1987.10.24 - NME - Animal House (Axl, Slash, Izzy)

Barbara Ellen wrote:ANIMAL HOUSE

A Case Study: Part 1
I am examining a rock biped. The subject has been refusing to leave his plastic bubble of rock consciousness for some time now. I have learnt that his name is Slash, and that he plays guitar for an American rock band called Guns n' Roses. Probe any deeper than that and he shrinks away, blinking furiously. The worst case of its kind I have ever seen.

In the beginning another guitarist called Izzy sat with Slash, to stroke his hand and help out with the tougher questions. But Izzy went walkabout in search of a substance called 'CAWWWFEE' and has not returned.

Some excerpts from Izzy's pre-exit contribution to the interview:

1. "You never know what they want".
2. "SILLY!"
3. "There's nothing heavy about that Okay!"
4. "We never said that, WE NEVER SAID THAT!"
5. "AWWWW......f--k this!"
6. "Well, it's kinda abstract..."

Slash took Izzy's departure hard. He lies face down in an ashtray experiencing terrifying hallucinations. I am pronounced a fruit-cake. He points and giggles, seduced and abandoned by his own paranoia:

"IS ANYONE REALLY INTERESTED IN THIS?..."

"I don't see why I have to justify what goes down on paper, what comes out on record...Why I have to tear everything to pieces and explain it to you. The fact that it sells some records is FINE...I just play guitar, okay!… Don't lay all that meaningful shit on me."

But Slash, my hands are tied. You are all I have.

Three days later I got a call from WEA. Slash and Izzy were sorry for goofing. They'd even stormed back up to the interview room to apologize, but I'd already split.

Hey, why didn't I ring Axl - the lead singer - in The States! It seemed a shame to leave things unfinished… And he was real anxious to rap with me, panting for the honour in fact! For an age, I stall brutally, savouring the carrot's swing. Then: Yeah, okay, why not...

Guns 'n Roses is a straightforward, low-IQ rock act reared, humoured and eventually viciously spoilt by the citizens of Los Angeles; America's surprise answer to a sunny, less jealous Birmingham.

They comprise of five Leif Garret liberationists in leatherette strides. Their music blusters and screams, but more often than not sinks to its knees with a deafening thud. Just another dying elephant.

Axl is the main voice, the prime lyricist and a worried man. While his colleagues unknowingly straddle the slack jaws of nonentity he alone is trying to keep the show on the road.

He'd have answered the phone before I'd even finished dialling if he could.

Well Axl, this is all very irregular

"Ooh… I just heard that it was a bad time... lots of misunderstandings on both sides. And I know Slash and Iggy with interviews. They hate to analyze, they just like to express themselves. I'm the opposite…"

Do you see this as your BIG CHANCE, the only one you'll ever have?

"In certain ways, yeah...because I'm a manic depressive. If I f**cked up now maybe I could still be successful in 30 years time. But maybe I wouldn't allow myself to live that long, maybe I'm too self-destructive…"

Does manic depression go hand in hand with paranoia?

"No...I wouldn't say so."

Your lyrics are often paranoid. There's even a song called 'Out Ta Get Me.'

"Listen, that's not paranoia. I've been in jail more times than I can actually count…literally. And at least 15 times for being completely innocent. I have this way of starting trouble even when I don't do anything. It's not like I go begging for it. Well, I sometimes do. Because I figure - why not, I'm going to get it anyway..."

Do you have difficulty accepting responsibility for your own actions?

"No...(laughs)..I figure everything's my own fault."

You've been hyped, haven't you?

"In some places...yeah but other times no."

Does the business side of things frighten you?

"No, I love it...but it's kinda rough y'know, being in a brand new band... A kid off the streets. One minute you're into being a business like intellectual, the next you want to be a kid again..."

Slash suffers none of these agonies. As a fully paid up rock biped he merely swigs every bottle handed to him, mis-spells every profanity he uses and obediently waits his turn to evolve. Fat sausage lips grin out pityingly as I fail to comprehend the massive sacrifice he and his cronies claim to have made in order to be swashbuckling rock stars. [Don't I understand anything?!!!]

