2016.09.04 - Globo TV - Interview with Axl and Duff

Transcript:

Interviewer: I was reading that recently, the band posted on Facebook something ironically saying, "Hey, thanks everyone who's trying to take credit for getting us back together.' I'd like to ask you guys, what was the real driving force that made you guys come back together?

Axl: Actually, it had a lot to do with Paul Tollet of Coachella. He started talking about it, it seemed real, so at that point, I just told my people that they could go ahead and start talking to people, and see what’s going on. And then as it became more real, I texted Fernando and asked for Slash’s number. And then Fernando texts his mum and is like, "If this is a joke, I’m going to kill you” [laughs]

Interviewer: When you guys signed up for Coachella, did you think at the time it was going to be a one off kind of thing and then only later it developed into a full tour?

Axl: No, no. It started with talking about Coachella, but at the same time that those talks were starting, there were people involved with Coachella — agencies and things — so they were having these conversations about what they could possibly do or not. So it was all being considered.

Interviewer: So both of you already had it in mind that, "Well, this might end up turning into a full blown tour"?

Axl: We started talking, like, in the spring.

Duff: Yeah.

Axl: Everybody's people were finding out about possibilities and things like that, and then we started talking together in the spring and so.

Duff: It was just, you know, getting into rehearsals, it was really just kind of one day at a time. I don't know that I thought too much about how far ahead. It was just really cool to play some of the music with the guys that I was playing it with.

Interviewer: I've ever read comments you guys have made about the current state of the music industry, and I had a question about that. Let's say if you guys were, let's say, 17, at this day and age, the exact same guys you were 30 years ago, do you think the whole environment of music, of the business, would allow a band like Guns N' Roses to be born?

Axl: I don't know. I don't recall what I've said about the state of the music...

Duff: Yeah. I-

Axl: But-

Duff: Go ahead.

Axl: I don't know what I would, you know, be gravitating towards out there and what medium I would be listening to it in. I mean, you meet people that, some listen to the radio, other people's like, "What's radio?" you know? Other people listen to Internet radio-

Interviewer: Streaming services?

Axl: Yeah, streaming services. And some people like, collect CDs, you know, and. Some people collect cassettes now.

Duff: Yeah.

Axl: So I don't know, I don't know where I would be, what I would be gravitating towards.

Duff: But I have 18 and 16 year old daughters, so I'm so informed by what... it's not about me. You know, we're like, it shouldn't be about me either. It's what their experience is and what like they're streaming service turns them on to and there's this whole underground seeing again where people are playing instruments and going to these little shows. And I've gone to a couple with them, it's a whole new thing that we might have recognized maybe, I'm not sure.

Interviewer: In LA you mean?

Duff: On the West Coast.

Interviewer: On the West Coast.

Duff: I've seen-

Interviewer: You mean small clubs that kind of-

Duff: Small. Yeah, there's a place called The Smell and it's like on Skid Row and it smells and it's 5 bucks to get in.

Interviewer: And CBGB's all over again?.

Duff: Yeah, ish, Yeah, but the kids, you know, they take like Uber there [chuckles].

Interviewer: A little bit different.

Duff: Yeah.

Interviewer: You go out to to see music, Axl, at all?

Axl: Not lots, no. I'm not - oddly I guess - I'm not really a live performance guy. I'd rather watch sports on TV rather than most of the time than go to an actual game. I'd rather, because like the close-ups and all of that. So I'll watch some things if it's film, but I'm not so much seeing things live a whole lot.

Interviewer: Talking about small venues. What was it like to you, for you guys, to be back at the Troubadour and do a Guns N' Roses show?

Axl: It was great for about a song and a half.

[laughs]

Duff: Yeah, he broke his foot. Second song, man.

Interviewer: But you went on you, didn't you?

Axl: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Interviewer: Did you realize you had broken your foot?

Axl: Yeah, I was pretty sure I did.

Duff: You said it. You said, "I think I broke my foot."

Axl: I was pretty sure I did. Because my sister had just broken her leg a few months before and she'd made this comment, she goes, "You know, when you break something, you know," and all of a sudden on stage I was like, "She's right, you know." And then-

Duff: Yeah.

Interviewer: And you guys are doing dates in November in in Brazil and of course, Axl, you have this very strong Brazilian connection, so to speak, a whole family that's so close to you. For those who are watching us who may not be very familiar with that story, could you sum it up for us, again your Brazilian-

Axl: I've been enslaved for several years now by a Brazilian family. They torture me and they make me go sing and stuff.

Interviewer: Go back together?

Axl: Yeah, they whip me. No, no.

Interviewer: Seriously.

Axl: No. I met Beta like in '91 and her family. And then we've been together in ways since then. And that has been a big with everything behind the scenes with Guns N' Roses and her family has been very supportive. Fernando has worked his way up in this business. doing all kinds of things with Guns N' Roses, but also with other companies and things, been everything from doing baggage and wardrobe to being tour manager and stuff. And doing the jobs well. And he's also worked with all the managers that I've worked with and learned from them, you know, so it's also how to communicate with them. So it seems to be something that they, you know, like being involved with and... It helps everything, plus they're a big family and I like the family environment. It helps keep things kinda of insular.

Internet: Cool. You guys are talking... I've heard talk of a possible new record. You have new material. I think you have shown stuff to both Duff and Slash. Does it... For someone who comes from my generation, we're pretty much the same generation. Does it bother you that your new record might not be available physically, that there won't be like a real CD? Or even if there is a real CD, people will probably listen to it online on streaming services. How do you deal with that new environment?

Axl: It doesn't bother me. Except for in terms of like for your... interested in say, you know, album art and stuff. [cut] In ways I can get it because I think that in some ways there were not as many artists doing a lot with the artwork of the album that you can't just do in photos somewhere.

Interviewer: But that was something you gave a lot of thought to, right? The right color-

Axl: Tried to.

Interviewer: Yeah. That's gone now. How do you-

Duff: Again, I'm observationalist in this and I've been the person in my house going, "You gotta buy the... you gotta," if it's Joan Jett you're like, "Buy the record!" and I'm looked at like I'm an alien. Like that's one extra button to push. You know, that's it. The art is really secondary and they experience their music a whole different way. But I think there is that, like Ax said, like people are now again collecting cassettes and vinyl, like 15, 16, 18, 18 year olds getting a record and looking at the things. So that might just be a niche, but you know, it's all about streaming. [cut]

Interviewer: You have collaborated over those years after Guns N' Roses split, so to speak, you have collaborated both with Slash and Axl. But Axl and Slash hadn't played together or been together for quite a long time. I'd like to ask you what it was like the moment when you actually got together with Slash for this? For this reunion. Was it at someone's house? Was it on phone call? What was it like? Was it awkward-

Axl: What do you mean, like playing together? Or do you mean-

Interviewer: Just being together in the same room, even before playing well.

Axl: Yeah, like I said, I had asked for his number. And then I had called him and he was on tour or something, and then we set up when we were gonna see each other, and I think something happened to both of our plans and that didn't happen. And then eventually in October, we got together and we had a dinner at my house. And then Duff and I went and hung out right after that — like a week or so after. And then it was just kind of talking and planning. We initially were gonna do some kind of promos and stuff, and then other things came up that got in the way of that. And then it was rehearsals. And I went down to rehearsal, and everything just sounded right. And we just went to work. It was time to sing, see what the sound sounded like and stuff and get ready for the show, and it was all working, you know, so.

Interviewer: Do you think that each one of you, I mean the three of you, had to change a bit? Something has changed inside for this to be happening, or again, do you think it ended up happening naturally?

Duff: I really got to discover, in the best of ways, the album Chinese Democracy that he made and it was these songs he had worked on. And I had listened to the record, but when you start to play the songs as a player, you really discover everything under, all the layers-

Axl: A lot of layers! [laughs]

Duff: -in the songs. But really kind of how you hear it and how I'm hearing the songs are maybe a little bit different. And when we went into rehearsals, we wanted to really own that… like this is gonna be what we're doing. This is what we're doing.

