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.
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