2018.02.16 - Talking Metal Podcast - Interview with Doug Goldstein

On this episode of Talking Metal, Mark Strigl speaks with Jon Leon of White Wizzard about the band’s new album Infernal Overdrive.  Then Mark speaks with former Guns N’ Roses manager Doug Goldstein.   Topics with Doug include drummer Eric Singer, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Gene Simmons, U2, Queen, Axl Rose, Slash, GnR and much more.



Transcript of GN'R parts

Mark Strigl: So I wanted to just before we let you go, I just needed to at least hear a brief comment on, you know, the band that you helped bring to such success, Guns N' Roses. You know, what we've seen materialize over the last year and a half at this point is truly spectacular and just from a financial point from... I saw the tour two or three times, I thought they sounded amazing and I really enjoyed it. As someone who is so tight with that whole thing back in the late 80s and early 90s when it happened, is it painful for you to hear how successful they're doing without your involvement? Are you happy? What's your overall take on it?

Doug Goldstein: Yeah, thanks, Mark. I love those guys, I love them with all my heart and soul, they're my family, right? We grew up together like [?] family. We didn't realize how big we were until we got home. People said, "Hey, you're number one in the world," "What? When did that happen?" I know we have a [?], but no, I mean the reality is that thing could have been.... Yeah, I understand it's huge, successful, but it could have been way bigger if I would have been involved. And I would have done it for free. I don't care. I'm at that point, I don't care. They don't want my involvement and I'll discuss that with you a second. But when they originally discussed the announcement, right, "Getting back together," and like Blues Brothers, "Put the band back together"-

MS: Yeah, yeah.

DG: -There was a one paragraph announcement that went out. Now, in my world, I would have hang-glided naked over Giants Stadium with a flare in my ass saying, "We're back!" "You know, our management says we're back." And maybe, just maybe, Slash and Duff would have joined me, maybe, who knows? But I mean, it was just, it went without fanfare. In every city that they're playing, nobody's even aware of their playing. You know, and the thing I'm most proud of Mark, in In the 2 1/2 years Use Your Illusion tour, I defy you to find one empty seat. [?], because I wasn't interested in maximizing the dollars to milk it out of that one, I'm worried about the next city. If you can't get a ticket, you're going to be first in line on the next tour. You know, why are they having such international success? Gee, I don't know. Yeah, they wrote the music, but the fact that my degrees in international marketing, when everybody else is sleeping I'm writing marketing reports and talking to people in Tel Aviv, Australia, South America. So they're not even aware of some of the things that I did for them financially, improving their label deal from a 15% royalty because Niven, whatever, I mean, it's irrelevant. He did some things that were a little unscrupulous, but I had to renegotiate with David Geffen. It actually turned ugly, I won't go into it, but suffice to say, after a number of months - Eddie Rosenblatt is a wonderful, sweet man, president, and David Berman, who's one of my favorite people on the planet, head of business affairs - they allowed me the opportunity to improve that deal to 34 points, more than doubling the royalty. At the time it was the highest royalty in the history of music, they were four points higher than Michael Jackson. Metallica has a better deal now because they use this.... In California they have something called the seven-year statute for any written contract, even marriage, after seven years it becomes null and void. So they contested the seven-year statute and ended up getting a 50/50 deal. But at the time, you know, they got that deal. And oddly enough, the only person who recognized it and thanked me was Izzy Stradlin, who was out of the band. He'd get these massive royalty checks and call me and go, "Dude, thanks, I can buy motorcycles now."

MS: So just to circle back a little bit-

DG: [?]

MS: Yeah, sure. Go ahead.

DH: Yeah, I want to finish on one point. The band is under a misconception, huge misconception. The biggest date in the history of the band is July 5, 1993. And I'll tell you what they think and then I'll tell you reality. They've been told by Niven, right? I'm over in Hawaii being a dad, thinking that I'm going on up on the Mount Rushmore of rock managers with Peter Grant, right? And so I'm losing weight so the sculpture looks good on the Mount Rushmore, right? And so my legacy of course is, "Oh yeah, managed that deal [?], thanks." So while I don't know it, Niven circles back with Slash and Duff and convinces them of the following, on July 5, 1993 the band's in Barcelona, Spain, and Axl tells me, "Come to my room," and so I go to his room - and again, this is what they still believe - I come to this room and Axl says, "Doug, I had the name Guns N' Roses in the beginning, so today, today before the concert, you're going to have Slash and Duff sign a contract, give me back the name, and if they don't I am not going on - and we're no longer in St. Louis, this is Barcelona, Spain - there's going to be riots and those deaths are going to be on those guys' heads." So I then peel off and talk to Lori Soriano, the band's attorney, and she draft the document, I go to soundcheck, present it, those guys sign it, and in an inebriated state, and the rest is history, okay? The reality is July 5, 1993, is the day that my son Jacob Samuel Goldstein was born in Mission Viejo, CA. I wasn't even on the same continent and my wife was in labor for three days. I wasn't communicating with anybody. It was John Reese who ends up to be Judas in my life. John Reese presented it. I had nothing to do with it. I didn't even know it existed. And more importantly, I'm not his own guy, Mark, you can't in that position. If you present that contract, it's under duress. Wipe your butt with that contract. It's null and void. And they're inebriated. They're not competent to sign the contract. So when they sued each other to fight over the name, I was mesmerized that I wasn't brought into court to say, "Hey, did this happen?" I would have said, "Guys, look, it's ludicrous!" The only way that I if, in the fact, that was what was going to happen, if Axl would have asked me that, I would have said, "Dude you can't do it under duress, wait for a week break." And more importantly, they didn't even have legal representation. They just signed it. It's ludicrous that they would operate under the assumption that that's reality, particularly now that they're sober. But they won't listen to me. Maybe, maybe, maybe somebody who's listening to this will go, "Hey guys, just take a look at it." Because, you know Mark, I mean, they're one of the reasons why I'm doing this, right? I had to carry a Narcan on the road and used it on Slash. The same drugs, the same thing that they did on the Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction.

MS: Wow.

DG: You know, watching somebody that you love almost die crushes you. And obviously I lost Shannon Hoon from Blind Melon at that famous rock'n'roll age of 27, Mark. In New Orleans he dies alone in the bunk, leaving a 2 year old girl, Nico, behind.

MS: Og my god, tragic.

DG: I gotta do this, Mark, all the signs are there.

MS: It all ties into the Slam Festival that you are planning and-

DG: -That's right.

MS: -it seems like a great service and I wish you the best of luck on that. I did want to just circle back around with the, you know, reunion of Duff, Axl and Slash, were you implying that... because the tour was immensely successful these past year and a half, two years, were you implying that it could have been more-

DG: In America?

MS: Yeah. In a-

DG: Way more. Where's the television coverage?

MS: But financially, financially, it did rank as the highest, you know, tour of the last year.

DG: And that's great. And I guarantee, I guarantee, with all the [?], I guarantee it-

MS: It could have been bigger, that's what you're saying?

DG: I could have increased it by five times. No question.

MS: Wow. OK.

DG: I mean, that's what I did for them when I was their manager.

MS: Right, right. So again, because there was a lack, there was a lack of press about it, but I thought that was kind of, you know, Axl doesn't like doing interviews and it seems like-

DG: He didn't like doing interviews in the beginning. Look, in 87 and a half, he's no-show on a bunch of interviews. So I talk to Laurie Earl, the publicist - who ended up as a publicist for [?] and Eminem and Snoop and Dre, [?], she did OK with her career, she's retired now, but sweet little girl but she's a little Jack Russell terrier - so I told her I said, "Hey, Laurie, look, stop sending Axl interviews, let's pull those," she goes, "Why? They all wanna talk to him," "Exactly, create supply and demand. This is the law of supply and demand. Pull away the supply and everybody in the world wants them." So he got to pick and choose the interviews that he did. "Do I want to talk to Kurt Loder?" You know, "Do I want to rub up against [?], The Rolling Stones." You got to pick and choose. And Slash and Duff, and occasionally Izzy, would jump in and do interviews. Particularly Slash and Duff. See that's another misnomer. People think that Axl ran that band. No. I mean leave Axl alone. Let him be creative. Slash, he passed out in a chandelier four in the morning. He be banging my door at 9 or 10, "Hey, what are we going to do today?" He'd sit in my room and we'd roll it out together. That guy is a genius, and he also did every teaser design the bands ever put out.

MS: Wow, interesting.

DG: So yeah, it hurts my heart. I've reached out to Duff recently on Facebook Messenger-

MS: Did you?

DG: -kind of told him what I'm up to. And I haven't heard back, you know, again SWSWSW. I think it would be great. I don't want to manage them. That's not my premise. That's not my impetus. You know, I don't know whether they'll ever tour again, but the reality is that's not my goal. You know, if they want to come playing on the show, I'd love to have them. If they want to play on [?], I'd love to have. If they want to do some sort of [?], I'd love to have them. And I'm not asking for a discount, like I said. Whatever your going rate is, come on. Have you exposure, international television. You haven't had any international television yet. [?] with something fantastic like that.

MS: Yeah, well, again, your work speaks for itself in the past and we're definitely looking forward to your work in the future. It sounds like this is just a great cause. Again, we're talking about the Slam Festival with Doug Goldstein, former manager of Guns N' Roses.

Just translated the GN'R parts.