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#771 Re: Guns N' Roses » Ron leaving the band after Vegas? » 587 weeks ago
apex-twin wrote:Gilby was let go the same way, actually. He confirmed in a recent interview that he was still in Guns when Sympathy was recorded.
A simple way to prove that is dating his RS interview in 1994. Don't remember which band member said it years later, but Gilby essentially speaking for the band in that interview is why he got fired.
"I wasn't that involved with the "Sympathy For The Devil" recording - they did that while I was on the road touring for my solo record... That was one of the last straws for me, because ...I'm a big [Rolling] Stones fan, and they recorded the song without me. So I knew that was it." (Gilby, Songfacts, 09/10/13)
And you probably mean this interview:
"From July to the end of the year, I'm not gonna be available, because I'm gonna be working on my record. If the band decide to make a record during that time, then there's a good chance I'm not going to be doing it." (Gilby, Kerrang, 05/24/94)
It's safe to assume Ax was irked by the interview. Slash had the benefit of doubt in shooting his mouth - to a degree, the Snakepit/Paul Huge stuff was bad for him - but Gilby was an asset. Replace him in the UYI lineup with Fortus and many would think Izzy's back. He did his bit trying to get the album done in early '94 (Snakepit sessions & Guns sessions). He was singled out by the band as the 'fall guy'.
"What happened was we were rehearsing and Gilby was really out of it one day. The morale of the band, we were all trying to keep it together and he was the odd man out that day. I was complaining and then Axl called me that same night." (Slash, Metal Edge Magazine, 04/95)
"There were days when Axl would call Slash and go, "Fire Gilby - he doesn't fit in with my plan," but he would never tell me. That was going on for a long time." (Gilby, Daily Trojan, 04/14/99)
"[Axl] said he didn't want to work with Gilby anymore for a lot of different reasons. In a way I sort of went along with it, at least Axl thought I was going along with it because I had my own complaints from that night at rehearsal. This was about a year ago." (Slash, Metal Edge Magazine, 04/95)
Gilby was probably being hoping to gain some clout to his solo career at that point, by telling the press how it was.
#772 Re: Guns N' Roses » False - Axl to Join Slash on Brazil Dates » 587 weeks ago
He did it in 2012, for one. It happens, the HBD thing.
#773 Re: Guns N' Roses » Jarmo » 587 weeks ago
See for yourself.
#774 Re: Guns N' Roses » False - Axl to Join Slash on Brazil Dates » 587 weeks ago
I think if Axl were to do that, it would HAVE to be at a Guns show. He would need complete control of the environment surrounding the situation. There's no way he'd just give up the home field advantage, so to speak.
The last I checked, Axl appeared a notoriously hair-trigger. In 2011, his handlers dragged their feet for hours after the show to inform him Eddie Trunk's in the building and wants to do an interview. This is because, they say, Axl'd be otherwise 'freaked out for days' beforehand. In 2010, he (in all likelihood) canceled the world tour in a fit on his Twitter and then had serious power struggles with the promoters in Reading/Leeds, mid-gig. He still has that off-the-handle mentality, particularly if pushed. Want to piss Axl off? Tell him what to do.
Having said that, he seems pretty adjusted to being an elder statesman of rock. He still has that audacity; some may read his confused recording process as a middle-finger to the recording industry, a perfectionist garage musician simply having vast resources at his disposal. Pissing on the money spent and putting out a perfectly self-indulgent WAR album with a plethora of guests/contributors. Artistic lunacy is his game, and he's riding on his rep more than his creative output at this point.
For argument's sake, Brazil is more Axl territory than Slash. He would have it the way he'd want it, on every show. Slash would oblige, because he's less of a confronting type and would be perfectly happy-go-lucky if he'd do his thing, Axl would step up and they'd do theirs, and he'd just go on again from there. Axl would be the man of the hour in a Slash show and, if things would ever play out this way, Brazil is one of the best places in the world for it to happen.
Also, at a Slash show, it isn't a GUNS show, which means Slash still isn't in Guns, but we can see Slash with Axl one last time.
