2024.04.16 - Rick Beato - Interview with Josh

GN'R talk starts around 1:21:40 minute mark.

Excerpts from Ultimate Guitar:
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Josh Freese recalled working on "Chinese Democracy" with Axl Rose, noting how the Guns N' Roses frontman was more open to collaboration than most A-listers he did session work for.

As a drummer with a reputation of playing with countless high-profile rock bands, it doesn't surprise that Josh Freese turned out to be on the long list of artists who contributed to Guns N' Roses' fabled "Chinese Democracy", but what *is* surprising is that he co-authored the song which ended up being the title track.

"It's always a funny thing to throw in when I walk into a room where people are talking about ['Chinese Democracy']... There's a lot of lore about that record", Freese says.

His own (active) part in that lore concluded in 2000, when he left Axl Rose's vast ensemble to replace Tim Alexander in A Perfect Circle, having met its mastermind Billy Howerdel during the "Chinese Democracy" sessions. What motivated him to join Axl Rose's cause was the fact that the GN'R frontman wasn't looking for *just* a drummer, but was also interested in Freese's songwriting skills (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):

"One of the main things that drew me to it... I was talking to [Axl] when he needed a drummer, and he said, 'Hey man, you write music? If you've got a cool idea, we'll work on it. I'm open to anything, and everything is it's great.' And so, I wrote three or four songs... There would be an A-list and a B-list of tracks on the old dry-erase board... Forever, I had three or four songs on the A-list... but they all had working titles, because they were just instrumentals at the time."

As Frese recalls, he only found out later that one of those songs ended up as the album's title track:

"I left in the beginning of 2000. When I left, they continued to work on that album for another couple of years. And then, someone said, 'Hey man, your track's on the record' — the guy still talked to some of the guys who were still in the band. [They said], 'That song's surviving, and it might be the title track of the album!'"

The drummer added that there may be a few more of his song ideas that might eventually see the light of day, the way "Hard Skool" was released in September 2021.

Freese notes how he had doubts about whether "Chinese Democracy" would be released almost until he got to hold a copy in his own hands, adding:

"I was glad he finally put it out because there's a lot of people who worked hard on that record for a long time."

Circling back to his experience of working with Axl Rose, the drummer added:

"Another thing I really liked about him was that he was open-minded about collaborating, and about about music. There were lots of situations [in other bands], especially on that level, where I would come in, and they'd say, 'You're the drummer, here's the song, play the drums.' [laughs] But [Axl] was like, 'I love that. Let's work on that.' There's not a lot of guys I've been in bands with [who have that attitude]."

"There's that old joke: What's the last thing the drummer said before we got fired? 'Hey guys, I've got a song idea!' [laughs]"

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/josh_freese_reveals_why_working_with_axl_rose_on_chinese_democracy_was_different_from_doing_sessions_for_other_a-listers.html