GN'R quotes and facts

GN'R quotes and facts
Superteen Super-Size Pinups No. 16 (Guns N' Roses)

THE QUOTABLE IZZY

"We do what we want. We have a raunchy type attitude. I don't wanna say punk' attitude, but we definitely are raunchy."

"That night at the Felt Forum in New York was a particularly good night. I mean, sometimes we make bad mistakes onstage. I remember in the old days we'd go so nuts we'd fall right off the stage. Sometimes we'd jump off the stage on purpose. You can't stay too tight when you do that."

"We have quite a few lawsuits already, but our attorney says you're not a real band until you have at least a dozen of 'em, so we have about eight more to go."

"The fact that I'm from Indiana has no business being in my career."

"Many times I'll be playing and some big kid will be hurling through the air at 100 miles per hour right at me. I can't imagine what that must look like from the audience but I'm sure it adds excitement to the show. When these kids go flying past me and I never see them coming, it gives me a rush of adrenalin like you wouldn't believe."

"We don't really care if people think we've got a bad attitude. We're the only band to come out of L.A. recently that's real. And the kids know it."

"I Used To Love Her But I Had to Kill Her is a joke. I was sitting around listening to the radio and some guy was whining about a broad who was treating him bad. I wanted take the radio and smash it against the wall! Such self pity! So, we rewrote that same song we heard with a better ending, it's a real New York-type of song."

"The blues are real important. It's where most of the hard rock 'n' roll came from."

"I hate to take showers! Guitarists don't like showers 'cause we like the grease to build up on our fingers, makes playing more fluid."

"The feeling stays with you long after you leave that stage. It makes you not able to sleep and keeps you pumped up for hours afterwards. There's no feeling like it in the world. On an average tourday, I try to get about four or five hours sleep. Sometimes it's just not possible so I sleep only two or three hours and then on an offday, I'll sleep all day. That gets your body back to normal."

"We constantly disagree and keep changing our minds about everything from one day to the next."

"We're not as crazy as we used to be. Nobody's laid out with a jones anymore. Now we know what we have to do and we do it. What's fun is getting to meet all the people whose music we listen to. It's a gas! We met Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick ... he was the greatest! He hung out with us when we played Rockford, Illinois and he got totally plastered! No more tequila for you Rick! When he pulled that stuff out, I knew there'd be problems. What a wild guy. We loved him. When we left him, he was sacked out on the floor."

THE QUOTABLE AXL

"We have pieces of everything in our band and we try and find a way to bring it all out rather than limit ourselves into one frame.

You don't see a lot of that anymore-Queen used to do it, and Zeppelin, but nowadays, people tend to stay in one vein."

"I'm a big Metallica fanatic. I like the new Queensr˙che record. We listen to everything. Pop, it's hard to say, if you tell someone you like the new Michael Jackson song, everybody thinks you like everything Michael Jackson ever did. So, it's weird to have to say what you like. We usually like to get into a song or even a part of a song of just about anybody. We'll sit down and go 'nah, that sucks, but there's that one bass part that's cool.' "

"I've really learned to control myself. It used to be that 1 would get mad, break everything in the room, smack somebody in the face and then leave. Now I work real hard at trying to keep things cool and together."

"If you're bored with a song and its one of your songs, you just play it. It's like having a pair of pants. Those pants meant something to you at one timeyou liked them or whatever-but if you just outgrow them and you're tired of wearing them, it's like they're not you anymore. Some songs I re-write cause the verses aren't me anymore. I could come off stage in tears because I was so moved by the music. I want people to feel that too."

"I sing in about five or six different voices-that are all part of me, it's not contrived. I'm like a second baritone or something. I used to take choir classes and stuff and I'd always- sit there and since I could read music, I'd try to sing other people's parts and see if I could get away with it. We had this teacher who was pitch perfect, or whatever you call it. He had ears' like a bat, man, like radar. So, in order to get away with singing someone else's part, you'd really have to get it down. Or else, he'd know exactly what corner of the room this person is who's not singing right. So, I guess, I really started working on it then by trying to mess with this guy's head. Like how come he's hearing a soprano in the bass section."

"I'd just like to say that I have a personal disgust for small dogs, like poodles. I have some serious physical problems with them. Everything about them means I must kill them. I must."

"I know a girl named Michelle and she became a really good friend of the bands' and I was going out with her for a while, It's a true story. Slash and some other members of the band said that's kinda too heavy to say about poor sweet Michelle; she'll freak out. I'd written this nice sweet song about her and then I looked at it and thought that really doesn't touch any basis of reality' so I put down an honest thing. It describes her life. This girl leads such a crazy life with doing drugs, or whatever she's doing at the time, you don't know if she's gonna be there tomorrow. I showed her the lyrics after about three weeks of debating and she was so happy that someone didn't just paint a pretty picture. She loves it."

THE QUOTABLE SLASH

"The cool thing is that in reality you can't put a label on us. Come down to our shows and watch us. You'll see that there's every kind of fan at our shows. There s the hardcore metal heads, there's the hardcore punks, all kinds of people. There's that whole whitefaced make-up with the black hair scene and then all the really young kids that have just gotten out of junior high school.

"Y'know, you got make choices in life. You can't keep on following bands around your whole life and partying out. One day you're gonna wake up and you'll be 30 years old and you wont have done a damn thing with your life.

If I had one wish. I'd ask for a constant supply of Marlboros.

"I try and get my sleep but I'm just a naturally excitable person and can't get much sleep on the road. We always seem to be on the bus at night. My whole personal life is wrapped up in this band and its real real hard to separate the two. I like to drink and hang out a lot. I have a steady girlfriend, but I only see her twice a year when I'm not touring."

"Longevity ain't a problem for us at all. Longevity is something that everybody else thinks about, not us. We're just going to keep doing this until its no fun anymore. I know that's almost a cliche but it's true. When its not a turn-on anymore, that s when we quit. We're not going to be one of these bands who say. 'well, we got to keep going out there even though we hate-every minute of it."

"I got this reputation for being drunk all the time but I'm really not all that bad. I'm actually a nice shy kid."

"We're not stupid. Axl doesn't do drugs or hardly drink anymore. He lives to be on that stage. He eats, sleeps and plays. That's it. Izzy hardly even smokes anymore. Steven doesn't have any problems in those regards and Duff and I drink. I'm not a practicing drug addict anymore."

"The sense of humor inside the band suits me fine. I don't have to go down to the Comedy Shop to qet a joke. I can find that here."

"The last job I had was in a music store and I got fired. One job I never even showed up at because Motley Crue was recording in L A. so I went to hang out outside the studio.'

"We improvise the whole time we're playing. A lot of times we won't know that song we're gonna do and I'll suggest one and we'll debate it right there on stage. Sometimes I'll start improvising and they'll know not to mess around until I'm finished and I give them a nod. We do go off on our individual things but it somehow all stays together. We do the whole show like that. We screw up every so often but not that much."

"My peers suck. They're really bad. I hope that in another five years Guns N' Roses isn't considered another Poison or Kingdom Come. I hope were remembered as being different. I mean were in a bad time for rock'n roll now. It's like here in the late '80s, people just amt doing anything from their soul. It's turned into a very business and money oriented type industry. I would hope that we're a bit away from that as far as the music goes. Don't forget we didn't have to play any games to get signed. We told people that we were gonna do just what we said we'd do and that's the only way we'd sign a contract. And we stuck to it."

THE QUOTABLE DUFF

"I'm down to Earth, a lover of music, making music and making love. I love to make people happy and I think I'm basically a good person ... despite what you might read about me."

"We're doing what we want to and pulling it off."

"I was 15 years old too. If you're dumb enough to think that we're setting examples for you, well.- never let Fear and the Germs set examples for me. It was fun. You look at it with humor and stuff. But you don't die like Darby Crash did. You don't do heroin and 'ludes and whatever he did to die."

"What sticks in the back of my head most of the time when I do interviews is why would anybody want to know about me and what ticks inside my head. I don't understand that because it's just a rock'n'roll band. We're just playing."

"I can't imagine myself doing anything else."

"We've been refused tours because of all the rumors. They don't want our band influencing other bands. It turns out, bands we've gone on tour with, as far as drugs and shit are concerned, are worse than us."

"Reporters always ask about the bad boy image. They also ask why we think we're doing so good. Well, there is no bad boy image! It's just us-five guys doing what we've always wanted to do and pulling it off. And I think the reason we're successful is because we are real and the kids know it. Y'know a good song to me is one you can listen to and imagine yourself playing and singing. That's real."

"When this band got together, everybody felt 'This is the right place.' You know how this goes. You're in a band and there's always a loose link in the end. Always. Every band I'd ever been in before, there'd always be one person, or two, that wasn't cutting it. This band, it was finally like 'Okay, this is it.' You could feel it at the first rehearsal. It just felt right."

