2021.04.13 - Golden Robot's 7 mins Max - Interview with Doug Goldstein

Transcript:

Golden Robot Records: All right, here we go. I'm very excited. It's still series two and it's episode 30. And really, does this man need any introduction? Well, maybe he does. Mr. Doug Goldstein, one of probably the best known managers in America today. He had his illustrious career, what, 17, 18 years with Guns N' Roses and the height of their success and various other bands. Welcome to my humble little podcast, 7 Minutes Max.

Doug Goldstein: Thank you, Mr. Mark. Yes, sir. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

GRR: You're a good man. I've been trying to get you on for a while, but down in Florida there and the sun's so nice and between drinking pina coladas and going to barber shops, you've got no time for me.

DG: Exactly, but yeah, that's right, man. Yeah, yeah.

GRR: Okay, so buddy, you know the way this works. We put you on for seven minutes. If it takes longer, it takes longer, that's fine. But I don't think it'd be possible to ask you seven questions in seven minutes, is it?

DG: I don't think so, buddy. It's a bit like my sex life. It could either end really quick or not.

GRR: Or not happen at all. Too funny. All right, buddy, here we go. So your time starts now. All right, question one. What's the most rebellious stage act you've ever seen? And where?

DG: That has to be Axl Rose diving into the crowd to beat up the punter on his own instead of letting security handle it. And St. Louis, easily. That's a no-brainer.

GRR: The St. Louis incident.

DG: That's right. Yeah. It was the second show they've ever held in the building, and it was literally torn down. The building was torn down and they walked away with all of our gear.

GRR: Unbelievable. What year was that?

DG: It would have been '91.

GRR: 1991. Unbelievable. Alright. Perfect. Alright. If you could go back, so that's question one, thank you. So question two. If you could go back in time and see a band that you've never seen before, who would that have been and when?

DG: The Fab Four, I would love to see the Beatles and I would like to see them during the early days when it was chaotic. Um, like they're, uh, the first arrival into New York. Yeah. I think that would have been amazing. Big fan, big, big, big, big fan of the Beatles. It's a neat, but to watch what happened, what transpired in the evolvement of the music in a seven year period. Shit me, from Meet the Beatles to the White Album and Sergeant Pepper's, forget about it.

GRR: It's interesting, you look at that. Remember they came out with that red and that blue best of? Like the red was 60s and the blue was 70s. It's like a different band, how they just moved. It's unbelievable.

DG: I mean look I hate to always refer back to GN'R but it's what I know, I had 17 years and that's what I always say about you know people ask me all the time why do they break up and my response is normally the same. If it was up to Axl it would have been the evolvement of the Beatles and if it was up to Slash it would have been more along the lines of either AC/DC or the Rolling Stones. Where pretty much you knew what to expect for album and wasn't a whole lot of evolvement in the music.

GRR: Yeah, interesting. It'd be interesting to see if and when new music sees a light of day, what it sounds like.

DG: Yeah, I do hear interesting scuttlebutt about there may be some differences of opinion. [laughs] It's nice that its somebody else's fucking plate down side of mine. I got tired of wearing that black and white striped shirt. I got tired of wearing that black and white shirt.

GRR: The referee, the umpire. All right. Question three. Which one of your idols, it doesn't have to be music, it can be anything. Which one of your idols have you met that was awesome? And which one of your idols have you met that was a nightmare? That was not who you thought it be. He wasn't as good or she wasn't as good as you thought he might be, or she might be.

