2019.01.30 - Appetite For Distortion - Doug Goldstein and Dr. Stephen Thaxton talk UYI tour and GNR Chiropractics!

Former Guns N' Roses manager returns on episode 101, and this time he brought a friend. Dr. Stephen Thaxton, a chiropractor from West Virginia. Why? Because his first chiropractic job was touring with Guns N' Roses for over 2 years! He's also been on tour with Bon Jovi the past couple decades.
Dr. Steve has some of the most surreal and funny GNR stories you've never heard! And Doug does a great job his first time as guest co-host!



Transcript of main parts:

Brando:  Coming up on episode 101 of Appetite for Distortion, Dr. Steven Thaxton. Who? You should know. The Guns N' Roses chiropractor. How do you not know that? He toured with GN'R all throughout Use Your Illusion, and he's been touring the last couple of decades with Bon Jovi. We're going to get some great stories from him and also our good buddy, former GN'R manager, Doug Goldstein, joins as well. Welcome to the podcast. Do you know where you are?

[...]

Brando: Welcome to the podcast, Appetite for Distortion. It is Brando, episode 101. So we're officially in the triple digits. I appreciate everybody just congratulating me on 100 episodes. I mean, I don't know, what's to congratulate on? I'm not making any money off it. I'm meeting a lot of cool people, having a lot of cool interviews. So yeah, sure, I think this episode is gonna be a continuation of that, but a good jumping off point is that people come asking what was one of my favorite episode. Too many to name, of course the one with Doug Goldstein was one of my favorites. We did something unique I think on the podcast because I come from FM what I say and the creativity is really limited, is that I guess I did interview Roberta Freeman by herself but I had her come on in another episode, just like Doug Goldstein is doing right now, so my my co-host for this episode is is Doug, Doug Goldstein, welcome to the show.

Doug Goldstein: Thanks, Brando. Yes, sir.

Brando: I appreciate it, glad that you landed safely.

DG: You let me bring on my favorite person.

Brando: I know, cause it was the-

DG: That's why the next guest is on, cause he's my favorite guy.

Brando: Favorite guy, cause that's what, the stories that we're gonna get, I think are gonna be just as unique as the stories that when we had Roberta Freeman as a co-host and Teddy Zigzag as the guest. And they were things that, you know, being on tour together for over two years, they would tell each other and like, "Oh, I ain't know that, I ain't know that." Especially when we were talking about the, you know, all the riots and all that stuff. But so now we have, who's Doug's favorite person in the world? I mean, other than his wife, I'm sure, I'm assuming.

DG: Well, she's not listening to this, Brandon. Dr. Stephen Thaxton, my favorite doctor in the world, knows more about the human body than anybody I've ever met.

Brando: So when Doug, I said, because I wanted to have Doug on, and I'm so grateful, and I joked before, what am I to be congratulated on? But to become friendly with Doug Goldstein has been one of the many treats of doing this podcast.

DG: Oh, thanks, man. Thank you.

Brando: You're welcome. So coming up for our future episodes, because how many times, I don't want to keep interviewing you, Doug. I mean, you had to save it all for your book. You know, I want to keep talking to you but I don't wanna keep peppering you with questions, so let's get creative. And you're like, "You know what, let's get some team members from Use Your Illusion on. Let's do that." And I didn't know what you meant at first. I mean, I knew it wasn't gonna be Axl or Slash or anything like that, but you know, it's the team members, everyone that helps every day possible that you may not know the name. So when you said Dr. Stephen Thaxton, a chiropractor, I'm like, "You know what, I like this. I like this." But I think before, and I'll shut up in a second, Dr. Steve, I just like how this is said on the Worldwide Chiropractic and Sports Medicine website: "Dr. Thaxton began his career early, quote, on the road as the personal chiropractor and fitness consultant for the rock band Guns N' Roses." And to show how nerdy the chiropractor website is, they put dashes before and after the end. That's not how you write Guns N' Roses, "for their two and a half year world tour." You also have been John Bon Jovi's personal chiropractor and fitness consultant for the past decade, including four world tours. So you are just not a chiropractor. You're the rock and roll chiropractor. So welcome officially to the AFD show, Dr. Steve.

Stephen Thaxton: Thank you, Brandon. I've been blessed beyond my wildest imagination. I can tell you that. And when Doug first hired me on for that tour, it was... How do you live after that? Because it was my favorite band. And I'm on tour with them. And you know, how do I even, how do I ever live past that? And I sure tried, but that was one heck of a way to start a career. Because the truth is, and it took me 20 some years to tell Doug this, but technically I hadn't even graduated from chiropractic.

DG: I love that part of the story.

Brando: Kids, don't listen to that. Stay in school. No, everything is done by trade, but that's what's so fascinating. You answer one of my first questions, is how do you get on that? And when I said on the road, and it's your first job, so it's not like they went to, I don't know, some arbitrary, the book of medicine, and let's look at the top five chiropractors, and who has what ailments on the band and who can we get, it's not like a baseball team where you have to get the right, it's like the right researchers is in there. From your accent, I know you're not a northerner like me.

