Axl and Paul Stanley

While looking for a decent picture of Paul Stanley to the history section, I came across this picture which I haven't seen before. Apparently from 1986, the same year Stanley was interested in working with GN'R. Axl looks so young.

Yeah, I think I have seen it. Axl was only 24

Looks more like 14

Looks like he's wearing his suspenders the wrong way around

I would love to be a fly to see Paul offering to produce the band and asking them to sugar-coat the songs like he apparently did!

I believe that is the ONLY Paul and Axl picture in circulation from that era, isn’t it?

ludurigan wrote:I believe that is the ONLY Paul and Axl picture in circulation from that era, isn’t it?

I think so. I wonder exactly when it was taken. Axl has his hair set up so probably in connection with one of the two shows that Paul Stanley attended?

yes, most likely in 1986.

If I am not mistaken this photo is on Robert Johns book "The Photographic History". do you have it?

I am pretty surprised that someone as knowledgeable as you on all things GNR had never seen this picture before!

ludurigan wrote:yes, most likely in 1986.

If I am not mistaken this photo is on Robert Johns book "The Photographic History". do you have it?

I am pretty surprised that someone as knowledgeable as you on all things GNR had never seen this picture before!

Hah! What you need to know about me is that I have large gaps in my knowledge and that my memory is terrible!

No, I don't have that book, but maybe @Blackstar ?

oh it is brilliant https://www.ebay.com/itm/1993-First-Edition-Guns-N-Roses-The-Photographic-History-Book/224041101554

Soulmonster wrote:

ludurigan wrote:yes, most likely in 1986.

If I am not mistaken this photo is on Robert Johns book "The Photographic History". do you have it?

I am pretty surprised that someone as knowledgeable as you on all things GNR had never seen this picture before!

Hah! What you need to know about me is that I have large gaps in my knowledge and that my memory is terrible!

No, I don't have that book, but maybe @Blackstar ?

.
Yes, I have it (in a way). The picture is indeed in the book. I didn't remember it was from there.
The caption reads: "Axl with Paul Stanley of Kiss at Rajis on Hollywood Boulevard."

Great, I updated the caption to the history section, too: https://www.a-4-d.com/t4942-06-january-december-1986-getting-signed#18958

wow, this chapter is very interesting.

a quick note for you there is a date typo where it is written "MAY 31, 1985: GAZZARRI'S" instead of "MAY 31, 1986: GAZZARRI'S"

i kept on reading and Slash pretty much makes a love declaration to that show on Rajis and he mentions that there is a photo on the Appetite booklet from that show

Do you think you can identify which photo is from that particular show?

Oh, check this out... just googled and found an interesting 2019 quote from Holly Knight (songwriter) where she confirms that she went to see Guns n Roses with Paul Stanley in 1986 and she also makes some interesting observations!

The quote is taken from a Holly interview to Robert Ferraro on a website called "ofpersonalinterest.com"

I copied and pasted it below...

Link here: http://ofpersonalinterest.com/holly-knight-hall-of-fame-songwriter-embraces-her-legacy-while-still-looking-ahead/

Robert Ferraro: For someone who is not anywhere near as famous as she could be, your name comes up a lot in conversations I have with other artists. Paul Stanley tells a story that I can’t remember verbatim, about going to see Guns N’ Roses play back in the 80’s with a business purpose in mind, and there being discrepancies in the story he and some of their band members told about the meeting afterwards. Amongst other details, someone in Guns claimed that Paul showed up to a rehearsal with a blonde, and Paul said, “That’s why you can’t trust alcoholics and drug addicts. Because I wasn’t with a blonde…I was with Holly Knight!”

Holly Knight: (laughs) I was with him, and my hair couldn’t have been darker. I remember that night clearly because Paul thought he might want to produce them. We were in the hallway as Axl walked by and he had heels on and was quite tall and really skinny with the long red hair of course. Paul said hello and shook his hand and then as he just walked right on by I thought, “There goes the devil.” [laughs] I’m pretty instinctive and a little witchy in this way. I just thought to myself, “My God that guy is trouble.” After we heard them play Paul said, “What do you think? Should I produce them?” and I said something along the lines of “They’ll never make it” or something really stupid like that. Paul loves the fact that I said it, and has never let me forget it. I suppose I was wrong.

Robert: A little bit. [laughs]

Holly: In my defense, I hadn’t heard their album. I was seeing them live and the sound at the Whisky that night was terrible. I definitely found Axl interesting as a singer. That was undeniable. I just didn’t see the rest. Hey, it happens to the best of us. I was working with Katy Perry and I went to a someone who shall remain nameless, because they’d kill me for saying this, and I said, “Do you want to finish this song with me?” and he said, “Oh, I don’t think she’s ever going to make it. She’s just a big boobed ditzy chick.” or something along those lines.

ludurigan wrote:wow, this chapter is very interesting.

a quick note for you there is a date typo where it is written "MAY 31, 1985: GAZZARRI'S" instead of "MAY 31, 1986: GAZZARRI'S"

i kept on reading and Slash pretty much makes a love declaration to that show on Rajis and he mentions that there is a photo on the Appetite booklet from that show

Do you think you can identify which photo is from that particular show?

Thank you!

No, I don't think I can. There are som many pictures on the sleeve:

ludurigan wrote:Oh, check this out... just googled and found an interesting 2019 quote from Holly Knight (songwriter) where she confirms that she went to see Guns n Roses with Paul Stanley in 1986 and she also makes some interesting observations!

The quote is taken from a Holly interview to Robert Ferraro on a website called "ofpersonalinterest.com"

I copied and pasted it below...

Link here: http://ofpersonalinterest.com/holly-knight-hall-of-fame-songwriter-embraces-her-legacy-while-still-looking-ahead/

Robert Ferraro: For someone who is not anywhere near as famous as she could be, your name comes up a lot in conversations I have with other artists. Paul Stanley tells a story that I can’t remember verbatim, about going to see Guns N’ Roses play back in the 80’s with a business purpose in mind, and there being discrepancies in the story he and some of their band members told about the meeting afterwards. Amongst other details, someone in Guns claimed that Paul showed up to a rehearsal with a blonde, and Paul said, “That’s why you can’t trust alcoholics and drug addicts. Because I wasn’t with a blonde…I was with Holly Knight!”

Holly Knight: (laughs) I was with him, and my hair couldn’t have been darker. I remember that night clearly because Paul thought he might want to produce them. We were in the hallway as Axl walked by and he had heels on and was quite tall and really skinny with the long red hair of course. Paul said hello and shook his hand and then as he just walked right on by I thought, “There goes the devil.” [laughs] I’m pretty instinctive and a little witchy in this way. I just thought to myself, “My God that guy is trouble.” After we heard them play Paul said, “What do you think? Should I produce them?” and I said something along the lines of “They’ll never make it” or something really stupid like that. Paul loves the fact that I said it, and has never let me forget it. I suppose I was wrong.

Robert: A little bit. [laughs]

Holly: In my defense, I hadn’t heard their album. I was seeing them live and the sound at the Whisky that night was terrible. I definitely found Axl interesting as a singer. That was undeniable. I just didn’t see the rest. Hey, it happens to the best of us. I was working with Katy Perry and I went to a someone who shall remain nameless, because they’d kill me for saying this, and I said, “Do you want to finish this song with me?” and he said, “Oh, I don’t think she’s ever going to make it. She’s just a big boobed ditzy chick.” or something along those lines.

Oh, that's great! I added that Knight quote to the story chapter. Thank you!

i also found this youtube audio where Paul Stanley is reading his own book and he reads exactly the quotes that you guys put on the history section.

here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4m9bEx5UtU

pauls quotes on guns n roses are a bit more "complete" at the beginning than what is quoted on the history section and also at the end where he talks a bit more at length about slash but i guess you guys probably already know that and edited that out of the history section on purpose, right?

going a bit deeper (i love the internet) on that youtube audio (video) there is some anonymous person with a youtube username of "faceless" who makes a comment on pauls story and claims that it is true. he (or she) says that he (she) was a member of an opening band. I found the quote interesting, even though there is no way to know if that is a true quote, anyone could have written that comment...

I copied and pasted it below

YOUTUBE COMMENT BY "FACELESS" This is absolutely a true story. I was at Gazzarri's that Saturday night G N R played that Paul mentions. My band had played earlier in the evening so naturally we all stuck around to watch G N R. it was the first live show they played after signing to Geffen and it had been several months since they had played live. It was SO packed in the club, probably the most packed I had ever seen it there and there was a who's who of celebrities there to see the new superstars of the LA scene. I was amazed and thrilled to See Paul "running sound" for Guns if you can call it that. With all due respect to Paul he had every fader on the board maxed and it was SO freakin' loud. I was standing right there by the sound booth and I yelled something at Paul, I can't remember what but he just smiled and yelled back "it sounds fuckin' great!" It was so surreal. I can't remember if the girl he was with was a blonde or brunette. My memory always pictured her as a hot blonde but she may have been Holly Knight. What I thought was so funny was Paul holding her hand with his left hand while running sound with his right hand. That was one of many incredible times I experienced in Hollywood in the golden era of metal known as the 80's.

Soulmonster wrote:
Oh, that's great! I added that Knight quote to the story chapter. Thank you!

you are welcome, i am happy you added the quote, i guess it adds something to the story!

ludurigan wrote:

Soulmonster wrote:
Oh, that's great! I added that Knight quote to the story chapter. Thank you!

you are welcome, i am happy you added the quote, i guess it adds something to the story!

Yes, it adds a bit to the disagreement between Stanley and Slash and also gives an interest first-person account of the band back then.

Soulmonster wrote:While looking for a decent picture of Paul Stanley to the history section, I came across this picture which I haven't seen before. Apparently from 1986, the same year Stanley was interested in working with GN'R. Axl looks so young.

Finally! There's this same pic but with a watermark, thanks for sharing