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Guns N' Roses - The Illusion Of Greatness - RIP Magazine - June 1991

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GUNS N' ROSES THE ILLUSION OF GREATNESS
RIP
June 1991
by Lonn M. Friend

 
 


 

Spring 1987 seems like a million years ago. On the chronological calendar it's a mere four years - not much time in the grand scheme of world events. For Guns N' Roses, however, the club band from the streets of L.A. that somehow, someway, captured the hearts, minds and crotches of 15 million fans, it's been an eternity. To put it in proper, deranged, GN'R perspective, considering the following: Since Guns performed their last official tour gig at Irvine Meadows, California, as openers for Aerosmith in the summer of 1988, there's been one annulment, one divorce, one bandmember change, one bandmember addition, four recording studios, three detoxes, three Rolling Stone cover stories, 17 new vehicle purchases, countless tabloid articles and an equal number of scandalous rumors surrounding the band's breakup, legal hassles, social improprieties and overall iconoclastic attitude. What the f?!k does it all mean? Well, in a nutshell, this: In '87, your Appetite was whet; in '91, the feast begins!

"Use Your Illusion" is a cross between Physical Graffiti and "The Wall," proclaims GN'R
co-manager Alan Niven. "It's a record that's gonna amaze and frighten at the same time." Such words have fortified the mystique surrounding the most long-awaited rock LP since Def Leppard ended their four-year silence with the release of Hysteria back in '87. Ironically, the Lep LP came out one week before Appetite For Destruction. At press time we can't even tell you what configuration Use Your Illusion will take. It may be a lengthy, 76-minute CD ("We'll get as many minutes on the CD as technically possible," says Axl Rose); it may be released in two parts - a record and CD first, then an EP later; or maybe it'll be something totally bizarre, like two LPs released with separate titles and covers at the same time.

The mystery surrounding the packaging of the new Guns material simply fortifies the uniqueness of this entire project. What is for certain is that there are 36 songs - finished, recorded, mixed and ready for release. And the consensus in the band is that they would like to get all the stuff out to their fans at one time, or as close to one time as possible. The extensive track list runs the full gamut of rock music styles, from massive epics like "Coma," "Breakdown," "The Garden," "Estranged" and "November Rain," to bluesy, melodic, yet crunchy rockers like "Dust and Bones," "Pretty Tied Up" (featuring vocals by Izzy Stradlin), "Bad Obsession," "Yesterdaze," "Bad Apples" and "So Fine" (bassist Duff McKagan takes over lead vocals on this one), to balls-to-the-walls slammer like "Locomotive," "Ain't Goin' Down," "Right Next Door To Hell" (an ode to Axl's troublesome next-door neighbor), "Back Off Bitch" and "Shotgun Blues."

Rather than attempt with sure futility to outline every track, we've chosen to focus on certain, exceptional cuts that, even before the release of the record, have caused a tremendous buzz in the tight-knit GN'R camp.

"Axl sang a part in 'The Garden,' and it sounded exactly like Alice Cooper," recalls Slash. "I mean, it sounded exactly like Alice. So we were like, 'Let's get Alice to do it,' you know, rather than just steal his style. So Alice came down and sang it. It was cool."

A hallucinatory experience penned by Axl and West Arkeen, "The Garden" features a breathtakingly eerie vocal passage where Alice, in vintage Coop spoken-word style, delivers lyrics written by RIP's Del James. When the track was finished, Axl called the office and played the song for Del over the speaker phone in his office. "Listen, man," he said. "Alice Cooper singing your lyrics." Mr. James was speechless the rest of the afternoon.

"One thing about this album," Slash says, "is that a lot of these songs were written during different time periods for us - some of them even before we met one another. So what happens is, you have lyrics to a song and some music that on of the other guys wrote a long time ago, and you go in to record it, and you can't catch the vibe of whatever he was feeling at the time he wrote it."

An example of this scenario is the first single and video from Illusion, a track called "Don't Cry." Written five years ago, the song appeared on Guns' first demo, back in 1986. This now-legendary tape also contained "Welcome To The Jungle," "Back Off Bitch" and "Anything Goes." In the club days, "Don't Cry" was a show-stopper. Kids were mesmerized by the intensity of Axl's lyrics as this intense ballad swirled off the stage. But a half-decade later, when the band finally decided to record the song for release, Axl reexamined the lyrics and decided they needed "updating." Somehow, there will be three versions of "Don't Cry" - the original demo version, an updated demo version, and the 1991 modernized edition with new lyrics, which will be the first single and video.