"You start out, everything's new. And you've got nothing!...You have to start from nowhere...the chances of making it are very small. Do you know how many struggling musicians there are?...There's always struggle, always insecurity...Does that make sense?...Okay?...HELLO!"

It's alright, I am still awake (...but is anybody really interested?) But you were nothing before, can it technically be termed a gamble?

"Of course it's a gamble! Okay, right now we've got a certain amount of security. But had we kept struggling, had we got nowhere...God knows what we'd have done."

Is that your biggest fear?

"No..."

What does frighten you?

"Uhhh….I dunno. The sort of things that frighten anybody I guess: shotguns, murderers…"

Prohibition somebody suggests. It might even have been me.

"Yeah, prohibition...that's really frightening."

Is what you do based on reality or fantasy?

"Reality...but it would be fantasy to anybody who didn't live this way..."

"I'm just trying to write songs that I feel capture situations as accurately as I can," intones Axl, his voice breaking with intensity.

But isn't what you do bloated, dated and ridiculous?

"Oh no...it all depends on why you're doing it. A lot of hard rock stars use it as a gimmick. They just like being rock stars. I'm doing it because it's me. It's how I am. I don't like things to be so trivial. A lot of people out there deserves more..."

"That's dumb!"

Slash has been reduced to clawing he walls of his plastic [?], even teasing [?] his ringlets [?] in response to my continued audacity. What's dumb?

"What you just said...the rock animals."

It's just a term Slash.

"Well, it's a dumb term."

It is used to describe essentially [?] rock star.

"Oh yeah, f--k you..."

Axl's definition of a groupie is a girl who is into bands, who just wants to play around, be around the guys, have sex and "party." "She doesn't have much of a brain about it." He supposes that, yeah they're probably looking for more than they get but reckons they're going the wrong way about it.

"You don't go and give everybody in the band head and then expect some big emotional relationship out of it."

Do you like women Axl?

"Yeah, quite a lot more than a lot of them deserve. But I'd like to be able to give a lot more..."

Do you see yourself as very sexy people?  

"Ummmm…...well yeah. Right now we're very much into that, very much into (cough) sex. That's a big part  of it all. It's like SLASH IS A COMPLETE ANIMAL… but a lot of girls like that. They're particularly into that."

Slash is a complete animal. To be more exact a chimp. His luuurves to talk about his rock and roll lifestyle, but enjoys wafting his exciting sex life under your nose even more. To him life is just a bowl of last [?] cherries, to be plundered at will.

"It's such a STOOOPID thing. There's normal decent people. Just like mmm, your average person and then there's the rock groupie crowd. The type of girls we come across all the time..."

And how would you describe these girls Slash?...Brave maybe? Misguided? Reckless?

"STOOOPID's a good one."

Izzy: "There's no big statement. Okay...we know some really nice girls too. Some girls are just...uhh wonderful."

Slash: "Yeah, I have a girlfriend over here and I really like her. I don't call her names or talk about f--king her up the ass. Know what I mean..."

W. AXL ROSE ON OPENESS:

"We expose everything about our lives, whatever we happen to be going through...It's real so we're not ashamed to display anything and I mean ANYTHING that we do."

How would you describe yourself Slash?

"Ummmmmmmmm………...I dunno...Well, I do know bit I ain't willing to tell.

What were you arrested for all those times?

"That's nobody's business."

Have you ever fallen in love?

"That's nobody's business either..."

Slash - exposed and unashamed - pouts smugly at the wall. The he rises and begins to circle the huge interview table. On the fourth revolution, his body bends over, his knuckles graze the floor. He seems hairier than before. Slash is a complete animal, a rock biped. The transition should soon be complete. A blubbery minder appears in the doorway. Slash giggles for no reason at all. The minder signals for me to leave. The boy must rest now. I go home to compile my notes...