July 7, 2026 • 55 mins
Brooke Ellis, longtime rock journalist and musician, joins to share his story about being the uncredited ghostwriter of Steven Adler's autobiography. Brooke details his relationship with the former Guns N' Roses drummer, his own music "HELLDEFY," and reacts to an unexpected announcement early in the chat.
More info:
https://helldefy.com https://olddamage.com
https://vintagequixotic.bandcamp.com
https://youtube.com/@dabrookman
Recorded June 24, 2026
Dedicated to Doug Goldstein.
WEBSITE:
www.afdpod.com
More info:
https://helldefy.com https://olddamage.com
https://vintagequixotic.bandcamp.com
https://youtube.com/@dabrookman
Recorded June 24, 2026
Dedicated to Doug Goldstein.
WEBSITE:
www.afdpod.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite four Distortion, episode number five
hundred and sixty nine. My name is Brando. Now I
need to put a little bit of a disclaimer before
we start my interview with Brooke Ellis. He's a journalist,
he's a musician, and we're talking to him about his
band Hell DeFi, as well as his story, very compelling
(00:20):
story about how he is the actual the uncredited co
author of Steven Atler's autobiography. Now, I was initially attracted
to this interview because of all the similarities and parallels
between his situation and mine with Doug Goldstein trying to
write his book. Now, if you're a fan of this podcast,
(00:40):
you're listening now, chances are you. Now that's sadly, unexpectedly,
Doug Goldstein has passed away. Now shortly into this interview
is when I find out. And I find out from
a text from Craig Duswalt, Axel's former personal assistant, who
was the last episode of the podcast. But I put
(01:01):
that one out first because as I was recording this,
I get this text and I didn't know what the
story was. So I was certainly not going to put
this information out without knowing the full story, and sadly
everything was confirmed, and I wanted to kick this episode
off of just letting you know. I was debating showing
this because you're seeing me react to a death in
(01:23):
real time, seeing us react in real time. But it's
important to the memory of Doug, and we talk about Doug.
So this episode, while I thought it was going to
be one thing, it certainly became something else. So let's
do a reset. Before we talked to Brooke, let's listen
to a little bit of his band hell DeFi and
his song Let's Get High you know what.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Is in their prime?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Goodacord, I cried, and welcome to the podcast. Mister Brooke Ellis,
(02:13):
how are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Hello?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
And if you're watching this on zoom, I mean you could,
I said, mister and your Manley voice, but you had
to say that we were emailing before. I'm a guy.
By the way, I mean you spell it with an
e at the end. It's kind of it's a it's
a unique name for a guy. Is that that's your
real name, Brooke Ellis? Or is that a stage name?
Speaker 3 (02:38):
You know? That's my real name?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
You know, the legal spelling is with the e uh.
Sometimes informally I'll drop the e uh. But there is
a very famous R and B singer from the fifties
and sixties, Brooke Benton. Okay, so, but nobody really knows
that name, but you know, so it's been a guy's
name too.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
You know, not to not to judge, but it's it's
so funny when you said that, And I'm sure a
lot of people are having this issue now with emails
or even texts where they do an AI summary of it.
I'm like, I don't need that for my friends or
somebody i'm talking to. And you thought I said she
when it said he. I'm like, I did my research
(03:17):
into to you, and I just thought that was funny,
especially now that I get to see you. We kind
of got the same look going beard and glasses. You
look at Goldberg. If anything, it's a little intimidating the restler.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yes, I've heard that before. When I was thinner, you
used to tell me I looked like stone cold. And
when I was in my eighties prime, I was a
dead ringer for Robin Crosby.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Apparently from Okay, before I lost my hair and grew
my beard, people would call me Scott Stap really yeah, yeah,
this is a picture I got. I should send it. Yeah,
everyone like all my friends. And my defense was like,
well this one beh one used to have like music shows,
like he was ranked number eighty three. I still remember
(04:02):
this on the top one hundred Sexiest Artists of all
time by page one. So I was like, whatever, I
look like number eighty three, let me alone. Then I
lost my hair and pretty good.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
And what a tragic story for Scott's staff. And I
feel so bad for the art of the band that
Bumblefoot put together with Scott Wiland.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Sons at It's not sons of art of batter dy
Artia Panarchy.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, because you know, the first they paid Scott went
Wreland to appear on the album, and he refuses to
do any promotional stuff for it. So they invested one
hundred grand or one hundred fifty grand to get him
to sing, and then they edited the hell out of
his performance to make these really cool, cutting edge songs.
So who do they go to next, Scott Stapp, somebody
who was equally as troubled and they had run into
(04:49):
the same problems with him.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah, so that poor band man.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I really feel for them, like they invested in these
guys and those guys just kind of let them down
in a big way.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Bubblefoots had a hard time. I'm trying to get in
a band, but I don't think that's what he wants anymore.
I think he referred to himself recently as retired. He
just does what he wants.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
And yeah, So anyway I digress, people are like, oh,
what are you talking to? Brook Ellis? This is like,
by the way, how I get my interview started. We
get to meet people because we're going to talk about
other interviews. So we're going to talk about Steven Adler's
new interview on the YouTube channel Get on the Bus,
and a very different format I think then then than mine.
So if you don't mind, I'm kind of gonna read
(05:30):
the paraphrase and email that you sent to me, because
I get a lot of emails and I'm very fortunate
if you want to send me one, whether it's to
you know, get your words on the show, or just
to say hi, you know, whatever it is, I always say.
The conversation continues in between the broadcast the AfD Show
at gmail dot com. So you were recommended by Adriana
(05:51):
Smith Rocket Queen or I guess I should specify the
voice on Rocket Queen because Barbie von Grief is the
Rocket Queen. Now we're getting to the weeds of the
real GNR NERD stuff. But Adriana Smith, who was on
a few episodes ago with her mom, what an interesting
interview I was.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, she sent me the link, and let me tell you,
I had no you know, same on me because I
had no idea just how far reaching your podcast is.
You've had some real heavy hitters, So thank you for
putting me in that company. And Adriana Smith is such
a sweetheart, and I hope we can talk about her
a little more in the conversation when it becomes relevant
(06:30):
to what we're saying.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
For sure, No, I'm far reaching. I think over ten
years you have to be talking about one band. The
last episode before you with Friends of the Show, his
second appearance the Guns of roses Chiropractor user Illusion. So yeah,
far reaching. But just like you, you don't have to be
in the band to have a great story. So you
(06:55):
kind of gave me some of your story so to
kind of if you don't mind me, I'm come up.
You paraphrase a little bit of what you told me,
and yeah, we'll kind of take it from there. So
you mentioned in twenty twelve, you released an open letter
claiming that you were the true author of Steven Adler's book.
(07:17):
I read Steven's autobiography many years ago. I couldn't tell you.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I remember.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I didn't really enjoy it. I don't know. It didn't
stand out to me. It's like a rock autobiography, like
compared to others. It was just like it was okay,
it was okay. But in that book you are nicknamed
Chuck here quote you also ran Stephen's social media for
eight years from two thousand and twenty twenty eight that
you were friends. You knew his family, you knew his
(07:43):
his wife before they were married. And the cool thing is,
just like me, you're a real fan. You've been to
concerts and events. You're not just some social media guy
or a journalist, which of those are great things too,
but you're like, I'm those things too, but you're you're
a fan. Well, maybe we'll talk about your memorabilia, because
you were telling me a little bit about that in
the email. This is also cool. Speaking of Adriana that
(08:07):
you gave her her first ever interview, which is something
that she got across and I wanted to come across
when I interviewed her. It's not like, yeah, she's promoting
an album, but she's not somebody that's going on like
a press tour over the years. Hey, I'm always on
the voice of the rock at Queen. She doesn't do
I hasn't done a lot of interviews. So that's that
(08:29):
was pretty big. We'll get into that story. Perhaps. You
also worked with Mick Wall, the infamous or famous however
you want to look at it, Mick Wall on a
Very Slash special addition for a Classic rock magazine. You've
also interviewed some former guests that I've had on this show,
Mark Canter, Matt Soorm, Teddy Zigzag and Del James and
(08:51):
this I did not know. We'll get into this as well.
You produced a well received but short lived GNR podcast,
Jungle Natives Not Familiar. I know I'm not the only
genor podcast in existence. It's not just for me putting
my head in the sand and be like nohing else
exists but me. I wasn't aware of it, so I
didn't know.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, it was just before the reunion.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
We just did four hour long episodes, and yeah, they
went over well in the forums, and yeah, and they're
still out there just to listen to.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I just got really terrible information that maybe I will
keep in this podcast. Oh my god, this relates to it.
So I got an a text from Craig Doswalt. Wow,
he agreed to do an interview. But I'm so sorry
(09:46):
to say this on this podcast. I don't know when
it's gonna come out, but Doug Goldstein passed away a
couple hours ago. Oh my god, I don't even know
what to say. You know, I'm I I really wish
my relationship with him ended differently. You know, I said
(10:07):
on the during the interview that I with I said
in the interview with you know, the chiropractice stephen Thaxton,
that you know, I wish him well. I just the
book just didn't end the way I wanted to when
I was writing it with him, and both books did
(10:27):
you write with him? I wished it? What's that?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
What book did you write with him?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
We were working on his autobiography. We were working on
it for two years and and it just didn't He
wanted us to get paid. I mean, I've told the
story in the podcast and I don't want to deviate
too much. I think I should since I'm getting this
text right now, I should react in real time. I
guess i'd fuck Doug. So he he wanted us to
(10:54):
get paid for what we were doing, which of course
why not. But I felt we weren't ready and they
had the guy there. Did not want me on the
project because I was not like an official author. I
couldn't get the project out in time enough. But with Doug,
it just things take a long time. We had people
work on books for years for years, so that Doug
(11:14):
really wanted to work with this guy because he had connections.
And then I just I felt portrayed at the time
we had reconciled. After you know, I made and angry.
I react angrily sometimes I on my Patreon. I read
one of his chapters and then he got back to me.
He was not happy about that, and I took it down,
(11:35):
and I understood why. I kind of just wanted to,
you know, start a conversation with him again, because the
way he would start talking to me again would be
through Bible passages and stuff like that. And you know,
I'm not religious, and I just don't that's not something
I I didn't know what he was, like, what that
was about, you know, And I just said, I feel uncomfortable.
(11:56):
I always wished him well, I had, I said, like
in the episode with with Stephen Dackson, it was like
an ex girlfriend, and I fuck, I wish I you know,
I didn't want last favor. I guess I don't. I
don't even want to phrase it like that. So on
the interview with Steven Daxton, because the reason I met
Stephen Daxon was through Doug uh and I of course
(12:20):
they gave Doug credit because of that. And within that conversation,
Stephen told the story about Doug which Doug had told me.
I thought it was off the air, and it wasn't.
So we ended up cutting it out. And I saw
that Doug did publish this story about how he had
like machine guns in his chest when they were like
down in Columbia with whole guns of roses, people trying
(12:41):
to get money from guns and roses. This's whole crazy story.
So Stephen texted Doug two days ago, like a couple
of days ago, to get this cut out, and I said, sure,
I will cut it out. I'll do right by you.
I'll do right by Doug, even though we don't talk anymore.
Oh man, I'm really that's really sucks. We could yeah,
(13:04):
so you know, let me talk more about Doug after.
But I had to.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Let me interject Doug. A few years back, when I
was running Steve's website, he contacted me wanting to get
a hold of Steven, and at that point Stephen had
still in the early two thousands, Steven still felt still
betrayed by Doug. You know, he always would tell the
(13:31):
story how when they're getting on the bus, Steven said
something like, Doug, you don't worry about me. I'm just
the drummer, and Doug got real serious, fuck that you
are an equal part of this band. You're just as
important as anybody else around here, and which is pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
And it made you know, and and it made Steve
love the guy. But of course.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I won't say that he portrayed him. But anyway, Doug
contacted me. He was living in Mali and he said
he's living in that bar, s to come down with Steve.
You guys can you know, hang out and party? And
he left the voicemail with Steven because I gave him
his number, and Steven played it for me, and Steve's
called him back and said, motherfucker, it only took you
(14:14):
twelve years, you know, to reach out to me. And
uh so, I don't know as the relationship developed any
further than that, but I saw Doug around at shows
and stuff, and when he did contact me, I told him,
I said, you know, I used to stee around shows
and you have a big part in that Lakeland for
the documentary and I always wanted to be a part
(14:36):
of that posse, that crew.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
And he said, well, come on down. You know.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
He was a real sweet guy and I'm shocked, and
the timing was insane, and God blessed her gold scene,
and my condolences to anybody who.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Loved him, bless him. And I am I'm sorry. I
wasn't mature enough. I mean, I don't know, it just
didn't And well, I mean, I'm saying I didn't wish
him harm. I never said anything bad about him, even
when I had Alan on. That's what the episode. People
sometimes don't misunderstand. When I had last time an Alan
(15:11):
Niman on or like episode five hundred, it was to
say stuff from Doug's book to Alan and say, like,
what could we talk about it, and even within that,
I defended Doug. I never went even when I was hurt,
I never went in on him because he was kind
to He was kind to me. Well, it fizzled out,
the business part of it. He was so kind, so
supportive of me. And I don't know the details yet,
(15:36):
Craig says he wasn't. I don't know. I don't want
to say anything yet because I don't know when this
episode's coming out. You're just getting a reaction in real time.
Maybe I'll talk about it on social media before, but
the rest of peace, Doug Old staying, Oh my god,
I'm so sorry to him and his family. I know
he had issues with his his ex wife and his sons. God,
I have a lot more processing to do, so I
guess if we can, we're going to pivot back to
(15:59):
this and then we'll maybe we'll wrap up with some more.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well, we know we're a part of history right now,
sort of.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I guess, I I guess, I don't know. So anyway,
you were joined. You joined G and R alumni twice
on stage, which is pretty cool. Say, you know, I
don't know if you talked about anything like this happened
in your g and R podcast Jungle Narratives. Yeah, that's
where I left off. But you played Knocking on Heaven's
(16:27):
Door with Adler with Chips Enough and Billy Morrison in Vegas.
You also played The Lighthouse Cafe and Huntington Beach with
Dizzy Gilby and Slim Jim Phantom, who I'm still trying
to get on the podcast. He likes my Instagram stuff
all the time, but I can't.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And that's the one that people don't believe because they
don't believe that Gilby and Dizzy we're jamming together at
a Starbucker show. But it happened, and my band Flush
God is open for them because we're friend friendly with
Evil Dick, the guy that run that won the Big
Big Brother game show on TV. He was friends with
Adler and he became friends with me and he booked
(17:03):
my band at the Lighthouse four Fridays.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Once a month for four months.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
So he opened up for Lizzie Boardon one time, and
we and twice, you know, up for the Starfuckers. And
I just asked Gilby, I said, hey, can I sing
a song with you guys? And He's like, sure, what
do you want? It's like heaving the door. He's like, sure,
you got it. And by the time I went on,
I was like two am. But I did the whole
actual thing. You all know what time it is now.
I think it's time for you to help me, you know,
and everybody singing along it was. It was just amazing.
(17:30):
And that was when Evil Dick booked us for three
more shows. But yeah, Dizzey was here. I played one
stage with Dizzy Bilby Simpson Fantom, I think it was
Stephen Adico on bass, and again I did the same
thing with the sing along with Adler, Chips Enough, Billy
Morrison and Adler told me that, you know, I wasn't
expecting to sing that day. I was wearing flip bops.
(17:51):
But Adler called me on stage and he said that
as soon as I started singing, both Billy Morrison and
Chips Enough looked at me like, you know, we're expecting
this guy to actually, you know, pull it off. And
those are some of my fondest memories.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
You know. It's great, it's.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Very cool, and we're going to talk about because you
are a musician, uh, your current project is called Hell Defy,
and you're promoting a new singles. Let's Get High and
Manic Liaison, which both have direct references to Guns and
Roses and tipping the hap to g n R. So
that's again all cool. So that's why we had to
get your GNR stats out of the way. You have
(18:30):
quite a story which I'm not even close to being
done with yet. So uh you also panned a number
of I forgot about these the scripts that were produced
for to those, Lina, so you may something. You may
remember these Guns and Roses cartoons. They looked very like
adult swimmy I guess if I could say that, and
(18:52):
directed by Lena Bones or Boons.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Who's married to the bass player of Love and Spoonful.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Okay, okay, she was.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
A body she was a female bodybuilder. Very I'm sure
she still is. I haven't seen her in years. But
so she had these cartoons and they were all wacky humor,
and somehow we got in touch and I made more
uh fighting being our commentary, you know, in my scripts,
and I actually used a couple of ghost names because
I was a little concerned. I wrote an early interview
(19:24):
which is basically a direct take off of the interview
one of their first interviews with Tabath Sarm where you know,
the thought is like where's my sunglasses, you know, and
tabas like they need your sunglasses?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
And uh.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
The other one was here Today, Gone Tool, which was
a a piss take of the politics over here Today,
Gone tomorrow, you know, with drama, you know, he's the character.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
In it, and I wrote one other.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Uh but yeah, oh who's Frank and that's that that
features uh Phil James is the main character. And it
kind of makes ACXL like overly paranoid, you know, about
getting sued and stuff and and for my and I
talked to Dell, but not after the cartoon, but I
(20:12):
heard through the grapevine that he liked it.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Okay, okay, yeah, they're all I should go back, and
like when I saw your email, I was like, wait
a minute, and so I did. I briefly watched like
a couple of weeks. They're hard to I found one
of them. I forgot which one it was that I found,
but but yeah, those those were funny the early days
of the internet, so very cool. But if that wasn't enough,
(20:37):
so Stephen just did an interview on a popular YouTube
channel called Get on the Bus, and you know, just
I preface it with like, yeah, of course I want.
I would love to interview Stephen Adler, but Get on
the Bus is a bigger channel. It's so well produced,
you know, I hold you know, they deserve that interview.
(21:00):
You know, hopefully one day I get it. But I couldn't.
I don't know if I have like an undiagnosed like
sensory overload sometimes thing. I mean, I don't think sometimes
I have a lot going on. But when I watch
an interview and this music underneath, especially when it's Stephen
because of the stroke that he had, I mean, his mark.
(21:20):
His mind is so sharp as attack, but it's he's
hard to understand so in his music, and there are
a lot of different cuts happening. You know, you're looking
at Stephen directly, then you're looking at him sideways black
and white, then you're looking at him above and I'm like,
I can't even focus. I don't mean this look. The
guy is obviously super talented. Whoever runs that channel, it
(21:43):
just wasn't for me. I couldn't. I couldn't watch it.
It was distract You're right, it was distracting. So I
what you have to say about, you know, the Adler interview.
I can't comment further because I couldn't watch it because
I'm like, you know, and I'm being completely honest.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
So motivated me to contact you.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Okay, so let's get into the specifics of why, and
then I'll have you jump off and have you take over.
So so Stephen did the interview with Get on the Bus.
I mean, people feel free to watch it. I just
couldn't get through it myself that he doesn't like his book,
and that's why I said earlier, I'm like, I wasn't
a huge fan of it, so maybe it's it was
kind of reassuring to know that he didn't really like it,
(22:24):
but he has a problem with the quote unquote ghost writer.
So well, technically you were the ghostwriter, just like how
I was. I was not going to be the ghostwriter
for Doug. We were going to be like co authors
or I was just going to be like Doug Goldstein
with Brandon Weisler. He said to me, like, that's what
hurt me so much, Like this was going to be
a new career for me. It was going to help
(22:45):
my family, and he obviously hit stuff going on. So
at the end of the day, none of that matters.
His life mattered, and that's what sucks. So I'm a
treasure that when I look back at a stressful time,
I'm going to look back now, said fondly, now that
I got to spend all that time with him. So anyway,
so you were the ghostwriter, but you don't think he
(23:07):
was referring to you, but rather the named co author,
Lawrence Spagnola. But just in case. Specifically, he complained that
the book says that Matha Hupol was his favorite band.
I warned him about this eighteen years ago. So I
don't know what you taxed a quote for me to see.
You know, it's yeah, So let me explain that part
(23:28):
of it, please, sure.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So he goes on that interview, he asked me about
the book. He says, I don't like it, and he
goes to site and he goes and he complained about
the ghostwriter. So technically i'm the ghostwriter Larry Spagnola, Lawrence J. Spagnola,
piece of shit, And I use that without any reservation
because of the way he treated me. I'm sure he's
(23:50):
beloved by people where he's a great guy, but he
stole from me. He stole my biggest opportunity. So after
that guy. Fuck you, Larry Spagnola. Anyway, I'm sorry about that,
and you can bleep it or whatever.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So and it. He cites specific examples, and one of
them was that he goes off saying Steven, Steve, he
goes he goes off saying that Manta Hoople is my
favorite band.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
He's like, come on, Matt de Hoopel.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Well guess what.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
This is what happened.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
When I was sort of an agreement but not knowing
what was happening with me in the background, with Larry
Spagnola being on board, they had me working with him
and checking his pages. And I'm like, motherfucker, this guy's
just patting my work with like his own personality and
his own made up stories. And I said to Steve, dude,
he's for like a paragraph he talks about how great
(24:39):
Manta Hoopole is. And Steve said to me, and this
is what fifteen years ago, I love mont de Hoople,
just work with Larry. So I want Steve to know,
like there's nothing in that original manuscript that he would
not like, you know, you know, I was in tune
with him, you know what I mean. And I interviewed
him for you know, like I said, twelve hours of all,
(25:00):
you know, and I would never have done anything that
he wouldn't have approved of. And I made damn sure
that that that book was factually correct. But the only
reason that Larry Spike Nola got involved is because the
book sat on the shelf for a few years. Because
when they were shopping around the publishers, they were shopping
around two manuscripts. One was the one that I wrote
with Stephen, and one was Deanna Adler's story, and she
(25:24):
was held ba and I loved Deanna Adler.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
I want to say that can go off with a
tangent right here real quick?
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Sure, sure, Well, when I.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Would be over in Vegas working on the book, she
would bring me food to these delicious pizzas. She knew
I loved pizza and or she knew I had a
big appetite. She bring me two pizzas. She made sure
that the refrigerator had you know, bacon and bagels and
cream cheese. You know, she was such a sweetheart. And
if she ever caught anybody doing drugs with Steven, she
(25:56):
would give them.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Holy hell.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Well, this one time, I'm letting out a big cloud
of smoke. The door opens and she's there and she
sees me putting down his bomb and she just says,
how's it going? Super friendly. Anybody else she would have
tore into I know it. And it's kind of funny
because she even took it a little further by honking
(26:20):
the horn before to alert us that she's pulling in.
And like, if you're smoking rock or something, you don't
like to be around people. Like it was just being
Steve watching family guy. It's cool, but when you're at
Steve's house there's always people coming in and out. You
never get to relax. Your anxiety is already up here.
So every time, God bless her, she'd honk that horn
(26:40):
and I'd say, dude, tell her, I'm in the shower
and I rude upstairs, you know, basically hiding.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
But she was. She was always good to me.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I don't have any problem with Deanna Adler. She infect
she occupies a special place in my heart. And love you, Diana. Anyway,
where was I at before that?
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Where all all of the place, And obviously I'm a
little dish.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Larry Larry Larry So, Yes, Larry So. Also in the interview,
Steve says, and he cheapens the experience of seeing Nicki
six live for the first time with London, Well, I
sent you the actual quote for my manuscript, which is
basically the book except minus Larry's patting. And I do
(27:23):
not cheapen that experience at all. I say, his hair
was spiked up to God. And we saw that and
we said and talking about Stephen and Slash and they said,
that's what I want to do, like you know, when
I saw Nikki six, who was larger than life. So
I did not downplay it. But Larry Spagnola, you know,
I don't have that book. I refused to have it
in my house. But I don't know what his exact
(27:44):
description of it was. But he's a guy that's like
ten years older than all of us. You know, he
probably hated ed Maley Crue and probably cheapened it, you know,
because that's his point of view, you know. And I
loaded that manuscript, but watch of like little inside jokes
and stuff. So I challenged him to come on here.
