1988.MM.DD - Superstar Facts & Pix No. 16 (Izzy, Slash, Duff, Axl, Steven)

One-on-one with Guns N' Roses' gutsy guitarist Izzy Stradlin

Q: How'd it feel those first few band practices with this line-up? Was the chemistry there?
A: Oh yeah, we hit it off. We rehearsed for three days and went right out on a club tour. We did a punk thing. Duff had booking connections in Seattle so off we went. We loaded all our stuff in this big car and only made it 200 miles out of L.A. before the car broke down. We had hardly any money but we slung our guitars over our shoulders and hitch-hiked with all our stuff. Boy, what a road trip for our very first one! But the crowd response was good and that's when we really took off. We were doing a little bit of everything - Elvis Presley tunes, blues, you name it! We didn't give a damn about anyone or anything. We just wanted to play.

Q: Slash was explaining to me about how you guys can get so crazy onstage yet keep it so tight.
A: It's from constant touring. You develop that tightness. When you're playing you lose track of any sense of real timing and a subconscious thing sets in. It's like your body's playing but your head's not there... your head's a million miles away from earth. Hopefully, it all works.

Q: When I saw you, you were improvising madly, Slash was really working out, Axl was dancing around all while Steven and Duff were plugging away seemingly in their own world. Yet at a certain point, you five stopped on a dime!
A: It's amazing to me. That night at the Felt Forum in New York when you saw us was a particularly good night. I mean, sometimes we make bad mistakes onstage too. I remember in the old days we'd go so nuts we'd fall right off the stage. Sometimes we'd jump off the stage on purpose. You can't stay too tight when you do that!

Q: I saw kids getting crunched up to the foot of the stage and having to be rescued by security guards. I saw kids hurling themselves on top of other people right in front of you. Does that happen at every gig?
A: Oh, that was one of the more mellow gigs. In Europe, it's like a football game. Kids are flying through the air and landing on stage all the time.

Q: How can you keep playing?
A: It's not easy. Many times I'll be playing and some big kid will be hurtling through the air at 100 miles per hour right at me. I can't imagine what that must look like from the audience. But I'm sure it adds an excitement to the show. When these kids go flying past me and I never see it comimg, it gives me a rush of adrenalin like you wouldn't believe.

Q: That's downright dangerous!
A: Sure it is. But it's also on the edge and that's what makes good rock 'n' roll.

Q: That's what I like too. You never know what's gonna happen at a Guns N' Roses concert.
A: We don't even know ourselves from one minute to the next. We don't even use a songlist anymore.

Q: When Axl rode that bicycle across the stage, people freaked!
A: I had no idea he would do that. It caught me by surprise.

Q: Did you purposely set out to marry hard-as-hell rock with a punk feel?
A: It's that punk thing that motivates us. I love the energy of those early punk days.

Q: They no doubt shook up the rock world even though a lot of them couldn't even play their instruments. What was great is that they stuck up their middle fingers to the rock establishment. You guys are great because you flaunt that same rebellion plus you can also play.
A: That's true. It was a case of attitude over substance with a lot of those bands but I still like 'em. We take out our agressions while we're playing. It's like therapy. It's such a high.

Q: Do you crash when you get off stage?
A: The feeling stays with you long after you leave that stage. It makes you not able to sleep and keeps you pumped up for hours afterwards. There's no feeling like it in the world. On an average tour day, I try to get about four or five hours of sleep. Sometimes it's just not possible so I'll sleep only two or three hours and then on an off day, I'll sleep all day! That gets your body back to normal.

Q: Has the band disciplined itself for a life on the road? You tour so extensively... you really have to take care of yourself.
A: We're not at all as crazy as we used to be. Now we know what we have to do and we do it. What's fun is getting to meet all the people whose music we listen to. It's a gas! We met Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick... he was the greatest! He hung out with us when we played Rockford, Illinois and he got totally plastered! No more tequila for you, Rick! When he pulled that stuff out, I knew there'd be problems. What a wild guy! We loved him. When we left him, he was sacked out on the floor.