"We knew people were getting turned off with all the stories that came out about us in the press even before our first record came out. Hell, I don't blame 'em. But we were very confident about the record we were about to make."

"I'm immediately embarrassed when that image thing comes up. A lot of bands go, 'Good, we got the bad boys title this week.' But with us, it's like we're just a rock'n'roll band. A lot of things go along with that and we take full advantage of it at times. We were never doing all that stuff before we were in the band, though. We didn't try to create any kind of image. It was created for us. Decadence was laid on this band."

THE QUOTABLE STEVEN

"I wanted the 15 year old kids to get into us as well as the 30 year olds and that's exactly what happened. We got fans 10 years old and 40 years old. Some of the old guys at Geffen Records are past 60 and they're digging it. They play the LP all the time."

"I used to mop bowling alleys, sweep floors at the 7-11, wash dishes, wait on tables, warehouse worker, paperboy. I had a lot of goofy jobs. It's sorta good we had all those stories because it made people very skeptical about what we are and who we are... but they did want to hear our music because of it. I mean, we have done some crazy things, but never really bad things to hurt anybody or screw anyone up. We're not into that. We're into having fun. As long as we don't hurt anybody or rip anybody off, there's nothing wrong with having a good time."

"My mom's a waitress at a deli in the valley and kids come in there just to meet her and get her autograph! It's really funny. My mom's having a better time out of all this than I am. And my dad... he works at the railroad and all the older dudes, they get into it. They say, 'so what's your son doing? I saw him on MTV.' These guys are 70 years old! Even my grandfather who's past 70. he loves it."

"The first record I remember ever putting on was 'Working My Way Back To You Babe' by the Four Seasons. I love the Four Seasons, man! I met 'em all! I got to meet Frankie Valli in Las Vegas once. Mr. T. was there and it was the best! I've been into the Four Seasons since I was five years old."

"I'm pretty down to earth. I really don't care too much about causing problems for other people. I just want to do my own thing and if I can help somebody, I'll do what I can. I'm just a nice guy, I guess. I have no enemies... that I know about. I like to take it easy when I have the chance. I like to relax."

"Loud is a way of life."

"We know what the kids want to hear and we know what they want to see cause we're kids too! We may be a little older than them but not much older. Hey, we've been 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 years old before. I've been to rock'n'roll shows and I know what I liked and didn't like. Now, maybe I have more responsibilities. Maybe the kids don't have a lot of responsibilities yet but they will. They'll have plenty soon enough. Hey, we eat, drink, sleep, burp and fart just like the rest of 'em. There ain't no difference."

"I never took a drum lesson in my life. I learned from watching and listening very closely to other drummers plus wanting it real bad and believing in myself."

"My favorite thing about traveling on the road is meeting all the different people in the different cities. Everybody's different. I just love meeting all the people and being on stage and playing for them and seeing them clapping their hands and stamping their feet and screaming and having a good time not thinking about anything. They go to the show and I go up there and I play 150 every night because these kids go to the show and they don't want to think about their jobs or their mother or their teacher. They come to the show to have a good time and get everything out of their head. And that's what I like."

GUNSTATS A Dozen Fax 'Bout GnR

1. Appetite for Destruction was released in July of 1987 but didn't even break Billboard's Top 100 for 10 months! Then it quickly shot to #1.
2. Axl Rose's real name is Bill Bailey, but he had it legally changed to W. Axl Rose when he signed with Geffen Records. The initials spell out WAR.
3. Izzy first met Axl in junior high school in Lafayette, Indiana.
4. Gn'R cite their early musical influences as being the Stones, Sex Pistols, and Aerosmith.
5. Axl was thrown into jail at least 20 times in Indiana.
6. Axl started singing in church at age five, and later even taught Sunday school!
7. Slash, whose real name is Saul Hudson, grew up in England where his dad designed album covers and his mom designed stage fashions for artists like David Bowie and the Pointer Sisters.
8. Although they're seen as an L.A. band, none of the members were born there.
9. Duff is from Seattle and was playing in area clubs in the 9th and 10th grades.
10. Steven Adler is the only Gunner to use his real name, and he's a self-taught drummer.
11. Guns n' Roses have opened for such bands as Motley Crüe, the Cult, Aerosmith, David Lee Roth, and yes, even for Stryper!
12. Axl grew up listening to Elvis and Jimmy Swaggart records.