06. JANUARY-DECEMBER 1986 - GETTING SIGNED

The band then played - again as Fargin Bastydges - a show at Gazzarri's on May 31.

After having signed with Geffen in March 1986, the band rented a cheap rehearsal space in an old shopping center called the Golden Mall in Glendale, near the Burbank line. It was better than the Gardner space, and included a little stage [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p 112].



Some point after being signed to Geffen, the band was managed by Randy Phillips and Arnold Stiefel from Stiefel Entertainment [New York Times, December 8, 1991]. Stiefel set them up in a rental house on the former estate of Cecil B. DeMille in Laughlin Park [Rolling Stone, August 9, 2007]. This is likely the house Izzy talked about in 1988:



Slash would look back at Stiefel courting them and how they accepted the house for selfish reasons:



Jetboy singer Mickey Finn probably talked about this house and people smoking heroin:



This was also the house where they wrote Sweet Child O' Mine:



The band caused so much damages to the DeMille House, Stiefel and Zutaut would state:




Axl had his own room in the house:





Alan Niven, who became the band's next manager, would talk about how Stiefel was desperate to get rid of Guns N' Roses:





That Tim Collins has been considered would be confirmed by an article in Rolling Stone in 1988:



It is not clear whether the contact with Collins took place before Stiefel got involved or later when Stiefel wanted out.

Eventually, Stiefel and his partner Randy Phillips dropped Guns as clients after the band had caused $22,000 in damages on a rental house that had Stiefel's name on the lease [Rolling Stone, August 9, 2007]. Stiefel's name was on the lease of the house and he passed the $22,000 bill for repairing the damages off to Geffen and then dropped the band [Rolling Stone, August 9, 2007].



With Stiefel about to terminate the management contract with Guns N' Roses and Geffen considering giving up on the band, Zutaut was desperate to find a new manager and reached out to his friend Alan Niven.



Zutaut and Niven knew each other from having previously worked on Motley Crue's signing with Elektra Records [Classic Rock, March 2009]. Niven initially advised Zutaut against working with GN'R and wanted nothing to do with them himself:



Still, or maybe as a consequence of, Niven decided to meet with the band and check them out and visited them at the DeMille house:





Niven had previously seen the band perform and had received a demo of the band:





Despite the inauspicious first meeting with the band, Niven would stay in contact with Zutaut and Guns N' Roses before eventually agreeing to become the band's manager in August or October [see later chapter].

-----------------------------
As previously discussed, while looking for a producer, then band decided that Nazareth's Manny Charlton could be a good fit and wanted him to come and do a recording session with them:






Being asked if it took a lot of convincing:






So Charlton was flown in from Scotland.




The first impression Charlton got of the band and its operation was not favorable:



Still, the band worked with Charlton for three days according to Izzy [Guitar, September 1988].











During these sessions the band would record a lot of songs, only a few would end up on the band's debut album:



Axl also played November Rain for Charlton:



As can be seen from the quotes above, Charlton was very happy with working with the band and thought the results were great. Zutaut, though, would talk about some disagreement in the band:





Axl would state it, "it just didn't feel right" [Interview with Steve Harris, December 1987]. Duff would be more blunt:



In 2017, Zutaut would claim Charlton had "been too nice":



Despite not choosing to continue working with Charlton, the sessions resulted in 27 songs on tape and the band was thinking about what to do with them:





In 1997, the press would report that Charlton still had his copies of the demo tapes in his garage in Scotland:





Geffen planned to "release [the Charlton tracks] as a kind of legal bootleg" [L.A. Weekly, June 1986] or "release some of the demo material as an 'authorized bootleg'" [Sound Connection, July 1986]. This first happened 32 years later when Appetite for Destruction was re-released in 2018 together with the Sound City tracks.

Their next show took place at the Troubadour on July 11. They were now back to playing as "Guns N' Roses" again, as mentioned in the band's fifth newsletter:



For this show the band would be paid $2,500 and they played for ninety minutes, a new band record [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007].



This was probably the first show that Alan Niven saw live:

In the summer of 1986 the band was struggling to find a producer for their upcoming debut album [see separate sections] [L.A. Rocks, August 1986]. To do something the band and label decided to release a limited edition "bootleg" album. This served a two-fold purpose: It kept the band occupied while they could write and rehearse, and it would help create an underground following. The work on this record started in the late summer of 1986.

