1997.04.18 - MTV News - Days Of Guns N' Roses

DAYS OF GUNS N' ROSES

MTV NEWS STAFF
04/18/1997

April 18 [14:00 EST] -- The future of Guns n' Roses is anybody's guess these days, but some of the estranged past members have been kissing and making up. Former rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke's manager Mike Hall confirms that Slash showed up when Clark was making an appearance at the Troubadour in Los Angeles late last month, and again earlier this month when Clark was playing with his cover band, "Don't Touch Grandpa," in Phoenix.

Slash was in the area picking up his tour bus for his current road trip. The two guitarists reportedly spent the evening laughing and joking, perhaps some of it at the expense of their mutual former boss, Axl Rose.

Although they had been close -- Clarke was in Slash's band, Snakepit, as was G n' R drummer Matt Sorum -- the relationship disintegrated when Slash failed to support Clarke when Clarke launched a lawsuit against Guns n' Roses in 1996 for "misrepresentation of his name and likeness."

Acrimony and litigation are commonplace for Guns n' Roses. Currently, Rose is reportedly taking legal action against an old bandmate in G n' R predecessor Hollywood Rose from using his old material. Founding member Steven Adler sued the band to get a better divorce settlement after he was fired in 1990 for drug abuse. Rose was sued by ex-wife Erin Everly and ex-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour for battery. Even the fans have gotten in on the action. A class action suit against the band for cutting a concert short in Montreal and subsequently causing a riot was reportedly settled out of court for $220,000.

While the recently departed Slash hasn't taken Rose to task legally or in the media -- he's kept the door open for a possible reconciliation -- the two are not currently speaking. Slash left the band late last year by mutual agreement over musical direction and personnel disagreements. The former saw Slash partial to the rawer blues-rock sound and Rose, who is currently talking to techno whiz Moby about production duties, pushing for the elaborate. The personnel problem involved the presence of guitarist Paul Huge, Axl's childhood friend, who was openly disliked by Slash.

Matt Sorum, who was playing in both Guns n' Roses and Slash's side project Snakepit, is in the middle. Industry reports, denied by G n' R management, have been surfacing that Sorum was no longer with Guns n' Roses and that Chris Vrenna and his former Nine Inch Nails bandmate Robin Finck are working with G n' R. Vrenna, though, has told press sources that he's only met with Guns n' Roses and that Finck has been jamming with Rose, bassist Duff McKagan, part timer keyboardist Dizzy Reed and the aforementioned Huge.

Former member Izzy Stradlin seems to have escaped relatively unscathed. That guitarist has written and/or jammed with both Slash and Rose since his and the band's parting of the ways in G n' R in 1991.

Gilby Clarke is currently finishing up a short acoustic tour with sideman Ryan Roxie and is on the verge of releasing his second solo album, "The Hangover." The album, released last month in Japan and this week in Europe, is scheduled by Clarke's for a May release in the States, but a label deal, says Hall, has yet to be solidified.

Slash is touring with his band Blues Ball, but not without problems. The band missed their gig at the Livestock festival April 5 in Tampa Bay, Florida. They had played Baton Rouge, La., the previous evening as planned, but ended up stranded in Houston after inclement weather delayed their connecting flight. According to Internet posts, the past two dates in Phoenix and Las Vegas weren't anything to write home about... one saw the performance cut short by an irrate club owner complaining about the volume, the other suffered from poor attendance due to poor promotion.

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