1991.09.DD - WNEW 102,7 - Interview with Axl, Slash, Duff, Matt and Dizzy

Slash: …which was one of my best one-off solos that I've done. It was like, one take, two takes. And he left it on there. And then I found out through the grapevine that he took it off because it sounded too much like Guns N' Roses. Which was like, really disappointing. Although the record bummed, so I don't care. [laughs] You know, I really… But that… That really put a bad taste to my mouth. And you know, that's that and I just know, from now on, I'll never play on anybody's record, or play with anybody that I don't admire or respect, or… I'm not friends with or something. You know, that's what makes it cool and that's where the feeling… The feeling and the music comes from. And I've taken a couple of chances on stuff that I really wasn't necessarily into, but at the same time I'm really new to the whole thing. So, I just went in and did it. So now… Ok, I've got a little bit of experience, so I know what to do and what not to do.

("Knocking On Heaven's Door" is played)

Tommy: Anybody else that you'd like to do some work with in the future, if time permitted?

Slash: Oh… Well if… I mean, there's a couple of cats that I'd love to play with, if given the opportunity. I'd love to jam with Jeff Beck. I got to jam with Les Paul. I did a song on a tribute record for him, and jammed with him. And that was like, a totally humbling experience. It sort of reminded me as to how long I've been playing. Not that long. [laughs] Umm, Jeff Beck would be great, 'cause I really dig him. I would have liked to have jammed with Stevie Ray Vaughan, if he was still around. I got to jam with Rory Gallagher, whose one of my favorite guitar players. So that was great. Umm… Otherwise I've been so focused on Guns N' Roses I haven't really given it much thought.

Tommy: Alright Slash. Thanks a lot. Now, when we come back, we got a lot more music to lay on you. I'm Tommy Nast and you're listening to the premier of Guns N' Roses new albums, "Use Your Illusion I" and "II".

(commercial break)

Tommy: I'm Tommy Nast and we're back with "Use Your Illusion I" and "II". The world premier special featuring Guns N' Roses. We got Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum with us now. Duff, tell me something. Does this guy pound the drums, or what?

Duff: Umm… Well… He's kind of like, what you'd call a monster.

Matt: Oh Duff, thank you.

Tommy: [laughs]

Duff: He's kinda… Yeah.

Matt: [laughs]

Duff: Let's…

Matt: I give you the 50 bucks now, ok?

Duff: Let's roll again. Let's roll again.

Tommy: [laughs] Why stop now? We're just starting to have fun. So Matt, what's it like touring with these guys? How's it all been?

Matt: It's a big pain in the ass.

Duff: [laughs]

Matt: I'm telling you.

Duff: Was it a dream come true?

Matt: Yeah, right.

[everybody laughs]

Matt: You know, it's not a job. It's an adventure, you know what I mean? It's really… It's really…

Duff: No… No, but seriously… umm…

Matt: Seriously.

Duff: … I couldn't play with… with a better drummer.

Tommy: I mean, the rhythm section's everything and you two seem to mesh tremendously.

Duff: Yeah, see… He… Well, he makes… I… I… uuh… See, it's… How do I put it? Umm, he makes my job a lot easier. Uuh… Just for the fact that he pounds the drums so hard. He's so on and… Umm, bass and drums are a big factor in any band, you know.

Matt: We're 75% of the band. You know, they don't wanna admit it. But it's true. [laughs]

Duff: Well… what a… you know…

Matt: No, I learned that from my band teacher when I was in high school. He said: "The rhythm section is 75% of the band."

Duff: Well, but… Whether or not it is or not…

Matt: But…

Duff: We… We do our gig and we do it well.

Matt: But Duff, if we drop the beat…

Duff: It's all because…

Matt: If we drop the beat, what happens?

Duff: Would you sh…

[everybody laughs]

Tommy: Hey, wait. I'm supposed to be doing the interview here, right? [laughs]

Duff: He makes my job… He makes my… I won't use "job". It's not a job. Umm, he makes my gig a lot easier because… you know, umm… Bass and drums are… the root of… you know, Slash playing guitar and Axl singing.

Tommy: Let's check out that massive rhythm section on "Locomotive". From "Use Your Illusion II". Here's Guns N' Roses.

("Locomotive" is played)

Tommy: Let's talk about another song on the record, "Bad Obsession". It could be a lot bad obsessions out there, umm… What's the deal with this one?

Duff: Umm… Oh, well… It's kind of a contradiction of terms. There's tons of bad obsessions, and realistically we've experienced most of 'em, you know.

