1994.05.DD - Much Music - Interview with Matt

Transcript:
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Interviewer: Okay, you used to be in The Cult and now you’re in GN’R. They’re both really popular bands, but GN’R, anything you guys do, you breath differently and it makes the papers (laughs).

Matt: Yeah…

Interviewer: So what’s it like? What’s the difference between the two bands?

Matt: Well, yeah, that’s pretty much it. You know, we just kind of get always caught up in these crazy things, and get on the press and stuff. But, mainly, the main thing is that, when I left The Cult and joined Guns N’ Roses, my first gig was about 175,000 people down in Brazil and I was like, “Wow” – the big time, you know? (chuckles) So we do really well all over the world. I mean, we played places like Czechoslovakia, Israel, South America… So I think the band was much more widespread of an influence in music and stuff on the world. So that’s cool.

Interviewer: Did you ever get tired of being in one of the world’s most famous rock ‘n’ roll bands, and also of your bad boy press that all you guys get?

Matt: Well, it’s not a bad gig. You know, I’m not… (laughs).

Interviewer: (Laughs) It’s not a bad gig. It’s not.

Matt: I’m having a pretty cool time. Yeah, I’m having fun, so, you know, I just got to deal with it. I mean, if it wasn’t like that it wouldn’t be rock ‘n’ roll, really.

Interviewer: But what about The Spaghetti Incident? What was that experience like, all covers?

Matt: Well, that record sort of came together on a whim. You know, we were on the road and Axl would call and say, “Hey, let’s record tonight,” you know, “I want to do Since I Don’t Have You” and I would go, “Oh, wow,” and we’d all show up in the studio and record it. And then we did probably two other sessions for the whole record. We recorded five or six songs a day and, before we knew, we had all these songs.

Interviewer: You had an album.

Matt: Yeah, and we said, “Well, what are we gonna do with this?” So we said we’d put it out.

Interviewer: Okay.

Matt: And we called it “The Spaghetti Incident?” because it was a little thing going on between the old drummer – I can’t think of his name right now-

Interviewer: (Laughs).

Matt: …and the band. And there’s a little lawsuit going on, and they kept asking – the lawyers would go, “Mr. Rose, about the spaghetti incident…” It was…

Interviewer: Oh. That’s what happened (laughs).

Matt: Yeah. Axl and Steven got in a fight with a big bunch bowl of spaghetti and meatballs…

Interviewer: Ah!

Matt: And Steven got mad. So they kept asking these questions.

Interviewer: Slash didn’t tell us that last time he was in.

Matt: Well, you know…

Interviewer: He wouldn’t tell the story (laughs). So don’t tell him you told us.

Matt: (Laughs) Okay, don’t worry about him.

Interviewer: Okay, so “Mr. Rose, what about the spaghetti incident?” Okay.

Matt: That’s right. That’s how it came up, so it’s a tribute to…

Interviewer: The little arguments… Okay.