That is a big deal for Axl. He's been after legitimacy for the post-Slash Guns for decades. He may now be close to getting it.
One thing that is worthy to note: the absence of Perla. Axl did the Jimmy Kimmel interview and the general consensus was that it was just him doing amiable in being in a talk show. Perla came out of nowhere and made critical remarks on everything beginning from his weight. I guess the RRHOF no-show stung her, as she said to have 'expected for something enlightening'. Axl saw that as a commercial event, which would play financially into the hands of others and give the music press a field-day. Perla would've seen a reunion performance as a way to reinforce the image of Slash, the Legendary Guns guitarist.
From the looks of it, Perla has been a major factor in Slash's solo career thus far. Obviously, as he was the breadbringer. Slash might humor Axl by guesting on three songs on a Guns album, to endorse Axl's Guns. That would take a lot of in-between things to happen, but if there's a person involved who's after a lucrative reward and/or royalties, it gets all the more complicated. Perla has hardly been the deciding factor in the way things are; the same goes for Beta, who, I think, actually practices the same policies; she wants Axl to make ends meet by touring and doing the odd wedding in French Riviera or a private show to a Russian oligarch.
The dates are still a month away and I see only a message board post backing it thus far. Other sources would need to come out to make things interesting.
#775 Re: Guns N' Roses » sp1at thread » 588 weeks ago
I'm under the impression that there are two separate storage rooms with security systems in existence, outside Uni. This goes back to the fact that a lot of recording was done under the Guns name by Paul Huge & co between 94-01. This was when the Internet was accessed via a 56Kbps modem or an ISDN, if you were lucky. Everything was copied from DAT tapes to digital format. Physical copies of things were passed around amongst band members. Everything was backed up. Do the math; there's easily a mountain of discs in existence from those years, different parts and versions of songs.
The question is, who has the sanity to go through it, as there could several albums' worth of music, but it's only scattered into a million pieces?
#776 Guns N' Roses » That Montreal Riot (GNR/Metallica/FNM '92) » 588 weeks ago
- apex-twin
- Replies: 2
Spin: Want to talk about what went down in Montreal?
Clarke: In Montreal? That thing happened so fast. I mean, you're probably gonna get the same story from absolutely everyone.
The Metallica/GNR co-headlining NA tour began on July 17th, 1992 in Washington. Seven shows in, they were in for it. Between July 31st and August 22nd, there were eleven shows booked. Out of these, show number four was played on August 8th, in Montreal, Canada.
"At the Giants Stadium show at the end of July, Axl barely made it through the set due to the state of his voice."
(Life Magazine, 1992)
"[Axl] was swaying back and forth in his white spandex shorts, white funged jacket, white cowboy hat, doing a moving rendition of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," when all of a sudden - zzzing! - some kid in the audience threw a lighter and hit him in the crotch.
Axl stopped singing.
He turned his back to the crowd, threw his microphone into the air, tore off his hat.
And he left."
"He was advised by his doctor to rest it for a week, so we canceled the next three dates. The tour resumed in Canada, which came to be the infamous coup de grâce of everything that was wrong with our band."
"The same shit happened in Montreal as elsewhere."
Craig Duswalt "Everything started out great. Faith No More’s set was awesome, and Metallica took the stage pretty much on time... About 60 minutes into Metallica’s set, something went horribly wrong."
James Hetfield “During ‘Fade to Black,’ I’m up there playing the part, and all these colored flames are going off, I’m a little confused on where I should be — I walk forward, I walk back, the pyro guy doesn’t see that I’ve walked back there, and [makes whooshing noise] colored flame goes right up under me.
I’m burnt — all my arm, my hand completely, down to the bone. The side of my face, hair’s gone. Part of my back.
I watched the skin just rising, things going wrong." (Behind the Music)
"The other members of Metallica came back out onstage after James had been whisked away, explained what had happened, and apologized for suspending the show."
Gilby Clarke "We had gotten word - you know, we were all just hanging out at the hotel - and somebody said that there was a big accident. James had burned his arm, and their set got cut short. The audience is, you know, going a little crazy. It would be really great if we could go on early today. (Laughs)"
"We were still at our hotel when it happened, and we were asked to go on early - it was a nonissue; of course we agreed to do so. The band headed down to the venue right away and discussed what we'd play to fill up the remainder of Metallica's slot and ours as well. We had plenty of time to go over our options but it couldn't happen because Axl did not show up."
"I sat backstage monitoring the sounds drifting in from the arena, drink in hand, and could feel the crowd’s mood change. The rumble of tens of thousands of people beginning to get angry is a deep, low sound that penetrates walls and vibrates the fundaments of buildings, where dressing rooms are located. It’s a horrible sound, and the panic and embarrassment and frustration in my own head was compounded by that rumble.
CD "Because Metallica’s set had ended about sixty to ninety minutes early, the crowd had to wait longer than normal for Guns N’ Roses to take the stage."
"In the end, there was something like four hours between the time Metallica were forced to stop the show and the moment we took the stage."
Montreal Gazette "Guns N' Roses take the stage 135 minutes later, far too long after the abbreviated Metallica set."
"Us going on late - more than two hours after Hetfield was rushed to the hospital - playing to pissed-off fans. Our own fans, pissed off at us."
CD "About two hours later Guns N’ Roses took the stage, and the crowd went nuts. It was a great beginning of the set."
G By the time we got onstage - which was early - it wasn't together.
After letting the crowd reach its boiling point, we finally went out and started playing.
G The sound was just like - it wasn't just bad, it was like almost unplayable.
The PA fed back the entire time, the monitors fed back the entire time, the crowd was like, nonexistent. (MTV)
I told Slash, ‘Two more songs, if we can’t get it fixed, I gotta go.’
We did more than two more songs...
I realized, ‘I’m gonna hurt myself.’
"In case anybody here is interested, this will be our last show for a long time."
MGz "Rose followed a doper's blues version of Bad Obsession with a speech about how the band had honed its act on a seven-week tour of Europe just to have it all fall apart last night."
"In Montreal, he didn't mention that he was in pain or anything that night before the show."
We had just stopped the tour [temprorarily,] because I had throat problems.
[Axl] had canceled our Boston show and two others because of his throat.
MGz "At the time, a friendly Slash had told The Gazette that neither medical issues - Rose had a hole in a vocal cord - nor the band's "typhoon of chaos" could derail GNR's first-ever headline gig here."
"He [later] said that his vocal cords were damaged and that was why he couldn't perform. To us, it was crying wolf."
45 minutes into our set, a microphone stand hit Axl in the mouth. He threw down the mic and left.
Axl ended it early, after we'd done just 90 minutes out of a scheduled two hours.
Finally I was just, like, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ I looked over and Gilby was like, ‘Dude, I can’t hear.'
G I just remember Axl coming up to me and just going: 'You know, I can't hear myself - I can't hear anything. What do we do?'
And Duff [McKagan] was like, ‘I can’t hear either.’ We had a little huddle, and we were like, ‘We’re outta here.’”
At the end of 'Civil War,' Axl says “Thanks you, your money will be refunded, we're outta here.”
G The next thing you know, he left.
I'm sure he had his reasons, but neither I or the crowd, as far as I know, knew quite what they were.
CD About 55 minutes into the set, Axl just walked off the stage. Unfortunately it happened the same night that something happened to James, but I was there, and I truly feel it was just a coincidence. One incident had nothing to do with the other.
"I think some people understand, but a lot of people, they want what they want, y'know, even if they understand. It's like, if there's a problem on stage and we have to stop the show, they don't really care at that point (laughs). They're still upset, because they don't appreciate it.
"In all due respect for the people that got pissed off or disappointed by any of the situations that went down, we were just being as real as humanly possible about our own situation." (MTV)
"They came to see something and... y'know, there were technical difficulties in Montreal, and we had a ..., and the ... was very upset about that. And they didn't really take the time to think about what went wrong for us. And that's kind of hard to take sometimes. I really don't feel responsible about that."
