Iggy Pop and Guns N' Roses

While looking for new articles I came across this where Iggy talks about GN'R in Altoona Mirror from November 18, 1990:



I am going to use parts of it in the History section, but I won't add it to the interview database since it isn't about GN'R. What Iggy says is, "They really have the energy of a good punk band, and lyrically, that guy [=Axl] actually does what a good punk lyricist tries to do. He describes what's bugging him, no matter how out there it is, and he describes what's going on around him faithfully" [Altoona Mirror, November 18, 1990].

Seems to me many of the people who actually got to work with Axl has really good opinions of him, whereas many artists who only knew GN'R and Axl from the media would be quick to bash.

A couple more quotes from Iggy:

"They’re not dumb boys. They’re canny guys. They’re very aware of the world around them and things. They know a lot of stuff I didn’t learn until just this last year" [Detroit Free Press, May 1991].

And also on Guns N' Roses in general:

"The band didn’t sound like they were biting the weenie, like all the other bands. They didn’t sound fake to me. At least they didn’t sound like they were faking it for somebody else. Everybody in this world fix things for themselves. You can’t help it, you’re a human being. But – and musically it sounded exciting, in a way that it didn’t sound like it was dependent on some click track in the drummer’s ears or some machine going “bum-bum-bum” to give them a muscle they didn’t have. It sounded like it might fall apart at any time, and they would change tempos, and so I thought, “Ooh, a real band. How exciting. How cool" [Rapido, September 1991].

I remember I had found the AP Iggy Pop interview in another newspaper and posted it on mygnr, in a discussion about GnR's lyrics

Blackstar wrote:I remember I had found the AP Iggy Pop interview in another newspaper and posted it on mygnr, in a discussion about GnR's lyrics

Iggy's mention that Axl's lyrics succeed at what punk lyricists attempt to do, makes sense.

Good find. Back in 1990, I didn't know all that much about Iggy Pop (bar his "hit" single in '86, called "Real wild child"), but I'd heard about his huge influence on punk and hard rock music through his band The Stooges.
Someone gave me his album "Brick by brick" in '90 and I loved it (Slash and Duff played on 3 songs, I think)! After this I got more of his albums (incl. Stooges) and got to see him live in '93, which was quite an experience! He really goes wild when he hits the stage...

Uli wrote:Good find. Back in 1990, I didn't know all that much about Iggy Pop (bar his "hit" single in '86, called "Real wild child"), but I'd heard about his huge influence on punk and hard rock music through his band The Stooges.
Someone gave me his album "Brick by brick" in '90 and I loved it (Slash and Duff played on 3 songs, I think)! After this I got more of his albums (incl. Stooges) and got to see him live in '93, which was quite an experience! He really goes wild when he hits the stage...

I have never seen him life, but he is a legend. The Stooges are great. I remember I learnt to play Seek & Destroy on guitar once.

I'm a big Stooges and Iggy fan. I've seen him live about five times, one with the Stooges reunion. He's probably the best live act I've ever seen.
The first time was in '89, I think, when he had released the Instinct album. In '96 he was onstage bleeding all over, after someone had thrown a glass bottle at him, singing "I've been hit." I can't forget that.

I saw him live again in Sept 2000 (or so), which was not as good as the first time (maybe due to a lame audience too - Iggy said "wake up!")...

Anyway, that first time I saw him was around the time GN'R released "TSI?" (Nov '93), which of course included their "Raw Power" cover; I bought the cd before I went to the gig and he played that one of course!

Soon after I heard the "Brick by brick" album, I bought (among others) "Instinct" too (still have the vinyl), Steve Jones played guitar on it (of course his "connection" to GN'R is Axl guesting on his '89 album "Fire & Gasoline")!