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#211 Re: Guns N' Roses » Will Angus Young Join Guns N’ Roses Onstage During Australian Tour » 482 weeks ago
Far more interesting to me is at the show today Slash joined Wolfmother for By The Sword...wonder how Axl felt about that.
I doubt Axl gave two shits about it, aside a few encouraging words, if Guns' works went on uninterrupted.
GNR is officially a cover band now.
Has been for the past 15 years, barring intermittent new tracks from the CD sessions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htFChL3riGU
#212 Re: Guns N' Roses » Steven Adler Reddit AMA » 484 weeks ago
As far as Freese's sentiments about Guns go, he did a podcast interview about it (and other things) some years ago. First off, he talks a lot. He sounds like someone you'd love to have a drink with, just to hear him tell jovial stories about his adventures in the entertainment industry. He appeared very outgoing and had a pool of social contacts, particularly among musicians. And he goes around that pool, making a living something what he loves, music. He's a bit fast and loose, but dedicated at the same time; I'd imagine Bucket as someone you befriend over a long time, as he's a bit shy.
Point being, Freese seemed genuinely nice towards people by default. Axl's the sort that appreciates that, and is known for rewarding people who play ball. The CD band got to do their own stuff on the side, which is a freedom Metallica members can only dream of. James Hetfield is known for being strict on 'this is the band, period'. Axl's production management was complete shite, but his principles on music were sound; liberty of creative expression would enrich CD. If anything, he was too generous in amalgamating new members into the mix. They should've written entirely new songs with the new guys.
Freese left sometime after Finck as their 'priority band' contracts expired. They both left out of boredom. The album was recorded, actually two. Axl's vocals were muchly put down. But OMG tanked and he started fiddling on the guitars with Buckethead. The band had been moved to Interscope and Jimmy Iovine is only into sounds he can sell. Tom Whalley, the Interscope president, may have had this convo with Axl in late '99.
"Eh, Axl, industrial?"
"Well, it's a melting pot of sounds, and OMG is hardly representative of the entire..."
"You like Queen, right?"
"Oh, absolutely! One of my favorite albums..."
"Howabout we call Roy Thomas Baker, to see if we can put some Queen into Sean's work?"
"Amazing! You know, we just had Brian May...."
Jimmy Iovine passes a note.
"The drums sound industrial."
#213 Re: Guns N' Roses » Steven Adler Reddit AMA » 484 weeks ago
Freese was barely in it back in the late 90s with Tommy pressing his buttons to do the gig,
Actually, I think it was the other way around. Freese and Tommy both joined up in early '98, and yes, they were friends prior to the gig. But Freese predated Tommy in Guns and once, in a separate session, mentioned Tommy that they'd need a new bass player, as Duff had packed up and left. Tommy, who was into telemarketing at the time for pin money, said, half-jokingly, 'I'll do it'.
What happened then was (apparently) that Freese told Axl a friend of his, an established bass player, was open to the suggestion. Tommy was vetted (photos to Yoda, likely), auditioned, and, most crucially, put through the Axl test. I think Axl particularly lked his nonchalant attitude about things, and the same punk energy in his playing that Duff was built on.
But as far as I know, we have Freese to thank for introducing Tommy (and Bucket) into Guns.
#214 Re: Guns N' Roses » Dissecting Chinese Democracy: Track 14 - Prostitute » 486 weeks ago
The now much loved "There Was A Time" remained a mid-carder until it had received a dash of Colonel Sanders' secret spices. It's unclear if Beavan was present for those proceedings but I think it's clear that each successive version of the song only became more convoluted, i.e. the near incomprehensible chorus.
The timeline's a pretty tricky. After Robin left in August '99, there was a bit of a flux. On hindsight, Axl seemed a bit flustered that his Randy Rhodes skipped town. Recording of CD was done, Axl had been focusing on Live Era (mainly his vocals), to appease Geffen. For Robin, the likeliest reason to rejoin NIN was that he was out of the Guns loop.
Dave Navarro comes in, records the OMG solo. Lukewarm reception, Axl backpedals.
Brian May comes in, works on Catcher, Atlas and a third track. Axl's said these sessions were with Sean Beavan.
"[Axl] was talking to Roy Thomas Baker, who was doing some production for them at the time, and they came up with the idea of contacting me to help them work out a direction." (Brian May, Uncut Magazine, 04/11)
Fortus is in line to attend jam sessions before the year is out. Stevie Salas manages to get in for a pass.
Axl hears Buckethead, gets in touch via Josh Freese, and invites Bucket to his house for Christmas '99.
By the looks of it, the quest for a new guitar player was pretty frantic and they lucked out immensely by getting Bucket.
#215 Re: Guns N' Roses » Will we hear new music in 2017? » 488 weeks ago
My Favorite Pillow
Classic.
