1992.07.13 - Rockline - Interview with Slash and Lars from Metallica

TRANSCRIPTION:
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Bob Coburn: The show you ask the questions for the biggest stars in rock ‘n’ roll. Hello again, I’m Bob Coburn [Sponsors]. [...] welcome Slash from Guns N’ Roses and Lars from Metallica. So get your questions ready and call us toll-free [...] One number toll-free from anywhere in North America. Well, without a doubt North America is in deep recession, but it hasn’t affected sales for what promises to be the biggest concert tour of the summer. Guns N’ Roses and Metallica. Hey, we gotta have our fun somehow, even in hard times, you know? Tonight we’re honored to have a member of each band, on together for the full 90 minutes on Rockline. Let’s welcome live from New York City one of rock ‘n’ roll’s premier guitarists, from Guns N’ Roses, Slash. Slash, how're you doing, man?

Slash: I’m fine, how are you?

Bob Coburn: I’m doing great. It’s great to have you back again.

Slash: We got your pictures.

Bob Coburn: (Laughs) Oh, no. You got to face my picture again. Oh man! And also...

Slash: (Laughs) No, we won’t have to face it. You already got a mustache.

Bob Coburn: (Laughs) Already done it myself, huh?

Slash: Yeah.

Bob Coburn: We’d also like to welcome Metallica’s timekeeper, chief spokesman and always the man with the best seat in the house, Mr. Lars Ulrich. Lars, how're you doing, man?

Lars: I’m good, Bob, man. It’s - I’m back.

Bob Coburn: Yeah, back again.

Lars: Third time, huh?

Bob Coburn: I owe you two guys really a big favor for coming on Rockline, independently and then together, immediately after the Freddie Mercury AIDS awareness concert. So thanks to both of you guys for doing that. Really appreciate that.

Lars: That was a fun one. I woke up the next day, “I think I was on Rockline for about an hour last night. I don’t remember any of it.”

Bob Coburn: (Laughs) I remember you saying at one point, “I can’t believe I’m in London and talking to some guy in Omaha in nationwide radio in another continent,” you know?

Lars: Yeah, that was a big one.

Bob Coburn: That’s how Rockline works. Have you two guys known each other for a while? Or are you just becoming friends?

Slash: For a while, yeah. We have some good stories, actually.

Lars: I don’t think we could tell any of them on the radio.

Bob Coburn: Oh, yeah.

Slash: We have some good stories. That’s why we hang out, and do these radio things, and we can talk to you and actually screw it.

Bob Coburn: Yeah, you do a pretty good job with that. And I thank you for it.

Lars: Well, actually yeah. Actually, we’ve known each other since - it goes actually way back to before their first record came out. Back in L.A., there was this guy named Peter Paterno, remember?

Slash: I have a very vivid picture of a little car, right? Metallica is already established and we’re sitting – I’m in the back seat and I’ve never met these guys. And we’re cruising around Hollywood, basically just getting drunk and so on. And I’d never met these guys, and I was just like, “Okay."

(Laughter)

Lars: Our lawyer was driving and said, “Why don’t you go and hang out with these guys? Guns N’ Roses are really cool, they have the same attitude to you guys, they don’t care about the business, they don’t care about anything, they just, like, (?)  And we went down to L.A. and it’s like, “You’re right, they don’t care about anything!”

Slash: Let me stress this point. It was a really small car.

Bob Coburn: Oh, man! That’s nice to have guys that just want to play music instead of getting caught in all the traffics that go with it, you know?

Slash: No, it was the whole thing, you know? It was the whole thing.

Bob Coburn: I gotta ask each of you, and we’ll start with Slash. What do you remember most about that Freddie Mercury show? That was really quite a day over there.

Slash: Actually, the nicest thing about it was the fact that it separated itself from being just the big concert. It was, like, an awareness thing and till it happened – Oh, God, I can’t get into all that. With rock ‘n’ roll and stuff we all, just, sort of got to a point where AIDS – you know, I don’t want to get into it. It did get to a point where you had to realize that it was around. And, finally, everybody just, you know, getting into the concert, and selling that many tickets, and having everybody really aware of the situation that was going on. It was a good feeling. It was a uniting kind of thing.

Bob Coburn: Yeah, everybody with red ribbons on in there for a common cause, to say goodbye to Freddie and to raise the awareness about it.

Slash: Yeah. You wouldn’t expect that, though. You know, everybody was trying to avoid the subject for a long time.

Bob Coburn: It’s true. Rock ‘n’ roll did avoid it for a long time. Then Magic Johnson made his announcement, we lost Freddie and that was in the forefront. Lars, what do you remember about that day?

Lars: I mean, I agree with that. It’s like, rock ‘n’ roll is kind of like the last frontier that where AIDS, the whole thing, it never really... You know, rock ‘n’ roll is just all about not caring, about not really wanting to realize that this stuff really goes on. And, I think, before Freddie Mercury died that there’s never really been anybody in rock ‘n’ roll that could really bring the point home, you know. And I see the same thing now going on around me that I did, you know, ten years ago down in L.A. and stuff like that, when we started out. It’s like, I don’t think anybody in rock ‘n’ roll really took the whole AIDS thing seriously, and I think in a couple of years we’ll probably have the domino effect, unfortunately, where a lot of people are just gonna unfortunately falling by the wayside. It’s - I think that’s gonna wake a lot of younger kids up, but now it’s like, rock ‘n’ roll is just all about not caring, and just living outrageously, and, you know, dying young and all that kind of stuff, which is kinda too bad. But I think it was good that we’d never really part taken in any kind of concerts or any kind of political things like that, and we were proud to lend our name for the first time ever to any kind of thing like that and being there with all the other guys and all the other bands that we knew, and stuff like that, then for the guys in Queen and stuff like that. That was a big day.

Bob Coburn: Thank God Freddie had the courage to go public with it at the end. And, Slash, I get...

Slash: You know, the best feeling about that was that, in light of the tragedy, and Freddie dying, and so on, it’s great that everybody came together and, like, really actually realized what the situation was. Because, you know, there’s 60,000 to 70,000 people at that gig, right?

Bob Coburn: Yeah.

Slash: So it was a realization of what’s going on. It was cool.

Bob Coburn: We’re gonna start with the track that was recorded at Wembley Stadium by Guns N’ Roses. Not at the Freddie Mercury show, but actually a year before, back in 1991. Since we are talking about this concert tour with Metallica and Guns N’ Roses, we will play a lot of live tracks for you tonight, including this one: Live and Let Die by Guns N’ Roses on Rockline.

[Live and Let Die is played]

Bob Coburn: Welcome back to Rockline with Lars and Slash tonight. I’m Bob Coburn. We’ve got a call from Charleston, South Carolina. It’s Cindy, a listener of ROCK 105. And, Cindy, you’re on the show with us.

Cindy: Hi, how you doing? I have a...

Lars: Hey! (laughs)

Cindy: Hello?

Lars: How you all doing?

Cindy: (Laughs) I have a couple of questions.

Slash (talks over): You really have a big (?)

(Laughter)

Cindy: I have a couple of quick questions for Slash.

Slash: Yeah.

Lars: I’ll just leave.

Cindy: Pardon?

Lars: I’ll just leave. Go ahead.

Cindy: (Laughs) First of all, I’d like to know, how do you find time for all your other projects, in addition to the time you spend with Guns N’ Roses?

Slash: It’s easy. On days off, you just go work with, you know, whoever you want to work with. It’s a lot of fun, so you look forward to it.

Bob Coburn: Anything else tonight, Cindy?

Cindy: Yeah. I was wondering too, are Axl’s recent legal problems gonna cause any problems the tour?

Slash: No...

Bob Coburn: That’s the big question of the night. Will the tour start Friday as scheduled?

Slash: Yeah. It will start as scheduled. And Axl was really cool with the whole thing. He just went in and went, “You know, look. You can’t expedite [extradite] me” – because, you know, they can, obviously. And this situation is, he’s in the public eye to this point where he had a little sense of humor about it, and it was just like, “Alright, cool.” He’s gonna be fine. So, everything is great.

Bob Coburn:  The first show is this coming Friday night, July 17th, at RFK in Washington, then Giants Stadium in East Rutherford on Saturday night, then Detroit at the Silverdome on the 21st, and Indianapolis, the Hoosier Dome on the 22nd, and Buffalo, New York at Rich Stadium on the 25th. We get more later.

Slash: You’ve got all the dates down, jeez.

Bob Coburn: I’ve got them down and I’m gonna pass them on before this 90 minutes is done, man. I’m telling ya. That call was from West Virginia, by the way. Cindy, thank you very much for that.

Slash: Yeah, Cindy, I’m sorry. I can’t give you a better answer than that, just cuz he’ll be fine, and the tour is fine. And as far as anything else, the details and so on, I don’t want to get into.

Bob Coburn: Well, I just thought, personally, that $100,000 bail for a misdemeanor, it was a little stiff, huh?.  

Slash: No, it’s pathetic. You know, obviously the guy’s a complete a-hole (chuckles). And you know, it’s like, what are you doing? And it’s like, it’s making St. Louis, in particular, look silly. And there’s a lot of kids out there that might not have been involved in the riot and so on-so forth, but, you know, it’s starting to look pretty silly. And it’s starting to sound like one of those, I don’t know, publicity kind of things and it’s getting out of hand. And I think everybody who’s - as far as the band goes, that, you know, they know what’s going on, so they’re just like, “Ah, screw it.” You know, they know where the band’s coming from.

Bob Coburn: Okay, so the tour will happen. The tour will continue, so rest assured. Cindy, thank you for calling. Tony’s on the line in Appalachian and he’s listening to WKGB FM in Binghampton, Pennsylvania.  And Tony, you’re on the line.

Tony: Hey, I’ve got a question for Lars.

Lars: What’s up, Tony?

Tony: Not much. I’ve been on pretty much a little mini tour with you guys since Buffalo back in December. And my (?) show was at Weedsport.

Lars: Oh, that’s you!

Tony: Have you guys ever thought about changing the gigs night after night, like the Dead and the Roses do, to help make it more of a thrill and a change for your most dedicated fans?

Lars: (Laughs) Hey, hey, hey. Well, you know, there’s a fine line between that you can do, obviously, you know, ten different setlists and all that kind of stuff, but what happens after a while, is that you figure out what kind of setlist and vibe just works better for you. And, obviously, we’ve got – we’ve been on the road for about 10 months now in the States, and we’ve got, like, a handful of people who just follow us basically everywhere we go. We see maybe 50 people who have probably been to more than 50 shows on this tour yet, and obviously we throw things around when we do doubles and triples and stuff, like in cities we do different setlists. But,we have a setlist that usually brings out the – you know, make us play the best, and that we feel the most comfortable with and stuff like that, which is probably the one that we’re gonna jump on coming up here the next eight weeks. But, we always throw in a few different songs here and there. And, you know, we make mistakes (laughs). We make mistakes in different songs every night too, which hopefully adds the vibe. And, you know, James has different raps and we all pull sillier faces each night, and stuff like that. So we try and just mix it up as much as we can. But I think any band that plays as many live gigs as we do, comes to a point where they realize what their kind of optimum setlist is, and what just flows better, and then what makes them the most confident, you know?