"It was actually a huge issue for me because I'd lost face with everyone in Metallica."
An announcer comes onstage and tells the crowd that the show is over.
"This time the riot didn’t start near the stage. We didn’t even see it.
The crowd blew up back at the concession areas and merchandise stands, and then spread outside into the streets. In fact, our crew did their normal teardown of the set, oblivious to the riot already raging out of view. Only when our buses pulled out of the parking enclosure did we see the full extent of the situation — cop cars turned over, vehicles on fire, lots of broken windows. Once again there looked to be a lot of injuries. Once again I felt anguished and heartbroken. This time I also felt deeply embarrassed, a feeling that managed inexorably to worm its way into my vodka-numbed psyche.
It didn’t have to be like this."
"At this point, we've been through so much I just look at life as, 'you take the good with the bad and just deal with it.'" (MTV)
Out of the eleven shows following Montreal, ten were rescheduled. Guns had opened for lackluster reviews, but in the wake of the Montreal show, they began receiving warmer reviews, leading up to a final night in Minneapolis on September 15th.
The Metallica/Guns show that never was? Vancouver.
At the end of their performance, the guys in Metallica took a curtain call, which was reminiscent of the Twins returning to the field after winning the World Series last October.
Then, after a 95-minute intermission during which there was human gridlock in the humid Dome hallways, Guns N' Roses took the stage. Their explosions and flashpots during "Live and Let Die" outdid any pyrotechnics Metallica offered and GNR's light show was much more artful, extensive and sophisticated. However, GNR's performance was less focused than Metallica's and more varied, ranging from piano ballads to full-tilt rockers.
Guitarists Slash and Gilbey Clarke meandered on some aimless solo excursions, and hyperactive singer Rose kept disappearing from the stage during guitar solos to change outfits. When he was onstage, he scurried all over the place like a scrambling quarterback desperately looking for a receiver (at one point he muttered something about ex-Viking quarterback Fran Tarkenton. Thus, much like the Stones' performance at the Dome, it was difficult last night at times to focus on the 10-member GNR spread all over the stage with its various tiers and ramps.
Rose, who had called off a Dome appearance Aug. 5 because of throat problems, sounded in fine voice last night. Especially impressive were the current hit, the piano ballad "November Rain," the up-tempo hit ballad "Sweet Child O' Mine" and the ambitious epic "Civil War." The repertoire was nearly identical to the one GNR played at Target Center in January. The big differences were two inflated crab-like creatures that appeared over the stage during, "Welcome to the Jungle" and the fact that GNR got onstage at a relatively early hour for them -- 10:45 p.m.
And the band finished 10 minutes before the 1 a.m. curfew, leaving some time for post-concert fireworks and a curtain call, complete with Rose tossing roses into the crowd. Sometimes, GNR plays by the book.
Duff, Slash and Craig Duswalt quotes from their respective autobiographies, unless noted otherwise. Gilby interviewed by Spin in 1999. Axl interviewed by MTV in 1992.
#777 Re: Guns N' Roses » Ron leaving the band after Vegas? » 588 weeks ago
Fortus could do a serviceable job, I feel. Both Bucket and Brain had this loose, funky feel, which has shifted towards more AFD classic rock with Frank and DJ. Fortus played with Bucket, and has an idea of what his parts were in regards to the overall sound. Instead of it being DJ thinking those TIL solos sound easy.
Duff on rhythm, and the sound's fine, I agree.
#778 Re: Guns N' Roses » Ron leaving the band after Vegas? » 589 weeks ago
I think it's safe to say there has been no change in Axl's feelings towards Slash. Axl has even told warm stories about him himself. And it hasn't changed much.
Slash either should not have been in Guns to begin with or should have left after Lies. In a nutshell, personally I consider him a cancer and better removed, avoided - and the less anyone heard of him or his supporters, the better.
Give me a fucking break. What's clear is that one of the two of us will die before a reunion and however sad, ugly or unfortunate anyone views it, it is how it is. Those decisions were made a long time ago and reiterated year after year by one man.
