2021.02.08 - Appetite For Distortion Podcast - Doug Goldstein Gets Reelz

Excerpts from Ultimate Guitar:
-------------------------------------

During an appearance on the Appetite for Distortion Podcast, former Guns N' Roses manager Doug Goldstein, who managed the group between 1991 and 2008, discussed his recent appearance on the Reelz Channel documentary "Axl Rose: Guns N' Roses Frontman."

At one point, the interviewer said, "Watching the documentary and knowing how close you and Axl were - and obviously, your feelings are still there. You said at the end, 'I love you, brother,' and I felt that. The other thing I felt was when you were talking about his suicide attempt. I don't know if I forgot that; that shocked me... So while you want to get things out there about what a good guy Axl is, and it's what I do on this podcast, talking about mental health, and sometimes there are traumas that will explain or help understand why there's erratic behavior. How did you feel? What were the emotions going through when telling that story to a camera? I know there's more to it, and I don't know if you want to say it now or save it for another time."

Doug replied (transcribed by UG):

"You know me, Brandon - how many calls have you received from me, saying, 'Please, edit this out'?"

None.

"You know me, I'm an open book, I got no problem talking particularly to the fans because without fans you have no band.

"So as it relates to talking about the suicide attempt, I wasn't doing that to be anything other than giving an explanation as to his state of mind during a major portion, particularly of the 'Use Your Illusion' [era] and to give some credence to - you're not alone.

"There are boatloads, and boatloads, and boatloads of Guns N' Roses fans who go through a similar depression. And to understand that here's a guy who can go out and entertain in front of 220,000 people, and go home and be alone with nobody looking after him or praising his accolades...

"It's a massive depression that one goes through, and it's not just him, it's entertainers in general. I have this conversation with a lot of people who go from particularly the loved ones - when he comes home, there's this massive adjustment.

"I've been explaining that for years - 220,000 people in the arena, and you do that for a year and a half, and you come home and your wife says, 'The dog's not going to clean up his own shit. And I fired the maid.'

"It was more speaking... I didn't feel like I was speaking about anything that Axl hadn't spoken about himself, being depressed and having gone through his own battles and issues.

"So I didn't feel like I was really speaking out of turn, just more to give a better understanding of some of the pain that he was particularly going through."

Yeah, and you said something to me off the air too, which I want to say, that you are also sharing your experience because you had to help. You shouldn't have to hold that in because that's your experience, even though you weren't the potential victim, let's say, that's still a traumatic experience for you.
"And I was reliving my own history as well. My brother's birthday is a day before Axl's accident. He passed 10 years ago, and he tried to commit suicide a number of times - and I was too young to do anything about it.

"With Axl Rose, I wasn't too young to do anything about it, and I was able to effectively intervene in a positive way."

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/manager_speaks_on_axl_roses_suicide_attempt_discusses_gnr_frontmans_state_of_mind_at_the_time.html

*

During an appearance on Appetite for Distortion, former Guns N' Roses manager Doug Goldstein, who managed the group between 1991 and 2008, discussed his relationship with Slash and Duff McKagan, online drama, while also looking back on Donald Trump attending a GN'R gig back in the early '90s.

Asked how Slash "wasn't very kind" to him in his book, Goldstein replied (transcribed by UG):

"No, he wasn't very kind. In Slash's book, he says, 'Dougie used to put us at these golf resorts so that he could play golf.' The reality is - I woke up at 5:30 in the morning just as they were going to bed, so it had nothing to do with that.

"It had everything to do with the fact that on the '88-'89 'Appetite' tour [Doug worked as the band's tour manager at the time] when I was staying downtown, we were throwing drug dealers in and out of hotel rooms, right and left., but good luck scoring any heroin on the 15th hole at the TPC course in Las Colinas and Dallas. You're not gonna do it.