Bob Coburn: Hey, Slash, what do you say, you and I take a second and congratulate Lars and the rest of the band on quintuple platinum. 5 million copies sold in the US alone, man.

Slash: We have a long story going back. I’m sitting here thinking about what Lars is talking about. You know, cuz when I was in high school -alright?- there was these tapes going around. It’s a long story, but there was these tapes going around, you know, Metallica, and Megadeth, and this whole bit. And it’s weird to be sitting next to him and going, “We’ve been through all this shit together.” You know, that’s cool. So?

Lars: Yeah! But let me ask you a question, Bob. What is quintuple? How many is that?

Bob Coburn: That’s 5 million, baby!

Lars: 5 million!

Bob Coburn: 5 million sold, man!
 
Slash: It is the heavy band, alright? So it goes without saying.

Bob Coburn: Yeah, well, I think you two bands are, that’s why this tour is gonna be so successful. We’re gonna play a song that was recorded at the Freddie Mercury AIDS awareness concert, and this is Metallica...

Lars: Oh no!

Bob Coburn: Look out, Lars. Look out, man!

Lars: Remember what I said earlier about mistakes and all that?

(Laughter)

Bob Coburn: Well, be sure to point them out to us, okay? Here’s Enter Sandman by Metallica.

Lars: I’ll walk you through the mistakes.

[Intro to Enter Sandman starts playing]

Bob Coburn and Lars together: Yeah, we are ready to have some fun!

Bob Coburn: You bet! Enter Sandman, Metallica, recorded live in London at the Freddie Mercury awareness concerts. A couple more live dates for GNR and Metallica: Pittsburgh, PA, Three Rivers on July 26, back at Giants Stadium on the 29th, Foxboro, outside Boston, on July 31st. And then into August, Columbia, South Carolina on the 2nd, Minneapolis on the 5th and Montreal on the 8th. We’ve got a call from Manassas, Virginia right now. Jason is on the line. Jason is a listener of 98 ROCK in Baltimore, and you’re on!

Jason (the phone line is bad): Hey, guys, what’s up?

Slash: Jason!

Jason: I want to...

Slash: Jason, come on, dude.

Bob Coburn: Alright, we’re on.

Lars: What kind of a name is Jason?

Bob Coburn: (Laughs)

Lars: What’s up, man?

Jason: Not much. I was wondering, how long the show’s gonna be and how you’re gonna work the stages, cuz I read an article that said that you guys are gonna rotate stages...

Slash: No, no. This is a good one, actually. Cuz we went through, like, logistics on our own, like, “Okay, what are we gonna do?” And so we figured it out, basically. You know, we have Metallica’s stage, and then, when Metallica is done – and they play forever, you know -

(Laughter)

Lars: We don’t play forever, believe me!

Slash: And then we go on and we do our own stage. It’s really one of those things where it’s sort of refreshing, cuz we just go out and we do our own trip and there’s no sort of, I don’t know, commercial kind of – you know, you go out and you have to this kind of production kind of thing. We go out and we do our own thing. And so everybody who’s gonna be at the show, just goes, “Oh." - you know, "there it is." (chuckles)

Lars: We both incorporate a lot of the different things. You know, these guys have been out playing stadiums for a while in Europe and stuff, and they got their whole trip, like Slash is saying. And we’ve got our whole thing. We’ve got some ideas with the snake pit that we’ve had indoors, we’re kind of taking that along, and we’ve got some different things. So both our bands are basically gonna have to complete, you know, basically the normal surroundings that we’re used to playing in. And, you know, we’ll each play for forever, basically, so pack your lunch and don’t make any plans for the rest of the week.

(Laughter)

Slash: It’s got that, sort of like, anti-establishment sort of rock ‘n’ roll thing. Just, you know, this is what it is. It’s not, like, a BJ show.

Lars: I think the only thing that we probably know is that Faith No More will play 45 minutes. And then, after that, you know, it’s anybody’s guess (laughs).

Bob Coburn: There you go. It’s gonna be a long day, really. Don’t unpack your suitcase and bring a box lunch, man.

Slash: Exactly.

Lars: Don’t make any plans for the rest of the week, like I said...

Slash: Don’t put lettuce in your sandwiches.

(Laughter)

Lars: Cuz we don’t know how long we’re gonna keep you there.

Bob Coburn: We’re gonna be back with Slash and Lars in just a minute on Rockline on the Global Satellite Network. You can call us [cut]

[Break]

Bob Coburn: ...The Black Crowes one week from tonight. Tonight we’re with Lars and Slash from Metallica and Guns N’ Roses, the big concert tour coming up. Richard wants to talk to the guys. He’s in Dunn, North Carolina, listening to WRD 106 in Raleigh. Richard, you’re on the Rockline.

Richard: Hey, how you are doing?

Lars: We’re rocking right along.

Richard: Great. I would like to ask Slash what was like to work with Spinal Tap on their album.

Slash: (Laughs) Well, this was one of those situations where I had a bad day of rehearsal. And so I was pissed off, I grabbed a bottle of Jack, got in the car, drove over the studio, went, “Hi, I’m here,” played the solo, like, one and two takes, gone. So that was that.

Lars: You never even met them, they weren’t there.

Slash: No, they were all there. They were all there.

Lars: They were watching “Laverne and Shirley” reruns.

Bob Coburn: (Laughs) (?)

Slash: No, no. I don’t even know the guy’s name, but he looks like Jeff Beck, right? And I was looking at him going, well, he must be the producer.

Bob Coburn: That’s Nigel Tuffnel, yeah. Christopher (?), yeah. That was great.

Slash: I did my part and they were really cool. And then I just split.

