Re: 08. 1987-1988: TOURING AND SUCCESS

by **Soulmonster** Tue Feb 15, 2022 5:14 pm

BUT AEROSMITH ARE SOBER

Bands were afraid of touring with Guns N' Roses due to their reputation and Aerosmith had recently sobered up:

We have this bad rep and they have this clean rep and if the two get together. it might cause problems.

Circus, March 31, 1988

I cut a deal with [then Aerosmith manager] Tim Collins for the band to open for Aerosmith. He made a rule that nobody in GN'R could be seen with a joint, hard drugs, or even a beer in front of Aerosmith. If Slash was caught in front of Joe Perry with a beer, they'd be thrown off the tour. So all the insanity was happening behind closed doors.

Spin, July 1999

We're working on [a tour with Aerosmith], we're pushing for it. But everybody's worried about the influence we might have on other bands. We're the trouble that all these guys used to get into.

Metal Edge, June 1988

It’s a drag. I mean, I’m glad they’re clean and all that but I wish they hadn’t got as fucked up as they had, because we’re not allowed to hang out with them at all now. This happened to me with Nikki Sixx from Motley. Like, Nikki and me are pretty good friends. But after we did the tour with Motley Crue and Nikki got clean, he grew away from me, I never saw him. Then I ran into him in the Cathouse one night. I was sitting up in the VIP section, just sitting there. And I had four of these tall glasses filled with Jack, and Nikki came by and was sitting next to me. He said, “That Jack smells good.” I said, “Oh, do you want one?” Not thinking. He was like, “Oh, no, no...” That was so fucked, I shouldn’t have done that. So for a while I didn’t hang out with Nikki. And it’s that kind of thing with Aerosmith, it’s very strange. But I respect trying to clean up before you kill yourself.

Mick Wall, GUNS N' ROSES: The Most Dangerous Band in the World, Sidgwick & Jackson, U.K. 1991, 1993; interview from June 1988

As Aerosmith manager Tim Collins would state:

We thought about the ramifications, but each member of Aerosmith is responsible for his own sobriety. I hope maybe some of Aerosmith rubs off on Guns N’ Roses.

RIP Magazine, February 1989

Still, the Aerosmith management would make some precautions to shield the Aerosmith members, as Keith Garde from Aerosmith's management team would say:

Our request was that, if they’re drinking, keep in it a cup rather than walking around with the labels sticking out.

RIP Magazine, February 1989

Arlett Vereecke would later be asked if GN'R had to sign a "sobriety contract":

No, no, no, no. It was not a contract. But you know, they had a... It was sobriety coach with them. We were allowed to have booze in our dressing rooms. It was not a sobriety thing. Of course they drink so much they forget they can't walk out with their bottles. And several times I had to send them back and I said, "No, you have to get a brown bag or plastic and you cannot walk around with a Jack Daniels bottle in front of you." But they were never told they cannot to... Actually, Aerosmith was extremely kind to them on all levels, and they did know, they've been there, done that. It was also a good opportunity for Aerosmith at the beginning, because that tour was ended until they got Guns on and then they did the stadium tours again. So they recognized that, you know, give them credit for it's due. The contract, no. There was no contract. They were asked, or told, or whatever, but there was not like they couldn't have booze. There was lots of booze backstage in their dressing room, Guns' dressing room, but not-

GN'R Central, December 10, 2017

They did their best to hide alcohol and drugs from the recently sober Steven Tyler and Joe Perry [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p 135]. In fact, according to Rolling Stone in November 1988, their rider said they should confine drinking to their dressing room and leave the arena right after their set as to not tempt Aerosmith [Rolling Stone, November 1988]. But in the end there was little to worry about.

Originally that was their managers plan, but there was no need for it. I mean, by the time the second show rolled around, it was that soon, it was like "Come on, let's go hang out". There was no problems.

MTV, October 1988

Steven [Tyler] is a cute man. He would just go up to Slash and say, ‘You can really drink that much?!’ It was obvious the point he was trying to make. Slash would say, ‘Yeah, dude, it’s no big deal. I can still walk an' shit.’

RIP Magazine, February 1989

And Aerosmith wasn't just aware of the rumors of drug use in Guns N' Roses, they had themselves directly bought drugs from Guns N' Roses before, according to Slash [Rolling Stone, November 1988]. This was likely from Izzy or Slash who both sold drugs at a time [Melody Maker, June 1987].

As the photographer Gene Kirkland would recall:

The night before a show I was talking to a crew member from Aerosmith, and he told me that he saw Joe Perry and Slash talking at a table. Joe was drinking tea or coffee or something out of a cup, and Slash was drinking his Jack— but out of a cup. I laughed. I thought I’d never see Slash drink anything out of a cup!

RIP Magazine, February 1989

by **Soulmonster** Tue Feb 15, 2022 5:14 pm

JULY 17-AUGUST 2, 1988

THE AEROSMITH TOUR

To promote the tour, Geffen released promotional-only "tour" disc featuring songs from Aerosmith as well as GN'R's Welcome To The Jungle and Sweet Child O' Mine [Goldmine Magazine, May 1989].

Doug Goldstein would remember the first time the two bands met:

It was cool. Actually, Steven Tyler put everybody at ease when he walked into the room. He said, ‘Hey, guys, how ya doin’? I love the album, and it's great to have you with us. Hopefully we’re gonna have a lot of fun out here.' That broke the ice.

RIP Magazine, February 1989

Although Slash had met the band earlier:

Yeah, I’ve met the whole band. I went to see them when they played here in LA last time. I got dragged into this room where they were all lined up against this table, signing posters and stuff. I got pushed in front of them and introduced by someone from Geffen. I was like, “Hi...” I couldn’t think of anything else to say. These guys have been my heroes for life, you know? But I didn’t get nervous, I got speechless and it was real weird. They were all looking at me - I had my top hat on, leather jacket and jeans - and there was this vibe like I was being checked out. The only one who actually spoke to me was Steven Tyler. He was like, “How’re ya doin’?” and “Where’s Axl?” He was real cool. He called us once when we were in Amsterdam. He called us from America and spoke to Axl - to apologise for something he’d said on radio or something like that, which was cool.

Mick Wall, GUNS N' ROSES: The Most Dangerous Band in the World, Sidgwick & Jackson, U.K. 1991, 1993; interview from June 1988

THE TOUR STARTS

The tour got off to an ominous start when Axl was late for the very first show at Hoffman Estates in Chicago on July 17, 1988:

The First night of the Aerosmith tour was tumultuous: it started in Illinois, and while the rest of us showed up early enough to watch them sound-check, Axl was missing in action until half an hour before show-time. I remember Steven Tyler coming up to me and saying, "Hey...so where's your singer?" It's become a recurring punch line; it's his standard greeting whenever he sees me. Axl showed up the very last minute, which obviously caused tension to be high all around, but we played well enough to make up for it.

Slash's autobiography, "Slash", 2007, p. 233

As Keith Garde from Aerosmith's management team would describe it:

At that very first show in Chicago, there was a reticence initially on the part of the crews and some of the guys in Guns. Axl had exhibited reservations, and he always does, but unfortunately, they're misread by people. It's not that he’s saying, 'Hey, f?!k you.’ It’s more of an indication of whatever his habits are that cause him to get up late. He’s a unique character—part of what makes him the star is that.

RIP Magazine, February 1989

But Garde would emphasize that Aerosmith made an effort to make everybody feel comfortable:

We would invite the band and their crew to eat with us after the show, kind of like family. And really early on that came across. There was a very strong sense of, ‘We may be two acts and two separate companies, but we’re all out together, and this is one show.

RIP Magazine, February 1989

The tour continued with shows at the Richfield Coliseum, Richfield, USA (July 19); Wheeling Civic Center, Wheeling, USA (July 20); Show Me Center, Cape Girardeau, USA (July 22); Starplex Amphitheatre, Dallas, USA (July 24); Sandstone Amphitheatre, Bonner Springs, USA (July 26); Hilton Coliseum, Ames, USA (July 27); Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, USA (July 29); Val Du Lakes Amphitheatre, Mears, USA (July 30); and Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, USA (August 1).

Ad in The Morning Call

Paul Elliott, writing for Sounds Magazine attended the show and would later write about it for Classic Rock Magazine:

On July 23, nine months on from our last meeting, I joined the band on tour in Dallas, Texas, where they were supporting Aerosmith. At last, that dream double-bill was a reality, albeit in America and not poor old Britain. I was writing a cover story for Sounds to coincide with GN’R’s forthcoming appearance at the Monsters Of Rock festival at Donington Park on August 30.

The band was staying at the Four Seasons hotel, a luxurious, five-star palace with its own private golf course. I found Izzy and tour manager Doug Goldstein in the bar, taking refuge from the 100-degree late-afternoon heat. Goldstein was grumbling about having his early morning round of golf disrupted by Steven and Duff, who had commandeered two golf buggies for a race across the course. “They looked like the fucking Banana Splits!” Goldstein hissed.

Izzy asked me for my room number so that we could arrange a time for an interview, and was shocked when I told him I was booked into a different hotel, a cheap one, a few miles away. He cursed the record company and said he’d pay for me to have a room at the Four Seasons. I said not to worry, but it was a nice gesture. Izzy was often portrayed as a surly character, when in reality he was simply more introverted than the others.

I asked Goldstein when I could speak with Axl. Goldstein wasn’t sure. He told me Axl was “resting”.

That night, Izzy took his English girlfriend Emma to see a Rod Stewart show at the venue where Guns and Aerosmith would play the following night: the Starplex, a 20,000-capacity outdoor amphitheatre. “It was very relaxing,” he told me the next day, “like a Quaalude.” Everybody else went to a rock club to celebrate Slash’s 23rd birthday: everyone, that is, apart from Axl, who hadn’t been seen by any of his bandmates since they arrived in Dallas. Was he sick? Goldstein said no. Would he do an interview with me? “Tomorrow,” Goldstein said.

Inside the club a roped-off VIP area had been set aside for the band and its entourage, 20 or 30 people, including various groupies and hangers-on. I had a long, drunken conversation with Steven Adler and Megadeth bassist Dave ‘Jr.’ Ellefson that ended when Adler dragged a girl off to the men’s room. He and many others were in and out of there all night.

In the early hours we returned to the Four Seasons, where Duff invited photographer Ian Tilton and I to his room. Duff had recently married an aspiring musician named Mandy Brix, and was feeling a little lonely. He poured out three tumblers of vodka and added in just enough orange juice to turn the mixture slightly cloudy. Then the phone rang. It was Slash, telling us to come to his room. We took our drinks with us. Moments later Slash opened his door, shit-faced drunk and naked save for a towel wrapped around his waist. He waved us inside, where a girl lay in his bed, completely starkers. “Thanks for coming, guys!” she sneered. Even Duff didn’t know where to look. We got out of there as fast as we could… after Ian had taken some pictures of the happy couple.

We were back at the Four Seasons the following afternoon to ride out to the venue with the band. We sat on the tour bus for a few minutes – I asked if we were waiting for Axl. Izzy shook his head. Axl, he said, would be along later. The atmosphere on the bus was subdued; everyone was pretty hungover. But the mood lifted at sound-check. They played around with a couple of old Stones songs, and Duff – wearing shorts and cowboy boots – tried on Ian’s newly purchased Stetson. He liked it so much he asked if he could wear it for the gig.

After sound-check there was still no sign of Axl. Nobody – not Goldstein, nor the band – seemed concerned about it. But to me it felt weird. Ever since that first time I’d met them, Guns N’ Roses looked an acted like a gang. They had that ‘us against the world’ mentality. But now Axl was on a different schedule to the others. Maybe he was just resting, as Goldstein had said. But after those rumours about Axl being kicked out of the band in Phoenix, it didn’t look good.

Just 90 minutes before GN’R were due onstage, I interviewed Izzy and Slash in a large backstage toilet-cum-shower room. Slash was revelling in the band’s phenomenal success. “It’s completely against the industry,” he said, proudly. “What this industry’s about in the ‘80s is pretty obvious – trying to polish everything up. Everything’s like techno-pop, even heavy metal stuff. We go against every standard of this industry. Even when we play live to 20,000 people, we’re like a club band. We do whatever we feel like doing. That’s just the way it is. And if people come expecting us to play hit after hit, it just ain’t gonna happen.”

On this tour, however, there were some rules that GN’R had to abide by. Aerosmith, formerly the most fucked-up band in America, were now teetotal and drug-free, and in an effort to keep them sober, their manager Tim Collins had drawn up a contract forbidding Guns N’ Roses to drink alcohol outside of their own dressing room. GN’R honoured that contract out of respect for their heroes. “The vibe between the two bands is great,” Slash smiled. “These guys have been through a lotta shit and we have a lot of respect for them. We grew up listening to their music, this and the Stones and AC/DC, that’s what sorta formed what we are. And it’s funny – they don’t do drugs, they just like to talk about them. They love to ask you about what you did last night and how fucked up you got.”

Izzy added, laughing, “You drag your ass into the gig sometimes and you see these guys and you think, Awwww, fuck! They’re eating watermelon and drinking tea and they go, ‘Man, I’ve been up since nine o’clock this morning’, and you say, ‘What drugs are you doing?’, and they say, ‘No, I just been up since nine!”

I suggested to them that few people would have believed that Guns N’ Roses would have survived 14 months of touring like they had. Izzy snorted, “They didn’t expect us to last a week! But touring really doesn’t faze you. if you get twisted backstage, the walk to the bus is only a few yards, y’know? But yeah, if you get twisted every night, you start draggin’…”

Of course, I had to ask them about Axl. I’d been around the band for 24 hours and I still hadn’t seen him. Slash was quickly on the defensive. “You gotta understand that with this bunch, excess is best and all that shit. Axl knows he has to keep from smoking or drinking or doing drugs to maintain his voice. He doesn’t hang out that much because the atmosphere that’s created by the other four members of this band is pretty, uh…”

Izzy cut in: “…Conducive to deterioration.”

“Axl just hangs out by himself,” Slash continued. “He takes it all pretty seriously. He’s doing well to maintain a certain sanity level, seeing as he can’t go out cos of his position in the band. If he was doing what we were doing, he wouldn’t be able to sing at all!”

When I mentioned the rumours about the band firing Axl in Phoenix, Slash responded like a seasoned politician. “That’s been one of the stories that’s gotten bigger than all of us,” he sighed. “And, as little as it was, it’s past tense and it’s not worth talking about cos it doesn’t relate to what’s going on now.”

We returned to the dressing room, where Steven was drinking vials of royal jelly. “Builds up cum in your balls!” he explained. Somewhat belatedly, Doug Goldstein presented a birthday cake to Slash with a message in pink icing: ‘HAPPY FUCKIN’ BIRTHDAY, YOU FUCKER’. A pack of Marlboro Reds, his preferred smoke, had been squished into the cake.

20 minutes before show time, Slash and Izzy were jamming on acoustic guitars, Steven rattling his drumsticks on the back of a chair, when, at last, Axl arrived. He barely acknowledged the other members of the band before disappearing behind a ring of flight cases arranged in corner of the room. Hidden from view, Axl went through his pre-gig warm-up ritual, singing to a loud playback of The Needle Lies, a track from Queensryche’s concept album Operation: Mindcrime. The meaning in the song’s title wasn’t lost on anyone.

Axl emerged from his den just as Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler entered the room, causing general panic as everyone with a beer in their hand tried to hide it. Tyler seemed oblivious: he just wanted to congratulate GN’R on their number one album. He hugged them all and quickly left. Axl disappeared again to change from jeans and t-shirt into his stage gear: leather chaps and codpiece, snakeskin jacket and wide-brimmed leather hat.

He looked surprised when he saw me. He walked over, his bangles and spurs jingling, and we talked for a few minutes. There was no time for a formal interview. I told him what Slash and Izzy had said about him earlier, and he seemed happy enough with that. He appeared distracted, which I attributed to him being psyched up about going on stage. But even when he broke away for Ian Tilton to take a band shot, he seemed apart from the rest of the group. The dynamic between them had changed. The isolation of Axl Rose had begun.

Guns N’ Roses were brilliant that night: the best show I ever saw them play. At times, Axl was in playful mood, swapping cowboy hats with Duff. But his focus was absolute. Aerosmith might have been the headliners on that tour, but Guns N’ Roses were the main attraction, and Axl owned that stage. Just before they’d gone on, Ian Tilton had asked Doug Goldstein if he could shoot from the side of the stage. “Not unless you want to eat a mike-stand…” Ian asked me if that was a joke. I assured him it wasn’t.

Guns N’ Roses whipped the Texan crowd into a frenzy. Standing beside me at the mixing desk in the centre of the arena was Slayer’s Tom Araya, a broken arm in a sling and a beer in his good hand. Even between songs he had to shout right in my ear, such was the noise from the crowd. It seemed ironic that Araya was there. Just 18 months earlier, I’d travelled to LA thinking Guns N’ Roses were nothing compared to Slayer. And now GN’R were on a different level altogether.

Guns N’ Roses were a phenomenon. They had the world at their feet. But their enigmatic singer was already withdrawing into a world all his own.

But then fame can mess with your head. Earlier that day at the hotel, Izzy, Slash, Duff and Steven had appeared in the lobby and were immediately mobbed by a group of pre-teen kids. Izzy smirked as he signed autographs. “Maybe they think we’re Bon Jovi,” he whispered in my ear. Seconds later, the kids all ran off. Izzy looked bemused until we realised where they’d gone – to the other side of the lobby, where they were crowded around another celebrity who had just arrived: A-Team superhero Mr. T.

If ever Guns N’ Roses required a lesson in the fickle nature of showbiz, they got it right there.

Classic Rock, July 2007

As the tour progressed Guns N' Roses were really happy with how things were going:

This is like the first rock 'n' roll tour we've done. The Mötley tour was fun, but this is the most compatible. The vibe between the two bands is great. These guys are around their thirties or forties, they've been through a lotta shit and we have a lotta respect for them. We grew up listening to their music; this and the Stones and AC/DC, that's what sorta formed what we are. That's the only way you get any kinda personality — through influences. [...] It's funny. They like to talk about drugs. They don't do drugs, they just like to talk about them! It's cool to be around that. [...] They're eating watermelon and drinking tea. They love to ask you about what you did last night and how fucked up you got. They go, "Man, I've been up since nine o'clock this morning," and you say, "What drugs are you doing?" They say, "No, I just been up since nine"!

Sounds, August 20, 1988

Everything's going great. Even better than what we expected. [...] [The reception]'s been really good. Everywhere we've been going and the package [?] on his tour is working out phenomenal for us.

KJJO 104, August 1988

On August 2 the band visited Indianapolis and played on Market Square Arena. Some of the reviews from the show:

Guns N' Roses - two of its members, singer Axl Rose and guitarist Izzy Stradlin, hail from Indiana - opened the evening with a 45-minute set that served to whet one's appetite for seeing them perform as headliners.

It's hard to imagine that the crowd could have been screaming as loud as the band was playing, but fans worked hard to display the intense level of devotion the group inspires. This was not lost on Rose, who termed the audience "the most responsive we've ever played to."

Guns N' Roses earned the applause for both its exciting performance and its knack for storytelling. Rose amused fans with details on his 20-odd arrests in this state, all of which he alleged were on false charges.

Seven or eight years ago, he noted, he was nabbed while trying to enter MSA to see and AC/DC concert. "I haven't been back since then," he said, "but it's always been my dream to open an Aerosmith concert right here at home. This is the most important gig in our career."

Indianapolis Star, August 2, 1988

Opening the show was Guns n’ Roses, one of the only acts in America that can make Aerosmith look clean cut. Touring in support of an immensely successful album, Guns n’ Roses lead singer Axel Rose spent an inordinate amount of time Hoosier-bashing.

It seems Axel lived for a time near Lafayette at least seven years ago and has bad recollections about local teachers and police officers.

Guns ’n’ Roses is perhaps the most outrageous of the bands promoting teen-age anarchy, with songs like "It’s so Easy" (flouting parental authority; "Mr. Brownstone” (flouting the 9 to 5 workday routine) and "Out to Get Me" (flouting cops).

Frontman Rose did make a plea for fans to party responsibly. "We’d like you to be careful ’cause I’d like to see you again when we headline this arena."

The response of the crowd indicates that may be soon.

Indianapolis News, August 3, 1988

"Guns-N-Roses" should be mentioned for their fine performance. Lead singer Axl Rose, originally from Indiana, showed extreme enthusiasm.

Greensbury Daily News, August 4, 1988

by **Soulmonster** Thu Mar 24, 2022 2:32 pm

AUGUST 4-5, 1988

AXL FIGHTS A PARKING ATTENDANT

An incident took place at the first of two shows at the Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, USA (August 4 and 5). According to Rolling Stone magazine "just minutes before a concert, Axl got into a fight with a parking-lot attendant who, Axl says, shoved Stuart, Axl's younger brother and personal assistant. Doug Goldstein, the group's tough but temperate and shrewd tour manager, persuaded the police to release Axl in time for the show" [Rolling Stone, November 1988].

Axl and Izzy in Philadelphia
August 1988

Goldstein would recount the episode:

In Philadelphia, Axl was coming to the show a little late. When Axl and his brother come to pull in, Stuart, Axl's brother, jumps out of the car and pulls the parking cones out of the way so they can get in. He tells the parking guy he’s got the lead singer in the car. The guy tells Stuart to f?!k off. Axl doesn’t want that to happen— he’s one of the most loyal people I've encountered—so he jumps out and gets into it with the parking attendant. It turned into a pretty big scene. So the lead singer’s being taken to jail with a half hour to go before the show. I practically had to blow every cop within a five-mile radius to get him out of jail. Stuff like that would happen, and Tom Hamilton and Brad Whitford would come and go, 'Man, you're not making enough money.’

RIP Magazine, February 1989

Review in The Philadelphia Inquirer
August 5, 1988

by **Soulmonster** Tue Jun 28, 2022 9:38 am

AUGUST 6, 1988

APPETITE REACHES NO. 1 ON BILLBOARD

The slow success of Welcome To The Jungle and the immediate success of Sweet Child O' Mine together with the band's almost constant touring activity helped album sales.

On August 6, 1988, almost exactly a year after its release, Appetite for Discussion reached the number one spot on the Billboard sales list in USA [Circus Magazine, November 1988; Rolling Stone, November 1988].

It was a big surprise! When I talked to you [=Mick Wall] the last time [=June 1988], I wasn’t expecting it at all. But it’s like, it’s just words and numbers, you know?

Mick Wall, GUNS N' ROSES: The Most Dangerous Band in the World, Sidgwick & Jackson, U.K. 1991, 1993; interview from October 1988

We were in a place called Sandstone, just outside of Kansas City, when we found out. And we were like, 'Ok, we're Number One.' There was no big fanfare. It was during our soundcheck, so we didn't even celebrate or anything. Geffen sent us a cake, though.

Circus Magazine, November 1988

It's kinda like those Izod shirts that were fashionable once, a while back. We're cool to like now. Six months ago, kids were afraid to like GNR because their parents, teachers, or friends would come down on 'em. When I was on the track [in high school], if you said you liked Alice Cooper, you had to run an extra lap.

Circus Magazine, November 1988

Now it's cool to like us. And don't get me wrong, we're all happy and everything that we went Number One, and that so many people like us now. But it's gotten to the point where you walk down the street and you'll see some preppy guy singing 'SCOM' and you'll go 'wait a minute...'

Circus Magazine, November 1988

I mean, did that really happen to us? It's like, there's that, and then there's regular life. The rest is just words and numbers that don't really mean a thing.

Kerrang! December 12, 1988

I was surprised, man. It was pretty exciting while we were on tour. We had been touring for six or seven months, and none of us had any kind of root. Nobody had apartments, nobody had a house. We didn’t even have a penny. David Geffen arrived one day and told us “Your record is number one. You are going to make a lot of money”. Someone said “Uaau!”

Popular 1, November 1992; translation from Spanish

We got back on our tour bus and went to the next city. I mean, those things, you can sell a ton of records, but for a band you don't see any dough from it for a long time and we didn't – you know, I think the record company, like, sent us a cake or something stupid. We weren't interested in a cake at that point (laughs). If they would have sent us some drugs, that would have been something else.

The Power Hour (Much More Music), January 2003

We toured that record for so long, and we were just too ‘in i' to realise how big it was blowing up. And then one day you’re in a grocery store and you’re on the cover of Rolling Stone that’s right there as you’re checking out. People are like: “Oh, you’re that guy.” I didn’t really know how to handle that for a while. There’s no kind of training for it.

Classic Rock, May 2019

The single Sweet Child O' Mine was released in August 1988 and went to no. 1 three weeks later.

With the success of Appetite, the label started to push the band into milking the success:

Because of the success of the record, everybody in the business is getting so damn excited. (mimicking) "Gee, we have such a big seller now, we can push this one." So because in the record company world, our album has been moved into a position where it's now the record to push. And with us being out on the road all the time, things are getting goddamned out of hand! There's people preparing to put out different mixes and edits of songs before we even get a chance to get a grip on what's going on. It's really not a representation of what our band stands for… or what our sound is. Hopefully, what will happen is they'll do their bull, we'll sell another million records, and that'll give us more power next time to say, "No, you sons of bitches." […] it's rough to hear about some of our "b"-sides being put out while we're on the road and can do nothing about it. We only hear about it after they go on and do it and we ask, "What do you mean?" It gets kinda weird with people taking liberties with your music. We could throw a big monkey wrench into the thing but that would mean a complete halt and right now we don't wanna do that, so we're gonna have to put up with this over the next few months and we're not real happy about it or proud of it. We'll show a change by our next record and I just hope the kids out there don't think we're coming out with some of the stuff they'll wind up seeing… because it has nothing to do at all with us. Y'know, you battle to a certain point and all of a sudden you're face to face with the big monkey-making machine.

Superstar Facts & Pix, No. 16, 1988;

by **Soulmonster** Tue Jun 28, 2022 9:58 am

RONNIE STALNAKER - SLASH'S CLEAN-UP GUY

Slash was given a man, Ronnie Stalnaker, whose job it was to "follow Slash around when he was drunk" [Rolling Stone, November 1988].

I have to take a security guard with me when I’m on the road now, though, ’cos they’re scared I’m gonna die, or something. It’s sort of embarrassing ’cos nobody can just walk around and hang out with you or whatever. So it’s a drag in that sense, but it’s also cool because when a flock of people come up and they all want autographs, I don’t have the personality to just say fuck off. So he’ll keep them off my back and make sure it doesn’t get out of hand.

Mick Wall, GUNS N' ROSES: The Most Dangerous Band in the World, Sidgwick & Jackson, U.K. 1991, 1993

; interview from June 1988

I'm one of those blackout drunks. I get so fucked up I don't remember anything. I probably give the impression of being a real asshole most of the time, but I'm not really that bad.

Rolling Stone, November 17, 1988

When I get drunk I get like [Steven] does but I still manage to keep enough up here [in his head] and to not fuck up things that concern my ultimate surroundings. [...] My most immediate surroundings I fuck up, but not the band stuff. Just my own personal shit. And, when Duff gets drunk he just gets very jovial, nice, and short-tempered. See, we take everything very unseriously, very lightly because, how really important [no matter what], in the general scheme of things [life in general], how important is a Rock & Roll band?

