1988.04.28 - The Burlington Hawk Eye - Guns N' Roses Tells It Straight (Duff)

Real-life sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll

By Robert Mann
The Hawk Eye

It's refreshing to know there is still a heavy metal group around not too concerned with image just to be itself.

Guns N' Roses, which kicked of a 12-city national tour in Burlington Tuesday, is not afraid to say what's on its mind. Bass player Duff "Rose" McKagan, speaking with The Hawk Eye before the concert, said the group's music offers more than just the usual dose of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

McKagan said Guns N' Roses' lyrics offer real-life sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll themes.

"Ratt and Poison are kind of superficial as far as words," McKagan said. "That's why those bands don't do as well in Europe. Kids can see through that while it seems kids here want to party more. Lyrically, we're more real."

Every song off the "Appetite for Destruction" album relates one of the group's personal stories. Examples include "Welcome to the Jungle" (describing Los Angeles), "Nightrain" (cheap wine with a strange high), "Mr. Brownstone (other people's drug habits) and "My Michelle" (a girl the band knows).

Despite receiving a favorable behavior review from a desk clerk at Pzazz during the group's three-night stay in Burlington. McKagan said Guns has been known to trash a hotel every now and then.

"It's gotten bad at times," be stated. "In Dallas once we almost got arrested, and we had to pay like $3,000. We tore all the doors oft' our rooms, and there were a lot of local kids around."

And then there was the time... "Stevie (Adler) got drunk." McKagan laughed. "They threw him out of the hotel bar, and he got (mad) and threw every piece of furniture out of his hotel room. He had to throw it over a balcony.

"---- like this is going to hap-pen," he added. "Put any five guys on the road, with all the pressures, and not sleeping, with all the booze around. Something is going to happen."

In America, where its a liability to say anything but "No," Guns N' Roses is not afraid to say maybe concerning drugs.

"People say we're trying to talk kids into doing drugs," lead singer W. Axl Rose told the audience in Burlington, before the song Mr. Brownstone. "We're not trying to talk you into anything. But I sure as ain't going to try to talk anyone out of anything, either."

Rose told the crowd he doesn't "want you to die on anyone. Party, but wake up the next morning."

McKagan said Guns N' Roses has limits to its drug intake. "We just mainly do them when they're free now," he joked.

The band is out of the Los Angeles-Hollywood. Calif., area. Its name is a conglomeration of L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, two bands that were stopping points for some of the members of Guns N' Roses.

The band currently has the No. 9 LP on the Billboard charts. However, the levelheaded, still-struggling McKagan is not get. ting too excited with what others are saying — be it good or bad.

"You take it with a grain of salt," McKagan said. "You look at it and say, "OK, so that's what they think.

"You don't see that kind of ----when you're on the road," he added. "You live day to day. You don't fathom it. We stay in a hotel room, we play a gig, leave, drive 300 miles, get a couple hours of sleep, do another gig."

Anyone has any idea when this happened?

"Stevie (Adler) got drunk." McKagan laughed. "They threw him out of the hotel bar, and he got (mad) and threw every piece of furniture out of his hotel room. He had to throw it over a balcony.

Soulmonster wrote:Anyone has any idea when this happened?

"Stevie (Adler) got drunk." McKagan laughed. "They threw him out of the hotel bar, and he got (mad) and threw every piece of furniture out of his hotel room. He had to throw it over a balcony.

I don't know, but it's possible that it was part of the same incident where Steven broke his hand.

Blackstar wrote:

Soulmonster wrote:Anyone has any idea when this happened?

"Stevie (Adler) got drunk." McKagan laughed. "They threw him out of the hotel bar, and he got (mad) and threw every piece of furniture out of his hotel room. He had to throw it over a balcony.

I don't know, but it's possible that it was part of the same incident where Steven broke his hand.

I thought about that but concluded it would be strange of Duff to not mention the apex of the story