"And we just added the 36th song," says Duff McKagan. "One with [ex-Hanoi Rock leader] Michael Monroe. It's called 'Ain't it Fun.' It's kind of a spooky song, 'cause it's like, 'Ain't it fun/You're gonna die young.' It's a Dead Boys song we redid with Axl and Mike singing."

One thing about the Gunners is their true appreciation of the wondrous catalog of rock history. This band has never been afraid to cover a cool song, no matter where it came from. From Aerosmith's "Mama Kin" to Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," the influences are wide ranging, to say the least. It's speculated that the EP, which may be released some time after the LP, will contain at least four covers, these being the punk tunes "I Don't Care About You" by Fear, "Attitude" by the Misfits, "New Rose" by the Damned and "Black Leather" by the Sex Pistols. The covers "Live And Let Die" by Wings and "Down on the Farm" by U.K. Subs will appear on Illusion.

An undeniable factor contributing to the tremendous amount of time it took the band to produce this album was the problem surrounding their former drummer, Steven Adler. Unable to cope with a destructive heroin addiction, Adler could not perform in the studio. He was often absent from sessions, and showed little or no interest in the new project. After almost 18 months of wasted time (and money), the decision came down to let Steven go and search for a new set of sticks. The keeper of those sticks proved to be Guns N' Roses' savior.

"I don't want to say anything against Steven, but we went through so much miscellaneous bullshit," recalls Slash. "I mean, for years all the other distractions, and with Steven for more than a year alone. Then, all of a sudden, Matt [Sorum] enters the picture. We rehearse 36 songs in a month and record the whole LP, all the basics, in five weeks - I mean all the guitars, bass and acoustical stuff; the vocals took a little longer. When Matt came in, we just went into the studio and did it. Just like that! We were entangled in the biggest procrastination situation you ever heard of."

"The Cult was looking for a limey drummer anyhow," remembers Duff. "So we snatched up Matt, and he gave this band the kick in the ass that it needed. I've been asked before if it's strange playing with Matt after so many years with Steven, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't at first. But now, it's so natural."

Last January Guns performed their first live shows with Matt at Rock In Rio II, doing two sets for a combined audience of about a quarter million. Along with the "sixth" Gun, Dizzy Reed, on keyboards, the band excited the South American audience with a set that included seven tracks from Use Your Illusion.

"Matt and Dizzy had never played with us as a complete band, because Axl doesn't come to rehearsals," Duff observes. "They'd never seen Axl sing with us. And we didn't even have a set list for Rio. We have this 'pick list' we like to use. So, anyway, we tell Matt, three minutes before he goes onstage in front of 140,000 people, that he's gotta do a drum solo. And he pulled it off! He rocked! Dizzy, shit, the biggest crowd he ever played for was about 400, opening up for L.A. Guns at the Country Club. Let's just say Dizzy had a few cocktails before we went on, but he pulled it off too. Right before we went onstage, the whole band - and this hadn't happened for a long time - got together in one room. You could just feel the electricity. No matter how many people were out there, or our families, or the press and photographers, bla bla bla, what it came down to was , we were just the same guys that we were five years ago, and you could feel that in the nervous laughter. It was f?!king amazing."

To say that the Guns N' Roses world tour - which will follow the release of the LP (or LPs) this spring - is going to be massive, is truly an understatement. It all commences with three dates at the gigantic Alpine Valley site on May 19th. According to Axl, GN'R has every promoter in America buzzing, because the band sold 40,000 tickets the first day for the Alpine Valley shows, a feat equaled only once before in history, by the Who. The band will tour America first, before heading overseas. Australia, Europe, Japan... no place will be spared the GN'R concert machine. Shit, these guys may even brave the Scuds and perform in Saudi Arabia. (Don't hold us to that comment, please!) "We're gonna end the States leg in L.A., at the Forum," says Duff. "We're tentatively scheduled to play four nights. They wanted us to do eight! Eight f?!king nights!"

One of the songs Guns will be performing live is the 12-minute opus "Coma." A winding, whirling, haunting, slashing adventure into the mind of an overdose victim, the song tells the true story of Axl's past overindulgence. The track is truly spectacular in its grandeur and intensity. While laying down vocals for "Coma" (and other songs during the period of recording at The Record Plant in Hollywood), Axl physically moved his bed into the studio. He also had a punching bag brought in, as well as two pinball machines - Kiss and Elton John.