There are acts that, once committed between individuals, they are what they are. To add insult to injury almost day after day, lapsing into year after year, for more than a decade, is a nightmare. Anyone putting his own personal entertainment above everything else is sickening.
#779 Re: Guns N' Roses » Ron leaving the band after Vegas? » 589 weeks ago
I don't ever remember Richard ever being a "no comment guy."
Granted, this was a reasonably isolated incident, but it's just to say, he can be that guy, if needs must.
Big Pat - You and Robin played X Japan's "Endless Rain" as part of your
guitar duet during some of GN'R's Japanese shows in July 2007. Why that
song? Who picked it?Richard Fortus - No comment on this question.
Big Pat - We know Robin has signed on to do NIN tour this summer. You guys
seem to have amazing chemistry on stage. Are you looking forward to
playing with him in the future? And speaking of chemistry, how
important is it?Richard Fortus - No comment on this question.
Big Pat - There's a lot of buzz right now regarding GN'R and the Dr. Pepper challenge. Do you think you might be drinking a free Dr Pepper soon?
Richard Fortus - No comment on this question.
This interview was conducted in early 2008, a very important time in CD history, as the deals with Azoff and BestBuy were both moving along. It was to be Axl's 'Get Out of Jail Free' card - he was essentially given an 11th hour rescue - if only he'd buy into Azoff's plan to play the industry ball and do a reunion on the side, to maximize on the Guns franchise. Azoff would have Ticketmaster, he could arrange quality US tours for both lineups. Only Axl flipped, stayed home and talked to the fans directly before moving to mainstream media to berate Slash, the record company and Slash again. Just goes on to show how hurt Axl was with the outcome of the saga, even if he championed the album.
Posting a Duff picture is really no big deal, the dude toured with them.
When sat next to the pic of Del James with Slash in the background, it can be seen as a positive development in Axl's emotions regarding the old lineup. Axl now seems to be in perfectly cordial terms with Izzy (that 14 Years performance was a biting response to RRHOF, inc. rather than the old lineup, methinks) and with Duff. In the past, he has been supersensitive about Slash.
There has been a Slash t-shirt policy in place in Guns shows ever since RIR3.
A&R Tom Zutaut was reportedly fired because it turned out he was in touch with Slash.
Slash was turned away at the Guns show door in Dec 2001 in Vegas.
All this has apparently been done by Axl's handlers. He's such a hair trigger, promoters and whatnot are generally scared that he'll do his freak out routine and cut the show early, given he appears at all. Axl has made his own reputation here and because of that, there have been cancellations where other people have read into the situation and considered his track record before pulling the plug. St. Louis, Montreal, Vancouver, Philly.
His people have now posted a Del James shot with Slash (in recognizable form) in the background. Beta would delete it and yell at the person responsible if she felt Axl would freak out. The assumption, therefore, is that Axl's cool with having an old pic of Slash there. Fortus is talking openly about using Slash riffs as foundations for unreleased songs. Again, Fortus knows the gravity the 'S' word has in Axl's dictionary.
The grapevine has it that we have Duff to thank for AFDem, as apparently he got Slash to sign off with the old songs. All three made money out of it. Guns mended their fences with Uni somewhat by handing over a product - their first post-CD. It'll be curious if Axl ever reactivates to see if he notices the potential herein. He could have Down by the Ocean on CD2, with Duff and Izzy guesting.
Does this mean reunion? Nah.
I don't see this as anything other than further evidence that Ron is out.
I agree with you that I believe Ron is out.
If they tour and he's on stage again, I believe that, at that point, he's a returning member.
#780 Re: Guns N' Roses » Ron leaving the band after Vegas? » 589 weeks ago
Recall what Richard said in November.
Some of [current tracks are] stuff that we've been working on with ideas that were already there. Some of the stuff Slash did, you know, that was like the beginning, the seed of the song, that's been around for a while.
This is coming from the interviewee formerly known as the 'no comment' Fortus. He knows the company line and Slash is suddenly OK again. 6 years ago, he was cancer.
Guns posted a Duff pic the day before. Go figure.