Bob Coburn: Oh, that’s just wonderful. And Lars, I heard somebody ask you a question once, if you ever had anything Spinal Tap-ish happen to you, and you told the story about the drums disappearing? (laughs)

Lars: Right, yeah! (laughs)

Bob Coburn: You were playing the drums and they sink below the stage?

Lars: I formed Metallica 11 years ago, and everything else since then has been Spinal Tap.

Bob Coburn: (Laughs)

Slash: Spinal Tap is something that goes through your veins. It’s not, like, something to look at. It’s just, there it is.

Bob Coburn: Oh, man! Richard thanks, good call. Let’s talk to Sherry, she’s in Harrisburg, PA. 93.5 WTPA is our affiliate there. We welcome Sherry to the program.

Sherry: Yes, hi. My question is for Lars.

Lars: Hi, Sherry, yeah.

Sherry: I was wondering, I’ve seen, like, a good bit of your shows and everything and I’ve even reviewed your (?)

Lars (talks over): You want us to change the setlist!

(Laughter)

Lars: Why don’t you write down your own setlist, send it to the management and we play it for you.

Sherry: Oh no, no. No, that’s not the thing. I wanted to know - after seeing so many shows, I wanted to know how you felt about the sudden hype surrounding the band right now. I mean, there were radio stations, I mean, I’ve followed the band since ’84. And it’s like, there were radio stations that wouldn’t play your stuff to save their lives. And now, all of a sudden...

Lars: And there’s still radio stations that won’t play it. Now, I mean it’s great the way a lot of people seemed to open up to this record. What did it just go, Bob, what was it?

Bob Coburn: Quintuple.

Lars: Okay, thank you. The word of the evening (laughs), which nobody knows.

Bob Coburn: That reads a long story. That’s the phrase of the evening, yeah.

Lars: Right (laughs). No, I mean, to be totally honest with you, I knew that sooner or later a lot of people out there and in radio land would open up to what we were all about. It was just a matter of when. And I think that we just felt that with this record everything connected and stuff like that. And there’s a lot of people in radio now - not Bob, but there’s a lot of people in the radio that act like having been our friends for, like, the last two years.

Bob Coburn: Robert. I never act like I’m your friend, man.

(Laughter)

Lars: Especially not after what I did to your picture a few minutes ago.

Bob Coburn: (Laughs)

Lars: But it’s - you know, there’s a lot of people out there who are really behind the band now and stuff like that. And it’s kind of funny, because, you know, one side of me sits there and goes, “Where were these idiots 10 years ago when we were really struggling?” And the other side sits there and says, you know, it’s great that there’s so many people that are into what we’re doing now and stuff like that. And, you know, we did make a record where a lot of things just lined up right in terms of the sound, and the songs, and the momentum, and so on. So, the thing that really scares me about hype though is that, you know, hype doesn’t last very long. And, when all is said and done, you gotta have something substantial there that’s still there when the hype is over. And, you know, I just think that we’ll hopefully be around for a while making records like the last couple that we’ve made, and, when this hype thing that you’re talking about dies over, there’ll still be a bunch of people out there who’ll keep coming to our shows, and that we can keep making records that are as different as the first five that we’ve made, and stuff like that; and just, you know, keep churning them out like bands like Rush, and Led Zeppelin, and stuff like that, have done.

Bob Coburn: Hey, those people will be there and there’s nothing wrong with playing to a bigger audience. And some of these audiences will be in Toronto, Canada, on August 9th...

Lars (talks over): I actually quite like it.

Bob Coburn: Yeah, I bet you do. And Denver, Colorado...

Slash (talks over): There’s a cool...

Bob Coburn: Go ahead.

Slash: Oh, I’m sorry. There’s a cool point that Lars is making though. The reason that we’re getting together and doing this is just because it’s like getting away from the norm and, actually, you know, being rock ‘n’ roll bands as far as getting away from the hype and all the hysteria that goes on. It gets to a point [cut]

Recorded message: You’re listening to Rockline on the Global Satellite Network.

Slash: ... you know, so we’re doing our own thing. And I think the fans relate [cut]

Recorded message: You’re listening to Rockline on the Global Satellite Network.

Slash: ... and that’s where we’re at.

Bob Coburn: Yeah, that’s where we’re at, alright. We’re at the time where we should be playing Locomotive on the radio, I do believe, so roll it right now. It will cover up all those other words.

(Laughter)

Lars: All the stuff that he’s said all night, Bob.

(Locomotive is being played)

Slash: I think there’s a guitar solo in there.

Bob Coburn: I think that’s already gone by, Slash.

Lars: I think there was about knocked over jilted guitar solos there in the last few minutes.

Bob Coburn: Yeah, it’s a song that’s 55 minutes long, it’s called Locomotive.

Lars: It’s about half the length of your average Metallica song.

(Laughter)

Bob Coburn: Oh, man.

Lars: Are we getting too silly here or what?

Bob Coburn: Not at all, man. We’re (?)  

Slash: We’re just starting to get comfortable.

Bob Coburn: Yeah. And just, you know, I gotta have some life in the show. That’s from Use Your Illusion II by Guns N’ Roses. Now let’s see, we’ve got Julie on the line. She’s in San Jose, listening to 97.3 KRQR in San Francisco. Julie, you’re on with Slash and Lars.

Julie: Hi. My question is for Slash.

Slash: Uh-huh.

Julie: And I was wondering if any of the members of GN'R are planning on releasing any solo projects.

Slash: Well, Duff’s got one happening. So he’s gonna go in and he’s got all these musicians on, and Jeff Beck’s on, and all that stuff. Other than that, that’s it.

Bob Coburn: Now, can we go public with something that Slash has done or that Duff has done in his private life or does he prefer to remain private about it?

Slash: That’s just, you know, I do projects. They call and... (laughs). You know, it’s fun, it’s great to go out and get into other people’s environments, and go out and play. That’s basically it. It's as innocent as that. You just go out and you jam with people you go to play pool and drink beer all night. And, well, this is, like, where you drink beer all night and you play guitar, you know.

Bob Coburn: It’s a tough life but somebody’s got to do it, huh, Slash?

Slash: Yeah. That’s a good line.

Bob Coburn: Do we have congratulations in order for Duff?

Slash: What, about getting married?

Bob Coburn: Yeah.

Slash: Sure.

Bob Coburn: Oh, good! Congratulations, Duff!

Slash: He’s getting married and congratulations.

Bob Coburn: And he’s got a solo record coming out. Julie, thanks for calling. Brad’s on the line. Brad is in Grantsburg, Wisconsin, listening to 93 XKRXX in Minneapolis. And Brad, you’re on the show.

Brad: Hi, how're you guys doing?

Slash: Hey.

Lars: We’re better and better, and the bottles are getting emptier and emptier.

(Laughter)

Brad: I’ve got a question for Lars.

Lars: Yeah, what’s up, Brad?

Brad: You said in one of your past interviews that you were really scared of being isolated because of your success. Do you feel isolated now, since you’ve made it so big lately?

Lars: (Laughs)

Slash: This room is...

Lars: Yeah, we’re, like, claustrophobic in here. I think - without sounding real stupid about it, I think we’re dealing with it pretty well. You gotta remember that this is not... You know, for a lot of bands, and even for - I know Slash can understand this or can relate to this. You know, when you wake up one morning and all of a sudden you’ve sold 50 zillion records, that can kind of ruin most of your day for you. But, you know, this has been something that’s been going on for 10-11 years, a very steady kind of climb, that every album we put out has been more successful than the previous one. So, you know, what’s going on right now with us, selling - what was that, quintuple? – million records in America and all that...

Bob Coburn: That was... quintuple.

Lars: Yeah, thank you, Bob.

(Laughter)

Lars: I think it’s something we’re dealing with pretty well. I mean, most of our day-to-day lives aren’t really - you know, the hangovers are the same, the office still tells me the same crap every day - everything is pretty much the same on a day to day basis. And, you know, there’s a lot more people that go to the shows, a lot more people buying the records, there’s a lot more people wanting you attention; but I think, because it’s been kind of just a gradual steady climb, that we’re dealing with it pretty well. And maybe if I said that I was afraid of getting isolated, I think that, you know, some people read stories about Michael Jackson or this person or that, you know, that they sit in their hotel room 24 hours a day, and blah blah blah. And we pretty much just continue with our day to day activities, and just go out and mingle, and do what we do normally. You know, nothing much has really changed in our daily lives, to answer your question.

Bob Coburn: There you go.

Slash: If I can throw two cents in here, on this one...

Bob Coburn: Go forth.

Slash: You know, for what we’ve been through, it’s great to – it’s a sense of, like, accomplishment. We’ve gone against what you’d consider the norm in the industry, and done what we wanted to do, and done - I don’t know, there’s something that’s like, you know, you go out and you play the stuff that you believe in, and you go against the grain. It’s a really good feeling when you actually get successful. So, when you get to that point where you are selling some records and you’re reaching all the people that come to the concerts, then you finally go, “Okay, alright, so what I was doing is, actually - people believe in it and it’s what I grew up on.” So I feel good about it.

Lars: It’s something both our bands can really relate to, because we’ve done this very much on our own ways, in very similar ways about just going out, and not caring what anybody expected from me or anybody wanted from me, because it’s going on, like Slash is saying, just having an incredible amount of belief in yourself, and just going out there and just going against the grain, and getting on with it. And now people are showing up and it’s great.

Slash: It’s a great motivating factor just to go out and have the balls enough just to keep it going, and just go, “Alright, here it is,” and everybody goes, “Yeah!”

Bob Coburn: Brad, there you go. Thanks for the call from Minneapolis. I see you are playing cities with “M.”

Slash: What...

Lars: There’s a bad connection on the phone.

Bob Coburn: What was that story that cities with “M” were gonna be omitted? But that’s not the case anymore, is it? I had the cigarette lighter going there, and...

Lars: And the next question? (laughs)

Bob Coburn: I see that Slash (?)

Lars: I think it was some kind of - I think that somebody somewhere got hold of some very long-winded story that was floating around...

Slash: Did I miss something?

Lars: No, it’s been - There was a story going around about cities that began with “M” that we were omitting, but obviously we’re playing Minneapolis, we’re playing Montreal and, you know... I think the misunderstanding that if places like – I think the biggest problem of this tour, and this is actually the truth, is that most of the bigger cities that we aren’t playing on this tour, we’re not playing them because we didn’t want to go there, we’re not playing them because they didn’t want to have us. Places like Philadelphia, and Cleveland, and Kansas City, and Milwaukee, Chicago, Atlanta, places like that. You know, we tried when we sat down in April and put all the final details on this tour. We wanted it to go to the 30 biggest cities in the country and take the show everywhere we could, so all the fans across the country could get a chance to see this once-in-the-lifetime thing. But, you know, places, like I said, Philly, and all these other cities, the stadiums there, they just weren’t interested. They “Oh, Guns N’ Roses and Metallica will come and mess up the stadium,” and blah blah blah. You know, just a lot of bad vibes from a lot of people. And it’s just like, we tried, believe me, we sat there and tormented our managers, and our booking agents and everything. “Find us a race track, find us a field,” you know, “Find us a yard... We’ll play in a sewer...”

Slash: "I used to play soccer there."

Lars: ...”We’ll be there.” There’s like, I mean, Philadelphia is the fourth biggest market in the country and it’s like a joke that this tour isn’t going there. So, believe me that we tried. So, this whole thing about, well, Milwaukee, you know, that we didn’t wanna go to Milwaukee because it begins with “M,” that’s just a crock of ... beep.

Slash: Yeah, I’ve been hearing that going around.

Bob Coburn: Well, now we know the truth. And we’re gonna take...

Lars: No, I mean, believe me, believe me, we sat down, we tried to take the city, so every big – this tour, every big city in the country that we could. And, like, I don’t wanna grovel here or apologize, but, you know, to all the kids in the cities that we’re not going to, believe me that we tried.

Slash: Yeah.

Lars: And you guys are just gonna have to travel, because it was not for lack of trying between the bands. Because the one thing on this tour was that every time the booking agents, and the managers, and stuff like that, would grind to a halt or something, me and Slash and some of the other guys would have to sit there and basically say, “Wait a minute, you guys,” to our managers, you know, “we gotta work this out.” And we wanted to go to all these cities, so we’re sorry.

Slash: Exactly.

Lars: We tried, believe me.

Bob Coburn: Alright. Now you got the truth. You got the real story. We’re coming back for more. You come back too. It’s Lars and Slash on Rockline...

Lars: Woopie!

Bob Coburn: ... Global Satellite Network. I hope you’re coming back, cuz we are!

Slash (recorded message): Hey, this is Slash of Guns N’ Roses and you’re listening to FM 99 WNOR, the rock ‘n’ roll station.

Bob Coburn: Slash from Guns N' Roses, Lars from Metallica. I wanna wrap up the itinerary of the concert tour dates: Toronto on the 9th of August at Exhibition Stadium, Denver on the 12th of August, San Diego on the 14th, Vancouver BC on the 17th and Seattle on the 18th. And the final dates, Oakland, August 21st, Pasadena on the 22nd at the Rose Bowl, Phoenix, Arizona on the 25th, Las Cruces, New Mexico outside El Paso on the 27th, and the 29th at the Louisiana Superdome. Also I wanna remind  you that this month we’re giving you a chance to win one of 15 autographed 92 Rockline AT&T calendars signed by many of the artists who’ve been on the show during the month of July. If you’re interested in getting one and have it hang on your wall, send a postcard to 92 Rockline Calendar, PO BOX 4383, Hollywood, California, 90078. Make sure you include your name, address, telephone number, age and the radio station you listen to Rockline on. This month’s winners will be announced on the August 3rd Rockline show. Previous entries and past calendar giveaways are still eligible. The 92 Rockline Calendar is brought to by AT&T, proud sponsors of the 1992 US Olympic team. And we’ll play another live song for you, recorded live at Wembley Stadium at the Freddie Mercury benefit. This is Nothing Else Matters by Metallica on Rockline.

[Nothing Else Matters is played]

Bob Coburn: That was a great moment on stage.

Lars: Live version, I didn’t know that you guys were playing the live version.

Bob Coburn: Yeah, we played the live version all the way through. Yeah, that’s what it was. Nothing Else Matters recorded live at the Freddie Mercury concert at Wembley, London.

Slash: I was there.

Bob Coburn: We know you were there! (laughs)

Slash: They were awesome.

Lars: Was I there?

Slash: They were awesome.

Bob Coburn: You guys weren’t bad either (laughs). In fact, that was a hell of show. That’s one of, I think, my all-time favorite shows.

Slash: It was really cool. You asked me about it earlier, and it was really great for all these bands to get together and do this. And Metallica goes on and I was just like, “Oh, yeah!”

Bob Coburn: Yeah. Oh yeah. There you go. Bring it home, man. Bring it home.

Slash: There’s a point to it (laughs) (?)

Bob Coburn: Let’s take a phone call. Let’s talk to Jeremy. He is in Salem, Indiana, but he’s listening to 95.7 WQMF in Louisville, Kentucky. Jeremy?

Slash: Hi, Jeremy.

Lars: Hi.

Jeremy: What’s up, guys?

Lars: What’s up, man?

Jeremy: Not much.

(Laughter)

Jeremy: I have a question for Slash. Will Izzy contribute to any more songs or join you on stage?

Slash: I’m gonna talk to him tomorrow about some of the so-called logistics having to do with the situation that we’re dealing with, so we’ll take it from there.

Bob Coburn: Yeah, I mean there’s a lot going on. I mean, you know, being arrested at the airport and then there’s this Lloyd’s of London thing. I mean there’s a lot of stuff you guys got to deal with. I hope it does not interfere with the tours. So let’s hope that you guys (?)

Slash: No, the tour is not a problem. It’s just, you know - basically, it comes down to life in general.

(Laughter)

Bob Coburn: It always does, doesn’t it? (laughs)

Slash: You get to a point where it’s like, “Okay,” you know, “it’s Monday, what do we gotta do now?” It goes on on a cycle. It’s some of the complicated problems that you have. You just - you know, you have to go and face it, and try to make the most logical, sensible decision, and you go from there.

Bob Coburn: There you go. That’s it. By the way, Lars and Slash are in New York, I’m in our Hollywood Rockline studio. I wish I was back in New York. I would like to go out into the New York night with Lars and Slash and 40,000 Democratic conventioneers, man.

Slash: I’ve got a story about them.

Lars: You’d like to be here to defend yourself.

Slash: They’re all in the hotel I’m staying at.

Lars: Let me just share with all our Rockline listeners out there, the thing is that me and Slash are here in New York and Bob’s out in LA, like he said. But the thing is, on the desk where we’re sitting here at this radio station, there’s a big picture of Bob, okay? And apparently that’s some kind of tradition, and this picture of Bob...

Slash: He has a nice smile, though.

Lars: ... it has been sort of assaulted, and insulted and... (laughs)

Bob Coburn: (Laughs) That’s tradition too, yeah.

Lars: (laughing) Right.

Bob Coburn: Each time we have a New York show, [name], a New York person, goes down to the post office and pulls one off the wall, you know? Jeremy, thanks.

Lars: Down in Times Square, you know, “For cheap thrill call 555...”

Bob Coburn: Call this number on! Yeah!

Slash: B.O.B.B. Bob...

Bob Coburn: You’re on the air.

Slash: Real quick.

Lars: Don’t change the subject!

Slash: We had a whole bunch of them at the hotel last night. And they were, you know, the guys with ties and stuff. I’d just gotten through a flight that was, like, pretty long. Then I get to the bar and I’m like, okay, I need a drink, I’ll sit here for a while. And then these guys start coming up and I’m watching all these people. [cut]

Recorded message: You’re listening to Rockline on the global satellite network.

Slash: They come in and it is the Clinton guy (laughs). And so, yeah, they came up, and we partied with them and they pulled their ties. And, you know, we had a good time. I have no idea what exactly we were getting at, but...

(Laughter)

Lars: And you told them that you all voted for Bush, right? (laughs)

Bob Coburn: I don’t know, but you did it rather colorfully, shall we say? Watch your tongue there, young man!

Slash: I’m sorry.

Bob Coburn: No, that’s alright. Okay.

Slash: It was sort of, you know, the guys are actually really cool. It was down to earth and I was like, really? This is, like, the people that, you know, try and represent Clinton?

(Laughter)

Lars: I think you should leave it at that, okay?

Bob Coburn: I think that pretty (?), yeah. I think that’s a period paragraph right there. And we’ll be back in a minute with Lars and Slash on Rockline, on the Global Satellite Network.

[Break]

Bob Coburn: We are back. What an evening, with Slash and Lars from Guns N’ Roses and Metallica respectively. We’ve got Anthony on the line in Albuquerque, a listener of 94 ROCK. You’re on the show, Anthony.

Anthony: Alright. Yeah, I have a question for Lars.

Lars: What’s up, Anthony?

Anthony: What’s up? I was wondering if Cliff ever wrote anything you guys haven’t released yet, that might come out on a box set or something?

Lars: That’s a real good question. Cliff had, like, a lot of stuff lying around that after the accident that he died, Cliff’s sister, Connie, gave to us. Some of that stuff showed up on the song To Live is To Die on the Justice album, some of the words that James speaks, like, halfway through. Musically I’m not aware of anything lying around. Like I said, there was a whole bunch of other poetry things and so on that he had written down. James, I think, has all that stuff. It’s a real good question. Right now there’s no immediate plans to do anything with it. Like I said, the major thing of what we thought was the coolest stuff that was lying around showed up in To Live is To Die, so... But, you know, who knows what will happen if James digs through it and stuff like that, and something else cool shows up. Maybe we’ll throw it out there on some kind of, like you say, box set or whatever. So that’s a good question.

Bob Coburn: Yeah, yeah. And well informed. Good call, Anthony, thanks. Let’s move on now to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Melinda’s waiting her turn, a listener of 92 City FM. You’re on the Rockline, Melinda.

Melinda: Hi, guys. How are you?

Slash: Hi.

Lars: What’s up, Melinda?

Melinda: Hi. Anyway, this is for Slash. I was wondering if you will be releasing an EP with cover tunes on it?

Slash: Well, there is a record coming out. When we feel like, you know, it’s a cool time to do it, then we’ll put it out. But, right now ,we’ve been so involved with this tour and tour, you know, preceding it, so we’re just, like – when they feel ready, then we’ll put it out. And it’s got all these punk songs on it and sounds really good. I’ll leave it at that.

Bob Coburn: Another well informed call. Melinda, thanks for being on with us. It’s Sandy’s turn in Los Angeles and she’s listening to 95.5 KLOS. Sandy, you’re on the program now.

Sandy: Hi. I have a question for both Slars, um, Slash and Lars. I was wondering (?)

Everybody (talking over): Slars. Slarsh! (Laughter)

Sandy: Hey, I’m getting stoked for the shows. Gimme a break!

Bob Coburn: Sandy, I’m glad you did that, because I’ve done it in my head about five times tonight.

Lars: Let me tell you something (?), we’re out here, believe me.

Slash: I lost the question in there somewhere.

Sandy: (?) is gonna do it at the Rose Bowl. Actually, the question is kind of serious. Given the fact that censorship is rearing up its ugly head again...

Slash (talks over): It’s a great concept, isn’t it?

Sandy: ...and lots of records are coming off shelves, do you feel like that jeopardizes your creative license? And how would each of you react, if you were in the same situation as Ice-T and a thousand record stores pulled your record?

Slash: Do you wanna go first or do you want me to go first?

Lars: Go ahead, man.

Slash: Alright. Censorship is one of the situations where the more opposition that we get as rock ‘n’ roll bands and for the concept of just going out and speaking your mind, alright? And - I don’t know. It’s one of those things where you can go out and you can stick your finger in the air or you can really express yourself about certain things that you feel or whatever. But as far as censorship goes, you know, it's somewhat [cut]

Recorded message: You’re listening to Rockline on the Global Satellite Network.

Slash: ... the more records we sell, you know. Honestly, that’s the way it is. The kids love it, they want that kind of, like, rebellion. And when I was growing up, as far as rock ‘n’ roll was considered, you know, the more against the opponent - which would be society, I guess - then I would go against it.

Lars: Yeah, that’s it.

Slash: And you buy the record and you want it.