I challenged, you know. And there's another guy, Steve Sprite,
who I challenged to come on here to you know,
(28:07):
prove that like I didn't write it, or that I'm
the bad guy or something because that my life led
up to that. It's Stephen's book is his story, but
my life is a guns and roasenespand from the time
I was very young, led up to me meeting him,
led up to me writing the book. And they had
a few different people, you know, take a stab at it,
and they couldn't make it happen because they needed somebody
(28:30):
that not only knew the band inside out, didn't have
to do research, you know, because I have every book,
every magazine and you know, every interview, but they also
needed somebody that could hang with Stephen and have his trust,
somebody that partied, you know, which is what I did,
you know. And when it all fell apart, I was
left addicted to crack and and you know, left alone
to talk to these lawyers and they were rude as hell.
(28:52):
They were mean, and people say, get over it. Well
I did get over it. But you know, to see
Steve say I don't like my book and stuff, I
wanted him to know, Well, dude, that's because you screwed me.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
So yeah, well, I guess it's a bit ironic and
sad that I got the text from about Doug from
Craig Diswalt, now because I'm feeling a little bit of
what you're saying with Doug and people getting their hands
on changing words around. I'm like, it's it's his words,
it's his story, and I'm not wasn't going to add
to it without anything with his without his approval. And
(29:27):
I guess force I foresaw as we were going to
try to do the book again, and I was like,
I need a different level of commitments and uh trust,
And but I foresaw what happened to you happening to me.
I'm like, all right, maybe I'll get your trust now,
but there's gonna be somebody else down the line that's
kind of like screw me. And I'm a fan. I'm
(29:50):
putting my heart and soul into this, and it's really
it's difficult. It's difficult.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
So I'm just you know, well, imagine you write your
book with Doug and and here's down the line. All
of a sudden, there's like a team of people involved
with the book suddenly who weren't involved previously, and they've
all got their hands, you know, they all want a
piece of the pie, and they come to the consensus,
(30:14):
well you know what, Brooks signed this, you know, kind
of shoddy contract. You know, that wasn't thrown up by
a professional. He doesn't have money for you know, representation.
Let's just screw it. Even though I'm solely responsible for
that book, because you listen to that audio, for one thing,
Stee's a good percentage of the time he's very legible,
(30:35):
you know, and there's times where I have to rewind
that tape over nobody just understand what he's saying. Right,
So that book, the personality that I conveyed in an
effort to portray him sympathetically, it's all me and in
fact I had to see now it's like a crazy person,
but I even had to, you know, make them look
(30:56):
good in certain situations where it's like that's fucked up, dude.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
You know, I do understand. And that was what I
was telling Doug, you know, because he he would he
would talk about Steven, and I get a little bit
of that. He really tried to save Steven's life, you know,
and he's and I'm like, I want you to see him,
because there was a whole thing about Doug and Allen's
put it out there that he's the one that really
(31:20):
broke up guns of Roses. That we're trying to change that.
I'm really trying to make the whole point of the
book mental health. Like that's the big just like this podcast.
Yeah it's guns of roses, but there's a big mental
health reason behind everything. So when you have those your
words and you're shaping the story and yeah, then they
hear why you even like it that that I'm sorry
(31:41):
that that happened and that sucks, and you know, when
did the relationships.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Should say I do get royalty checks. Okay, it's a
whole mess with the contract with like four contracts, the
last one I refused to sign. But at that time
Stephen had just gotten control of his money. It was
like two thousand and eight because his mom had power
of attorney for many years. And when he got his money,
(32:07):
he started paying me for the website six hundred a month,
which was pretty substantial to me.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
But that only lasted two or three.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Months before the book stuff the last So Steven always
used to say to me, dude, once this book is done,
your life is going to be you know better, because
you know, he came to my studio and he spent
the night a couple of times, and he hated it
because like I'm a bachelor. It's a gross bachelor. Patty
and I had one tow and he's like, oh, dude,
(32:33):
you only have one towel, you know. But he told
me your things are going to change for you when
his book is done. And even Deanna Addler, who I love,
you know, but she said they were looking to make
a deal for three million, which meant three hundred thousand
for me. Wow, well I get nothing near that. Did
they pay me per the terms of the contract? I
didn't sign and I did get some legal representation. And
(32:56):
this woman Bretta Brenda Fagan, who apparently was a a
superstar in the women's rights movements of the seventies because
I saw a TV movie where an actress was playing her. Well,
she was making headway with these people. They were responding
to her because she was a name. And then we
had a conversation on an email where I said, hey,
(33:19):
what's the game plan here? Because I don't want my
parents were helping me out. This is twenty years ago,
right and or almost twenty years ago, and I said,
I don't want to send my parents to the poorhouse
over there. So she goes, don't worry, we won't go
to court, Well, what does she do by accident? She
forwards that correspondence to who was Hawkberg the lawyer? And
(33:39):
Sabrina Ment who is Alex Grossey's girlfriend, who you know,
I just knew was Alex Grossy's girlfriend.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Till one day she sends me a.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Contract, here's your book contract, And I'm like, I don't
like these terms. And she's like, she's like, well, if
they're the same terms as your previous contract, I assume
that you just agreed to them. Well, those are contracts
that Stephen got out of. Why are you holding me
to the terms of Stephen that were set forth by Deanna?
And I said, do you always do work on behalf
of your clients under assumption? Are you wasting Steven's money
(34:10):
without contacting me and letting me know what I'm okay with?
So there's certain things in there that I didn't agree with.
I never signed it, but they pay me for the
terms of that. And after Brenda Brenda Fhagen sent our
correspondence over there.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
They stopped responding.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
They said, if you have grounds for a lawsuit, let
us know or leave us alone. And this woman, yeah,
So it was just an ugly situation. Man I was
left alone. I dig did the crack and the last
conversation I have with Steve before all the shit went down,
because he.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Was always good to me.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
I have some cool ass guns memorability that he gave
to me. For two days, I had their Astronaut MTV award,
you know that they want for sweech on of mine.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
He gave it to me.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Was a friar. He gave it to me, and then
Sat day he said, well, Carolina, his wife, you know,
doesn't want me to give it. But for two days
it was mine. But I still have a lot of
stuff that he gave me. And so you know, he
was very good to me, very good to me, and
I loved the guy. And the last thing he said
to me was go ahead and make your own contract.
And now it's the last time I spoke to him
because they must have got a win of it, and
(35:21):
they said, you're not talking to Brook again, Steve, let
us handle this.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
You know, it's been a long time and I am
over it.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
I have a life, you know, But that was my
biggest opportunity.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I understand because you're again it's the irony of me
getting this news about Doug while we're recording. That's how
I felt, you know, and being like this was going
to be my dream to do something that I you know,
dreams of being an author and things like that, I'm like, wow,
I'm a fan. This is what it led to, and
that's what really hurt me. And then when we were
(35:54):
going to come up with a contract, I didn't like
the way the contract was written. It made it like
I was not capable of finishing the job. I was
more than capable of finishing the job. I just don't
I couldn't do it in a writer's timeline because that's
not my only job, and just the so it was
just a lot. And also, just like you, somebody tried
(36:19):
to write Doug's book, who I think wrote for Rolling
Stone Italy and couldn't get it done with him, And
after we were him and I said like, okay, we can't,
We're not. This isn't going to go forward with us.
He tried to get somebody else and that didn't work
out together. So sometimes it's just well, I'm sorry you
went through that experience. And again I can kind of
(36:40):
understand it to a degree. And again when I would
talk about it, when he was brought up before this news.
It would still get a reaction out of me too
and be like, yeah, I'm over it, but there's still
a part of you that's left there. It's so interesting.
I know so many stories that Doug, you know, just
like you talking to Stephen off the air or things
that you wrote down. Is such a bond. It's such
(37:00):
a connection that it gets made. And when other people
tried to mess that up, you know, I felt like
that's what I felt about the literary agent was messing
up my friend. I think he did mess up my
friendship with Doug. I think because of that, because of
him wanting me out from from the get go and
telling Doug get rid of him, and Doug, to his credit,
(37:23):
kept saying no, he's my guy until he realized the
guys is not going to concede on me, thinking like
I'm like I can write. I'm sorry, there are worse
books out there than whatever I would put together. I'm
a terrible speller, but there would be a spell check.
They would be an editor. But as far as everything else,
(37:43):
it would have been like I really think it was
still to this day, it would be the greatest Guns
Roses book ever because we would have I would have
crossed facts and not.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
That's how I feel about my book.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
That's the first draft that I handed in first draft.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
If they got me with a HarperCollins editor who made suggestions,
and and I always intended to flesh it out more,
but they were in a rush.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
They wanted that paycheck exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
They kept saying, oh, what is this a transcript? I'm like, yeah,
kind of of his stories with some of it is
you what do you expect an autobiography to be? And
I'll never forget. My therapist told me just to see
what this person I told him the story before, just
to see what this literary agent wants. Go read another
book under his umbrella and then see what that's like.
(38:27):
And I did, and I read Leader Forre's autobiography.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Right.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
I thought it was great.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
It is great, But I'll never forget there was an
entire paragraph where every single sentence started with the word I.
You man, Like, no, that's if a Leader wrote that. Cool.
But the fact that they got past an editor that
stuff you learned in English one oh one, you don't
do that. So just the fact that I read stuff
(38:53):
that was written in a way that I would write
it or more relaxed than I would write it, just
like you just didn't want me there because I couldn't
make you enough money because I'm not a name, or
I couldn't get it to you in just a couple
of months versus a couple of years. Sorry. So yeah,
so obviously I still have feelings about it, So I
understand your your feelings about it.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Uh yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
And the funny thing.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
The weird thing is like people around Steve, you know
mostly you know, like I was always high.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
When I was with Steve.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
You know, I don't spoke weed anymore, but so I
acted sort of unnaturally. So yeah, I can understand like
they may like think I was weird or something. But
when I was high, though, I could see, like introspectively
into these people, like they're like they have an agenda,
you know, they want something out of them. And everybody
looked at it as like I get rid of Brook,
(39:45):
were one step closer to Steven, you know what I mean.
And I noticed that the dynamic change in Team Adler
when I was at a rehearsal with them and they
wanted to take band photos of Steve goes Brook. You
got your camera and it's like of course, and before
I know it, Alex Grossey's girlfriend, she's got a camera
over your guys, and it starts assuming photography duties. Well
(40:09):
I'm passive. I'm like whatever, you know, I do it?
Speaker 3 (40:12):
Yes, cool?
Speaker 2 (40:13):
And then she sent me the you know, I've been
effectively handling Steve's media for almost a decade, you know,
it was a go to place for toward aids and
stuff and Q and A and everything else. So she
sent me a press release about a singer that's going
to be singing with them, and I edit it edited
just slightly, not because there's a grammatical error or anything,
(40:35):
but just to fit that the personality of the page more,
you just very slightly. Well, everybody involves like oh Brooks, like,
you know, not be not playing bald or I don't know,
some crap anything he could do to twist and spin
it like I'm the bad guy. And and that's why
I noticed like, Okay, things are changing and maybe I
should protect myself. And when I mentioned getting a lawyer,
(40:58):
you know, both Deanna and Steve were like, don't get
a lawyer, you know, you just pay them for you know,
And I didn't want to make waves. I really appreciated
my friendship with Steve. I never took it for granted
and I always thanked to him as a dude. I
really appreciate this. Like we did so much stuff, Like
we had dinner just being him and Carmine a piece,
you know at the Rainbow. It was amazing, and Steve
bought lobster and steaks for everybody. You know, there were
(41:21):
times where just so many wacky adventures. What a funny
thing is the gene R people. The guys in the
band are so laid back and cool. The people around them,
you know, are the ones that like, you know, I
remember being with Steve in someplace where he played Don't
Fear the Reaper on drums as a guest appearance, and
(41:45):
some guy that knew Steve, so oh hey Steve come
backstage with me, and and we're walking backstage with me
and my friend Kent, and a guy closed the door
on me and Ken, you know, as they go back
and I just happened again where some guy wereware kiss.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
It's just being Steve a kiss at the rain in Vegas.