DG: Well, oddly enough, because I'd have to, I'd have to paraphrase it by saying there was a time period, 1991, our former president, Donald Trump came to the show. Madison Square Garden, with the premise that he wanted to meet the quote unquote "Donald Trump of rock and roll." And I looked at him like you showed a dog a card trick and said, pick one anyone because I had no clue what he was talking about. He said, "Doug, look," he said, "when you're the underdog, the press builds you to the top and the [?] at the top, they jerk your ass back down." And he said, "That's what's happening to your singer now." And he was right. But I take people on face value, you know that about me, Mark. And he was as pleasant as can be. And the very next night I literally was out having Thai food with Peter Mensch who manages the Chili Peppers, Metallica and Black Keys and Muse. And there are a few bands that he doesn't manage. And I hear this "Doug Goldstein!" I look up and it's Donald Trump. He comes and sits down. He talks to me for about 45 minutes and gave me his business card. And I used to carry it around telling people I have the Trump card. I mean, he was just a pleasant, pleasant as could be. So again, I go on face value and how people treat me. I'm not a real political guy, to be honest with you. So I don't really, I didn't get caught up into what he was or who he was as a president. But, and I'd have to say least, and boy, I hate to say that I'm not really into idol worship, but as far as somebody that I thought would be nicer than they really were, it was Morgan Fairchild. Tsh, what a serious idiot she is. "Get out of my way. I have a date with Roger Daltry" as they had me to.

GRR: Wow. Was that during the Gunners days?

DG: And you know what, in all fairness, I have to say another person who's just incredibly nice is Priscilla Presley. I've known since about '85, I guess. Just a tremendous person.

GRR: And Priscilla's son is in a band now called Them Guns that you manage that's on Golden Robot. That's what I hear, yeah. Very cool, very cool, very cool. All right, brilliant. Question four, and you're on five minutes, 30 seconds. You're doing well. Question four, question four. All right, you're in LA, you're walking down the street. It's two in the morning, you're on your own. No one's around. You look down an alley, you see a bag. You go down because you're curious. There's one million dollars in that bag. One million US. No one's around, no one's claiming it, no one's interested, the money's sitting there. What do you do?

DG: Feed the homeless.

GRR: Okay. The whole lot?

DG: Because I had that money before and I didn't. So I don't anymore.

GRR: So you're not handing it in, you're keeping the million. How much are you spending on the homeless out of that million? How much are you gonna-

DG: Probably 900,000.

GRR: And then what would you buy, a Cadillac or something?

DG: Nah. Yeah, I'd probably leave the other 100, I'd split it in half and give it to the sons.

GRR: Nice. Okay. Okay. 900 to the homeless, 100 grand to family. I like that. At least you said you do. At least you're not going to hand it back. I'm not handing it back.

DG: To who? There's nobody there. I'm not going on an Easter egg hunt to find out who the hell left it.

GRR: Totally. Totally. All right. Oh, it's yours, baby. It's yours. Don't worry about that. All right. Question six. Where and what was it your best fast food experience? Your best fast food experience?

DG: That's easy. That's a no brainer. It's the best job of my life. I worked at Burger King when I was 16. Yeah, cleaning out the grills. I was closing and at 16, doing the closing shift, I'd go to the beach during the day in San Diego and then I'd go to work and I'd say the youngest gal closing was about 22. They would take turns taking me out to the parking lot and having their way with me. Yeah, well, of course, I mean, tough to force the willing in this situation like that. That was the best job I ever had, including Guns. On the Burger King tour than on any GN'R tour.

GRR: And you just used to eat the food, the whopper. Do you have a whopper on Burger King? Is that the whopper?

DG: I didn't have a whopper, but they didn't care. Mine was small. Oh, I'm sorry, we took up at the burger. Yeah, that's right, yeah. I love it.

GRR: And would you still eat Burger King today?

DG: Oh, no doubt. Yeah, yeah. Well, I love the BK fish.

GRR: BK fish?

DG: Throw a little lettuce and tomato and onion on that one? Oh, yeah.

GRR: Too funny, too funny.  Too funny. All right. What's the best advice you've ever been given and what's the worst advice you've ever been given?

DG: Best advice is probably, SWSWSW, and that's from my father. And it's applicable in pretty much every situation of business, "Some will, some won't, so what".

GRR: And how did you take that? Like, how do you take that? We've got a frozen, Doug. You still there, buddy? So what was the, we dropped out there for two seconds. So what was, let's really go over the question, question seven. What's the best advice you've been given and what's the worst advice you've been given?

DG: Oh, my father's always been my advisor and he gives me incredible, so I mean, there's so many to choose from, but the one that I always kind of latch on to is, "Some will, some won't, so what" SWSWSW. Basically, it just reminds me not to take life too serious that not everybody that you pitch is going to accept whatever your proposal is, and that's okay, move on, because somebody will. The worst advice is probably get out of the music business because there's no money in it.

