March 18, 2025 • 43 mins
The legendary Alex Lifeson of Rush joins. We chat his band Envy of None, their new album "Stygian Wavz," and what it means to inspire other musicians.
Then, "Shotgun News!" - You and I discuss Isaac Carpenter becoming the new drummer of Guns N' Roses. Plus, I read your emails for "Mr. Mailstone"
More info:
https://envyofnone.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thereallerxst/
Alex: 00:32 - 10:41
Shotgun News: 11:44 - 31:59
Mr. Mailstone: 32:04 - 42:48
Our website: afdpod.com
Then, "Shotgun News!" - You and I discuss Isaac Carpenter becoming the new drummer of Guns N' Roses. Plus, I read your emails for "Mr. Mailstone"
More info:
https://envyofnone.com/
https://www.instagram.com/thereallerxst/
Alex: 00:32 - 10:41
Shotgun News: 11:44 - 31:59
Mr. Mailstone: 32:04 - 42:48
Our website: afdpod.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know what, yes, is a the Titan for Distortion.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to the podcast, mister Alex Lives and how are you, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I'm great pleasure to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Have you ever done an interview with a baby before?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
No, but there's always the first time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, I hopefully he cooperates and I appreciate you taking
the time today. So Envy of None, I'm excited to
talk to you about this, this project, you know, second album.
And excuse me if my New York accent baschardizes the
name stygun Waves right, the name of the album Stygion
stidgy in waves. You know, I was practicing it, so
(01:02):
I have to learn how to speak, and so does he.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Maybe I'm not the best person to learn from. So
you can, if you can tell me the origin story
of Envy of None.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Sure we.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
After Rush finished touring in twenty fifteen, Andy Turrn, who's
been I've been friends with for forty years, he called
me one day and said, do you mind playing on
a song that I'm working on called Liar? It's on
the first record, And I said, sure, I'll put some
guitars on for you. And I just did scratch guitars.
(01:39):
In the meantime, he did a He was invited to
be a judge for a talent contest and Maya Win
was one of the contestants and he the advice he
gave to her was to get out and work with
other people and learn your abilities and skills.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
And she said, well, I.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Google and I know you're past so why don't we
work together on a song? So he kind of laughed
and said, okay, I'll say us something.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
He sent that song liar and she sent it back
with her vocals. Andy played it for me and I
told him immediately erased everything.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
That I did.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
I'm going to do final guitars on it. I'm going
to upgrade everything. We have to work with this girl.
She's amazing. She was nineteen at the time. From there
we started working on a few songs together. David Steinberg,
who played drums on that first record, on a few
(02:40):
tracks and is our lawyer. He suggested the name and
it comes from an essay written by Roman philosopher Ovid
where he speaks of a certain group being the envy
of none, and he also makes reference to the Stygian waves,
which are the turbulent laws at the gates of Hell
(03:01):
and the river sticks. So it all comes full circle
with the second one, and then we just carried on
from there as envy of none.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I love that that origin story because I was wondering
specifically where the name came from. So you answered that
within it, you know. It's also it's interesting. I'm I
don't know how you feel about it, but I'm going
to be forty two later this year. I don't know
how that makes you feel. I have Well, yes, Harrison's
going to be two next month. I have my twenty
eight year old brother helping me in the background, so
in case if he gets crazy, your lead singer is
(03:34):
twenty eight. Yes, right, So there are times when I'm
forty I'm forty one now again talking to my brother
twenty eight, and there are certain references we don't get,
but for the most part we do get each other.
Does that happen? How does that dynamic affect the band?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Like?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Does she introduce new things? Do you introduce more of
the old style the classic style? How does that dynamic
work for you?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Guys?
Speaker 4 (03:58):
It is very it is very organic. Right from the beginning.
Maya first of all is way beyond her years. These
last couple of years during the remaking of Stygion Waves,
so you've seen enormous personal growth as an artist, as
a singer, as a lyricist, as a composer. It's just
(04:21):
incredible the amount of talent she has. And I think
she borders on the genius at times, and I don't
say that lightly. So when we're working together, it's just
the ideas are flowing. We don't push one thing or another.
There are hints of the nineties, there are hints of
(04:41):
very current stuff, there are hints of the sixties, their
hints of classical music. I mean, it's all over the place,
and it just seems to organically happen. But let me
just say about Maya. At twenty eight, when I started
working with her individually with guitars and vocals, we started
dan sing together. You know, I would do scratch guitars,
(05:03):
send it to her. She'd do scratch vocals based on
those guitars. Then I would update the guitars to her vocals,
and back and forth in the pyramid until we reach
the apex and we dance with each other, and it's
a beautiful dance, and we have so much confidence, respect
(05:24):
and trust in what we're doing together. It's I'm blessed
to have a mused like her at this stage in
my life.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Working.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
It's just given me a rebirth. I play more guitar now,
probably than I've ever played. I'm working on a handful
of other projects, some small and some quite large. So
it's just I have a new life and a lot
of it has to do with this, and a lot of.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
It has to do with her.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
That's so cool because you just never know when inspiration
is going to calme in your life and for you to,
you know, come from this obviously massively successful band Russian
There's so many options that you can do and you
never know what it's She's going to satisfy you, and
you can seem so satisfied with this project. So before
(06:17):
I could say anything else, just congratulations on it, you know,
I want to I don't know if you could tell
other than behind the sleeping baby, uh, because I want
to make sure I do know. We don't have a
lot of time, and you've been working hard on these
tours all morning, so I don't want to keep you forever.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
And if you notice the name of the podcast, The
Appetite for Distortion. So I have a Guns n' Roses theme,
So I actually asked a listener. A listener of mine
reached out and found out that you were. Actually a
lot of my listeners want to ask you questions, but
this one in particular. His name is Richard fordis from
Guns N' Roses. He actually, believe it or not, he
actually listened to the podcast and as a fan, so
(06:54):
I said you were coming on, and he didn't have
a question. But he has a story. He doesn't expect
you to remember it, but I thought it was really
really cool, he said he as a kid, I was
a big fan of Rush twenty one twelve was huge
for me. I saw them a bunch of times. And
somewhere I have a photo of Alex and I both
playing double neck acoustics together. I think I was about twelve.
My father worked for a company that made Alpharez acoustic
(07:17):
guitars and they made one for Alex. I don't think
he remembers. I'm gonna try to find that picture. I
don't know if that rings a bell at all.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Ye.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
That was that was a while ago.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
I got I think probably was that in the eighties,
late a seventies rather or early eighties.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, guitar, yeah, oh yeah, for sure, yes, s yeah.
I never remember his mom definitely.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So isn't that cool that you know, you met a
twelve year old Richard Fortis who has had a successful
career and inspired by you and you know with guns
and roses, I mean you must hear it all the time.
What does that mean for you that you inspire you know,
maybe not just I mean not just musicians. I don't
want to put any musician down, but just these these bands,
these massive bands, they credit you for inspiring them to
(08:08):
pick up a guitar and to play, and they grow
up to be successful. You know, when they met were
you were you were you already successful, they were a kid.
Now they's successful. What does that mean to you?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
It's a beauty first of all, it's a beautiful compliment.
But it's paying it forward. It's giving somebody a seed
of inspiration or or whatever it is to fire them
up to do whatever they want to do. Like Rush
was always about moving forward and challenging yourself and not
(08:39):
being in the mainstream. We like to think that we
always walked on the shore along the mainstream so we
were aware of what was happening, but we were on
our own path. And I think when people talk about
it's like and Dave Grohl is another one, and all
of these amazing musicians that cite Russia as an inspiration
(09:03):
or an influence, it's that it's not so much about
our music, it's really about our intention and how we
approached the way we conducted ourselves. Once we got our
independence with twenty one to twelve from our record company,
(09:24):
they were never allowed in the studio and we didn't
care whatever they said, and they learned to not try
to do something like that. So we were very independent,
and we just believed in driving ourselves and forcing ourselves
into creating the best work we could do, whatever that was.
And I think that's the kind of mark that we
(09:44):
left on great musicians like Richard and David and all
the others.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
That's that cite us.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
That's that's awesome. Alex, thank you so much for your time.
A quick yes or no question before we'll let you go.
More Trailer Park Boys in your future.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Well, you know, I was there last summer, I think
doing working on season was it season twelve or season thirteen?
So they took these characters. I don't know if you
know Big Chunk. They did an animated series one year,
so they brought these characters to life. So I was there,
did a few episodes, so hopefully that's coming out soon.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Awesome, Well, Alex, thank you so much for your time.
You're a legend. I hope we get to do this
again and maybe next time he'll have more words for
you and actually ask a question.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
For sure, I'd love to. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Thank you so much, Thank you so much, Alex. Having
the great day. See, yeah, I can't wait to show
baby Brownstone Harrison Rex when he's older that he fell
asleep on the guitarist from Rush. He fell asleep on if.