Matt: [laughs]

Duff: And really, I mean, it's… it's… a follow-up of "Brownstone", really. Actually it was written before "Brownstone". "Bad Obsession" is… us objectively looking at ourselves, you know. Duff, Slash, Axl, you're screwing up. You got a bad obsession. And I've corrected myself… umm, before and I will again. And everybody has, you know. Not saying… we're not angels. You know, but… We know when to say when.

("Bad Obsession" is played)

Tommy: Smoking song from "Use Your Illusion I". It's "Bad Obsession". I got Slash with me now, and one question I had was what it was like working with Arnold Schwarzenegger to the video of "You Could Be Mine".

Slash: Arnold was great. I was real skeptical about getting involved with "Terminator" at first, because… uhh… It's just… It's another one of those things people do a lot nowadays. And you see these videos that makes absolutely no sense. It's like, the song, and then… and then… uhh… and then… uhh… you know, some clip from the movie, and then you see the band and the two… The twain don't meet on the same ground for some reason. And so, I didn't wanna get involved into that sort of campy way of doing things. But at the same time, "Terminator 1" was great. And so we liked that, you know. And sort of in good faith, we gave them four songs for them to check out. To see if they're really interested or not. 'Cause they brought it up to us, we didn't go to them. And they picked "You Could Be Mine" and… So, we went to Arnold's house and we had dinner and we hung out. And it was like, we stripped away all the… the celebrity status stuff and just really hung out and had dinner and had a great time. So that meant a lot, you know, to get personal and get toe-to-toe with somebody. That's like, one of the most important things for us, is to be able to feel comfortable with somebody. And believe me, that's a hard thing for us to do. And so, that went over well. And they… they took "You Could Be Mine"… and they put it into a rough edit and we went and saw a screening. And the movie was cool and the song was really cool where it was in the movie. And… as long as we had final approval on the… on how we were gonna use it in the video, then everything was great. And the finished product was cool. So, I'm actually happy with it. And I thought for a movie… uhh… for… for… you know, music video… music video slash movie kind of thing, it was pretty original, you know. And pretty dynamic.

(commercial break)

Tommy: Axl, on "November Rain", you play some wonderful piano. Since when did you become such an accomplished player?

Axl: Oh, thanks. Umm, I can really only play my own songs. And… I really don't have the time to practice a whole lot. I'm hoping to… you know, get a piano and take on the road, and work with more often. Umm… I started playing when I was really little, kind of forced to. Umm, something my father wanted me to do, 'cause he regretted that he hadn't taken piano lessons. But, they didn't really know anything about music, so they couldn't tell if I was doing my lesson, or not. So, I didn't really pay attention to my lessons. I only played my lessons for the teacher. When I went in, basically, I had to sit down at the piano for a half hour to… whatever. Sometimes I'd sit there for a couple of hours and I just make up things. I think I could have… you know, learned how to be a lot better if I had been more dedicated. But there was, you know, so many crazy things going on in my household, that I didn't really need to be doing any extra-work like that. And it was hard to stay dedicated to something. But I did like sitting down and just trying to express the way I felt with the piano there. And it was also kinda like, while I was playing the piano, I wouldn't really be bothered by anything else going on in the family 'cause: "He's working on his piano now". So, I wouldn't be bothered by any of the problems or have to do more work, or be worried about getting yelled at, as long as I was on the piano. But, in the seventies, when I started playing rock n' roll… umm, my dad started getting a little wise when I was playing Led Zeppelin stuff on the piano, and he wasn't very happy with that.

("November Rain" is played)

Tommy: What do you do to avoid the hype and maintain the reality of the whole thing?

Slash: Well, the reality is that we can't avoid the hype. [laughs] So we just try and concentrate on what we're supposed to be doing as a band. And it can be really, really distracting, to the point where it can piss you off because there's no getting away with it. Or getting away from it. So you have to… You have to maintain your musical integrity, and at the same time keep your wits about you and deal with the excess stuff. And be smart about it, so that it doesn't take over, you know, it doesn't control what you're doing as a group, you know.

Tommy: Speaking of pissing people off, you guys, in the past, have pissed off many different groups. From women to blacks, to gays, to parents. Do you feel that you guys…

Slash: Nobody ever thought about who pissed us off.

("Civil War" is played)

("Use Your Illusion" medley: "Right Next Door To Hell", "Perfect Crime", "Back Off Bitch", "Bad Apples", "Get In The Ring", "Shotgun Blues" & "Pretty Tied Up")

Tommy: "Get In The Ring" is quite a biting song about those "pencil pushers", I guess. Any fear of any kind of repercussions, or anything like that? And are most musicians afraid to speak they their mind about the way they're portrayed in the press?

Axl: "Get In The Ring" was a song that was… basically put together by Slash and Duff and… I came up with the… with the low vocal part. And Slash and I wrote that part together. We wrote different verses. And we wrote a whole song that when the whole band actually had the song together, the words didn't fit the arrangement of the song. And so, we were in Toronto, playing a show in Toronto. And we had one last song to re… to finish recording, that was "Get In The Ring". So, we went in the studio and just kind of started putting things together. And then Duff decided that I should express my feelings about how we've been treated by the press, because that was his initial concept for the song, and that I should just go for it. And I was kind of like: "Are you sure? You sure I should do this?". And then Tom Zutaut, of Geffen, was there and he was like: "Go for it." So I got behind the mike and went for it. And everybody was really happy and we just decided to do it. And this naming names, and things like that, were because most bands can't afford to express how they feel about how they're treated in the press, because they need the press so much. And I know that this could hurt us, but we're in a position where I think we owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to an element of the public, to explain a bit what's going on… When a magazine prints… umm, interviews out of context, or they print parts of things you said, or they make up interviews, or they say all different kinds of things that don't really have anything to do with the band. Someone reading an interview of Guns N' Roses doesn't know what to think about us. And since this whole thing is about expression, the expression is, you know, being tampered with, and I wanted the people that buy these magazines to realize… From certain magazines, they're not really getting the whole story, when they pay their money to find out what's up with Guns N' Roses, or any other band. And this was also something for other bands. You know, maybe… maybe Guns N' Roses is still keep getting crap… But maybe somebody else won't get that much crap, or they'll decide to stand up for themselves a bit more, and not let themselves be treated… umm… so carelessly. I mean… An artist is expected to be, you know… so responsible in his music, or true to his art. And you know, the same thing doesn't necessarily seem to apply with the press. Umm, we're not trying to… umm, you know, mess with the liberties of the press. We just would like it to be a bit more responsible in dealing with… the people that… are helping them sell their magazines. You know, it's kinda like: "We're on the same side, aren't we? Why are…" You know, why is someone trying to shoot it down with lies or something. Or distort the truth. Umm, I don't have time for that. And there's a lot of people that are upset and put out phony interviews, because we wont talk with them. The same way you wouldn't talk with somebody you know that like, you talk with them and every time you talk to this person that's supposed to be your friend, a bunch of things happen in your life. Umm, a bunch of problems and you finally realize… it's just not good for me to associate with that person. So, that we don't associate with certain magazines. But then they'll run: "Exclusive interview with Axl Rose" and da, da, da. And it's not an interview I've done. I haven't done an interview with certain magazines for over three or four years. But yet they'll run an exclusive interview and a 13-year-old kid will go buy that magazine, thinking he's, you know, hearing what I have to say. And he's not. Or these magazines will take parts of interviews from other magazines and, you know, put it in such a way to make themselves look favorable to their readers. You know, that like, I'm supporting that magazine. And then we decided to take this opportunity to… say that we're not supporting certain things. Or we're not supporting certain practices or ways of reporting. And that's about it.

Tommy: What about any fear of repercussions?

Axl: The reper… Umm, the fear of repercussions? Umm, I'm sure it'll be a mess and that's not something anybody wants, but then again you have to… You know, that's, that's kind of the, you know, the price you have to pay to stand up for yourself.

Tommy: Slash, what about you?

Slash: It's not really a fear. It's sort of like, an expectation.

Tommy: From "Use Your Illusion I". Let's check out "Dead Horse".

("Dead Horse" is played)

(commercial break)

Tommy: I'm Tommy Nast and welcome back to the premiere broadcast special of the "Use Your Illusion I" and "II" CDs, the new releases from Guns N' Roses. Well, you might sat it was a dream come true for new keyboardist Dizzy Reed, who after being a friend and a fan of Guns N' Roses since the early club days, found himself an official member. I asked Dizzy to tell us about the club scene today in Hollywood and how different it was from the days when GN'R was on the circuit.

Dizzy: Hollywood right now? I think it's pretty much reached a… pretty much a dull point. You know, for a while, after… after Guns… you know, made it… got as successful as they did, umm, there was a lot of true bands out there, that had a lot… you know, good songs and something to say. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, mainly due to the club promotion, you know, you got this pay-to-play thing, which is ridiculous. A lot of the bands… they were terrible, but they… they had more money than the other band. And so pretty soon it got to a point where Holly… Now it's back to like: "How outrageous can we look?" And you know: "Can we play our guitars? No, but we look cool and our mum and dad are paying for our tickets. So, we're the most popular band in Hollywood." It ruined it.

Tommy: What can you do to stop something like that? I mean, do you think that the pay-to-play thing is really unhealthy and has it really hurt the scene out there?

Dizzy: It's wasted the scene. It's… It's the most ridiculous thing that… umm, I've ever heard of. I mean, I remember at one point, walking into a club. It was a jam night and we were playing. And it's like, you know… they have like, equipment there for the bands, and each band comes up and does like, you know, three or four songs. And we showed up with our guitars and the guy is like, going: "Ten bucks". I'm like, "No, no, no. We're playing tonight. You don't understand, we're playing. Remember? Got soundcheck here today." And he's: "Ten bucks". I'm like, "You're telling me that we have to buy a ticket for our own show? Like, see ya!". He's like, "Ok, you can go in." I'm like: "Cool, buy us some pizza, dude."

("Yesterdays" is played)

Tommy: That's a great song. From "Use Your Illusion II", that's "Yesterdays". Well, Dizzy Reed had some great stories to share about the club scene a little while ago. Let's now go to Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum and get their feelings on today's music business.

Duff: Music and business.

Matt: The two…

Duff: The two are… are… are two different things.

Matt: … not meant to be together.

Duff: And music industry…

Matt: You know… You know… You know, I saw something. I think it was with Jimmy Page or something. And in the old… like, in the sixties and the seventies when the bands first like… rock bands first came out. There was old, really old guys running record companies that didn't know anything about rock n' roll. So they would say: "We'll give this band a go, but we don't know anything about rock n' roll." So they let these rock n' roll bands record albums. But they had no idea… about rock n' roll. So they let rock n' roll bands make records. And now we got these young guys. They're all like: "Ok, we have to do this because of this and this and this and this and this and this." You know, before, they knew nothing about it. Now they know everything about it. Which is the problem.

Tommy: Let's check out another track from "Use Your Illusion II". This is "Breakdown".

("Breakdown" is played)

(commercial break)

Tommy: We're back with the world premiere of "Use Your Illusion I" and "II", the new releases from Guns N' Roses. I'm Tommy Nast. And Axl Rose is very sincere and serious about out next topic. In the recent Rolling Stones article, you're quoted as saying that you'd like to be part of an organization working with child abuse and we quote you: "Sexual abuse and child abuse". I figure you gotta start there. Care to elaborating your feelings there?

Axl: Well, I feel that… umm… you know, child abuse… you know, and sexual abuse. Especially… child abuse is like, kind of the key to why there's so many problems in the world today. Umm… The more books I read on it, and the more work I do on trying to overcome the problems… you know, that I had in my childhood that I accepted it as normal behavior for my life. And I realize now that it wasn't normal behavior. And it's caused me to act in… umm, many ways because it's what I was trained, it's what I was taught, it's what I saw. It's… umm, my formative years were… very ugly. And you know, people had picked up on that one. They listen to some Guns N' Roses songs. And: "This isn't right, something's wrong here…" Da, da, da. Well, they're right. Umm, the Herald Examiner ran a piece on… you know: "We find out the hidden truths of Axl Rose" and da, da, da. You know, we'll find 'em out, soon as I find 'em out. [laughs] A lot of people don't know, including myself. I'm… I'm working on it. Umm, I would like to… find some organizations to… donate money, or… umm, you know, go talk to kids or… talk to groups of people about my experiences and how hard it was, and still is for me on a daily basis, in dealing with people in my relationships, because of the abuse that was present in my childhood. I don't necessarily wanna elaborate any further on this right now, because it's something that I have to… umm, do in stages. Little by little, and I think getting, you know, too much of that right now… Umm, could really get… you know, make it too hard on myself, so… I think we'll stop there.

("So Fine" is played)

Tommy: Yeah. Another great track from "Use Your Illusion II". That's "So Fine". I'm Tommy Nast, with GN'R guitarist Slash. On the song "Estranged", supposedly Axl's favorite song, and he gave you special credit, for your guitar work on there.

Slash: That's… that song was… umm, it's one of Axl's… what, you know… Axl's babies, where he sat down and he had something he really wanted to express, and he wrote it on piano. And so there came the time when the band had to figure out where these… where the bass is gonna come in, where the guitar is gonna come in. This and that. And so, I did all the guitar arrangements on it. And wrote… umm, like, the guitar melodies, which are pretty important to the song now, I would say. 'Cause you recognize 'em, you know. And… That's that. That's… that's why I have credit on it.

("Estranged" is played)

Snipped of this interview: