2016.12.01 - Moshpit (SYN 90.7 Australia) - Interview with DJ Ashba

Excerpts from Blabbermouth:
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Former Guns N 'Roses and current Sixx: A.M. guitarist DJ Ashba says that he "had a lot of artistic freedom to do things" with GN'R offstage during his six-year stint with the band.

Ashba, who joined Guns N 'Roses in March 2009 following the departure of Robin Finck, told Ellen of the "Moshpit" show, which airs on the SYN 90.7 radio station in Melbourne, Australia (hear audio below): "Well, I learned a lot [from my time with Guns N 'Roses] onstage and offstage. I learned a lot about the business side of things and just how on a very, very large scale a band operates. It's much different when you're touring with a band in a machine like Guns N 'Roses than touring in a small, little band like Beautiful Creatures. So you learn a lot. And I'm a sponge. You learn about budgets and all kinds of stuff, and you apply that to your own thing. So you can't buy the experience that I experienced playing stadiums every night. And although it was not my music — it was somebody else's music — the experience was just… it's so valuable. I learned a lot and now I can apply it, on and offstage, in Sixx: A.M."

According to Ashba, his company Ashba Media — which designed the box offices for Cirque Du Soleil's "Zarkana", "Zumanity", "The Beatles Love" and "Criss Angel: Believe" — was involved in creating some of the merchandise items that were sold on the GN'R tour. "We designed Axl's [Rose] piano and we designed some stage stuff, and it was cool," he said. "We designed some t-shirts and lot of the posters and flyers for different things. So, I mean, it was fun. I had a lot of fun, both because I was in there playing guitar, but also I had a lot of artistic freedom to do things and help in different ways offstage, which was kind of fun for me."

https://blabbermouth.net/news/dj-ashba-says-he-learned-a-lot-during-his-six-year-stint-with-guns-n-roses