1992.12.04 - Telefe (Argentinian TV) - Interview with Axl

The interview is dubbed in Spanish.



Sort of/more-or-less transcript (the result of automatic Spanish transcript --> auto translation with adjustments, and what I could hear in English - the Spanish overdub is not a faithful translation of what Axl says, anyway). Corrections more than welcomed.

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Interviewer: Axl, welcome to Argentina. Thank you for this exclusive interview with TELEFE. We will be having your show on live for a few minutes. I just want to welcome you all to Argentina. Your arrival has been a bit noisy and tumultuous with all these things coming and going, but...

Axl: It’s been an exciting day. (chuckles)

Interviewer: Well, first of all, tell us how the tour has been going in South America.

Axl: I think everything’s been going pretty well. The shows are really big, because a lot of other rock bands don’t necessarily always make it down to South America. There’s been some different confusions and different problems arise, like in Chile, because the people putting out the shows aren’t used to organizing this kind of big show.  But I think everything has gone pretty well. The media – and CNN has kind of jumped on - has presented the details a bit more exaggerated, over-exciting in a negative way.

Interviewer: The press conference that you gave this afternoon was somewhat aggressive towards the band, especially by the media that don’t know much about rock ‘n’ roll and the music. I would like to ask you about some things, different things that we’ve received in Argentina, like that you said, “I’m gonna take my boots off when I leave Argentina,” that you wanted to burn the [Argentine] flag – I mean, I heard all these things here before your arrival in Argentina. Do you want to clear it up now?

Axl: Yeah, and I don’t even know the name of the man who said these things. I’d rather burn him. (chuckles) But I don’t know enough about Argentina to ever say anything to disgrace it, or to be disgraced about being in Argentina.  I don’t want to take anything away from the country or capitalize on anything. I haven’t come to spit on the territory or offend anyone, because I like the feeling from the people at the shows here in Latin America and how much they’re into us, and there are many people who like us a lot more. I’m watching out my window, and I see that there are people who are in favor of Guns N’ Roses and there are those who are attacking our fans because of all the things they’ve read. But I understand that they’re offended, because if someone said that in America I would see the youth get behind that feeling and something similar happen.  But I don’t know if these people know the truth of what happened, that there’s this man who was really irresponsible and obviously doesn’t care about the Argentine people. He doesn’t care for what kind of violence can happen because of false stories like that. I believe that this violence is reflected in what is happening outside the hotel right now, people are attacking girls because of a person who was very irresponsible for putting out statements that we never made; a person who was greedy, selfish and angry that they weren’t the ones working with us on this tour; a guy who is involving innocent people who can get hurt in a series of situations, and I don’t want anyone to get hurt.  

Interviewer: Things have been adding up. I mean, from Venezuela that there was an attempted coup, then in Colombia the shows were postponed and there were some minor incidents outside the stadium. After that, the press reported about some problems you had with drugs in Chile. Now that you’ve come here all this has been accumulated, and all these different rumors had been around here in Argentina before your arrival. On the other hand, I can tell you that it’s a minority, and the people are waiting to see the show, to see Guns N’ Roses.

Axl: It’s a minority that has now chased the majority to the other side, the majority that is waiting to see the two Guns N 'Roses shows. But, it’s like, it only takes one person to cause a lot of damage at the show, so, minority or not, someone shoots the singer and the show is over. (laughs)  

Interviewer: We’ve heard that the South American tour has really been a great success for you up to now. What expectations do you have for the shows at River [Plate] tomorrow and the next day? Tell us a little bit about the shows. What is the real reason you are in Argentina?

Axl: We’ll give everything that we’ve got to the shows and to the people. At the same time, I hope that we can clear up a little bit of the confusion that has been created from what was in the papers; and, hopefully, we’ll show people that rock and roll is not that bad of a thing. We’ll perform all the songs that the people want to hear and we’re doing this so that we have a great show. I wanted to do this interview because I don’t want people to hurt each other at the show because of a group of people who are angry about statements that don’t exist. We, as Guns N’ Roses, haven’t said anything like that, it’s somebody else.

