Craig Duswalt: Remembering Doug Goldstein | Ep 568

In his first interview in 12 years, Craig Duswalt joins. Axl's former personal assistant details why he regrets his book "Welcome to My Jungle: An Unauthorized Account of How a Regular Guy Like Me Survived Years of Touring with Guns N' Roses..." However, this chat comes at a sad time in our world. Friend and former GN'R manager, Doug Goldstein has passed away. We remember the life of "Dougie" and much more.

More info:
https://www.amazon.com/Welcome-My-Jungle-Unauthorized-Survived/dp/1637744315 
https://craigduswalt.com/ https://rockstarmarketingspeaker.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thredgeband/ 
https://infiniterockstarclub.com/

Our website: www.afdpod.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
No one was closer to Axel than me or Doug Goldstein.
That was it.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite for Distortion. My name is Brando,
Episode number five hundred and sixty eight. Welcome to the podcast,
mister Craig does Walt.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
That's me maybe, Hi Brando, how the hell are you.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm honored to be speaking with you today. Certainly somebody
as if you're watching on zoom, you were impressed by
my just fan collection of guns and rows and stuff.
But you have actual you know, album is behind you
and pictures.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
I have a double platinum album that I was given.
It says awarded to I think it says, yeah, presented
to Craig Duswalt for the whatever use your illusion. Yeah,
Doug Goldstein gave that to me.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
And it was the end of the making of the
illusion video of like how they did it, where facetiously
Axel said that you are credited making guns of roses,
what they are, what they want?

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Oh my god, that's so funny. You see, it's the
making of a strange video. Right, So yeah, at the end,
I totally forgot about that, all right, So this is funny.
So you know, we're filming the Making of a Strange
Video and the Estranged video and November Rain Don't Cry,
all those videos like I felt like at one time,
and just August our videographer Guy walks up to me.

(01:25):
He goes, who are you? I know him but and
I said, I'm Craig Doswalt. I'm responsible for this whole thing,
everything to do with guns n' roses, my idea. Everybody
else is nothing. My name's Craig does Well my idea
and Axel loved it so much he put it at
the end of the Making of a Strange video. So
this is funny. There's lots of G and R chat rooms,

(01:47):
but at the time it was like the number one
chat room. It was huge chat room, and the number
one question in the chat room after that was released
was who the hell is Craig does Wolt. It was
kind of funny.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
I love that And yeah, so that's going to be
kind of a teaser because I rewrite because it's been
years where I read parts of your book and that's
how I was reminded of that little story and I
appreciate you sharing that. Welcome to My Jungle. So the
unauthorized account of how a regular guy like me, survived
years of torn with Guns of Roses, pet wallabies, crazy groupies,

(02:25):
axle roads, a moth extermination system, and other perils on
the road of one of the greatest rock bands of
all time.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
So heard of that.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
We will get to that. I'm honored that this is
your first Guns of Roses related interview. You've done it,
and it has to do with that book.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Is the reason why this is my first interview in
twelve years. You want to go and now you want
to go now, well, no, do it later, whenever you're ready.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
This is a teaser because I mean, we have to
get out the important I mean, this is the serious
stuff now. So yes, I mean you're you're a light.
I mean, I'm glad that we're taking this away and
I think that's the way Doug would have wanted us
to celebrate the memories of Gunzero's is the positive stuff.
And I can't believe him saying Doug Doug Goldstein in

(03:13):
the past tense. So you know, it's interesting the last
this is related. So Doug was still on my mind.
My listeners know, I was actively working on It's ended
a few years ago now, but on his autobiography, and
it just didn't end well. The people on that side
wanted a professional. I don't need to go into the

(03:34):
story again. So I mean, I'm just I'm a sensitive guy.
Doug's a sensitive guy. I was hurt. We ended up
just like saying, hey, we're cool, but I can't talk
to ex girlfriends. So it's kind of like the same,
like I wish you well kind of thing. And I
missed his friendship and it sucks that I'm never gonna
be able to get it back. And I'm the least

(03:55):
of it. My thoughts go to his family and his
really close friends. So while we're taping this Thursday, June
twenty fifth, I guess you passed yesterday, June twenty fourth.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, somewhere in the night or early morning of yesterday
June twenty fourth. The saddest thing. So I was speaking
at Pepperdine. I'm a speaker now and I'm speaking at Pepperdine,
and John Reese, the tour manager for Guns, texts me, Hey,
Doug was just found dead this morning in his bed,

(04:29):
and now I have to go on stage in like
five minutes to be motivational to these two hundred and
fifty students and talk about a gut punch. Oh my gosh.
So I call him really really fast. At the time,
we didn't know much. We still don't know much. But yeah,
he passed away yesterday. One of my dearest friends. And

(04:51):
you know, he's had a rough twenty years in the
last twenty years after guns, but the sweetest guy in
the world. And you know, I have so many Doug stories. Yeah,
if you want to share a couple. But it was,
it's still said, I'm just devastated. I'm like devvit stated.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
It hasn't hit me because there was still like I
had still been harboring and I'm honest about it about it.
I don't want to use resentment, but just like a
hurt time because I put in a lot of effort
and Doug said to me, He's like, this is going
to be this is when we get this published. This
is going to take care of your family, like he
cared about me. So so yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
I don't know the story of what happened between you two,
but I guarantee other people got in his head because
that is not Doug dog.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
That's what happened. And I knew that, and I knew that,
and that's what kind of And that's what upset me
because like, not only did you ruin a book, you
ruin a friendship. Like that's where it started out. And
I never expect to be friends with my guests or anything.
I'm not a weirdo like that.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
But we're not friends anymore. We're not friends now.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Well me, you're your exception, You're but I'll never forget.
Doug called me once at like nine in the morning
just to tell me how good limp Biscuit was. Now
was it?

Speaker 1 (06:03):
I love it?

Speaker 2 (06:04):
What? So I go to my wife, I'm like, maybe
my fiance at the time, I'm like, I mean, that's
cool to be called by the next manager of guns
and Roses about limb Biscuit. But I'm tired what. I
always listened to him. There'll be times he called me
just before the book, just randomly, and I enjoy talking

(06:24):
with him. So, just like you, tons of off air conversations.
I don't know if I would do anything with what
we wrote together. That's not for right now, I guess,
or at least as part of the conversation. But you know,
it's interesting that you said when you got the news,
so I guess two parts. So when I interviewed doctor

(06:46):
Steve Staxton. I've heard him episodes ago, Yeah, the touring Chiropractor.
I get a lot of people on this podcast, and
he has great stories.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
He is just such a dear friend of Rose. Oh
my god, my wife and I hate we love Steve anyway, So.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
He would never do anything to hurt anybody. So he's
just telling stories. Nothing out of school or and he's like,
I don't know if you know this about Doug. And
he was during that coup in Venezuela, right, and they
tried to get money from guns and roses and get
it from Doug, and a couple of like just bad
people pointed it, knocked to the door and pointing a

(07:22):
machine gun at him, like where's Doug Goldstein And he's like, oh,
I don't know, he's not here. I'll go fight you
because they don't know what he looks like. So I
said to Steve, I don't I know Doug told me
that story. I don't know if it's on or off
the air. And he's like, I know what, Let's just
be safe, let's do right by Doug. Let me text him,
and Doug says edited it out, and I'm like, okay, fine,
I found out that he has said said that story