Rock Scene, August 1988

When the band could afford it, they put a security guard on me. His job was, basically, to follow me around and try to keep me out of trouble, which became really ultimately a big game. So I would do stuff on purpose just to see if he could catch me. (Laughs) And, you know, he sort of… I put him through the paces. [...] he locked me in my room and he was sitting outside the door. I was pissed off and drunk, and I tossed the Jack Daniels bottle at the TV set, and then subsequently fell asleep (laughs). You know, one of the things that he did, which was actually really cool and he didn’t have to do, is that he went in my room, took the TV set and climbed out the window - so as no one see him going down the hall with it – went out on the ledge, went to the room next door, switched TV sets, and came back in. But we were, like, 11 stories up (laughs).

The Late Show with David Letterman, October 30, 2007

Another time when we were in Dallas, Duff and I had adjoining rooms connected by a door and we invited over too many friends with piles of coke. Our party lasted all that night and well into the next afternoon. Things got out of hand, of course, and a big glass coffee table got smashed, and I walked all over it barefoot and bled everywhere. At some point someone kicked the dividing door off the hinges and tipped the beds over and smashed all of the lamps. There were too many of us behaving badly for Ronnie[/i] [=Stalnaker, Slash's security guy] [i]to deal with, so he came up with a plan to get us out of the hotel without the management noticing. He somehow herded us into a service elevator and snuck us out of a loading dock and onto the bus. The hotel had heard all of the noise and was very aware of the party going on, but Ronnie had kept security out of there somehow for an hour or so. We thought we’d gotten away, until the cops pulled us over a few miles down the road at a convenience store where, if memory serves, I’d actually just stolen a bunch of candy.

We were lined up against the side of the bus and taken in for trashing the hotel rooms. It was expensive and I can say in all honesty that it was the last time I’ve ever really destroyed a hotel room. Sure, I’ve been through a couple of TV sets and done a few other stupid things since, but that was the last time I engaged in total annihilation because I got the bill for that one.

Slash's autobiography, "Slash", 2007

by **Soulmonster** Sun Jul 31, 2022 7:11 am

EXPLAINING THE SUCCESS OF APPETITE

Already before Appetite started to sell well, in October 1987, Axl would explain what set them apart:

The fact that we focus a lot on our music. There are many people out there who are great pop stars, but don’t send a message with their music. There are also people who can sing very well, or are surrounded by studio musicians that may be really good, but play just for the money, without feeling anything special for what they’re doing. We try so that every little part of each song is as special as possible, and has a real and honest meaning coming straight from the heart. In the years I’ve been into this, I’ve seen many people who want to live the life of a rock star without wondering about the merit of their art. That’s something we care about. Each song is like a painting for us; we try to turn it into a work of art that we can be proud of in the next ten years. I don’t want to look back one day and say, 'I made a million dollars with this song, but it's the biggest crap ever made.

Popular 1, April 1988; translated from Spanish

And Slash would later talk about how they differed from typical LA bands:

We've always been against all that shit that comes out of L.A.; it's all so cheap, so commercial, and so boring. Nobody wanted us. Nothing against Poison, but we have absolutely nothing to do with that kind of music, we went our own way and we made it that way. [...] There are a lot of musicians, like Dave from Megadeth or James from Metallica, who didn't take us seriously when they first heard about us either; but when they saw us, they knew immediately where we really stand.

Metal Hammer (Germany), April 1988; translated from German

Later, when asked about why Appetite became so successful, the band mostly showed humility:

When we went gold I was surprised. When we went platinum I was shocked. The fact that we broke the top ten is unreal. I mean, this isn't supposed to happen. This isn't right.

Scene Magazine, April 1988

That void is something I was looking at for a long time. The punk movement was dying out, and there were all these metal bands starting up, so [guitarist] Izzy and I put out these ads for a guitarist for a “punk metal glam thrash band.” So we were looking to fill this void. Now it’s starting to get across in a big way. For a time there, we didn’t think it was going to. I thought after Poison we’d be welcomed with open arms as the logical next step. It didn’t quite happen the way we thought it would. But now it’s starting to explode. It took a lot of patience. When we first started out this band was banned. No one wanted to book us, manage us, take us on tour or play us on the radio. Now our video’s been in the Top 5 on MTV for nine weeks.

L.A. Weekly, June 10, 1988

Well, right at this very point where, you know, we’re sitting down talking and everything has changed, we just broke into CHR, which is top 40, with Sweet Child O’ Mine. We’re basically getting picked up now by a lot of major stations. But what you’re saying is – I know what you’re saying - it’s that we could never get any airplay at all. You know, radio stations wouldn’t touch us, there’s profanity all over the album; people wouldn’t play us just because of the album cover, the original album cover; MTV wouldn’t touch it. And what happened is, it was really the way I guess things should be, which is we went out and played, and proved ourselves to our own audience to the point where word of mouth caused a big enough buzz where we were req... requested a lot – I can’t even pronounce English anymore. Anyway. And it was just getting to the point where the kids wanted it that bad, and the radio, in order to stay – you know, they’d better do something about it. And the record company put out more records and it just sort of snowballed. It’s still going, we’re almost two million. It just, like, went back to number 7 in Billboard, so –.

Guns N' Roses Interview Disc, June 1988

We weren't gonna let it not [become a success]. This may sound egotistical but I'm in my favorite band. I'm playing with my favorite people. The songs are close to my heart. We didn't know what was gonna happen initially. We had to hold on with everything we could just to get this record done. If everything else fell through, and I end up pumping gas, at least I'll have the record on tape.

Metal Edge, June 1988

[Being asked why he think they reached no. 1]: I'm not sure. I think the only reason it could have possibly gone to Number One is we're filling some sort of void. That's really the only thing I can attribute it to. It's not because the songs are all huge hits - that's the last thing they are, they're just a bunch of dirty rock 'n' roll songs. So I figure, we're just like the resident down and dirty rock band in town at the moment. Everybody wants to have that record because it's not really that safe... and it looks cool next to George Michael records in their collection.

Kerrang! December 17, 1988

I think the only reason it could have possibly gone to No. 1 is that we’re filling some kind of gap. A gap that hasn’t been filled by this particular kind of music for however long it’s been. That’s the only thing I can attribute it to. It’s not because the songs are, like, huge hits. They’re not, they’re just rock ’n’ roll songs and fuck the Top Forty, you know? I figure we’re just the down and dirty Guns N’ Roses band,’ he continued. ‘Everybody wants to have that album because it’s not that safe and it looks good next to the George Michael album...[…] Like I said, we filled a void which someone had left a long time ago. Aerosmith used to do, I think, what we do. But even Aerosmith isn’t the same thing any more. Even though they’re still around, because they’re older and experienced, been through the mill and this and that, they’re on another plateau now where they’re not gonna fill that gap that they left. So along come these guys... us, right? And we’re, like, fuckin’ ... just going for it.

Mick Wall, GUNS N' ROSES: The Most Dangerous Band in the World, Sidgwick & Jackson, U.K. 1991, 1993; interview from October 1988

What is the reason? Timing. We didn't time it, it wasn't like, "Okay guys, let's get together here in 1985 and then," but it was just, we're at the right time at the right place, you know. There wasn't very many honest bands.

Japanese TV, December 1988

It's not that we are that great or anything, but at least, you know, at least we're realistic and we're sincere about what we do. […] we're like affected by shit the same way that most normal people are affected. We don't, like, pose so that we can fit into the business. So it's like you don't get up in the morning depressed and you put on a smile on your face and go out to the offices and start going through the bullshit. We're, like, get up depressed, go to work depressed, and it's like, you know, one way or the other, you know. If we're happy, we're happy. That's just the way it is. So the album is, sort of like, very emotional, you know, and all the shit we do is usually very emotional. We have a really shitty crowd we get, you know, affected by it, we get pissed off, sometimes we really insult [?] the crowds because it's like, "Well, fuck you!" [laughter]. So somehow, I guess, that works, I guess. I mean, I don't think we would be as popular in 1976 or 77 as we are now because it was, I think there was more bands sort of like us. So I think would have been different. But we're the only band like us right now so it's just timing and shit, you know […].

Japanese TV, December 1988

[…]Aerosmith and AC/DC were still around, they're great bands, but I think kids, you know, of the late 80s here didn't really have a band who were their peers to cling on to […].

Interview Sessions, December 1988

[…]everybody asks us that question, like, "Why do you think you guys have hit this point". It's a hard question to answer. I think one of the main things is that we sort of, like, filled, you know, a gap in music business right now, because for the last, since 1970-1980 it's been pretty bland as far as rock and roll is concerned, and so at least, if nothing else, the attitude of the band has come over and people are like, "Yeah!". I mean, that's sort of, like, what rock and roll is all about. And also that freedom-kind-of-thing.

Interview Sessions, December 1988

You wanna know why I think it is? Because Steven is one sort who nobody can really explain. Izzy is another sort that nobody can really explain. Axl is like... Axl - who has brought this whole new thing with him that people try to imitate all the time now. And Slash is... what? He’s a "what?", that’s what he is. And there hasn’t been a “what?” in years, do you know what I mean? Am I making sense? Basically, it's obvious we’re all different kinds of people into different kinds of things. We don’t like absolutely everything about each other, we don't agree on everything. But we don’t lie about it, and somehow it works.

They just look at us and go, “What!?”

Mick Wall, GUNS N' ROSES: The Most Dangerous Band in the World, Sidgwick & Jackson, U.K. 1991, 1993; interview from January 1990

Yes, Slash could also be proudly honest:

We've sold six million LPs because it's a good album. It's a fucking good album, it'd be fucking false modesty if I pretend it wasn't.

New Musical Express, April 1989

Andy Secher, the editor of Hit Parader, would shed his thoughts on why they caught on:

They’re presenting an image so strong that the music is almost secondary. They've presented this wild-man image. ... To a lot of kids, that's very appealing. […] It’s a major dilemma — how do you present these guys without glorifying what they do? You can only hope that they're just an outlet for their fans, that the kids can feel like they’re living vicariously through the wild actions of a Tommy Lee of Motley Crue or an Axl Rose of Guns 'n’ Roses, so they won’t feel the need to do anything nasty to themselves.

Detroit Free Press, May 6, 1988

Axl would also discuss why it had taken to long:

Well, we've been working really really hard, we haven't let up. It's not necessarily so quickly to us. I thought it would happen a lot quicker because of the acceptance of Poison and Cinderella. I thought we'd get welcomed with open arms, but we were finding radio stations going, 'That's a little too much,' and 'We played too much rock 'n roll for the last couple of years, and we gotta get our advertising dollars back.' So it's just like it's always been.

Metal Edge, June 1988

Then, when other rock bands started to become more mainstream, door were closed:

[…] then they turned around and came out with the more commercial type stuff. That's helped close a lot of doors. They're going, 'Well, you have to write songs like that.' FORGET IT.

Metal Edge, June 1988

Looking back:

I mean, Guns was a fluke, to come out of LA at that time - it was a mesh of five people who just happened - I don't know if it was fate, however we met, but none of us were from LA, none of us were born there, and we all happened to meet - and we went through different bands, and we all ended up meeting each other over and over and over again, to the point where we the only band of its kind that could possibly exist in Los Angeles, we didn't get along with anybody else, inevitably, that was the case. And then at that time, it was during the 80s when music was during its weakest stage, and we were like the Anti-Christ, you know what I mean? And for some reason that caught on in Los Angeles, we got picked up by Geffen, they had the one guy with the ears to hear what was genuine - and I won't brag, but I will admit that Guns is probably one of the best rock'n'roll bands that came around at that time. And so we went on and we were like totally - not so much irresponsible, but we scared everybody! We couldn't get a manager, the record company wanted to drop us because we were more trouble than we were worth, and so on and so forth. So when we got signed they put us on the shelf for a while, you know - "We got to find someone to work with these guys, someone with a little bit of adventure..." And when the record was finally released, we toured opening for - you know, you name it, The Cult, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, all these different bands - Iron Maiden - and that's - all of a sudden, a year after the record was released, we broke, just from being an opening band. And that was just genuine fuckin' down-and-out rock'n'roll stuff. And it had nothing to do with exactly what style of music it was, it was the attitude.

Fuzz Magazine, December 1997

Guns n' Roses was the result of only five guys that could have gotten along together, in Los Angeles, as a band. We all had the same dislike for what was going on currently in the early Eighties. We all had pretty much the same tastes - everything from Kiss to Thin Lizzy, and underground bands like Hanoi Rocks and the New York Dolls. Aerosmith broke up, heaven forbid. AC/DC lost Bon Scott. John Lennon was killed. And then all these plastic bands came out. We put a band together against all odds at a time when the environment didn't welcome us with open arms. We were against the grain to the point where even rock bands of our own peers didn't like us. We said, "Fuck you!" That's why we had such a violent attitude, I suppose. And we had bad habits, and this, that and the other. And then around that time other L.A. bands like Motley Crue, Dokken and Quiet Riot started to surface - we hated all of them. When Guns got together we were doing our own thing, and for some reason we went from being way in the bottom of the barrel, under the barrel, actually, to becoming extremely popular. We attracted all different types of people with different musical tastes - we had punk and heavy metal people, the "hair" guys. We had pseudo-folk kind of people, some of the pop people. So on and so forth would come to our gigs for whatever reasons. I think we were more of a spectacle than anything. [laughs] Guns was a product of its time, but it was genuine and not just a fabricated thing.

Classic Rock Revisited, July 2001

I didn't think the album was going to sell even 15 copies. [laughs] I didn't know a platinum record signified that your album sold a million units. Back in the Eighties, record-industry producers tried to impress us by showing us their collection of gold and platinum records. We were like, "Do you have anymore Jack Daniels?" [laughs].

Classic Rock Revisited, July 2001

I mean, it's kind of redundant and self-evident after 30 years, but one: there's an energy, two: there's an integrity to the approach- [...] You know, you've got an incredible energy, you've got a very straightforward and raw approach, you have an absolutely unique sounding frontman, I don't know how you describe him, I mean, you know. I've heard some people describe him as Ethel Merman, Merman on helium, but once you hear him, once, you never forget him. You've got who has become maybe the most recognizable guitar icon on the planet. You had a very, very solid and competent bass player and Duff was a former drummer and has got some good bass chops. And you had a little drummer who had an incredible sense of the beauty about his playing that the whole thing was based on. You know, Matt Sorum, and bless his heart, is a good drummer technically but he to me he's got you know heavy hands and he's two-dimensional. Steven is not the world's greatest technical drummer by any stretch of imagination but nobody's been able to replicate the energy and the feel that he put into those tracks which were part of his enthusiasm and his excitement of playing that material. No one matches that feel, it's his. So you put those elements together, you know, not hard to understand why it did quite well.

Dropping The Needle Podcast, March 3, 2013

by **Soulmonster** Fri Feb 10, 2023 6:06 pm

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

As the band grew in popularity, the band members would argue that they were picking up on the business side of it:

I guess the thing that has surprised me most about the industry is that it's easier to see what's happening with everything than I ever imagined It would be. I mean, I thought all the business aspects and that kind of stuff would be shrouded in secrecy and they're not. We know everything firsthand, and if we don't understand something, we have it explained. We haven't had a lot of executive bullsh*t or overshadowing by them so far.

Faces Rocks, July/August, 1988

We learned how to survive. We learned who's who in the music business. We learned how to tell when someone's full of shit. We've learned some hard lessons and had to pay some out-of-court settlements. At least we're smart enough to talk straight business now. If someone in this band is like, 'Okay, we're up against a wall' we have people - lawyers, other lawyers and other accountants - so that any mess we manage to get into, we can get out of.

RIP, April 1989

What I'd tell any kid in high school is "Take business classes." I don't care what else you're gonna do, if you're gonna do art or anything, take business classes. You can say, "Well, I don't want to get commercial," but if you do anything to make any money, you're doing something commercial. You can be flipping hamburgers at McDonald's, but you're a commercial burger flipper.

Rolling Stone, August 10, 1989

Izzy and I had always done a lot of reading on Alice Cooper. Not only because we admired him, but also because we figured that anyone who could get this act off the ground had to be a genius and that would be his manager (Shep Gordon). So we'd always read as much as we could about Shep, and we met Shep in Long Beach that night [February 26, 1988], and we told him about how we'd read about him. And he said, "Yeah? Well, that's great, man, because I always used to go in and pull out my book on Elvis when we were first starting out." He told us that Elvis had in his contract that when he put out a record, every piece of RCA stationery must have the title of his new record on it, no matter which act it was promoting. Shep wanted to do that, and the record company said it couldn't be done - and Shep got his Elvis book and said "It's right here on page 42"

Creem Close-Up Metal Magazine, September 1989

And their friend, Robert John would concur:

[…] as far as business goes, these guys really know what they're doing.

Rock Scene, October 1989

Duff would also say their competency came as a surprise to people:

We've not been given enough attention or been taken too lightly, just because the press figure that we're a bunch of drunks, too childish, or whatever. People will try to take advantage of that aspect of us. Then, when they come face to face, they realize we're not actually like that. Our organization is really tight and efficient.

Circus, March 31, 1988

Still, in 2007, Duff would claim they didn't know much at the beginning:

We knew nothing about money, and so we had this sort of gang mentality toward anybody who worked for us. It sounds funny now, but that’s all we had to rely on.

The New York Times, October 28, 2007

As the band blew up in 1988/1989, Slash was probably the band member mostly involved with the day-to-day running of the business [also see previous chapter from the very beginning of the band]:

[Being asked about his typical day]: A typical day? Some days I get up at eight-thirty, nine o’clock in the morning. Go down to Geffen - talk on the phone to radio stations. Do all this other shit... […] Depends on how hard I’ve been at it the night before. I’ve done phone interviews at five-thirty in the morning - talking to Japanese press and all that shit. Except I don’t get up for those, I just stay up... It’s a small price to pay for not having to worry about your rent and getting to work on time,’ he added. ‘You don’t have many responsibilities as a band member - you have to fuckin’ be there for the few responsibilities you do have.

Mick Wall, GUNS N' ROSES: The Most Dangerous Band in the World, Sidgwick & Jackson, U.K. 1991, 1993; interview from October 1988

I do take care of all the business and stuff for the band aside from what the manager takes care of. But I'm the one member of the band. Not just me, I mean, Axl does, too. And so, but it's the one thing that I've always been a very conscientious about. […] I'm always involved in knowing what's going on with promoting, what's going on with when we're on the road with the T-shirt sellers and the like... You know, it's just everything. Just like, how a gig went as far as to, you know, ticket sales. I take care of all the interviews and make sure that they all get done, because Axl doesn't really like to do interviews, and I make myself available for it and stuff like that. I always am the first one to pick up on, like, when there's a new video. I'm the first one to look at it and give my opinion on what's good and what's not. And so on and so forth. I mean, everybody in the band is concerned and everybody's involved. It's just something that I'm on top of right away because, you know, I'm just like a workaholic and I like, you know, everything that's going on.

Nive Boys interview with Slash, 1989

[Slash] was an ace at the business end of things as far as the band went and was always working, always on the phone 24/7 and busted his ass to make sure rehearsals and sessions went smoothly and cost effectively. He was really very aware. When they were out on the road, he was busting his ass working and waking up at 8 oclock in the morning to talk to 100 different reporters for press and everything. He was a terminator and there was nothing he would not do in the name of Guns N’ Roses. He’s always been able to handle an extremely heavy workload and multiple jobs and somehow balance everything.

Legendary Rock Interviews, April 22, 2012

And explaining why he worked so hard:

Yeah, I do it. I’m up for it. If I don’t do it then I’ll just sit around and do drugs and get drunk. There’s also a feeling of if I don’t do it no one will.

Mick Wall, GUNS N' ROSES: The Most Dangerous Band in the World, Sidgwick & Jackson, U.K. 1991, 1993; interview from October 1988

When asked if he was alluding to Axl:

Axl's very involved - he does it and gets really into it, then other times he doesn’t want to do it. He’s very emotional, so I’ll do it. But if he wants to he could be talking to fuckin’ somebody from Trouser Press for three hours... Axl does this, this and this - and this, this and this, Axl doesn’t do. It’s not any particular thing, it’s just what his frame of mind is.

Mick Wall, GUNS N' ROSES: The Most Dangerous Band in the World, Sidgwick & Jackson, U.K. 1991, 1993; interview from October 1988

THE NINETIES

Before we had to figure out where to live, now we have to figure out how to deal with whatever legal things are going on.

Metallix, December 5, 1992

You know, as far the business side of things go we have to be able to get up in the morning and do shit, otherwise it just flies over your head and it’s too late. I’m constantly on top of it and Axl is too on a daily basis. It never stops. It’s cool because I’m in my element and I enjoy it. […] normally we wouldn’t talk about it, but since we’re getting picked apart so much we might as well tell people what goes on. It’s a huge contrast to when we’re on stage. It has nothing to do with music. I’ve always done business for the band ever since we started. It’s just the way I am. I dig the challenge of doing the business as much as I like to Rock out. I’ll take the latter over the former any day, but someone has to do. If you want something to be done you have to do it yourself. Our manager (Doug Goldstein) is great but you have to communicate what you want because his final decision may not be the right decision for what we do as a group. Financially it may be, but not as far as what you believe in as a Rock band.

Raw Magazine, March 4, 1992

The last tour we did cost us two million dollars and we didn’t make a penny off the tour except for maybe the ‘T’-shirts that we sold. The truth is that I’m still watching my money. We put so much back into the group that we won’t really see anything until a long time down the line when we’ve sold records consistently. We haven’t even re-negotiated our contract so that might never happen. To me that means I still feel the same as I always have. I’m happy though, but it’s like that old Jimi Hendrix quote which goes ‘The more money have, the more Blues you can sing’. People like to see the glamour that surrounds bands. They like to think that that’s what it’s all about and it isn’t.

Raw Magazine, March 4, 1992

One of the few indulgences is getting drunk. Otherwise we’re always working. I get up in the morning, and I know this is gonna sound terrible, but I get on the fuckin’ phone to take care of business and get more dates, dealing with promoters and shit. Being on stage is great, the travelling is fine, but doing what we do is far from glamourous and I think people probably wouldn’t last five minutes doing what we do. I don’t mean that to sound bitter because it isn’t, but there’s times when we’re slaving away and we can’t even get jet-lag anymore because we just don’t sleep. At the same time people have paid to come and see us and they don’t give a shit and you’ve got to be able and deliver every night, whether you’re sick or not. There’s no work compensation in this business. I’m not knocking people who lead regular lives because that’s their choice and they probably complain in the same way as anyone else, but we ain’t just out here living an easy life.

Raw Magazine, March 4, 1992

I was real fortunate that I grew up in this business, so I watched a lot of people fuck up before I even started, you know (laughs).

Raw Magazine, March 4, 1992

Goldstein would later say that it was he and Slash who had basically run the band:

Slash and I for the most part ran all the band's business. [...] Slash used to come to my room at 10 am and we would go through all of the band's decisions that had to be made. And, you know, we'd get on the phone for three hours and do interviews. And in all fairness to Duff, he was also always willing to get involved with this when it came to any decisions that Slash and I couldn't agree on. Duff always had a really cool head. [...] Slash wouldn't start drinking until the afternoon for the most part. So he would he would pass out somewhere between 2 and 4 in the morning and then he'd be knocking at my door at 10 am.

One On One with Mitch Lafon, April 5, 2015

Gilby would comment that the band had integrity:

What surprised me was the integrity of the band. Just watching how they do their business and the way they run the band. It’s never like: ‘We can make a lot of money on this; let’s do it.’ It’s like, I watched Slash sit down and go over the designs of the T-shirts and stuff, and it’s like, ‘I wouldn’t wear that, why would I let someone who likes the band wear that?’ It really impressed me, because from where I come from, it’s so hard to be successful in the music business, so you would do a lot of things you normally wouldn’t think is right. And for some reason, the band did everything they wanted to do. And it worked.

Hartford Courant, March 4, 1993

In early 1994 Slash would say he enjoyed the business side of the band: "It's more or less my constant function with this band. I love the fight; I love to get into it, get our point across and make decisions people can't argue with. So that's fun" [Kerrang! January 8, 1994].

Looking back:

“It’s in the pipeline”. So we had to, basically, take a crash course. There was – still is – this Donald Passman book on the music industry. We would read this thing. We didn’t, really… Publishing is a thing, and young musicians don’t know anything about it, because it means nothing to you. But we were getting offered money for our publishing. So, one guy offered us at Denny’s a $10,000 traveler’s check for the publishing of Welcome to the Jungle. That was a lot of money for us, 10,000 bucks. But we just thought, if it’s worth something to him, it must be worth something to us. Later on, when we got signed, we were offered a couple of hundred grand for a big cut of our publishing. “Well, if it’s worth 200 grand to them, it must be worth 200 grand to us. And besides, it’s not their fuckin’ songs. We wrote them.” You know, it was really kind of a street mentality. The money that we got from the label, we did understand it was a loan. And we started to figure out the little, kind of, bylines in the contract, the breakage and whatnot, which is spoilage and breakage, that you’re just under no control of us. You know, that we would end up paying for or that we wouldn’t get paid for those records, one way or the other. We took a crash course in all of that, how to… We got tour support. We weren’t making enough money to pay for a tour bus. We were borrowing money from our roadies to eat, you know? We knew… When we started selling records with Sweet Child O’ Mine - we made the video above a bank downtown L.A. It was very cheap. If you see that video, it’s just us in a room, it’s black and white, there’s a couple – you know, the little camera dollies on the floor, and that’s about it. There was a dog, one of our dogs was in it, and I think our girlfriends were in it. But it was super cheap. But they released that single and that video, and that really took off. By that point, we were on tour with Aerosmith, and those seven people that showed up early turned into 30 the next night. And the next night it was 300, and the next night it was 800. And by the end of, like, a couple of weeks, all 17,000 people that were there before to see Aerosmith, were showing up for us. And we started selling a lot of records. The album started moving up the charts, the single went to number one, then the album went to number one, and things changed there. So we were selling millions of records and we were still borrowing money from our roadies for a sandwich. And then, you know, at that point, they said, “Well, there’s money coming, it’s in the pipeline”. “Okay, fine, when is this pipeline due to us?” And we did get paid. You know, we got paid this total next level to that – auditing, later on, and whatnot. But then the question becomes, you know, my first check I got. I’ll just be frank, it was the first check. So I went from poverty level person to getting a check for 80,000 bucks in 1988. $80,000 might as well have been a billion dollars. I didn’t know what to do with $80,000. So, you began asking questions about money. I didn’t know what a stock was, what a bond was. If somebody said “risk” to me, you know, I’d start swinging. So I think it’s very important, if there’s any musicians or if your kids are musicians, there’s nothing wrong with asking questions and saying, “I don’t know what that means.” And I was afraid to do that for the next ten years.

Upfront Ventures, February 25, 2019

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