It was the best. Imagine. Well, Kids is one of
my favorite bands.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Arm in Arm with Steven Adler with kids playing singing
Detroit Rock City. It was beautiful, you know. And this
guy from vahed One says, Hey, Steve, why don't you
come up to the VIP lounge just you though, you know,
you know, and you got drinks or whatever. So Steve
goes up. I'm like, that's kind of fucked up, you know,
I'm just here alone. He's only there for like fifteen minutes,
(42:28):
and he came back down.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
You know.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
It was great, but that's how people are like people are.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
They want to be one step closer, you know.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
And and the funny thing is when the guy closed
the door on me, I'm like, I'm his ride, dude,
you know. But it's just my opinion because of how
they treated me. But I understand that these people, Larry
and Steve right, you know, are probably good people to
the people they love or and people love them.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
I understand that.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
But the way they treated me was just not cool
to treat anybody like that, just to throw me away
and peat me like an incidental figure, uh and and
downplay what I've done, you know.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
He I don't know, Yeah, that's that. That should be
the name of the title of this episode. I don't know.
I don't know. Oh man, that's oh, I mean, this
is this episode went away. I didn't expect, you know.
I I'm enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
I think it's probably one of the more enjoyable episodes.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
I know, I'm enjoying myself talking to you. But it's
just very strange. I'm I'm gonna call Craig as soon
as we're done.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
And yeah, he was. Craig was as personal system was he.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Yeah, he finally agreed, you know, he said, like, you know,
let's let's let's do it. He gives me a cell number. Cool.
I don't I don't know always asking I don't ask
for that. I don't you know what cell is really personal?
And I text him, don't hear back? A week ago?
Don't hear back. I think, just like with Doug, I
think like a jolted lover. I'm like, I'm being ghosted
(43:56):
by Craig Dustwalley. I'm like, or do well? I got
to learn how to say his last name before recording
that episodal. Yeah, So I'm like, is he ghosting me?
I feel like I'm on Tinder again. So I just
leave it be. I'm not going to say anything. And
then he's probably super busy, and then obviously a death
in the g n R family. So that's what he
gets me this now, so I will totally make up
(44:19):
a story in my head that's not real. If I
expressed that, I would hope the other person to be like, okay,
I'm sorry, or this is how we communicated. It sounds
like that's what you were doing to all the Stevens
and all that crew, being like this is how I
feel like I'm being treated. But you're still treating me
this way. That's that's when you got to get out,
and that sucks. I'm glad to see you are clean
(44:41):
and sober ish, you know, like ish ish. Yeah, same
thing with me.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Stephen said that he did the fall steps and some
many of you, and I said, and I apologize to everybody.
I needed to, like, well, dude, you missed me, you know.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
So I don't need to laugh at at.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
I saw to.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Steve one time, and since everything this is like twenty fourteen,
maybe buddy of mine was at a KISS convention. They
saw Steve. So he called me and he said, hey, Steve,
I got Brooklyn the phone. You want to talk to him.
Steve grabs the phone and just immediately walks away, Brookie,
I know I owe you money. And the first thing
I said was, well, dude, I'm actually more disappointed that
(45:21):
we're no longer friends.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
The he goes, what are you talking about? You're one
of my ten favorite people. Just because we.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Don't hang out all the time, I'm not thinking like never,
And he told me something that's kind of interesting, a
little side story why he no longer.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
Performs with G and R.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
So, you know, he did the LA Show two songs,
I think, and then he did Cincinnati, Ohio. He was
born in Cleveland, so they had him out dipred there,
and then when I went to Argentina, where his wife
is from, they brought up Slash and Duff are solely
responsible for Steve playing, you know, having the guest appearances,
(45:58):
because what happened in Argentina. Yeah, Steve was gonna, you know,
play one song. He had his ear monitor in and
he heard Axel say what the fuck's he doing here?
And Steve told me he was. He said, after that,
I told myself, I want nothing to do with these
people anymore. And if you notice he ever, you know,
for the last ten years, he hasn't been talking about
(46:19):
a reunion. He hasn't been talking about, you know, wanting
to get up a stay to them because that hurt
him so much. He said, they're not going to hurt
me anymore and he was done. So, you know, even
though we hadn't spoken in the ears, he's still confide
in me as a friend. And I appreciated that in
that moment.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
That's sad to hear because it's, uh, yeah, I mean
when I had Chips enough on, you know this Chips great,
Chip is great. And he was telling this story that
happened several years ago about him and Axel burying the hatchet.
But when you hear the story about, yeah, the Argentina
thing where he was complaining about that after here, I
am flying out just for one song. You know, I
(46:58):
don't play all that type. They won't want play, uh,
you know. And and Frank is you know, putting his
hands up. He just does what he's told. But I
think Stevens, like I had a ten second interaction with Axel,
and I don't know, you know, it is Axel because
he really keeps a lot of people in his past
at a distance.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
It's well, it's really strategic. In the case of Adriana Smith.
You know Axel, who's my hero by the way, I
got him up here, you know, is my hero. But
he uh, you know, he basically asked Adriana to betray
Stephen h and I'm sure he wanted to, you know,
have sex with her too, but it was also uh,
(47:39):
you know, a kick to Steven, you know, and for
her to be just tossed away. Yeah, she's she's literally
the only female boye so one of the best selling.
Speaker 3 (47:50):
Records of all time.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
And I think that she's a title to a little
something because that woman has struggled, you know, and she's
you know, what she's done with herself is great, you know.
She because after gen R uh you know, sort of
threw her to the curb, people were coming over bringing drugs,
you know, hoping that like for somebody would come over,
thinking that they.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Weren't, you know, but if she was, she ended up
fun you know.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
I mean, she was like so many of the gen
R family who got kind of left behind, like they
were just left in the gutter, you know. And I
don't know the dynamics, I can't criticize or anything, but
that the Adriana Smith thing is particularly sad and I
was in a forum, was GENR forum a few years ago,
and she went in there and was talking about West
(48:35):
Sarkeine and and the fans were bandmouthing her, you know,
and like, we're really just Nancy, and like this moment
could give you insight into the band. She has stories
and stuff and why are you Because I can't help
but think that they're only doing it because they think
Axle is watching, you know, and they want to.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
I don't know, it's just.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
To be performative, you know, I don't understand it. But
the way it's just it's more than just the gen
It's not just G and R fandom or a select forum.
It's just how we are as a society, which is
sick just putting people down and not knowing the full story.
And after talking with Adrian, I mean I didn't know
(49:14):
her at all, you know, and if I'm never going
to forget her or her mom. And yeah, it's it's
such an opposite story from a from a great story
that I got on this podcast about Billy McLeod, one
of the writers on Yesterday's and how they got him
and how they got him the money. So it's just
(49:35):
very weird how some people are really expecting No, no,
not at all, And that's why it was so important
for his sister Cynthia to get out this story. That
still does I see it all the time. I posted,
you know, a few versions of the interview and the clip.
Every day I'm seeing especially on Facebook. Wow, what a
(49:56):
great story, what a great story. This makes me change
my mind completely about Axel And then there are just
other stories. But I that's why I always had to
take to completely go in because I don't know what
the whole situation is, uh right, But I just hope,
you know, Adriana getting her music out there and her
personality out there, that she does get some getting the
(50:18):
credit that she deserves. I understand that's a weird thing
to get credit for, but it happened.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Man.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
It was on the It's on the Greatest Album of
all Time.
Speaker 4 (50:26):
That's it was actual act, it was consensual. It was like,
it's that's on a song on the Greatest Like you
got to show respect and performance.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
People give people. They will give women more respect if
they had to do like a sex scene in a
movie or something like that. It's like, okay, she was
also performing. That's before me. She did it on this
song that we were listening to forever, so.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
She knew what awkward situations she was going to be
put in. And the motto among the friends of the
band was for the band, and she when he asked
her to do it, she's like, for the band.
Speaker 3 (51:03):
You know.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
So she literally you know, uh, jeopardized and most likely
robe in her relationship with her closest thing to a
boyfriend that you could call Steven Adler to accommodate Axel's request.
So she she sacrificed to do this at his request.
So you know, poor woman, you know. But she only
(51:27):
did the one interview with me, and Rolling Stone contacted
me for her contact and focus. They wanted to interviewer. Uh,
and that that interview has been we printed so many
times that Classic Rock bought me out the rights for it,
you know.
Speaker 3 (51:42):
Yeah and.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Yeah, and you know they said it was great, and
uh when I interviewed when I did a story on
Slash's Boothball, yeah, because who who could do a story
about Slash's boothball while I can? And Mick Wall was
so pleased with it, He's like, this is great, you know,
and he gave me another assignment that was to do
a story about Camp Freddy. So, yeah, some some cool stuff,
(52:06):
you know.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
I like it. Yeah, I had Oh my god, I
know Jerome, but Michael Jerome the drummer first lash is
blues Ball, I had him on. That's the reach. To
go back to the beginning. We were saying the reach
that I have. And look, whether it's Adrianna Smith who
has such a great story, so much more than the Moons,
and you Brooke, you have a great story. You know what,
(52:30):
before we get out of here, I'd be remiss because
I've had a obviously it's been a kind of a
heavy show and emotional show. We got to talk about
your band. Hell DeFi it was we're going to talk
about it because you know what I did decide. We
kicked off what was this the song we kicked off
the episode with, Let's Get High. Let's kind of high.
(52:52):
So tell me a little bit about that, and tell
me about this project of yours.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Well, it's a little deceiving, you know, Let's get high,
but it's actually let's get high on pure rock and roll,
iconic rhythms, tholpo beats, intoxicating harmony, and the lyrics actually
cite the greats of rock, my favorites. Like my other
favorite band is The Doors. So Jim Morrison was a
god of rock personified.
Speaker 3 (53:19):
You know.
Speaker 2 (53:19):
Go and it talks about guns and roses, of course,
and there's a little nod to Axel in there. Pink
Floyd gets a nod. I think it's a fun, anthemic,
ethemic tune and I hope people enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
And what's the best place to find you? You know,
I put everything and then so I'm gonna put everything
in the show notes. But yeah, go ahead, Well.
Speaker 3 (53:41):
Let me tell you.
Speaker 2 (53:42):
You know the reason the project came together. I ran
into an old friend who used to have a home studio.
Now he has a bigger studio. But he gave me
tracks of a session or a couple of sessions, drum
tracks that I had done in like nineteen ninety eight
and never completed these songs. And you're all like eighties
metal rock songs. So with these great drum tracks, I'm
(54:04):
literally finishing the projects and you have an authentic vintage project.
Now it's classic rock now, and so you get songs
running the gamut, sounding like Leonard Skinner to Motley Crue
to Black Sabbath, and I hope people will take the
time to check it out. It's an option, it's an option,
something new, but it's.
Speaker 1 (54:24):
Classic sounding right on, right on. So thank you.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
Very much for having me on. You know, your podcast
is pretty massive. It's impressive, and to be in that
company of all the people that you've had on it,
it's really a thrill. And I appreciate the work you do.
Speaker 1 (54:40):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
Rook.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
I thank you for reaching out. Thank you Adriana for
kind of introducing us because this was a cool story.
And I'm glad. I'm you know, I just would have
been sitting here. I mean, I would have called Craig earlier,
but I'm glad. I kind of wow, dog man, it's
just the fuck man. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
We he couldn't connect, and that's at the end, that's
(55:03):
my fault. That's my fault. He still wanted to be
friends after he wanted to come on the podcast after
the book fell apart, and I couldn't do it. I
just was too hurt by it. I let him know that,
and I don't think again, I don't think I ever
bad mouthed him after, even though when I was not
feeling good about stuff. He's just I'm gonna miss him.
(55:24):
I'm gonna miss him terribly. I didn't talk to him
again for someone I didn't talk to well a lot recently,
I'm gonna miss him, and I just in after life.