"Maybe now that it's grown a little, but not back when I was booking them there. That's why I booked him out there, and it had nothing to do with golf. Most of the time I didn't even get to play golf because I was dealing with some mess from the night before."

Yeah, there's still so much that needs to be cleared up.

"I mean, would I love the opportunity to sit with Slash and Duff [McKagan, bass] and explain my side of the story. Will I ever get that opportunity? Probably not. That's OK.

"But again, one of my mantras in life is I don't look in the rearview mirror for fear of running into the wall in front of me. The reason why I do these podcasts really isn't to clear up anything about me, it is really just to talk to the fans. And anybody that knows me well enough understands that about me.

"I love the fans; when a lot of these fans were in their teens, they were spending their hard-earned money or their allowance or whatever buying t-shirts, and posters, and whatever else that I received the benefit of.

"And why in the world, 20 years later, would I not answer questions that had to do with a band that was relevant in their youth? I would think that would be pretty one-sided of me and a pretty shitty thing to do."

Doug also touched on his 2018 remark that Slash's collaboration with "pedophile" Michael Jackson was "the beginning of the end" for Guns N' Roses. [...] Now, the manager commented:

"I'll be honest with you what it is. I've had this discussion privately, I call it 'cowards behind keyboards'. If you google 'Doug Goldstein Guns N' Roses,' the very first thing is - well, the second thing that comes up is, 'Why Doug Goldstein is full of shit.' And it's an article that you cannot comment on, by the way, he edited it so that you can't put a comment.

"But it was related to my comments about - I saw the end of the line coming [for Guns N' Roses] when Axl did his piece about being abused as a child, and then Slash decides to go do a pay-per-view with Michael Jackson...

"'But those [pedophilia] accusations didn't come out for a couple of years!' Well, that's all well and good, but those of us that were in the industry - we all knew. I have a friend that I will leave nameless that I've known since I was 18 years old, who was literally the house manager at Neverland, and we all knew what was transpiring out there.

"So I don't really give a shit about some coward behind a keyboard saying that I was full of shit, other than when somebody's interested in possibly working with me. And that's the second thing that comes up. I don't know how to get rid of it, I'm not savvy enough to call Google and say, 'This guy's full of shit.'"

Your picture with Donald Trump comes up. What was he like?

"I'll be honest with you. I go on face value what does somebody treat me like - and so, he came to the show, wanted to meet Axl, and I made that happen.

"And then I told my then-wife - she was flying in the next day, I said, 'You're not gonna believe who's at the show.' She goes, 'Who's that?' I said, 'Donald Trump.' She just said, 'Fuck you!' I go, 'Why would I lie? I have no reason to lie!' She goes, 'Doug, shut up, Donald Trump was not into the show.'

"So she flies out the next day, and I'm having dinner with Peter Mensch who was my mentor, he helped me all along the way. He manages Metallica, and Chili Peppers, and Muse, and Black Keys, and on, and on, and on. There are very few bands that he doesn't manage.

"So he and his first wife and I and my then-wife - I'm facing the door at this Thai restaurant in Manhattan, and all of a sudden, Donald Trump walks in. And I hear this, 'Hey, Doug Goldstein!' He comes over, pulls up a chair, and sits down for 45 minutes, talks to us.

"And obviously, my first wife is just sitting there. I go, 'Yeah, I'm a big liar!' So he literally gave me his business card, he said, 'You know what, Doug? I like you a lot, you're a good kid. If you ever need anything from me, this is my real contact information. Call me anytime.'

"Obviously, I never did, but I used to carry it just as a joke, you know - I've got the Trump card. He was great, the guy was nice to me."

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/gnr_manager_reflects_on_controversial_pedophile_michael_jackson__slash_remark_recalls_how_donald_trump_acted_when_he_wanted_to_meet_axl_rose.html?fbclid=IwAR31iw-ux3WTe5wYaVLPfriejzmQ-b-7HFuytn8NKG1jj23GrgNYIPHWzvE