you know. But it just had it, it just worked, the feel was there. [interrupted]

Duff: What song was that?

Steven: 'Sweet Child'.

Duff: Oh.

Steven: We did it once. We played it once in the studio.

Duff: So we did one take?

Steven: One take.

Duff: Oh.

Steven: It was one time we played it.

Duff: That's right.

Steven: And it's not perfect. It's not like Def Leppard, everything is, you know, with the meter and everything is perfect. That song is not perfect. And I figured the reason the kids really liked it, is exactly because it's not perfect. It's real.

[People talking over each other]

Steven: The only song that took a long time was, was, uh, 'It's So"...no, no, that's uhm. Da-da-dadada-du-bam! [humming the drum intro to 'Think About You']

Duff: Did that take a long time? Amazing that the simplest song [interrupted]

Steven: The simplest song. The first take we did I thought it was great, and they didn't like it. We played it like 50 fucking times.

Duff: No, we didn't play it 50, probably about 8. Probably about 8.

Steven: We did it a lot of times. It was a lot, because [interrupted] I, because

Duff: I don't think we [interrupted] it's a real mess of trend [?] in the studio, like the most fucking weirdest intricate song maybe you'd fucking just get it like that, and then, it's a little mental thing, you know, the simplest song is this fuck up on.

Steven: Yeah, I fucked up on that a lot. Just that one song. Everything else is off first, second, third takes, on that album. There was only one.

Interviewer: The easier something is the more distracting [?]

Duff: Yeah, you dig in. I mean, the perfect way to think of it to dig in. Mentally you have to fucking...you actually, like, do dig in. You know, you are like, "Arg, okay, let's go!"

Interviewer: So at the show we can expect you guys to blow a few of the easier songs, yeah?

Steven: No.

Duff: No [laughing] Actually, the show would blow every song.

Steven: [?] it's not just a few of them, it is every one of them.

Interviewer: But it also comes together, sometimes in the shows [?]

Steven: Well, you are only human, you know. We're not perfect. We don't play it, you know, like machines or anything. We just go out there and do our thing...

Duff: There was actually a [interrupted]

Steven: ...and I try so hard not to fuck up because I got Tom Mayhue sitting right behind me when I fuck up...

Duff: He will slap him.

Steven: ...I got a big slap coming so I try very hard, 'cause he's right there with his fist! He dips it in a little bit of water and if I fuck up, BAM!

Tom Mayhue: Let's put it this way, we haven't had to go to that yet, though.

Steven: Because I know what's gonna happen!

Duff: There was a perfect quote, actually, from this Rolling Stone article. What was it? "Erratic ain't live that cannot go from brilliant to terrible within a song". And that's actually [interrupted]

Interviewer: Yeah, that's pretty much true. That's to me what it is all about.

Steven: That's what I say, I guess the reason things are going so well for us is because we're real and it's [interrupted]

Duff: It's not planned out, so [interrupted]

Someone: Lives and breathes.

Steven: Yeah, what happens, how we feel, whatever goes down, it happens, nothing's perfect.

Duff: Can you imagine always having one show every night? If you like fucking have it as a nine-to-five job, being a computer programmer, there's something just, you know, every day you're doing the same thing and doing a gig like that, which is [?]

Steven: Yeah, that's not happening. "Tom, okay, push the button", and I will just sit there, I don't even have to play. "Tom, push the button." I don't work that way. We go out there and...balls out.

Interviewer: [?] being a vocalist, Axl has to kind of take care of his pipes there, because he can kind of screw up his voice very easily and if his voice goes the band really can't perform.

Steven: No, the band can always perform but it is just not the same without him out there, you know [laughter].

Interviewer: Do you guys make sure that, like, always get him home on time?

Duff: He does it himself. He doesn't go out an party with us, if that's what you mean.

Steven: Yeah, no, he takes care of himself. He takes care of himself.