Lars: I mean, your parents can sit there and go, “Don’t listen to this,” and “Don’t look at this,” you know, but whenever you’re at home alone in your house or whatever, you drag that Penthouse or that magazine, or that record that you’re not supposed to listen to. You drag it out from under your bed and you put it on or whatever. It’s just that there’s something really rebellious against just doing something that everybody’s telling you not to do.

Slash: Yeah, exactly. It’s like Penthouse or something. You know, little kids sitting there and dragging these things out from underneath their pillow.

Bob Coburn: Hey, it’s like (?) told me.

Lars: Why don’t you give us a couple of free subscriptions?

Slash: They told me it was wrong, and so, you know, it’s like, here it is and I’ve got it. And no one’s gonna to see it.

Lars: Well, to answer your question, as far as Metallica is concerned. It’ll never, ever affect what we do creatively. I mean, that’s a given. When we sit down, and write songs, and do the whole the whole creative process, we have some kind of ability to just lock ourselves away from what everybody expects from us and also from, you know, just any kind of people telling you what to do or whatever. So, I mean, it’s never gonna affect what we do creatively.

Slash: Yeah, you do it your own way, you know? And that’s what makes you feel good about it, cuz you feel justified.

Bob Coburn: Okay. As long as we’re in a serious topic here, how did either of you guys feel when it was announced that Al Gore would be the vice presidential nominee with Bill Clinton?

(Laughter)

Bob Coburn: With his wife being Tipper Gore, who’s been the head of the PMRC and against censorship?

Slash: Oh, I don’t know...

Lars: Hey, Tipper, have you ever heard of (?)

Slash: I’m sure she’s gonna have a ball at this point.

Bob Coburn: Alright, we’re gonna move on. Thanks, Sandy, we appreciate the call. We’re gonna talk to somebody in St. Augustine, Florida, listening to ROCK 105 in Jacksonville, and this is Juart, is that correct?

Juart: Yeah, that’s perfect, man.

Bob Coburn: Hey, good!

Juart: What’s up, Lars, Slash?

Lars: What’s up, man?

Juart: How is it going?

Lars: It’s going good, man. St. Augustine, I’ve been there, man. That’s where Edison had his summer house, right?

Juart: Yeah, man.

Lars: Is that right or not? Tell me.

Juart: I’m not sure. I know the oldest house in America is here.

Slash: Okay, alright.

Lars: The oldest?  That is a question.

Bob Coburn: Yes, that’s the oldest city in America, yeah.

Yuart: As much band member changes as go on these days, I mean, how does it affect a band? I mean, Guns N’ Roses has added and lost so many members and Metallica has stayed with the same ones. I mean, both of you jump on and tell me a little bit about that.

Slash: It’s hard, you know. You have to deal with the situations at hand - Axl, Duff and I, and Matt’s been in the band for a long time, so I have to include him on this subject. But you have your goal and you want to go out and keep the – you know, whatever the Guns N’ Roses thing is and what we have fun doing. So you keep that together and keep it alive, and you just thrive on it. And so when changes occur, you have to look at it from perspective and just go, “Alright, what are doing here?” You know, what’s the objective? And finally you come to a conclusion where you go, “Alright, we want to keep this going, and if you can’t keep up with it, then, you know, at least we thrive between the members that are left. And that’s it. You know, you can’t make it more complicated than that. On the outside it might look a little, you, know, more complicated than it seems.

Lars: What happens, I think, like what Slash is saying, what happens to a lot of bands is that when you form a band you’re, like, 18-19-20 years old. You’ve all got day jobs or you’re going to school or whatever, and all of a sudden you start making records, you start traveling together, going on tour, living together, doing everything together, almost like a kind of a gang mentality. Then, what happens is that you start discovering things about each other that you weren’t really aware of before, when you didn’t spend as much time together. And the only lineup change that we’ve ever really had, apart from obviously Cliff ,which was not on a choice, was with Dave Mustaine. And, you, know, it comes to a point, maybe, where you just realize that something is not, personality-wise, just really working out, and somebody has some kind of problem that they need to go off and deal with. And when I look around at it, all the things that are going on with all the bands around, I find it incredible that we’ve been able to stay together, basically the same three or four guys for the last, you know, 6-8-10 years with Metallica. But, I think, also what happens is that you got to give, as you grow older, you got to start the whole thing with, like, respect. And the whole thing that when you start growing, and going in different directions, and everybody starts getting into different things, that’s okay, as long as you can all meet around. In our case, you know, what the whole thing of Metallica is, it’s okay that James goes off and does his thing within the off time, and I go off in the other direction, and so on. You know, in rock ‘n’ roll it just seems like everybody always talks about it’s never okay to grow old. I think that’s it’s okay growing old and, as long as you respect that different people go in different directions and stuff like that, as long as you can always meet around what Metallica is all about, you know.

Slash: The relationship between bands is really complicated, in the sense that we all hang out and you guys look at us from one perspective, but, you know, we’re just – this is a family kind of thing going. And after a while, in going through everything that we’ve gone through, and all the concerts and all the tours we tried to set up as individual bands – right? - you get to a point where you really have to hold on to each other. And when it gets rough, you have to deal with it and that’s it. And people look at us from [cut]

Recorded message: You’re listening to Rockline on the Global Satellite Network

Slash: ... it really isn’t.

Bob Coburn: Yuart, there you go. Two sides of being in a rock ‘n’ roll band. We’ll take a time out. We’ll come back with more in just a moment here. It’s quite an evening tonight. It’s gonna be quite a concert tour.

Lars: Quite an evening! (laughs)

(Laughter)

Bob Coburn: And I would say, come on back. We ain’t done yet, baby.