The band's newsletter from July 1986 would describe this as an "independently released" limited album with the title Guns N' Roses Bootleg Album, and that it would be released within the month [Guns N' Roses Newsletter No. 5, July 1986]. This did not happen.

Axl would also mention the upcoming release from the stage at the Troubadour on July 11:



In August the album would be correctly described as a limited edition "bootleg" titled Live! Like a Suicide [L.A. Rocks, August 1986].

In the end the band would use recordings from the Spencer Proffer sessions [see later chapter] for the upcoming release, and on October 31 Axl would mention that the EP was mastered:



Steven would later discuss how they faked it sounding live:



Duff would talk about his this was all done as a joke:

Then followed a show at Bogart's on July 21 where both Slash and Izzy arrived late [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007].

Their next show was at the Club Lingerie gig on July 24.





According to Marc Canter, Axl quit the band the afternoon on the day of the show, and was fired, too, "for good measure," but by showtime the band was together again [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007].

Brendan Mullen, who owned the club The Masque, would claim Axl arrived very late for this show:



Already in L.A. Rocks the next month, the band would discuss the fight they had gone through:




Slash would later reveal that the fight had been between him and Axl and that it had been serious:



During the show Axl would again thank Zutaut, and now mention that he had been "helping [Axl] get through the fucking day" [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007], likely referring to the band problems and Zutaut calming the waters .

At the show, Axl would also send a shout out to Dizzy Reed who had just suffered injuries in a car wreck and was attending the show:



Dizzy would later be asked if Axl was indeed referring to Dizzy in this dedication:

But then, just a week later, at Timber's Ballroom in July 31 (Duff claims this happened at a Fender's Ballroom gig on March 31.), it was Axl who turned up so late the band had to start without him. The band had been threatened that if they didn't start playing they wouldn't get paid [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007].

After the summer of 1986 Geffen hired Spencer Proffer to help produce the next record [Steven's biography, "My Appetite for Destruction", 2010, page 108], or at least to record a demo as a test to see if the band wanted his as their producer for the record [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road, 2007].

Alan Niven would later recall he was dubious about Proffer:




Marc Canter would later mention that the songs Proffer would be tested on was Nightrain and Sweet Child O' Mine, for $15,000:



Proffer had a talent for "fashioning a great sound" [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007].



They worked with Proffer at his own studio, Pasha Studios [Steven's biography, "My Appetite for Destruction", 2010, page 108], right next to Paramount Studios near Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Before starting, the band made a mix-tape of their influences which was handed over to Proffer. The tape was called "Spencer's Easy Listening" and was meant to help him in creating the sound the band was looking for [RAW Magazine, May 1989]. The work with Proffer took no more than "two or three days" [Steven's biography, "My Appetite for Destruction", 2010, page 109].

According to Proffer, they worked together for a month:




In May 1987, it was said in an interview that they had argued "profusely" with Proffer, and "forcing him to leave the project" [RIP Magazine, May 1987], which suggests why Proffer was not used as the producer for Appetite for Destruction.

Proffer would shed some light on what happened claiming that the band had not met up on time when he wanted to leave early because his wife was having a Caesarean section and then belittled him for prioritizing his newborn child over the band:



This is a strong accusation from Proffer and Slash would imply that it didn't happen like this:



Canter would confirm there had been a fight between Axl and Proffer, but not go in details, and confirm that regardless of Proffer's problems with the band, the band was not happy with the results of the collaboration:



Later Axl would claim Spencer made the sound too "radio":



When the band was working with Proffer at Pasha was also the first time Alan Niven really talked to the band:



In 2013, Alan Niven would indicate he had played a role in ending the collaboration between Guns N' Roses and Proffer:



Despite this, Steven would later claim he loved working with Proffer [Steven's biography, "My Appetite for Destruction", 2010, page 108-109].