Q: Who are some of the people who you'd like to meet?
A: The guys in the Rolling Stones... we haven't met them yet.

Q: Is there really gonna be a 15-minute song on your next album filled with synthesizers and strings?
A: (laughing) Could be. There's talk. We constantly disagree and keep changing our minds about everything from one day to the next.

Q: One of the new songs, "I Used To Love Her But I Had To Kill Her," should elicit some sharp response from women's groups.
A: Let 'em howl.

Q: The Stones got blasted for Black & Blue.
A: Right, right. I remember that. "I Used To Love Her But I Had To Kill Her" is a joke. I was sitting around listening to the radio and some guy was whining about a broad who was treating him bad. I wanted to take the radio and smash it against the wall. Such self-pity! What a wimp! So we rewrote that same song we heard with a better ending, it's a real New York type of song.

Fast Facts
Name: Izzy Stradlin
Instrument: Guitar
Birthplace: Indiana
Birth Date: April 8
Height: 5 foot 11
Weight: 140
Currently Lives: "Abroad"
Favorite Song: "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones
Favorite Band: Smack (from Finland)
Favorite Musician: "Nobody"
Major Musical Influence: "From classical to punk"
Favorite City: Amsterdam (Holland)
Favorite Actor: Malcolm McDowell
Favorite Actress: None
Favorite Movie: Tommy
Favorite TV Shows: None
Favorite Food: Indian
Favorite Sport: "Touring"
Favorite Book: "I read philosophy books."
Looks For In A Girl: "Face Value"
Dream Date: "To my girlfriend's house"
Favorite Thing About Traveling: "Meeting all these bizarre people."
Least Favorite Thing About Traveling: "Incedintal expenses"
First Concert: David Cassidy
First Favorite Band: Three Dog Night
Former Job: "Illegal"
If Not Doing This You'd Be: "I don't want to think about it."
Biggest Turn-On: "music and life itself"
Self Description: "Quiet, articulate and full of shit"

One-on-one with Guns N' Roses' drum dynamo Steven Adler.

Q: How's the tour going?
A: Great. I love meeting all the different people in the different cities. I really get into how everybody's so unique and yet so much the same. Meeting them all and being onstage and playing for them and seeing them clap their hands and stamp their feet is the greatest. When I see them scream and have such a good time, it makes me give 150%.

Q: The kids really went wild for you guys tonight!
A: That's right, man. These kids go to the show and they don't want to think about their jobs or their mother or their teachers. They come to have a good time and get everything out of their head... not think about a damn thing! And that's what I like.

Q: Your early live shows are legendary. Do you feel the band is more controlled onstage now that you're such big stars?
A: Not at all. It's even crazier now. And better. We're a much better band now than we were when we were playing in Los Angeles.

Q: Usually when a band gets big...
A: It gets lazy. I know. But not us. We're not toning it down for anybody! I go out there and have a damn ball every night. And it keeps on getting better. Practice makes perfect, y'know? Every night I get better and so does the band. It's getting crazier and crazier too!

Q: I've heard you were self-taught. True?
A: That's right. I never took a drum lesson in my life. I learned from watching and listening very closely to other drummers. That plus wanting it real bad and believing in myself.

Q: There's a lesson there somewhere. Who are some of the people you watched and learned from?
A: Roger Taylor of Queen... John "Bonzo" Bonham of Led Zeppelin... Keith Moon of The Who... and jazz drummers Gene Krups and Buddy Rich.

Q: Out of those great drummers, Roger Taylor's the only guy still alive!
A: (laughing) Yeah, I guess so. I learned more from watching a five-minute drum solo that Buddy Rich once did on "The Tonight Show" than almost anything else ever. He tore that snare drum right up!

Q: Let's switch tracks. What do you look for in a girl?
A: Right now, I just scored bigtime on a real nice girl. I like a smart girl who can take care of herself and who doesn't have to look up to me or expect me to give her anything. I like a girl who wants to go out and pursue her own thing, not rely on me all the time.