#216 Guns N' Roses » New 4tus interview » 492 weeks ago
- apex-twin
- Replies: 21
Originally published here. Guns will kick off the next US tour leg in St.Louis and Fortus, a townie, was on local radio to promote it.
AUDITIONING FOR GUNS ('02)
I was actually on tour, believe it or not, with Enrique Iglesias. So I was in Europe... In the middle of the tour, I got a call... Tommy Stinson's a friend of mine. Brain was... Actually, was it Josh Freese? Anyway, I played with those guys and worked with them, doing studio work, and they called, saying 'Hey, would you be interested in auditioning with us?' 'Sure.'
So, I found a three-day window, and after I finished the last show at Albert Hall, had a car waiting and went straight to the airport. Flew to LA, did the audition... Everybody in the band [was there], including Axl.
Then I hung out with Axl all night, talking, listening to music in his car, and stuff like that - and had to go back to Europe to finish the tour... He pretty much told me that night [that I'd get the gig]... We spoke about it and he said, 'We're gonna start rehearsals in two weeks.' I said, 'I'm in a middle of a tour'. He looked at me, like, 'Are you kidding?'
[Axl] thought about it for a second, and went, 'Y'know, we'll wait for you, because I know you won't do it to me.' Axl's always been great with me. We've always had a great relationship and he's always been a solid dude. I know he has a sordid history with St. Louis, but he's always been good to me.
I got the gig, I went back and finished the Enrique tour... Actually, on my way back to the UK, I'm sitting at LAX and this guy comes up to me and he says, 'Excuse me sir, are you who I think you are?' And of course I said, 'Probably not.' And he said, 'You're not... Izzy Stradlin?' Nobody had ever said that to me before. I looked around, like, is this a joke? Then, I said, 'No, I'm not, but I think I just took his gig.'
THE NEXT ST.LOUIS SHOW
I've met people that were hurt [in the Riverport riot], I've met people, who've lost their jobs because of that. I get it, but he's definitely a different person and it was a long time ago.
[Axl] wanted to play [in St.Louis for a long time]. There's always different reasons. St. Louis is tough as far as [tour] routing [is concerned]... A lot of people don't play here. It's sort of become a tertiary market... A lot of shows are during the week, whereas Chicago is gonna get the shows on the weekend.
[Guns] announced [a St. Louis show in 2016] for one day, right? It was in the video and... Man, that was so bad. Basically, everybody thought it was an April Fools joke. It wasn't, we really wanted to do it. We couldn't work it out routing-wise, and they kept adding shows... Chicago got two shows, which moved our St. Louis show, and we weren't able to get the venue, one of the stadiums...
Axl really wanted that to happen, but it doesn't make sense financially. It'd be a huge mistake for us, because we'd have to ship everything from the West Coast, where we were ending, and get everyone out... It's just difficult. It wasn't good routing. And he really wanted to do it, and that's why St.Louis was either going to be the first show, or the last show.
It wasn't just him, because they were trying to work out the logistics to make that happen. It's not the place to start a tour or end a tour, usually. You usually start on one coast, or the other. They were trying to talk him out of it, but it was important that this [show'd] be the first or last.
I'm sure [Axl has some trepidation over coming back to St.Louis], but I know it's been very important to him [to do it]. And that's why it's the first show. We were trying to make it the last show of the last tour, and it didn't work out.
There's no drama [with the July 2017 show in St.Louis]... It's the first show of that US leg.
REUNITING WITH SLASH
I don't think [the money] was a motivating factor to anyone. The stars just seemed to align - we didn't have a bass player, we didn't have a guitar player. That's how it sort of happened.
I think, Slash had been trying to get a hold of [Axl] for a while. They sat down and Axl was like, 'Ok, let's just talk it through.' They sat down privately, went through their laundry list of issues and were able to put it behind them... And here we are. It's been really great, incredible, actually.
...We've been going on with Axl on time years before [the reformation]... There was a time when a lot of shows were late. It's been great, and is [money] the motivating factor for him? Absolutely not. Never seen that guy motivated by money, as long as I've known him. Otherwise, this reunion would've happened a long time ago.
[In Guns, Slash and I] clicked really quickly... It was a trial period, and we were checking it out. Duff and I'd played together before. It really clicked quickly and easily. We have a great rapport. We come from very similar backgrounds, the classic rock and the punk rock stuff.
[As Guns,] we communicate all the time. Between Slash, Duff, Axl and myself, it's this text going back and forth, every night, once we're back to our hotel rooms. We hang out, we all travel together, on the same plane...
I had actually been asked to join Slash's band a while ago, at a Thin Lizzy show. We were playing a festival and his manager came out to me and said, 'We'd love to steal you.' I couldn't do that to my friend. That would be such a slap in the face, y'know?