I don't know if you're watching on zoom, you could
see that watching on YouTube, but if you're listening and
wondering why he started, was just quiet because he just
(10:57):
promptly fell asleep on me, you know, not always like yeah,
sometimes I want to incorporate him into the podcast. It's fun,
and other times I have no choice because it's either
have him crying or sit with me and just hope
we get through the interview. I do these from home,
and I scheduled them try to around his schedule, his
ever changing schedule, but we did it and it was
(11:21):
a lot of fun. And also I recorded the second
half of this full episode and I'm recording with you
right now with Harrison on me. But this is actually
take three. This is take three because Guns and Roses
they kept being breaking news or actually, let's get to it,
your favorite segment in mind, shotgun news. What played the
sound bite news shotgun news? So yes, if you're following
(11:49):
on social media, you know all about it, and I'll
give you my opinion now. So without warning, I did
not expect it. Frank Farrere, guitarist for Gus excuse me,
drummer for Guns of Roses for nineteen years, has left
the band Guns of Roses. They put out a statement
just a couple of days ago, as I am recording this,
(12:11):
so what am I Today's date? The twenty first? They
put this out on the nineteenth. The band thanks Frank
for his friendship, creativity, and sturdy presence over the ninth
the past nineteen years, and wish him success in the
next chapter of his musical journey. Frank first joined us
joined gen R during a show in June two thousand
and six, helped anchor the rhythm section during our subsequent tours,
(12:34):
including the recent outings featuring the reunited trio of Axl,
Rose Slash and Dub mccagan. His last show with the
band took place November fifth, twenty twenty three, in Mexico.
And that's kind of that was the last show for
Guns of Roses period, because they didn't tour last year,
so that came without warning, and it's reported as a
(12:55):
you know, an alacable an alplacablewle if I can say
that word split, That's how it was presented by their
social media. It was an amicable split. So I'm like, okay, interesting,
And of course the immediate question is who's going to
play the drums now, okay? And before we get to
(13:15):
I mean spoiler alert, it's not really because again, if
you're listening to this podcast, you know it's Isaac Carpenter.
But before we get to that, of course, oh, the
speculation about Matt Sorum, about Stephen Adler, even brain. I'm
surprised there wasn't any love for why not bring back
Rob Gardner, He's the original drummer, or how about Don
(13:36):
Henley's i just kidding. Uh So, yeah, I a few
things within that because I'm a fan of Frank, so
I have mixed feelings about him leaving. You know, currently
I'm wearing my next shirt. You know, I'm all New
York'd out. I didn't really plan this where my Yankees
had my knixt shirt, but Frank is from New York
(13:59):
and I went to one of the shows I went
to for gin R was Madison Square Guard in October
twenty seventeen. I'm currently looking at I have a lithograph
on the opposite wall where I am right now of
Duf McKagan in the style of Gangs of New York.
And that night Frank when they're introducing him, you know,
mister Frank Ferrera on the drums, you know, with axles introduction,
(14:23):
he's wearing a Nicks Larry Johnson jersey and if you're
familiar doing the LJ arm gesture, arms signal whatever for
familiar with that, that was his you know, when you
hit a big shot. I believe it was over the
pacers whatever. But so yeah, when I saw that, I
was like, yeah, I'm a Nick fan. I remember this shot.
That's my man. And even when he first joined guns
(14:45):
and Roses. He was doing local gigs around the city.
I wish I was able to attend any of them,
but I forget the excuses I have now. I'm sure
something to do with the work. So I was I'm like,
all right, let's see who's next. I mean, I hope
everything is okay with him. I'll be honest, I did
I believe. I don't believe it's any sort of health
(15:06):
issue or anything like that. I just think it was
just a parting of the ways after nineteen years. So
there's a lot of thoughts that come with it. People,
there's a lot of speculation, and we're going to go
through each step. So with Frank, he's gone speculations. Matt,
do you want Matt? Do you want Brain? Do you
want Steven Aler? Not for a second did I think
(15:27):
it would be any of them. And I hate to
say this. I feel bad for the fans that did
believe that or really trying to clamor for that to happen.
Kind of like a mean girl's where stop trying to
make Fetch happen, Stop trying to make Atler happen, Stop
trying to make Sarm happen. And I don't mean it
as far as I don't want it to happen. I've
(15:49):
never seen those versions of Guns or roses. I never
saw Axel and Slash together prior to this reunion. So
this was amazing. You know, while I would uh, you know,
I love New Guns that version, I love Velvet Revolver.
There's always was a part of me like I gotta
see Axel on Slash on stage together again. And it
finally happened with Adler. You know, it has happened a
(16:12):
couple off chances, you know, a couple of guest appearances,
and Isy, no, it hasn't. It happened with the New
Guns if again, if you want to call it that,
it was never officially called that. And you guns if
you want to be hip and cool with the way
how you spell it. But I think that that tweet,
the now deleted tweet, it lives in infamy that when
(16:33):
is he said that they didn't want to split the
loot equally, And it's that's easy. I went from uh,
from it so many parts because of course is he
come back. People thinking like it's gonna be the new Reunion,
all reunion. This is the first domino, the fall. People
are thinking Richard Fortis is next. It's not now. Richard
is as far as I know, not leaving. He'sn't currently
(16:55):
in rehearsals with them, so is He's not going to happen,
is not going to happen, and Storm's not going to happen.
So what I can I can tell you, because I
always try to preface everything was with I'm not an expert.
I am not an insider. I am not in the know.
I get told things by different people, but I don't
really know anything firsthand. I don't want you to take
(17:16):
any word that I have as gospel. Really you can
make your own educated guess about it. But I'm thinking
with Steven Oh, I'll start with Matt. If you were
able to read the early drafts of his book that
were unfortunately or fortunately, depending upon your perspective, were passed around,
weren't very kind to Slash and Duff, and I think
(17:39):
that there was. There's a major bridge burned there maybe
on both sides. I think, you know, Matt maybe not
wanting to work with them or vice versa, which is
very sad, and you could be like you can think like, well,
if Axel and Slash can patch it up, anybody can. Well,
that's true. Also, it's just a different dynamic AAX and
(18:00):
slash they were, you know, they're peanut butter and jelly
of gin R. It's a different total dynamic with with
the drummer. So it's not gonna It's not gonna happen
because of that, I believe now with Steven, Look, there
(18:21):
is a you know, he did say stuff after when
he did those guest appearances that I didn't think him
do him any favor favors is that when he was
upset only playing a couple of songs or flying. I
think it was like the Argentina just to play one song.
I don't think you're gonna see Steven again because of that.
(18:43):
I don't know for a fact, but I just don't think.
I don't know if he wants it. I don't know
if he would want it unless it was a full
time gig, and I just don't see that happening for
this reason. So this is a tie in. And to
use another different tea word, it's a tease. So it's
a tease because I didn't mention this at the beginning
(19:05):
of this episode, because we kind of just jumped right
in with Alex Lifson. This is episode four hundred and
ninety eight. We are approaching five hundred, and I have
something special plan for five hundred, So for ninety nine
before we even get there, knock on wood. Because it's
not recorded yet, it's taped, it's not taped, you never know.
(19:27):
It should be Tracy Guns finally getting Tracy Guns on
the podcast to talk about New La guns and whatever else.
We will figure that out. But episode five hundred already recorded.
Two hours with Alan Niven, two hours with Guns and Roses.
I don't want to say first manager because that's that
(19:47):
belongs to Vicky Hamilton, but the manager, the first manager
with Geffen, the Appetite for Destruction manager. And it's kind
of like if you ever wanted to see a dug
Alan episode, this is as close as you're going to
get because I talk we talk a lot about that,
we talk a lot about his book, so it's gonna
(20:09):
be interesting. So the Stephen Adler point, and you'll hear,
of course, Allan talk about that episode five hundred, which
I will put out in a couple weeks, and you
might get mad at me because I kind of stopped
his answer because I didn't want to know more information,
because it's just sounded like something I could be sued for.
Apparently something happened back in the day between Axel and
(20:31):
Steven that Alan Niven alleges that Stephen's even lucky that
he had those guest appearances, that Axel doesn't like choke
him or something like that, And I kind of got
the complete opposite vibe from Doug as far as Axel
and Steven's relationship, So we talk about that, so that
could be part of it. Of course, there's part of
(20:53):
does gine I want to do a three hour shows?
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Still?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Can Steven still do that? Was he even contacted or
considered to incorporate. I don't think so. I really don't
think so. This band is completely moving forward now that
they have this the Big Three, and whatever happens with
the Classic five happens or doesn't happen, and in my opinion,
it's not going to happen, which is sad because it's
(21:17):
the fortieth anniversary. Let's just do a guest appearances worst
case scenario on a conversation for another time. So it's
not Matt, it's not Steven. I never thought it was
going to be brain mainly because you know if he
really wanted his gig back, because he told us on
our show that he left just to take care of
(21:38):
his daughter when he became a dad, and Frank was
only supposed to film in for a couple of weeks
and it's nineteen years later, so obviously, if Brain wanted
that job back at any point in time, I'm sure
that could have happened. Also, Brain only temporarily filled in
recently with Primus when they were looking for a new drummer,
and he could have stayed with Primus. I don't think
(22:00):
he wants to be a touring musician like that. That
would be that would be my guest there. So no,
I'm sorry because all the fans asking for that, and
I think you need to take into consideration. And the
majority of fans were wonderful towards Frank of just how
he feels. And I don't mean to sound lame saying that,
(22:21):
but Frank has been heavily criticized over the last nineteen years,
not because of who he is. He is an extremely
nice guy, extremely approachable. He was awesome on this podcast.
He offered to come back on the podcast with Brain,
but whatever Bureaucadock behind the scenes stuff prevented that from happening.
Amazing guy, But drummer as musicians say that he'd never
(22:46):
fit guns or roses that something with his sound. Now
as a non musician, as somebody who is completely tone deaf,
I don't hear it. I'm a cliche fan that just
like the lead singer and the lead guitarist. That's really it,
to be honest with you, unless it's a bassis like
within GNR that stands out, like Guff with the basslines
(23:07):
that stand out, or you know, Flea or something like that.
But otherwise the bass sounds I don't. I can't tell.
I don't have that ear. It's all about the voice
and the guitar for me, and that's since I was
a kid. That's why I gravitated towards GNR most of all.
So I don't hear that. So it's it's you can say,
(23:28):
you cannot say anything. It's kind of like, you know,
with the what your mother used to say. You know,
if you have nothing nice to say, you don't say
it at all. These people are on social media, they
see your comments. You don't need to say good riddance
like this makes you feel cool. Say good riddance that
this guy, I don't know. Maybe he's out of a job,
like I really out of a job now. I'm sure
I like to think he's well off because of he's
(23:49):
been with GNR. But never celebrate somebody losing a job.
And while it was again, uh, it was shown as alplicable,
you know, there was mutual agreements. It's I don't think
that's the case now. And I say that just reading
between the lines with no knowledge inside knowledge of just
(24:12):
seeing what you see and based upon what I'm gonna say,
many of you agree with me. So this is a
So they announced the departure of Frank on the nineteen
and then they announced who the new guns Roses drummer.
And we're gonna get to because I want to get
past the Frank part first. The new drummer drum roll pleased,
(24:33):
I guess put intend. You already know Isaac Carpenter now
if you don't know who he is, he's played with
Duff before, with Loaded in a Wall Nations. So we're
gonna get to that in a moment. But I want
to wrap up the Frank park because they announced that
on the twentieth and then the twenty first, so just
a you know, a few hours before I'm recording this,
(24:56):
Frank on Instagram released a statement. So this kind of
it helped shaped the narrative and why I had to
record this part three times because the narrative for me
kept changing. So let's bring up Frank's Instagram post. The
outpouring of love I felt from incredible fans, from the
incredible fans of Guns and Roses and my peers over
the past twenty four hours has been tremendous. I will
(25:18):
have expended immense gratitude and love always for Axcellent and
the band, while at the same time disappointment that this
chapter came to an end. It has been an incredible
nineteen years. Guns of Roses has given me life changing
memories and experiences. Huge thanks to management, the crew and
fans for giving me memories that I will cherish for
(25:39):
my lifetime. I hope I will see you all again soon.
Frank Farair, Wow, So I don't think it really takes
some sort of investigative journalists to really see that this
was not a mutual parting of ways, and he says
disappointment unless he had to leave for other reasons like Okay,
I'm disappointed because I'm not feeling well that my divorce
(26:03):
has really impacted me. I don't see those as being
the case, because I think that would have been stated.
So this sounds like he was he was fired, he
was asked to politely to leave again. This is my speculation.
I do not I do not know firsthand, because you don't.
(26:23):
You don't use that word disappointment lightly. And he thanks
another I see other people kind of highlighting how he
thanks Axel and the band nobody else by name. Well,
Axel was the first one to hire him. He came
on before Slash and Duff, which sounds funny because Slash
and Duff were obviously before him. But so I don't
(26:43):
know if that's just a you know, if that's a
particular uh, if that's a specific phrase he wanted to
use to really just thank Axel and and the band
and just make it easy, or was this a slight
to Slash and Duff maybe Duff And I say that
because if you were able to read Matt Sorem's book,
(27:07):
I think it was in Matt Sorrems one of his
early drafts that he tells the story, you know about
why he was not involved in the reunion and he
wanted you know, they wanted frank out. That the allegedly
Duff wanted Frank out, that they couldn't sync musically. Nothing
(27:28):
as far as a personality clash. It was something musically
that they just couldn't click with. And what leads me
to believe now that maybe that story has even more
merit is because Eisen Carpenter is a tough guy. Again,
so he was in Duff mckagans loaded for just a
couple of years, I have to believe, like two thousand
(27:49):
and nine, twenty eleven, and he's played with a Wall Nation,
a good band for like the last ten years. And
you may know that Duff has actually done guest dates
with a Wall Nation, so he has a history with
Isaac Carpenter. So I want to bring this up, and
I want to give credit to SPF magazine Slashes fan page,
(28:12):
a fan page magazine on Facebook for kind of putting
this all together for us. And I also I should
give you a heads up. It's in Spanish, but thanks
to social media, everything gets translated, so like, who do
you who is Eisen Carpenter. So that's obviously I didn't know.
I didn't know I mean, as soon as people said
(28:34):
Awall Nation and Loaded, I'm like, oh okay, but now
I'm learning. So he was in a band called Louder
Milk and Gossling. But initially, this is what's cool, they
started as a Guns n' Roses tribute band with the
name twenty Two's and Tulips. So this dude was in
the Guns of Roses tribute band back in the day.
(28:54):
I like it the xces again Loaded. He yes, he'd
played with Adam Lambert. Hey, Adam Lambert. Regardless of how
you feel the guy's got talent, he could saying you
have to have chops to be in that band. So
he played with Adam Lambert and he's been with Awell
Nation for ten years, three albums. So this guy has
(29:15):
been around and then some and looking at kind of
what I said before about how some people feel about
Frank's playing. The comments people who have already youtubed him
from musicians seem to be in favor of this pick,
playing like wow, this guy can actually this guy can play,
or they are excited about it. So this is a
very interesting pick. So I will say this that you
(29:37):
do not inject new blood for a reason. So I'm
intrigued in what's going to happen this year with guns
and Roses, because why now, why nineteen years in again,
unless Frank couldn't do it for whatever reason, commitments to
a family in illness, something like that, you don't just
stop that after nineteen years. Something special has to be
(30:01):
planned this year for their fortieth anniversary, for them to
be like, for them maybe to Axle the final to
be like, Okay, this is a big move. Again, if
this was true all speculation, if Duff and or Slash
actually convinced Axel to finally let Frank go and hire
his guy, Wow, that's a big deal. And it shows
(30:22):
that maybe Axel is really as much as we think
he runs the entire ship. He listens, He listens, and
that's how this thing is continuing to go with him
Slash and Duff. So if we want to continue to go,
you got to get this guy. It sucks for Frank.
And again this is all optics, reading between the lines.
I see what you see on social media. It's as
(30:43):
crazy how it's played out over a few days. I
just kept thinking different things, So who knows. I hope
I don't through I'm not going to record this a
fourth time. I'm just gonna do this on another podcast
if the news changes again after I say this. So
there you have it. So Isaac Carpenter the new Guns
of Roses drummer, and I am expecting some interesting things
(31:04):
because you do not do this two months prior to tour.
This has to be. He has to be rehearsing with
the band already, has to be. You don't do this
willy nilly. So it's gonna be. I will be paying
attention again. I want all of you who are going
(31:24):
to Guns and Roses shows this year, I invite you
to come on this podcast to do our fan reviews,
our fan obsession and tell me about Isaac Carpenter alive.
So there's a lot of things are ready to talk
about Guns and Roses going into twenty twenty five with
the fortieth anniversary and now a new drummer, and I
am expecting new music. I don't know what form that's
(31:46):
gonna come in, how much of it there's gonna be,
but I am still a firm believer that we will
get something this year, and I think getting a new
drummer is a big, big indicator of that. So that
being said, before I get out of here, because I'm
having fun. I'm excitable. If you can't tell, Let's do
another one of my favorite segments. Let's go to some emails.
It's something I like to call mister Mailestone.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Here's a mailing never fails.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
It makes my jails when it comes. I want to
So this first one comes from Jeremy from Manhattan, and no,
I do not know him. Not everybody from New York
City knows each other, so that is cool. The Jeremy
listens to the podcast, Baby Brownstone doesn't really like it.
