1994.12.16 - The Central New Jersey Home News - John, Paul, George & Gilby?

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John, Paul, George & Gilby?

Guns N’ Roses guitarist says he's bigger than Jesus, er, Aerosmith

By MICHELE AMABILE
On the Go Correspondent

Gilby Clarke is a major superstar in South America.

As one of the principal members of Guns N’ Roses, Gilby Clarke is already a recognizable face and name in rock 'n' roll. But in South America, Gilby Clarke, solo artist, is bigger than Aerosmith.

“When we get down there, I swear it is like Beatlemania,” he laughed. "There is like, hundreds of kids tearing your clothes and your hair and stuff, and when you get to the hotel, there is hundreds of kids outside the hotel screaming with banners and all that kind of stuff for like, 24 hours. Nobody understands, even my record company. I told them when we went down there that I had to take security and all of that and they are like 'Oh, yeah sure you do.’ Then they get down there and they are like, 'Oh My God.’ Even Aerosmith doesn’t get that stuff, and they were pretty much shocked at what was going on.”

He is calling from a tour stop in Florida. That evening he will play Jani Lane's Sunset Strip, a club owned by the Warrant frontman. He has been on the road since November in support of his solo effort, "Pawn Shop Guitars,” which hosts a who's who of rock n’ roll with appearances by Frank Black (formerly of The Pixies), Skid Row’s Rob Af-fuso and the Gunners themselves -Matt Sorum, Duff McKagen, Dizzy Reed, the ubiquitous Slash, and one W. Axl Rose.

Produced by Waddy Wachtel, a respected guitarist who has worked with many members of the rock ’n’ roll elite, including Melissa Etheridge, "Pawn Shop Guitars” is a strong showcase for a guy whose rock credits in pre-Guns days included the 1980s glam band, Candy (who recorded one album for Mercury entitled "Whatever Happened to Fun?") and the 1988 hard rock outfit Kills For Thrills.

The single, “Cure Me or Kill Me” charted in the Top 10 in rock radio air play, and the CD includes two faithful covers of The Rolling Stones' “Dead Flowers” (a duet featuring Rose) and the Clash’s “Jail Guitar Doors,” a favorite of Clarke's.

“When you're covering the Clash you have to do it with attitude,” Clarke said. “That is why I had Duff play bass and drums on it and had Frank play guitar with me.” “I wanted every song to stand apart, so when I brought people in it was like ‘Hey, Frank you should come in and play guitar on the Clash song' because he
could have a good punk rock attitude,” he explained of the record’s all-star cast. “I had all the GNR guys in there. And I had all the guys in my live band play on different songs to get the right feel. I had Rob from Skid Row play drums on a song. It was all about having a good feel and having some fun while we were making the album."

It was this communal attitude that makes "Pawn Shop Guitars" such a fun record. From the rollicking "Tijuana Jail” to the Beatles'-influenced "Black" (with fellow Gunner keyboardist Dizzy Reed contributing his talents on the mellotron), "Pawn Shop Guitars" sounds like a free-spirited jam session. According to Clarke, it was more about friends making music together.

"Slash is one of my best friends, and when I made the record I had Matt and Slash down quite a bit. Even when they weren’t recording, they were hanging out. It was nice to have a bunch of people on a lot of songs because it made it more than being just my record, it made it everybody's record," he said.

But it is Clarke’s record. On it, he handles all the vocal responsibilities, as well as all of the guitar
playing. And, unlike a lot of artists, Clarke has written all the lyrics, with the exception of “Lets Get Lost,” a collaboration with Jonathon Daniel.

"A lot of people don't expect stuff because they only know me from playing guitar in GNR," he said. “They are pleasantly surprised when they get a tape and they realize its real songs and real music and not just a guitar player jacking off on record."

“It’s strange, because my favorite thing to do is play guitar," he continued. “Singing is OK, but I wish people wouldn’t judge the singing thing so much. I don’t mind singing and playing guitar, it’s just that a lot of people say 'as a lead singer he is average,’ but that is not really what I am trying to do. I just think it is more honest if I write and record my own record AND sing my own record. I think that is way more honest than if I were to get a singer to do it.”

Still, the GNR comparisons have haunted Clarke’s tour. Recently, Clarke picked up an article from his home state of Ohio where one reviewer criticized his band for going on late at a show. Clarke is quick to point out that his tour is nothing like the GNR tours in which the band goes on late on a regular basis.

"That night something actually happened, and some kid wrote this HUGE article about how inconsiderate I am for going on late, and how she had heard that GNR is notorious for going on late, and that I don't think about my fans, and how they have to go to work. the next morning," he said. "It is really very funny, because I am reading all this stuff, and I was going ‘God, man, how misguided.' But that’s the way it goes, you can't please everybody. I'm not the one that puts the stage time at 11:30."

Since Clarke and his band (consisting of Will Effertz on bass, Ryan Roxie on guitar, and Mark Danzeisen), are booked solid through the spring, with swings through Europe and Japan planned, one nagging question re-mains-just when in tarnation are Guns N’ Roses going to make another record?

"I have no idea," he said. "Even though I talk to Slash once a week, it’s something I don't like to talk about. I mean, I actually have no idea, really I don’t even get into it. I had nothing to

do with that last cover (GNR's lat-est offering, a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy For the Devil,” featured in the movie "Interview With the Vampire"). I was on the road the whole time."