1997.MM.DD - VH-1 - Interview with Gilby

Transcript:
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[Clip from “Cure Me Or Kill Me” video]
 
Gilby: The last five years have sort of been a blur. You know, from, like, almost three years of touring with GN’R, and then right into my record, and then right into Slash’s record, it’s like, by the time I got home, it was like five years later and I was a bit hangover. So I started working on some new songs and this is what I got. To me it’s, you know, just like a good old-fashioned rock ‘n roll record. The guitars are loud, it’s got a lot of energy... It might not be fashionable right now, but it’s got a good spirit.
 
[Clip from “Cure Me Or Kill Me” video]
 
Gilby: It’s not that much of a change, but it is has more direction. Like I said, on the first record – what I do on my own, you know, when I’m playing guitar and singing, I like rock, I like pop, I like blues, you know? So I have, like, a lot of different styles that I enjoy and I like to play. So on the first record each song was, like, one of those, you know? And it was very diverse and I actually wanted it that way. But when I did this record, I kind of took everything that I enjoy and put into every song. So you hear a little bit of rock, a little bit of pop, a little bit of blues in every song. So, therefore – I mean, to me, like I said, it’s just rock ‘n’ roll. It’s just straight ahead.
 
[Live acoustic performance of “It’s Good Enough For Rock And Roll”]
 
Gilby: When I’m writing songs, I always start on the guitar first and, you know, get something going that’s new or whatever. But, lyrically, I’m always writing – I write from, like, an observer’s point of view, you know? I don’t really write about myself and, you know, “I don’t feel good today and I gotta go see my therapist” or whatever – not that I would, but... (laughs). I tend to write from an observer’s point of view – you know, what’s going around and stuff, and kind of point things out, and kind of raise a lot of questions in my songs and stuff. Not a lot of times do I, you know, give the answers – it kind of gives people something to listen to and think about stuff like that.
 
[Live acoustic performance of “Wasn’t Yesterday Great”]
 
Gilby: It has to be fun. I mean, you know, this is one of the things that we have left and what we do is you have to enjoy this. And when we go into the studio to make the record, that’s the most important thing to me, as you get all the guys together and we’re there because we like to play, and (?) have fun (chuckles) and, you know, just play loud and really just enjoying it. And since we got a good one, you know, put it on tape and there you go – you got eleven of them and you got a record. I try to keep it as simple as that and it really can be that simple if you want.
 
[Live acoustic performance of “Wasn’t Yesterday Great”]
 
Voice-over: In the three years he spent with Guns N’ Roses, Gilby had the chance to play the way he’d always wanted to, giving him the confidence to go solo.
 
Gilby: What was really nice about playing with the guys, is that there’s a lot of aggression in their music. And, once again it is simple. It’s like, you know, rock – maybe it’s hard rock, but... I like the way they approached it. It was just very aggressive and it was the way that I’ve always wanted to make records and play live. So what it did is that it kind of just gave me a little bit of confidence when I started going out on my own to take that same attitude.