I hope I got this to see you again, my friend, Doug.
I'm just so sorry for you and your family and
Eli and Jake, his Son's Doug Peace. So I won't
(55:48):
do my little spiel at the end of this podcast,
so I'll just do rest in Peace, Doug
Welcome to the podcast Appetite four Distortion, episode number five
hundred and sixty nine. My name is Brando. Now I
need to put a little bit of a disclaimer before
we start my interview with Brooke Ellis. He's a journalist,
he's a musician, and we're talking to him about his
band Hell DeFi, as well as his story, very compelling
(00:20):
story about how he is the actual the uncredited co
author of Steven Atler's autobiography. Now, I was initially attracted
to this interview because of all the similarities and parallels
between his situation and mine with Doug Goldstein trying to
write his book. Now, if you're a fan of this podcast,
(00:40):
you're listening now, chances are you. Now that's sadly, unexpectedly,
Doug Goldstein has passed away. Now shortly into this interview
is when I find out. And I find out from
a text from Craig Duswalt, Axel's former personal assistant, who
was the last episode of the podcast. But I put
(01:01):
that one out first because as I was recording this,
I get this text and I didn't know what the
story was. So I was certainly not going to put
this information out without knowing the full story, and sadly
everything was confirmed, and I wanted to kick this episode
off of just letting you know. I was debating showing
this because you're seeing me react to a death in
(01:23):
real time, seeing us react in real time. But it's
important to the memory of Doug, and we talk about Doug.
So this episode, while I thought it was going to
be one thing, it certainly became something else. So let's
do a reset. Before we talked to Brooke, let's listen
to a little bit of his band hell DeFi and
his song Let's Get High you know what.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Is in their prime?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Goodacord, I cried, and welcome to the podcast. Mister Brooke Ellis,
(02:13):
how are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Hello?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (02:16):
And if you're watching this on zoom, I mean you could,
I said, mister and your Manley voice, but you had
to say that we were emailing before. I'm a guy.
By the way, I mean you spell it with an
e at the end. It's kind of it's a it's
a unique name for a guy. Is that that's your
real name, Brooke Ellis? Or is that a stage name?
Speaker 3 (02:38):
You know? That's my real name?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
You know, the legal spelling is with the e uh.
Sometimes informally I'll drop the e uh. But there is
a very famous R and B singer from the fifties
and sixties, Brooke Benton. Okay, so, but nobody really knows
that name, but you know, so it's been a guy's
name too.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
You know, not to not to judge, but it's it's
so funny when you said that, And I'm sure a
lot of people are having this issue now with emails
or even texts where they do an AI summary of it.
I'm like, I don't need that for my friends or
somebody i'm talking to. And you thought I said she
when it said he. I'm like, I did my research
(03:17):
into to you, and I just thought that was funny,
especially now that I get to see you. We kind
of got the same look going beard and glasses. You
look at Goldberg. If anything, it's a little intimidating the restler.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yes, I've heard that before. When I was thinner, you
used to tell me I looked like stone cold. And
when I was in my eighties prime, I was a
dead ringer for Robin Crosby.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Apparently from Okay, before I lost my hair and grew
my beard, people would call me Scott Stap really yeah, yeah,
this is a picture I got. I should send it. Yeah,
everyone like all my friends. And my defense was like,
well this one beh one used to have like music shows,
like he was ranked number eighty three. I still remember
(04:02):
this on the top one hundred Sexiest Artists of all
time by page one. So I was like, whatever, I
look like number eighty three, let me alone. Then I
lost my hair and pretty good.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
And what a tragic story for Scott's staff. And I
feel so bad for the art of the band that
Bumblefoot put together with Scott Wiland.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Sons at It's not sons of art of batter dy
Artia Panarchy.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, because you know, the first they paid Scott went
Wreland to appear on the album, and he refuses to
do any promotional stuff for it. So they invested one
hundred grand or one hundred fifty grand to get him
to sing, and then they edited the hell out of
his performance to make these really cool, cutting edge songs.
So who do they go to next, Scott Stapp, somebody
who was equally as troubled and they had run into
(04:49):
the same problems with him.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah, so that poor band man.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I really feel for them, like they invested in these
guys and those guys just kind of let them down
in a big way.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Bubblefoots had a hard time. I'm trying to get in
a band, but I don't think that's what he wants anymore.
I think he referred to himself recently as retired. He
just does what he wants.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
And yeah, So anyway I digress, people are like, oh,
what are you talking to? Brook Ellis? This is like,
by the way, how I get my interview started. We
get to meet people because we're going to talk about
other interviews. So we're going to talk about Steven Adler's
new interview on the YouTube channel Get on the Bus,
and a very different format I think then then than mine.
So if you don't mind, I'm kind of gonna read
(05:30):
the paraphrase and email that you sent to me, because
I get a lot of emails and I'm very fortunate
if you want to send me one, whether it's to
you know, get your words on the show, or just
to say hi, you know, whatever it is, I always say.
The conversation continues in between the broadcast the AfD Show
at gmail dot com. So you were recommended by Adriana
(05:51):
Smith Rocket Queen or I guess I should specify the
voice on Rocket Queen because Barbie von Grief is the
Rocket Queen. Now we're getting to the weeds of the
real GNR NERD stuff. But Adriana Smith, who was on
a few episodes ago with her mom, what an interesting
interview I was.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, she sent me the link, and let me tell you,
I had no you know, same on me because I
had no idea just how far reaching your podcast is.
You've had some real heavy hitters, So thank you for
putting me in that company. And Adriana Smith is such
a sweetheart, and I hope we can talk about her
a little more in the conversation when it becomes relevant
(06:30):
to what we're saying.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
For sure, No, I'm far reaching. I think over ten
years you have to be talking about one band. The
last episode before you with Friends of the Show, his
second appearance the Guns of roses Chiropractor user Illusion. So yeah,
far reaching. But just like you, you don't have to be
in the band to have a great story. So you
(06:55):
kind of gave me some of your story so to
kind of if you don't mind me, I'm come up.
You paraphrase a little bit of what you told me,
and yeah, we'll kind of take it from there. So
you mentioned in twenty twelve, you released an open letter
claiming that you were the true author of Steven Adler's book.
(07:17):
I read Steven's autobiography many years ago. I couldn't tell you.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I remember.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I didn't really enjoy it. I don't know. It didn't
stand out to me. It's like a rock autobiography, like
compared to others. It was just like it was okay,
it was okay. But in that book you are nicknamed
Chuck here quote you also ran Stephen's social media for
eight years from two thousand and twenty twenty eight that
you were friends. You knew his family, you knew his
(07:43):
his wife before they were married. And the cool thing is,
just like me, you're a real fan. You've been to
concerts and events. You're not just some social media guy
or a journalist, which of those are great things too,
but you're like, I'm those things too, but you're you're
a fan. Well, maybe we'll talk about your memorabilia, because
you were telling me a little bit about that in
the email. This is also cool. Speaking of Adriana that
(08:07):
you gave her her first ever interview, which is something
that she got across and I wanted to come across
when I interviewed her. It's not like, yeah, she's promoting
an album, but she's not somebody that's going on like
a press tour over the years. Hey, I'm always on
the voice of the rock at Queen. She doesn't do
I hasn't done a lot of interviews. So that's that
(08:29):
was pretty big. We'll get into that story. Perhaps. You
also worked with Mick Wall, the infamous or famous however
you want to look at it, Mick Wall on a
Very Slash special addition for a Classic rock magazine. You've
also interviewed some former guests that I've had on this show,
Mark Canter, Matt Soorm, Teddy Zigzag and Del James and
(08:51):
this I did not know. We'll get into this as well.
You produced a well received but short lived GNR podcast,
Jungle Natives Not Familiar. I know I'm not the only
genor podcast in existence. It's not just for me putting
my head in the sand and be like nohing else
exists but me. I wasn't aware of it, so I
didn't know.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah, it was just before the reunion.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
We just did four hour long episodes, and yeah, they
went over well in the forums, and yeah, and they're
still out there just to listen to.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I just got really terrible information that maybe I will
keep in this podcast. Oh my god, this relates to it.
So I got an a text from Craig Doswalt. Wow,
he agreed to do an interview. But I'm so sorry
(09:46):
to say this on this podcast. I don't know when
it's gonna come out, but Doug Goldstein passed away a
couple hours ago. Oh my god, I don't even know
what to say. You know, I'm I I really wish
my relationship with him ended differently. You know, I said
(10:07):
on the during the interview that I with I said
in the interview with you know, the chiropractice stephen Thaxton,
that you know, I wish him well. I just the
book just didn't end the way I wanted to when
I was writing it with him, and both books did
(10:27):
you write with him? I wished it? What's that?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
What book did you write with him?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
We were working on his autobiography. We were working on
it for two years and and it just didn't He
wanted us to get paid. I mean, I've told the
story in the podcast and I don't want to deviate
too much. I think I should since I'm getting this
text right now, I should react in real time. I
guess i'd fuck Doug. So he he wanted us to
(10:54):
get paid for what we were doing, which of course
why not. But I felt we weren't ready and they
had the guy there. Did not want me on the
project because I was not like an official author. I
couldn't get the project out in time enough. But with Doug,
it just things take a long time. We had people
work on books for years for years, so that Doug
(11:14):
really wanted to work with this guy because he had connections.
And then I just I felt portrayed at the time
we had reconciled. After you know, I made and angry.
I react angrily sometimes I on my Patreon. I read
one of his chapters and then he got back to me.
He was not happy about that, and I took it down,
(11:35):
and I understood why. I kind of just wanted to,
you know, start a conversation with him again, because the
way he would start talking to me again would be
through Bible passages and stuff like that. And you know,
I'm not religious, and I just don't that's not something
I I didn't know what he was, like, what that
was about, you know, And I just said, I feel uncomfortable.
(11:56):
I always wished him well, I had, I said, like
in the episode with with Stephen Dackson, it was like
an ex girlfriend, and I fuck, I wish I you know,
I didn't want last favor. I guess I don't. I
don't even want to phrase it like that. So on
the interview with Steven Daxton, because the reason I met
Stephen Daxon was through Doug uh and I of course
(12:20):
they gave Doug credit because of that. And within that conversation,
Stephen told the story about Doug which Doug had told me.
I thought it was off the air, and it wasn't.
So we ended up cutting it out. And I saw
that Doug did publish this story about how he had
like machine guns in his chest when they were like
down in Columbia with whole guns of roses, people trying
(12:41):
to get money from guns and roses. This's whole crazy story.
So Stephen texted Doug two days ago, like a couple
of days ago, to get this cut out, and I said, sure,
I will cut it out. I'll do right by you.
I'll do right by Doug, even though we don't talk anymore.
Oh man, I'm really that's really sucks. We could yeah,
(13:04):
so you know, let me talk more about Doug after.
But I had to.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Let me interject Doug. A few years back, when I
was running Steve's website, he contacted me wanting to get
a hold of Steven, and at that point Stephen had
still in the early two thousands, Steven still felt still
betrayed by Doug. You know, he always would tell the
(13:31):
story how when they're getting on the bus, Steven said
something like, Doug, you don't worry about me. I'm just
the drummer, and Doug got real serious, fuck that you
are an equal part of this band. You're just as
important as anybody else around here, and which is pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
And it made you know, and and it made Steve
love the guy. But of course.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I won't say that he portrayed him. But anyway, Doug
contacted me. He was living in Mali and he said
he's living in that bar, s to come down with Steve.
