Dallas Observer Darryl Smyers of the Dallas Observer recently conducted an interview with Tommy Stinson. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Dallas Observer: What do you think about all the criticism Axl got for starting GN'R over with the new lineup?
Stinson: Here's the way it went down. He didn't start over. The other guys just kind of vacated the band. They said, "Fuck it, I don't want to work." Axl just decided to go on. He called me and asked me to do it and got the other guys to do it as well. Axl just wanted to keep working. He didn't want to start completely over after everything the band had been through. I think it was a pretty ballsy move.
Dallas Observer: 2008's Chinese Democracy took forever to come out. Does the band have a lot of songs in the can? Is a new album in the works?
Stinson: I'm not going to say a whole lot about that, but I tell you right now that I certainly hope we do another album. I would love to get everyone back into the studio and make some more stuff happen. I think we have a good band, and each of us has something interesting to offer. I hope we get on this project sooner than later.
The Nervous Breakdown The Nervous Breakdown: This has been quite a month for you, recognition-wise, because about a month ago, GUNS N' ROSES was nominated for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
Duff: Yeah, it's weird, you know? I've never striven to get into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Never in my life have I thought, "Man, I gotta get a Grammy." In sports you try to win it all, but music's a different deal. So the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame was never on my radar. As a matter of fact, I don't know how we got roped into it, but when we (VELVET REVOLVER) inducted VAN HALEN, it went south. I don't know if you remember that. It just went south. The band (VAN HALEN) was fighting, and the only ones to show up were Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar, and it was like, "Ohhh, boy…" So when we (GN'R) got announced, that's what I remembered. But I do understand that for the fans, it's important. It's important to the people who buy your records and come to your gigs and connect with some lyric that you wrote or a groove or something. I mean, I'm part of social media — I write a couple of columns online, and people comment on those. I have Twitter and I'm on Facebook and I read people's comments about how they feel about us being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, so then it's important to me. Only then. And I've learned to just say, "thank you."
The Nervous Breakdown: There are a few parallels between GN'R and VAN HALEN, the biggest one being the turnover in membership, both during and after your involvement. Assuming GUNS gets right in, how do you envision your induction? What do you see it looking like?
Duff: I can't. I can't picture it. Your guess is as good as mine. There is no picture. It's bound to happen but I'd love to call the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, whoever they are, and say, "Hey guys, why don't you put this off for another ten years? Thank you! Thanks for nominating us — it's great, but how about you put it off for ten years?"
The Nervous Breakdown: Would ten years give things more time to settle?
Duff: You know, that's all I need to say about this. I care about our fans and that's it.
The Nervous Breakdown: Slash and Steven Adler both have their own books out, and many other books have been written about GUNS N' ROSES that already cover parts of your life. When you sat down to write your book, was there anything you felt that needed to be corrected or cleared up?
Duff: No. No, I read Slash's book because we were on the road together with VELVET REVOLVER when that came out. It doesn't matter what's correct or what's not correct. There's stuff in Slash's book that I remember in a different way, but that's all there is. My experience of the same situation is different than his — that's what life's about, right? We all have different experiences sometimes with the exact same thing. When that book came out, I had no inclination to write a book. This book sort of wrote itself out of these little side columns that I was writing. So many people have asked me, "How much did you drink?" and "How did you get into that hospital bed?" And a lot of people ask me, "How did you get sober?" In other words, "How did you get out of that hospital bed?" And that's really what I wrote to — that was the mission statement. The arc became clear as I wrote — my family, my mom, my kids- how important all of this stuff is to me. And it's just a guy's story. I happen to be in a couple of rock bands, but it's just that guy's story. GUNS N' ROSES is a weighty subject, but in the same breath, I don't take it that seriously. It was an extraordinary circumstance that happened to all of us. Shit, we all survived! That's great! A lot of my fellows out there didn't. But at forty-seven years old, I look back and see that we fell into every goddamned trap that there was. But we were honest. We were a dangerous, real band. We were real. Nobody was faking it, and I'm proud of that.
The Nervous Breakdown: You open up an interesting discussion about your own struggles with anxiety. When you talk about playing with THE ROLLING STONES — the gig where Axl famously called everybody out from the stage (threatening to disband GN'R if unnamed members didn't curb their drug abuse), you guys kept going after that. What was it like still playing in that band with that threat hanging over your heads?
Duff: He said it and we were like, "Oh, we're discussing this stuff in public, now?" When we were all into it. We took care of our own shit inside, and I'm sure Axl had his reasons for that, and they were probably valid. At the time, I could see it. I was pissed off, too. So half of me was with him, but half of me was like, "No… not here, not now. Not here. Not in front of eighty thousand people…" (laughs) But that's the way he was, and I can't really speak for how he is now, but love him or hate him, at least there was no filter.
The Nervous Breakdown: Was there one memory of playing in GUNS N' ROSES that stands out as your absolute favorite? One thing that really makes you feel proud?
Duff: All of it. I mean, really, most of it. I could write another whole book about the first eighteen months of our band, and it would be fascinating, and fun and good, because nobody believed in us. I touched on it in the book. We just believed in us, and we weren't accepted into any little section of L.A. rock, and so we just did our own little thing. We were just young, young dudes and we just really knew that whether there were two or two hundred people who knew who we were, we were going to change their perspective on music. We were learning how to write songs together, and the chemistry was stunning. We were more punk rock than any punk rock band I've seen. And it was more JUDAS PRIEST than JUDAS PRIEST, and it was more Elton John than Elton John. It was just kind of everything. Some nights we were the best band on the planet.
ultimateclassicrock Guns N’ Roses keyboardist Dizzy Reed, who with over 20 years served is the second only to Axl Rose in terms of tenure, was recently kind enough to speak to us on the eve of the the band’s first North American tour (see dates below) in five years.