Q: What would be your idea of a dream date?
A: I haven't gone on a date in so long! I guess my dream date would be to go to Las Vegas. I just like going to drive-in movies or out for a good dinner. I like to do the things that the girl likes to do. I'm not always the super bad guy, y'know!

Q: What is your earliest music recollection?
A: The first record I remember ever putting on was "Working My Way Back To You, Babe" by The Four Seasons. I love The Four Seasons, man! I met 'em all! I got to meet Frankie Valli in Las Vegas once. Mr. T was there and it was the best! I been into The Four Seasons since I was five years old.

Q: What would you be doing if you weren't doing this?
A: I'd probably be an actor. I love to entertain. I got to do a movie recently but I didn't get to do much acting in it.

Q: Which movie?
A: The new Clint Eastwood film, Dead Pool. The whole band's in it. We didn't have that great or that big of a scene. I got sick the day we did it so Slash, Duff, and Izzy got to do most of it. They got to harpoon some dude. They were super bad guys! I played a dude at some musician's funeral and I was hanging out by the coffin.

Q: What turns you on more than anything else?
A: The lights going out just before we hit the stage. Hearing that energy from the crowd before we even start. That turns me on more than anything else in the world. I really love playing live. There's nothing like it. When those kids start screaming, I get a serious rush. Drugs ain't got a clue on what a good time really is.

Q: How 'bout a self-description?
A: I'm pretty down-to-earth. I really don't care too much about causing problems for other people. I just want to do my own thing and if I can help somebody, I'll do what I can. I'm just a nice guy, I guess. I have no enemies... that I know about. I like to take it easy when I have the chance. I like to relax.

Q: That's different from all the badboy press you guys have been generating.
A: It's sorta good we had all those stories because it made people very skeptical about what we were and who we were... but they did want to hear our music because of it. I mean, we have done some crazy things, but never really bad things to hurt anybody or screw anybody up. We're not into that. We're into having fun. As long as we don't hurt anybody or rip anybody off, there's nothing wrong with having a good time.

Q: How 'bout all those stories about you guys wrecking furniture and breaking windows and stuff?
A: So what? We didn't hurt anybody. So we broke some stuff. So we had a few too many drinks. So what of it? I personally have thrown everything out of my hotel window. I got twisted, man! It's like the golden rule of rock: if you get this far in the business, you have to do these things. You have to break things. You have to go to jail. You have to throw everything out of your hotel window. It's just one of those things. You have to do it. We never hurt anybody. I went to jail in Chicago once. We got into this big fight, a major fight in the bar of a hotel. But I better not say anything else about that.

Q: The kids love you.
A: We know what the kids want to hear and we know what they want to see. 'Cause we're kids too! We may be a little older than them now... but not that much older. Hey, we've been 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 years old before. I've been to rock 'n' roll shows and I know what I liked and I know what I didn't like. Now, maybe I got more responsibilities. Maybe the kids don't have a lot of responsibilities yet but they will. They'll have plenty soon enough. Hey, we eat, drink, sleep, burp and fart just like the rest of 'em. There ain't no difference.

Q: Speaking of sleep, how do you ever get any?
A: Y'know, you get so wound up and so excited after a show that it's really hard to sleep at all. You keep thinking about those faces in the crowd. Each city is another trip. The faces change. The halls change. Yet all our crowds basically get down the same way. There's only one way to clap your hands!

Q: What can you tell us about the upcoming album?
A: There'll be stuff both old and new on it. We recorded "I Used To Love Her But I Had To Kill Her," "Patience" and an acoustic version of "You're Crazy," with congas, maraccas, tambourines and a little bit of light drums I put in there. It's pretty cool. Plus, there's gonna be some real surprises: songs that you'd never expect us to do. There's one about 15 minutes long with strings, synthesizers, piano, and a lot of big drums.