GRR: Fair enough. How different do you think music business is today, 2021, compared to say 1991?

DG: Incredibly different. Yeah, I mean, I was really proud of the fact that I negotiated the biggest recording deal in the history of music, and now it's completely irrelevant, because as we all know, music's free. So, it used to be that you would tour to support your album, and now it's just the opposite, of course. So you give away your music to hopefully build a fan base that will attend your shows.

GRR: And obviously I know the answer to this, I have my own opinion on this, but do you think there'll ever be a band that can achieve the hype like Guns N' Roses did from say '89 to '93 ever again? Can you see those times coming back when we have a band that's the biggest band in the world doing what they did?

DG: I think so, yeah, I really do. It's the interesting thing that always occurs to me is kids still listen to AC/DC, Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, Metallica. And I believe it's because primarily the music, lead guitar. There's no lead guitar today. And so people miss that, you know? There's no guitar heroes. My son, I love my son to death, but he plays in a band called Hunny, H-U-N-N-Y. And he was an amazing lead guitarist, but he's in a band that they play power chords. So he doesn't get to show off his skillset. I do think that somebody will get it right and they'll start recording music that's easily listenable for lack of a better description I guess. In other words it's not so complex musically that turns people off because that was really the thing about GN'R at least as far as I can figure is there was enough diversity to really keep people entertained but more importantly they weren't trying to reinvent the wheel. They tried to perfect the wheel, but they weren't trying to reinvent the wheel. It wasn't so complex musically that you lost the average punter. You know, it was likable. So yeah, I think somebody will get there again.

GRR: I believe they will. I mean, I'm betting a lot of time and effort and money on the fact that they will. I really do believe that they will get, a band will get to the heights again. And I do believe, and everyone, there is people who disagree with me, but I do believe we will have another Appetite or we'll have another Back in Black or we'll have another Thriller, et cetera, et cetera. Someone that'll sell 40, 50 million copies of an album. I really do believe, I'm talking about in the rock game, you know, in the rock and roll. I do believe that we will get back there eventually. I think it's all turning, coming back around again.

DG: Inevitably, you know, Mark, it always has. It's, I mean, you know, you and I go back to, you know, listening to The Fix, right? I mean, you'd have bands that were pop, and, you know, and The Cure and bands like that that were really good bands. But I mean, particularly the Fix, I mean, I really liked that band, but they never sold to the potential that they could have. Now, was it bad management or I don't, who knows? But I, you know, it's, the questions that kind of the, the where we're headed with this, it reminds me of the discussion that I have with Peter Grant, the manager of Led Zeppelin. When I met him, I was actually on my honeymoon and he said, oh my God, Doug Goldstein, he said, I was just talking about you on BBC radio and I said, all right, why? He said, because no bands come on the scene since Led Zeppelin until you guys.

GRR: He meant Guns N' Roses?

DG: That's right. And so I guess my point to kind of bring it full circle is, yeah. And I mean, nobody really thought that there would ever be a Led Zeppelin again. Yeah. And so I don't think, I don't think it's a tough ask that we'll see that again.

GRR: You know what I think it is though, and I talk about it a lot, obviously, it's what we do 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I think there's a lot of great bands out there and we've got 350 odd bands across our roosters and there is some fantastic bands, a band like Them Guns with Nav in it, could be a huge band. However, what the ingredients that's missing at the moment is the world, I believe, needs a rock star.

DG: Oh, absolutely.

GRR: Yeah, we're missing that that that rock star that that Bowie or that Prince or that Michael Hutchins or that yeah, Morrison. We need a rock star again. I'm looking for a rock star. That could be our new that could be a new reality show. We could be on the we could be on the panel.

DG: I love it. Yeah, that's right.

GRR: All right, but thank you so much.

DG: Wouldn't we want to own the show though, instead of being on the panel?

GRR: No, we will own it. That's why we are on the panel. Alright, man. Thank you so much for your time. That was episode 30 of Seven Minute Max with Doug Goldstein. Buddy, you're a good man and I'll talk to you soon.

DG: I got you, Mark. Peace.

GRR: See you, buddy.

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