2010.11.03 - SVT - PSL At Guns N Roses Sweden Rock Festival 2010 (Tom Mayhue)

From Blabbermouth: Swedish national TV station SVT has begun airing an eight-part series focusing on four Swedish festivals, including two episodes dedicated to this year's Sweden Rock Festival, which was held June 9-12 in Sölvesborg in southern Sweden. During the Sweden Rock portion of the program, which premiered last night (Tuesday, November 2), Tom Mayhue, Guns N' Roses production manager, offered — for the first time ever — a tour of singer Axl Rose's private space on stage (featuring an oxygen and humidifier system, a television monitor and a microphone, among other items).

Transcript in development:

Tom Mayhue; outside stage: Hi, my name is Tom Mayhue. We're here at Sweden Rock with the group Guns N' Roses about to do a performance this evening here. It's getting to be a little better of a day, it was overcast and raining this morning but hopefully we'll have a nice show for the kids this evening. Why don't you come up on stage and take a look around, we'll show you, give you a little tour.

TM: onstage: They're doing the changeover right now for Bachman & Turner and that should be done shortly. This is our audio-world on this side over here. It's all the mixing consoles for all the different bands.

TM; entering Axl's "chamber": I will give you a quick little tour here of Axl's world. This is a very unique set-up, there's nothing like it in the world. This is his oxygen/humidifier system, and it helps get air back into his lungs. Get him going. And it's heated. It's almost like a little tea kettle [puts the mask infront of the camera]. That's a good fog right out on your camera, that'll be a nice cut right there. He will spend a few minutes during the solos, things like that, he's got a television monitor as well so he can monitor the show, what's going on out there. It's five cameras on our stage so he's got a lot of different views and the ability to see the content of stuff that's rolling also on the screens. The microphone here is so that everybody that's in the band and the crew -  we all wear the in-ear monitors. So when you got the in-ear monitors this doesn't go out to the PA system, but that way Axl can communicate with everybody in the band and the crew so if we change a song or something, call out a song, that we need to prepare for, that way the technicians have time to get the guitars together - we come out with the right guitars and the right tuning.

Lesley Wallace, production assistant: This is the band's dressing room compound. And normally the band and Axl have to separate, different compounds, just because there's so many in the band and Axl has so much stuff and.. so we just kind of separate it cause Axl and his whole party travels separately from the band's party. It's always been like that. They get on really well when they are together. Each family works differently, I guess.

[showing drink and wine] We have a lot of guests, a lot of the time, and our drummer collects wine. So, you know, he'll drink one bottle from them and then he will put the rest away in his wardrobe case and they all get shipped home, you know.

[entering another room] And then there's a masseuse here for them, there will be a chiropractor here for them as well.

[entering the gym] And then around.... this is the gym equipment. Axl has these set up every day. He exercises every day, show day. The ball and the skip rope and this is the shaker, the new vibrator plate that is supposed to be the best thing ever for your circulation and things.

[showing Axl's room] This is Axl's dressing room. And it's always draped black or red and he always has roses and lights that are dark. He has his practise keyboard. He has all of his, same beverages, same, you know, same food - which they are still finishing off right now so we will just get out of their way in a minute. But yeah, we try to make it as homely as possible for him in all these different places.

DJ: You know, obviously Axl runs the ship and you know, it's like, with anything it's like, he's very much, "this is a band," you know, and it's very much a family. It's really a tight-knit family. It's just been... you know, I've been treated amazing, so, I'm stoked.