"'Coma' is monstrous," exclaims Duff with a grin.

"I like 'Coma' a lot," adds Slash. "It's got a defibrillator in it- you know, the instrument that starts your heart when it's stopped. And there's some EKG beeps too. We were just f?!king around, but the song is heavy, and Axl's vocals are gorgeous- I mean really amazing."

The vibe surrounding the release of Illusion runs from the awesome to the absurd. Case in point: One evening Axl and RIP associate editor Del James were driving around, listening to new mixes of "Back Off Bitch," "New Rose" and "Right Next Door to Hell" on Axl's massive car stereo (which, by the way, has been featured in CarAudio magazine). A Beverly Hills police vehicle pulled alongside them. Needless to say, the volume on the stereo was quite loud. Realizing he'd been breaking the law, Axl smiled and turned down the blaring music. "Hey, we ain't like the West Hollywood cops," shouted one of the officers from his car window. "We like it loud!" Acknowledging the officer's humor, Axl and Del drove off. About a half mile up the road, Axl cranked the stereo again, and again the cops pulled alongside. This time they asked the vocalist to pull over. "I was just about to shit a cow," recalls Axl, but his fears were unfounded: The officers were not citing the Gunner, they merely wanted an autograph for a fellow officer who's a big Guns N' Roses fan.

How radio, MTV and the rest of the music industry will react to Use Your Illusion is anyone's guess. "I don't think there are any singles on the record," Slash told Rolling Stone. But if you think about it, with radio and MTV in their wimpiest states ever, a song like "Paradise City" wouldn't have a chance in hell at hit radio airplay in 1991. Truth is, though, like four years ago, the Guns don't give a shit about such things.

"I listened to the radio today," says Slash. "It was sick. I don't care what anybody thinks we did, the shit out there now is soulless. I know we went real big, and then we went away for awhile, and then the whole thing just went flat. And since then, there've been all these half-assed Guns imitators. I'm not one to go, 'Oh, they're ripping us off,' or whatever, but some of them do it. I'm not talking about anybody in particular. I'm talking about the industry as a whole, and the way things work - you know, turning out like lukewarm versions of what we were doing in the first place; at least the ones ripping us off. The other people I think are cool - like Faith No More - just did their own thing. That's the way to do it. Just be yourself. This record is heavy, but even in the heavy tracks there's something else. It's all very varied. All you have to do is just listen to it. If you like it, you like it; if you don't, you don't. We did it, and that's that"


 

My relationship with Guns N' Roses is a close one. I've been a roadie, roommate, confidant, reporter and a friend to each member of the group. My relationship with Axl is still very close. It's a friendship, and out of that friendship comes a shared trust. The following represents Axl's trust in me to report the unwritten truth about W. Axl Rose and the rock n' roll phenomenon known as Guns N' Roses. My job was rather easy: I just let Axl do most of the talking.

There are many different impressions of you floating around, everything from you being manic-depressive and suicidal to a drug-crazed genius. What makes Axl Rose tick and explode, and what are you about?

Well, because of Guns N' Roses' lifestyle, people who don't know us tend to be afraid or intimidated by us. After leading a life of girls, drugs and whatever, people draw a certain picture about me. I've toned it all down, because I have other things I have to do. I can't be doing drugs every night because, after selling six million records, the business I have to deal with is a lot more intense than most people's. Once you reach a point where you're platinum or projected to go platinum, all of a sudden you're dealing with major record executives and business people and MTV and everything else. You start becoming one of those people you thought you were against. You have to work with them. They're there for you and kicking ass, so you have to produce. Just saying fuck off for the sake of saying fuck off is cutting your own throat. It's hard to go out and have a thrashing time all the time when you have to deal with these types of responsibilities, and Guns N' Roses has had to deal with them since the day we were signed. Slash probably wouldn't drink so much if it wasn't for the fact that that's the way he's able to deal with all these people. He's able to quietly drink his bottle and talk. Me, if I'm drunk, I'll tell everybody to get the fuck outta my house. I can't get wasted because I react differently. As soon as I'm drunk, I realize 'Ya know, this past week of doing business has been really boring'. I want to fucking kill something [laughs].

When do the walls usually close in?

Usually when we're on the road. I'm very stressed about the shows, which are the most important thing to me. Nothing ever really works right for this band. Slash once said that God didn't want us to happen [laughs], and I somewhat believe that. When an interviewer comes in, and I'd rather be sleeping or they know I'm not in the mood, the impression left is 'He's losing it'. In a nutshell, that's why that happens.

Would you consider yourself a manic-depressive?

I'm very sensitive and emotional, and things upset me and make me feel like not functioning or not dealing with people, the band or anything. I went to a clinic, thinking it would help my moods. The only thing I did was take one 500-question test - ya know, filling in the little black dots. All of sudden I'm diagnosed manic-depressive. "Let's put Axl on medication". Well, the medication doesn't help me deal with stress. The only thing it does is help keep people off my back because they figure I'm on medication.

Ever since day one, you've continued to grow as a person, as a musician and now as a businessman. You've done things, to quote Frank, 'your way'. How do you view yours and the band's growth, and what have you learned over the past three years?

It's not like we're the most intelligent bunch, but as far as street sense - hanging out, doing drugs, partying, girls and shit like that - we know and understand a lot. It's like we purposely put ourselves through street school. I didn't know how to pick up chicks, so I used to stand outside the Rainbow and watch how this goes down. I didn't know shit about doing drugs, so I learned what's safe and what's not, how to get it, how to do it properly and everything else that's involved. We learned how to survive. We learned who's who in the music business. We learned how to tell when someone's full of shit. We've learned some hard lessons and had to pay some out-of-court settlements. At least we're smart enough to talk straight business now. If someone in this band is like, 'Okay , we're up against a wall' we have people - lawyers, other lawyers and other accountants - so that any mess we manage to get into, we can get out of.

Guns N' Roses are approaching the seven million mark for copies of Appetite for destruction sold. Everybody in the band is shopping for houses, buying cars etc. What's it like to go from street survivors to millionaires?

We're not millionaires. The world, people outside of the music industry, seems to think that if you go platinum, one million copies sold, you're a millionaire. It doesn't work like that. It costs 200 grand to make an adequate video. You've got that debt. You've got the money it took to make the record, the money it took to promote the record in advertisements and crap like that. It's easy to work up a bill of, like, a million dollars, especially if you have a record that's sold six million copies. All the promotion and the money that keep going into it have to come from somewhere. Basically, we make around a buck a record. Twenty cents to each member for every copy of Appetite sold. That's not exact, but it's pretty close. By the time you each make a million dollars, five million copies sold, you'd have to sell around eight million copies, because you'll be, like, three million in debt. You have to pay the people that work for you - management, lawyers, accountants, roadies and so on. Out of the buck we make, we're paying all our debts back. Everything we've borrowed, used, broken or had on loan comes out of this. After doing a tour, there's a lot of past debts that need to be paid. To go out and do anything for less than $1,000 or $1,500 a show means you're paying to play. If you headline and go past eleven o'clock, then you're talking paying major overtime and fines. In New York I was late to the show at the Felt Forum because I'd passed out after drinking Nightrain and doing an MTV interview. I showered, did my vocal exercises and got dressed within 15 minutes and went to the gig. We got out of an $8,000 overtime debt because the barricades that separate the fans from the stage were set up wrong, and by the time they'd fixed it, I'd gotten there and everything was cool. People wonder why bands don't play longer. It has nothing to do with not wanting to play longer. There are nights where we want to play all night long, but we can't afford to.

Are you, as many people believe, a heavy drug user?

I have a different physical constitution and different mindset about drugs than anybody I've known in Hollywood, because I don't abstain from doing drugs, but I won't allow myself to have a fuckin' habit. I won't allow it. I'll have done blow for three days and my mind will go "Fuck no". I'll have the physical feeling of knowing my body needs it, and I'll just refuse to do coke that day. I'm not going to do it, because if I was going to do it, I know I won't be able to hit my goals with what I want to do with this band. I can't let myself get into coke as much as I'm into the band. The same thing with heroin. I did it for three weeks straight and had one of the greatest times in my life, because I was with a girl I wanted to be with in this beautiful apartment, and we just sat there listening to Led Zeppelin, doing drugs and fucking. It was great, 'cause at that time I had nothing to do but sit on my ass and make a few phone calls a day. I stopped on, like, Saturday, because I had serious business to attend to on Monday. I felt like shit, sweated, shook, but on Monday I was able to function. I can't hide in drugs. A lot of people can, but whenever I do any drugs - pills, booze, smack, whatever - to enjoy it, my life has to be perfect - no fuck-ups, nothing going wrong. Otherwise, when I'm high, I'll analyze the shit out of everything that's happening in my life and why things are going wrong. That's not enjoyable. And if I have shows to do, I won't touch drugs because it fucks up my throat. My advice is don't get a habit, don't use anybody else's needle and don't let drugs become a prerequisite to having a good time. Do things in moderation , and just be careful.

You've been portrayed in the media as everything from the most exciting musical personality since Elvis to the doped-out bastard son of rock n' roll. How do you feel about the way the press has treated you, and do you think you've been given fair treatment?

I'm not really worried about what people think of me. What bothers me is what certain things printed about me do to people who I care about. If I say something, and it gets twisted to where it seems like I'm saying my band's full of shit or something when it's not what I said, that bothers me. That's not fair. Writers have to understand where we're coming from and hopefully print it that way. I've tried to be very open. You know, you've just met the interviewer real quick, you try to answer their questions, try to be as friendly as possible and then you end up with this person looking at your life not through a telescope, but rather through a kaleidoscope. Everything's in pieces and distorted. I understand that everybody wants to print the dirt - that sells magazines - but you should first try to find out if the dirt is true. There are some magazines that we have some major problems with. I thought the Rolling Stone piece was very good from an outsider's point of view, but some of the things were exaggerated. Like the bus issue. First of all, it was Izzy's idea to get a separate bus, and secondly, after shows I can't afford to party out like the other guys. There's been several times when I had to leave the bus because of nerves. It's impossible to sit there completely straight, listening to someone who is annihilated go off about something or another. Also, it gives us more space. We all used to live together, but we've outgrown being crowded in together. Not because we don't like each other, but because we have different lifestyles. Also about the Stone article, Teresa Ensenat doesn't have anything to do with Guns N' Roses anymore, and she surely did not discover us. She did a lot of good things for the band and helped us get the first album cover distributed, but she did not do nearly as much as Tom Zutaut did. Tom's the first major record person we were able to talk openly with, and he's the main reason our record happened.

So you're not happy with the way the press has covered GN'R?

It seems to me that we're a spectacle, a freak show. Magazines are more interested in who fell over last night than the music. I'm to the point where I'm tired of being a spectacle. One of the things that make this band so controversial is that we tell the truth. We tell what really happens. I like being honest with the press. What bugs me is after reading something about me, people don't have the slightest clue as to what I'm all about. Isn't that what doing interviews is about? From now on, interviews will be very limited. That must sound like, 'Oh, he's being a rock star', but the truth is, I don't need the headache of not getting things across to the public the way I feel they should be. I'm only doing this interview because I believe in RIP and some of the friends I've made there.

There's been a lot of stories about who discovered you and so on. A name that's been popping up a lot is your ex-manager, Vicky Hamilton. What's her relationship with Guns N' Roses?

Vicky Hamilton was a woman who basically had a monopoly on booking bands at the Roxy and the Whiskey, and we needed to get those gigs. We also needed a place to live. Vicky offered us help. She said she'd get us $25,000 we desperately needed for the proper equipment to start getting close to the sound we wanted. She never came through with the money; so with an important gig coming up, we got Geffen to go for a $35,000 memo deal, which means that we didn't have to sign with them but we had to pay the money back. Now Vicky's claiming that she managed us and that we wouldn't pay her back. She claims she invested $100,000 and she should be party to any of the money we make. She says we all get along, but in reality nobody likes dealing with her. Nobody trusts her. She managed the band? We - Slash, Duff, Izzy, Steven and Axl - managed the band. A year later she sued us for one million dollars. We didn't want to go to court, pay lawyer fees, court expenses and shit, especially when I don't trust the law and judicial system. I don't need the hassle. I don't believe in the fuckin' law system. I don't believe in the fuckin' government. I do believe that America is the best country on the face of the fuckin' earth, but that doesn't mean that America isn't run by assholes. Poor Vicky might look great in front of a judge, and Guns N'Roses look like slime, so they should lose. We settled out of court for $30,000, 15 of which Geffen paid.

Why would a band like Guns N' Roses, whose main market is a hard rock/heavy metal market, release GN'R Lies, an extended EP where four of the songs on it are acoustic?

First off, we've been talking about the songs as 'acoustic', but on three of them there is electric guitar. That's the way we've tried to get people mentally prepared for the songs. We've written some mellow songs that seem to grab people's hearts. It's just something we planned on doing for a long time. We wrote some of the songs during or before the recording of Appetite and revised them until we felt they were strong enough to put out. The reason we did it is because we wanted to.

Do you like the slow stuff?