Q: Wasn't "Anything Goes" 12½ minutes at one time?
A: Yeah, I used to get tired playing that song! We shortened it for the first album. It was totally different too. We put it on our demo tape. Y'know, we did that demo tape for only $300 in five hours and that's how we got our record contract.

Q: I bet you never thought your audience would be as diverse as it is.
A: Did so, man. I knew it right from the jump. I wanted the 15-year olds to get into us as well as the 30-year olds and that's exactly what happened. We got fans 10 years old and 40 years old. Some of the old guys at Geffen Records are past 60 and they're digging it! They play the LP all the time. And my mom! It's so weird! She turns all her friends on to it. They play my tape at her beauty salon.

Q: Your mother must be a hero to all her friends by now.
A: Oh yeah, you got it, man. She's a waitress at a deli in the valley and kids come in there just to meet her and get HER autograph. It's really funny! My mom's having a better time out of all this than I am! And my dad! He works at the railroad and all the older dudes, they get into it. They say, "So what's your son doing? I saw him on MTV." These guys are 70 years old! Even my grandfather who's past 70. He loves it.

Q: Well, thanks for the interview, Steve. We know how busy your schedule is.
A: Oh no problem, man. I always wanted to be in those teenage magazines. I used to read 'em all the time and fantasize about how great it would be when I'd be featured.

Fast Facts

Name: Steven Adler
Instrument: Drums
Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio
Birth Date: January 22, 1965
Height: 5 foot 7
Weight: 135
Currently Lives: Hermosa Beach, California
Favorite Band: Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
Favorite Musicians: Slash and Duff "I look up to those two guys more than anybody else."
Favorite City: New Orleans
Favorite Actor: Marlon Brando
Favorite Actress: Raquel Welch
Favorite Movie: The Poseidon Adventure/The Bad News Bears
Favorite TV Shows: Cheers/Taxi
Favorite Food: Italian
Favorite Sports: Football/Hockey
Favorite Book: The Hardy Boys
Least Favorite Thing About Traveling: Not enough to eat/no sleep
First Concert: KISS
First Favorite Band: KISS
Former Jobs: Mopping bowling alley lanes/sweeping floors/washing dishes/waiting on tables/warehouse worker/paperboy - "I had a lot of goofy jobs."

One-on-one with one of metal's true wildmen, Slash the axeman!
Slash: I have a headache you wouldn't believe.
MG: Not enough sleep?
Slash: Too much Jack Daniels. Drink it all the time. I burned my damn finger last night and I can't remember how. Hey, how'd that Poison magazine get on the bus?
MG: Uh, oh. I gave it to (drummer) Steven and told him not to show it to anybody.
Slash: Hey, I don't care, man. I'm no (bleepin') baby. I just wanted to know where it came from.
MG: You were right there when I gave it to him. You were sitting in the corner with a beautiful girl on your arm.
Slash: That's my girlfriend.
MG: There were all these other girls waiting around for you backstage.
Slash: I got the reputation for being drunk all the time but I'm really not that bad. I'm actually a nice shy kid.

MG: Where do you live?
Slash: Nowhere. I live out of a suitcase on the road and when I'm not on the road, I, uh, live around.

MG: Major musical influence?
Slash: I don't have one. It's just something that developed over my 22 years. I went to a lot of concerts when I was a kid growing up in England. But I never saw anybody who directly influenced me.

MG: You sure looked like you were influencing all those kids out there tonight!
Slash: They were drinkin' too much. Those kids out there looked like they've been following the band around all over. Y'know, you got to make choices in life. You can't keep on following bands around your whole life and partying out. One day you're gonna wake up and you'll be 30 years old and you won't have done a damn thing with your life.

MG: What did you do before you were a musician?
Slash: The last job I had was in a music store and I got fired. I worked other jobs too. One job I never even showed up at because I found out Motley Crue was recording in L.A. so I went to hang out outside the studio.

MG: If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing?
Slash: I'd probably be doing something that had to do with art and wouldn't be a nine-to-five thing. I just can't do that mundane sort of every day thing. It would have to be something where I could make my own schedule. What about you?
MG: If I wasn't writing about rock 'n' roll, I'd be playing it. You'll find that most rock scribes are frustrated musicians.
Slash: Those are the ones who are really into it. The critics who are into it because they love it and not because it's a job are the only true critics. So why don't you join a band?
MG: Not enough time. But this is about you, not me. How 'bout a self-description?
Slash: I'm pretty much shy and quiet. But I am short-tempered. I like to read. I like to draw. That's probably a real contrast to what's been written about me so far.

MG: What do you think of your competition out there... the other bands?
Slash: My peers? Sometimes I don't like to say because I got myself in trouble one other time but that's ok. My peers suck! They're really bad. I hope that in another five years Guns N' Roses isn't considered another Poison or Kingdom Come. I hope we're remembered as being different. I mean, we're in a bad time for rock 'n' roll now. It's like here in the late '80s, people just ain't doing anything from their soul. It's turned into a very business and money oriented type of industry. I would hope that we're a bit away from that as far as the music goes. Don't forget we didn't have to play any games to get signed. We signed our record deal on our own terms and did things our own way. We told people that we were gonna do just what we said we'd do and that's the only way we'd sign a contract. And we stuck to it! So I would hope that we're like one in a million right now.

MG: Well, you are the band to see right now. The problem is longevity. How can you possibly hope to keep up this pace?
Slash: Longevity ain't a problem for us at all. Longevity is something that everybody else thinks about, not us. We're just going to keep doing this until it's no fun anymore. I know that's almost a cliche but it's true. When it's not a turn-on anymore, that's when we quit. We're not going to be one of these bands who say well, we gotta keep going out there even though we hate every minute of it.

MG: That's business, pure and simple.
Slash: Not us. Right now we're on the road and we'll be on the road for a long, long time. Then we'll finish the next album and stay in the studio for a long, long time. And the whole time, it'll be fun. After the album is finished, we'll go back out on the road and do it some more. Then the whole process will start again and we'll keep doing it and doing it until I won't wanna turn around and look at Steven behind those drums anymore. It doesn't matter what anybody else says about how long we'll last.

MG: You guys live the life of rock 'n' roll to the hilt. There's only so much abuse a body can take. You can't keep on playing and drinking and not sleeping and not eating and then playing, drinking and starting the whole cycle over again. You'll burn out completely in two years or less!
Slash: We're not stupid. Axl doesn't do any drugs or even drink hardly anymore. He lives to be on that stage. He eats, sleeps and plays. That's it. Izzy hardly even smokes anymore! Steven doesn't have any problems in those regards and Duff and I drink. I try and get my sleep but I'm just naturally an excitable person and can't get much sleep on the road. We always seem to be on the bus at night. Y'know, my whole personal life is wrapped up in this band and it's real hard to separate the two. I like to drink and hang out a lot. I have a steady girlfriend who you saw. I only see her about twice a year when I'm not touring. I take her with me on the road sometimes.

MG: How can you stay so tight as a band while going so nuts onstage?
Slash: We have signals onstage that help us... whether it's eye contact or something else. We improvise the whole time we're playing. A lot of times we won't know what song we're gonna do and I'll suggest one and we'll debate it right there onstage! Sometimes I'll start improvising and they'll know not to mess around until I'm finished and I give them a nod. We do go off on our individual things but it somehow all stays together. We do the whole show like that. We screw up every so often but not that much. And that's when we're headlining. When we're opening, it's harder because you have to do it all in a much shorter amount of time. We don't have that big a space between songs and we can't take any long solos. When you can start to predict stuff, the fun goes away. Right now, nobody can predict our set.

Fast Facts

Name: Slash
Instrument: Lead Guitar
Birthplace: England
Birth Date: December 23, 1965
Height: 5 foot 11
Weight: 145
Currently Lives: Nowhere
Favorite Song: "Nobody's Fault" by Aerosmith
Favorite Band: The Sex Pistols
Favorite Musician: Jimmy Page
Favorite City: New York
Favorite Actors: Al Pacino/Robert DeNiro/Jack Nicholson
Favorite Actress: Jessica Lang
Favorite Movies: Scarface/The Godfather
Favorite TV Show: Tales From The Dark Side
Favorite Food: Mexican
Favorite Sport: "I'm not into sports."
Favorite Book: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Looks For In A Girl: Quiet
Dream Date: To New York City to see a show
Favorite Thing About Touring: To go shopping
Least Favorite Thing About Touring: Never any time to go shopping
First Concert: The Moody Blues
First Favorite Group: Aerosmith
Former Occupation: Music store/Recording studio assistant
Biggest Turn-On: "Doin' a great show and feelin' proud."

One-on-one with the boss bassman of Guns N' Roses.
Q: You're on the road so much these days, what do you do in your spare time?
A: I read a lot. I started a book called The Ultimate Evil by Maury Terry that's really scary.

Q: How can you stay sane in the midst of all this rock 'n' roll craziness?
A: By the people around me. The guys in the road crew, the guys I hang out with… and my girlfriend. They keep me together.

Q: Who else influences you?
A: The guys in the band… and my family. Especially my brothers.

Q: Who are your bass guitar influences?
A: Nobody. Except maybe Sid Vicious. He was the coolest bass player ever.

Q: But he hardly knew how to play at all!
A: I know, but that adds to it. He got away with it, didn't he?

Q: Not for long. But let's get back to you. If you weren't doing this, what would you be?
A: I can't imagine myself doing anything else.

Q: How would you describe yourself as a person?
A: Down-to-earth, a lover of music and making music and making love. I love to make people happy and I think I'm basically a good person… despite what you might read about me.

Q: I read that Guns N' Roses trashed the Girls Room at the Whiskey club in Los Angeles.
A: Now that is true. But we just broke a few mirrors, that's all.

Q: The thing I like about the band is that you back up all the outrageous stories with some of the best rock 'n' roll around.
A: Yeah, thanks. We knew people were getting turned off with all the stories that came out about us in the press even before our first album came out. Hell, I don't blame 'em. But we were very confident about the record we were about to make.

Q: Appetite for Destruction is selling like hotcakes. So you knew all along you had the goods to back it up?
A: That's the whole key right there, Mike. You hit it on the head. In fact, that's what I always say in all my interviews. Reporters always ask about the bad boy image. They also ask about why we think we're so good. Well, there is no bad boy image! It's just us - five guys doing what we've always wanted to do and pulling it off! And I think the reason we're successful is because we are real and the kids know it. Y'know, Mike, a good song to me is one you can listen to and then imagine yourself playing and singing. That's real.

Fast Facts

Name: Duff "Rose" McKagan
Instrument: Bass guitar
Birthplace: Seattle, Washington
Birth Date: ? "Put April Fool's Day," he quips.
Age: 24
Height: 6 foot 3
Weight: 170
Currently Lives: Los Angeles
Favorite Song: "I Don't Care About You" by Fear
Favorite Band: AC/DC
Favorite Musician: Robert Plant
Favorite City: Seattle
Favorite Actor: Jerry Lewis
Favorite Actress: Marilyn Monroe
Favorite Movie: A Clockwork Orange
Favorite TV Shows: "I never watch TV."
Favorite Food: Italian
Favorite Sport: Football
Favorite Books: Slugs by Sean Huston
Looks For In A Girl: Blonde hair
Likes To Do On A Date: Go to a bar
Favorite Thing About Touring: Free drinks
Least Favorite Thing About Touring: No sleep
First Concert: Led Zeppelin
First Favorite Bands: Led Zeppelin and KISS
Former Occupation: Cook
Biggest Turn-On: My girlfriend and a crowd

Vocalist Axl Rose: Angry Young Man
One-on-one with the man nobody goes one-on-one with. The incredible, the unpredictable, the outrageous…Axl Rose. The hottest singer in America.
Axl: You dug our show?
MG: It knocked me out.
Axl: Cool.

MG: The people were literally stunned after the set.
Axl: I didn't get to see it. I went downstairs. That was one of our best shows. I know it was because it felt so good. I don't know how the hell we managed to pull it off. It certainly didn't look good going into that day.

MG: Was that story you told onstage about you passing out at MTV true?
Axl: Oh yeah. Usually on the road, I don't drink a lot anymore because it tears the hell out of my throat. But we were doing this interview for about two hours and we were bored as hell going over all these things we've gone over so many times. Finally we sent out for some wine. I started telephoning all my friends in Los Angeles, "Hey, what's happening, dude!" The next thing I knew someone was throwing me in a shower.

MG: You seem to have five different voices depending on the song.
Axl: Our sound guy said he couldn't hear the monitors and asked me how the vocals came out and I told him I thought I sang better than I have in a long time… and I didn't know the hell why. I've been working on those different voices for a long time.

MG: How do you do it?
Axl: I think I'm actually a second baritone. I used to take choir classes and sit there reading music and seeing if I could get away with fooling the teacher by singing other people's parts. We had this teacher who was pitch-perfect. He had ears like a bat, man. Like radar. So, in order to get away with singing someone else's part, you'd really have to get it down. Or else, he'd know exactly what corner of the room it's coming from. So, I guess I really started working on my different voices back then by trying to mess with my teacher's head! (laughing) He used to wonder how come he's hearing a soprano in the bass section!

MG: How many of those early horror stories about the band were made up for effect and image?
Axl: Nothing was calculated for image reasons. Nothing. When we got together with all the right pieces, we realized, wow, the way we are is gonna go over great, so, we won't hide anything. We realized all we had to do was expose the way we really were and it'll work. We wouldn't have to make anything up. A lot of the things we exposed about ourselves, other people might think would hurt their image… but we were supposed to be this hard ass rock 'n' roll band that does nothin' but play music and get in trouble. It helped us. And, we also exposed the lighter sides and other types of music we like and that helps broaden our base and pulls in more fans. If I say I like Frank Sinatra, I'm not making it up.

MG: Who else do you like?
Axl: I'm a big Metallica fan. I like the new Queensryche record. We listen to everything. It's hard to say about pop music, man, 'cause if you say you like the new Michael Jackson song, for instance, everybody thinks you like everything Michael Jackson ever did. So it's weird to say what you like. We usually only like parts of songs of just about anyone! We'll sit around and go, "Nah, that sucks, but that one bass part is cool."

MG: Crash into any stage-divers lately?
Axl: All the time. When we first played The Marquee in London, it got crazy. I don't mind stage-diving, I really don't. I like the guys who jump onstage and then jump right off. That's great. But when they get up there and start dancing, we kick 'em up. People look at the security guards and see what they're doin' because if the guards don't get 'em, we'll get 'em and it might not make the band look too good. We'll trash any dude who tries to stay onstage with us! I got photos of me holding up guys in my arms and literally throwing 'em back in the crowd in London.

MG: I heard it got pretty wild in Boston recently.
Axl: We were doing strobe lights for the end of "Paradise City" and I spun around all the way around to the back of Slash's amps. It was a huge stage. All of a sudden, there's this dude in my face who obviously couldn't see where the hell he was heading and he winds up bashing me right in the mouth. He goes running to the front of the stage with me right behind him and I got him in the back with my mike stand. Then one of the security guards did a swan dive on top of him and threw him back in the audience. I don't know, man. It was like this kid lost control of himself and just had to get on up there with his favorite band or something.

MG: Did you ever get hurt?
Axl: Not yet. But when it happens, you just don't know. You might get a little bitty cut on your lip and it'll hurt at the moment and all you'll do is taste a little blood. But you don't know what it looks like and you start to think, "Am I gonna have a permanent scar across my lip?" Then you find out the day that you're fine, but at the moment it happens, you do get upset. I got hit in the arm when somebody was being nice one time and threw a beer can. It didn't hurt. It was amazing, it came from all the way up in the bleachers and bam and I thought, "Wow, that really sucks." But all I said to the crowd was that I didn't like warm beer.

MG: How are you coping with success?
Axl: OK, but the bullshit first starts after you make it big.

MG: How so?
Axl: 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."

MG: That's something everybody has to go through once they reach a certain plateau.
Axl: Yeah, but 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. What's funny - what keeps coming up - is that groups like Pink Floyd actually write songs about this stuff.

MG: Somebody has to keep up the good fight…
Axl: Well, it's just that there's so many good battles to fight out there right now. Real big ones, man! There's so many advertising dollars being spent on radio. Radio won't even touch material that is of a certain nature unless you have four records out and debut in the charts at #1. And even then! Look at George Michael. They tried to stop his stuff and look how huge it's gone. They tried to stop his last record for awhile. Whether you like him or not, that's not the point. What I'm getting at is this… the (bleepin') record companies and the (bleepin') radio stations are a real (bleepin') pain in the ass right now! Y'know, people found out that the dreams they had in the 1960s were dead. Roger Daltrey once said, "I found out you can't change the world with a song." Well, people didn't know that! Now they do. Now they're saying, "Well, might as well make a dollar." And it's the music that has to suffer for it.

MG: Thank you, Axl, very much, for taking the time to talk to us. They warned us you'd never do it.
Axl: That's next year. Axl Rose does no interviews next year!

Fast Facts

Name: W. Axl Rose
Instrument: Voice
Birthplace: Lafayette, Indiana
Birth Date: February 6, 1962
Height: 5 foot 8 and ½
Weight: 137
Currently Lives: "Back of the bus."
Favorite Band: The Four Horsemen
Favorite Musicians: David Lank & West Arkeen
Favorite City: "Paradise City"
Favorite Actor: Robert DeNiro
Favorite Actress: Erin Everly
Favorite Movie: Once Upon A Time In America
Favorite TV Show: The Gong Show
Favorite Food: Steak
Favorite Sport: Sex
Favorite Book: His Way by Katie Kelly
Favorite Thing About Travelling: "Second day on the road."
Least Favorite Thing About Travelling: "Second day on the road."
Dream Date: None. "Every date can be a different experience."
Favorite Song: "I'm Not In Love" by 10cc
First Concert: Roadmaster "but I was a bit too drunk and in a bit too many fights and a bit too busy being chased by cops to see what was going on."
First Favorite Band: Sweet
Major Musical Influences: Duff/Izzy/Slash/West/Steven
Former Jobs: "Too many… once got $8-an-hour to smoke cigarettes."
If Not Doing This, You'd Be: "Photographing women"
Biggest Turn-On: Imagination and aggressiveness… (censored) while hanging upside down on a London tube train"
Self Description: Blank

I've been trying to pinpoint the exact publishing date, but it is next to impossible. Found pictures of the front page but it doesn't say. I know this magazine was published four times per year. But I don't know when no. 16 was released.

Coincidentally, I've been looking for that too but no luck.

Btw, Troccoli has some great stuff on his website.
http://troccolitm.com/
Rare interviews attached to the press releases
http://www.troccolitm.com/Press.html
And magazine articles and ads:
http://www.troccolitm.com/Magazines.html

We can ask Troccoli if he is fine with us copying that information here and crediting him, otherwise we can just link to it. What do you think? Do you know him?

Soulmonster wrote:We can ask Troccoli if he is fine with us copying that information here and crediting him, otherwise we can just link to it. What do you think? Do you know him?

I agree.
I know him only from his posts on mygnr, I haven't interacted with him.

I think for a lot of the articles and interviews, it is possible to just copy the text and not include the images. But I will contact Troccoli and ask what he is fine with, he has done an amazing job and I don't want to intrude on his efforts.