(32:36):
I'm gonna one day I'm gonna have him read the
letters to me, like you're gonna write in letters. I'm
gonna have That's how Harrison's really gonna learn how to read. Anyway,
I digress. He starts off, Yo, what's good, Brando, very
New Yorky. I like it, love your podcast, and I
hope that one day you get the opportunity to interview
the usual suspects Axel, Duff, Slash and Izzy. I hope
(32:56):
Stephen too. I think your podcast is for sure, word
of it. Thank you. With that said, as I am
a huge GNR fan myself, I would like to ask
you some questions that I don't think anybody else has
asked you before. Oh boy, since nobody has asked you yet,
I figured why not take this opportunity to ask you
on here and give you my answers as well. Let's go.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
So.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
He loves the GNR High Definition show released on DVD,
The Rich nineteen ninety one Show. He has seen it
more than once. However, he's personally a bit of a
pet peeve with it at the beginning of the film,
how it just shows the date of the show and
then it cuts the slash starting out pretty tight up,
and he thinks it would have been more dope if
they had included some shots of the crowd entering the
(33:39):
venue as well as the band arriving and getting ready backstage.
They could have even shown the MTV news crew since
they were filming there as well, and then cut to
the show starting. Do you have the same opinion about
this yourself? Any pet peeves about this film? Well, Jeremy,
to be honest with you, I've only seen the show once,
so nothing really stands out as far as a pet
peeve about it. The things I remember are Shannon Huan's
(34:04):
appearance that really stands out to me, especially on you
ain't the first and there I think it was before
you could be mine? Maybe that slash kind of he
turns towards the drum riser and he goes back to
the microphone to say something and he just goes who
and like he always walks into it, like those things
stick out in my mind. The pet peeve though it
(34:25):
only would be that, why did it take so long
for this to come out? Why aren't there more? And
Jeremy says that all of us, including myself, hope Axel
releases more. A complete show is just like he did
with Reet's ninety one. So if he wants to ask
me if I could pick only four shows to be
released right away, well let's go to his shows first.
(34:45):
He wants to pick the cat House nineteen eighty nine
where they filmed It's So Easy music video, Use your
Illusion show in Toronto where in June eighth, nineteen ninety one,
where you could see parts of it in Live and
Let Die, then the video for that Da Cooma Dome
July sixteenth, nineteen ninety one. You can see some of
it in the dead Horse video where actually jumps off
(35:06):
stage and is in the crowd in Vegas January twenty fifth,
nineteen ninety two, and that the audio for that is
released on the box set but not the film. So
what shows what I pick? Well, you're a better Guns
and Roses fan than I, Jeremy, because I don't have
any specific dates other than maybe like a show that
I went to December. What was it December fifth, two
(35:30):
thousand and two when I saw them in Madison Square Garden,
you know, the show before the whole Chinese democras think
thing was shut down. Love to see that. Get some
close ups of a buckethead passing out the toys and
doing some nun chucks. But other than that, something from
Skin and Bones, the acoustic stuff when they're on the couch,
maybe when they get delivered pizzas from Topless Women. I
(35:53):
won't watch that around my son and wife, but that
would be that'd be cool to see in HD. His
last quote is, if I can choose a couple of
Axel stage warned worn own clothes to own yourself, which
ones would I pick? So I guess the big I
would ask you are you going to wear these? Or
am I gonna put them on the wall like you know,
(36:14):
on display so he would pick. Jeremy would pick the
black jacket, the vest where one sleeve is full and
the other is not, the American flag jacket that he
wore during the Civil Warm performances, and or the blue
button down shirt he wore during the MTV nineteen ninety
interview with Kurt Loder when they're sitting outside. I mean,
the fact that you want a dress shirt shows you're
(36:35):
a classy dude, Jeremy. So good for you if for
not just wanting the stage stuff that you're wanting something nice,
you want something that you can, you know, go to
Sunday dinner with. So what would I pick if I
could put it on the wall. I think kilt would
be cool. I don't know if I would wear that.
It's kind of windy in New York right now. What
(36:57):
else would I mean? The skeleton jacket that's in the
Rock and Roll Hall. I'm not the Rock and Hall
of Fame, the UH, the the Hall, the Hall of
Fame Cafe, the Rocket, the rock called cafe in the
UH in London. I was just there the Hard Rock Cafe. Sorry,
I might like to have a daddy brain and up
watching Baby Brownstone literally getting his diaper changed. This is well,
(37:22):
my brother's changing his diaper while I'm recording a podcast.
You can't make this up.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
I will not.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
I will not show you ever that on the podcast.
You have no reason to worry. Uh. I will keep
everything g rated as far as that's concerned. So it's
change gears. I don't know. It's back to the the
worn clothes. Maybe the bucket cap uh from I don't know.
(37:47):
It's so stupid from the two thousand and two VMA's
that he threw at the beginning. I don't know. I
thought he was going cool in that bucket cap. He
threw it away. It's probably gone. So that's from Jeremy
from Manhattan. Uh so, thank you for that, and one
more email before we get out of here. This is
complete end of the planet, opposite of the world, Australia said.
(38:09):
The headline reads. Headline reads, good day from Australia brandw
Greetings from hard rock band Chrystellans. I'm sorry this is
from Callum. Why am I doing that in a terrible
which just sounds like Rocco's modern life accent. I don't know.
I do a bad New York accent too, so I
hope your entire country doesn't hate me anyway. So, as
(38:30):
per the subject line, good day Brande who I won't
read the rest of the email like that. I hope
this email finds yourself and Baby Brownstone extremely well. Well
thank you. I'm sure you hear Baby Brownstone chattering a
bit back there. Just if he's chattering, he's not on
me pressing buttons. So let's get through this portion. Let's
(38:52):
go through the rest of this episode hopefully unscathed. So
my name is Calum. I'm a big fan of your
pod and your truly yours, in my humble opinion, is
by far the greatest GNR podcast online, and that's with
some stiff competition with the likes of the first fifty
Gigs pod. As your peers, well, thank you for that.
(39:13):
I don't take compliments well, so I try to just
say thank you, but I will give a shout out
to the guns and radio who've been doing it for
a long time. And fifty first Gigs, I mean, that's
what Mark Canter. He was there, He's the one with
the photos, then the videos and from those first fifty
gigs and was that slash his wedding and like he's
that guy. So, I mean a lot of the same guests.
(39:35):
So for me, if you, to whatever reason, prefer mine
to his I appreciate it, so thank you. So he's
writing on behalf of his band, the Crystallines, and I'm
telling you about them because they are a hard rock
three piece from Melbourne, Australia. He plays guitar and sings,
but they're very much inspired by guns and roses. So
he wanted to reach out to sing my praises. Huh,
(39:57):
thank you. No, I'm not really like that. Those celebrities,
Oh no, thank you don't. It's too much and they
really want it.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
I kid you not.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Before I recorded the episode, the interview with Alex Lifsin,
I look at my twenty eight year old brother who's
staying with us for a little bit, and I said,
I don't think I deserved this interview. I swear to you.
I'm like, I don't like, why am I? Who am
I interviewing? This guy doesn't even know because and also
to reveal before the interview, just to what ended up
(40:28):
just telling me that Alex was running late. My coworker,
the tour producer with Alex, he he just like joked me.
He's like uh that Alex was looking through the schedule
and he's like, appathe for the stortion, I'm not doing that,
And my heart sank and he's like, I'm just joking.
That didn't happen. He's just running late just to stand by.
(40:49):
Oh my God, like I believed it. I'm like, you
got me, man. So I was singing my praises thank
you because I definitely need it, because I'm definitely hard
on myself. Even almost my five hundred episodes in, I
still am so thank you. He also wants to get
feedback on his work, so I will suggest you go
to YouTube and check out one of their singles for
(41:10):
down my Neck. It's kind of like the first bands
or sounds that came into my head. It's like if
like Alison Chains had a baby with Collective Soul. I
don't know if you could hear that. So check him
out the Crystallines on YouTube. And then just Calum and
he's like, I very much admire and appreciate your work,
your commitment, your approach. Would love just to chat regardless
(41:32):
of all above, So we chatted here. I didn't want
to type too much for more of a chatter. That's
why I have a podcast and on social media. I
try not to. It takes a lot for me to
write a lot, so that's why sometimes I talked to
a lot of you via DM. I'm not always engaged
in full conversation. I try to leave that to the podcast.
So if you want to be just like Jeremy from Manhattan,
(41:54):
if you want to be like Calum from Australia, and
if you want to talk via the podcast, if you
have mister Malestone, you could send me an email at
the A at the af D Show. I can read
my own email at the af D Show at gmail
dot com, or gona send me a DM at any
of these social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, leave me on
comments on YouTube channel wherever. You can even send messages
(42:17):
on the website afdpod dot com. You can send messages.
You can do Patreon, you can do PayPal if you
want to support the podcast, if you want to support
me getting a babysitter so we can do these interviews
a little bit more professionally, or maybe not, maybe you
want to I don't know, if maybe you like baby
Brownstone here and you just want to help me invest
(42:38):
into a baby microphone for him or something like that.
Either way, all past episodes are up on afdpod dot com.
Just check it out. And as I mentioned, so Tracy
Guns on the way, Alan Nivin on the way. Also
this I believe I can confirm it's not taped yet,
but he, like Tracy, initially gave me a no for
(42:59):
a long time. But now we got to guess. Bumblefoot,
so a lot to come on, appetite for distortion, Hank
tight and with guns or roses. This is gonna be
a fun year. So when's the next episode? Well, in
the words of AXL Rose concerning Chinese democracy, I don't
know as soon as the word, but you'll see it.
(43:27):
Thanks to the lame ass security. I'm going home.
You know what, yes, is a the Titan for Distortion.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to the podcast, mister Alex Lives and how are you, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I'm great pleasure to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Have you ever done an interview with a baby before?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
No, but there's always the first time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, I hopefully he cooperates and I appreciate you taking
the time today. So Envy of None, I'm excited to
talk to you about this, this project, you know, second album.
And excuse me if my New York accent baschardizes the
name stygun Waves right, the name of the album Stygion
stidgy in waves. You know, I was practicing it, so
(01:02):
I have to learn how to speak, and so does he.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Maybe I'm not the best person to learn from. So
you can, if you can tell me the origin story
of Envy of None.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Sure we.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
After Rush finished touring in twenty fifteen, Andy Turrn, who's
been I've been friends with for forty years, he called
me one day and said, do you mind playing on
a song that I'm working on called Liar? It's on
the first record, And I said, sure, I'll put some
guitars on for you. And I just did scratch guitars.
(01:39):
In the meantime, he did a He was invited to
be a judge for a talent contest and Maya Win
was one of the contestants and he the advice he
gave to her was to get out and work with
other people and learn your abilities and skills.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
And she said, well, I.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Google and I know you're past so why don't we
work together on a song? So he kind of laughed
and said, okay, I'll say us something.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
He sent that song liar and she sent it back
with her vocals. Andy played it for me and I
told him immediately erased everything.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
That I did.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
I'm going to do final guitars on it. I'm going
to upgrade everything. We have to work with this girl.
She's amazing. She was nineteen at the time. From there
we started working on a few songs together. David Steinberg,
who played drums on that first record, on a few
(02:40):
tracks and is our lawyer. He suggested the name and
it comes from an essay written by Roman philosopher Ovid
where he speaks of a certain group being the envy
of none, and he also makes reference to the Stygian waves,
which are the turbulent laws at the gates of Hell
(03:01):
and the river sticks. So it all comes full circle
with the second one, and then we just carried on
from there as envy of none.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I love that that origin story because I was wondering
specifically where the name came from. So you answered that
within it, you know. It's also it's interesting. I'm I
don't know how you feel about it, but I'm going
to be forty two later this year. I don't know
how that makes you feel. I have Well, yes, Harrison's
going to be two next month. I have my twenty
eight year old brother helping me in the background, so
in case if he gets crazy, your lead singer is
(03:34):
twenty eight. Yes, right, So there are times when I'm
forty I'm forty one now again talking to my brother
twenty eight, and there are certain references we don't get,
but for the most part we do get each other.
Does that happen? How does that dynamic affect the band?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Like?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Does she introduce new things? Do you introduce more of
the old style the classic style? How does that dynamic
work for you?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Guys?
Speaker 4 (03:58):
It is very it is very organic. Right from the beginning.
Maya first of all is way beyond her years. These
last couple of years during the remaking of Stygion Waves,
so you've seen enormous personal growth as an artist, as
a singer, as a lyricist, as a composer. It's just
(04:21):
incredible the amount of talent she has. And I think
she borders on the genius at times, and I don't
say that lightly. So when we're working together, it's just
the ideas are flowing. We don't push one thing or another.
There are hints of the nineties, there are hints of
(04:41):
very current stuff, there are hints of the sixties, their
hints of classical music. I mean, it's all over the place,
and it just seems to organically happen. But let me
just say about Maya. At twenty eight, when I started
working with her individually with guitars and vocals, we started
dan sing together. You know, I would do scratch guitars,
(05:03):
send it to her. She'd do scratch vocals based on
those guitars. Then I would update the guitars to her vocals,
and back and forth in the pyramid until we reach
the apex and we dance with each other, and it's
a beautiful dance, and we have so much confidence, respect
(05:24):
and trust in what we're doing together. It's I'm blessed
to have a mused like her at this stage in
my life.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Working.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
It's just given me a rebirth. I play more guitar now,
probably than I've ever played. I'm working on a handful
of other projects, some small and some quite large. So
it's just I have a new life and a lot
of it has to do with this, and a lot of.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
It has to do with her.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
That's so cool because you just never know when inspiration
is going to calme in your life and for you to,
you know, come from this obviously massively successful band Russian
There's so many options that you can do and you
never know what it's She's going to satisfy you, and
you can seem so satisfied with this project. So before
(06:17):
I could say anything else, just congratulations on it, you know,
I want to I don't know if you could tell
other than behind the sleeping baby, uh, because I want
to make sure I do know. We don't have a
lot of time, and you've been working hard on these
tours all morning, so I don't want to keep you forever.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
And if you notice the name of the podcast, The
Appetite for Distortion. So I have a Guns n' Roses theme,
So I actually asked a listener. A listener of mine
reached out and found out that you were. Actually a
lot of my listeners want to ask you questions, but
this one in particular. His name is Richard fordis from
Guns N' Roses. He actually, believe it or not, he
actually listened to the podcast and as a fan, so
(06:54):
I said you were coming on, and he didn't have
a question. But he has a story. He doesn't expect
you to remember it, but I thought it was really
really cool, he said he as a kid, I was
a big fan of Rush twenty one twelve was huge
for me. I saw them a bunch of times. And
somewhere I have a photo of Alex and I both
playing double neck acoustics together. I think I was about twelve.
My father worked for a company that made Alpharez acoustic
(07:17):
guitars and they made one for Alex. I don't think
he remembers. I'm gonna try to find that picture. I
don't know if that rings a bell at all.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Ye.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
That was that was a while ago.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
I got I think probably was that in the eighties,
late a seventies rather or early eighties.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, guitar, yeah, oh yeah, for sure, yes, s yeah.
I never remember his mom definitely.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So isn't that cool that you know, you met a
twelve year old Richard Fortis who has had a successful
career and inspired by you and you know with guns
and roses, I mean you must hear it all the time.
What does that mean for you that you inspire you know,
maybe not just I mean not just musicians. I don't
want to put any musician down, but just these these bands,
these massive bands, they credit you for inspiring them to
(08:08):
pick up a guitar and to play, and they grow
up to be successful. You know, when they met were
you were you were you already successful, they were a kid.
Now they's successful. What does that mean to you?
Speaker 4 (08:18):
It's a beauty first of all, it's a beautiful compliment.
But it's paying it forward. It's giving somebody a seed
of inspiration or or whatever it is to fire them
up to do whatever they want to do. Like Rush
was always about moving forward and challenging yourself and not
(08:39):
being in the mainstream. We like to think that we
always walked on the shore along the mainstream so we
were aware of what was happening, but we were on
our own path. And I think when people talk about
it's like and Dave Grohl is another one, and all
of these amazing musicians that cite Russia as an inspiration
(09:03):
or an influence, it's that it's not so much about
our music, it's really about our intention and how we
approached the way we conducted ourselves. Once we got our
independence with twenty one to twelve from our record company,
(09:24):
they were never allowed in the studio and we didn't
care whatever they said, and they learned to not try
to do something like that. So we were very independent,
and we just believed in driving ourselves and forcing ourselves
into creating the best work we could do, whatever that was.
And I think that's the kind of mark that we
(09:44):
left on great musicians like Richard and David and all
the others.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
That's that cite us.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
That's that's awesome. Alex, thank you so much for your time.
A quick yes or no question before we'll let you go.
More Trailer Park Boys in your future.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Well, you know, I was there last summer, I think
doing working on season was it season twelve or season thirteen?
So they took these characters. I don't know if you
know Big Chunk. They did an animated series one year,
so they brought these characters to life. So I was there,
did a few episodes, so hopefully that's coming out soon.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Awesome, Well, Alex, thank you so much for your time.
You're a legend. I hope we get to do this
again and maybe next time he'll have more words for
you and actually ask a question.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
For sure, I'd love to. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Thank you so much, Thank you so much, Alex. Having
the great day. See, yeah, I can't wait to show
baby Brownstone Harrison Rex when he's older that he fell
asleep on the guitarist from Rush. He fell asleep on if.
I don't know if you're watching on zoom, you could
see that watching on YouTube, but if you're listening and
wondering why he started, was just quiet because he just
(10:57):
promptly fell asleep on me, you know, not always like yeah,
sometimes I want to incorporate him into the podcast. It's fun,
and other times I have no choice because it's either
have him crying or sit with me and just hope
we get through the interview. I do these from home,
and I scheduled them try to around his schedule, his
ever changing schedule, but we did it and it was
(11:21):
a lot of fun. And also I recorded the second
half of this full episode and I'm recording with you
right now with Harrison on me. But this is actually
take three. This is take three because Guns and Roses
they kept being breaking news or actually, let's get to it,
your favorite segment in mind, shotgun news. What played the
sound bite news shotgun news? So yes, if you're following
(11:49):
on social media, you know all about it, and I'll
give you my opinion now. So without warning, I did
not expect it. Frank Farrere, guitarist for Gus excuse me,
drummer for Guns of Roses for nineteen years, has left
the band Guns of Roses. They put out a statement
just a couple of days ago, as I am recording this,
(12:11):
so what am I Today's date? The twenty first? They
put this out on the nineteenth. The band thanks Frank
for his friendship, creativity, and sturdy presence over the ninth
the past nineteen years, and wish him success in the
next chapter of his musical journey. Frank first joined us
joined gen R during a show in June two thousand
and six, helped anchor the rhythm section during our subsequent tours,
(12:34):
including the recent outings featuring the reunited trio of Axl,
Rose Slash and Dub mccagan. His last show with the
band took place November fifth, twenty twenty three, in Mexico.
And that's kind of that was the last show for
Guns of Roses period, because they didn't tour last year,
so that came without warning, and it's reported as a
(12:55):
you know, an alacable an alplacablewle if I can say
that word split, That's how it was presented by their
social media. It was an amicable split. So I'm like, okay, interesting,
And of course the immediate question is who's going to
play the drums now, okay? And before we get to
(13:15):
I mean spoiler alert, it's not really because again, if
you're listening to this podcast, you know it's Isaac Carpenter.
But before we get to that, of course, oh, the
speculation about Matt Sorum, about Stephen Adler, even brain. I'm
surprised there wasn't any love for why not bring back
Rob Gardner, He's the original drummer, or how about Don
(13:36):
Henley's i just kidding. Uh So, yeah, I a few
things within that because I'm a fan of Frank, so
I have mixed feelings about him leaving. You know, currently
I'm wearing my next shirt. You know, I'm all New
York'd out. I didn't really plan this where my Yankees
had my knixt shirt, but Frank is from New York
(13:59):
and I went to one of the shows I went
to for gin R was Madison Square Guard in October
twenty seventeen. I'm currently looking at I have a lithograph
on the opposite wall where I am right now of
Duf McKagan in the style of Gangs of New York.
And that night Frank when they're introducing him, you know,
mister Frank Ferrera on the drums, you know, with axles introduction,
(14:23):
he's wearing a Nicks Larry Johnson jersey and if you're
familiar doing the LJ arm gesture, arms signal whatever for
familiar with that, that was his you know, when you
hit a big shot. I believe it was over the
pacers whatever. But so yeah, when I saw that, I
was like, yeah, I'm a Nick fan. I remember this shot.
That's my man. And even when he first joined guns
(14:45):
and Roses. He was doing local gigs around the city.
I wish I was able to attend any of them,
but I forget the excuses I have now. I'm sure
something to do with the work. So I was I'm like,
all right, let's see who's next. I mean, I hope
everything is okay with him. I'll be honest, I did
I believe. I don't believe it's any sort of health
(15:06):
issue or anything like that. I just think it was
just a parting of the ways after nineteen years. So
there's a lot of thoughts that come with it. People,
there's a lot of speculation, and we're going to go
through each step. So with Frank, he's gone speculations. Matt,
do you want Matt? Do you want Brain? Do you
want Steven Aler? Not for a second did I think
(15:27):
it would be any of them. And I hate to
say this. I feel bad for the fans that did
believe that or really trying to clamor for that to happen.
Kind of like a mean girl's where stop trying to
make Fetch happen, Stop trying to make Atler happen, Stop
trying to make Sarm happen. And I don't mean it
as far as I don't want it to happen. I've
(15:49):
never seen those versions of Guns or roses. I never
saw Axel and Slash together prior to this reunion. So
this was amazing. You know, while I would uh, you know,
I love New Guns that version, I love Velvet Revolver.
There's always was a part of me like I gotta
see Axel on Slash on stage together again. And it
finally happened with Adler. You know, it has happened a
(16:12):
couple off chances, you know, a couple of guest appearances,
and Isy, no, it hasn't. It happened with the New
Guns if again, if you want to call it that,
it was never officially called that. And you guns if
you want to be hip and cool with the way
how you spell it. But I think that that tweet,
the now deleted tweet, it lives in infamy that when
(16:33):
is he said that they didn't want to split the
loot equally, And it's that's easy. I went from uh,
from it so many parts because of course is he
come back. People thinking like it's gonna be the new Reunion,
all reunion. This is the first domino, the fall. People
are thinking Richard Fortis is next. It's not now. Richard
is as far as I know, not leaving. He'sn't currently
(16:55):
in rehearsals with them, so is He's not going to happen,
is not going to happen, and Storm's not going to happen.
So what I can I can tell you, because I
always try to preface everything was with I'm not an expert.
I am not an insider. I am not in the know.
I get told things by different people, but I don't
really know anything firsthand. I don't want you to take
(17:16):
any word that I have as gospel. Really you can
make your own educated guess about it. But I'm thinking
with Steven Oh, I'll start with Matt. If you were
able to read the early drafts of his book that
were unfortunately or fortunately, depending upon your perspective, were passed around,
weren't very kind to Slash and Duff, and I think
(17:39):
that there was. There's a major bridge burned there maybe
on both sides. I think, you know, Matt maybe not
wanting to work with them or vice versa, which is
very sad, and you could be like you can think like, well,
if Axel and Slash can patch it up, anybody can. Well,
that's true. Also, it's just a different dynamic AAX and
(18:00):
slash they were, you know, they're peanut butter and jelly
of gin R. It's a different total dynamic with with
the drummer. So it's not gonna It's not gonna happen
because of that, I believe now with Steven, Look, there
(18:21):
is a you know, he did say stuff after when
he did those guest appearances that I didn't think him
do him any favor favors is that when he was
upset only playing a couple of songs or flying. I
think it was like the Argentina just to play one song.
I don't think you're gonna see Steven again because of that.
(18:43):
I don't know for a fact, but I just don't think.
I don't know if he wants it. I don't know
if he would want it unless it was a full
time gig, and I just don't see that happening for
this reason. So this is a tie in. And to
use another different tea word, it's a tease. So it's
a tease because I didn't mention this at the beginning
(19:05):
of this episode, because we kind of just jumped right
in with Alex Lifson. This is episode four hundred and
ninety eight. We are approaching five hundred, and I have
something special plan for five hundred, So for ninety nine
before we even get there, knock on wood. Because it's
not recorded yet, it's taped, it's not taped, you never know.
(19:27):
It should be Tracy Guns finally getting Tracy Guns on
the podcast to talk about New La guns and whatever else.
We will figure that out. But episode five hundred already recorded.
Two hours with Alan Niven, two hours with Guns and Roses.
I don't want to say first manager because that's that
(19:47):
belongs to Vicky Hamilton, but the manager, the first manager
with Geffen, the Appetite for Destruction manager. And it's kind
of like if you ever wanted to see a dug
Alan episode, this is as close as you're going to
get because I talk we talk a lot about that,
we talk a lot about his book, so it's gonna
(20:09):
be interesting. So the Stephen Adler point, and you'll hear,
of course, Allan talk about that episode five hundred, which
I will put out in a couple weeks, and you
might get mad at me because I kind of stopped
his answer because I didn't want to know more information,
because it's just sounded like something I could be sued for.
Apparently something happened back in the day between Axel and
(20:31):
Steven that Alan Niven alleges that Stephen's even lucky that
he had those guest appearances, that Axel doesn't like choke
him or something like that, And I kind of got
the complete opposite vibe from Doug as far as Axel
and Steven's relationship, So we talk about that, so that
could be part of it. Of course, there's part of
(20:53):
does gine I want to do a three hour shows?
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Still?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Can Steven still do that? Was he even contacted or
considered to incorporate. I don't think so. I really don't
think so. This band is completely moving forward now that
they have this the Big Three, and whatever happens with
the Classic five happens or doesn't happen, and in my opinion,
it's not going to happen, which is sad because it's
(21:17):
the fortieth anniversary. Let's just do a guest appearances worst
case scenario on a conversation for another time. So it's
not Matt, it's not Steven. I never thought it was
going to be brain mainly because you know if he
really wanted his gig back, because he told us on
our show that he left just to take care of
(21:38):
his daughter when he became a dad, and Frank was
only supposed to film in for a couple of weeks
and it's nineteen years later, so obviously, if Brain wanted
that job back at any point in time, I'm sure
that could have happened. Also, Brain only temporarily filled in
recently with Primus when they were looking for a new drummer,
and he could have stayed with Primus. I don't think
(22:00):
he wants to be a touring musician like that. That
would be that would be my guest there. So no,
I'm sorry because all the fans asking for that, and
I think you need to take into consideration. And the
majority of fans were wonderful towards Frank of just how
he feels. And I don't mean to sound lame saying that,
(22:21):
but Frank has been heavily criticized over the last nineteen years,
not because of who he is. He is an extremely
nice guy, extremely approachable. He was awesome on this podcast.