Still, Proffer had made it into the contract that even if they decided to not continue working with him as a producer for their debut album, they could still use the studio to record music that could be used elsewhere, and the band ended up recording songs that would eventually be released on their "independent" EP, Live ?!*@ Like A Suicide:

The next two shows for the band were at The Scream on August 15 and at the Whisky A Go Go on August 23. They had been scheduled to play a show in Orange County on August 16, too, but "cancelled at the last minute because the gig was so far away" [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007].

Jeff Fenster, who worked for Warner and would later be involved in the drafting of the recording agreement with Geffen, would meet the band at the Scream:



For the August 23 show at the Whisky, the band debuted Sweet Child O' Mine, Mr. Brownstone and Ain't Going Down [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007].





Before playing 'Mr. Brownstone,' Axl would warn about the dangers of heroin, saying, "I think you should stay the fuck away from that bad shit" [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007]. At the time, both Slash and Izzy had a heroin dependency that affected the band.

Fenster, mentioned above, would play harmonica with the band at this show:



After these two gigs the band travelled to San Francisco for a show at the Stone on August 28, with Jetboy and the Vain as supporting acts.





Davy Vain, the singer for the Vain, would later talk about the show and his connection with Guns N' Roses:



Vain would later join Steven in his band (with the contested name) Roadcrew, after Steven was kicked out of Guns N' Roses [see later chapter].

Mr. Brownstone was one of the songs Axl sung in a lower register, together with It's So Easy which would be debuted On October 23 [see later chapter]. According to Marc Canter, Axl had trained his lower register singing after receiving vocal lessons from Geffen after the band got signed in March:

_______________________________________

The band ended their management relationship with Arnold Stiefel from Stiefel Entertainment in June 1986 [Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1986] [see previous chapter]. Tom Zutaut continued his efforts to get his friend Alan Niven involved with the band [see previous chapter], hoping that Niven would become the band's next manager and get the band members under control.

Despite not agreeing to become the manager right away [see previous chapter], Niven would help out mixing an early version of Mr. Brownstone:



Niven would also help mix songs that would end up on the EP Live! Like A Suicide [KNAC, December 1986] and he would later recollect joining Izzy and Slash in the studio to help mix the demos:



As discussed previously, Niven had doubts about managing Guns N' Roses due to their unruly and damaging behavior, but Axl was not among them:






Zutaut tried to get Niven on board three times before Niven eventually agreed:










It is not known exactly when Niven officially became the band's manager, according to Stephen Davies it happened in August 1986 [Stephen Davies, "Watch You Bleed", 2008], according to Marc Canter it happened in October 1986 [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007]. Niven was part of Stravinski Brothers Management together with Doug Goldstein [Kerrang! March 1989]. Niven became the band's manager and Goldstein would later become their tour manager.

As for whether the band's addictions made Niven consider to not manage the band:





Marc Canter would later explain how Niven proved to be the perfect manager for the band:





Niven himself would later discuss his management style and why it worked well with many rock bands:




Niven would later talk about his first objective which was to get the band to meet up for rehearsals, and quickly butted heads with Axl:



And how to make the band stand out against their competitors in the music scene at the time:



As for recording:



And being pleasantly surprised that the band could write great songs:



The band was initially very happy with Alan as their manager:



The band would remark that one of the reasons they like him is that when “he took us out for drinks [at Barney’s Beanery], he showed us he could drink as much or more than we do" [Rock Scene, September 1987].



Although later, after having been fired as the manager by Axl, Niven would claim that he immediately got in problems with Axl:



The very first show with Niven as their manager was the infamous Santa Barbara gig opening for Alice Cooper [see next chapter], where Axl failed to show up on time resulting in the band having to do the show without him. This would be an ominous start to Axl and Niven's relationship.

Goldstein would also claim that he was partly brought in because Niven was struggling to work with Axl:



And that Niven hated Axl:



Explaining why Niven and Axl didn't get along:

_________________________________

Duff was no virgin as far as drugs went. Back in Seattle he had experimented with speed, cocaine, LSD in sixth grade and mushrooms, but quit due to increasing panic attacks which he feared might be drug-induced [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011]. Also see earlier chapter detailing Duff in Seattle.



Duff had also "smoked pot by Grade 4 and snorted cocaine by Grade 7" [Music West by 3-D, 1997].

