1989.11.24 - Chicago Tribune - Album marks the hard-rock return of Michael Monroe (Axl)

Transcription of the part about Guns N' Roses and Axl:
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Album marks the hard-rock return of Michael Monroe

By Tom Popson

[...] Mott the Hoople was another of Monroe’s favorite bands.

“We were big fans,” says Monroe. “We liked bands like the Faces, Mott the Hoople, Nazareth, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the old Alice Cooper band. We were influenced by that period of time to a certain extent, the early ’70s. That’s when we got into music.”

If Monroe—who also admits to a fondness for Slade and the Sweet—offers a couple of salutes on his new LP, he also receives one in the video for “Dead, Jail or Rock ’n’ Roll,” a song from his album. The nod comes from Axl Rose, vocalist for Guns N’ Roses, who makes a cameo appearance in the video.

As Monroe tells it, Rose just happened to be in New York City at the time the video was being shot.

“He happened to be walking by 52nd Street and saw some trucks and asked what was going on,” says Monroe. “He learned I was shooting a video, and he came up and said that I was a major influence on him, that Guns N’ Roses were always huge Hanoi Rocks fans. It was really nice. He told me that if Hanoi Rocks hadn’t split up, Guns N’ Roses wouldn’t be as big as they are—that Hanoi’s breaking up left sort of a gap.

“We were playing the song live during the video shoot, so I asked him if he wanted to come up and jam. He got into it. It was sort of a tribute thing. He said he’s sick of people not knowing who Hanoi Rocks were.”

Indeed, Guns N’ Roses’ own label, Uzi Suicide, recently rereleased some old Hanoi Rocks albums. The LPs—“Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks,” “Oriental Beat,” “Self-Destruction Blues” and “Back to Mystery City”—were initially released only in Europe.

[...]