Interviewer: Actually, I interviewed him on the phone last February, and he was saying that he kind of had to take care of you guys, tried to keep you guys in order.

Duff: As far as he knows! [laughter] Fuck! Did he say that?! Yeah right!

Steven: Yes, he is just there, every day, taking care of us!

Interviewer: "If I don't to keep these guys busy 24 hours a day they go out and be drugs all the time."

Duff: Oh, funny man!

Steven: If anyone takes care of us it is this man right here [probably indicating Tom Mayhue].

Duff: No, we take, I mean [interrupted]

Steven: ...of anybody! Don't get me wrong, we love Axl and we always will, but that's just the way he is. But we are all big boys, we...

Duff: FUCK!

Steven: ...can take care of ourselves.

Duff: That's a crock of shit.

Steven: I'd say, I'd say, that's a crock about that big, like the one sitting on top of the Melting Pot on Melrose.

Duff: A big old crock.

Steven: That's a big old crock.

[laughter]

Duff: He wasn't laughing when he said that or anything?

Interviewer: He was saying it all facetiously, but I think what he meant was also that he had a vision, you know? [interrupted]

[laughter]

Steven: Pffffffffft!! "I have a vision!" Aaaaargh!

Duff: You're kidding!

[talking in their mouths]

Interviewer: When you guys were recording "Appetite for Destruction" he says he recalled that one day, listening to tapes, it was outside the studio, I forgot, with a couple of you, I forgot who it was, but he said you guys were listening and also one of you guys said to him, "Axl, I can see what you meant now, this is what you had in mind for us all the time."

Duff: No, no, no.

[laughter]

Steven: Tom Mayhue?

Duff: Just no comment, man. Oh my.

Interviewer [or Tom Mayhue]: It was a great story, though.

Steven: No, no, "I want to have a happy gay face and suck a dick for Jesus" [?], maybe that's what we said to him. [laughter]

Interviewer: Okay. Maybe he was being more facetious than I thought [?]

Duff: I think he was just fucking tooth [?] [interrupted]

Steven: I think he was trying to give you the corn over the phone [?]

[laughter]

Interviewer: He wasn't talking all blurry [?], that's for sure, because at the time you guys were still kind of waving around the middle of the charts there without any real sign of going up that far.

Steven: We were going nowhere when we were in the studios. We didn't even have a record out then. [laughter]

Duff: It was us, Bury my head in the sand [?].

[laughter]

Steven: Death from Above, Satanism. Oh man, can you believe that? That's fucking way out there. I am sick now. I don't feel the fucking same, I don't feel the same anymore, man. Shit.

This is my mentor, right here, okay? This is the main man, right here.

Interviewer: What exactly do you do?

Tom Mayhue: I am the stage manager [interrupted]

Interviewer: The stage manager, okay.

Steven: He's the stage manager [interrupted]

Tom Mayhue: I take care of Steven's drugs... [interrupted]

Duff: And Steven.

Tom Mayhue: ...and Steven.

Steven: The stage manager [interrupted]

Tom Mayhue: [?] I'm his father.

Steven: He's my mentor. He's my idol. I do look up to him and I respect him more than anything.

Interviewer: Okay.

Steven: Him, Duff, Slash.

Tom Mayhue: I worked with Dokken for about 4.5 years.

Interviewer: Is that right?

Steven: Was that Cocken or Dokken?

[talking over eachother]

Steven: Dorken?!

Tom Mayhue: Dicken and Dorken.

[laughter]

Tom Mayhue: The nicest bunch of kids I ever met in my life. They're all very professional about their jobs and love the jobs [interrupted]

Steven: There'll always become a blowjob every night [?]

Tom Mayhue: Everybody pretty much takes care of their own thing.

Interviewer: Mhm.

Tom Mayhue: They never had the rock star attitude

Interviewer: But this actually, you've mentioned this spontaneously, because this is part of the question actually, he was saying that the mass media has portrayed the band as a bunch of bad boys and like on the verge of self-destruction in any minute.

