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#191 Guns N' Roses » Baz recalls Download 06 » 460 weeks ago
- apex-twin
- Replies: 24
Remember that show in Donington, the one mired by issues including sound and thrown bottles? Between songs, Axl was backstage, all fumes. "The most important show" was going wrong.
The show did end with a high note, with a storming finale after the issues were cleared. But Axl was far from placated. In his autobiography, Baz recalls the chopper ride back.
On the post-gig helicopter ride back to London, Bach noticed a “despondent” Rose “fidgeting nervously” with the helicopter’s door handle. Fearing the worst, he kept his eyes on Rose – who also had refused to put on his seat belt – for the entire trip, worried that the GNR frontman was going to bail out.
Wonder if Ax deletes Baz's number after reading that one. Still, it goes to show a decade ago, Axl was still high on anxiety.
#192 Guns N' Roses » The Devil Woman of Lafayette » 467 weeks ago
- apex-twin
- Replies: 11
There's a nice 2006 artice out there, which got a bit buried in the tour craze. The personal essay format failed to do it too many favors either. It was all about the author visiting Lafayette, zeroing in on an old police report, attending a show and reflecting on how Axl is, in his opinion, dangerously crazy. But there was good stuff in between, which deserves more attention.
"When I asked Jeff Strange, a morning-rock deejay in Lafayette, how he thought about this part of the world - for instance, did he think of it as the South? after all, it's a Klan hot spot (which I am inclined to read as a somewhat desperate affectation); or did he think of it as the Midwest or what - you know what he told me? He goes, "Some people here would call it 'the region.'"
The city cops found and processed the negatives of some heretofore unknown mug shots for me, from '80 and '82, the latter of which (the one where he's shirtless) is an anonymous American masterpiece.
Then the ladies in the records department rummaged some and came back with this report, which I've never seen mentioned in any of the bios or online or anything. It's written by an officer signing himself "1-4."
The Sheidler Incident
Lafayette, 1980.
Dana Gregory was Axl's oldest friend. Gregory played bass in a local band called Axl, his friend was never a member. "I call him Ax."
A little kid named Scott Sheidler was riding his bike in front Dana Gregory's house. He made skid marks on the sidewalk.
Dana Gregory wrote:"My dad was in construction... Mostly residential concrete... We poured that sidewalk. He'd get so pissed if he saw it was scuffed up... He'd think we done it and beat our ass. So, I saw [little Scott Sheidler's handiwork], and I said, 'No, I don't think that's gonna do.'"
Dana Gregory ran out, picked Scott up under the armpits, kicked over his bike, and ordered the boy to get on his hands and knees and scrub the skidmarks off the sidewalk. The kid went squealing to his old man, Tom Sheidler.
Tom Sheidler went to Gregory and asked if it was true, what Scotty had said. Dana Gregory said, "Yes, and I'm going to beat the fuck out of you." The mom, Marleen, ran up to the scene and began to shout. Around the same time, Bill Bailey, 18, appeared, red, green, slender, and fair.
With a splint.
"I can tell you how he got the splint," Gregory said. "It was from holding on to an M-80 too long. We thought they were pretty harmless, but I guess they weren't, 'cause it 'bout blew his fucking hand off."
M. Sheidler stated that Bailey was also arguing with Sheidler. Ax stated he'd told her "to keep her fucking brats at home".
M. Sheidler stated that she went up to Bailey and pointed her finger. Ax stated "MARLEEN SHEIDLER struck him in the face."
Little CHRIS GREGORY, 15... probably spared Axl a battery charge by corroborating the assertion that M. SHEIDLER had struck first.
Ax "struck M. SHEIDLER in the FACE with his LEFT HAND, the hand without the splint. (Dana's brother, Chris, corrobrates)"
M. Sheidler stated that Ax "struck her on the arm and neck with the splint (her son, Scott, corrobrates)".
The story ends with a strangely affecting suddenness: "BAILEY stated SHEIDLER then jumped at him and fell on his face, he then left and went home..."
What everybody agrees on is that Ax cussed and hit her. Big surprise he'd - eleven years later - jump into a crowd in St. Louis. Ax was pretty fearless when aggravated.
The Moonman
"So, what is there of Lafayette in his music, do you think?"
"The anger, man. I'd say he got that here."
"His condo had these giant mirrors going all around it. And every now and then, he'd take that spaceman statue they give you when you win an award on MTV and smash up the mirrors with it. Well, he slept till four o'clock in the afternoon every day. Somebody had to let the guy in when he came to fix the mirrors. Shit like that."
The rock star life was not all it was cracked up to be. Imagine Ax haunting his Malibu house at night, wielding the Moonman gotten from the WTTJ video and wrecking giant mirrors with it.
"Haven't talked to him since 1992. We had sort of a falling-out... It might have been over a woman."
Or Doug Goldstein, who was - at the time - busy becoming Axl's main handler. He certainly inherited Gregory's job.
Described by Izzy Stradlin as "the guy who got to go over to Axl's at six in the morning when his piano was hanging out the window of his house. Axl smashed his $50,000 grand piano out the fuckin' picture window of his new house. Dougie took care of all that."
Dana Gregory may have turned Doug Goldstein, but the anger remained. Gregory was following Izzy on the way out. The Lafayette connection was fading. The Lebeis clan moved in.
To this end, Paul Huge is a vital piece in the puzzle. For Ax, the jungle was always called Lafayette.
We were quiet for a minute, and then Gregory leaned to the side and pulled out his wallet. He opened it and withdrew a folded piece of white notepaper. He placed it into my hand, still folded.
"Put that in your story," he said. "He'll know what it means."
But everything we've ever known's here. I never wanted it to die.
The Devil Woman
Axl has said, "I sing in five or six different voices that are all part of me. It's not contrived." I agree. One of them is an unexpectedly competent baritone. The most important of the voices, though, is Devil Woman. Devil Woman comes from a deeper part of Axl than do any of the other voices. Often she will not enter until nearer the end of a song.
[In SCOM,] around 5:04, she arrives. The song has veered minor-key by then, the clouds have begun to gather, and I never hear that awesome, intelligent solo that I don't imagine Axl's gone off somewhere at the start of it, to be by himself while his body undergoes certain changes.
And what does she say, this Devil Woman? What does she always say, for that matter? "Sweet Child," "Paradise City," "November Rain," "Patience," they all come down to codas - Axl was a poet of the dark, unresolved coda - and to what do these codas themselves come down?
Everybody needs somebody. Don't you think that you need someone?
I need you. Oh, I need you.
Where do we go? Where do we go now? Where do we go?
I wanna go. Oh, won't you please take me home?
To wit, let's check out some CD codas.
There was a time, I would do anything for you.
What I thought was beautiful is only memories.
I don't believe there's a reason. I don't believe it.
I know the reasons, you tear me apart.
I can't find my way back, my way anymore.
All that amounts to is love that you fed by perversion and pain.
Half the songs end with a painful emotional twixt; hurt and stuck.
Also, the Devil Woman has her highlight in the middle of Better.
I never wanted you to be so full of anger (anger)
I never wanted you to be somebody else
I never wanted you to be someone afraid to know themselves
I only wanted you to see things for yourself
He might as well hold the Moonman on it.
They brought out a piano so that he could do "November Rain," and the way they positioned the piano, he was facing me directly. Like we were sitting across a table from each other. This is as close as I ever got to him and as close as I ever wanted to get, truth be told.
And what I noticed at this almost nonexistent remove was the peace in his features as he tinkled out the intro. Absolute peace. A warm slackness to the facial muscles way beyond what Botox can do, though I'm not saying it didn't contribute.
His face was for now beyond the reach of whatever it is that makes him crazy.
Lafayette certainly taught Ax another Scheidler incident could be just around the corner. He was already flying into offensive mode back then, if he saw his personal space violated. Still, that hair trigger is more of an effect.
The anger itself is personified in the lyrics and the delivery of the Devil Woman. Early on, there was the desire to share a life with someone, somewhere. The hermit years were all about contemplating on things that had caused much pain.
Better is a late song on the CD spectrum. That midway verse may include some of the most introspective lines Ax has ever written. The Devil Woman says the anger was an accident; she only wanted him to become aware of what was going on with him.
When people say Ax in his prime ran around and screamed like a man possessed, they may be on to something.
#193 Re: Guns N' Roses » Facebook Announcement » 468 weeks ago
What happened to "The most dangerous band in the world".
Big business, managers and lawyers. Money thwarts many a rebellion. Now, they're mainly dangerous to your blood pressure.
Nope. It's all Axl man... nothing to do with lawyers or managers. Axl is the only reason for lack of new shit. PERIOD.
Please. Axl got spooked away from releasing stuff and his handlers sealed him into a bubble, which exasparated his mental issues. I'm talking people like Doug Goldstein; everybody who was around in the UYI days agrees he basically wedged himself in between Ax and the rest of the band. Afterwards, Axl was a full-on hermit for a number of years. That baggage was brought on muchly by success, which also commonly attracts sycophants.
Now, he's been rebounding from the terrible spectacle of CD. 14 years of his life to a mediocre reception, with various games played around him, his band and the album. Surely, it's ultimately down on him, as he owns the Guns name, but you asked what happened to change his paradigm. My answer, those money-loving hangers-on. Had he possessed a healthier support network, things would've gone different. However, if you decide to agree on every whim and mood swing of his, prepare to jump through hoops for years on end.
From the outset, Ax pined for positive re-enforcement for years. Now, he's getting heaps of it by fronting the NITL-Guns and Axl/DC. He appears a lot better off mentally than in, say, 2002. Hard to say if an album will ever materialize, but after CD, waiting for it too eagerly seems like a fool's errand to me. Sorry to see you so wound up about the state of things, but Ax said it best himself; live your life. It beats complaining over the headspace of a 50-something millionaire.
#194 Re: Guns N' Roses » Facebook Announcement » 468 weeks ago
Let me clear, I am not surprised one bit by the bullshit stunt that was pulled.