Interviewer: Our show is gonna be on the air in a few minutes, and it’s a great audience. And I’m sure there are people who are listening to you now that have sort of overcome the fear that has been created for the rock festival, fear that anything might happen.  And they know that Guns N’ Roses will give them the best show they can and that’s what we all expect to see.

Axl: All I can say is, yeah (laughs). I’m wearing this shirt [of the Argentine national team] and I'm not a fake, I’m not doing it to just look good. It was given to me and I feel good. I wouldn’t wear it as -

Interviewer: It’s not a publicity stunt.

Axl: I wouldn’t be here doing this if it was just a publicity stunt. I wore the shirt as a gesture of piece, because I really want everything to go well at the shows, and I’m not doing it just so we can pull the shows, get paid and leave. And if I had a problem with Argentina, we just wouldn’t play here.

Interviewer: You could cancel the whole thing.

Axl: Yeah. Yeah, I’m very famous for that.

(Laughter)

Interviewer: Many people that have obtained tickets are waiting for you, for Saturday, tomorrow, and for Sunday also. I’d just like to thank you for this interview. The band, this great band is gonna be here in Argentina, one of the biggest bands that has come here in recent times, and of course we all want to see  what you’ve been doing over your world tour. And we hope that these minor incidents that have been popping up have nothing to do with the show.

Axl: I want to say that, if people come to the show because of what they’ve read, they shouldn’t believe everything they read. There’s a lot of people that for some reason want to stop rock ‘n’ roll, they’d like to stop Guns ‘ Roses or they’re against rock ‘n’ roll and they don’t want people out there to have a good time - why that is, I don’t know. And to take a moment to think, and to be a bit more responsible and not throw bottles or anything, because we want everything to be nice, we want everyone to have a good time at our show, and that is all 100%.

Interviewer: I think the people are right behind you, because that’s what they’re expecting from this kind of festival. This kind of incidents are common, they don’t only happen abroad, they also happen here, on a national level.  I believe that what you’re willing to do is going to show that the concert is what really matters.

Axl: You know, South America and Mexico have always been the most exciting people for us to play to. We did a show in McAllen, Texas when we were opening for Alice Cooper, and there was 5,000 people and the majority was Mexican. It was one the most exciting crowds we’ve played to. And that's why, after that and other shows, we wanted to come back to South America. Slash and I have really had a great time in the South American tour, and we have toured the world - I mean, we just did the stadium tour in the U.S. with Metallica and that was very good for us, but the last show we did in Chile was much more exciting. And we hadn’t realized that Guns N 'Roses was so big here in Argentina.

Interviewer: Possibly, or obviously, this is one of the main reasons that these shows are so important here, for all this kind of rumors that have been created, and also why the expectation is so big, because there’s been talk for a long time about the band coming to Argentina. And now that it’s finally happened, there’s all this kind of inconveniences that could occur anywhere in the world.  

Axl: I think that part of it is that South America is much more emotional than the rest of the world. And that’s something that relates to us, because we’re an emotional band, we relate to people who are angry, and the South American people seem to get a lot into that and express themselves in a much more different way.

Interviewer: So, the band will give everything they’ve got tomorrow.

Axl: We will. [...] It’s like a prize fight or like the final of the football world cup, we come to give everything we have.

Interviewer: Thank you very much for this interview. Hopefully, it helped to clarify the whole situation a little bit. Have a good show tomorrow and on Sunday at River.

Axl: Thank you.

Interviewer: Thank you very much.

I first saw this video in 2002 when I downloaded it from DC++ and after all these years I can tell you that one thing that still remains one of my biggest aggrevations is that there's a Latin speaker overdubbing Axl. I can't hear shieet Axl says and I have always wanted to find a guy speaking their language who could translate what Axl says in this video. Maybe now is the right time and *the right place* , pretty please?

whatashame wrote:Maybe now is the right time and *the right place* , pretty please?

I hope someone helps us with that

whatashame wrote:I first saw this video in 2002 when I downloaded it from DC++ and after all these years I can tell you that one thing that still remains one of my biggest aggrevations is that there's a Latin speaker overdubbing Axl. I can't hear shieet Axl says and I have always wanted to find a guy speaking their language who could translate what Axl says in this video. Maybe now is the right time and *the right place* , pretty please?

I made an effort (see first post).