2020.08.05 - Appetite For Distortion - Doug Goldstein talks The Spaghetti Incident

Excerpts from Ultimate Guitar:
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During an appearance on Appetite for Distortion, former Guns N' Roses manager Doug Goldstein - who managed the group from 1991 to 2008 - discussed Axl Rose's decision to continue the band after the classic lineup broke up.

When the interviewer said that "Axl's been keeping it alive all these years," Goldstein responded (transcribed by UG):

"That was one of the arguments that Axl and I had when Slash left: I didn't think that he should call it Guns N' Roses anymore. And he disagreed with me. I thought that he should've called it - I don't know, Axl Rose, something with his name. I don't even know if I came up with something, I just said, 'I don't know if you should taint what you had in the original name by using it again.' And you've heard my argument, he was the only guy standing there as Guns N' Roses, so it's tough to let go of that."

It's just fascinating how it's taken on a narrative that Axl is a bad guy...

"The last time I talked to him it was because I've done a podcast with you, and he said, 'Stop saying nice things about me.' He doesn't like it when people say nice things about him in the press. His argument is, 'Did anybody ask Picasso what his art meant? I'm an artist, I'm not interested in public opinion. I don't really care, and I don't want anybody trying to change public opinion, I really don't give a shit what anybody thinks.' Fair enough."

He seems to a completely different person now, but at the time, lashing out at the media, it seemed like it bothered him at times.

"When it's unjust... But again, he's lashing out at people that don't know him or in a very high public opinion, and so, again, people of very high public opinion, making defamatory comments, that is a little different than fans."

Was Axl into serial killers?

"You know what, here's where the whole [Charles] Manson thing came from: 'Everybody thinks I'm a freak and I'm a weirdo just like they think Manson is a freaking weirdo, so I'll wear a mask and shirt, I'll do a Manson song because everybody thinks I'm a cook anyway.' In my opinion, I don't think he ever was out to glamorize what Charles Manson had done in any way, shape, or form. My second wife is the only eyewitness ever to one of our country's biggest serial killers - they called him the Dating Game Killer, Rodney James Alcala. Through DNA, they've linked him to 130 murders, rape, and murders. One was her friend, and she's the only eyewitness ever."