1995.01.DD - Beat (Norwegian) - Get Well, Axl! (Slash)

Thanks to @jaknudsen for sending us this translated interview!





Translated transcription:

Get well, Axl!

Slash is accusing Axl Rose of megalomania: Axl wants to turn Guns N' Roses into a version of Pink Floyd's The Wall. In the long run this will be the end of Guns, Slash is telling BEAT in Los Angeles. Now he's focusing his efforts on the Snakepit solo project.

TEXT: SINDRE KARTVEDT

- MAYBE AXL HAD a plan about all this, but I never had any greater ambitions than to play in a good band and see where that would take us. Being a superstar always seemed way beyond my range ...

And without a Gibson Les Paul across his crotch, his curtain of black curls in front of his face, or wearing a full black leather garb, it becomes easier to take rock's last guitar hero at his word. Wearing a flannel shirt and baseball cap, Slash seems far less mysterious and awe-inspiring than he does as one of Guns N' Roses' two most fabled, mythic members - the band's Keith Richards in contrast to Axl Rose as Mick Jagger, if the Rolling Stones parallel still holds for Guns N' Roses.

It does. Guns N' Roses is the last real rock'n'roll band in a musical era where theatrics, drama and myth have been discarded in favor of self-pitying, democratic rants about how awful it is to be Eddie, Kurt, Huey, Dewy or Louie. Which does not bode well for rock's future recruitment, and thus its future. Because who wants to be Stone Temple Pilots when they grow up? Not that Axl Rose doesn't have his numerous moments of self-pity, but at least he has enough shame to make rock opera out of it.

Everything was, of course, better before, when young people could aspire to one fine day descend to the Rolling Stones' or Led Zeppelin's, or even The Clash's super-decadent amorality - when rock was not performed by aimless everyday hero aspirants with both guilt and martyr complexes, but cool gods in tight jeans who solved their problems with Jack Daniel's instead of Prozac. I mean, what's the point of being a rock star – what's the point of rock itself – if you're not going on a world tour in your own Lear jet?

And that's exactly what Guns N' Roses did 30 months straight after the release of the outrageous double release Use Your Illusion I & ll in 1991. Now, at a time when bands are making CD-ROMs and touring on the Internet, Slash has added another measure to Guns N' Roses' mythic status by designing a Guns N' Roses pinball machine - the definitive rock sport.

- Pinball is synonymous with bars, noise, billiards and ladies, says Slash, visibly proud of his creation.

- And all of that has been my schooling in this world, so ...

However, all is not as it should be in Guns N' Roses' Paradise. Axl appears to have indulged his capricious temperament and partly dubious taste in music - notable mentions are The Eagles, Elton John, Paul McCartney – elements that also found their way into some of the more experimental cuts on Use Your Illusion. The band as a whole have not recorded any original material since the double release, and the individual members have instead been doing what frustrated superbands do in a position like this; making solo records. First the defector Izzy Stradlin, then the bassist Duff McKagan, then the mercenary Gilby Clarke - and now Slash himself, as with his side project Snakepit and It's Five O'Clock Somewhere he breaks his long-standing promise to never leave Guns N' Roses' pleasant hearth.

AT ITS BEST, Snakepit sounds noticeably like redundant tracks from Guns N' Roses' classic debut album Appetite For Destruction – however without a vocalist at Axl's level, both in terms of lung power and personality. Instead, the album is built around Slash's gigantic guitar playing, which in tandem with Guns drummer Matt Sorum whips it all up to a screaming frenzy.

The record company and management emphasize in advance how important it is that Slash is asked about Snakepit, and not Guns N' Roses, as if Snakepit would exist if Guns N' Roses were not worth talking about. But when the protagonist arrives, an hour and a half late as expected, he turns out to be a well-meaning, sincere guy who just wants to play loud and fast, and doesn't quite understand why he can't do just that.

And it's not just because of a full bottle of Absolut vodka that Geffen makes available in his meeting room one pre-Christmas afternoon. As the tongue tie loosens, it becomes apparent that Slash – the beating heart of Guns N' Roses – is at least as curious about what's going on with his band as everyone else is. If not more.

BEAT: - What was it like to make a record outside of Guns N' Roses?

Slash: - It was very natural, very spontaneous. There is not much that is devised in advance. I was very busy with Guns N' Roses while working on Snakepit, and there was never any talk of putting together a completely new, permanent band. This is definitely a hobby project.

