1994.06.DD - Argentinian TV - Guns N' Roses Special (Gilby)

Transcript:
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[Commercial]

Interviewer: ... lots of rumors about Guns N’ Roses splitting, and in Argentina they’re going wild (laughs).

Gilby: Guys, you know what? There’s always rumors (laughs). What happens is, when we’re on downtime like this, a lot of rumors fly because nothing’s happened. So people just kind of – you know, they –

Interviewer: They have to write something.

Gilby: They have to write something. Look, as far as GN’R is, the band has always been in that situation where we always knew that it could be there one day and it could not be there the next day. It’s a very volatile situation. We don’t know what’s gonna happen. Right now we’re off time. Nothing’s happening. Everybody’s just gonna take – a lot of people haven’t even seen each other in a while. It’ll probably be another six to eight months before we even get back together to work on some stuff.

[Clip from the Making of Estranged]

Interviewer: (?) when you were in Argentina everybody went crazy?

Gilby: Yes.

Interviewer: And you couldn’t get out of the hotels and everything. Have you heard about the story of a girl that killed herself?

[Footage from Argentinian TV news report]

Gilby: I heard about it. Was that a true story?

Interviewer: Yeah (?)

Gilby: That’s so sad!

Interviewer: (?)

Gilby: We did hear about it. We did hear about it, but, unfortunately for us, whenever we do get to places, there’s always so much kind of havoc that happens. We had heard a report, and I think it was when we were leaving, somebody told us about it. And when you hear it like that, it’s hearsay and it’s like, “Did that really happen?” I guess it did happen. That’s a complete tragedy and – I mean, I wish we would’ve known about it when it was happening, but –

[Clips from the Making of Don’t Cry and the Making of Estranged]

[Break]

Interviewer: The time when you entered there were some drug problems in the band.

Gilby: Yeah.

Interviewer: With Izzy, and with Slash... And so, how was it like to – it was kind of...?

Gilby: Well, we all came from pretty much the same, you know – we all hung around the same part of town. So any problems that, like, people in GN’R were having, it was pretty much everybody in town was having. It wasn’t necessarily Guns N’ Roses; it was kind of a scene that we were all involved in, you know. Even though everybody was in separate bands, they went through the same thing. But what happens is, you gotta understand, that’s when you first start out, you’re really young and stuff, you don’t have any money - there’s a lot of problems going around. But, as things happen and, you know, you get a little more successful, you can start to enjoy different things in your life, like traveling, and you don’t need the drugs and all that stuff as much. You start replacing it with things that are a little more grown up. So, I mean, we drink pretty good and we party pretty great and stuff, but, you know, all those problems are long gone.

[Clip from the Making of Estranged]

Interviewer: What did you think when a man in Argentina took the police to the hotel to search for drugs but they didn’t find anything? Did it bother you or – (laughs)?

Gilby: It was a joke.

[Footage from Argentinian TV news report showing the police raiding the band’s hotel]

Gilby: What it is, it’s a complete joke and it’s really inconvenient, too. But I don’t know if you remember when it happened –

Interviewer: Yeah.

Gilby: It was really funny, because they came and we were all like – I mean, we were all around laughing at this, like, “Go for it.” I mean, come on. It’s really, really silly, you know? They make all these accusations and stuff and it’s like, come on, don’t insult our intelligence, first of all. “We’re carrying drugs because you ain’t gonna find them” (laughs). But we don’t do that, you know? We’re not stupid. We don’t want to go to a country, get kicked out and never come back.

[Clip from the Making of Estranged]

[Break]

[Clip from the Making of Don’t Cry]

Interviewer: I’ve learned that you became a father.

Gilby: Yeah, I’m a dad! (laughs)

Interviewer: To the audience: He’s a dad now.

Gilby: I’m a papa. I have a little baby daughter, her name is Francesca. She’s a sweetheart. I’ve never thought of myself as a father figure (laughs). But she is such a sweetheart, and I don’t even look at it like, you know, “I’m your father.” It’s like, we’re like a new team, me, my wife and my daughter now.

Interviewer: So you plan to take her out on tour.

Gilby: I’m gonna try, I’m gonna try! I mean, this is our life now. I want her to enjoy as much as I get to enjoy.

Interviewer: The other members of Guns N’ Roses, when they traveled – went to Argentina, they took someone from their family (?)

Gilby: What we do is – you know, everybody in the band is married, except for Axl, right? – all of our wives usually come together. We try to do, like, two weeks on/two weeks off and they come out for a couple of weeks. That was planning through the good cities and stuff, like the first time we were in Argentina, they went. The second time, they didn’t go. But the first time they were all with us. And, you know, they come out and all the wives – the strange thing is our wives get along (laughs). It’s amazing. They go out shopping together, they see each other because we’re always working, so they get along really well. So it worked out good.

[Clip from the Making of Estranged]

Interviewer: When you entered the band, Guns N’ Roses, you were replacing Izzy.

Gilby: Yeah.

Interviewer: Was it kind of strange to get into the band when...?

Gilby: It was strange at first, because when it all happened, I don’t think anybody really knew that it was a permanent situation, because Izzy left so abruptly that we really didn’t know if I was just filling in temporarily or if it was gonna go on for a long time. What happened is, as time went on, it just became a permanent situation. I mean, still to this day, we don’t know (laughs). I could leave tomorrow. Honestly, we don’t know what’s happening with GN’R.

[Clip from the Making of Don’t Cry]

[Break]

[Interviewer outside of the Rainbow in L.A. talking in Spanish about the Charles Manson song]

Gilby: It [=the Manson song] was all Axl (laughs). Honestly, what happened with that song is, nobody from the band played on that song. That’s none of us. Slash didn’t play guitar, I didn’t play guitar. It’s a song that Axl liked, and he just picked it and he put it on the record, you know? It was – he did it. I don’t really know a lot about it. He said that he found this song. I don’t think he really knew that Charles Manson wrote it, though. I think he was under the impression that he just sang it, and he liked the song.

[Clip from the Making of Estranged]

Interviewer: When you were in Argentina, you were facing a very big crowd.

Gilby: Wow! What were they all looking at? (laughs)

Interviewer: Do you get nervous when you see so many people going crazy?

Gilby: I don’t really get nervous. It’s kind of like, you get so excited is what it is. It’s like, when you see people reacting like that, you feed off of that and you play better. I mean, I’ll tell you the shows that we do in South America and stuff are so much better than some of the shows we do here in the States, because you feed off of the crowd. You know, if we come out and we hit the first song and everybody’s going for the band, we’re really into it, and you see the audience giving it back, it charges you to get stronger and stronger.

Interviewer: So you’re working on new songs with Slash?

Gilby: Me and Slash are working on some songs. It’s not for Guns N’ Roses, not for anything in general.

Interviewer: It’s an album with Slash and you?

Gilby: It could be Slash’s album, this is what it could be, because Slash has been talking about making his own album. You know, because Duff did it, I did it, he can do it (laughs). He has some really, really good songs and, like I said, it’s gonna be a while before GN’R is gonna do a record, and this stuff isn’t really for GN’R, so he’s been talking about doing his own album. So he’s been working with me and Matt on it, you know, just trying to get it in together.

[Clip from Come As You Are by Nirvana]

Interviewer: What do you think about Kurt Cobain’s suicide, from Nirvana...?

Gilby: Wow, that was rough, man. You know, it’ really hard for me to say what I think about it. I think that he was very, very talented and he was a great songwriter. He was really talented. But he’s got problems. You know, he does a lot of drugs; and when you do drugs like that, it affects your thinking, and I don’t think he was in his right mind when he did what he did.

[Clip from the Making of Estranged]

[Break]

[Interviewer on Sunset Boulevard in L.A. talking in Spanish about the Estranged video]

[Clip from the Making of Estranged]

Interviewer: How is a recording session? You play all at the same time?

Gilby: Oh yeah, yeah. We don’t play with Axl. You know, Axl doesn’t even come to rehearsal and stuff. It’s pretty much us.

[Clips from the Making of Don’t Cry and the Making of Estranged]

Interviewer: Has money changed your life?

Gilby: Oh yeah, it’s a little bit easier. I mean, obviously, from the days of – you know your house is now paid for, I have cars that are paid for; and, you know, you get to buy a couple of toys here and there. So it’s alright.

[Clip from the Making of Estranged]

Interviewer: So you’re going to be together again. Everybody's calling...

Gilby: Oh yeah. The band will be together again at some point, just – The band has not broken up. We’re just taking a break.

[Clip from the Making of Estranged]