Later, he would also imply having been a heroin junkie:



Marc Canter would say that Duff's girlfriend back in Seattle died of an overdose in Duff's arms and that this was the reason Duff stayed clear of heroin:




After coming to Los Angeles, Duff tried crack cocaine for the first time in February 1986 when he and Slash were with Robert John to go through photographs [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p 108].

Curiously, Mark Plunkett, who played bass in the band Little Angels and opened for Guns N' Roses in June 1987 when the band played at the Marquee in London, would claim he had witnessed Duff with a syringe sticking out of his arm [The Guardian, March 13, 2004]. This is likely not correct, and more likely Plunkett mistook Duff for another band member if not the history is entirely made up.

But alcohol quickly became Duff's demon.






According to himself, not long after being signed to Geffen Records in March 1986, Duff was an alcoholic and Axl renamed him "Duff, the King of Beers McKagan [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p 116]. Later, the animated cartoon, The Simpsons, would use "Duff" as name for a beer in the series, after having received acceptance from Duff:








Duff would later accept he lost money on this but be fine with it:



The makers of The Simpsons have later denied these claims and that it had anything to do with Duff [Time, June 12, 2018].

The band was gaining in popularity and played increasingly high-status gigs, one was with Ted Nugent on the Santa Monica Civic Center on August 30. Slash and Izzy had just returned to Los Angeles after their trip to San Francisco [see previous chapter] and were late to the gig because they needed to score dope:



The show was a big success with Axl claiming that Ted Nugent tried to turn their sound down because they were rocking so hard, and also that he hit on Erin [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007]. L.A. Weekly said of the band, "These bangers have the chops; now, if they can only ditch some of the bombas and hollow histrionics that reduced a potentially great set to only marginal acceptability" [L.A. Weekly, September 12, 1986].





Much later, Axl would look back at this show:



Axl probably referred to this review in Music Connection Magazine:



In an interview in 2020, Nugent would be very complimentary about the band as he recalled the show:





After the St. Louis riot in 1991, when Axl had attacked a fan that took photographs of him during the concert [see later chapter], Nugent would slam Axl, possibly in retaliation:

Slash's father was an alcoholic [Musician, December 1988] and Slash picked up the habit, too, and he would later agree to having an addictive personality [Melody Maker, August 10, 1991].

He started with drugs before he became a teenager and would mention a story where one of his mother's boyfriends got high with him:



In an interview in 1995, he would talk about selling quaaludes when he was 14 [Musician Magazine, March 1995]. In a later interview he would talk about selling quaaludes outside at The Fear shows in Los Angeles [Kerrang! 1996]. He might have referred to this in a later interview:



Marc Canter would mention how when he and Slash became friends again after having been separated, when Slash was 16, he was already an alcoholic:



Later, Slash would claim he started with drugs because of a girl:



According to Axl, Slash trashed two rented vans while intoxicated, something that would be commented on in the 'thank yous' on the Appetite for Destruction sleeve [Interview with Steve Harris, December 1987]. Drunk driving was also a habit Slash would admit to [Kerrang! December 1988].



Slash started using heroin soon after Guns N' Roses was formed [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 95] and Marc Canter would say he was influenced by Izzy's habits:




Canter would describe Slash trying to clean up at his place:



Raz Cue would note that Slash used heroin not long after the band had signed with Geffen in March 1986 [Raz Cue, "The Days of Guns, & Raz's", 2015, p. 238]. Slash himself would confirm that he started soon after joining GN'R:





Steven would later claim Slash started with it because he was tired of waiting for Axl to record Appetite, and curiously also seem to suggest it happened after they had toured for audiences of 20-30,000 per night, but according to the quotes above, it seems Slash started with heroin prior to the recording of Appetite and certainly prior to them playing to such large audiences:



At some point in time Geffen held a party likely in honor of Peter Gabriel and his hit single Sledgehammer. The single reached no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States on 26 July 1986, so the party likely happened not very long after this date. Slash had an interview earlier in the afternoon (and got so drunk he peed on his pants), and when he came to the party and was given a real sledgehammer (like a commemorative item), he went out in the parking lot and, for unknown reasons, proceeded to attempt throw it through one of the Geffen windows. He missed and threw it through the windows of an adjacent building belonging to someone else [Endless Party Magazine, August 1987].

