Sunday, January 13, 2008

Axl: "Take business classes."


RS: Does the business end of rock & roll ever interfere with your creative attitude?

Rose: Not for us. This is music, this is art. It's definitely a good business, but that should be second to the art, not first. I was figuring it out, and I'm like the president of a company that's worth between $125 million and a quarter billion dollars. If you add up record sales based on the low figure and a certain price for T-shirts and royalties and publishing, you come up with at least $125 million, which I get less than two percent of.

I like being successful. I was always starving. On the other side. When it came to people with money, it was always "The rich? Fuck them!" But I left one group and joined another. I escaped from one group where I was looked down on for being a poor kid that doesn't know shit, and now I'm like, a rich, successful asshole. I don't like that. I'm still just me, and with a lot of people's help, the group was able to become a huge financial success. None of us were the popular kids in school - we were all outcasts who got together and pooled our talents.

RS: Is there any lesson you've learned that you wish you knew a few years ago?

Rose: What I'd tell any kid in high school is "Take business classes." I don't care what else you're gonna do, if you're gonna do art or anything, take business classes. You can say, "Well, I don't want to get commercial," but if you do anything to make any money, you're doing something commercial. You can be flipping hamburgers at McDonald's, but you're a commercial burger flipper.

SOURCE: Here Today... Gone To Hell!

2 comments:

Erin R said...

Hi Matt,

2 quick Q's:

1) What is it with all the references to gay bands in this article: queen, elton john, george michael, elo... any thoughts on the matter?
2) Do you know if and when any new songs from any permutaion of GnR will added to new versions of Guitar Hero?

Anonymous said...

Erin,

1. I always thought Axl was a "closet-case."
He was raped by his father and has some issues.

2. That is the rumor. They are trying to figure out a way to make some $$ of this thing, and licensing the songs to video games seems like an obvious choice.