Reed discussed the criticism leveled at Guns N’ Roses for starting their concerts later than most bands, and for spending so much time creating new music. He also explained the common influences that brought him and Rose together, talked about his own upcoming solo album and when fans can expect new GN'R music:
So, you’re fresh off your South American tour, right? How did that all go? Yeah, yeah! We got through it, we did all the shows, and it seemed great. It’s always great down there, the crowds are always really good in South America and Mexico, man. They like to rock out. It’s also nice to have a couple of days off, though!
Do you think too much attention is paid to when your shows start, or how long it takes you to release an album? Isn’t it a little silly to talk about stuff like that so much? As a matter of fact, I never thought about it, but yeah, it is silly. It’s a rock and roll concert for Christ’s sake! I would think we get more than our share of that, certainly. But yeah, (music) is supposed to be inspired by creativity and good things in life, and having a good time.
Are you writing new material while you’re on tour? I think, you know, all of us, as musicians and those of us that would consider ourselves composers, are always writing. I have a studio I take with me everywhere, and when I’m home that’s pretty much all I do. There’s so much material that’s been recorded in the past, that might put its head up sometime. We’re always writing.
So, we can maybe expect to hear some new GN'R music soon? Hopefully, that’s the plan. But right now, we’re out there rocking Chinese Democracy and some of the older classic songs, maybe some new surprises, and that’s that. But I know, there’s always something brewing. There should be some new music coming out at some point for sure.
You played many Chinese Democracy songs live before the record came out, but are people reacting to them differently now that they’ve got the album? Yeah, a lot of those songs, we’ve been playing some version of live for about, gosh … 10 years. You know, there used to be some head scratching in the crowd, but since the album’s come out you can see everyone’s getting into it. It’s very infectious, too.
You’ve been in Guns N’ Roses for over 20 years now, what were the common musical influences that drew you and Axl together? I think we’re both children of the ’70s. We just grew up listening to a lot of the same stuff on the radio. Things aren’t like that now. Whatever city you were in had maybe two, maybe three rock stations and that’s what you listened to, that’s all you got. That being said, to me there was just a lot of great, great music that came out of that time. Anybody that sort of came up around the same time that we did had the same taste too. At least, people that I would choose to hang out and play music with! You just kind of gravitate together, move in the same direction.
Do you think music was better back then? No, I just think there was less to choose from, and things weren’t as categorized. There wasn’t all these genres, everything wasn’t suddenly assigned something: “OK, this is punk, this is alternative,” you know. There was rock and roll, basically.
Would it be safe to assume given how you’re a keyboardist, that Elton John was a big shared influence between you and Axl? (Jokingly) Who? Who’s Elton John? No, of course, Elton John. He’s one of the best ever, in my opinion. That’s probably why he invited him to play with us that one time, at the (1992) MTV VMAs. I forgot about that till just now, that was cool.
Does it all kind of blur together — do things from the last two decades suddenly jump out at you like that? Sometimes, some things blur together. Other things, are completely gone for good. Some things you try to block out, some things you cherish, some things change in your head over time, you know?
So, your covers band, Hookers N’ Blow is over, right? What else are you working on? I recorded a record last year, called Rock and Roll Ain’t Easy, under my name, that should hopefully be coming out the first part of next year. When Guns N’ Roses aren’t touring I’ve been out supporting that already.
Are you singing? How would you describe the record? I am singing, or, crooning as I like to say. It’s very rootsy, very groovy, very rocking, a lot of cool piano based songs, and about half of it is guitar-based songs.
Where can people learn more about that record — do you have your own website? I gotta get on that. I have my Facebook page going, I just don’t really look at it that much. I’m still going through therapy from what MySpace did to my life (laughs), once I get past that I’m going to get back on the web!
Very nice interview about Crue, and about how he joined GN'R. Dj talks about the next record, but also about Dj's early work (Beautiful Creatures, Bullet Boys, Addiction to Friction), the interview is about 25 minutes long....
"(talking about Mötley Crüe): I knew I could bring something to the table, because I understood their music, I grew up on it. And I feel the same way with Guns. And Slash is, I grew up cutting my teeth on people like Slash, and I have the utmost respect for his guitar playing and his style and stuff. And I really feel like I get where he is coming from on that and so, you know, no one will ever replace him, and that's not why I’m here, it’s just to do, I felt like I could do the gig justice as far as staying true to the vision of where everything left off."
NME Axl Rose has revealed that the band's former guitarist Slash was pretty loose with his bladder control.
Speaking to fans in Paraguay in a video which you can see by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking, Rose opens up about his backstage antics with Slash during their band's heyday in the '80s.
Apparently, Rose told fans, he would hang around his guitarist and whichever girl he had brought backstage with him that night until Slash got so drunk that he wet himself and the singer would then steal the girl from him.
He says in the video of Slash's backstage habits: "It was great, because he would pass out and piss his pants, and then I would get to be with the girl. So I always followed Slash because I knew he would pass out and I would get the girl. The girl would be like, 'Ah, he just peed in my bed!' and I’d be like, 'It’s okay, it’s okay.' The next day he would just ignore it. He says it in his book, like once, but no – it happened every time, all the time."
The pair haven't spoken for at least 10 years and this particular revelation is unlikely to bring a much talked about reunion of the original Guns N' Roses line-up any closer to happening.