AXL/DC
[Axl/DC] was incredible. I was absolutely blown away. I flew up to Detroit to see it, and it was absolutely, devastatingly good. He really killed it... He texted me, 'Hey, I haven't told anybody yet, but I'm gonna go play with AC/DC, to see how it goes'. I was thinking to myself, 'Man, that's a tough one, I don't know, man.'
Then, everybody got back to me and said that he went to the audition and saw it [through] and [they] said he was just amazing. When I saw it, I was just blown away.
I know Angus does want to [make new music with Axl]. I don't know. Cliff is out... I was in a band like that. They're still feeling it out, I think.
LIVE SHOW & CD
[The current live show] is definitely different than anything I've ever been involved with. Every night's different, on some nights we throw in more or less [CD songs], but we always play at least a couple. Chinese Democracy and Better, off that album, get played every night - and This I Love, actually.
So, three songs every night and then there's four songs off that album we'll sometimes do... Almost every song on [CD] was done before I came into the band. And there was one section [in Better], that [Axl] was like, 'Hey, do you have anything for this?' And that just happened.
...Touring with GNR is supereasy, because when you're playing stadiums, you have to have a few days in between. So we only play three to four shows a week. That gives us plenty of time off.
SECURITY
This band is such an American band, that [abroad] it's sort of a target for terrorism or anything like that, if you want to hit a large group of people. So it's always something that's in the back of our minds, but you can't live your life in fear. I think playing in St.Louis would fall into that category.
[In Brazil,] Axl had everybody sing Happy Birthday to me [turning 50]. That was nice, 40.000 of my closest Brazilian friends.
NEW MUSIC
We are messing with ideas every day. We do at least an hour of soundcheck and we'll play through different ideas, new ideas, put stuff down on tape, yeah. It's really organic and it's the same with rehearsals. We're always putting down different ideas and getting stuff together. Getting ready for that, yeah.
#217 Re: Guns N' Roses » European Tour 2017 Thread » 492 weeks ago
Yup,
Will have a show nearby, too. Went on the 2006 tour, Axl was in top form. Boycotted the Ashba lineup, obviously.
This looks like fun.
#218 Re: Guns N' Roses » European Tour 2017 Thread » 492 weeks ago
June 10 - Autodromo - Imola, Italy
Axl's a Formula 1 fan, he should know what went down in Imola in '94.
We'll see if he hoists up a Brazilian flag for Ayrton Senna da Silva.
#219 Re: Guns N' Roses » South American tour has begun » 493 weeks ago
I don't think Trump is a racist, but says silly things.
Yeah, I'm also on the fence on whether he, deep down, has any issue with people from different backgrounds. But he knew the immigrant card would win him votes, and that most of the punters he'd infuriate would've never voted him, anyway. However, he tapped into a deep-seated fear in people; many of whom (or whose parents) still remember the 60's. That's reckless, because it's like playing with matches next to a powder keg, and ethically, it's a pretty rotten thing to do.
And that stuff about grabbing women... Locker room talk for the ladies. The arrogance in those words of his is what got to me.
#220 Re: Guns N' Roses » South American tour has begun » 493 weeks ago
Those are the MSNBC talking points for sure. Trump said some stupid stuff. But tell me one racist thing he said.
Before or during the election?
A well-educated black has a tremendous advantage over a well-educated white in terms of the job market…if I was starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated black, because I really do believe they have the actual advantage today. -src
Either he was completely deluded about the standing of African-Americans in 1989, or he was just taking the piss at their expense by saying they have a better shot at advancing their social standing than their caucasian peers. Still, he was suggesting people from another ethnic group had it better off - those sorts of comments are borderline racist as such (depending how well-informed he was about the grassroots reality at the time), and some down-on-their-luck caucasians undoubtedly took it into heart, which, in turn, fanned the flames of racial tension.
And on the Mexican speech that was poor but he said we get some rapists and murders from Mexico and some are good people. It was foolish, and partially true. But he didn't say all Mexicans were bad. But said some bad ones come to the US.
His sentiment was that the Mexican immigrants are rapists, killers and whatnot. Basically, the low end of their society, insinuating that the government of Mexico ships off their undesirables north of the border en masse. Thus, all Mexican immigrants were labelled in his speeches. Condemning all immigrants is just as reprehensible than condemning the whole of Mexico. Funny enough, he failed to acknowledge the same could be said about the European immigrants who moved to the US back in the day and took the land away from Native Americans, leading to segregation and genocide.
He was tact enough to avoid saying anything undeniably and explicitly racist during his campaign, I'll give him that. By this I mean, we can split hairs and argue about whether his stance was, in fact, as condemning and condescending as it sounded like to some. However, he full well knew those comments spurred hatred in his supporters, just like those Central Park Five comments. He's a full-blown agitator, carefully walking the line while whipping his audiences into a frenzy. Advocating intolerance is racism as such, and if people feel his words justify them to physically attack other racial groups, it's his burden to shoulder, as he's seen as an example of conduct - now more than ever.