(07:43):
publicly and whatever out. Yeah, So I don't know. I'm like,
all right, why did he have me cut it out?
Like whatever? Fine? I like, Doug, I'm not gonna upset Steve.
And then you tell me as I'm recording my second episode,
which is gonna be on after this, uh with somebody.
It's all just weird. Hell, all ties in together with
books and everything. So a guy named Brooke Ellis who

(08:06):
was the ghostwriter for Stephen Atlers book. So as we're
doing our interview, I get the text from you, which
sign note by the way and shows you how the parallel,
how I feel it's more about me than like dog
or anybody else. How friendly you are. I thought you
ghosted me, Like.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
No, no I was. I'm sure you were.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
I just let's just have it's my paranoid you know, cliche,
stereotypical jewne therapy is like everyone hates me because you
can say no to an interview. Cool, But I'm like,
this guy gave me his number. Did I say something
wrong that I haven't heard phone two weeks? No? Oh
my god, I feel that's my live problem.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
No, no, no, here's the deal. These phones are dangerous because
I'll tell you I'm a very okay, how do I
put this without sounding like a dick. I'm a very
well known speaker, and I get a ton of texts, right,
So say you text me five minutes later, ten minutes later,
you're knocked down twenty and then I forget, you know,

(09:10):
because I read it so it doesn't have the blue
dot next to it. So then so then I got
to go back and say, oh, shoot, I haven't gotten
back to Brandon yet. So anyway, that's why that's.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
True if all the time, here's a good analogy I
just thought of right now, and maybe this would have
been helpful in my earlier years. Good thing my wife's
not here, because I'm going to say. It's like if
I ever asked that a hot girl, they give me
her number and I'm like really, wow, okay, and I
try to start texting and I didn't go anywhere. I'm
like why because there's probably a million of the guys
trying to I text her. So you're the hot girl, Yeah,

(09:40):
I'm the hot girl.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
So I mean, as you said during our conversation on
the phone the other yesterday, that we'll have some laughs
in here, so I'm glad that that's happening.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah, I'm trying to trust me. It's not easy, but
I'm a professional, right, I do this. I did it
yesterday this before I go on stage. I just found
out one of my best friends died, and now I
got to go on stage and motivate people.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
And I want to get into that specifically, but I'll
just sleep on on this note. And it makes me
feel better about what I did. Was Okay. I get
this text from you. I'm like, all cool, Craig's gonna
come on this what happened? And I'm not.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Text I said, yeah, I'll be on the show. By
the way, Doug Goldstein.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Dight, I'm you know, I understand because there was the
urgency to speak and like you know, oh you knew
I was close with him, so I understand. But as
I'm recording with this guy, I'm like, do I stop?

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Do I what do I do? Here?

Speaker 2 (10:39):
And I guess So it'll be out after this episode.
It's my real time reaction to everything and talking more
about Doug and you know, I just left it in there,
and it's it's similar to this. It's just a combination
of not knowing what to say and being sad and
wishing we had on a better note, but maybe a
little bit more. I don't know whether it's included in
your book or not, Doug, because you guys were with

(11:03):
air supply. So as I'm writing the book with Doug,
I know more about air supply than I ever did,
you know, And it's such a juxtaposition of guns and
roses and air supply, but it exists.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Everyone says that I said, I told her their supplied
them guns n' roses. They're like, what, how did this happen? Well?
And dances Doug Dulstein.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, yeah, so I guess how did you start working
for for for air supply? And then what we were?
First impressions of Doug, because it's funny the things that
I remember He's like, is he thought I was a cop?

Speaker 1 (11:37):
You know.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
I bonded with Steven, you know, little things about like
how he looked with his mullet and his mustache, so like,
what kind of guy were you at the time?

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Because yeah, I had just graduated college State University of
New York at oswego very top ten IVY league, absolutely,
so I graduate in eighty three and I get it
by the way place right, you'll know this place, Branda.
I got a job at Westbury Music Fair in Long Island,

(12:08):
and I was working there for about two weeks. Literally
graduated college, got a job there. I'm there for two
weeks and I'm a runner backstage. I'm like a gopher
kind of guy. And bands came in, and shows came in,
and Rodney Dangerfield came in, you know, stuff like that.
So Air Supply comes in and they're doing two shows

(12:29):
Friday night and Saturday night. Friday night, I'm working the
show just as a runner. I get them drinks, I
take them to and from soundcheck to the hotel, back
and forth, get them towels, all that runner stuff. And
so that was Friday night. Saturday night. I'm not scheduled
to work, but my mom wants to go see air
Supply and she wants me to take her to the show.

(12:52):
So at twenty one years old, I'm going to a
concert with my mom and dating is now over. So anyway,
I'm at this concert sitting in the audience with my
mom and during the show, she goes, you know you
work here, you could get me backstage. I'd like to
meet the band I'm like, great, my mother's a groupie.
I get her backstage. I introduce her to the band,

(13:14):
of which I don't know them. I don't even met
them last night, that we don't know each other. But
while my mom is talking to the band, this big
six foot five, three hundred and fifty pound guy walks
up to me and he says, you were the guy
that was working here last night, right, And I'm like,
YESIM missed a very large man. And he goes, how
much do you make a week here? And I'm thinking

(13:36):
it's none of his business, but he's huge, so I
answered the question. I said about one hundred and fifty
dollars a week, and he goes, how would you like
to quadruple that? And so many things went through my
mind of what this man wanted me to do to
him for.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Six hundred dollars.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
But I'm like, I'm in I'll do it whatever you want.
And he said, the band saw you working last night.
They love your positive attitude and your energy. They want
to know if you want to go on the road.
You leave tomorrow. To make a long story short, I
took a plane to Wallingford, Connecticut, met with the band.
The next day and toured with air Supply for seven years.

(14:14):
And I always do this in my marketing simply because
I'm always doing my best just in case someone's watching,
you know. I just I'm that guy. I'm just I'm
a hard worker. I'm very good at what I do,
and I take it serious, even if it's the lowest
guy in the totem pole at work. I'm that guy.
So then about a year and a half into the tour,
maybe two years, I forget this new guy, Doug might

(14:38):
have been three years. Doug Goldstein comes in. So the
guy that hired me quit or something. His name was
Bob Street, amazing guy, still friends to this day. And
then Doug comes in. I don't know. I think they
had heard. Steve Vanda was the tour manager at the time.

(14:58):
He had tour managed with a Van Halen and some
other heavy metal bands, and now he was doing air supply,
and I think he had heard that Doug was running
an event company in Arizona. So he hires Doug, and
Doug's first day on the job, He's wearing a suit
with a tie to do the show, and I'm like, dude,

(15:20):
what are you What are you wearing? He goes, I'm
in security. I'm like, dude, stop. So I got Doug
out of the suit and tie immediately, and so then
he just became Doug. But Doug was very very serious.
Like we used to have. We would all get backstage
passes right to give out to the audience to you know, invite.
How do you say that pretty girls backstay short?

Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, you know girls girls of interests, interest.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Girls the guys wanted to talk to after the show
and have a nice deep conversation with.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Anyway, so we all got passes all the time that
we could just give out to whoever, and we had
this big room backstage and it was amazing. Then Doug
comes and he's like he assigns us like five passes each,
like what he goes on head of security. This is
the way it's gonna be now, And we're like, dude,
you need to chill man, stop it. We are given

(16:12):
out as many passes as we want. So he was
very serious because he wanted to obviously, you know, make
a good impression. But Doug was amazing, just amazing, just
a great guy. Everyone loved him. Russell Hitchcock, the lead
singer of Air Supply, put a nice post out about
Doug last night and just a great, great, great guy.

(16:35):
So Doug and I had been friends. We toured with
each other for four years, I think it was with
Air Supply, and then he the story goes like this,
this is what I remember. At the end of one
of the tours. Steve van Do, the tour manager for
Air Supply, we had a break from Air Supply and
he said, Doug, I need you to watch van Halen

(16:59):
in Los Angeles while I'm away doing something else. I
needed to like watch over them security whatever, or even
manage him kind of. And so Doug did that, and
that's when he met Axel and I don't know that
whole story here. That's when he met Axel and Alan
Nivin and that whole thing, and then Axel took a

(17:19):
liking to Doug immediately, and then Alan was gone, Doug
took over and the rest, as they say, is history.
So then one day in nineteen ninety whatever it was,
he's on the road with guns Now and they're doing
they're about to go out. They just started the usual
I Losing World tour. And Blake Stanton was Axel Rose's

(17:40):
personal assistant and Blake must have gone to Doug and
say I need a second person. I need another person
to help me with Axel. So Doug calls me up
one day and he says, you're ready to go back
on the road, Like, what do I have to do?
You have to work with Axel Rose. And he goes
and this pays a lot of money. I'm like, all right,
I'm in. So that's how I got that job. And then,

(18:04):
as I just said, the rest is history. So Doug
got me the Guns n' Roses job because he said
there was one guy that I know that could handle
this Axel Rose situation. And then he called me up
and that's how that happened.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
Doug was somebody who took care of people who took
care of him. Yeah, that's why. And you mentioned you
know Alan Niven. I know Alan. I mean it's no
secret the way Alan felt about Doug and that always,
you know, And I was honest with Allan about it.
I mean, it bothers me because I like Allan, Allen

(18:39):
is really kind to me, and I understand that's my
experience and it's not others. And it's the same thing
with Doug. But my experience with both of them was
really kind, and I you know, I knew it would
never happen. I tried to get him both on the
podcast at the same time. Doug was open to it. Alan,
you know, wouldn't even entertain it for it even a second.

(18:59):
So I'm I'm hoping that, you know, because Alan, again,
I adore him. I know he can come off bitter
to some people, but I mean, you're entitled to your
your feelings. I just know for me, where I would
think about the experience writing the book with Doug, I
might prior to yesterday, I looked at it differently. I

(19:19):
looked at it like that I waste two years of
my life. What am I? No, it's completely different. I
treasure those times and I wish I always treasured them.
And I know the show business and book business is
what it is, and it just didn't work out, you know.
And it's just it's said that I had to come
to that lesson. But I know, I just feel so

(19:41):
knowing him and learning about those air supply days and
how he felt about Russell Hitchcock. It's still it's burned
into my brain that he's like Russell is the only
singer that would be pitch perfect every night, and he
would defend him if somebody. I think he got in
the face of Hector Macho Camacho once because Russell called
him gay and in Spanish and Doug knew how to

(20:05):
speak Spanish. Yeah, I mean his family story is incredible.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Uh, you know, if there's if this and after life,
I hope he's reunited with his brother Sam, which I
know meant so much to him.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Absolutely, and actually I firmly believe that that they are
together right now.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Firmly believe that he would he tell you that he
felt the relationship between Sam and his father, Doug's father
was similar between Axel and Alan Niven, and he was
trying to fix something he couldn't fix in his childhood.
Oh interesting, And I would tell Alan that and he
just I don't think he was wanting to hear that,
because I you know, I can get a little therapy ish,

(20:44):
you know, to people when they don't want it. I
understand that, but I just look at it completely different.
And he has a lot of there's a lot of
great Doug stories. Maybe if you'll I'll ask you about
if they really happened. But before as I was looking
down by the way because he mentioned. Yes, I do
know the Westbury Music Fair. This is after you. I
so david ly rot there, Oh my god, thousand and three.

(21:06):
The long he's still holding onto the long hair. I
learned myself you can't. This is a time you gotta
chieve it.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
I'm still I'm still, I'm still got, I still got.
I've got some hair.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Good for you. Yeah, I said bye bye to my
Axel Rosenberg days several years ago. That's so one of
the stories that sticks out to me. And you may
not remember these.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
I'll just share with you right now. I don't remember
a lot of shit, but go ahead, I'll try.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Well, that's that's kind of how I feel about when
people write, or rock stars specifically write books. So you
know what that's on me? Pivot there? Why is it?
Why was that book? I mean, why did it make
you twelve? What did it take twelve years to speak
with somebody? There's a plan that way?

Speaker 1 (21:51):
Did you say, oh no, no, no, this is the
book right here, Welcome to my jungle. Biggest mistake I
ever made, huge, hugegantic So this is what happened. I
wrote the book as just like you know, Axel gets
a lot of bad press. Everyone thinks he's a bad guy,
not a nice guy. I swear to you he is

(22:13):
the sweetest man you will ever meet. But if he's
in public, and you know, when you're in public sometimes
and you don't feel like talking or hanging out, we
get to just hide. He doesn't, and so if he
lashes out once, it's just because leave me alone, dude,
Just like. But here's the deal. My wife, he loves
my wife. He loved me. It was such a close

(22:38):
knit family. So anyway, when I wrote the book, I
said to myself, it's I'm not going to treat it
like a thing for Axel to write that he's really
a nice person. That's not why I wrote it. It
just came out that way though, because I shared stories
that were just funny and interesting that happened to me

(22:59):
on the road. Wasn't even about guns and roses. It
was about things that happened to me on the road
with guns n' roses just happened. Some of the players
were Axel slashing the Matt Duff and you know all
those guys, guilty dizzy. So so anyway, I write the book,
and now I'm going to do all these interviews because
I got a publisher for the book, and they set
me up with all these radio shows all over I

(23:22):
was doing interview. I have to interview, and every interview
was like, so, is it really true that Axel's an asshole?
Like stuff like that. I'm like, that was like the
first question. I kept saying no, like like no, no,
he was a really nice guy. He was a great guy,
really nice to me, my family, everybody, he's in our world.

