1992.06.27 -Videomusic (Italy) - GN'R Special (Slash, Duff, Matt, Gilby)

TRANSCRIPTION:
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[Voice-over in Italian]

Gilby: I had two bands before Guns N’ Roses and, like, we had our first record deal in... Jeez, I think it was, like, ’83-’84. So I did, like, a couple years of touring the States. That band was doing pretty good - we were on MTV and all that - and that went on for, like, five years. And then I started my other band, Kill For Thrills. That was just basically from the ground up playing clubs and, you know, the whole thing. And it's just years, you know, doing all that stuff.

[Clip from November Rain video]

Duff: Artistic freedom is the most important thing.

Slash: I sold my soul to this music thing that I do a long, long time ago. So it all goes, basically, with the territory. This kind of stuff is a small price to pay for the three hours we can spend on stage, which is what I love and that’s what I always wanted to do, and I’m doing it. So this kind of crap that goes on the outskirts of everything, that’s, sort of like, okay, I try and deal with it, you know.

[Clips from the Ritz 1988 and Paradise City video]

Matt: I was just finished with The Cult tour in 1990. It was a couple... It’s two years ago that I’ve been in Guns. And I got a call from Slash. And originally I was just gonna go and do Use Your Illusion I and II, the records, and go back to The Cult. And they would go with Steven out on tour. And I started rehearsing with the band and we just got along really well. Duff and Slash and myself mainly rehearsed at first, then Izzy would come in and then Axl. And about two weeks into it, I was up at Slash’s house, where we had a little barbecue - you know, cook us a chicken – and he said, “Hey, do you wanna come to Guns N’ Roses?” And I go, “Wow” – again (laughs).

[Clip from You Could Be Mine video]

Slash: The bigger it gets the harder it is, because the pressures get worse, the amount of time that you can spend being creative is limited, you have to deal with a lot of the business end of it and money, which is something, I don’t know, I don’t think anybody wants to deal with; you know, money and the hardships that go along with it. So it can be a drag. I mean, there’s a lot of bullshit that goes on and there’s a lot of, you know, people outside our organization, the record companies or in the press and so on, that just fuck with us all the time. And it makes life difficult, you have to get really tough. And the bigger you get, the tougher you have to get.

[Clip from the Ritz 1988]

Duff: I am very adamant about the point that I have not changed. I’m the same person, you know, I’m still a fuck up (laughs). Yeah, okay, I have a house now and I have car, and I have a couple of dogs. But, I mean, I’m no different person than I was when I was playing in punk rock bands, you know? And in a way, I’d like to say that the spirit of Guns N’ Roses is this kind of punk rock, you know?

[Clip from the Ritz 1988]

Slash: I’ve learned a lot, you know, I’ve learned a lot of lessons. You retain everything that... You know, you have your mistakes and you learn from that, and you watch other people’s mistakes and you learn from that. I was real fortunate that I grew up in this business, so I watched a lot of people fuck up before I even started, you know (laughs).

[Clip from Rio 1991]

Interviewer: Aren’t you afraid that this dream might change you, that you might lose contact with everyday reality or just with your all personality that this might distract you from what you are and what you’re doing?

Matt: Not really, because I think when it comes down to it, I think we’re basically a rock ‘n’ roll band and we still have fun doing it. There’s still definitely edge to Guns N’ Roses. You know, Axl, we don’t know if he’s even shown up for the gig yet. I mean... (laughs). So I think he keeps a lot of the fire in us and is definitely... There’s always something happening with this band, you know, there’s always some kind of publicity going down, where it’s like, “Oh, wow, what now, what’s happening”. It’s always something constantly going on. And we all go out. We go out every night, practically, and we get right into a club with everybody else. It’s not like we hide out, you know or... When we’re in L.A., I walk around cruising around with everybody else. And I love that. I don’t want to lose touch with where I came from.

