1986.08.22 - L.A. ROCKS - Interview with the band

Many thanks to @troccoli for sharing with us the rare articles and interviews he has collected, as well as many other amazing GN'R memorabilia.
The original pictures of this interview can be found on his site here:
http://www.troccolitm.com/PressAppAlt.html

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GUNS N’ ROSES
An interview by Kelli Craig

Kelli: So, you signed the final deal with Geffen today.

Izzy: We just signed the deal.

Duff: It’s basically just a formality, a 62 pager.

Slash: When we did the initial signing, it was what they call a memo deal, like basically we were signed, but this is the big re-draft of the original contract.

Axl: We’ve been waiting to sign this contract.

Slash: It’s what procured the other half of our money.

Axl: We’re actually, as David Geffen put it, “indentured servants” to Geffen Records.

Slash: But now we can’t hear any rumors about us being drafted for at least another 2 years.

Kelli: You’ve been labeled as Bad Ass, why?

Steve: Because we are.

Izzy: The body aroma, our armpits smell.

Axl: We don’t like to lay down and die.

Duff: We’re the only band I know that will say no to a very good opportunity, but later we’ll shit in your face.

Izzy: There’s the benders and the bendees.

(Hysterical laughter)

Slash: The benders and the bendees, only Izzy could say something like that.

Kelli: Now that you’re one of the biggest drawing bands in L.A., has that affected your personalities any?

Axl: I wouldn’t say we’re the biggest drawing band in L.A. There’s other bands that will pull in more people. Our managers don’t want to hear about us selling out the Troubadour. If they hear that again, they’re gonna puke, because what’s the Troubadour to them. They act like it’s nothing. So that helps us keep a calmer attitude. They’re like, “big fuckin’ deal you guys, so what, if you want to play 700 sellers for the rest of your life, we don’t want to work with you.”

Slash: “Wait until you can sell the Wembley Stadium. Then you can talk to us.”

Duff: When you see us play there’s still a real grimace in our eyes, we’re still trying to kick ass. 

Izzy: Yea, so nothing’s really changed.

Steve: We’re appreciative of you saying that we’re the biggest drawing band. It was very nice of you and the people out there. New people and the same old people I’ve seen from the very first shows. It makes us feel good and I don’t feel any different. I just feel happy. 

Kelli: Why do you change your phone number so much? 

Slash: Too many people calling all the time. 

Steve: All these girls call us up, they don’t know. 

Kelli: Do you have tons of girls swarming you all the time? 

Steve: We can’t get enough girls swarming us. 

Slash: We like all kinds of girls. 

Axl: The more, the merrier. 

Kelli: What bands do you particularly like in L.A.? 

Steve: Jet Boy, they seem to be getting around a lot. 

Axl: L.A. Guns is doing really good, and I really like the Prodigal Sons. I like their music a lot. 

Kelli: Slash, what do you plan to do when you get your money? 

Slash: I don’t have any money.

Axl: We spent it. 

Slash: I don’t have any, but I spent it. 

Kelli: What do you plan to do when you become a big Rock Star? 

Slash: Actually, I was thinking about that today. Except for spending money on equipment and odds and ends, I really couldn’t imagine buying a house or anything. Well, I have one thing, I want to get a house and build a jungle around it. 

Kelli: Izzy? 

Izzy: Um, I want to buy guns and go in his jungle and kill all his animals.  

(More hysterical laughter) Izzy’s just the big comedian tonight.

Izzy: No, um, buy some killer guitars, I’m going to start a guitar collection. That’s what I’m going to do, and I’m also going to build a studio underground. 

Kelli: What about the rumors? 

Duff: Basically, there’s been a lot of rumors, from us having AIDS to us getting dropped from the label. 

Axl: We’re not allowed to go to England because a couple of members have AIDS. 

Kelli: I thought you were supposed to go to England to record? 

Axl: The only reason we were supposed to go there to record, is because [of] Bill Price, who did the Sex Pistols and engineered the Pretenders’ first album. We haven’t found a producer that is available. So why go to London when you don’t have a producer? Also, why go to London, spend all this money (that comes out of our royalties), if we can possibly do it here for a lot less money. But we still might possibly go, everything’s up in the air right now. 

Izzy: Instead of waiting for the album and the producers, we’re going to self-produce our own EP. If things go well, it should be [out] around the end of September. 

Kelli: So, that won’t be on Geffen? 

Izzy: No. It’ll be an independent release. 

Slash: And the whole point of doing that is to get it out on a street level. 

Axl: We didn’t just go into weekends at the Troubadour. We started on a Tuesday, Wednesday, then Thursday, then Friday and Saturday. 

Kelli: You built yourself up. 

Axl: Yea, that teaches us the best lesson. We work harder that way. 

Slash: It’s good to go through a long period where you are really toe to toe with your fans, so that you’re no different. That’s the thing I really believe in. 

Duff: I remember the days when we had fuckin’ Thursdays and we thought, “Great, we finally got a Thursday, let’s rock”. Man, it was happening. 

Slash: We’re doing a show this Saturday (actually last Saturday) with T.S.O.L out in Orange County, and we’re opening for them. It’s a low paying gig, but we’re doing it, ya know, we don’t have any kind of status thing. People put that label on us because “they got signed”. But it’s not like that. We’re still a rock ‘n’ roll band. That’s the only thing that matters. 

