Dizzy Reed: "I Just Hope I Get the Call"

From a poster at Metal Sludge:

"First off....Dizzy & HNB were fucking awesome & Dizzy is just a way kewl dude. Very friendly guy.
@ the end of the gig 2nite, I helped Dizzy tear down his stuff & I asked these ?s....

Re-union?
" No chance of a re-union....it will never happen..ever"

Did you play the piano parts on Prostitute, cuz I think its awesome & the best part of the record?
" I have no idea, what parts of mine made it to the final recording of CD. Im fairly certain the parts of Street Of Dreams did, other than that..."

Tour this year?
" He has plans & as far as Im told, There will be a tour this year & I just hope I get the call to do it"

Why did AXL just basically vanish after the release of CD?
" Who knows?...he doesnt even know."

My take on this (if it's true).

1. Not a shock. What else is new?
2. Very sad really.

-M

BLACK ICE VS. CHINESE DEMOCRACY

A new article compares AC/DC and Guns N' Roses' exclusive deals with big box chains and asks the question: Do exclusive deals with big chain stores help?

The answer: Only if the band puts in the effort.

"Wal-Mart, for its part, went all-out in promoting the disc, and the band as a brand. According to independent music marketing executive Bob Chiappardi, who was involved in the strategy, 'it was an encompassing thing...they put a pop-up store in the men's department in all the Wal-Marts, at the entrance they had posters [and] postering throughout the store, they had stand-up racks in the aisles approaching the men's department, and then they had displays in the CD department, a whole top row on the VH1 rack. Not only back catalog, but video games, the AC/DC version of Rock Band and T-shirts.'

The band, in turn, employed all the standard promotional strategies for a new album — it made a video for the first single, 'Rock N' Roll Train,' submitted to interviews and embarked on a massive world tour. Result? Black Ice (which is fantastic, by the way) topped the charts, the concerts sold out — and the band was back, any lingering image controversy surrounding its collaboration with Wal-Mart washed away on a flood tide of cash.

But what about the year's other big exclusive deal — Guns N' Roses' release of Chinese Democracy through Best Buy? In many ways, it was something of an apples-and-oranges comparison. Wal-Mart is a much larger chain than Best Buy, and it threw itself behind its chosen album much more vigorously. BB, which significantly reduced the amount of floor space devoted to music in 2008, offered no store-within-a-store. It merely set the album on cardboard towers on the sales floor, which were dwarfed in many outlets by similar displays advertising the complete Sopranos on DVD.

But according to a marketing executive familiar with the deal, this minimalist-seeming strategy was all that was arranged up-front: 'They're kinda just doing what they can do with what they've got. The only thing [Guns N' Roses] had to deliver was a video and the record.' (The video will be for the second single, 'Better,' and should be out sometime soon.)

According to industry scuttlebutt, the negotiations for the Best Buy deal were frantic and down to the wire. 'These guys didn't have finished music until a month before,' says one source. 'It was insane. In all honesty, Axl was working on everything — the art, everything — right to the end.' Indeed, in a recent web chat on a Guns N' Roses fan site, Rose (manager Andy Gould later confirmed that it was really him) stated that there were plans for multiple covers that may emerge in the future, that he has a favorite, and it's not the one currently in stores.

You can click the link below for the full article.

Riverfront Times

Axl Rose Was My Neighbor

Visual Artist Laura London is premiering a new exhibit titled "Axl Rose Was My Neighbor."

Here is the story behind this picture.

"Well, that's a funny story because actually he was my neighbor in Los Angeles in the late 1980's, early 90's. I was living in Laurel Canyon, an area of Los Angeles, and at the time he was married to Erin Everly.

There was a Rock journalist, who lived behind me in the guesthouse, and Axl Rose lived two houses up the hill. I was hearing stories about him and different things that happened all the time from this journalist, but I didn't really see him.

Then one day I heard they were having a fight and that he threw the wedding ring in the bushes - and that he graffitied his garage. He took the lyrics from his song and then he twisted it because he was having a fight with his wife at that time.

So I took a photograph because it was just like this sick poetry. I guess being in Los Angeles it was just funny at that time…tragic, but it was also funny.

And I took a photograph of it and his wife came home, when I was shooting and she's asked: 'Who are you working for?' and I replied: 'I'm not working for anyone,' because I don’t do paparazzi. And then I put the photograph away.

I think I showed it to my art dealer and I showed it to my brother and that was it. It was kind of this joke that he was my neighbor and I just put it away for years.

Then I was thinking about what to do for my next series. After the 'Rock Star Moment' series was well received and critically successful in the gallery venues, I wanted to further that idea. Each series grows organically out of the previous series with my work.

I produced a permanent public art installation for the MTA in Los Angeles (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) dealing with locations of rock n' roll history. I expanded my level of production to execute that project by using an assistant/intern, scouting locations, and working like a filmmaker. So I took that method from working on the grant project and incorporated it for another series.

I made a whole series of work based on this sick graffiti from Axl Rose's song, 'Sweet Child O’ Mine,' and did a whole new series of images and portraits, constructed just inspired by that image."

Thirsty

PATIENCE

Guns N' Roses' greatest ballad ever, "Patience," appears on their 1989 8 song EP, GN'R Lies (The Sex, The Drugs, The Violence, The Shocking Truth).

Lies seems to be often overlooked these days, overshadowed by Appetite and Illusions, but for me it's an essential part of the canon.

Writer Chuck Klosterman once likened the four acoustic tracks on Lies to the four Gospels of the New Testament, as they all tell a different story of who Axl Rose is.

The "LIES" are:

In "Patience," there is NO SEX (the lovers are estranged).

In "You're Crazy," there is NO DRUGS (it's psychosis instead).

In "Used to Love Her" there is NO VIOLENCE (the girl wasn't really killed and buried in the backyard - it's "a joke, nothing more." -blurb from the album cover.)

But "One in a Million" is like the fourth Gospel - John - the Wild card. There IS A SHOCKING TRUTH. "One in a Million" is still shocking, even 20 years later. No one's really sure why Axl Rose was so angry, but one thing is certain - his emotion wasn't contrived - it was for real. The old GN'R were 'the real deal.'

"Patience" is played using three acoustic guitars (Izzy, Slash, Duff), and was recorded in a single session by producer Mike Clink. The song reached #4 on the US singles chart in the Summer of 1989.

The music and lyrics were written by Izzy Stradlin, who also wrote "Used to Love Her." Izzy reportedly wrote the song about his doomed relationship with actress Angela Nicoletti McCoy.

A music video for "Patience" was shot and appears on the DVD, Welcome to the Videos. It was the last video in which Steven Adler (even though he doesn't play on the song) appeared.

In the video, the band members are shown at the Ambassador Hotel (in LA) where they are the only constant images. All the other people who appear are present for only a moment before they fade away.

In an ironic twist, the final parts of the video show Rose sitting alone watching the "Welcome to the Jungle" video in what appears to be a sad and lonely state. Footage of Slash is juxtaposed with the lines:

"And the streets don't change but maybe the name
I ain't got time for the game
'Cause I need you
Yeah, yeah well I need you
Oh, I need you"

Somewhere Buckcherry is Smiling

For your reading pleasure - 2 very 'creative' reviews of Chinese Democracy

The first is a comparison of Axl Rose, Kanye West and their respective releases for 2008.

The Egos Have Landed

The second is a review of C.D. written as a one-act play.

Coke Machine Glow

WHERE'S TOMMY?

Is Tommy Stinson Still in Guns N' Roses?

The short answer is: No.

Check out his Myspace, where Guns N' Roses is nowhere to be seen. Better yet, check out the tour dates on Soul Asylum's webpage.

03/29/08 The Canyons Resort - Park City, Utah
07/13/08 Taste Of Dallas - Dallas, Texas
07/20/08 Rib Fest - Iowa Events Center - Des Moines, IA
07/25/08 Lumberjack Days - Stillwater, Minnesota
08/18/08 The Wolf Den - Uncasville, Connecticut

But don't take my word for it, NME reported last year that "[Replacements] Drummer Chris Mars retired from music to concentrate on painting, while Tommy Stinson, the teenage bassist, ended up in Guns N' Roses until a spat with Axl Rose forced his departure."

You remember the famous spat from 2006 where Tommy vehemently denied any friction between himself and Axl Rose.

You know, when Stinson threw down his bass in anger?

"In the past I have thrown my bass" said Tommy, and "we are getting along better than we ever have."

But of course, these are the types of denials that we've grown accustomed to.

-Mack

A Likely Scenario

With the BEST BUY exclusive expiring this MAY just in time for the SUMMER FESTIVAL season, it's very likely that we'll see a re-issue of CHINESE DEMOCRACY at that time.

The re-issue will likely feature enhanced artwork, a new booklet, the two alternate covers and ONE ADDITIONAL TRACK.

At this point, ROBIN FINCK and Guns N' Roses will be poised to kick off their tour overseas before returning to the States in August where they may or may not headline LOLLAPALOOZA.

We can also expect Guns to at least schedule a LATE-FALL release for CHINESE DEMOCRACY II (or whatever Axl decides to title it), with an accompanying SHORT US ARENA RUN.

-Mack Arillo
mack.arillo@gmail.com