Looking at your, ahem, emotional response, I was kinda thinking you were surprised, even disappointed.
It is what it is. This is pretty much the last gravy train their tickets are valid for; they realized they need to board it now. We can take it or leave it, our choice.
What happened to "The most dangerous band in the world".
Big business, managers and lawyers. Money thwarts many a rebellion. Now, they're mainly dangerous to your blood pressure.
#195 Re: Guns N' Roses » Axl Rose with Billy Joel Dodgers Stadium » 468 weeks ago
You can look at Axl as one of the biggest wastes of talent in the history of music...or you can look at the other side of it and feel lucky we ever got anything out of the guy. Considering his problems growing up and mental issues, it's sort of a miracle he didn't end up in permanent jail or dead before he ever recorded any song.
A good point, actually. If we've learned anything over the years, it's that Axl's sensitive like a flower. Give him too much leash and he'll disappear into his own arse, tinkering the songs into oblivion. That has tied into his inherent insecurity and the need to be "groundbreaking" in order to be an artist of merit. While the dilemma makes him more interesting than say, Sebastian Bach, it has also crippled any proper momentum, time and again.
I pretend that the Ashba era didn't exist. I threw in the towel when he was brought in and I knew we were getting nothing on his watch.
Ditto. Ashba is a tool, given his Slash-like image while in Guns, the social media grandstanding and whatever - what's more, he's a painfully mediocre guitarist, who slumped after a decent 2010 tour. Say what you like about Ron and Robin, but at least they were team players.
A lot of the things that have been said about Paul Huge could be attributed to Ashba, like having the "Guns attitude" before he set a foot on stage with Axl. I recall an excruciating and out of place Patience solo (shredding!), which dragged on and on, before Tommy walked over to Ashba. Homie actually stopped playing to hold back Tommy. The body language suggested he was afraid he'd be punched. Tommy laughed at his face. 
It's unfortunate because their most diverse and creative set lists were in the Ashba era.
When I saw those set lists pop up, I said, "Dear Lord, why didn't he take this approach in 2001-02?"
Fear and anxiety. Gotta sell the comeback tour without a new album. Performing the UYI epics brought back too many memories from the road, things he was unable to cope with prior to CD's release.
#196 Re: Guns N' Roses » Facebook Announcement » 468 weeks ago
Izzy was paid obscene amounts of money in 2006 to show up when he felt like it and to play a handful of tunes per show. He values his personal freedom highly, so I doubt he wants to be a part of a big tour on a regular basis. Part of the story could therefore be Izzy asking a huge payday for a light workload, knowing full well they might pass him up. It's a way for them to stop asking and to shut up about it. If Izzy wants to be left alone, mission accomplished.
#197 Re: Guns N' Roses » Curtain Call for the Old Guns '96 » 472 weeks ago
Yup,
Big on Jane's Addiction and wanting to reinvent Guns as more alt rock, while maintaining the nucleus of Slash and Duff to preserve the hallmark Guns sound. Two big issues. The way Paul was shoehorned into Sympathy and later, the rehearsals. Slash could've seen the upside of it, had Axl sat him down with Paul before anything else and said, 'I'm gonna write with this guy, see what he's got'.
Slash belittled Axl's obsession to the mainstream musical climate and he certainly objected another guitar player to be smuggled in behind his back. The bottom line on Paul is, he got into the band (as it was at the time) on the wrong foot, for reasons beyond himself. Curiously, by the time he'd finally play live with Axl, the surrounding band would be all but completely different. He'd be a great interviewee in a CD book or something, as he'd have perspective ranging from '94 to '02.
#198 Re: Guns N' Roses » One Year Later - Did you get what you wanted? » 473 weeks ago
^Sums it up 
Consider Universal. Their big act is hot again on the tour market. Why not new music, it's as good as any supplementary merch. If Axl delivers the goods... And he's not. What's to be asked here is, why is Axl (apparently) reluctant to have a meeting with Uni brass about releasing an album.
If he's all about the art, the art itself would benefit from gaining the audience it was intended to. Sure, the money would be peanuts in comparison to the millions he rakes from the tour. But if he's all about art...
What come up here are the wounds CD left on Axl. The sister album is still on his shelf, and ties into a huge chunk of his life. What we may have here is Axl, absolutely frightened about the public response to any new music. Slash and Duff have artistic leverage, but who knows whether they can move things along.
#199 Re: Guns N' Roses » One Year Later - Did you get what you wanted? » 475 weeks ago
2006 redux.
Two of the most killer lineups one could hope for from the 21st century Guns. Again, Axl pisses away any album opportunity. Had CD come out during the '06 tour, it would've gotten a warm response. Maybe not platinium, but respectable.
Guns is hot again. Axl does AC/DC on the side. All good. But ahem, the second half of Chinese is finished. Record a new song with Slash as a single and cash in. People might actually listen to it.
...and still waiting for a show.
#200 Re: The Sunset Strip » The TooL Thread » 477 weeks ago
When's album?
