Here Today... Gone To Hell!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llbj4cyvwco

New interview! Recorded in Winnipeg a few days back.

Anything of note?

Its a great listen, for any fan. No shocking headlines to get out of it.

Three key members have a floor each in the hotel, melissa is a vocal coach for duff, slash and duff encouraged axl to 'try out' for ac/dc, flew to watch him sing with them as a surprise. That's pretty much all the 'juice'!

P.S. HOW shit was summerslam hey DX?! What a donkey of an evening.

I Didnt know that Duff used to be a telemarketer before appetite.

Same job as Tommy Stinson had before joining GNR, quite an interesting coincidence.

"dude, you're marketing this wrong! you must do it like this, watch and learn:" ;D
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bkd9Zm3CcAA1PBM.jpg)

Always great to listen to Duff, though nothing particularly new or exciting here.

Duff did touch on the writing process for Appetite, saying that the credit that all songs were written by Guns N Roses was completely true.  He talked about writing grooves with Steven twice a day, and that sometimes Steven's drumming would inspire a guitar riff.  Duff said that the statement that Izzy was an "unsung hero" wasn't really true, that Izzy was indeed "sung".  He said Izzy would often bring in a riff and the rest of the band would jump on it and shape it into what we heard on the record.  Duff said that sometimes Axl would come in and listen to their music, and say "this needs to be angrier!"

Duff also briefly touched on learning and playing Chinese Democracy songs.

yeah, Izzy was a sung hero...but apparently not sung enough to be part of the "reunion", right?

Izzy was great, but he would not have been responsible for one more ticket being sold to this thing.  Any of the fans online who said they were going to sit this out because it wasn't the original 5 were lying, or were never going to go even if it was the "AFD" lineup.    A tour like this really caters to a broader and more general audience, you would be shocked to see how many people who went to these shows have no idea who Izzy Stradlin even is, or better yet think that Richard is Izzy or Izzy is Richard. 

Izzy didn't do himself any favors when he quit the band as they were ascending to become the biggest band on the planet.  Because of that Axl, Slash and Duff,  "the big 3" really got cemented(rightfully so) as being the most integral part of the classic line up, as they were the only constant on that whole 87-93 ride.

Personally I prefer the band the way it is, I like Richards playing more than Izzy's, and I am a big fan of Izzy's GNR work.

I totally get fans wanting Izzy in the band, but from just a business perspective, it makes no sense to bring him in and give him as much money as he was apparently asking for when they are selling out stadiums all over the world without him.

I would like to see the current line-up as a three guitar player band with Slash, Izzy and Richard. But I'm more than happy with the current two guitar player line-up as well.

One thing I thought was interesting was Duff's claim that Steven didn't use any rack toms during the recording of Appetite (he joked that he and Izzy would hide Steven's toms bc he would get too carried away with them, to the point he was left with only bass, snare, and floor tom).  I kinda blurted out "that can't be true" during that part bc all pics I remember seeing of Steven playing during that time show a traditional 5 piece kit with rack toms, but doing a google search I do see a few pics of him from back in the day behind a stripped down 3 piece.  Still seems like a stretch that there are no rack toms on the whole album but I thought that was interesting. 

OH one other thing I picked up on right at the end of the podcast.....after the interview was over and Jericho was given his post-show recap spiel, he said something like "make sure you catch the band on this upcoming run of shows, they are killing it right now, they sound great, and who knows by the time they come to your town there may be new music"  The way he said it might have implied he was in the know that they were working on new material.  Maybe a new song soon?!?

I don't believe anything with the words ?maybe? and ?soon? in it

So Melissa is a vocal coach huh?  ::)

What's your problem with that

All of this...

but also Axl was never going to abandon Frank and Richard... so the need to pay Izzy big or equal money was even less.

The Izzy threads and comments are all pretty stupid and na?ve at this point... we'd all love to see him there.. but lets grow up.

Yeah, I was going for humorous. As in, Axl has had some off nights and here she is a vocal coach. I took a risk and failed...  :(

Actually, Izzy did himself a huge favor by quitting in 1991 -- he kept himself sober and alive.

Slash and Duff are two of the luckiest bastards on the planet that they actually survived all of the insane, reckless abuse they put themselves through during the UYI tour.  Damn lucky, as it only took one more year for Duff to nearly die from his bloated pancreas.  Slash followed suit soon after by needing a defibrillator put into his heart.  Hell, Duff could've been murdered that night he paid somebody to drive him into the drug havens of Philadelphia to buy crack!   :no:  So yeah, the "biggest band on the planet" could've easily wound up infamous for the most numbers of band members dying on tour!

Of course public perception sees Slash and Duff (along with Axl) as the big three because they largely weren't aware of how much they put themselves -- and thus the GNR shows and fans -- at risk.  But since Slash and Duff survived, it's so easy (pardon the pun) to paint them out as the "stronger" ones because they remained in the band through 1993, and paint Izzy in a negative light for not lasting.  The truth is that Izzy was the smartest one of them all to walk away with his health and life intact.

It's sad that the general public doesn't know or appreciate Izzy, but I suppose that's inevitable at this point in time.  The sad truth is that we're past the point where a full reunion of the original five would actually mean anything to anyone other than hardcore original fans.  Oh well, at least Steven was there for a little while this time around.

Also Amazing Pic Of RICHARD & IZZY 2006 In Europe

 :beer: