Angry Axl Takes on Everyone In An Exclusive Interview!
By B.R. Freeman
transcript below the cut
Fame is a two-faced companion. On one hand, it will embrace you in all its splendor, but when you let your guard down, watch out! Like a chameleon, it will turn, and its true colors will be less than appealing.
Guns N' Roses volatile frontman, Axl Rose, has had his fill of this misleading crony, for as a shadow it glides through his daily experience, just a step or two behind him, and virtually impossible to shake. An enigma he might be, but flesh and blood for sure he is, and as "human" as the rest of us. Check out the more down to earth side of Axl Rose.
Hit Parader: When you were a child, did you dream about amassing such fortune and fame—in other words—everything that you've currently achieved?
Axl Rose: No, I always had a million different ideas of what I wanted to do. Just like any kid really, first I wanted to be a fireman, then a cowboy, and everything else. In about eighth grade I knew I wanted to do something with music, and that took on all kinds of different shapes, and didn't really get solid until maybe about 10 years ago, of exactly what I wanted it to look like. And I think I finally achieved it.
HP: Do you like being with people, or do you consider yourself a loner?
AR: I like a lot of solitude, but then every now and again I get claustrophobic with that and I want to go around a large group of people. After you've had a lot of solitude—I tend to get very vulnerable, it's like when you start going outside and start dealing with a lot of stuff, there just doesn't seem to be a way to slow things down. You get out of the scene for a while, and then you get back out, it all comes caving in on you all at once. I find myself pretty much vulnerable, like a little kid out in the world he hasn't seen before. It takes a while to get your grips back on that.
HP: What were you like as a kid?
AR: I was always in trouble with someone, somewhere. I've totally blacked out the early years of my life.
HP: Do you ever think about growing old?
AR: Now and then. A lot of times though I can feel like a little kid, or I'll feel like I'm 90 years old. So it doesn't really phase [sic] me. I picture it, but I just can't necessarily see it. Being an old, bald guy—me? I can't see it.
HP: Is there anything you wish you could be better at?
AR: Making road life a little bit smoother, so that everyone around me doesn't get so pissed off, 'cause I freak on them.
HP: Is it hard to keep all this fame from going to your head?
AR: Yeah, but at the same time, I have a certain close group of friends that I try to spend as much time with as possible . . . and it's like for some reason Guns N' Roses is always on the brink of some kind of disaster and whenever there's a major problem, it's amazing that I get a few phone calls from a few of those close friends. Well these same people help keep me in perspective of myself.
HP: Would you say that you're a happy or unhappy person?
AR: I don't have a clue.
HP: What encourages you?
AR: Good support from the people around me, who are real. Also, inspiration.
HP: What discourages you?
AR: Distrust, and a feeling that you can't trust a situation. That makes you go, "Man, this isn't worth dealing with." Basically, I'm just here to make my songs, everything else is second fiddle, and if I gotta deal with this crap on top of it, life's bullshit, then you just kinda get discouraged on the whole thing, 'cause you know that you can always go and figure out how to scrounge up the money for the room, and still write your songs.
HP: What are some characteristics in people that you have the most respect for?
AR: Honesty. A person that sticks to their guns and follows their heart over everything else, strength and persistence, and a person who can find the courage to bounce back when it would be easier not to.
HP: And which characteristics do you despise?
AR: People that have the brains and intelligence to actually create something, but they take the easy way out to get the fast buck, rather than be themselves. I also hate dishonesty.
HP: Do you like animals?
AR: I love them.
HP: What's the most valuable thing you've learned since you became successful?
AR: Never to underestimate yourself or anyone else around you, and especially never underestimate your opponent.
HP: What are some of your favorite food?
AR: Lloyds Ribs from Texas, sushi, ice cream and steak.
HP: What foods do you hate?
AR: Lima beans, peas, spinach.
HP: What kind of women do you like?
AR: Let's just say I like discreet women, and they have to be really intelligent, preferably much more intelligent than me.
HP: Can you remember your first date, and where did you take her?
AR: It was with a girl named April, and we had the date in her room. I had to sneak in her window, and out her window.
HP: If there never had been an AC/DC, or Led Zeppelin, or Aerosmith, would G N' R even exist?
AR: That's a really good question. I think about it in terms of the fact that in the '70s there wasn't just those bands and Alice Cooper. There was David Bowie and Elton John and Nazareth and BTO and Foghat—the list goes on. The competition has always been there for this style of music that we're playing, which we're really just carrying on. It's something that we feel kind got lost in the beginning of the '80s and the competition was just so much stiffer. I don't know where we would be if we were in the 70s, in a league with a lot of these bands, if we would have been pushed hard, or if we wouldn't have been delivering at all. To answer your question, if those bands never existed, I think I'd still be doing music, but I don't necessarily know what style or to what extent. 'Cause a lot of those influences come through in our music and you take those away, I think we would have filled them with something else, but what else, I don't know.
Axl Rose on set of the “Patience” music video. February 14, 1989.
Parts of the video was filmed at the historic Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, which was scheduled for demolition at the time of filming. The band and crew felt this suited the feeling of the song.
The rest of the video, including the photo above, was filmed at the nearby Record Plant studio.
Axl Rose and Duff McKagan in Kensington, London. June 1987.
The band stayed in Kensington briefly prior to their first shows at the Marquee in London. These were the opening shows of the Appetite for Destruction Tour.
The band lived in two apartments at Allen House (8 Allen Street, Kensington). The iconic photos from this shoot were captured in the back garden of the building.
WOULD YOU LET YOUR DAUGHTER GO TO A GUNS N' ROSES CONCERT?
SEND TO: Guns n' Roses, STAR, 660 White Plains Road, Tarrytown, NY 10591.
Latest rocker shockers brag about sex, drugs, and drink.
By Rick Sky
[transcript below the cut]
[PHOTO CAPTION: He's so bad: Lead singer Axl Rose brags about his hard drug-problem.]
Guns n' Roses are the nastiest rockers around—and they're proud of it. Their violent lyrics and out-of-control lifestyle make the once-notorious Beastie Boys and the Rolling Stones seem like choirboys.
Lead guitarist Slash says: "I've bedded so many women I'll probable die in a heavy-metal AIDS epidemic."
Slash and the other members of the outrageous group—Axl Rose, Izzy, and Duff McKagan—thrive on a diet of sex, drugs, alcohol and violence, and they attribute their success to those very things.
Now the gross men of rock claim they've made the first true porn single—Rocket Man [sic]. Lead singer Axl says he made love with a groupie in the studio while the band played on—and they got it all on vinyl.
But even these raunchy rockers reeled when the Klu Klux Klan called to invite them to a meeting. The Klanmen, hearing lunatic lyrics from the group's first album, thought they were redneck bigots and probably hoped to recruit them.
Axl, who is at least concerned about the band's political image, told the hooded racists in no uncertain terms that nothing could be further from the truth.
That's one of the few lines that the rockers draw—excluding lines that can . . . [photo cuts off].
. . . Izzy admit they used to deal in heroin, and Axl brags about his hard-drug problem.
"Sometimes, we drink so much we can hardly play," adds guitarist Slash.
Slash and their bassist McKagan boast about their two-year drinking binge—which is still in progress.
"Our fans go crazy when we're not on stage," Axl says. "But we're not into . . ." [photo cuts off]
. . . guns. I love the power guns give."
During the band's performance at a British heavy metal festival, two fans were trampled to death. The boys in the band have had repeated run-ins with police. Axl says he has been arrested 20 times.
"The more outrageous they get, the more dough they make," says a friend of the band.
i hope i come back soon, too! i'm a student in law school which unfortunately eats all of my time. between all of that and juggling my writing, i don't have too much time to scour for axl content like i used to. i'm really hoping to spend a week or two this summer stocking up and i appreciate the reminder! i'll try and see if i can find an article or two to post in the coming days 🤍
Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin, Journal and Courier. May 26, 1991.
ROSES, RUMORS, RICHES: Home town boys called rock saviors
By Dave Bangert, Journal and Courier. May 26, 1991.
Welcome home Lafayette’s favorite prodigal sons.
Lafayette natives Bill Bailey and Jeff Isbell return to Indiana Tuesday and Wednesday night for two shows at the Deer Creek Music Center near Indianapolis.
If you don’t know Bill Bailey or Jeff Isbell’s names, chances are you weren’t living here when they pummeled the Billboard charts with their debut album in 1988.
Try W. Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin — Bailey and Isbell — of Guns n’ Roses on for size. Hardly the portraits of the All-American boys, the once fresh-faced boys shown in the Nautilus yearbook are being called the rock saviors in a world of chart-dominating dance and techno-pop music.
Far from the days at Jefferson High School, Rose and Stradlin roll in on the second stop of Guns n’ Roses first ever, guitar-crunching head-lining world tour.
With them, they’ll drag the rumor baggage that’s well rooted in the Lafayette community. What you believe is your own business.
After two years of controversy, two albums that hit the top five simultaneously, a lineup change and the praises of major music critics, Guns n’ Roses is expected to stomp the summer concert competition into the dirt.
“This is as close as you’re going to get to the REAL THING, capital letters. They’re no blow-dry band,” George Boes, owner of Tracks Records in West Lafayette, said. “They’re loud, they’re obnoxious and they sell out their shows.”
Nick Judy, 24, of Lafayette, said: “There are a few bands I’d like to see more – maybe Pink Floyd — but they’d be in the top three. These guys are just something you’ve got to see.”