Slash's drug problems soon became a problem to the band:




The band's song Mr. Brownstone was written by Izzy and Slash while high on heroin, in fact right after Slash had suffered an overdose. Desi Craft would describe how it happened:



When the band started playing Mr. Brownstone in August 1986, Axl would warn about the dangers of heroin. On August 23, at the Whisky, he said, "I think you should stay the fuck away from that bad shit" [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007]. At the time, both Slash and Izzy had a heroin dependency that affected the band. On this very gig Slash had acquired his signature top hat and would refer to being really high at the show but that the top hat helped his balance [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007]. It is likely Axl was frustrated by their addiction and that he indirectly stated this from the stage.

At one point, Slash ended up in jail after getting caught driving with drug paraphernalia:



Axl would also reach out to friends and families to try to get Slash to calm down on the "excesses", including Marc Canter:



As mentioned above, Slash's problems got so bad he decided to sober up, and this happened before they released Appetite for Destruction and went on tour:




Axl likely refer to Slash cleaning up in the quote below and indicate that Slash left Los Angeles to accomplish it:



It is possible this cleaning up took happened after Arlett Vereecke, the band's publicist, caught him stashing heroin and needles at her apartment where he lived at the time:



With Slash sick from the dope, Vereecke convened the band and the crew ending with Slash detoxing at Vereecke's house:

On September 5, Axl and Zutaut attended the MTV Music Awards show [L.A. Weekly, September 12, 1986].

The next show was at the Music Machine on September 13.





Then the band returned to the LA Street Scene Festival on September 20:

________________________________________________________

Axl's personal issues quickly became a problem to Guns N' Roses. Axl was well known as a volatile personality and he founded the band together with Tracii after having been fired from LA Guns. Already back in Indiana he was a hellion who got in trouble numerous times. Still, after relocating to Los Angeles he was described to have been mellow and almost shy:



But this mellow side to him seems to have received competition from a more impulsive and volatile personality. Tracii would later blame him quitting Guns N' Roses on Axl's increasingly large persona.



Slash would also quickly experience Axl's mood swings and difficult nature:



Marc Canter would talk about meeting Axl for the first time:



And talk about him never compromising:



As the band started to live together, they all became familiar with his peculiarities:






Axl would recount an episode from some time in 1986 or 1987 that happened at the Troubadour:



The Chronicle would also claim Axl "was alleged to have pulled the band off stage, hurled insults at several Marines and ripped the dress off a porno kingpin's daughter" but that he "says he can't remember the incidents" [The San Francisco Chronicle, August 30, 1987]. The last incident could be the same as described in a previous chapter where Axl was accused of having undressed a girl and thrown her out of the Gardner place [see previous chapter].

Axl allegedly also challenged a skinhead called Animal for a fight who had, for unknown reasons, "sworn to kill [Axl]" [The San Francisco Chronicle, August 30, 1987]. This must be the same Animal that Mick Wall describes as a "psychopathic skinhead stalker" in Hollywood and who Slash and Duff had been afraid of [Mick Wall, Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses, 1991]. Time Out Magazine in June 1987 would also mention that the band was afraid of a skinhead nicknamed Animal [Time Out Magazine, June 3, 1987], and this is likely the original source for this story.

Animal may also be the person Axl would allude to in this quote:



In March 1987, Slash would describe Axl as being "violent" and "moody" [Metal Edge, March 1987] and in a later interview Axl would be confronted with this and asked if it is true:



Axl's mood swings and erratic behaviour seems to have increased further as the band gained popularity, and it would become a large problem later on in the band's history. Duff, who struggled with his own panic attacks (confirmed by Axl [O Globo, January 16, 2001]), related to Axl and would be one of the band member's to best cope with his bandmate's emotional struggles.



But Axl would also be described in more generous terms, adding the other side to the coin to his complex persona:






Axl's problem was his temperament and mental stability. He would often get in fights, and, according to himself, not always through his own fault:

Like Slash and Duff, Steven had also started with drugs early. In his memoirs he talks about starting with weed at age eleven, at the same age he was kicked out from home and had to live with his grandma.