We did what occurred to us, one logical conclusion followed another, and it all fell into place very easily. It was never intended to make any big "message". Many have said that this is just a rock'n'roll record, and that was the point. I wanted it to be a good record, but I never felt the same pressure as when Guns N' Roses make something. Instead, it was just... oh, fuck! Hard! That was probably one of the main reasons why I made this record at full speed. I had so much fun. Whether it sells 10,000 or 100,000, it's worth having that much fun without thinking about the huge cloud that hangs over Guns N' Roses' aura now...

BEAT: - You have always said that you would never make a solo record. Just what Keith Richards used to say...

Slash: – Yep. I used to say that all the time. and every time I said it, I heard a little voice in the back of my head saying: "oh, yes you would!". I started the Snakepit album two days after the last interview where I repeated that I would never make a solo record. The reason I didn't want to go solo was because I thought Guns N' Roses was always going to be a big enough vehicle that I didn't have to go outside the band to do what I wanted. But then Guns N' Roses started going in a musical direction that I didn't quite agree with. In Guns N' Roses, you have Axl and all these other personalities, and things are more complicated than they used to be. So I thought, what the hell, I'll do this solo project and get things out of my system for a while. Not that I have anything against Guns N' Roses. It's a great band. But now it is like an insti-fucking-tution ... !

- I don't know if I would call it a problem... I don't want it to sound negative. I mean; I have made a career out of doing what I most want to do in this world, so I can't complain about anything. But Guns N' Roses are living under enormous external pressure right now. None of us handle it particularly well. If you put us in a room and we start playing, everything is as before. But getting everyone in one room at the same time just gets harder and harder. Not impossible, but it's noticeably worse than it should be. Instead, we hide – Axl in his house, me in mine, and Duff and Matt in theirs ... And instead of trying to force something to happen, I think we need to give it some time. Then the band will automatically gravitate towards itself, until we function on our own again.

- I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with The Rolling Stones recently, while they were making their latest album. The producer Don Was lives down the street from me, and Ron Wood is an old friend. I'm always interested in seeing how other complex bands work together, to see if I can learn from it. I hadn't spent any time with the Stones before - when we did a few gigs together in Los Angeles I was too strung out on drugs to care about the "old bad guys meet new bad boys" thing.

– Anyway; now I got two weeks in the same room as them, and while I wasn't there to observe, I got to know how they deal with each other inside the band. I noticed that Keith is somehow the core of the band. He is a Rolling Stone, and nothing else. That's all. Not that he IS the band, but the band is all that he is, you know? While Mick is fidgety and more on his own trip. And there are similarities to Guns N' Roses there. Me and Keith are very different people, but we share the same basic principles that the band is built on - turn up on time, do your job well. A backbone thing. And I admire Keith because he's one of the few guys I've met with that quality. The singers are just looking for the next party and tra-la-la. Axl and Mick aren't very different like that.

BEAT: - I saw the third of the four concerts you did with the Stones in Los Angeles in 1989, and it was without doubt one of the best concerts I've seen in my life.

Slash: - You should have seen the first two...

BEAT: - I've heard they were really bad...

Slash: - This is one of the best Guns N' Roses stories, which no one has bothered to tell. We went through what we're going through now, really. Which is that we had toured and warmed up for countless bands, and we never really noticed how big we got along the way. We were just touring like hell, and all of a sudden, three years later, they dropped us off at the airport here in Los Angeles. What the hell were we going to do now? We were told that it was smart to buy a house, and so we did. Suddenly we were recognized at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard and stuff like that. We didn't have a clue.

- It messed with everyone, and we each had our own way of dealing with it. For me and Izzy and Steven (Adler, who was fired on a later occasion) it was dope. For Duff it was booze, but he was less affected by it all than the rest of us. And Axl was Axled, as I say. He became very self-absorbed. We went our separate ways. I got freaked out by one thing, Izzy another, Steven a third... Duff was busy on his side, Axl was doing his thing.

- So the concerts with the Stones were the first step in getting the band back together. The first night was a disaster, because neither of us had seen much of each other in a year before we went on stage. Axl aired all the dirty laundry about everyone - on stage. The second night it went a little better, and the third night it loosened up. The last night was absolutely fantastic. It was those two concerts that saved us. Because we do what we do quite naturally by the time we get this far. We just have to be on speaking terms or at gunpoint first.

- And now, after the Use Your Illusion tour and all the videos and all, we are really in exactly the same situation. The only thing that's different is that I'm not on drugs anymore, but I'm keeping busy with other things instead. However, the band members went their separate ways as soon as the plane landed after the last tour, so we're back where we started. And I'm trying to find the one thing that will work like it did during the gigs with the Stones. We tried to do that with "Sympathy For The Devil" (for the soundtrack to Interview With The Vampire), but that didn't help.

BEAT: - What made the Stones show so grand was that you had the feeling that anything could happen, and that the band decided to play instead of fighting each other. It was completely unpredictable. But as the Use Your Illusion tour progressed, that unpredictability became almost predictable in all the scandals, with fights and riots in every other city.

Slash: - That's the whole problem now! Nothing is premeditated with us. We didn't plan any of the things that happened, but now people expect some outrageous stunt from us every single day. Suddenly we have a reputation that is bigger than we are, and I think that is part of what is stopping us now. I don't like to admit it - we're not Barry Manilow, where you know everything that's going to happen in advance - but we just do what we do, and suddenly we have an image that takes over. Now it is expected of us to make a ruckus on stage every single night. And we end up chasing our own tails to avoid the obvious, and the escape from the obvious also becomes of course completely obvious. So fuck it!

- It's not just that the band has changed. When people's parents start hearing your records, something is wrong. You become a household name that everybody knows, and suddenly what you are doing becomes perfectly normal and acceptable. Then the whole thing gets to a point where at least I'd say it no longer feels like it used to.

BEAT: - But this is not the only thing that prevents you from making a new album again. Is the main problem that the whole band is now bowing to Axl's whims?

Slash: - No, the thing is that Axl would like to make a new record. I just don't know what kind of record that would be. Hence... well.

BEAT: - Why don't you know that?

Slash: - Axl is Axl... That band that you know from many years ago is basically where I'm from. And I'm the same as I've always been. But with Axl, the thing is that we suddenly had to have horn sections, and productions here and there, overly long videos and the whole shebang. And eventually I reached a point where I didn't want to support it anymore. I love Axl more than anyone, and the rest of the band, but right now we're at a point where we have to ask ourselves what the hell are we doing.

- Everything we've done up until now has been quality work, but my plan with Guns N' Roses is for us to kick ass as long as God allows. But Axl has introduced a whole lot of new influences into the band. And I've been cool. I have said OK, now I will stand in the middle of the lake for two hours so you can make this video of yours. But now it has gone so far that I had to do something else in order not to lose my mind. By the end of the last tour, we were doing at least 65 percent ballads every night, and that's boring. I started writing my own video scenes, because I didn't get the gist of what the rest of it was all about. Dolphins along Sunset Boulevard? (the video for the song "Estranged") He has a thing with dolphins, but it just goes off the rails... I'm trying to figure out what the hell he's up to. Find out what he thinks Guns N' Roses really should be as a band.

BEAT: - I think it's important to remember that he grew up in a period where there wasn't much good music to be found in outlying areas like Indiana, where he's from. So now he's trying to make something great with the tools Wings has given him, rather than The Beatles, if you get the idea...

Slash: - You know, that's absolutely true. It's the first time I've heard someone say that, but it's absolutely true. Everyone has different backgrounds in the band, but Axl has driven himself to recreate that monumental, orchestral monster thing. And if everyone in the band was into that kind of music, it would have been just fine. But we aren't, so when he then tries to force the band into it, it becomes very unnatural. Suddenly we have synths on stage! Firstly, it doesn't work, and secondly, it's not necessary.

- OK, I understand where he is coming from with creating this grandiose thing, not only musically, but also parties and with inflatable dolls over the stage and all that hoopla. But, damn, what does it matter in the end? It means nothing. Absolutely nothing. OK, he wants to recreate Pink Floyd's The Wall. And even if it doesn't interest the rest of us, he has pulled us in that direction. It's great where it's applicable, but ultimately it's going to kill this band.

- He is the only member of Guns N' Roses who has not made a solo record, and – truth be told – that means something. No one is going to tell me that these solo things are particularly good for the band. Singers are and will be singers, but we have to come to some kind of compromise about what kind of band we really are and should be. And my take is that we're a fucking gutter band. But a damn good one!