(23:45):
He was the sweetest guy. So ABC, I think it
was ABC News or something. My last interview, the guy's
first question again, and I was getting sick of this
because I'm defending I felt like I was defending Axel
in all these interviews. It's not even about the book.
They just want to know why he comes late in

(24:05):
all that stuff. And so the last interview was with ABC.
I think it was ABC News and the first question,
why is Axel such a dick? Right? And I said,
you know what, fuck you, fuck you and whatever. I
went off. Obviously they hit the button, you know, in
the interview because it was live, and I just said,

(24:25):
I'm not doing another interview. And to this day I've
not done another interview because Axel at the time was
a very dear friend. Yes, I worked for him, but
no one was closer to Axel than me or Dougallstein.
That was it. And like I was with him twenty
four to seven for like four years. So I got
offended that my book allowed people to ask why he

(24:50):
was not a nice person. And I hated that because
that's not why I wrote the book. I wrote the
book just to write funny stories. So anyway, I never
do an interview. You know how many documents, you know
how many interviews I've turned down over the last twelve years.
It's in the thousands. I mean, it's ridiculous. To this day,
I still get sked to interview because John Reese and

(25:11):
I are together again. Now we're doing some stuff, so
it's rekindled again. I want an interview, interview, I say, no, no, no,
no no. But then I watched you see I think
I saw this episode with you and Dell James his
comic book thing whatever that was. Was it a comic book?

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Yeah, consensual violence, yeah, yeaheah, novel.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
I saw that interview and then I said, all right,
so this brando guy is talking to Dell. Dell is
in that group, so they must trust this guy, and
I've heard about your podcast for years, but I didn't
know you. But I'm seeing that you're interviewing Thaxton, Doug Goldstein,
and Del James, and I'm thinking to myself, all right,
you know what, this guy I trust already, I don't

(25:54):
know him, but if they're doing it, I want to
set the record stray with some especially this right. So
that's why I initially did it. And then uh uh,
Branda and I started talking and texting, and then I
guess I ghosted him for four days. I was busy.
I had all these speaking gigs anyway. Anyway, anyway, it

(26:16):
was two weeks.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
But whatever, no, because I this is again how I think,
and it's nothing against you. It's just my patheticness. I
talked to my wife about it and me, I'm breaking
the fourth wall and I said, like, it's been a week.
I'm like, that's normal time, Like I should like, am
I a weirdo? If I like follow up within the
same week? And she's like, no follow up in like

(26:37):
another week. I'm like okay, and I'm like, soe you
read it, like did I say something weird? Like did he?
Just like that's how I think. It's not you. It
is not me, my family. I'm like guilty right now.
Oh my god, now please, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Oh no, it's all good. It's all good anyway.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
So but to turn it back, just I'm honored, thank you. Uh,
just like you, I've del I've politely asked, and there's
been many a guest I've politely asked, uh and they
will politely turn me down. And that's okay. I'm not
I'm not Ryan Seacrest. I'm not a big you know,

(27:16):
radio star. I'm not you know, I'm not.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
I'm just not.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
I'm not one of those people. I'm not not a
big YouTuber like that. I mean, I have a little
bit of a following, but it's I'm lucky, but I
don't so I don't ever feel like I deserve anything.
Uh So, and I I guess you commented on a
p It's cool that some people will comment on posts
who are on the GNR world, like Chris Whoeber does

(27:42):
my Michelle Young will comment on Facebook stuff and it's like,
that's cool, you know, it makes me feel like I'm
on a radar. That's like, I think it's cool for
the fans to see and I think you've commented a
couple of times. I asked you like and you're like, no,
thank you. That's cool. That's happened before with Tracy Gunns.
What got eventually, bumblefootoy got eventually and Dell Dell had
something to talk about, and I said, look, we don't

(28:04):
have to I offer, we don't have to talk guns
of Roses. We could talk with Dell. I'm like, I
could talk to you about Horror. I could talk to
you about wrestling, which kind of was his book. So
it worked out, and I said, whatever you want to
talk about GNR. You know, I'm not going to ask
you any personal stuff. I just said, I want to
ask you what forty years means to you. And he
offered up talking about the Sabbath, the Olsweet farewell show. Yeah, yeah,

(28:28):
And then I think I only just asked him about
Billy McLeod, who wrote co wrote Yesterday's which was a
short short so that's cool. I just don't ever expect anything.
So you comment on something about the Paris pay per view,
which recently, so I inboxed you and I just said
I just took a chance, you know, you never know

(28:49):
politely and I said, no, I said no dirt. I
made sure to always say no dirt. Those have been
in my proposals to Duff and Slash. I don't need
to talk to you about that stuff. I don't care
about that stuff. It's it's happened, it's over with. You're
judging people about things that they did, you know, when
they were puck. They're not advocating to do drugs. Now

(29:10):
they're all role models. Now, well you're gonna hold them
up to the standard. And I find myself defending Axel
in a lot of ways because the reason why Doug
and I I think bonded and why I started this podcast,
it's like, I see I didn't I'm thankful I did
not have I had a pretty good child that even
though both my parents were mentally ill, and I can
say that kind of being serious. Uh Oxel's childhood it

(29:33):
was horrible, horrendous, that's an understatement. And to bond with
Doug over mental health and to see this could talk
about this guy Axel in a certain light that he
still gets any sort of clickbait, and I think the
band for a long time was afraid of that clickbait.
That I don't write these articles. I don't set up
people for these questions. It's just that's why I Bumblefoot

(29:56):
didn't want to come out for the longest time. He's like,
I could do an hour. He's so kind. He's like,
I could do an hour interview, and they just take
that small part. Oh yeah, and that's just the way
of the world that's without rock or whatever it is.
I just don't I don't want to be that that person.
I know, I make shorter clips. I try to have,
you know, put things in context. So I thank you

(30:18):
for saying that and for doing this. And yeah, as
I picked up the phone yesterday we were tech texting,
I'm like, can I call you after we you mentioned Doug.
I'm like, I got to talk to you, and I said,
nice to meet you, Like you know, we're meeting under
these terrible circumstances, even though I think Doug would appreciate
the kind of conversation that we're having today, and he's uh,

(30:41):
he's he was a character. I've said that it sucks
that I chose not to have him on my show
again after that ended, and I loved him as a
guest and I had a credit you know him for
he got me Steve Daxton. He got me Pyro Pete.
You know, he got me some really awesome people, you
know that he didn't need to do And it wasn't

(31:01):
always to promote his book. Uh, I don't know. You
could tell me to cut it out. Was it a
secret that he was working with you on stuff or
is that no?

Speaker 1 (31:11):
No, no, no, we are no so we uh well,
it's not It wasn't a secret, but it wasn't out yet.
Like me and John Reese and Doug, we're going to
do something. I'm not even gonna share what it was
because it's not going to happen now because you know,
Doug passed away. But just so you know, John Reese
and I are doing a lot of stuff together. We

(31:34):
uh manage bands, up and coming bands. One of them
is my son's band, Threadge, which I want to talk about.
I gotta plug Threade. So there's that. But we do
this breaking into the music industry seminars, and we did
one in Palm Springs and it was amazing. All the
top executives like Ryan Harlacker from c A, a creative

(31:57):
artist agency, John Feldman, Oh my god, Corey Brennan, Slipknots, manager.
I could go on and on and on and on
on to people that came to speak at our breaking
into Music Industry event, to these kids, young kids that
were in bands and stuff. It was amazing. So we're
doing another one of those. We're going to be putting

(32:17):
on a festival soon. John Rees had put on I
think like fifty two festivals over the last twenty years.
So he's that guy. And we just rekindled our friendship
about a year and a half ago and we're doing
some really, really, really cool things. So we were bringing
Doug on for this one thing about two months ago

(32:40):
and that just ended, you know. So that's sad. So
I stay in touch with Doug all the time. We
text quite often, we Facebook. He sends me stupid things
on Facebook all the time.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
No, and I missed him.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
I know.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
That's something again that's on me, and it's a lot lesson.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Well, I will share this, Like you know, Doug has
struggled over the last twenty years and John Resent I
talked yesterday and I think I even said this to
you yesterday. You know, the first thing that goes to
your mind when someone passes is I could have done more.