[Clip from Patience video]

Gilby:  I think one thing from being around for such a long time (?), as long as I've been doing, is that you get a lot of it. You learn your mistakes over the years and stuff. It's like, there's so many ups, downs, back up again, back down and stuff.  It's like, I pretty much got everything together, so... For this, this is just a little extra freedom, you know. I mean, this band, they went through all the hell. You know, they went through all the struggling and stuff to put them where they are right now. Coming in now, I mean, it's  just making it a little bit easier. I mean, they have that freedom, you know.

[Clip from Live And Let Die video]  

Gilby: Slash called me. And he just called me one day - you know, everybody had heard rumors around town that they were looking for a guitar player. So he gave me a call and asked me to come down. So I came down the next day, played some songs with him and then he asked me to come back the next day. And just like that, like, every day was, “Can you come back tomorrow?” And then, like, after a week, they said, "We're gonna do the tour, so you have another week to learn everything" (laughs). That’s basically what we did.

[Clip from Don’t Cry video]

Gilby: I mean, I don't think that I could have been the guitar player to help them get where they got today. I think Izzy, you know, he had a lot of contribution to that and he was the one who brought them to where they are. Hopefully I’m gonna be the one after it, to the next step.

[Clip from Sweet Child O’ Mine video]

Interviewer: Being a successful artist doesn’t only mean making art, which is appreciated by many people. It means interviews and photo sessions and all that kind of stuff. How do you manage to keep yourself balanced doing all these things that I’m sure you don’t like after so much time?

Duff: (Laughs) Look at these eyes. Um, I have my girl out with me and she keeps me... you know. And I don’t really go out. I don’t really go out at night, I don’t do drugs or anything like that. I just... I play the gig, I exercise, I do... I try to keep this going. I play football - you know, American football – as much as possible, and baseball or whatever I can do; you know, just to try to keep my life as normal. It’s not normal, my life, it’s not normal; but I try to keep it as normal as possible.

[Clips from the Ritz 1988, Rio 1991, Wembley 1992]

Slash: Have you ever seen us play?

Interviewer: You play?

Slash: Yeah.

Interviewer: Only on tapes. You never played in Italy and (?)

Slash: The way it works, it’s a real physical kind of a band. And how we keep healthy I have no idea (laughs).

Interviewer: I didn’t say “healthy”, I said fit enough to play.

Slash: Well, that’s the same thing. I will just do it every day. I never give it much thought, you know. I mean, we just go out and it’s a lot of energy going on between us and the crowd, and we just go nuts. And as far as keeping fit, like, I don’t exercise or anything. Maybe I should, eh? (chuckles)

[Clip from Rio 1991]

Gilby: This band has achieved its dream, it has worked its ass off to get where it is and stuff. So when we’re in a place like Italy, you know, we want to have a good time, we want to experience the country and stuff. We go to the bar, we hang out, we get a little wild. It has nothing to do with gaining publicity as they do it. That's how the band lives every single day, you know. And trouble happens, just like trouble happens to you. It’s just that everybody wants to know about it (laughs).

Slash: I’m like, there’s rock ‘n’ roll in every kind of good pure form of music. It’s an attitude, it’s not just like Elvis Presley, you know? It’s an attitude, it’s a way of going about expressing yourself, and sticking to your guns, and just doing your own thing. I mean, there’s punk, there’s, like, rap stuff. In every kind of music there’s the people that really aren’t doing it from the heart and there’s the ones that are really taking it to the edge to do it their way. That’s what rock ‘n’ roll is about. And the comparison between, say, Guns N’ Roses and AC/DC and then including Nine Inch Nails in that is because, when you listen to it, it may be techno pop and so on, but it’s fucking heavier than shit and the attitude’s all there, so it’s rock ‘n’ roll to me, even though it doesn’t have any, like... you know, it’s not filled with guitars and Zeppelin drums and that whole veil. It’s still got that rock ‘n’ roll element in the attitude, so...

Voice-over (reads from the Use Your Illusion albums sticker): “This album contains language which some listeners may find objectionable. The can fuck off and buy something from the New Age section”.