After that he lived a reckless life in Los Angeles filled with drinking, smoking and sex. He started prostituting himself at an early age for drugs [see previous chapter] and at age 14 he was raped by an older man after having been led to an apartment with the promise of weed. At age 14 he would move back to his mom and stepfather, only to be kicked out again at age 15 and moved to a foster home in Pasadena, from which he immediately fled. He then went back home but was kicked out again and moved back to his grandma [Steven's biography, "My Appetite for Destruction", 2010].

He tried crack cocaine and heroin for the first time in 1984 at Bob Welch's house in the Hollywood Hills when he was handed a pipe from Bob's friend Ted and later a wad of heroin to smoke, but got sick from the dope [Steven's biography, "My Appetite for Destruction", 2010, page 66-67]:




Later on [sometime in 1986?] Steven would walk in on Izzy and Slash shooting heroin in Izzy's apartment behind Grauman's Chinese Theater in the heart of Hollywood. Steven did not want to use needles, and instead smoked heroin like he had done at Welch's house, and got sick again [Steven's biography, "My Appetite for Destruction", 2010, page 97].



Under testimony during the Adler vs. GN'R trial in August 1993, Duff would claim that he warned Steven against using heroin the first time he saw him doing it [The Reno Gazette, August 24, 1993]. This could be true since Duff himself was against heroin at the time after having seen his girlfriend die from an overdose back in Seattle [see earlier chapter].

Marc Canter would suggest Slash and Steven started with heroin around the time the band got signed, and that they were influenced by Izzy:



Duff recalls that Steven at one time said to him, "You know, all I want in life is to make enough money one day so I can have a bag of good weed and a big ball of crack around-all the time" [source?]. Duff would also speculate that Steven escaped with drugs to avoid memories of his childhood:

One of the more influential friends of the band from their early days was Aaron West Arkeen. Arkeen was a big friend of Axl and Duff and would co-write a few of the band's songs (It's So Easy, Bad Obsession, The Garden, and Yesterdays).



An example of Arkeen and Axl hanging out, and singing early versions of the songs The Garden and Yesterdays, would be a recording from the Scrap Bar in New York City in July 1989 and the footage is widely distributed among fans.

Arkeen would also help inspire the lyrics to Bad Obsession through his drug use:



Arkeen was also putting together a demo tape with his own songs with Axl singing on at least some of them, including Crash Diet and Sentimental Movie:




Later, Slash would talk about not writing with Arkeen:







In late 1988, when asked who his favorite musicians are, Axl answered "David Lank and West Arkeen" [Superstar Facts & Pix, No. 16, 1988]. Lank was an old friend of Axl from Lafayette [see earlier chapter].

Axl would also plan to play in a side-band with Arkeen and Duff called "Smith & Wesson":



It is possible Axl thought the West songs he had sung vocals on would be released by this band.

Axl would also talk about Arkeen in interviews:



Some years later, West would be the first artist the band would sign to their own label, Uzi Suicide [Raw Magazine, July 1989].

Axl started off with drugs and booze much later than the rest of his band mates:



An old girlfriend in Lafayette, Gina Siler, from the period Axl was transitioning to Hollywood, would claim that the two of them, in the summer of 1982, did "a lot of hallucinogenics", yet, in 1983 through 1985, when they lived in Hollywood and had an on and off relationship, they "didn’t do drugs" [Spin, September 1991].

This is supported by Kevin Lawrence who played with Axl in Rapidfire in May 1983:



Yet, by 1985, Raz Cue who would recount that Axl had warmed up to intoxication:



Siler also says that at "the end of 1985" she visited Axl again and was pissed because he was doing heroin. She would also claim that "when I went to see him before 'Appetite' came out" he had said to her, "I can’t wait until this album’s done, because I want to lock myself in a room for six weeks and do heroin" [Spin, September 1991].

This also fits with Lawrence saying that after Axl left Rapidfire, in the summer of 1985, Lawrence lost contact with his because he didn't belong to the drug scene where Axl and Izzy hung [Metal Sludge, September 1, 2014].