I think 'Crazy' sucks. The band's great but I think I sound like shit. It's a very special, magical song. Every time we record 'Crazy' something happens. When it's really on, the band goes into a trancelike state. You leave everything else behind. I don't think I quite hit what I was looking for. I don't think there's a major problem with it, I just don't think we quite hit it, I think everything else kicks ass!

What's 'One in a million' about?

'One in a million' is about...... I went back and forth from Indiana eight times my first year in Hollywood. I wrote it about being dropped off at the bus station and everything that was going on. I'd never been in a city this big and was fortunate enough to have this black dude help me find my way. He guided me to the RTD station and showed me what bus to take, because I couldn't get a straight answer out of anybody. He wasn't after my money or anything. It was more like, "Here's a new kid in town, and he looks like he might get into trouble down here. Lemme help him get on his way." People kept coming up trying to sell me joints and stuff. In downtown L.A the joints are usually bogus, or they'll sell you drugs that can kill you. It's a really ugly scene. The song's not about him, but you could kinda say he was one in a million. When I sat down after walking in circles for three hours, the cops told me to get off the streets. The cops down there have seen so much slime that they figure if you have long hair, you're probably slime also. The black guys trying to sell you jewelry and drugs is where the line 'Police and niggers, get out of my way' comes from. I've seen these huge black dudes pull Bowie knives on people for their boom boxes and shit. It's ugly.

There are some, shall we say, controversial lines in the song, aren't there?

The line about 'immigrants and faggots' you mean? I don't have anything against someone coming here from another country and trying to better themselves. What I don't dig is some 7-11 worker acting as though you don't belong here, or acting like they don't understand you while they're trying to rip you off. [Axl mimics an Iranian] "Wot? I no understand you". I'm saying "I gave you a 20, and I want my $15 change!" I threatened to blow up their gas station, and then they gave me my change. I don't need that. I don't know what to think about gays. They're in a world of their own. I'm not too happy about AIDS. When I say I'm a small-town white boy, I'm just saying I'm no better than anyone else I've described. I'm just trying to get through life, that's all.

You have a new hobby, gun collecting. Among your prizes are a riot gun, a 9mm and an Uzi. Would you care to elaborate on that?

The reason I bought the Uzi is because this guy was going to rent me this house, then started dicking around, jacking up the price. He wanted more money than it was worth. I was so pissed off that I bought the Uzi. I've always wanted an Uzi. Everybody talks about machine guns and shit. I realized the only reason I didn't go for it was I thought I'd freak out with it. Now that I own a couple of guns, I also understand the responsibility that goes along with them. I never take them anywhere unlocked or loaded. Dig this : I saw this ad in Soldier of fortune magazine that said 'When the going gets tough, the tough get an Uzi.' Let's get tough!

It seems that every week or so either you or Slash are rumored dead. Tales of suicide, overdosing, murder. Some of the rumors are quite upsetting...

[laughing] The reason they bother you is because you [RIP] get all the phone calls asking "Is Axl really dead?"

No, what worries me is that one day it might not be a rumor. Why do you think these "Axl is dead" rumors continue to circulate as much as they do?

There's a few reasons. First off, it's a rumor that started a long time ago because I'll disappear for a few weeks at a time, and people presume if I'm not in the public's eye, something must have happened. I'll be right in Hollywood, laying low, not calling or wanting to deal with anybody; so no one knows exactly what happened to Axl. I just have to get away every so often to digest and understand all that's going on around me. A lot of these rumors started around the time when we were signed and have only surfaced recently. There's rumors about famous people we heard in junior high school that are still around today. Some very strange ones about Rod Stewart [laughs]. People go, "Yeah, man , did you hear that rumor da da da?" and they have fun spreading it, seeing the effect it has on their friends. Another reason is Guns N' Roses might be totally straight for a while, doing everything according the the norm, and then all of a sudden go, "Fuck it, I'm not gonna take shit anymore", and go off. We're always walking the edge. Since we're on this edge, it scares people - they freak out and so on. They think maybe this did happen, or they talk themselves into believing we're dead. Then they tell their friends. Another reason, this band means a lot to a lot of people. Bands that mean so much to their fans often get a lot of rumors about them. A lot of fans are afraid that their heroes might leave their lives. Nikki Sixx used to die all the time. Maybe people try to see what life would be like without their idols, or how they would handle it, and the next thing you know, it's a rumor. I'm dead again. What I figure with all the death rumors is that this band means a lot to the people out there, and we're important enough that it would upset them if we really were gone. I hope it's not a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

 
     

 

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