Axl: I didn't have anything, really, to do with that. They stepped to songs on Chinese. They asked, "Which ones are you interested in us doing?'" and stuff, and they stepped to that on their own. They started working with Frank, 'cause they had their own way of working with the drummer, and working with the rhythms, and kind of picked up the tempo on some of the old songs a bit-

Duff: Yeah.

Axl: -and things like that, and got their communication working. So they spent a good while with that on their own.

Interviewer: You made reference to drumming and that reminded me of Steve Adler. Is there any chance that Izzy and Steve might join you guys? I mean, I know that Izzy already played with you guys. Any chance Steve might join you later in the tour?

Axl: No, Steven did join us.

Duff: Yeah.

Interviewer: He did?

Duff: Yeah.

Ax: It was Steven who joined us. I don't....At the same time, I have no idea. When this started, Steven had just had back surgery and stuff, so I don't have any idea about that. And with Izzy, that's just something that… I can't really describe to say… I don't really know what to say about Izzy. It's, like, you could have a conversation and think it's one way and the next day it's another way. And I'm not trying to take any shots at Izzy. It's just his thing is kind of his thing, whatever that is.

Interviewer: I think it's time to go. I have one last question for you, Axl. The split duties between Guns N' Roses and AC/DC, are you planning on doing that for quite some time now because you have-

Axl: I'll do that as long as Angus wants to do it and as long as… and we can make it work. Guns is really supportive about it.

Duff: It's pretty radical. It's pretty radical.

Axl: I love that it's my job. I love that Angus is my boss. And singing the early Brian songs — the first couple of albums with Brian — those are something else to sing, so it's physically a different animal and another kind of work. And I take pride in doing it. And it's a hard thing in its own way. So after this, there's a few days and then I'll do another ten shows with AC/DC. And after that, it's kind of, whatever Angus wants to do.

Interviewer: One final question, I have to ask you that what do you have to say to the Brazilian fans who are waiting for the show in November? Some of the shows are already sold out. What can they expect and what special recollections you have of Brazil, you've been there quite a few times.

Axl: We're coming!

Duff: We're coming!

Axl: We're coming, we're on the way!

Duff: I remember the first time we went there, there was no Internet or anything in 1990 or whenever it was.

Axl: '91.

Duff: '91. And going down there and really kind of sort of having an idea, but we've never been down there before. And showing up... getting into the airport. And remember the Gulf War started, we were flying and the pilot came on, "The Gulf War has started," like "What?" And we landed and and it was thousands of kids at the airport. I hadn't seen it. Japan a little bit but Rio was a whole different thing. And that was our welcome, like thousands of people. And then thousands of people outside of the hotel. And then we played two sold out nights at the Maracana Stadium and that was....

Axl: Yeah.

Interviewer: And it was not common for bands at their peak to go to Brazil. That was a very unusual thing. So that was me-

Axl: I think it was a Globo-

Interviewer: Yeah.

Axl: -that wanted us to to come there and talked with our management and stuff about us going there, you know, and we were really glad to do it. We were excited to do it.

Interviewer: Right. I hope you have a good one there. I wish I had more time, but I think you guys are supposed to be on stage soon.

More transcripts from Blabbermouth:

Axl: "Actually, it had a lot to do with Paul Tollett of [the] Coachella [festival]. He started talking about [booking a reunion of the classic GUNS N' ROSES lineup for his festival]. It seemed real. So at that point, I just told my people that they could go ahead and start talking to people and see what's going on. And then as it became more real, I texted Fernando [Lebeis, who is part of the GUNS N' ROSES management team] and asked for Slash's number. And then Fernando texted his mom [Beta Lebeis, who is also part of the GUNS N' ROSES management team], and he was, like, 'If this is a joke, I'm gonna kill you.'"

On whether they initially thought Coachella was going to be just a one-off reunion gig:

Axl: "No. It started with talking about Coachella, but at the same time that those talks were starting, there were people involved with Coachella — agencies and things — so they were having these conversations about what they could possibly do or not. So it was all being considered."

On whether they thought from the very beginning that this could turn into a more long-term reunion:

Axl: "We started talking, like, in the spring. Everybody's people were finding out about possibilities and things like that, and then we started talking together in the spring."