Robert John would mention in an interview in 1989 that Axl tried shooting heroin "like a couple times and that was a few years ago" [Rock Scene, October 1989]. This is likely the same incident that Axl would refer to in an interview with RIP in April 1989 and which he in Rolling Stone in August 1989 would say happened "over two years ago":



That Axl was able to shrug it off would be supported by Steven:



Marc Canter would confirm Axl used heroin "for a while" but that he stopped in late August 1985:




In 2016, Canter would say Axl stopped in July 1986:



Tracii would mention how ecstasy made Axl "mean":



When discussing drug use, Axl would also indicate that his consciousness was preventing him from taking it too far:



An anonymous source would later state:

In early 1986, Axl met Erin Invicta Everly at a party [People Magazine, July 18, 1994]. Both Axl and Erin would talk about the special bond they shared:




Erin was the daughter of Don Everly from the famous Everly Brothers duo and Venetia Stevenson. Don Everly and Stevenson had separated and Everly did not pay child support resulting in Erin and her two siblings growing up in modest circumstances [People Magazine, July 18, 1994]. She was described as a slow learner with dyslexia who "enjoyed being home and playing with her dolls and baby brother and, as she got older, offering emotional support to her mother" [People Magazine, July 18, 1994]. At 16, Erin moved to New York City model but was back in LA in early 1986 [People Magazine, July 18, 1994]. Erin was 19-years-old at the time when she met Axl at the party [People Magazine, July 18, 1994].



Axl would later write the lyrics to Sweet Child O' Mine to Erin [Circus Magazine, November 1988]. Axl would also, curiously and possibly being supportive of Erin's actress ambitions, name Erin as his favorite actress [Superstar Facts & Pix, 1988].







But Erin and Axl's relationship was tumultuous from the beginning and in March 1987, Axl would call out Erin from stage:



In September 1988, it would reported that Axl had recently broken up [L.A. Weekly, September 16, 1988]. Despite this, they would soon get back together.





Desi Craft, who Izzy had been dating and living with for quite a time, was allegedly booted out by Geffen Record, as she would claim:

Slash quickly spent the advance money he had received after signing with Geffen in March 1986, and was back to poverty. Rock Scene listed his worldly possessions when they met the band in mid-1987: "Clean clothes, dirty clothes, a bolo tie, magazines and equipment, all in bags" [Rock Scene, September 1987].

Izzy was not better off and would state "I’m so rich I need to borrow $20 to go out tonight" [Rock Scene, September 1987]. Izzy had also broken up with his girlfriend Desi [see previous chapter] and was now without a place to live.



According to Ron Schneider, Slash also lived in the studio during the recording after having just broken up with his girlfriend [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007]. It is possible Schneider confuses Izzy with Slash.

At this time the label had put the band members on a weekly allowance of about $100 a week [Rock Scene, September 1987].





Axl, on the other hand, was said to have settled down and lived in an apartment with a girlfriend after having lived in "over 37 places, including cars" [Rock Scene, September 1987].

In October 1986 they were invited to open for Alice Cooper at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara. This was the first show of Cooper's "The Nightmare Returns" tour that would continue into March 1987.

Slash knew Cooper from before:



For this gig, Axl again turned up late and was unable to enter the venue. The band had to do without their singer, with Izzy and Duff trading vocals.
















After the show the band thrashed their dressing room in anger:





Duff would indicate that as far as Axl goes, they just vented their frustration with him and it was back to normal:




But Slash and Steven would say they had indeed considered firing Axl and look for a new singer:




This inability or unwillingness to solve problems within the band, especially with a band member who increasingly got the band in trouble, would remain a fixture of this lineup and would eventually cause such rife conflicts that band members would leave.

In 2009, Niven would emphasize he had not encouraged the band to fire Axl, but that if they did he would still like to manage them:



In 2014, Arlett Vereecke, would claim Axl's insecurities and stage fright [see later chapter for more information on this] may be the reason for not showing up:





On their show on October 31, Axl apologized for the incident:



Marc Canter believes it was the trashing of the dressing room and what effect it might have on Geffen Records that was the cause of apology, and not Axl missing the show [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007]. This is supported by Axl saying that "we fucked up".



Alice Cooper would later look back at this show, but he might be mixing up this show with some of the later shows the band did with him in 1987:

The next show was on Halloween, October 31, at Ackermann Hall in Los Angeles together with the bands Thelonious Monster, Dickies and Red Hot Chili Peppers.





Axl had previously got in a fight with Bob Forrest, the singer of Thelonius Monster [see earlier chapter], but according to Marc Canter, there were no sings of bad blood between the bands or the singers [Marc Canter, "Reckless Road", 2007].

Henry Rollins attended this gig but had little positive to say about any of the bands except Guns N' Roses:




Apparently, the Chili Peppers had a troublesome show, possibly due to drugs, but Duff was happy with theirs and would remember Henry Rollins, whom he knew from Black Flag giving them them thumbs up during their set:

As mentioned in previous chapters, a big problem was finding the right producer for their first album and they had tried out quite a few. Zutaut and Canter would recount how Mike Clink came up in discussions because of a shared love of the production work on some of the UFO records:






According to Axl, they met Clink at "The Rage", but it is not known what that was [Endless Party Magazine, August 1987].

Clink was wary of their reputation:



Clink would talk about meeting the band for the first time:





Clink loved Guns N' Roses and had seen them live a few times [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p 120].






That band would task Clink with doing a version of Shadow of Your Love:




According to Duff, Clink did a playback and said, "This is how I think your record should sound." As Duff would say, "It was basically us live. And I immediately thought, That's exactly right" [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p 120].

This version of Shadow of Your Love was recorded at Rumbo Recorders on November 23. Although Slash would say it had been recorded at Can Am:

___________________________________________________

The band's first release, the EP Live!?*@ Like a Suicide was released on December 12, 1986.





The EP was released on the Uzi Suicide logo but it was financed and printed by Geffen and distributed through the small independent company Important to make it an independent release:



The accompanying press release was sent out by "the Stravinski Brothers" and signed by "Alan G Stravinski," obviously Alan Niven [December 1986, Press release].

As a sidenote, the band would later use the Uzi Suicide label to sign other artists, including their friend West Arkeen. And Slash would joke that they also intended to release an exercise video on it, based on "Slash-aerobics" [Circus Magazine, May 1989].

The pressing of Live!?*@ Like a Suicide was limited to only 10,000 copies to make it exclusive [Hit Parader, April 1987; Goldmine Magazine, May 1989], although in the much later quote from Niven above he talks about 25,000 units). The songs on the EP were 'Mama Kin', 'Nice Boys', Move To The City' and 'Reckless Life'. Originally, the band wanted four cover songs on one side (including 'Jumpin Jack Flash' and 'Heartbreak Hotel') and four original songs on the other [Concert Shots, May 1986].



The songs on 'Live! Like A Suicide' came from the recording sessions with Spencer Proffer in Pasha Studios, and it took no more than "two or three days" [Steven's biography, "My Appetite for Destruction", 2010, page 109].




The band would claim the time with Proffer only resulted in a demo [Hit Parader, December 1986], to keep up the illusion that the EP was recorded live. Slash, as late as September 1988, would still state it was a live recording [Guitar, September 1988], as would Duff and Steven in December 1988, even to the point of arguing that a live record is more accurate in presenting the band [Interview with Steve Harris, December 1988].

In December 1987, Axl would admit that the EP was recorded in Spencer's studio, despite him making the songs "sound really weak" [Interview with Steve Harris, December 1987].

The band would explain why they released the EP:









Alan Niven would talk about how the release of the Ep and resulting revenues would finance their planned trip to England:






Move To The City received some airplay, especially in the Los Angeles area, as well as overseas, and the 10,000 copies of the first pressing were sold out in 4 weeks with no advertisement [Goldmine Magazine, May 1989]. In December 1986 the band were talking about a reissue [KNAC, December 1986].

The band would claim they financed the release of Live! Live A Suicide with their own money:




So the purpose was to release a fake live EP allegedly released by the band itself, from their own money, to foster more hype about the band and build anticipation for the full-length record to come.

In late 1988, Slash was asked about the first time he heard Guns N' Roses on the radio, and would refer to hearing 'Move to the City', this might have been after the release of this EP:







In 2018, photographer Jack Lue would comment on the picture he took for the back side of the EP (see above):




In 2010, Alan Niven would look back at the release: