1988.08.19 - The Friday Rock Show with Tommy Vance - Interview with Izzy

Big thanks to @Surge for sending us this interview!



Transcript:
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Tommy Vance: That is the current single on release in the United Kingdom by Guns N’ Roses, Sweet Child O’ Mine. British music is renowned for having a feel for the blues, if you think back to the Rolling Stones and people like that, and it seems to be coming back in American music as well. Izzy is from the band Guns N’ Roses. Is that true? I think that a lot of American bands are turning toward the blues again. Let’s take, say, Kingdom Come who do it, if you like, on a much more Led Zeppelin level.

Izzy: (inaudible)

Vance: You’re a sort of grittier, more Aerosmith level of the blues. Are the blues coming back as an influence in American contemporary music?

Izzy: I don’t know, really. I mean, it’s an influence on our band definitely, you know.

Vance: I mean, you seem to like the gritty side –

Izzy: Yeah.

Vance: As opposed to the fast and speedy side.

Izzy: Well, you know, I like all music, but that’s one of my favourites - and the band’s, too. But –

Vance: I was –

Izzy: Go on.

Vance: No, after you, please. You’re the guest.

Izzy: But we listen to everything and that doesn’t...

Vance: Yeah. I was talking to Thrasher from KNAC last week.

Izzy: (?), right.

Vance: KNAC in Los Angeles, on the Friday Rock Show, because we did it last week from Los Angeles. And he was telling me the story about – whether it’s true, I mean you’re gonna confirm it one way or the other – about the fact that you put together a tape that went into KNAC in Los Angeles and they started playing it on the air, or at least a track from it.

Izzy: A tape, yeah. Maybe a demo or something.

Vance: That’s right.

Izzy: I forget what it was exactly. Something like that, yeah.

Vance: It had some of the tracks, I think, that you eventually re-recorded. At that stage of the game, were you all poor and living in, what we call in the United Kingdom, “squats”?

Izzy: “Squats...” Uhm...

Someone: Is that like living with a chick or something or what?

(Laughter)

Vance: Not quite, no. It’s like living in a garbage can, I suppose in the American (?)

Someone: Yeah, we did that for a while.

Vance: Mmm-hmm.

Izzy: We – I don’t remember exactly that point in time, but I remember, uh... yeah, I don’t remember that.

(Laughter)

Vance: Alright. Do you remember this: it has been said that recently you were on Rockline in the United States of America, which is a show, I think, that goes up to 200 radio stations, and one of the members of Guns N’ Roses actually threw up on the air.

Izzy: Well, he threw up in a bag, right? It was like a big scene, you know, but, I mean, it wasn’t – I mean...

Vance: It wasn’t premeditated?

Izzy. No. Well, he ate artichoke, and about seven gin and tonics, and a couple of margaritas, and just...

Vance: Aah...

Izzy: But he did it real quick, Slash didn’t – and just, you know, no big deal. We just kept – you know, did the interview, yeah.

Someone: So it was Slash. That’s the name we’re looking for then. Right?

Izzy: (Laughing) That was Slash.

(Laughter)

Izzy: Slash is the guilty party.

Vance: Where are all the members of the band from? Isn’t Slash English? If I got that right.

Izzy: Yeah, I believe he’s born here.

Someone: Yeah, as far as we know.

(Laughter)

Vance: Maybe as far as he remembers.

Izzy: He is born – it was in... it was in Stoke-on-Trent? Stoke-on-Trent.

Vance: It’s not too far from here.

Izzy: Yeah... Yeah, that’s where he’s born.

Vance: Yeah? And you converted him to the Los Angeles ways?

Izzy: He moved out when he was very young.

Vance: Uh-huh. So he doesn’t have the Stoke-on-Trent accent anymore, is that it?

Izzy: No.

Vance: You’re looking forward to tomorrow?

Izzy: Yes. Definitely.

Vance: I think you’ve only done one gig before in this country, haven’t you?

Izzy: Oh, we’ve done a couple. We did -

Vance: You did the Marquee, didn’t you?

Izzy: We did the Marquee twice, and then we came back and we did a tour here for about two or three weeks.

Vance: Did you?

Izzy: We did the Hammersmith Odeon.

Vance: Yes, I saw you in the Hammersmith Odeon.

Izzy: Yeah...

Vance: A friend of mine, actually, by the name of Phil, was an engineer from a company called TVI. He went to the – just to relate somebody’s sort of reaction to your music - he went to the Marquee gig and he wasn’t that impressed. But when he heard Sweet Child O’ Mine, all of a sudden he turned his attitude right round...

Izzy: Yeah?

Vance: With regard to you as a band and your music. So he’s a happy fan at the moment, falling out of his Sierra car, I’m sure (?).

Izzy: Sounds kind of fickle to me.

(Laughter)

Vance: You’re fickle, Phil. The telephone number is 0602-0602343434, if you’d like to talk to Izzy from Guns N’ Roses. [cut]

Vance: It’s now exactly five minutes to midnight. We have time for just a couple of calls. Now we’ve got a gentleman called Peter Bonetti, from Gloucester, on the telephone. Peter?

Peter: Hello?

Vance: Peter, your quick question here. You’ve got one for Izzy of Guns N’ Roses?

Peter: Hello, I’d just like to say, what do you think of all these bands like Poison? Do you think their image is more important than the music?

Izzy: [his microphone is turned off] I don’t even think about them.

Vance: Say again.

Izzy: I don’t even think about them, you know.

Peter: Yeah.

Izzy: I listen to tapes.

Peter: Quite agree.

Izzy: Alright.

Vance: Alright, Peter.

Peter: Okay, I’m just gonna say hello to (?) Gloucester.

Vance: Okay, you’ve just done it. A very, very quick call here. Mark Smithers from Kent. Quickly, your question.

Mark: Hello.

Izzy: Hi.

Mark: Is Donington the biggest gig you’ve ever played?

Izzy: Yeah, it is, as a matter of fact.

Mark: Right. I just gonna say I told all my mates (?)

Vance: You’ve just done that. Are you gonna be at the gig tomorrow?

Mark: No, I’m not. No.

Izzy: Get out of here!

Someone: You’re gonna miss a good one!

(Laughter)

Vance: Mark, thank you very much indeed. Gentlemen, thank you very much indeed. Dave, Jeff and also Izzy, thanks for your company tonight.

Someone: Thank you.

Izzy: Sure.

Vance: Have a great gig tomorrow.

Izzy: Alright.

This is the interview where Slash threw up: https://www.a-4-d.com/t3156-1988-07-11-klos-rockline-slash-izzy-duff