He offered to come back on the podcast with Brain,
but whatever Bureaucadock behind the scenes stuff prevented that from happening.
Amazing guy, But drummer as musicians say that he'd never
(22:46):
fit guns or roses that something with his sound. Now
as a non musician, as somebody who is completely tone deaf,
I don't hear it. I'm a cliche fan that just
like the lead singer and the lead guitarist. That's really it,
to be honest with you, unless it's a bassis like
within GNR that stands out, like Guff with the basslines
(23:07):
that stand out, or you know, Flea or something like that.
But otherwise the bass sounds I don't. I can't tell.
I don't have that ear. It's all about the voice
and the guitar for me, and that's since I was
a kid. That's why I gravitated towards GNR most of all.
So I don't hear that. So it's it's you can say,
(23:28):
you cannot say anything. It's kind of like, you know,
with the what your mother used to say. You know,
if you have nothing nice to say, you don't say
it at all. These people are on social media, they
see your comments. You don't need to say good riddance
like this makes you feel cool. Say good riddance that
this guy, I don't know. Maybe he's out of a job,
like I really out of a job now. I'm sure
I like to think he's well off because of he's
(23:49):
been with GNR. But never celebrate somebody losing a job.
And while it was again, uh, it was shown as alplicable,
you know, there was mutual agreements. It's I don't think
that's the case now. And I say that just reading
between the lines with no knowledge inside knowledge of just
(24:12):
seeing what you see and based upon what I'm gonna say,
many of you agree with me. So this is a
So they announced the departure of Frank on the nineteen
and then they announced who the new guns Roses drummer.
And we're gonna get to because I want to get
past the Frank part first. The new drummer drum roll pleased,
(24:33):
I guess put intend. You already know Isaac Carpenter now
if you don't know who he is, he's played with
Duff before, with Loaded in a Wall Nations. So we're
gonna get to that in a moment. But I want
to wrap up the Frank park because they announced that
on the twentieth and then the twenty first, so just
a you know, a few hours before I'm recording this,
(24:56):
Frank on Instagram released a statement. So this kind of
it helped shaped the narrative and why I had to
record this part three times because the narrative for me
kept changing. So let's bring up Frank's Instagram post. The
outpouring of love I felt from incredible fans, from the
incredible fans of Guns and Roses and my peers over
the past twenty four hours has been tremendous. I will
(25:18):
have expended immense gratitude and love always for Axcellent and
the band, while at the same time disappointment that this
chapter came to an end. It has been an incredible
nineteen years. Guns of Roses has given me life changing
memories and experiences. Huge thanks to management, the crew and
fans for giving me memories that I will cherish for
(25:39):
my lifetime. I hope I will see you all again soon.
Frank Farair, Wow, So I don't think it really takes
some sort of investigative journalists to really see that this
was not a mutual parting of ways, and he says
disappointment unless he had to leave for other reasons like Okay,
I'm disappointed because I'm not feeling well that my divorce
(26:03):
has really impacted me. I don't see those as being
the case, because I think that would have been stated.
So this sounds like he was he was fired, he
was asked to politely to leave again. This is my speculation.
I do not I do not know firsthand, because you don't.
(26:23):
You don't use that word disappointment lightly. And he thanks
another I see other people kind of highlighting how he
thanks Axel and the band nobody else by name. Well,
Axel was the first one to hire him. He came
on before Slash and Duff, which sounds funny because Slash
and Duff were obviously before him. But so I don't
(26:43):
know if that's just a you know, if that's a
particular uh, if that's a specific phrase he wanted to
use to really just thank Axel and and the band
and just make it easy, or was this a slight
to Slash and Duff maybe Duff And I say that
because if you were able to read Matt Sorem's book,
(27:07):
I think it was in Matt Sorrems one of his
early drafts that he tells the story, you know about
why he was not involved in the reunion and he
wanted you know, they wanted frank out. That the allegedly
Duff wanted Frank out, that they couldn't sync musically. Nothing
(27:28):
as far as a personality clash. It was something musically
that they just couldn't click with. And what leads me
to believe now that maybe that story has even more
merit is because Eisen Carpenter is a tough guy. Again,
so he was in Duff mckagans loaded for just a
couple of years, I have to believe, like two thousand
(27:49):
and nine, twenty eleven, and he's played with a Wall Nation,
a good band for like the last ten years. And
you may know that Duff has actually done guest dates
with a Wall Nation, so he has a history with
Isaac Carpenter. So I want to bring this up, and
I want to give credit to SPF magazine Slashes fan page,
(28:12):
a fan page magazine on Facebook for kind of putting
this all together for us. And I also I should
give you a heads up. It's in Spanish, but thanks
to social media, everything gets translated, so like, who do
you who is Eisen Carpenter. So that's obviously I didn't know.
I didn't know I mean, as soon as people said
(28:34):
Awall Nation and Loaded, I'm like, oh okay, but now
I'm learning. So he was in a band called Louder
Milk and Gossling. But initially, this is what's cool, they
started as a Guns n' Roses tribute band with the
name twenty Two's and Tulips. So this dude was in
the Guns of Roses tribute band back in the day.
(28:54):
I like it the xces again Loaded. He yes, he'd
played with Adam Lambert. Hey, Adam Lambert. Regardless of how
you feel the guy's got talent, he could saying you
have to have chops to be in that band. So
he played with Adam Lambert and he's been with Awell
Nation for ten years, three albums. So this guy has
(29:15):
been around and then some and looking at kind of
what I said before about how some people feel about
Frank's playing. The comments people who have already youtubed him
from musicians seem to be in favor of this pick,
playing like wow, this guy can actually this guy can play,
or they are excited about it. So this is a
very interesting pick. So I will say this that you
(29:37):
do not inject new blood for a reason. So I'm
intrigued in what's going to happen this year with guns
and Roses, because why now, why nineteen years in again,
unless Frank couldn't do it for whatever reason, commitments to
a family in illness, something like that, you don't just
stop that after nineteen years. Something special has to be
(30:01):
planned this year for their fortieth anniversary, for them to
be like, for them maybe to Axle the final to
be like, Okay, this is a big move. Again, if
this was true all speculation, if Duff and or Slash
actually convinced Axel to finally let Frank go and hire
his guy, Wow, that's a big deal. And it shows
(30:22):
that maybe Axel is really as much as we think
he runs the entire ship. He listens, He listens, and
that's how this thing is continuing to go with him
Slash and Duff. So if we want to continue to go,
you got to get this guy. It sucks for Frank.
And again this is all optics, reading between the lines.
I see what you see on social media. It's as
(30:43):
crazy how it's played out over a few days. I
just kept thinking different things, So who knows. I hope
I don't through I'm not going to record this a
fourth time. I'm just gonna do this on another podcast
if the news changes again after I say this. So
there you have it. So Isaac Carpenter the new Guns
of Roses drummer, and I am expecting some interesting things
(31:04):
because you do not do this two months prior to tour.
This has to be. He has to be rehearsing with
the band already, has to be. You don't do this
willy nilly. So it's gonna be. I will be paying
attention again. I want all of you who are going
(31:24):
to Guns and Roses shows this year, I invite you
to come on this podcast to do our fan reviews,
our fan obsession and tell me about Isaac Carpenter alive.
So there's a lot of things are ready to talk
about Guns and Roses going into twenty twenty five with
the fortieth anniversary and now a new drummer, and I
am expecting new music. I don't know what form that's
(31:46):
gonna come in, how much of it there's gonna be,
but I am still a firm believer that we will
get something this year, and I think getting a new
drummer is a big, big indicator of that. So that
being said, before I get out of here, because I'm
having fun. I'm excitable. If you can't tell, Let's do
another one of my favorite segments. Let's go to some emails.
It's something I like to call mister Mailestone.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Here's a mailing never fails.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
It makes my jails when it comes. I want to
So this first one comes from Jeremy from Manhattan, and no,
I do not know him. Not everybody from New York
City knows each other, so that is cool. The Jeremy
listens to the podcast, Baby Brownstone doesn't really like it.
(32:36):
I'm gonna one day I'm gonna have him read the
letters to me, like you're gonna write in letters. I'm
gonna have That's how Harrison's really gonna learn how to read. Anyway,
I digress. He starts off, Yo, what's good, Brando, very
New Yorky. I like it, love your podcast, and I
hope that one day you get the opportunity to interview
the usual suspects Axel, Duff, Slash and Izzy. I hope
(32:56):
Stephen too. I think your podcast is for sure, word
of it. Thank you. With that said, as I am
a huge GNR fan myself, I would like to ask
you some questions that I don't think anybody else has
asked you before. Oh boy, since nobody has asked you yet,
I figured why not take this opportunity to ask you
on here and give you my answers as well. Let's go.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
So.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
He loves the GNR High Definition show released on DVD,
The Rich nineteen ninety one Show. He has seen it
more than once. However, he's personally a bit of a
pet peeve with it at the beginning of the film,
how it just shows the date of the show and
then it cuts the slash starting out pretty tight up,
and he thinks it would have been more dope if
they had included some shots of the crowd entering the
(33:39):
venue as well as the band arriving and getting ready backstage.
They could have even shown the MTV news crew since
they were filming there as well, and then cut to
the show starting. Do you have the same opinion about
this yourself? Any pet peeves about this film? Well, Jeremy,
to be honest with you, I've only seen the show once,
so nothing really stands out as far as a pet
peeve about it. The things I remember are Shannon Huan's
(34:04):
appearance that really stands out to me, especially on you
ain't the first and there I think it was before
you could be mine? Maybe that slash kind of he
turns towards the drum riser and he goes back to
the microphone to say something and he just goes who
and like he always walks into it, like those things
stick out in my mind. The pet peeve though it
(34:25):
only would be that, why did it take so long
for this to come out? Why aren't there more? And
Jeremy says that all of us, including myself, hope Axel
releases more. A complete show is just like he did
with Reet's ninety one. So if he wants to ask
me if I could pick only four shows to be
released right away, well let's go to his shows first.
(34:45):
He wants to pick the cat House nineteen eighty nine
where they filmed It's So Easy music video, Use your
Illusion show in Toronto where in June eighth, nineteen ninety one,
where you could see parts of it in Live and
Let Die, then the video for that Da Cooma Dome
July sixteenth, nineteen ninety one. You can see some of
it in the dead Horse video where actually jumps off
(35:06):
stage and is in the crowd in Vegas January twenty fifth,
nineteen ninety two, and that the audio for that is
released on the box set but not the film. So
what shows what I pick? Well, you're a better Guns
and Roses fan than I, Jeremy, because I don't have
any specific dates other than maybe like a show that
I went to December. What was it December fifth, two
(35:30):
thousand and two when I saw them in Madison Square Garden,
you know, the show before the whole Chinese democras think
thing was shut down. Love to see that. Get some
close ups of a buckethead passing out the toys and
doing some nun chucks. But other than that, something from
Skin and Bones, the acoustic stuff when they're on the couch,
maybe when they get delivered pizzas from Topless Women. I
(35:53):
won't watch that around my son and wife, but that
would be that'd be cool to see in HD. His
last quote is, if I can choose a couple of
Axel stage warned worn own clothes to own yourself, which
ones would I pick? So I guess the big I
would ask you are you going to wear these? Or
am I gonna put them on the wall like you know,
(36:14):
on display so he would pick. Jeremy would pick the
black jacket, the vest where one sleeve is full and
the other is not, the American flag jacket that he
wore during the Civil Warm performances, and or the blue
button down shirt he wore during the MTV nineteen ninety
interview with Kurt Loder when they're sitting outside. I mean,
the fact that you want a dress shirt shows you're
(36:35):
a classy dude, Jeremy. So good for you if for
not just wanting the stage stuff that you're wanting something nice,
you want something that you can, you know, go to
Sunday dinner with. So what would I pick if I
could put it on the wall. I think kilt would
be cool. I don't know if I would wear that.
It's kind of windy in New York right now. What
(36:57):
else would I mean? The skeleton jacket that's in the
Rock and Roll Hall. I'm not the Rock and Hall
of Fame, the UH, the the Hall, the Hall of
Fame Cafe, the Rocket, the rock called cafe in the
UH in London. I was just there the Hard Rock Cafe. Sorry,
I might like to have a daddy brain and up
watching Baby Brownstone literally getting his diaper changed. This is well,
(37:22):
my brother's changing his diaper while I'm recording a podcast.
You can't make this up.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
I will not.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
I will not show you ever that on the podcast.
You have no reason to worry. Uh. I will keep
everything g rated as far as that's concerned. So it's
change gears. I don't know. It's back to the the
worn clothes. Maybe the bucket cap uh from I don't know.
(37:47):
It's so stupid from the two thousand and two VMA's
that he threw at the beginning. I don't know. I
thought he was going cool in that bucket cap. He
threw it away. It's probably gone. So that's from Jeremy
from Manhattan. Uh so, thank you for that, and one
more email before we get out of here. This is
complete end of the planet, opposite of the world, Australia said.
(38:09):
The headline reads. Headline reads, good day from Australia brandw
Greetings from hard rock band Chrystellans. I'm sorry this is
from Callum. Why am I doing that in a terrible
which just sounds like Rocco's modern life accent. I don't know.
I do a bad New York accent too, so I
hope your entire country doesn't hate me anyway. So, as
(38:30):
per the subject line, good day Brande who I won't
read the rest of the email like that. I hope
this email finds yourself and Baby Brownstone extremely well. Well
thank you. I'm sure you hear Baby Brownstone chattering a
bit back there. Just if he's chattering, he's not on
me pressing buttons. So let's get through this portion. Let's
(38:52):
go through the rest of this episode hopefully unscathed. So
my name is Calum. I'm a big fan of your
pod and your truly yours, in my humble opinion, is
by far the greatest GNR podcast online, and that's with
some stiff competition with the likes of the first fifty
Gigs pod. As your peers, well, thank you for that.
(39:13):
I don't take compliments well, so I try to just
say thank you, but I will give a shout out
to the guns and radio who've been doing it for
a long time. And fifty first Gigs, I mean, that's
what Mark Canter. He was there, He's the one with
the photos, then the videos and from those first fifty
gigs and was that slash his wedding and like he's
that guy. So, I mean a lot of the same guests.
(39:35):
So for me, if you, to whatever reason, prefer mine
to his I appreciate it, so thank you. So he's
writing on behalf of his band, the Crystallines, and I'm
telling you about them because they are a hard rock
three piece from Melbourne, Australia. He plays guitar and sings,
but they're very much inspired by guns and roses. So
he wanted to reach out to sing my praises. Huh,
(39:57):
thank you. No, I'm not really like that. Those celebrities,
Oh no, thank you don't. It's too much and they
really want it.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
I kid you not.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Before I recorded the episode, the interview with Alex Lifsin,
I look at my twenty eight year old brother who's
staying with us for a little bit, and I said,
I don't think I deserved this interview. I swear to you.
I'm like, I don't like, why am I? Who am
I interviewing? This guy doesn't even know because and also
to reveal before the interview, just to what ended up
(40:28):
just telling me that Alex was running late. My coworker,
the tour producer with Alex, he he just like joked me.
He's like uh that Alex was looking through the schedule
and he's like, appathe for the stortion, I'm not doing that,
And my heart sank and he's like, I'm just joking.
That didn't happen. He's just running late just to stand by.
(40:49):
Oh my God, like I believed it. I'm like, you
got me, man. So I was singing my praises thank
you because I definitely need it, because I'm definitely hard
on myself. Even almost my five hundred episodes in, I
still am so thank you. He also wants to get
feedback on his work, so I will suggest you go
to YouTube and check out one of their singles for
(41:10):
down my Neck. It's kind of like the first bands
or sounds that came into my head. It's like if
like Alison Chains had a baby with Collective Soul. I
don't know if you could hear that. So check him
out the Crystallines on YouTube. And then just Calum and
he's like, I very much admire and appreciate your work,
your commitment, your approach. Would love just to chat regardless
(41:32):
of all above, So we chatted here. I didn't want
to type too much for more of a chatter. That's
why I have a podcast and on social media. I
try not to. It takes a lot for me to
write a lot, so that's why sometimes I talked to
a lot of you via DM. I'm not always engaged
in full conversation. I try to leave that to the podcast.
So if you want to be just like Jeremy from Manhattan,
(41:54):
if you want to be like Calum from Australia, and
if you want to talk via the podcast, if you
have mister Malestone, you could send me an email at
the A at the af D Show. I can read
my own email at the af D Show at gmail
dot com, or gona send me a DM at any
of these social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, leave me on
comments on YouTube channel wherever. You can even send messages
(42:17):
on the website afdpod dot com. You can send messages.
You can do Patreon, you can do PayPal if you
want to support the podcast, if you want to support
me getting a babysitter so we can do these interviews
a little bit more professionally, or maybe not, maybe you
want to I don't know, if maybe you like baby
Brownstone here and you just want to help me invest
(42:38):
into a baby microphone for him or something like that.
Either way, all past episodes are up on afdpod dot com.
Just check it out. And as I mentioned, so Tracy
Guns on the way, Alan Nivin on the way. Also
this I believe I can confirm it's not taped yet,
but he, like Tracy, initially gave me a no for
(42:59):
a long time. But now we got to guess. Bumblefoot,
so a lot to come on, appetite for distortion, Hank
tight and with guns or roses. This is gonna be
a fun year. So when's the next episode? Well, in
the words of AXL Rose concerning Chinese democracy, I don't
know as soon as the word, but you'll see it.
(43:27):
Thanks to the lame ass security. I'm going home.
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