Kelli: Did you actually break up briefly before you show at the Lingerie? 

Slash: No, we didn’t break up, we just had a long talk; sorted out a lot of shit. 

Axl: There was a conflict of a lot of things and a lot of disagreements at the time of that show. I thought it was one of the worst shows we ever played. But the next day, we had to have it out. A lot of things went to our heads because this is all new to us. If we did break up, who else are we going to play with that we really value as much as we value each other? 

Duff: We’re not the most relaxed guys. We’re not Mr. Mister, ya know. We live what we’re doing. We don’t just wear these clothes just when we play shows. So things like this are bound to happen. We think for ourselves and we don’t lit so and so tell us what to do. 

Slash: We’re a very tense bunch of people when you really get down to it. 

Axl: We’re very explosive, and that gets put into our music. Every one of us here is an individual. After the Lingerie show, it was like starting over again. Most of us have worked together off and on. For over 3 years, we’ve exploded on each other many times, and we always come back. 

Duff: Basically, I think every band in the world has done this, but since we’ve become more in the public eye, it gets blown out of proportion. 

Izzy: I think the music alone, it’ll propel this band to where we want [it] to go. 

Duff: That’s basically what it’s all about. 

Kelli: Do you have any hobbies, anything else besides the band? 

Axl: When I have the money, I want to get into photography. You know, nude photography. 

Izzy: He’s taking applications now. 

Axl: I like poetry and I’d like to drag race. 

Slash: I just want to get more fucked up in the music business. 

Kelli: Izzy? 

Izzy: I’m studying to become an attorney at law. Criminal attorney. 

Axl: He’s working for Normal Now. 

Duff: I haven’t thought about it too much. 

Axl: He wants to open a brewery. 

Duff: I have brewed my own beer, but... 

Steve: I want a single bass drum to sound like a double bass drum. Then I will be very happy. 

Izzy: On the contract, there’s a part that states there will be a movie; a documentary. 

Duff: It’s going to be called Cockman and Throbbing. 

Axl: You’ll be able to see it at the Pussycat Theater. 

Slash: A movie would be the best way to do it, because everybody in this band is visual, and a movie would be the best way to do it. 

Axl: I’m looking forward to people doing a book about us that has a lot of stuff in it that never happened, like, did you hear about when you were with this girl, Slash, that you never even met? 

Slash: I said get out of my room doing that shit. 

Axl: Regarding Music Connection, I wrote that letter because I don’t want bands to get treated in a negative way by a paper. I personally do not have the time to lie. I can’t afford for someone to sue me. I can’t afford to write a letter with lies in it. I feel my letter doesn’t need much of a response. I know what happened. The band knows what happened, and we’re doing the best we can. If they’re going to print their opinions of me, I’m just going to print my opinions.  

Duff: What it comes down to is, hearsay is hearsay, and rumors are rumors. Believe what you will, when you come and see the band, that’s what really matters.  

Steve: Anybody who read those Music Connection interviews and who wrote those stupid fuckin’ things back don’t have a clue or an idea of Axl Rose or Guns N’ Roses. They don’t know what the fuck is going on.

Slash: Who wants to be jaded in the beginning of their career. 

Slash: For us, Guns N’ Roses is a way of life.

I am tryign to figure out when this interview was done.

Slash: We’re doing a show this Saturday (actually last Saturday) with T.S.O.L out in Orange County, and we’re opening for them. It’s a low paying gig, but we’re doing it, ya know, we don’t have any kind of status thing. People put that label on us because “they got signed”. But it’s not like that. We’re still a rock ‘n’ roll band. That’s the only thing that matters.

I can't find any Orange County gig with T.S.O.L. sometime before September in 1986 that happened on a Saturday. Possible a gig we didn't know about.

This interview must have been done in August between the 4. (when Music Connection printed Axl's letter) and the 22. (the issue date of the interview).

Something doesn't fit, yes.

The date of the publication (August 22) is certainly correct, because it's on the bottom of the page in the image. Slash says that the gig in Orange County would be "this Saturday" and the paper notes that it was already done when the interview was published and it was "last Saturday", so it was the Saturday before Aug. 22. The last Saturday before Aug. 22 was Aug. 15.

So the interview was done between Aug. 4 indeed (Axl's letter) and Aug. 14.

They did a gig on Aug. 15, but it was at the Scream, which, I believe, wasn't in Orange County. There is no other information about that show at the Scream though (setlist, openers etc). So maybe they didn't play the Scream that day? Or maybe the plans changed?

I miscalculated. The Saturday before August 22 was actually August 16, not 15. So it's possible that they played at the Scream on Friday, Aug. 15 and a show in Orange County that we didn't know about on Saturday Aug. 16.

I think it is quite possible they played quite a few gigs in 1986 that we don't know about.

From Reckless Road.

The image on the fornt of the magazine was taken backstage after the band's show at the Scream on August 15, 1986.

Marc Canter also tells that the show that is mentioned in the interview and supposed to take place on August 16th in Orange County, was cancelled because the band thought the gig was too far away.

At the August 23 show at the Whisky, Axl would refer to this article and thank the interviewer Kelly and the man behind L.A. Rocks, Ruben Blue:

Axl: "I'd like to thank Kelly for the interview in L.A. Rocks. I'd like to thank L.A. Rocks and Ruben Blue for all their support" [On stage at the Whisky, August 23, 1986].