Duff: "Getting into rehearsals, it was really just kind of one day at a time. I don't know that I thought too much about how far ahead. It was just really cool to play some of the music with the guys that I was playing it with."

On Axl's first meeting with Slash to discuss a GUNS N' ROSES reunion:

Axl: "Like I said, I had asked for [Slash's] number. And then I had called him and he was on tour or something, and then we set up when we were gonna see each other, and I think something happened to both of our plans and that didn't happen. And then eventually in October, we got together and we had a dinner at my house. And then Duff and I went and hung out right after that — like a week or so after. And then it was just kind of talking and planning. We initially were gonna do some kind of promos and stuff, and then other things came up that got in the way of that. And then it was rehearsals. And I went down to rehearsal, and everything just sounded right. And we just went to work. It was time to sing, see what the sound sounded like and stuff and get ready for the show, and it was all working."

On whether each one of the three of them — Axl, Duff and Slash — had to change a bit for the reunion to be happening right now:

Duff: "I really got to discover, in the best of ways, the album 'Chinese Democracy' that [Axl] made [without the other members of the classic GN'R lineup], and it was these songs he had worked on. And I had listened to the record, but when you start to play the songs as a player, you really discover all the layers in the songs. But really kind of how you hear it and how I'm hearing the songs are maybe a little bit different. And when we went into rehearsals, we wanted to really own… like this is gonna be what we're doing."

Axl: "I didn't have anything, really, to do with that. They stepped to songs on 'Chinese'. They asked, 'Which ones are you interested in us doing?' and stuff, and they stepped to that on their own. They started working with Frank [Ferrer, drums], 'cause they had their own way of working with the drummer, and working with the rhythms, and kind of picked up the tempo on some of the old songs a bit, and things like that, and got their communication working. So they spent a good while with that on their own."

On whether there is any chance classic-era GUNS N' ROSES members Steven Adler and Izzy Stradlin will join the reunion at a later date:

Axl: "Steven did join us [on a couple of dates]. At the same time, I have no idea. When this started, Steven had just had back surgery and stuff, so I don't have any idea about that. And with Izzy, that's just something that… I can't really describe to say… I don't really know what to say about Izzy. It's, like, you could have a conversation and think it's one way and the next day it's another way. And I'm not trying to take any shots at Izzy. It's just his thing is kind of his thing, whatever that is."

On whether Axl is planning to continue singing for AC/DC beyond the North American shows that are currently taking place:

Axl: "I'll do that as long as Angus [Young, AC/DC guitarist] wants to do it and as long as… and we can make it work. GUNS is really supportive about it. I love that it's my job. I love that Angus is my boss. And singing the early Brian [Johnson] songs — the first couple of albums with Brian — those are something else to sing, so it's physically a different animal and another kind of work. And I take pride in doing it. And it's a hard thing in its own way. So after this [GUNS N' ROSES' North American tour], there's a few days [off], and then I'll do another ten shows with AC/DC. And after that, it's kind of, whatever Angus wants to do."

Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/axl-rose-and-duff-mckagan-discuss-guns-n-roses-reunion-publicly-for-first-time-in-brazilian-tv-interview-video/#b1EvpX3BC6Wf9Wrc.99

Interesting as it is, they remain rather vague about "new songs" and stuff...

A rather disappointing interview, in my opinion. Not much new info and they seemed a bit awkward.

Considering the amount of interviews they've done since the first show(s) in April, this is quite good actually!

This is nice too, interviewing the Lebeis family (I don't understand much, but it's still nice):

That's cool, unfortunately I don't understand a word, either

Longer version of the interview:

Do we have all of this? I need to check everything's been transcribed.

I found this, I don't know if it is the whole thing, though. Added it to the first post, too.

That's all I have, too.

There's also this (in Portuguese) that includes interviews with the Lebeis:

Blackstar wrote:That's all I have, too.

There's also this (in Portuguese) that includes interviews with the Lebeis:

Yes, that's posted earlier in this thread. I need to transcribed and translate it.

Finished transcribing. There were some sections that hadn't been transcribed before.

It is striking how uncomfortable Axl looks throughout this interview compared to the China Exchange thing.