2007.01.19 - South Wales Echo (via Blabbermouth) - Interview with Tracii

L.A. Guns guitarist Tracii Guns recently spoke to Gavin Allen of the South Wales Echo about his early years as a member of Guns N' Roses.

"If I had stayed with Axl [Rose], I don't know if Guns N' Roses would have been any better or worse but I think it would have been a very different band. We would have had a bit more fire. But the key to that band's success was Axl because at that time his singing really connected with people on a social level."

"I haven't spoken to Axl since 1988, but we still have a lot of mutual friends. I don't wish him ill, but it's hard because he never stops saying bad things about me. He was on my MySpace page doing that very recently.

"Axl's problem is that if people don't support him 100 percent in what he's doing, he just doesn't want to know them any more. He's so talented but that talent comes from being a nervous wreck and some place in your head you need to be happy, which he isn't."

"If I'd stayed with Guns N' Roses for two more years I could have financed my rock and roll dreams — got Blackie Lawless to play bass, Nikki Sixx on drums and Robert Plant to sing — but at the same time we had a pretty good run with L.A. Guns, so I take the positives because I'm still touring Europe. But the problem with being on the road is that I do have a lot of time to think."

https://archive.blabbermouth.net/news/tracii-guns-if-i-had-stayed-with-guns-n-roses-it-would-have-been-a-very-different-band/

In September 2010, Tracii was asked at the Metal Sludge forum about what he said in this interview (re: Axl and myspace):

Tracii: I didn't say he posted on my MySpace. He was looking at old members MySpace pages with a mutual friend of mine and calling us " Shit on his shoe" . As you can see, I took the high road answering this question whereas I probably could have said a lot of other things and I chose not to.