The last time Guns n’ Roses played in this area was at Farm Aid IV, a 70-plus band extravaganza at the Hoosier Dome in April 1990. They didn’t disappoint the rock ‘n’ roll crowd that sat patiently through a day of Willie Nelson and softer country acts before the boys hit the stage later that evening.
Serpentine at the microphone, lead singer Axl Rose swaggered across the Hoosier Dome stage like a heavy metal Marlboro man, with his battered cowboy hat, worn boots, and torn jeans. The GN’R boys stampeded through an electrifying two-song set of unreleased material.
A trademark parting thank you complete with the f-word probably didn’t stain the ears of the rockers screaming for more, but threatened to crack Grecian Formula’s control of Farm Aid simulcast host Dick Clark’s hair.
So it goes with Guns n’ Roses. Greatness followed by controversy from America’s mainstream.
***
Whether it’s fights with neighbors, drug problems, threats of a breakup, questionable lyrics or urinating in an airplane, controversy and Guns n’ Roses have been synonymous.
And wherever Axl and Izzy come to town — or even close — the rumors and sitings [sic] light up the switchboard at Lafayette radio stations.
Axl played with my band. I saw Axl driving a brown Mercedes convertible on the Harrison Bridge. Izzy’s building a castle east of town. I saw Axl in a blazer near Jeff High School. I saw Axl and Izzy eating at Shoney’s.
Well, did they pay? How well did they tip?
Want to know the truth? Good luck. After all of the band press, Axl, Izzy and the rest of the band aren’t talking.
***
So you wanna know about a rock ‘n’ roll star?
SPIN magazine, a strong supporter of Guns n’ Roses in the past, chastised the band in its most recent edition for its tight interview policy. GN’R is asking the media to give the band the final say on every article and interview. There’s even a contract to enforce the policy.
SPIN, refusing to buy into that, included a copy of the contract in a do-it-yourself Guns n’ Roses interview kit for all of you willing to try.
As for Lafayette connections, Axl and Izzy’s friends and family have either moved to L.A. or are keeping quiet, saying they respect the band’s request for privacy.
“Axl’s a great guy,” Monica Gregory, owner of the Rock Vault, 514 Main St., said. “He’s always been artistic and works hard for everything he’s got. That’s all I’d like to say.”
Some of the rumors are for the most part true.
Axl Rose spent an evening at Nick’s in the Levee Plaza in 1989 and got up on stage with Ma Kalley, a regular band at Nick’s.
“He was just at the club and I went up to him and asked him if he wanted to sing with us,” Troy Seele, guitarist with Ma Kelley, said. “We played ‘Mama Kin’ by Aerosmith. He got up and sang and left. It was great.”
That night, Axl Rose signed an autograph for Carolyn Potts Padget, the sister of Ma Kelley’s lead singer, Terry Potts. Axl signed it to his “Little Sister.”
“I was surprised he remembered me,” Padget said. “We used to joke and he’d call me his little sister. He signed that in my yearbook. That was years and years ago. I don’t know Axl Rose. I know Bill Bailey.
Padget says she remembers Bailey as someone who cared about her problems when she was a freshman in high school. She would go to his grandmother’s house behind the Frozen Custard and hang out with him, or he’d pick her up in his car and they’d drive.
“He talked about, ‘I’m going to L.A. I’m going to make it,’” Padget said. “He’s always been a little bit of a rebel. He always said, “I’m going to get out of here one day, all this small-town stuff.’ You may not like what does or what he stands for, but you have to admire his determination.”
Padget says she hasn’t followed Bailey’s career and doesn’t try to contact him.
“I’m sure he’s got a lot of people who come up and say, ‘Remember me? I was your best friend,’” she said. “There’s a real soft spot in my heart for Bill.”
***
Leave me alone
Axl Rose hasn’t been too subtle when he talks about his hometown.
In a 1989 interview, he told Rolling Stone that he tries to lay low when he comes to visit his family.
“People I used to go to school with, people that used to hate my guts, want me to invest money in this and that. People say . . . ‘Axl thinks he’s too cool to party with us.’ But those people never wanted to party with me before,” he said. “The people who are offended by this comment are the ones who should be.”
He sent an acid letter to the Jefferson High School Class of ‘80 reunion committee after members tried to contact him about a 10-year reunion. He told them he never was part of the class and that they should destroy his address.
Bailey dropped out during his junior year at Jeff High School.
He told Rolling Stone that he didn’t want to “read books, sing songs, draw pictures of things that didn’t stimulate or excite me.”
Gary Branson, Bailey’s high school choir teacher, said he remembers Bailey wasn’t really into classical choral arrangements, show tunes, and pop-rock songs the class sang in sophomore Boys Ensemble.
“He was an interesting kid who wanted to write new songs on the piano instead of what we were trying to do,” Branson said. “I only had him for one year, so I don’t have any insights into what he’s doing, except that he’s rich.”
***
Out ta get me
In the same Rolling Stone interview, Rose told about his hassles with Lafayette police. He said detectives on the force were out to get him. He said he had to leave before he faced jail time.
Police Chief Tom Leach said Rose was exaggerating.
“Lightweight all the way,” Leach said. “We had some real heavyweights back in those days. To tell the truth, when I heard the name, I had to say, ‘Bill who?’
“This is one of those times when we’re going to tell you that someone wasn’t so bad.”
Bailey spent some time in the Tippecanoe County jail, according to county records. He spent a combined 10 days in jail as an adult over a period from July 1980 to September 1982 on charges ranging from public intoxication to battery. He also was arrested four times as a juvenile.
***
Oh, won’t you please take me home
Lafeyye fascination with Guns n’ Roses may not be all that far-reaching.
“It’s great that they’re from here, this great rock ‘n’ roll band. But this is a very earthy community and most people just don’t care,” Boes said.
Just ask his grandfather, Sheldon Pershing.
Boes tells the story about the time his 91-year-old grandfather — a pillar of the community, former county agent and farmer — sold his country home to Izzy Stradlin, rhythm guitarist in one of rock’s hardest crunching bands.
The house on County Road 200 North, near 400 East, was built in 1847 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Greek or Federal Revival style home was built by Henry Ely, one of the original settlers of Fairfield township.
Boes said his grandfather and grandmother, Geneve Pershing, needed to sell it in 1988, but his family got nervous when they found out who the prospective buyer was.
“My family thinks the house is a family jewel,” Boes said. “My mom called and asked, ‘What’s a Guns and Roses?’ My dad asked whether we should sell. I said, ‘Does he have cash?’”
At the closing, Izzy Stradlin came into Stallard & Schuh offices in downtown Lafayette and sat across from Sheldon Pershing.
“Here he came with this hat, his face was gaunt and pale. He had the dangly earrings, a diamond in his nose,” Boes said. “To you and I, your basic rock situation. But to grandpa, it looked like he just landed.
After the deeds were signed, Pershing turned to Stradlin and said, “You ought to get something to eat. Now that you’ve got that house, get out and walk along that road, go fishing out back, get some sun.”
Boes said, “He meant it. He just didn’t think he looked well.”
Tippecanoe County Sheriff Dave Heath said there has been a burglary at the house — a guitar and studio equipment were stolen and later recovered. Other than gunshots one night — “That made the neighbors a little nervous” — Heath said everything’s been quiet at the house.
“He’s a great neighbor,” Boes, whose parents live about a mile away, said. “He’s never around.”
***
Deer Creek Tickets
Pavilion seats are gone, but there are plenty of lawn seats for the Guns n’ Roses shows Tuesday and Wednesday at the Deer Creek Music Center. Shows start at 7:30 p.m. Skid Row is the opening act.
Lawn seats are $22.50 and are available in Lafayette at LS. Ayres in Market Square. Special two-for-one lawn seats are available at Indianapolis TicketMaster locations, including the Deer Creek box office. Just mention you listen to radio station WZPL for the deal.
From Lafayette, take I-65 south to 1-465 East. Drive 10 minutes to Indiana 238. Take a left for one mile. The Deer Creek Music Center will be on the right.
***
Twice the rock with ‘Use Your Illusion’
Guns n’ Roses are planning to put Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II in stores in mid- to late July.
The albums, which have been two years in the making, and are supposed to include more than 30 songs, will be released simultaneously but separately so fans won’t have to pay a double-album price for the whole project.
Guns n’ Roses 1988 [sic] debut, Appetite for Destruction, went platinum (1 million copies sold) without releasing a single. Once “Sweet Child O’ Mine” hit the airwaves, the album shot up the charts, spending more than 70 weeks in the Top 50 and selling more than 12 million copies.
The following EP, GN’R Lies, spent more than 30 weeks on the charts. Both albums spent a few weeks in the Top Five at the same time.
Unlike many formula, big hair heavy metal bands, Guns n’ Roses won praises from the critics.
Rolling Stone listed Appetite for Destruction at No. 27 in its Top 100 albums of the ‘80s edition. SPIN named “Sweet Child O’ Mine” the fifth best single in the past 25 years.
— Dave Banger, Journal and Courier.
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
Page 1:
Top left:
(1) Jeff Isbell. Now Izzy Stradlin.
(2) Bill Bailey. Now W. Axl Rose.
Top Right – Guns n’ Roses: (from left) Steven Adler (he recently left the band), Izzy Stradlin, Duff “Rose” McKagan, W. Axl Rose and Slash.
Bottom right: Bill Bailey (fourth from left, front) sang classical choral arrangements, show tunes and pop-rock.
Page 2:
Top right: Izzy Stradlin bought a house on County Road 200 North, near 400 East, that was built in 1847 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
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