(33:21):
I could have maybe lent him some money. I could
have gotten him something. I could have text more, I
could have talked more. But you know what, you just
proved it. I ghosted you for two weeks. But we're busy,
right Like I am super busy. I'm a speaker, I
speak at all these places. I have a Mastermind program
where I coach businesses, and then John and I are

(33:44):
doing these other things. Oh my god, my day is
like da da da da. So in hindsight, though, after
when someone passes, you're like, I should have would have
wish I had done these things. But in the throes
of it, you can't because I have three kids, you know,
that are young adults. Right now, life is busy. But

(34:04):
then when someone dies, you're like, oh, I wish I
would have. So anyway, Uh, John Zucker, you know who
John is. He was one of the security guards for
guns When I told her that we're gonna put together
a U A Guns N' Roses reunion in January in
Palm Springs. Steve Jaxson's going to be out there for

(34:25):
a thing, so we're gonna Yesterday we started setting up
this thing that we're going to do a mini reunion
so that we could each see each other because we
don't want to, you know, have more dug situations where
we didn't get to say goodbye, we didn't get to
see each other again. So things like.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
That, you know, Okay, I mean that's the gragedy.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
Bring on getting people back together again, you know, I
do you.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
Want to call it a silver lining?

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (34:51):
I guess so. And no, I know, I'd certainly not
the first person who was close to me that I'm like,
oh you know, oh yeah, I mean I talked about
my dad. There are things I could have done more there,
but that's a whole other story. But with Doug, you know,
I know, one of the first thoughts I had was
to his his kids, Jake and Eli, who I know
he didn't have the best relationship. And I'm not going

(35:13):
to speak on that because it's not I don't know,
I don't I just don't know. The Only thing I
will say is that what he told me is that
he loved you boys so much, and that really motivated
me to get out this book because I'm like, I
feel like this was a guy and that's what upset
me about Alan Allen. I couldn't make that was his
experience I'm not going to diminish what Allen experienced that

(35:36):
it was. It was a guy that I felt like
there was a lot of mistruth about because there will
be fans like, oh, it's he broke up guns and roses.
He didn't break up guns and roses like that's just
to give him that kind of authority in power to
break up guns and roses. No, they were a lot
of don't even blame Axel. There were a lot of

(35:56):
variables and so many factors.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
Know, there's not one person to blame.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
No, right, so we're on the same page where I
do my best to get the positive stories about Axel
out because I don't think he's the guy that everyone
says he is. Look, I well I did. I'll do
another demonstration. Remember what it was like last year that
he threw the mic at the drum kit because he
was hearing it, like, I don't still throw this. Here's

(36:21):
the tape right here. So I don't care. I don't
care throw things. I haven't actually have a problem throwing
things because my son sees me doing it.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
So I've been known to throw a golf club on
a golf.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
It happens, So I identify with that anger. It's real,
it's not performative. And to all those interviewers and he
said it was with ABC a professional outlet. Fuck all
of you. You are the reason why I don't get
the interviews, why it's taken me ten years to get
Craig and to get all these other people, why I

(36:57):
can't get slash or dump on because so many pieces
of garbage journalists are out there. I hate it. I
told you before my passion coming out. One of the
things that I h I do for my real radio
job with these radio tours, right, so I get to
listen to people interview and author or rock star or whatever.

(37:17):
And for the most part, because we're a professional, we
curates the best stations that are only going to ask
really good questions. Yes, you know what, there are still
but people who don't ask about the project until the end.
They only want to ask about whatever the hot topic is.
So we got to be clear with them with that.
And there are absolutely ones who maybe we start working

(37:37):
with who were trying to be that guy to start something.
We're not working with you anymore. We don't put up
with that over here.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
Yeah it's you. No, you're right, you're one right, because
it's those people that prevented me from doing yourself special
Get in the Ring, Get in the Ring.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
That's that's why I don't like when people like, hey,
I love that song exactly Get in the Ring to
this day. Yeah, that's why you know, I remember I
want to be journalists. As someone who has a broadcast
journalism degree from Hofstraw, I am offended by all of you.
I'm sorry, I love it. That's so yeah. I had
to for me to go off of it, right because

(38:14):
I saw your passion to make you regret writing that
book big time? Did was that the sole reason? Or
did you hear back from Axel?

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Oh no, no, no, no, Well Axel was not happy
that I wrote it initially, but I don't I've heard
it wasn't then he I don't know if he read it.
I heard he read it that it's okay, now I guess,
but I think it was just that, uh that Camp

(38:43):
doesn't like that I wrote a book, Uh, no matter
what it was about, because I was making money off
of the guns and Roses name. Now I will share
I made a couple of bucks. But what's really funny is,
and this is the truth, as soon as the book
came out, and as soon as I did those interviews,

(39:05):
I certainly didn't pooh pooh the book. I mean, it
was out there right, my publisher was putting it out there.
But I stopped doing interviews and I stopped talking about
the book, and I thought I would talk about this
book for years. I never talk about this book because
it is such a ick for me because some people

(39:30):
in the gn R world think I did it for
the wrong reason, which many of them have come and
said that's not true. So that helped a little bit.
But also I just don't like the way the interviews went.
I hated that. But oh man, but here's the other thing.
Though Matt Sorm could care less that I wrote a book,

(39:50):
because he just appeared on my stage a couple of
months ago and he's done. I've been threaded. My son's
band has recorded at his studio. Mccagan has spoken on
my stage numerous times. Gilby Clark just played event for
me just a couple of months ago. I'm still in
touch with Slash. I just saw a couple of probably

(40:13):
a year ago at Universal. Totally fine. So everyone's fine.
Everyone is totally fine. I just didn't like what happened
because of the book, because I thought it was something
totally different, a fun thing about fun times that happened
on the road. And like you said, the journalists were able.
There's nothing in the book that says anything about the

(40:34):
questions they're asking.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
That's what boggles my mind.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
They're asking questions based on what they think they know
about the members of the band Guns and Roses, and
it's all bullshit. They don't know, they think they know,
they don't know. They weren't there. I was there.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
They just saw the title, the cover and they assumed
something that is just absolutely so mind boggling and unprofessional.
It's just that's why these guys don't talk about listen
to their interviews. They don't do a sit down interview
about Guns n' Roses. Yeah, I mean Adler just did one,

(41:10):
but I mean it took home long for him to
do that. It's it's, Oh, I just I just can't
believe it that.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah, anyway, we're not talking about Guns and Roses. We're
mainly talking about Doug Well.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
But here's the pivot. I was gonna say, because one
time Doug said that Axel what are Axel's lawyers called
him when I don't think he was on my podcast.
He was talking about Axel and he always spoke very
glowingly about y. Yeah, so it was never anything negative.
So that's the funny part. So he got a call
from somebody like, this is Axel Rose's lawyer. You got

(41:43):
to start talking stop talking about him on the podcast.
And this was like I think Doug's This was like
nine in the morning on a Sunday, and he's like,
it's the weekend. I ain't even taken a shit yet,
Oh fuck yourself and hung up, and he's like he
knows Axel. So Axel calls back, He's like, look, I
appreciate all the nice things you're saying about me, but

(42:06):
can you just maybe talk about me less or just
like don't talk because Axel's not really one to really
enjoy all that. So I was kind of wondering that
if that was the case, because you were waxing poetic
and he doesn't like it.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
I don't know, but it's just just to hear, because
that really caught me off guard to hear that the
interviewers did this, yeah, and it kind of I guess
it's what I've been saying for years, Guys, I've been
saying I'm not making it up that interviewers ruined this
for the good people, for the I know I make mistakes.
I'm not perfect by any means, but I never have

(42:41):
no Why would I have ill intent? And I guess
I'm not making enough money off the guns and Roses name.
Otherwise they would have came up, they would have came
at me. I'm not making enough. You know, I'm here
in my apartment in Queens.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
I'm not.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
So let's let's let's pivot. I was watching your your
intro video to your to your podcast. You're not doing
it at your studio. You have a much nicer studio
than mine. You can look up the other the Craig
Dustwalt show on YouTube. There's one guest up there who's
forgive me out again.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
And I just started doing it. I have about twenty
in the can, but I'm just releasing them. I'm releasing
my friends that are in my mastermind first, and then
I'll start just build up the audience and then I'll
release the famous people.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
You know, Okay, I think that's cool. You know another
I would say like, oh, another competitor, but everyone has
a mother has a podcast side of care please, and
you said you wanted me to be on NIP.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Yes, Brando will be on my Craig does Walt Show
podcast in a very very near future. Now, it would
be great if we could convince Brando to come to
my house other in California instead of doing it on
his Zoom, because I'm trying to do as many as
I can live. But if he could only do zoom,
we can do that for now.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
For now, my wife loves to travel. We bring my
son everywhere, but we had I'm either going to Colorado
or see like my sister in law, and they have
friends in Texas. So I think all of our summer
plans are got. It's good. It needs to happen. I
can't keep talking about this California band in just never
and just be this East coast y.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
You've never been to California.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Furthest West I've ever been was actually probably seeing Alan
Niven in Prescott, Arizona.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
Oh you were close, all right, you were close to La.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Yeah, so I went out. You'll find this story amusing.
I guess some of my listeners know that. So we
just took a road trip. We went to Colorado before
my sister in law moved there. Colorado, Arizona and I
forget so anyway, I knew Allan lived out there. We
made plans look to be more of a stereotype. I

(44:42):
have a very sensitive belly stomach, you know, so I
do not Dravam now goes with me wherever I go.
But those roads in Arizona are like wildly coyote, just
zig zag and I'm in the back thinking I'm gonna die,
like do I need to cancel? And Alan, but when
am I ever going to be able to have lunch
with him and his wife again? Yeah, So I'm like dizzy.

(45:06):
When we get finally get there, I'm like no, no,
I'm okay, I'm okay, And I just yack right in
front of the restaurant and next you know, my I know,
my wife is there whatever, and I just see this
larger hands start rubbing my back and it's Alan like
are you okay? Like, oh my god, oh he got
me some fun.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
Brendo. They have airplanes.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Now, you know, I know, but my wife likes to
road trip. Hey, I get it's not the way up
on airplanes. The way down and I just turned. I
take it grem mean, no one wants to hear that.
No one cares.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
I like taking off and landing. I don't like the
turbulence in the sky. I don't know why, but anyway,
much for speaking.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
So let's let's make the pivot there with the speaking
and marketing? Are the kind of things that you because
you're a natural at it? So obviously you're natural at
doing a podcast. What are the the things that you
talk about if we go to a credit.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
So I for years I had done rock starm marketing.
I had rock Star Marketing boot camps and I used to.
When I stopped touring with Guns n' Roses, I opened
up my own advertising agency called green Room Design and Advertising.
Some of my clients were Basking Robbins, the Los Angeles Dodgers, ESPN, Disney.

(46:23):
I had some pretty big clients. So I really learned
a lot about traditional marketing. And I learned that at
school as well, but then touring with Guns n' Roses
and air supply, but especially guns and Roses, like how
do you think outside the box? How do you get
eighty thousand people to come to a shuttle? You know?
And it's just I incorporated some funny stories with guns

(46:46):
n' roses and air supply, and I put them into
my talks, and you know, everyone wants to hear the
stories backstage, what happens and all that. And I didn't
share any dirt. I never shared dirt, but it was
there's enough interesting story without even sharing dirt. So anyway,
so I became this marketing speaker, and I taught businesses

(47:06):
how to think outside the box and do things differently.
So I did that for a very very long time.
I used to get five hundred to seven hundred entrepreneurs
fly in from all over the world to come to
my seminars, which were called Rockstar Marketing boot camps, and
then COVID hit, and you know, everything was different. My
wife and I moved from Los Angeles to Dallas, Texas,

(47:28):
Frisco to be exact, and we started doing seminars there,
but smaller ones like seventy five to one hundred and
fifty people. And it was really good because I didn't
have to spend a lot of money on booking the
av and the grand ballrooms at all these hotels. So
I did that for a little while, and now we

(47:48):
moved back to Los Angeles two years ago because my
kids are all musicians. One of them, my son, is
a drummer for Threads. We'll talk about that in a minute.
They are all musicians. Wanted to come back to LA.
So my wife and I came back to LA two
years ago. And now I'm partnered with this guy, Greg Kimball,
and we have something called Infinite Rockstar. So his brand

(48:11):
was Infinity Club, mine was Rockstar, so we combined them
together Infinite Rockstar. We're doing an event October eighth, ninth,
and tenth in Westlake Village, California. The website is Infinite
Rockstar event dot com and the tickets are available there.
But we have like a lot of business leaders coming.
We have a surprise rock star coming. I always had

(48:32):
my events. I've always had rock stars like Duff McKagan
and Gilby Clark. I've had Eddie Money numerous times. Rest
in peace, Eddie. We've had Ray Parker Junior, Mickey Dolans
and the Monkeys, Kevin Cronin Rus, Speedwagon, fee Wable of
the Tubes, which was hysterical, Oh my god. Like the
list is on and on and on. But I always

(48:53):
got cool rock stars to come. So we're starting to
do that again in October and this one should have
about five hundred pea again. So I do those and
then I speak at corporations on delivering your message like
a rock star. So everything I do is rock star
base because I just share stories touring with air supply
and guns and roses, and infuse business tips and marketing

(49:16):
tips in that, and so it's become this very lucrative
business I make. I'm not going to tell you how
much I make, but let's just say I'm going to
name drop and I just have to.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
You have it already. You did it with me with
Ray Parker Junior. Come on, who you get a call?

Speaker 1 (49:33):
No, get this. So we just bought a house in
southern California. I'll just say, okay, and it's it was
Joe Montana's house we just bought. So do the math
of what that looks like I'm doing. We're doing very well.
My wife owns a modeling and talent agency called Peak
Models and Talent. For the last twenty years, she's one

(49:55):
of the top agencies in Los Angeles. So we have
two great, you know, situations, and so we've done We've
done very very very well late. Yeah. Just you know
a lot of people that I toured with or I
don't know. I wouldn't say they're struggling by any means.
They're all doing whatever they want to do. But uh,
I went in a different direction and I'm doing pretty well,

(50:18):
very very excited about it.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Mazeltov, you have me questioning my career, you know, so.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
We need you, we need you. Oh and then look, look,
look I have rock Star Keynote Speakers magazine. I put
myself on the cover this month because I've been doing
this for a year and a half and we helped
speakers get speaking gigs, so we do that as well.
So well, now we've got to talk about Thrench. I
don't know how much time you've left.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
I have to know my son, Yeah, no, please talk
about threadge because how old are your kids? My my son,
Harrison Rex aka Baby Brownstone, is three years old.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Wow. You're in the middle of it.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Oh wow, I'm certainly in the middle of it. Where
he went pretty good with the potty training is I'll
leave it at that. Uh long hair like I yeah,
long blonde, long hair. He looks like Fara faucet. It's
like ridiculous. We usually have it up in a man bun,
so everyone thinks he's a girl or whatever.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
You know.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
It's like so anyway, Uh.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
My kids are twenty six, twenty four and twenty two.
They have been potty trained by now.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Okay, I hope so, I hope so. So I guess
I'll ask like a father question of getting them into
instruments and and all that fun stuff and what they
think about what their dad does.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
You know.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
Obviously my son has no idea. Uh, he'll talk. I'll
talk them, you know, to talk into the mic and
he sees the audio, so he like, we'll have fun
with it. Maybe I'll do like a fun radio show
with him one day or whatever. My co host actually
he's not here to be today. I'm with my co host.
But hold on, you know who is here.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
It's making Oh oh, I'm a feeling. I'm feeling as
a pussy cat.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
His first appearance on the.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
Podcast I Love Kitties.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
His name is og kat and Obi.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
Oh for those of the that don't know, that's a
New York nick reference.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
So Og. We got him the day after the Knicks
uh won the title.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
Oh so he's a recent kitty cat.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Oh yeah, so he's about a little over one. He
looks exactly Now. I can actually sit back in my
chair because he's just been my myka. I know that's
how crazy. My wife is like, why don't you just
move him? I'm like, I don't want to offend him.
This is how nuts. Don'tn't be offended by anything I
said about good I'm nuts. So he looks exactly like
my cat GB, who passed away a year ago. So

(52:38):
they look the same. He's just this guy's a lot
more friendly. I didn't have to earn his trust. Like
the first day he's like, hmm, you guys are are right.
I love it. So uh so anyway, so Harrison will
be he's here so with music he I don't know.
It seemed like to show some interesting because we're take
the music classes and interested in the guitar, so we

(52:58):
weren't going to get him like a real guitar. Obviously
it's only three, so we got a little UKULELEI yeah,
there you go, little things, but so nothing nothing crazy,
And I don't we're going to take him the guns
of roses this summer. You are, he's already experienced. Dave
Matthews and Paul McCartney.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
Oh headphones, of course, I.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
Think that's important.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
We did the same thing, so it was the first
because you obviously had access to a lot of bands.
So what do your kids think about what you do
or what you did?

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Yeah? Yeah, and then yeah, uh well I will share this.
They obviously loved it. We are blessed that I still
get VIP tickets at almost any concert I want, so
I still know so many people on the road, so
I literally can make a phone call still. But is
it thirty years later? God? Anyway, So I'm very blessed.

(53:51):
So we got to go to many conscious and we
get to either stand on the side of the stage
or you know what I mean. So kind of got
spoiled that way with the kids. So I will say this,
this is my funny, really story. My wife and I
are into you know, heavy metal, hard rock, you know,
but also pop. I love air supply. I do love

(54:11):
air supply. I will say that till the day I died.
They're amazing musicians and just awesome guys, and I love
their songs. So but we grew up, our kids grew
up on hard rock, heavy metal, but one day. Our
kids come to us and they show I wish I
had the picture, and they show us this band that

(54:33):
they want to go see. They're like, I'm gonna say
they're twelve, ten and eight, maybe ten, eight and six.
But they show us a picture of this band, and
my wife and I are like, oh my god, Oh
my god, they're devil worshippers. Our kids are devil worshippers.
It was Slipknot and they go, we want to go
see Slipnot. We love Slipnot. Now I had heard a

(54:55):
Slipnot obviously, but I wasn't a fan. I didn't know
their music. I did, but I wasn't conscious of it.
But now I'm conscious of it, and I'm like, oh
my god, you're not going to see this hero chance
I'm taking you to see Slipknot and we're not doing it.
And then maybe it was maybe he was, and maybe

(55:17):
it was thirteen eleven and nine. Let's just go there.
They take my wife to a pop up. Slipknot has
a pop up where they're appearing in Los Angeles and
with no masks, and to make a very long story short,
they meet the band and Corey Taylor is the first
one they all meet and Corey walks up to my

(55:37):
wife and gives her a bit Oh we love moms,
thank you so much. And my wife is like, I
am such a bad person. I judged you because of
your masks. To make a long story short, we're Slipknot groupies.
We love them, we know them. It's crazy how much
we love Slipknot. Now. So anyway, my kids were really

(55:58):
into heavy metal and you know, slip Knot level, and
we love Ghost. You know, we're Christian total, we're not
judging Christians. I'll just throw that out. Okay, we're Christian,
but we curse and not a lot. Actually that's not true.
But we don't judge people if they curse or anything

(56:21):
like that anyway. But Ghost, if you listen to their words,
not so Christian. But we love their music. Right, So
so those are the bands that we started listening to.
So my son, my middle son, especially all my kids
play instruments and they all sing and they all do.
But my son, my middle summer Ryan, is a drummer

(56:43):
and he was a golfer. He was like one of
the top golfers in southern California and he was, you know,
going to be a golfer, we thought, and one day
as a senior in high school, guns, I don't want
to play golf anymore. I'm a drummer. And we're like,
oh god, what happened?

Speaker 2 (56:57):
And so he's with the sticks, I guess, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
He became this really great drummer and his first band
that he was in actually was Fredge, but then he
went to another band called Auto with uh Ty Trahio.
So Rob Trahio's son and my son were in a
band called Auto O T T T O T I.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
Has actually been on the show. Uh he came on.
When was who Hi Ti Truio?

Speaker 1 (57:25):
Oh wow?

Speaker 2 (57:26):
It was that short lived band with the sons of
Scott uh and slash Shot Wheeland. I know you know, yeah,
so that's that suspect that.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
Was right after Auto in fact, because uh Noah was
almost in French, which is.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Yeah, always been on a couple of times as well.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
Yeah, oh he's great, he's great. So anyway, so uh
he played with Auto. They played Lollapalooza, they played bottle
Rock and it was great. But Ryan wanted to do
his own thing. So he's in Fredge and they have
amazing musicians and uh, they're on Spotify and you know
all this stuff. But they just released a song called Zimpotley.

(58:08):
It's t z O M P O n t I
something like that, but it's on Spotify and thredges th
h r E d g E. And I know you
have millions of listeners, so I want all your listeners
to go see for it.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Well a million give it, give or take a couple
of million. But I'll I'll put all the information in
the show notes through your website. Yeah, what the contact,
your contact, your information, all that stuff is going to be.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
I really appreciate that. And now you know what I
appreciate even as well. Uh, maybe you can interview my
son Ryan?

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Yeah? Yeah, do you want to co interview? You want
to be my co host?

Speaker 1 (58:47):
We would love that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
Yeah, so let's let's co interview your son.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
All right, that would be cool.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
I'm down with that. Maybe my son will join them.
We'll make it, bring Harrison on, we'll make it a
family fair. I don't know quite to what he asked.
You know, what's your favorite color? That's that's it, you know,
But let me because I don't want to keep you
too much longer and I have to start my Yeah.

(59:12):
So people, it's just so I've said this before, I
work on Are you familiar with the singer Keith Sweat, Yes,
the Army singer Keith Sweat, So I work on his
radio show. So talk about juxtaposition between were supply and
guns and roses here I am. I'm doing a gen
R podcast and rock and roll. Yeah, I'm not gonna

(59:32):
be working on Keith Sweat and just what.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
Music is music my friend?

Speaker 2 (59:37):
You know it's and that's what Doug loved, you know,
talking about, is to bring it back around to him.
And I'm glad we can have, you know, a fun
conversation around him. I know that's what he would have wanted.
And I think in the future, if anything, I'm gonna
put out a compilation video of all the interviews and
highlights of Doug and just you know, just to bring

(59:57):
more of his positive attitude to light. And I'm ashamed
to say I was kind of just you know a
lot a lot of times I'll go back and edit old
interviews to make shorter clips and people have never seen
before or forgot about. I would kind of pass over
the Doug ones because it was like hard it was
like seeing an ext girlfriend, you know, and I use
that nowag before I feel so I got to bring
him back.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
It's going to make me feel sadly closer to him.
I don't know, but that's the future.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
But if anything, well, I think that's good that you
do that I do, and for you too, for your
for your piece as well.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
And I want to do this if you allow me,
you know, as a father. You know, I'm assuming you'll
appreciate this. So again, I don't know what, if or anything,
I'll do with his the two hundred pages that we
got together, and I I'm sure I still have zoom
videos of just very candid conversations that probably should I
don't know. This is just ideas floating in my head. Yeah,

(01:00:52):
but I want to read this because I think it's important. Obviously,
I don't know the family dynamics of Doug and everything
going on, but it was a really big motivator for
me to kind of do this for us because I
felt it. I felt the love that he had for
his family, and he did struggle with mental illness and
other things. So this would have been the intro to
his book. Oh go yeah, to my sweet brilliant boys,

(01:01:16):
Jake and Eli, you were my reason for living. I'll
never forget the days you were born. With Jake, I
thought I knew heavy responsibility with managing the biggest rock
band on the planet. But one day after you were born,
on July fifth of nineteen ninety three, your mother and
I put you in a tiny your tiny, frail body
in the back seat in your carrier. When it looked

(01:01:39):
in the rear view mirror, all I could think was,
for the rest of his life, I'm responsible for his
well being, his safety, his security, and happiness. I started
sobbing and could barely drive it. When I had my son,
That went through my mind looking in the rear view mirror.
Then five and a half years later, my sensitive Genius

(01:02:00):
was born on December fourth, nineteen ninety eight. I was
certain I'd be better this time around. I was wrong.
When you came into this world, I could see your
innocence and your kindness right from the moment I looked
into your eyes. To both of you, I know it's
been a huge challenge dealing with the father that his
mental head, that has mental issues, not knowing which dad

(01:02:24):
would show up in any given moment to that I'm
incredibly sorry. If I could have a do over, I
would have worked harder on battling my psychiatric issues.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
All I could say is that I have never loved
anything or anyone more than you two. You were my
flesh and blood. I will love you unconditionally until I
take my last breath. Which wow, So I'm wow.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
Yeah, you got to put that out somewhere. And I
will say this, Jake and Eli, if you are watching,
your dad has talked about you two thousands of times.
How much it hurt because the relationship was struggled at times,
but he loved you guys so much. All every time
I talked to him, every time he would mention you,

(01:03:14):
guys that he loved you immensely. Just know that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
And yeah, I get a little choked at breathing them
because I feel it and I feel in them now
being a dad. And he wrote this to me, you know,
thank you for putting up with me in our attempt
to ferret out the best moments to write this book together.
You've been awesome and I've become one of my closest friends.
I love you and trust you implicitly.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
My brother.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
I'm sorry it ended the way that it did. Doug,
you know you were my brother as well. I just
I'm going to miss you and I'm and Craig, I'm
really sorry about the loss of your friend.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
I'm run much you too.

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
Yeah, so look at this. OJ's here to comfort me.
You want to come up here?

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Oh oh gee, I'm allergic to kats. That's why I've
had my Oh you are?

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
I have my allergy bills right, and I'm really hoping
that I don't have to get allergy shots again.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
Well, we my kids love cat. We have two dogs,
but my kids love cats so much. There's Russian blue
cats that are not hypoellergenic apparently.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Well allegedly because I have my mom has a multi
poo that's supposed to also be a hypoalergenic because I'm allergic.
I thought I was only alergic dogs, but I'm still allergic.
So uh so, yeah, so there was a time to
do another guns to Roses reference that I had three cats.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
During COVID, I couldn't breathe. I was I was suffocating
in my own home.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
He's so adore he he look at.

Speaker 2 (01:04:46):
Him, he's bending down, he's looking at this. He's a
totally submissive cat like a dog like I've never experienced this.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
That's Montana Jo I named my I'm a Kansas City
Chief fan way back in the day. My cat's are
named Marcus and Montana from Marcus Allen and Joe Montana
when they played on the Chiefs for two years.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
Oh quick side note, then we'll wrap up. When I
was young, I wanted to be I was so I mean,
I'm still into sports and everything, but I wanted to
be a sportscaster before I got into music and everything. Yeah,
So I would send out letters back in the day
kids people would We would write letters to athletes asking
for autographs if he wanted Yeah, and I wrote want
to Joe Montana, the son of whim. He sent me

(01:05:28):
back and autographed Kansas City Chiefs card.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
See. People always think he was on the forty nine ers.
I know he was, but I know.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
He's a Chief because yeah, no he was. There was
a time he was a Chief.

Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
So yeah, two years.

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
Craig, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
Awesome talking. I'm glad I did this. You made twelve
years of not doing this realizing there are good guys
out there still. So I appreciate you. My friend.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
Thank you. I appreciate kind words, and I'm glad we
can have kind of this moment together to remember Doug.
I now what I expected. Yeah, I love you, Doug.
He miss you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
Uh yeah, I just I don't know how I usually
have my end. Well, I'll end it in my cheeky
way because I ended my my episode that I did.
That's coming up where I react in real time to
your your text, just saying you know, I love you, Doug.
But I'll end it here with my maybe we'll make
you laugh. So when will you see the next episode

(01:06:28):
of Appetite for Distortion, Well, in the words of Axl
Rose concerning Chinese democracy, you'll see it. I don't know
as soon as the

Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
Word Thanks to the lame ass security, I'm going home.