Tom Mayhue: That it's not actually the case then [?].

Steven: Well, we can be super bad guys occasionally...

Duff: Yeah, I mean [interrupted]

Steven: ...when we get a little liquored up [?].

Tom Mayhue: It's not a situation where it runs like clockwork and everything all the time, you know, it's definitely freeform, rock and roll.

Duff: But that's all about.

Tom Mayhue: It really is what it's all about. And I've never seen a band so happy ever, you know, everybody really as far as their own trips going [?].

Interviewer: So everything's in line, though, I mean the question was about, like, are you guys, like, kind of wavering a very thin line here?

Tom Mayhue: I would have to say no to that.

Steven: No.

Tom Mayhue: Absolutely not. Everybody's… [interrupted]

Duff: At certain points, at certain points…

Tom Mayhue: ...everybody's stable [?].

Duff: To be honest at certain points it wavers. I mean, when you got five different personalities trying to fucking do one thing and have one aim you're going to have wavering things, and you know... [interrupted]

Steven: But that's life!

Duff: …and being our age.

Tom Mayhue: Contradiction, though, I think is part of their whole trip.

[laughter]

Interview: The Rolling Stone article you mentioned kind of makes out Axl to be a psycho, I mean, having read that, I mean... [interrupted]

Duff: Okay, here's what they did, and they really misled us, because they sent this guy out...Rob? Tannenbaum.

Interviewer: Tannenbaum, yes.

Steven: Canonball?

Duff: And, uhm, spent three fucking days with us, day and night, right? He was asking questions about the music and this and that, which is the most important thing, it's our music… [interrupted]

Interviewer: And put down [?] the answers you guys said, what kind of observations of what the songs were... [interrupted]

Tom Mayhue: He was really standoffish as far as...

Steven: Socially.

Tom Mayhue: ...socially not really getting involved.

Interviewer: Well, you know, the guy can't be a buddy-buddy [?].

Tom Mayhue: Right.

Duff: But we were trying to be... we fucking showed him a great time, we hung out and actually really became friends within those three days. And we really believed he was going to focus on the music of the band so when the article comes out really was disappointed because he focused on the drinking and the fucking and the sake...

Interviewer: And I could almost see what he implied, a serious mental problem...

[incredulous laughter]

Interviewer: [?] mental lapses?

Steven: What?

Duff: What? No. Uhm.

Tom Mayhue: I know what you're saying. I think that he got a little critical at times about the situation. I mean, everybody's different, I mean, I've never met a group of guys like this in my life. I worked for a lot of bands and they're...they're interested in a lot of different things versus what another band might be interested in, you know? I mean, yeah absolutely get a blowjob or something like that is fucking definitely part of their life.

Steven: Thank you. He's right there! [?]

[laughter]

Tom Mayhue: But it's not the most important, I mean, it's very obvious to me that the music is the most important.

Duff: Yeah.

Tom Mayhue: And these guys get bored quick, you know, and they like excitement, they like to go out and do things, and shit, they're all kids.

Duff: So it's like, you know, what it's like, kind of, let me let me try to think this up, okay, a powerful executive, executive of a bank, somebody comes into a to do an interview with him. Well, this executive of the bank really likes to go to lunch, he loves his lunches, he loves that 12 to 1, okay? So instead of focusing on his job, which they take to do the interview about, they focus on how the fucker likes to go to lunch, you know, which has nothing to do with his fucking job. He likes to go to lunch and that's cool, he has the right to like to go to lunch, but he's back at 1 o'clock to fucking do his fucking job.

Interviewer: Mm-hm.

Duff: So kind of, you know.

Interviewer: It is a good analogy, it's just that, uhm, you know, the reason they write these things is to get the non-musical side of it, of the band.

Duff: I think the reason they write this shit, I mean, that's all that's been written about us, it's the non-musical...it's just, these guys fucking drink and do this in that, fine!

Steven: So does everybody else!

Duff: So what? You know, everybody in the fucking world drinks, almost, you know, so what? You know, so let's focus on the music, you know. That's what was promised to us and it didn't happen.

Interviewer: [?] question here. One last question. It's assumed that Guns N' Roses is a set fixture of you guys, I mean, the band kind of evolved with lots of different changes, a lot of different guys came in and out… [interrupted]

Duff: Oh.

Interviewer: ...it was really Guns N' Roses... [interrupted]

Duff: Yeah, that was way back.

Interviewer: Yeah, way back. And then when it did become Guns N' Roses and it became kind of set, I [?] assume that this is like the permanent lineup and if there are any changes... [interrupted]

Duff: There will be no changes.

Interviewer: No changeable [?] parts?

Duff: No, I mean, uh, I would be safe to assume that if there was somebody to leave or if...whatever, the band would not be happening anymore. I would almost be safe to assume that. Unless I know something I don't know.

Interviewer or Tom Mayhue: Actually, we got a pink slip waiting for you.

Duff: Oh right! When I walk out the door! [laughter]

[talking in their mouths]

Tom Mayhue: You are a bad, bad bass player and we're gonna push you into the corner [?]

Duff: I mean, because it takes personalities and a certain, uh, way with each other to fucking make whatever is going to happen. You can't just like drink fucking... said we kicked Stevie out of the band, you can't just bring fucking Tommy Aldridge in the band and it's going to be the same.

Interviewer: Right, right.

Duff: This won't happen at all.

Tom Mayhue: There's a bond between these guys… [interrupted]

Duff: Goes way away back, too, it's really strong/strange.

Tom Mayhue: It's got a fair [?] journey [?]

Interviewer: Hmm, that's interesting.

Tom Mayhue: [?] love each other, you know.

Interviewer: And here I expected a cozy [?] replacement for [?]

[laughter]

Steven: No, it's Fab Freddy.

Someone: Before we go we gotta take a pic.

Woman: Wait a second, Slash is coming up.

Interviewer: Okay, great. [someone talking in Japanese]. Yeah, that would be great.

Duff [directed to Japanese man]: Okay. So you understand some of the stuff we are saying, right? So I know you didn't translate a lot of shit to him

Interviewer: Well you know we got like 45 minutes to do, like, a real interview so it's like if I were to translate anything [interrupted]

Duff: So you will just do it later.

Interviewer: Right.

Woman: Slash is coming up right now.

I am enjoying Duff's articulation back in 1988 in this interview. I can hear in his voice the same guy that wrote his book It's So Easy that came out in 2012.

Excellent find!!

I was surprised to find an interview you didn't already get in this sites database format.

Truth be told, a resourceful member at Shuffleitall.proboards.com found the same uploader's interview in 93 with (post GNR but also recorded in Japan) Izzy... also very telling but more about Ju Ju Hounds. None of us in the site so far remembers hearing it before so I checked out the uploader and saw all this recently uploaded stuff, I think recorded by a translater/interpreter for publications of the times. I don't know if the uploader is the original recorder. The interview with Duff and Steven was great so I had to put it in here. There are other voices on the recording I can't identify but appear to be staff members traveling with GNR.

New videos are added to youtube all the time, so I appreciate all the help I can get in posting them here

Finally finished transcribing this mammoth interview. It really takes a lot of time. I have spent many days sentence by sentence. Good to have it transcribed for eternity, although there were quite a few words I missed here and there. Interesting that Tom Mayhue comes and sits in on the interview. A lady mentions that Slash is coming up, too, so I assume Steve Harris also did an interview with him. Would be great to have that one, too. Also interesting that they comment on the interview Harris did with Axl in December 1987 (although Harris say it is from February 1988) and that they comment on the infamous RS interview.