You guys can you know, hang out and party? And
he left the voicemail with Steven because I gave him
his number, and Steven played it for me, and Steve's
called him back and said, motherfucker, it only took you
(14:14):
twelve years, you know, to reach out to me. And
uh so, I don't know as the relationship developed any
further than that, but I saw Doug around at shows
and stuff, and when he did contact me, I told him,
I said, you know, I used to stee around shows
and you have a big part in that Lakeland for
the documentary and I always wanted to be a part
(14:36):
of that posse, that crew.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
And he said, well, come on down. You know.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
He was a real sweet guy and I'm shocked, and
the timing was insane, and God blessed her gold scene,
and my condolences to anybody who.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Loved him, bless him. And I am I'm sorry. I
wasn't mature enough. I mean, I don't know, it just
didn't And well, I mean, I'm saying I didn't wish
him harm. I never said anything bad about him, even
when I had Alan on. That's what the episode. People
sometimes don't misunderstand. When I had last time an Alan
(15:11):
Niman on or like episode five hundred, it was to
say stuff from Doug's book to Alan and say, like,
what could we talk about it, and even within that,
I defended Doug. I never went even when I was hurt,
I never went in on him because he was kind
to He was kind to me. Well, it fizzled out,
the business part of it. He was so kind, so
supportive of me. And I don't know the details yet,
(15:36):
Craig says he wasn't. I don't know. I don't want
to say anything yet because I don't know when this
episode's coming out. You're just getting a reaction in real time.
Maybe I'll talk about it on social media before, but
the rest of peace, Doug Old staying, Oh my god,
I'm so sorry to him and his family. I know
he had issues with his his ex wife and his sons. God,
I have a lot more processing to do, so I
guess if we can, we're going to pivot back to
(15:59):
this and then we'll maybe we'll wrap up with some more.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well, we know we're a part of history right now,
sort of.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I guess, I I guess, I don't know. So anyway,
you were joined. You joined G and R alumni twice
on stage, which is pretty cool. Say, you know, I
don't know if you talked about anything like this happened
in your g and R podcast Jungle Narratives. Yeah, that's
where I left off. But you played Knocking on Heaven's
(16:27):
Door with Adler with Chips Enough and Billy Morrison in Vegas.
You also played The Lighthouse Cafe and Huntington Beach with
Dizzy Gilby and Slim Jim Phantom, who I'm still trying
to get on the podcast. He likes my Instagram stuff
all the time, but I can't.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And that's the one that people don't believe because they
don't believe that Gilby and Dizzy we're jamming together at
a Starbucker show. But it happened, and my band Flush
God is open for them because we're friend friendly with
Evil Dick, the guy that run that won the Big
Big Brother game show on TV. He was friends with
Adler and he became friends with me and he booked
(17:03):
my band at the Lighthouse four Fridays.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Once a month for four months.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
So he opened up for Lizzie Boardon one time, and
we and twice, you know, up for the Starfuckers. And
I just asked Gilby, I said, hey, can I sing
a song with you guys? And He's like, sure, what
do you want? It's like heaving the door. He's like, sure,
you got it. And by the time I went on,
I was like two am. But I did the whole
actual thing. You all know what time it is now.
I think it's time for you to help me, you know,
and everybody singing along it was. It was just amazing.
(17:30):
And that was when Evil Dick booked us for three
more shows. But yeah, Dizzey was here. I played one
stage with Dizzy Bilby Simpson Fantom, I think it was
Stephen Adico on bass, and again I did the same
thing with the sing along with Adler, Chips Enough, Billy
Morrison and Adler told me that, you know, I wasn't
expecting to sing that day. I was wearing flip bops.
(17:51):
But Adler called me on stage and he said that
as soon as I started singing, both Billy Morrison and
Chips Enough looked at me like, you know, we're expecting
this guy to actually, you know, pull it off. And
those are some of my fondest memories.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
You know. It's great, it's.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Very cool, and we're going to talk about because you
are a musician, uh, your current project is called Hell Defy,
and you're promoting a new singles. Let's Get High and
Manic Liaison, which both have direct references to Guns and
Roses and tipping the hap to g n R. So
that's again all cool. So that's why we had to
get your GNR stats out of the way. You have
(18:30):
quite a story which I'm not even close to being
done with yet. So uh you also panned a number
of I forgot about these the scripts that were produced
for to those, Lina, so you may something. You may
remember these Guns and Roses cartoons. They looked very like
adult swimmy I guess if I could say that, and
(18:52):
directed by Lena Bones or Boons.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Who's married to the bass player of Love and Spoonful.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Okay, okay, she was.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
A body she was a female bodybuilder. Very I'm sure
she still is. I haven't seen her in years. But
so she had these cartoons and they were all wacky humor,
and somehow we got in touch and I made more
uh fighting being our commentary, you know, in my scripts,
and I actually used a couple of ghost names because
I was a little concerned. I wrote an early interview
(19:24):
which is basically a direct take off of the interview
one of their first interviews with Tabath Sarm where you know,
the thought is like where's my sunglasses, you know, and
tabas like they need your sunglasses?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
And uh.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
The other one was here Today, Gone Tool, which was
a a piss take of the politics over here Today,
Gone tomorrow, you know, with drama, you know, he's the character.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
In it, and I wrote one other.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Uh but yeah, oh who's Frank and that's that that
features uh Phil James is the main character. And it
kind of makes ACXL like overly paranoid, you know, about
getting sued and stuff and and for my and I
talked to Dell, but not after the cartoon, but I
(20:12):
heard through the grapevine that he liked it.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Okay, okay, yeah, they're all I should go back, and
like when I saw your email, I was like, wait
a minute, and so I did. I briefly watched like
a couple of weeks. They're hard to I found one
of them. I forgot which one it was that I found,
but but yeah, those those were funny the early days
of the internet, so very cool. But if that wasn't enough,
(20:37):
so Stephen just did an interview on a popular YouTube
channel called Get on the Bus, and you know, just
I preface it with like, yeah, of course I want.
I would love to interview Stephen Adler, but Get on
the Bus is a bigger channel. It's so well produced,
you know, I hold you know, they deserve that interview.
(21:00):
You know, hopefully one day I get it. But I couldn't.
I don't know if I have like an undiagnosed like
sensory overload sometimes thing. I mean, I don't think sometimes
I have a lot going on. But when I watch
an interview and this music underneath, especially when it's Stephen
because of the stroke that he had, I mean, his mark.
(21:20):
His mind is so sharp as attack, but it's he's
hard to understand so in his music, and there are
a lot of different cuts happening. You know, you're looking
at Stephen directly, then you're looking at him sideways black
and white, then you're looking at him above and I'm like,
I can't even focus. I don't mean this look. The
guy is obviously super talented. Whoever runs that channel, it
(21:43):
just wasn't for me. I couldn't. I couldn't watch it.
It was distract You're right, it was distracting. So I
what you have to say about, you know, the Adler interview.
I can't comment further because I couldn't watch it because
I'm like, you know, and I'm being completely honest.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
So motivated me to contact you.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Okay, so let's get into the specifics of why, and
then I'll have you jump off and have you take over.
So so Stephen did the interview with Get on the Bus.
I mean, people feel free to watch it. I just
couldn't get through it myself that he doesn't like his book,
and that's why I said earlier, I'm like, I wasn't
a huge fan of it, so maybe it's it was
kind of reassuring to know that he didn't really like it,
(22:24):
but he has a problem with the quote unquote ghost writer.
So well, technically you were the ghostwriter, just like how
I was. I was not going to be the ghostwriter
for Doug. We were going to be like co authors
or I was just going to be like Doug Goldstein
with Brandon Weisler. He said to me, like, that's what
hurt me so much, Like this was going to be
a new career for me. It was going to help
(22:45):
my family, and he obviously hit stuff going on. So
at the end of the day, none of that matters.
His life mattered, and that's what sucks. So I'm a
treasure that when I look back at a stressful time,
I'm going to look back now, said fondly, now that
I got to spend all that time with him. So anyway,
so you were the ghostwriter, but you don't think he
(23:07):
was referring to you, but rather the named co author,
Lawrence Spagnola. But just in case. Specifically, he complained that
the book says that Matha Hupol was his favorite band.
I warned him about this eighteen years ago. So I
don't know what you taxed a quote for me to see.
You know, it's yeah, So let me explain that part
(23:28):
of it, please, sure.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So he goes on that interview, he asked me about
the book. He says, I don't like it, and he
goes to site and he goes and he complained about
the ghostwriter. So technically i'm the ghostwriter Larry Spagnola, Lawrence J. Spagnola,
piece of shit, And I use that without any reservation
because of the way he treated me. I'm sure he's
(23:50):
beloved by people where he's a great guy, but he
stole from me. He stole my biggest opportunity. So after
that guy. Fuck you, Larry Spagnola. Anyway, I'm sorry about that,
and you can bleep it or whatever.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So and it. He cites specific examples, and one of
them was that he goes off saying Steven, Steve, he
goes he goes off saying that Manta Hoople is my
favorite band.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
He's like, come on, Matt de Hoopel.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Well guess what.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
This is what happened.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
When I was sort of an agreement but not knowing
what was happening with me in the background, with Larry
Spagnola being on board, they had me working with him
and checking his pages. And I'm like, motherfucker, this guy's
just patting my work with like his own personality and
his own made up stories. And I said to Steve, dude,
he's for like a paragraph he talks about how great
(24:39):
Manta Hoopole is. And Steve said to me, and this
is what fifteen years ago, I love mont de Hoople,
just work with Larry. So I want Steve to know,
like there's nothing in that original manuscript that he would
not like, you know, you know, I was in tune
with him, you know what I mean. And I interviewed
him for you know, like I said, twelve hours of all,
(25:00):
you know, and I would never have done anything that
he wouldn't have approved of. And I made damn sure
that that that book was factually correct. But the only
reason that Larry Spike Nola got involved is because the
book sat on the shelf for a few years. Because
when they were shopping around the publishers, they were shopping
around two manuscripts. One was the one that I wrote
with Stephen, and one was Deanna Adler's story, and she
(25:24):
was held ba and I loved Deanna Adler.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
I want to say that can go off with a
tangent right here real quick?
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Sure, sure, Well, when I.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Would be over in Vegas working on the book, she
would bring me food to these delicious pizzas. She knew
I loved pizza and or she knew I had a
big appetite. She bring me two pizzas. She made sure
that the refrigerator had you know, bacon and bagels and
cream cheese. You know, she was such a sweetheart. And
if she ever caught anybody doing drugs with Steven, she
(25:56):
would give them.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Holy hell.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Well, this one time, I'm letting out a big cloud
of smoke. The door opens and she's there and she
sees me putting down his bomb and she just says,
how's it going? Super friendly. Anybody else she would have
tore into I know it. And it's kind of funny
because she even took it a little further by honking
(26:20):
the horn before to alert us that she's pulling in.
And like, if you're smoking rock or something, you don't
like to be around people. Like it was just being
Steve watching family guy. It's cool, but when you're at
Steve's house there's always people coming in and out. You
never get to relax. Your anxiety is already up here.
So every time, God bless her, she'd honk that horn
(26:40):
and I'd say, dude, tell her, I'm in the shower
and I rude upstairs, you know, basically hiding.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
But she was. She was always good to me.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I don't have any problem with Deanna Adler. She infect
she occupies a special place in my heart. And love you, Diana. Anyway,
where was I at before that?
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Where all all of the place, And obviously I'm a
little dish.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Larry Larry Larry So, Yes, Larry So. Also in the interview,
Steve says, and he cheapens the experience of seeing Nicki
six live for the first time with London, Well, I
sent you the actual quote for my manuscript, which is
basically the book except minus Larry's patting. And I do
(27:23):
not cheapen that experience at all. I say, his hair
was spiked up to God. And we saw that and
we said and talking about Stephen and Slash and they said,
that's what I want to do, like you know, when
I saw Nikki six, who was larger than life. So
I did not downplay it. But Larry Spagnola, you know,
I don't have that book. I refused to have it
in my house. But I don't know what his exact
(27:44):
description of it was. But he's a guy that's like
ten years older than all of us. You know, he
probably hated ed Maley Crue and probably cheapened it, you know,
because that's his point of view, you know. And I
loaded that manuscript, but watch of like little inside jokes
and stuff. So I challenged him to come on here.
I challenged, you know. And there's another guy, Steve Sprite,
who I challenged to come on here to you know,
(28:07):
prove that like I didn't write it, or that I'm
the bad guy or something because that my life led
up to that. It's Stephen's book is his story, but
my life is a guns and roasenespand from the time
I was very young, led up to me meeting him,
led up to me writing the book. And they had
a few different people, you know, take a stab at it,
and they couldn't make it happen because they needed somebody
(28:30):
that not only knew the band inside out, didn't have
to do research, you know, because I have every book,
every magazine and you know, every interview, but they also
needed somebody that could hang with Stephen and have his trust,
somebody that partied, you know, which is what I did,
you know. And when it all fell apart, I was
left addicted to crack and and you know, left alone
to talk to these lawyers and they were rude as hell.
(28:52):
They were mean, and people say, get over it. Well
I did get over it. But you know, to see
Steve say I don't like my book and stuff, I
wanted him to know, Well, dude, that's because you screwed me.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
So yeah, well, I guess it's a bit ironic and
sad that I got the text from about Doug from
Craig Diswalt, now because I'm feeling a little bit of
what you're saying with Doug and people getting their hands
on changing words around. I'm like, it's it's his words,
it's his story, and I'm not wasn't going to add
to it without anything with his without his approval. And
(29:27):
I guess force I foresaw as we were going to
try to do the book again, and I was like,
I need a different level of commitments and uh trust,
And but I foresaw what happened to you happening to me.
I'm like, all right, maybe I'll get your trust now,
but there's gonna be somebody else down the line that's
kind of like screw me. And I'm a fan. I'm
(29:50):
putting my heart and soul into this, and it's really
it's difficult. It's difficult.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
So I'm just you know, well, imagine you write your
book with Doug and and here's down the line. All
of a sudden, there's like a team of people involved
with the book suddenly who weren't involved previously, and they've
all got their hands, you know, they all want a
piece of the pie, and they come to the consensus,
(30:14):
well you know what, Brooks signed this, you know, kind
of shoddy contract. You know, that wasn't thrown up by
a professional. He doesn't have money for you know, representation.
Let's just screw it. Even though I'm solely responsible for
that book, because you listen to that audio, for one thing,
Stee's a good percentage of the time he's very legible,
(30:35):
you know, and there's times where I have to rewind
that tape over nobody just understand what he's saying. Right,
So that book, the personality that I conveyed in an
effort to portray him sympathetically, it's all me and in
fact I had to see now it's like a crazy person,
but I even had to, you know, make them look
(30:56):
good in certain situations where it's like that's fucked up, dude.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
You know, I do understand. And that was what I
was telling Doug, you know, because he he would he
would talk about Steven, and I get a little bit
of that. He really tried to save Steven's life, you know,
and he's and I'm like, I want you to see him,
because there was a whole thing about Doug and Allen's
put it out there that he's the one that really
(31:20):
broke up guns of Roses. That we're trying to change that.
I'm really trying to make the whole point of the
book mental health. Like that's the big just like this podcast.
Yeah it's guns of roses, but there's a big mental
health reason behind everything. So when you have those your
words and you're shaping the story and yeah, then they
hear why you even like it that that I'm sorry
(31:41):
that that happened and that sucks, and you know, when
did the relationships.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Should say I do get royalty checks. Okay, it's a
whole mess with the contract with like four contracts, the
last one I refused to sign. But at that time
Stephen had just gotten control of his money. It was
like two thousand and eight because his mom had power
of attorney for many years. And when he got his money,
(32:07):
he started paying me for the website six hundred a month,
which was pretty substantial to me.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
But that only lasted two or three.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Months before the book stuff the last So Steven always
used to say to me, dude, once this book is done,
your life is going to be you know better, because
you know, he came to my studio and he spent
the night a couple of times, and he hated it
because like I'm a bachelor. It's a gross bachelor. Patty
and I had one tow and he's like, oh, dude,
(32:33):
you only have one towel, you know. But he told
me your things are going to change for you when
his book is done. And even Deanna Addler, who I love,
you know, but she said they were looking to make
a deal for three million, which meant three hundred thousand
for me. Wow, well I get nothing near that. Did
they pay me per the terms of the contract? I
didn't sign and I did get some legal representation. And
(32:56):
this woman Bretta Brenda Fagan, who apparently was a a
superstar in the women's rights movements of the seventies because
I saw a TV movie where an actress was playing her. Well,
she was making headway with these people. They were responding
to her because she was a name. And then we
had a conversation on an email where I said, hey,
(33:19):
what's the game plan here? Because I don't want my
parents were helping me out. This is twenty years ago,
right and or almost twenty years ago, and I said,
I don't want to send my parents to the poorhouse
over there. So she goes, don't worry, we won't go
to court, Well, what does she do by accident? She
forwards that correspondence to who was Hawkberg the lawyer? And
(33:39):
Sabrina Ment who is Alex Grossey's girlfriend, who you know,
I just knew was Alex Grossy's girlfriend.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Till one day she sends me a.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Contract, here's your book contract, And I'm like, I don't
like these terms. And she's like, she's like, well, if
they're the same terms as your previous contract, I assume
that you just agreed to them. Well, those are contracts
that Stephen got out of. Why are you holding me
to the terms of Stephen that were set forth by Deanna?
And I said, do you always do work on behalf
of your clients under assumption? Are you wasting Steven's money
(34:10):
without contacting me and letting me know what I'm okay with?
So there's certain things in there that I didn't agree with.
I never signed it, but they pay me for the
terms of that. And after Brenda Brenda Fhagen sent our
correspondence over there.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
They stopped responding.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
They said, if you have grounds for a lawsuit, let
us know or leave us alone. And this woman, yeah,
So it was just an ugly situation. Man I was
left alone. I dig did the crack and the last
conversation I have with Steve before all the shit went down,
because he.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Was always good to me.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
I have some cool ass guns memorability that he gave
to me. For two days, I had their Astronaut MTV award,
you know that they want for sweech on of mine.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
He gave it to me.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Was a friar. He gave it to me, and then
Sat day he said, well, Carolina, his wife, you know,
doesn't want me to give it. But for two days
it was mine. But I still have a lot of
stuff that he gave me. And so you know, he
was very good to me, very good to me, and
I loved the guy. And the last thing he said
to me was go ahead and make your own contract.
And now it's the last time I spoke to him
because they must have got a win of it, and
(35:21):
they said, you're not talking to Brook again, Steve, let
us handle this.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
You know, it's been a long time and I am
over it.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
I have a life, you know, But that was my
biggest opportunity.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I understand because you're again it's the irony of me
getting this news about Doug while we're recording. That's how
I felt, you know, and being like this was going
to be my dream to do something that I you know,
dreams of being an author and things like that, I'm like, wow,
I'm a fan. This is what it led to, and
that's what really hurt me. And then when we were
(35:54):
going to come up with a contract, I didn't like
the way the contract was written. It made it like
I was not capable of finishing the job. I was
more than capable of finishing the job. I just don't
I couldn't do it in a writer's timeline because that's
not my only job, and just the so it was
just a lot. And also, just like you, somebody tried
(36:19):
to write Doug's book, who I think wrote for Rolling
Stone Italy and couldn't get it done with him, And
after we were him and I said like, okay, we can't,
We're not. This isn't going to go forward with us.
He tried to get somebody else and that didn't work
out together. So sometimes it's just well, I'm sorry you
went through that experience. And again I can kind of
(36:40):
understand it to a degree. And again when I would
talk about it, when he was brought up before this news.
It would still get a reaction out of me too
and be like, yeah, I'm over it, but there's still
a part of you that's left there. It's so interesting.
I know so many stories that Doug, you know, just
like you talking to Stephen off the air or things
that you wrote down. Is such a bond. It's such
(37:00):
a connection that it gets made. And when other people
tried to mess that up, you know, I felt like
that's what I felt about the literary agent was messing
up my friend. I think he did mess up my
friendship with Doug. I think because of that, because of
him wanting me out from from the get go and
telling Doug get rid of him, and Doug, to his credit,
(37:23):
kept saying no, he's my guy until he realized the
guys is not going to concede on me, thinking like
I'm like I can write. I'm sorry, there are worse
books out there than whatever I would put together. I'm
a terrible speller, but there would be a spell check.
They would be an editor. But as far as everything else,
(37:43):
it would have been like I really think it was
still to this day, it would be the greatest Guns
Roses book ever because we would have I would have
crossed facts and not.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
That's how I feel about my book.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
That's the first draft that I handed in first draft.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
If they got me with a HarperCollins editor who made suggestions,
and and I always intended to flesh it out more,
but they were in a rush.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
They wanted that paycheck exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
They kept saying, oh, what is this a transcript? I'm like, yeah,
kind of of his stories with some of it is
you what do you expect an autobiography to be? And
I'll never forget. My therapist told me just to see
what this person I told him the story before, just
to see what this literary agent wants. Go read another
book under his umbrella and then see what that's like.
(38:27):
And I did, and I read Leader Forre's autobiography.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Right.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
I thought it was great.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
It is great, But I'll never forget there was an
entire paragraph where every single sentence started with the word I.
You man, Like, no, that's if a Leader wrote that. Cool.
But the fact that they got past an editor that
stuff you learned in English one oh one, you don't
do that. So just the fact that I read stuff
(38:53):
that was written in a way that I would write
it or more relaxed than I would write it, just
like you just didn't want me there because I couldn't
make you enough money because I'm not a name, or
I couldn't get it to you in just a couple
of months versus a couple of years. Sorry. So yeah,
so obviously I still have feelings about it, So I
understand your your feelings about it.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Uh yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
And the funny thing.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
The weird thing is like people around Steve, you know
mostly you know, like I was always high.
Speaker 3 (39:22):
When I was with Steve.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
You know, I don't spoke weed anymore, but so I
acted sort of unnaturally. So yeah, I can understand like
they may like think I was weird or something. But
when I was high, though, I could see, like introspectively
into these people, like they're like they have an agenda,
you know, they want something out of them. And everybody
looked at it as like I get rid of Brook,
(39:45):
were one step closer to Steven, you know what I mean.
And I noticed that the dynamic change in Team Adler
when I was at a rehearsal with them and they
wanted to take band photos of Steve goes Brook. You
got your camera and it's like of course, and before
I know it, Alex Grossey's girlfriend, she's got a camera
over your guys, and it starts assuming photography duties. Well
(40:09):
I'm passive. I'm like whatever, you know, I do it?
Speaker 3 (40:12):
Yes, cool?
Speaker 2 (40:13):
And then she sent me the you know, I've been
effectively handling Steve's media for almost a decade, you know,
it was a go to place for toward aids and
stuff and Q and A and everything else. So she
sent me a press release about a singer that's going
to be singing with them, and I edit it edited
just slightly, not because there's a grammatical error or anything,
(40:35):
but just to fit that the personality of the page more,
you just very slightly. Well, everybody involves like oh Brooks, like,
you know, not be not playing bald or I don't know,
some crap anything he could do to twist and spin
it like I'm the bad guy. And and that's why
I noticed like, Okay, things are changing and maybe I
should protect myself. And when I mentioned getting a lawyer,
(40:58):
you know, both Deanna and Steve were like, don't get
a lawyer, you know, you just pay them for you know,
And I didn't want to make waves. I really appreciated
my friendship with Steve. I never took it for granted
and I always thanked to him as a dude. I
really appreciate this. Like we did so much stuff, Like
we had dinner just being him and Carmine a piece,
you know at the Rainbow. It was amazing, and Steve
bought lobster and steaks for everybody. You know, there were
(41:21):
times where just so many wacky adventures. What a funny
thing is the gene R people. The guys in the
band are so laid back and cool. The people around them,
you know, are the ones that like, you know, I
remember being with Steve in someplace where he played Don't
Fear the Reaper on drums as a guest appearance, and
(41:45):
some guy that knew Steve, so oh hey Steve come
backstage with me, and and we're walking backstage with me
and my friend Kent, and a guy closed the door
on me and Ken, you know, as they go back
and I just happened again where some guy wereware kiss.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
It's just being Steve a kiss at the rain in Vegas.
It was the best. Imagine. Well, Kids is one of
my favorite bands.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Arm in Arm with Steven Adler with kids playing singing
Detroit Rock City. It was beautiful, you know. And this
guy from vahed One says, Hey, Steve, why don't you
come up to the VIP lounge just you though, you know,
you know, and you got drinks or whatever. So Steve
goes up. I'm like, that's kind of fucked up, you know,
I'm just here alone. He's only there for like fifteen minutes,
(42:28):
and he came back down.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
You know.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
It was great, but that's how people are like people are.
Speaker 3 (42:34):
They want to be one step closer, you know.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
And and the funny thing is when the guy closed
the door on me, I'm like, I'm his ride, dude,
you know. But it's just my opinion because of how
they treated me. But I understand that these people, Larry
and Steve right, you know, are probably good people to
the people they love or and people love them.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
I understand that.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
But the way they treated me was just not cool
to treat anybody like that, just to throw me away
and peat me like an incidental figure, uh and and
downplay what I've done, you know.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
He I don't know, Yeah, that's that. That should be
the name of the title of this episode. I don't know.
I don't know. Oh man, that's oh, I mean, this
is this episode went away. I didn't expect, you know.
I I'm enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
I think it's probably one of the more enjoyable episodes.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
I know, I'm enjoying myself talking to you. But it's
just very strange. I'm I'm gonna call Craig as soon
as we're done.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
And yeah, he was. Craig was as personal system was he.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Yeah, he finally agreed, you know, he said, like, you know,
let's let's let's do it. He gives me a cell number. Cool.
I don't I don't know always asking I don't ask
for that. I don't you know what cell is really personal?
And I text him, don't hear back? A week ago?
Don't hear back. I think, just like with Doug, I
think like a jolted lover. I'm like, I'm being ghosted
(43:56):
by Craig Dustwalley. I'm like, or do well? I got
to learn how to say his last name before recording
that episodal. Yeah, So I'm like, is he ghosting me?
I feel like I'm on Tinder again. So I just
leave it be. I'm not going to say anything. And
then he's probably super busy, and then obviously a death
in the g n R family. So that's what he
gets me this now, so I will totally make up
(44:19):
a story in my head that's not real. If I
expressed that, I would hope the other person to be like, okay,
I'm sorry, or this is how we communicated. It sounds
like that's what you were doing to all the Stevens
and all that crew, being like this is how I
feel like I'm being treated. But you're still treating me
this way. That's that's when you got to get out,
and that sucks. I'm glad to see you are clean
(44:41):
and sober ish, you know, like ish ish. Yeah, same
thing with me.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
Stephen said that he did the fall steps and some
many of you, and I said, and I apologize to everybody.
I needed to, like, well, dude, you missed me, you know.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
So I don't need to laugh at at.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
I saw to.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Steve one time, and since everything this is like twenty fourteen,
maybe buddy of mine was at a KISS convention. They
saw Steve. So he called me and he said, hey, Steve,
I got Brooklyn the phone. You want to talk to him.
Steve grabs the phone and just immediately walks away, Brookie,
I know I owe you money. And the first thing
I said was, well, dude, I'm actually more disappointed that
(45:21):
we're no longer friends.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
The he goes, what are you talking about? You're one
of my ten favorite people. Just because we.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Don't hang out all the time, I'm not thinking like never,
And he told me something that's kind of interesting, a
little side story why he no longer.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
Performs with G and R.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
So, you know, he did the LA Show two songs,
I think, and then he did Cincinnati, Ohio. He was
born in Cleveland, so they had him out dipred there,
and then when I went to Argentina, where his wife
is from, they brought up Slash and Duff are solely
responsible for Steve playing, you know, having the guest appearances,
(45:58):
because what happened in Argentina. Yeah, Steve was gonna, you know,
play one song. He had his ear monitor in and
he heard Axel say what the fuck's he doing here?
And Steve told me he was. He said, after that,
I told myself, I want nothing to do with these
people anymore. And if you notice he ever, you know,
for the last ten years, he hasn't been talking about
(46:19):
a reunion. He hasn't been talking about, you know, wanting
to get up a stay to them because that hurt
him so much. He said, they're not going to hurt
me anymore and he was done. So, you know, even
though we hadn't spoken in the ears, he's still confide
in me as a friend. And I appreciated that in
that moment.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
That's sad to hear because it's, uh, yeah, I mean
when I had Chips enough on, you know this Chips great,
Chip is great. And he was telling this story that
happened several years ago about him and Axel burying the hatchet.
But when you hear the story about, yeah, the Argentina
thing where he was complaining about that after here, I
am flying out just for one song. You know, I
(46:58):
don't play all that type. They won't want play, uh,
you know. And and Frank is you know, putting his
hands up. He just does what he's told. But I
think Stevens, like I had a ten second interaction with Axel,
and I don't know, you know, it is Axel because
he really keeps a lot of people in his past
at a distance.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
It's well, it's really strategic. In the case of Adriana Smith.
You know Axel, who's my hero by the way, I
got him up here, you know, is my hero. But
he uh, you know, he basically asked Adriana to betray
Stephen h and I'm sure he wanted to, you know,
have sex with her too, but it was also uh,
(47:39):
you know, a kick to Steven, you know, and for
her to be just tossed away. Yeah, she's she's literally
the only female boye so one of the best selling.
Speaker 3 (47:50):
Records of all time.
Speaker 2 (47:52):
And I think that she's a title to a little
something because that woman has struggled, you know, and she's
you know, what she's done with herself is great, you know.
She because after gen R uh you know, sort of
threw her to the curb, people were coming over bringing drugs,
you know, hoping that like for somebody would come over,
thinking that they.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Weren't, you know, but if she was, she ended up
fun you know.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
I mean, she was like so many of the gen
R family who got kind of left behind, like they
were just left in the gutter, you know. And I
don't know the dynamics, I can't criticize or anything, but
that the Adriana Smith thing is particularly sad and I
was in a forum, was GENR forum a few years ago,
and she went in there and was talking about West
(48:35):
Sarkeine and and the fans were bandmouthing her, you know,
and like, we're really just Nancy, and like this moment
could give you insight into the band. She has stories
and stuff and why are you Because I can't help
but think that they're only doing it because they think
Axle is watching, you know, and they want to.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
I don't know, it's just.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
To be performative, you know, I don't understand it. But
the way it's just it's more than just the gen
It's not just G and R fandom or a select forum.
It's just how we are as a society, which is
sick just putting people down and not knowing the full story.
And after talking with Adrian, I mean I didn't know
(49:14):
her at all, you know, and if I'm never going
to forget her or her mom. And yeah, it's it's
such an opposite story from a from a great story
that I got on this podcast about Billy McLeod, one
of the writers on Yesterday's and how they got him
and how they got him the money. So it's just
(49:35):
very weird how some people are really expecting No, no,
not at all, And that's why it was so important
for his sister Cynthia to get out this story. That
still does I see it all the time. I posted,
you know, a few versions of the interview and the clip.
Every day I'm seeing especially on Facebook. Wow, what a
(49:56):
great story, what a great story. This makes me change
my mind completely about Axel And then there are just
other stories. But I that's why I always had to
take to completely go in because I don't know what
the whole situation is, uh right, But I just hope,
you know, Adriana getting her music out there and her
personality out there, that she does get some getting the
(50:18):
credit that she deserves. I understand that's a weird thing
to get credit for, but it happened.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
Man.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
It was on the It's on the Greatest Album of
all Time.
Speaker 4 (50:26):
That's it was actual act, it was consensual. It was like,
it's that's on a song on the Greatest Like you
got to show respect and performance.
Speaker 1 (50:38):
People give people. They will give women more respect if
they had to do like a sex scene in a
movie or something like that. It's like, okay, she was
also performing. That's before me. She did it on this
song that we were listening to forever, so.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
She knew what awkward situations she was going to be
put in. And the motto among the friends of the
band was for the band, and she when he asked
her to do it, she's like, for the band.
Speaker 3 (51:03):
You know.
Speaker 2 (51:04):
So she literally you know, uh, jeopardized and most likely
robe in her relationship with her closest thing to a
boyfriend that you could call Steven Adler to accommodate Axel's request.
So she she sacrificed to do this at his request.
So you know, poor woman, you know. But she only
(51:27):
did the one interview with me, and Rolling Stone contacted
me for her contact and focus. They wanted to interviewer. Uh,
and that that interview has been we printed so many
times that Classic Rock bought me out the rights for it,
you know.
Speaker 3 (51:42):
Yeah and.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Yeah, and you know they said it was great, and
uh when I interviewed when I did a story on
Slash's Boothball, yeah, because who who could do a story
about Slash's boothball while I can? And Mick Wall was
so pleased with it, He's like, this is great, you know,
and he gave me another assignment that was to do
a story about Camp Freddy. So, yeah, some some cool stuff,
(52:06):
you know.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
I like it. Yeah, I had Oh my god, I
know Jerome, but Michael Jerome the drummer first lash is
blues Ball, I had him on. That's the reach. To
go back to the beginning. We were saying the reach
that I have. And look, whether it's Adrianna Smith who
has such a great story, so much more than the Moons,
and you Brooke, you have a great story. You know what,
(52:30):
before we get out of here, I'd be remiss because
I've had a obviously it's been a kind of a
heavy show and emotional show. We got to talk about
your band. Hell DeFi it was we're going to talk
about it because you know what I did decide. We
kicked off what was this the song we kicked off
the episode with, Let's Get High. Let's kind of high.
(52:52):
So tell me a little bit about that, and tell
me about this project of yours.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
Well, it's a little deceiving, you know, Let's get high,
but it's actually let's get high on pure rock and roll,
iconic rhythms, tholpo beats, intoxicating harmony, and the lyrics actually
cite the greats of rock, my favorites. Like my other
favorite band is The Doors. So Jim Morrison was a
god of rock personified.
Speaker 3 (53:19):
You know.
Speaker 2 (53:19):
Go and it talks about guns and roses, of course,
and there's a little nod to Axel in there. Pink
Floyd gets a nod. I think it's a fun, anthemic,
ethemic tune and I hope people enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (53:32):
And what's the best place to find you? You know,
I put everything and then so I'm gonna put everything
in the show notes. But yeah, go ahead, Well.
Speaker 3 (53:41):
Let me tell you.
Speaker 2 (53:42):
You know the reason the project came together. I ran
into an old friend who used to have a home studio.
Now he has a bigger studio. But he gave me
tracks of a session or a couple of sessions, drum
tracks that I had done in like nineteen ninety eight
and never completed these songs. And you're all like eighties
metal rock songs. So with these great drum tracks, I'm
(54:04):
literally finishing the projects and you have an authentic vintage project.
Now it's classic rock now, and so you get songs
running the gamut, sounding like Leonard Skinner to Motley Crue
to Black Sabbath, and I hope people will take the
time to check it out. It's an option, it's an option,
something new, but it's.
Speaker 1 (54:24):
Classic sounding right on, right on. So thank you.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
Very much for having me on. You know, your podcast
is pretty massive. It's impressive, and to be in that
company of all the people that you've had on it,
it's really a thrill. And I appreciate the work you do.
Speaker 1 (54:40):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
Rook.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
I thank you for reaching out. Thank you Adriana for
kind of introducing us because this was a cool story.
And I'm glad. I'm you know, I just would have
been sitting here. I mean, I would have called Craig earlier,
but I'm glad. I kind of wow, dog man, it's
just the fuck man. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
We he couldn't connect, and that's at the end, that's
(55:03):
my fault. That's my fault. He still wanted to be
friends after he wanted to come on the podcast after
the book fell apart, and I couldn't do it. I
just was too hurt by it. I let him know that,
and I don't think again, I don't think I ever
bad mouthed him after, even though when I was not
feeling good about stuff. He's just I'm gonna miss him.
(55:24):
I'm gonna miss him terribly. I didn't talk to him
again for someone I didn't talk to well a lot recently,
I'm gonna miss him, and I just in after life.
I hope I got this to see you again, my friend, Doug.
I'm just so sorry for you and your family and
Eli and Jake, his Son's Doug Peace. So I won't
(55:48):
do my little spiel at the end of this podcast,
so I'll just do rest in Peace, Doug
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