ST: No, no, and speaking of accents, oh my gosh, did I catch flack from a California based band? Cause I grew up in West Virginia, then I went to school out in West Texas at Abilene Christian University, and I never had a chance. So by the time I'm on tour with Guns N' Roses, I talked like I'd just come out of the sticks, which I pretty much had. I mean, West Virginia's got a population of like 1.2 million people. And Abilene, Texas, had a population of maybe 100,000. So yeah, it wasn't big city by any means and sure wasn't Hollywood. So I had to learn to talk a little faster and a little different when I first started on tour with those guys.

DG: We had 1.2 million at some of our shows.

Brando: That's a fair point. That's an excellent point.

ST: Exactly. And so I honestly just, I got so lucky. I had a friend who was a big wig at the local amphitheater in Dallas, his name is Billy Morgan. And my now ex-wife would cook him dinner once in a while. And I might have run an illegal chiropractic acupuncture clinic out of the third bedroom of our house. For 10 bucks, I would try to get you feeling better.

Brando: I should have gotten like Dr. Nick from the Simpson sound clips ready. I should have gotten that.

DG: Yeah, right.

Dr. Nick from the Simpsons: Did you go to Hollywood Upstairs Medical College too?

Brando: Sorry.

ST: And so Billy called and says, "Hey, Guns N' Roses is in town and they need a chiropractor. Is it possible you could do it?" And the funny part about it all was that I had asked Billy a couple months before we'd had dinner and said, "Man, my favorite band, Guns, is coming to town. Any chance you could give us some free tickets?" And, "They don't have any free tickets." And, and I was a more than broke college student because I actually owed $50,000 in student loans. So every dime counted at that point. So I didn't buy a ticket. But, anyway, I was in my attorney's office discussing how to buy a practice south of town when Billy called and so my wife called me at the attorney's office - and he's a chiropractor but he didn't practice, he practiced law - and I looked at him and he happened to be the school's attorney as well and I said, "Hey, I hope you're not going to kick me out of school for this but this is the greatest opportunity of my life, I've got to go. I hope you won't kick me out." And he says, "Come with me." So we walked down the hallway and I'm like, "Oh my God, he's so stern, what's going to happen?" He opens the door to a spare office room in his office and there's a portable chiropractic table and he says, "Take that table. You'll get there a lot faster than home and get your table." God bless Rod Phelps, man. That's who it was. And so off I went and went over to the tour manager. I worked on a few crew guys that night, but the main guy they wanted me there for was Axl's personal assistant, a guy named Blake Stanton. And he was too busy for me to treat that night. And so I went up to the tour manager and said, "Hey, I haven't had my doctor cards made up yet, but this is when I was a student, but the numbers are the same. So call me if you don't want me to come back for tomorrow night's show." So I made it a little harder for me not to come back. I come back the next night and ended up, brought my wife with me. She counted 70 people in like three hours that I adjusted.

Brando: Wow.

ST: All the crew guys, all the band, all the band's wives, their girlfriends, you know, it was pretty chaotic in the little chiropractic office I'd set up there. And so right before the show starts, Axl's personal assistant comes over and I adjust him. And he says, "Hey, Axl has talked to the band and they were telling him how good they felt after you treated them. And he was wondering if there's any chance you could stick around after the show and treat him." And I'm like, "Yeah," like I got anything better in the world to treat Axl Rose.

DG: That's because you didn't realize how late some of those shows go, Doc.

[laughs]

ST: Oh, no, not at all. I'm supposed to be at that practice, I'm supposed to be buying at seven o'clock the next morning. Literally at five minutes till two, I see the tour manager, because I'm hanging outside my office now, and I said, "Hey, is there any chance you could tell me when Axl's going to want me to treat him because it's getting kind of late." Five minutes till two o'clock in the morning. And he goes, "Oh, let me check." And so he comes back over a minute later, says, "Get your table and bring it over to Axl's dressing room." So I do. I take it in the dressing room, set it up, and he couldn't have been more gracious. And, "Thank you very much for treating my crew, my band. And I hope you can do something for me." And I'm like, "Be honored. What's going on with you?" "Well, my back's been hurting." And so I did a few checks and ultimately helped some and sets up on the table. And he's like, "Wow, you really know your shit." I'm like, "Well, for $50,000 worth of chiropractic education, I should." One thing I can say about Axl Rose is he loves a smart ass. So we got a pretty big kick out of that. And he jumps up off the table and he says, "Wow, I'm going to go party with the band." Well, he had a lady by the name of Susie London in the dressing room there as a friend of his. And so Susie looks at me and she was, you know, I was 25 years old, she was like 40s, which seemed so old then but now at 54 I realized how actually young she was. And so she looks at me and very sternly says, "What did you just do to him?" And I'm thinking in my head. "Wow, I'm not really even a chiropractor yet. What can she do to me?" So smart ass reply number two comes out and it's like I just said, "I'm setting his life force free," and she looks at me, she goes, "Wow, will you do me?" I'm like, "Sure, get on the table." So I ended up adjusting Suzie and a couple of days later, they called and asked me to come out on tour with them. So I made some arrangements and I had a plane ticket waiting for me at the airport. I met them in Salt Lake. And to wind this long story down quickly, three weeks later, we're at the LA Forum playing four shows, pretty much the homecoming shows for Guns N' Roses, being from Hollywood. And I go up to the tour manager and said, "Hey, you know, John, I need to, I can stay longer, but I need to let some folks back home know what I'm going to do." You said it was only going to be two weeks. It's been over three now. Do you know what the plan is? And he looked at me, he's like, "Dude, you're never going home. You're one of us." Right. I hardly ever got out of Axl's sight after that, it seemed like. And not that I minded. I cannot say enough great things about how Axl Rose treated me and what a wonderful person he was to me.

Brando: This is just mind boggling. Because again, it's not like they picked from 1-800 doctors and there's just people on call. How old were you at the time when this was happening? Because you said you were still in school. Or just-

ST: Yeah, I was 25. And I was about two months away from graduation. I had done all the requirements that were required for my chiropractic education. And back then you could take your state boards, national boards, before you graduated, and state boards before you graduated. So I had passed my Texas boards, I passed my West Virginia boards. And the only thing I hadn't done was what I call "serve my prison time" because you had to be in the public clinic 3000 hours. And I completed everything I needed. I just had to stand in the clinic for another like 1200 hours.

Brando: Well you got a clinic all right for two and a half years.

ST: Yeah, sure.

DG: Well in all fairness, Brando, I'd like to interject for a second. The one thing about Dr. Thaxton that makes him just the greatest, is he cares. He loves people and he asks the right questions and he's such a good guy that you just, you trust him. Like, I mean, I broke my neck snowboarding, nobody touches my neck. Doc does, when I see him, I'm putty in his hands because he's such a caring, loving guy that you just feel, "Okay, go ahead, Doc, whatever you wanna do." And you can tell by the way he talks, I mean, he's just a good guy.

Brando: I will tell you this, going back to, I should've said it earlier, but Roberta Freeman says hello, by the way, Doc, and he's-

ST: Please return, what a lovely, lovely person she is. On the outside and the inside.

Brando: She goes, "Ask him if he remembers the time that he left acupuncture needles in my face after a gig? LOL. When Axl says he had to go back and he got flustered and forgot about me, tell him I forgive him and still love him."

ST: Oh, God bless Roberta. Absolutely I remember that and I was morbidly embarrassed by it. But you know, when Axl said, "Jump," I pretty much was like, "How high?" And you just never knew when he was going to want to leave or do something else, go a different direction. So you treat people and try to remember what you had going, but suddenly he'd take off and you had to go too.

DG: Well, they do come out in time.

ST: Well, in Korea they leave them in until they fall out anyway, so they would have-

DG: There you go. Like I said.

Brando: So what is the day to day likes because you obviously go on the course and you are now you have a practice in West Virginia and you know, my dad was a dentist so I kind of understand, you know what the day to day is like booking patients and his staff. How does that happen on on tour? I mean do you have to have a sign-up sheet? Do you like what are you doing with the rest of your your time? Are you hanging out with the band? What is the day-to-day like for a chiropractor on tour with Guns N' Roses?

ST: Well, I don't know what it's like now. Back then sleep deprivation was a total necessity and it was just gonna be part of it, you just had to learn to live with it. And so usually a day-to-day would go something like this: You would try to like sleep as long as you could but usually that would be short-lived because you'd been up most of the night before. And so Doug would go out golfing and early in the morning, and he would come back at about 10 or 11 and he'd call and say, "Hey, I was golfing. My back hurts. Come down to my room. Take care, Doug." And then go back to bed for a little bit. And then hopefully get up around one or two and try to go squeeze in a workout. The interesting part about when I started touring was that I found that there were no hotel gyms. So we would offer free tickets to like Gold's Gym employees or whatever, if they just let us come down and work out your gym a little bit. And so you try to get down to the gym, get a little workout in. And then sometime later in the afternoon, you'd have to work on various folks in the entourage, so to speak. And then if it was not a non-show night, then you might go to dinner and come back from dinner. And then you might end up in a place of a lot of fun for a 25 year old male. And so at midnight, one o'clock in the morning, you might get back and usually Axl would call and come down and go down and hang out in the room for a while. Seems like somewhere between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on those nights, he'd say, "You know, I'm getting kind of tired. Can you adjust my neck? I'm going to go to bed." So he'd be up all night, up all morning, adjust his neck, and he'd go off to bed, and you'd go back, and Doug would come in from his golf game, get Doug sorted out, and get you a little nap, off you'd go again.

Brando: What a trip. So in addition to Doug, like who did you bond with on tour? Because you were essentially going in as a stranger. It's like you're going to a sleepaway camp, and you're the new kid. You don't know anybody.

ST: I was a total stranger and I got to tell you the entourage welcome because I really was. The tour started I think in May and I joined them like July 10th. So I bonded tremendously with Jerry Gendron who's the tour accountant. What a wonderful guy. He was a PhD in child psychology but had become a rock and roll tour accountant and had also played pro football for the Miami Dolphins. So I've been a wannabe athlete my entire life. So it was an easy bond.

DG: You quit with the wannabe. We're going to get to your accolades later, buddy.

DG: Yeah. You're aren't you like a crazy mountain biker or BMX or something? A motorcycle?

DG: First, first he was just missed the Olympics as a pole vaulter. Talk about that doc.

ST: Well. I was blessed. I was in the U.S. Olympic trials two times in 1984 and 1988, but would not take the drugs necessary to make the team. I can just say it that way. It's the nicest way I know how to say it. And so then I went on to finish in my age group by the time I was 40 as a second in the nation as a mountain biker. I've won four national championships as a dirt biker in the last decade or so. So I've been blessed, very blessed. But anyway, so it was an easy bond with Jerry. And then Sabrina, the masseuse that was out with us, wonderful girl, just wonderful. We were truly like brother and sister. So within days you start feeling like you're part of the family. And then Blake Stanton was a good guy. And later on, he needed a personal assistant. So Craig Duswalt comes on. And so now Axl basically had two personal assistants. And and so those guys were great. Earl Gabbadon, Axl's security - Earl and I hit it off early on and couldn't have been better. Ron Stalnaker was Slash's bodyguard at the time and Ronnie was wonderful. So you just, Doug one time said, you know, the great thing he had about the staff that he had put together was that a big thing that we were trying or that he was trying to do, was keep the drugs away from the band and the staff that he'd selected were all clean and the end result of that was those guys lived because they may not have made it otherwise, if you know what I mean. And survived it. And it took quite the man to be able to figure out what staff was going to work and what was going to make that whole organization keep rolling because I don't know if Doug's ever said this, I haven't listened to your previous podcast, but we were paid every week and the reason that we were paid every week is because that thing was so explosive, it could have blown up any day and the whole thing could have been over. So, they wanted to make sure everybody got paid every week.

Brando: Did you sense that? I mean, obviously you sensed that. You are, you're treating them for different elements, but when they came in, was there anything that you saw that worried you specifically, you know, about some of the people that you were attending to? It's like, you know, "Yeah, I can help your back, but I can't help, you know, maybe the root of the problem," if it's something that they're doing to their own body. Like, did you ever kind of have more, like a real doctor friend talk about certain things?

ST: I did that on a regular basis. But, you know, they're young too. They're 25, 26, 30 at the max. You know, it was a two and a half year tour, so to speak. So they aged a couple of years while we were out there. But you tried to talk about those problems on a regular basis. But when you're dealing with addictions, it's not something you can just talk somebody out of so easily. They gotta have the desire in their heart, in their body, and then an incredible amount of willpower. And at that point in their lives, I don't think they saw it as a real necessary part of what they were doing. Axl and I haven't spoken in 20-some years, but during that time, Axl was clean. And it was important for him to be clean. And probably why he and I bonded so quickly. I mean, within a couple days, I felt like I was his brother and we got super tight as a result of that. But my non-drug stance and what I represented fit very well with what he was trying to do with his life at the time. But the other guys, they had different ideas. I did tell one that I really thought that if he did not stop his abuse, he would not see 35 years of age. And much to my surprise and delight, six months later I get a phone call from him and he had cleaned up. He'd been clean and sober for a couple weeks. And I'm not, well, that's great for a couple weeks, but that's a tough thing to overcome. And that guy, as far as I know, has been clean and sober. His life has been, he's done great things with his life and I'm so proud of him.

DG: Hey doc, I got one for you. You know, when I built those eight foot ramps, I never envisioned Slash and Axl jumping off of them. So, two part, one, I'm sorry that I put that extra work on you, two, how did they not just tear their bodies up, jumping off the way they did?

ST: Truly mind boggling to me. They came off of those ramps, and you know, in the show, in the heat of the moment, just, I guess all the adrenaline must've really been beneficial to them because to this day, I still think about on a regular basis coming off of those ramps, jumping, it was pretty impressive athletic athleticism on both of their parts. It really was.

DG: Yeah. And then you add on top of it, a heavy, Les Paul around Slash's neck.

ST: Right, right. I'm flabbergasted to this day and surprised because I have watched a few shows on TV and at their age to move like they do to continue with that. It's very, very impressive, as I said, I have wanted to be an athlete my entire life. And man, it's impressive how those guys can still do what they do.

Brando: What did you think about when Axl broke his foot and he had to go out in the throne? Could you have prevented that if he had you on staff, him breaking his foot? I say that facetiously, of course, but what did you think of as a doctor going through that? We saw that with Dave Grohl at first, but for someone like Axl who does run around, still, to just be sitting there and performing on this crazy throne?

ST: Well, as I said, we haven't spoken in a couple of decades, much to my frustration, so to speak. I wish we were still close. But the Axl I knew, that must be incredibly frustrating to him because his physical performance was very, very important to him on the Use Your Illusion tours. And I can't imagine how difficult it must be on his psyche to had to sit there. As far as the broken foot I have no idea what circumstances were around that or how that even happened, I'm as ignorant to it as anybody else in-

Brando: -fun-

ST: -in the circle.

Brando: Yeah, but yeah, no, I was just having fun with with that hypothetical about doing it. But just again, I don't know if like how you look at things as a doctor like I look at things differently as a broadcaster. It's hard for me to listen to a radio show or watch something on TV without analyzing it. I don't know if, you know, it's kind of like the Monday Monday[?], the Backseat Driver. I don't know if, you know, Doug is sometimes like, "Hey, you know what, I would manage this differently." I mean, "Yeah, I guess, because you have said that in the past."

ST: Oh yeah, sure.

Brando: So I didn't know if-

ST: The last thing you want to ever do is sit in an airport with a chiropractor, because the guy's going to sit there and analyze everybody's gait and walk.

Brando: Yeah. Exactly, exactly.

DG: Hey Josh[?], was that a airport and gait joke?

Brando: I missed that one. I'll add in a drum, you know.

St: Well, speaking of airports and gaits, I do remember one really difficult situation we ended up in. Axl was dating Stephanie Seymour at the time, and her and her other model friend had rented a house for like a month. So each was staying there for two weeks with whoever they wanted to stay with. So Stephanie invited her mother. So it was out on Montauk. And so she invited her mother and wanted Axl and I to come up. So we couldn't, with shows going, we couldn't get up there till like Sunday night. So I think we had a show in, we had a show in New Orleans at the... whatever dome that is, forgive me for not remembering.

Brando: Superdome?

ST: So yeah, Superdome was it back then. It would have been Superdome. Okay. So I had a show at the Superdome on Saturday night. And then Sunday we're going to fly commercial up to New York and go out and spend a couple of days out of Montauk with Stephanie and her mother. And so I'm used to having Earl, Axl's bodyguard around, and personal assistant. So they kind of take care of everything and I just kind of tag along and it's all good. Well, for whatever reason, he just wanted me to come along on this one, which was fine. And so we get to the airport and get the luggage out. Everything's going smooth, going through the airport, and we stop in a - he wants to go into like a magazine store, bookstore, whatever. So we go in and within 30 seconds of getting in there, fans start spotting him and full on chaos breaks out. Well, he's cornered, there's nothing he can do and he's frustrated beyond description. He literally just sits down in the middle of this bookstore and I'm trying to keep fans off of him. It's pure chaos. I finally, I think, begged, pleaded enough with the fans to make space for us to exit the thing. It's straight to the gate, and it put us right on the plane, God bless them. But oh my gosh, that was one difficult ordeal.

DG: Well, because you're too nice. Earl would have just walked through.

ST: You're probably right. One, another one like that, it was such a complete shock to me. Axl wanted to go to dinner on Sunset one night. So we did. And after dinner, one of his friend's bands was playing at the Whisky A Go Go. So we go to dinner and there's parking was limited at the Whisky. So you just, you know, we're just gonna leave the car here. We'll just walk up Sunset. And I'm like, "Okay, let me call Earl." "No, no, you and I'll just walk up." I'm like, "Well, let me call some security." He's like, "No, no, we'll be fine." Sunset Boulevard on like a Friday night and there are mobs of fans that start spotting him from across the street. Traffic stops because they're crossing the street. Nobody's paying attention. There's a group following us. I'm not exaggerating. I bet by the time we got to the Whisky, there were probably 2000 people in tow. I still remember a guy like right before we got to the Whisky, he drops down on his knees, does the whole I'm not worthy thing from like Wayne's world. And he's like, "It's God, oh my God, it's God." And he starts doing the whole like bowing like Allah kind of thing.

DG: Probably Dave Mustaine from Megadeth, Brando?

Brando: Yeah, yeah, very true.

ST: Thank God the Whisky security guy saw us when we were probably 50 yards out or so and came down and helped get us in. But oh my gosh, I mean that was just, it literally stopped traffic on Sunset for like five or six blocks. It was pure chaos.

Brando: I keep thinking of that on the last scenes from Ferris Bueller when everything just went crazy and there's like a random dance break or broke out and traffic stopping and all that.

ST: Yeah, that's what it was like except it 11 o'clock at night or something.

Brando: And it was real.

ST: It was real, no doubt.

DG: Hey Doc, do you have any like funniest moments? Like just hilarious that you can think of?

ST: Oh man, oh, you totally caught me off guard with that, Doug.

DG: Yeah, I thought I might. That's what a good reporter does.

Brando: Good question, Doug.

DG: Thank you, buddy.

ST: The funniest moment I remember was, and the irony of it, I guess, is the funny part is that we're playing a show in Bogota, Colombia.

DG: There you go, that's hilarious.

ST: That whole South American leg that time just turned into pure chaos. We started in Caracas, Venezuela, and there was some religious group praying and a big rainstorm comes up and collapses the stage the night before the show, which they'd been working on the stage for like three days. So how do you get a stage back together after it collapses in a rainstorm? So somehow they figured out how to do that. But then just as we're finishing the show, there's a coup for the government and they're not letting any planes out. So Doug figured out some way to get us out, but now we can't get the band and their, or we got the band out, can't get the equipment out and the crew out. So by the time, so we had shows I think scheduled in Bogota for Monday and Tuesday night and so this was like, we were leaving on Saturday night, have Sunday to get the stage, the other stage was already partially built and moving on. And so, but if we didn't have our amps and guitars and drum sets and all the things it takes to make a show go, can't get it out. So Doug offers to, as I understand it, Doug, you were in the meeting, I wasn't, so correct me if I'm wrong, but he offers to the promoter to do the shows Tuesday and Wednesday night. And the promoters were like, "No, no, no, we'll just put them all in on one big show Tuesday night." And as I understand it, Doug's like, "We can't do that. It's two sold out shows at 80,000 people per night." And, "No, no, no, it'll be fine. We'll just put everybody in show Tuesday night."

DG: But you forgot the important part, Doc. And he wanted half the money back.

ST: Oh, I forgot about that. So anyway, so they're going to do this one big show on Tuesday night. And of course, earning more of the Guns and riots reputation that night. Of course they riot because only 80,000 people can fit in there and 160,000 wanted in. So it turns into a riot on stage. We get the band off and, Axl's sister, Amy - what a wonderful, wonderful girl - she's a nurse, so she's looking, trying to help people, and there's this Colombian soldier who - in his military fatigues - ends up backstage, she grabs him because he's bleeding profusely from his head. And she's like, "Steve, Steve, can you sew him up?" And of course, in a chiropractor, I wasn't necessarily trained in stitching people up. I stitched a few people here and there, including one band member one time. So I'm like, "Okay, yeah, sure." But I'm out of lidocaine because when we toured to a lot of third world countries, you just don't know what kind of medical care you're gonna get. So I carried various supplies. And I did have a sewing kit and a vial of lidocaine, but I had used it all previously. So I had nothing to numb this guy's head up. And so Amy goes, "Well, wait a minute, we're in Bogota, Columbia. I'll get some cocaine, we'll throw it down in the wound and it'll numb it right up. Great idea." An hour later, Amy comes back and she's so distraught, like her head's hanging, her shoulders are slumped forward. I'm like, "Amy, are you okay? What's the matter?" She goes, "I've searched everywhere. I can't find any cocaine. [?]" She wasn't asking the right band members.

DG: Maybe she should have asked the right band members.

Brando: Oh my goodness.

ST: Poor soldier, he got his head sewed up without any anesthesia whatsoever. What a tough guy.

Brando: Oh my goodness. Wow. I'm glad you asked that, Doug, because that's a funny story. There's so many elements to that. Because you're a chiropractor, you're not used to sewing people up. The fact that she was smart enough, I guess, or clever enough, MacGyvered her brain to think like, "Let's use cocaine on this," you know. To be a fly in the wall or to follow her around like who did, where was she going? She was going into different rooms like Scooby-Doo style asking different people for coke And to be so dejected when she comes back. Wow.

DG: Like like Doc said she's one of the sweetest people, just a great gal. Amy's a doll

ST: Yeah, so don't nobody really talks about the family member, you know Stuart and Amy, but they're they're really good people really good people. Or Slash's brother or all of the McKagan's, just great people, great people.

Brando: Future episodes. Maybe Doug as you know, I've had a couple of McKagan brothers. I got Slash's son. We'll see, you know, at least now that I have a nice resume.

DG: His brother Ash, I used to call him the king of cool, that guy's awesome. He's awesome, he's the best.

Brando: Well now that I have a little bit of a track record with the interviewing family members, hopefully they'll know going forward, I come in peace because this band is so crazy.

DG: Tell everybody what you're up to these days, bud. Oh me? About your practice and Doc. Yeah. Yeah, well I've been very active in state government here in West Virginia. We've got the worst opioid in the state in the nation.

[...]

ST: But then I come out on tour of Guns N' Roses and I see what Doug has assembled and how passionate, literally passionate, every team member was about their specific job. And it took that kind of passion to do that job properly. I mean, I'm like, I can sleep like nine hours a night now, but back then two and three was normal and I was okay with it. It was wonderful to be with such a team. Big old John Zucker, what a great guy. But man, that guy took great pride in his job. And everybody out there did. I mean, it was so important. I remember Sabrina having some of the same things as I did, three or four o'clock in the morning, Axl's still up and his back's kinda sore. So she comes down and gives him a massage. I mean, she'd been in bed for three hours, but both of us talked about how funny it was that we didn't discuss it beforehand, but that we got in a habit of when the phone rang late at night and if we had been asleep, like wait another ring to try to make sure you talk to yourself so your voice does not sound gravely like you've been asleep. And we would do that.

DG: Yeah, because I mean, the reason why, yeah, the reason why is if Axl was such a nice and so considerate, if he thought you were sleeping, he'd go, "Oh, never mind."

ST: Exactly.

DG: Yeah, right. Right, Doc? I mean, that's what you're alluding to, I think.

ST: Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. He was so nice to us and so good to us that you didn't... He would be so worried if he thought he was bothering. So Sabrina and I would literally wait an extra ring, try to get ourselves together, answer the phone like, "Oh no, we're just sitting here watching TV. No, no, no problem. Be right there." That's what you try to do. But that was the pride people took in their job. That was how passionate they were about their job. And that's important. When you have that kind of pride and joy in your job, it's amazing what happens and the magic that can happen from that.

Brando: Do you keep in touch with anybody? Because I know it bugs Doug that, and I don't want to speak for you, but you've said on my show before that, you know, you'll always love Axl even though you don't talk. Do you talk to anybody still? I know it's hard after all these years, but you never know it's social media. Are you Facebook friends with anybody from the team?

ST: I am to some degree Roberta Freeman, and I just connected a couple months ago. Very cool to talk to her on Facebook. And so that's been wonderful. I hate that I'm not in touch with any band members, although September 17 I was in Rock In Rio and ran into Duff and that was really cool. It was [?] to him to some degree because it brought back all those difficult memories from that time in his life. But it was, I spent about 10 minutes talking to him and that was wonderful. But unfortunately, you know, the rock stars are more than difficult to reach. And the team with social media was just not part of that era of time. And now that it is, we've just not touched base. Oh, John Zucker and I are still friends.

DG: Yeah, love Zucker. And Duswalt. Yeah, we love Craig.

ST: Yeah, and Craig Duswalt and I still touch bases sometimes.

Brando: Okay. All right. And I know we can't keep you both here forever. So just a few more minutes. What is your I guess your favorite memory when you look back on it? Is there anything that stands out in particular? It doesn't have to be anything, like something that's special to you Like maybe this something that we don't think of but something that you still you know think about every now and then?

ST: Yeah My favorite movie in the world is Dances With Wolves, and my wife runs a wolf rescue here at our house so people get wolf hybrids and can't handle them so we end up with them so we love them, have low expectations and tons of love for them. But my favorite movie in the world is Dances With Wolves and I remember after the last show Doug had arranged for two shows in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to finish the tour. I remember, coming out in the hallway after the second show and we all got separate flights home. I'm heading back to Dallas where I lived at the time. They're heading back to LA. I walked down to Axl's room and said goodbye. In the last scenes on Dances With Wolves, there's the Native American on top of the mountain screaming how much he respects and loves his friend. I remember Axl and I both kind of felt that same way. And that's probably the most special memory I have from that whole tour. I mean, there's a ton of memories, but knowing how much you care about somebody and they care the same about you, you can't buy that kind of love for one another, mankind. You know?

Brando: Oh, absolutely. Is there any way, [?], but who knows, Guns N' Roses fans are crazy. You might get people that fly in to just wanna get their back fixed by somebody who's with Guns N' Roses. So is there a website people can reach you or just [?] anyway that people may wanna talk to you?

ST: Usually that'll bring it up, but because I toured with Guns for that two plus years and then on with Bon Jovi for...well, it's been over 25 years now. Anyway, so I named my practice "Worldwide Chiropractic and Sports Medicine." And it's funny because I'm in a little old small town and a little old state. And I've had patients go, "Why on earth did you name your name, your company, 'Worldwide chiropractic and sports medicine'?" I'm like, "Cause I've toured the world," and right here in little Sissonville, West Virginia as well.

Brando: Awesome. I'm going to play this for you Doug, this last question. Just so we can't have Doug Goldstein on and get no stories from you. So maybe Stephen could add to it. So I believe she says her name at the beginning of it.

Jenna Hi, Doug. My name is Jenna. I'm from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And I know you've been doing this a long time. And from my history of the band, you know, I've read a lot of stories, a lot of things that happened on the tour. So I just wanted to know from your perspective, what was one of your favorite moments being a manager for GN'R?

DG: Yeah, Jenna has a good question. I mean, easily for me, it's standing on the stage at the first Rock in Rio, because we'd been through so much. And to stand there in front of 225,000 people, fans, and not a blonde in the bunch, right? And they know the music and they're jumping up and down. And that was like a proud moment. I mean, it was just amazing to stand there and think, "You know what, maybe I had some doing in putting this together." Yeah, that's probably my, easily my most favorite memory. That and the secondary would be, pardon me, the Freddie Mercury tribute. But for different reasons, that was just because it was everybody who's anybody was at that show in music. So yeah, those are the two, easily.

Brando: All right, right on. So Dr. Steve, I can't thank you enough. I mean, I feel like I could talk to you. It's so funny, because I can talk to Doug for hours and hours, but now I feel like I could talk to the chiropractor for hours and hours, because we just only got some stories from you. We didn't even get into. You know, the Bon Jovi, I know Axl may not be the biggest fan. I don't know if that's, was that, anything, you know any truth to that? Like, would Axl joke around?

DG: Let's stop right there. [laughs]

Brando: All right, all right, I won't start anything. I don't wanna cost Dr. Steve's job.

DG: You gotta remember, he worked for both of them. Not fair, Brando.

Brando: Touche, touche. I may or may not edit out my question, but you do not have to answer it.

DG: You don't have to, you don't have to. You can, so leave it in there with me saying, no, let's not do it. Oh no, I am, I am, that's what I'm gonna do.

Brando: Yeah. You know me. You know me.

DG: I got your back, Doc.

ST: Thank you, Doug.

DG: Hey, who got you that job with Bon Jovi, buddy?

ST: It's a difficult situation. Yeah. I can't comment on that.

DG: How'd you get the Bon Jovi job?

ST: Well, great, great question. Okay. So we got a day off in Guadalajara, Mexico. Rhythm guitarist that had stepped in for Izzy Stradlin, a guy named Gilby, had flown home, wonderful guy. Gilby had flown home, oddly enough, now that tell this story, to race dirt bikes. It's so funny when I tell this story because it's what I do. Thank goodness I've been relatively healthy and not too many injuries, but Gilby flies home for a celebrity motocross race in LA, crashes and breaks his wrist. And so we get news of that. And so we're like trying to figure out, all right, with the tour, obviously has to be postponed for a month while he'll be gets his wrist healed up. And Doug, we're figuring out, were we leaving that afternoon or staying another night in Guadalajara, what are we gonna do? And Doug comes down to my room and says, "Hey Steve, Paul Quirzilez[?] with Bon Jovi just called me and they want you to come out on tour." So, man, I don't know what to tell you. I know Paul can be really difficult to deal with. And, but this is an unbelievable opportunity. Nobody like gets a job while they're on tour. They just never happened. You don't go from one tour to the next. And of course I'm a total newbie because this was my first and only tour I'd ever been on and didn't realize. Yeah. You set home for months at a time quite often. Making a living in the music business. And so Doug's really ecstatic and excited. Of course, I'm excited about the opportunity also. And, he says, "So yeah, I think before you do anything, you should go down to Axl's room and just make sure that he's okay with it." And I'm like, "Okay, sure, no problem." And so I'm thinking, "All right, I'll go to, maybe if Axl's okay with it, I'll go to Europe for three weeks with them. And then we're going to start the Guns N' Moses tour." Doug probably named it that.

Brando:I'm literally wearing a Guns N' Moses t-shirt right now.

DG: Attaboy.

ST: Oh, you got one on?

Brando: My brother got it for me in Israel on birthright, so I'm literally wearing it right now. That's too funny.

ST: That's hilarious. Yes, because that's where we met. Like, once the first show back on tour was in Israel, so we called it the Guns and Moses. How funny that is. So anyway, so that's what I'm thinking, and, "I'll just, I'll go to Europe, meet Bon Jovi over there, work with him for three weeks, and then as soon as they get to Israel, fly down to Israel and finish up the tour with Guns N' Roses." And so I go into Axl's room and you know explain what's happened and see if he's okay because as I said he he rarely let me out of his sight. You know, like we go back to LA, he would go to his place in Malibu or when he had a house in the Hollywood Hills for a while, and I go to my hotel room, but every day I'd have to be at Axl's house for however long he wanted me there. And that's not a complaint. I was happy to do that. But anyway, I go down to his room and he says, "All right," I explained to him what's going on and he sits there for like 30 seconds. You know, that dead silence. You're like, "Oh man, is he just going to flip out and nuts on me or what's going to happen here?" He looks up at me and he grins and says, "I know why you want to do that. You want to say, 'I've seen a million faces and I've adjusted them all.'"

[laughs]

ST: Oh, it was hilarious. You know, of course we bust out laughing, both of us, and things are fine. And I take off for Europe and start in with Bon Jovi for a few weeks.

Brando: Oh, brilliant. I love it. Dr. Steve, you're always welcome back anytime you want to talk. Same thing with Doug.

[...]

Finished with this.