2002.04.16 - CDNow/Allstar - Paul Westerberg's Replacements Reunion Tour Gets Squashed By Axl Rose?

Paul Westerberg's Replacements Reunion Tour Gets Squashed By Axl Rose?

If there's one thing Axl Rose has proven, it's his willingness to find replacements for bandmates who slight him in the slightest way.

That fear is apparently behind Paul Westerberg's sudden silence regarding who plays on his new double album, Stereo/Mono, due April 23 through indie Vagrant Records. (The CD lists only a bevy of obvious pseudonyms.)

After Westerberg admitted to Rolling Stone last month that the musicians included Tommy Stinson, his former partner in seminal '80s alt-rockers the Replacements, a note appeared on an industry gossip site claiming to be from Stinson. It said he hadn't seen Westerberg in four years. Stinson, as Guns N' Roses fans know, has played bass for Axl since replacing Duff McKagan in 1998.

"No comment" is Westerberg's new response to questions about any recent Stinson collaborations. However, he does hint that some very influential someone kiboshed the surprise Replacements reunion he tried assembling in February, a just-for-kicks tour that would have retraced Buddy Holly's unfinished steps on the ill-fated Winter Dance Party jaunt of 1959.

"I think Tommy was advised not to do it, if you can make sense of that," Westerberg tells us. "When I called him, he was anxious and interested in a wild idea like that, and then suddenly had a change of heart. So go figure."

For now, Westerberg has his own tour to focus on, a string of 10 national in-store performances representing his first all-acoustic sets. It launches April 22 at Seattle's Easy Street Records.

"I figure it's been too long for me to ask people to buy the record and to come pay money to see me play," Westerberg says. "So, it's like, if you're willing to buy the record, I'll come and play in the store for free. What kind of deal is that? You can't beat it!"

Westerberg says that if the shows whet his appetite, a proper tour could follow as early as this summer.

Easy, Axl, Tommy won't be on it.

-- Corey Levitan

The interview with Paul Westerberg in Rolling Stone, March 2002, that is mentioned in the above article:
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Paul Westerberg Goes Back to Mono

By COLIN DEVENISH

[...]

On “Silent Film Star” and a few other songs, there’s a guy who sounds an awful lot like [former Replacements bassist] Tommy Stinson singing backing vocals.

There you go. I had tapes of Tom before his voice changed — he sounds like a ten-year-old girl. A lot of times on the records I did the background vocals and then live Tommy sang my parts. He’d be the first to tell you that he learned how to sing from me, and I can’t honestly say I tried to sound like Tommy. I think he’s grown up enough to say he tried to sound like me, but we listened to the same Rod Stewart and Steve Marriott stuff together, but he definitely went more for the high-end screech. I called him in February to say let’s do this, because he was the only guy in the world I knew who could play the bass and sing that part, without even having to listen to it.

Yeah, I heard you ran into [former Replacements drummer] Chris Mars recently.

He was riding by with his wife in a convertible, and I didn’t recognize him. He pulled up in front of my house and I thought, ‘Who is this asshole? Who’s coming up my driveway?” Because he’d gained a little weight and he looked really happy. It was him and he was happy as a clam. I said, “So what do you say? Should we put [the Replacements] together?” And he kind of laughed and said, “Maybe for a week.” I read instantly that he had moved on from this . . . He’s a visual artist like he’s always been, and he’s successful doing set design. I just don’t think he would want to. He would do it for a week but he wouldn’t want to rehearse and stuff, but he would be up for a few laughs.

Are there any plans to get together with Tommy to write new material?

You know, we never really did. The closest we ever came to collaborating was on [the Replacements B-side] “Satellite,” where that was all his song and I sort of suggested the “la la la” part and changed one other part. But it was his song and he had done that for me a few times and we would do that again, but we would never sit down toe to toe and write a song, because we’re both songwriters. It’s like Van Morrison couldn’t sit down and write a song with Bob Dylan.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/paul-westerberg-goes-back-to-mono-178071/

CDNow/Allstar ("Miss Truth" column), May 4, 2002:

Paul Westerberg couldn't resist taking another veiled shot at purported adversary Axl Rose at his final in-store performance Thursday (May 2) at Chicago's Virgin Megastore.

During "Alex Chilton" -- the final song of an hour-long set -- the former Replacements frontman altered the lyrics to the bridge to sing, "I never travel far without a little GN'R" in lieu of "a little Big Star" -- the influential group to which the song pays tribute.

The edit obviously was an allusion to a rift between the Guns N' Roses frontman and himself, which began when Westerberg recently said he was attempting to arrange a Replacements reunion. That news didn't sit well with Axl, who allegedly told new Gunners bassist and former Replacement Tommy Stinson that he was forbidden to regroup with his former 'Mats mates.

Tag, you're it, Axl...

(Fergie Chestnutt)

I suppose the following comment from Tommy was mainly in response to Westerberg's comments in the above CDNow/Allstar articles: