2001.04.DD - Mainstream Rock - Interview with Tracii Guns

Tracii Guns

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05. Way back in your career, back to Guns 'N' Roses, how much of an input did you have?

I had 100% input because it was my band. Until the point where I left, everything came down to pretty much me and Izzy (Stradlin). Then Axl (Rose) was getting real... talking out of his ass on stage and I didn't like it. You know, we'd play a song for 5 minutes and he'd talk for 10 minutes. He's a great singer, but what it boils down to is that it just got too weird for me... and the band.

06. How long before Appetite For Destruction did you leave the band?

Not that long, really. I think at the point where I left, it was like 4 or 5 months and I was putting the new L.A. Guns back together. I think by the time we were in the studio starting to record, they had just finished Appetite For Destruction and everything happened within about a year's period. It was a fun time.

07. How did you go about putting L.A. Guns back together at that point? Did you plan on doing it?

Yeah, I did. That was the one thing, when I was playing with the guys in GNR it wasn't that much fun. It was more like one drama after another, and it still is. It just wasn't something I was prepared for. Like I'm 19 years old and I'm trying to play the guitar, hang out with fun people, and so when the end came for me and Guns 'N Roses, I had met Mick (Cripps) and I just wanted to do a punk rock band. So we put together this really fun band. We were basically started out, that version of L.A. Guns started out like that. We just wanted to be a metal band and look 10 times dumber than Motley Crue did. So that was the whole point. We never took it seriously, we didn't want a record deal, we didn't want anything and all of a sudden... we did it and to this day we still laugh. Everybody's a great player and it's like the whole serious rock star trip.

08. L.A. Guns were more diverse than a lot of the other bands of that time period. Was that a blessing or a curse?

I think it's both. I think musically it's a blessing. Attention span-wise for metal fans, I don't think they really get it because that's the thing, all the guys from L.A. Guns were into so much different stuff. I mean everything from hardcore punk rock to some folky Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, and just all different kinds of stuff. You can throw everything in the pie because we had so many influences. Some people call it unfocused. We call it music. It keeps us happy. I've been doing it so long, especially doing L.A. Guns since I was 17 and I'm 35 now so musically I'm happy.

09. How do you feel about being a part in the late 80's scene?

It always felt like a good place to be. I'd say from 1985-1990, I don't remember a greater time period for music as far as the scene that I'm in. The camaraderie that went along with the drama... the women, drugs, everything rock 'n roll is supposed to be. Our scene kind of came out of the whole, like reading interviews of Van Halen and Motley Crue, and all the bull shit that those guys said. And all the chicks were at those same interviews so they were willing to do all the things that they did. You know, the reason why there was no more scene is everybody got signed. They had to do records and the tours, so the whole scene disappeared. But it was the best time of my life, and to be associated with it now, even with the stigma that's attached to it from a bunch of other bands that kind of ruined it for one reason or another, I'm not sure exactly how it happened, it's great.

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