December 17, 2024 • 36 mins
Ultimate Classic Rock recently published "5 Songs Guns N’ Roses Need to Cut From Their Set in 2025: Roundtable." We extend the conversation with UCR journalist Bryan Rolli. Which songs and why? What do you think?
Read More: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/guns-n-roses-cut-songs-set/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral
Follow Bryan and Ne’er-do-well:
https://www.instagram.com/neerdowell_atx/
https://www.instagram.com/bryan_rolli/
WEBSITE: www.afdpod.com
Read More: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/guns-n-roses-cut-songs-set/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral
Follow Bryan and Ne’er-do-well:
https://www.instagram.com/neerdowell_atx/
https://www.instagram.com/bryan_rolli/
WEBSITE: www.afdpod.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you know what.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Is Appetite for distortion?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite four Distortion, Episode number four
hundred and eighty five. My name is Brando. Welcome back
to the podcast, mister Brian Raleigh. How are you, sir?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I'm doing well, Brando. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You got it.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Some of you may remember that Brian was on. I
say some of you, and it wasn't me. I knew
you were on before, but I remind myself what episode
it was, three p fifty nine. It's so random number.
I'm sure you remember that. I'm sure you re listened
to that episode quite often. Now you don't tour. I'm
(01:07):
happy to talk to you today because we follow each
other on Instagram and I just think you're Oh, before
we go anywhere, this is gonna set the table. Let's
see the fresh new ink.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Oh yes, sir, For those of.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Us watching on YouTube, the appetite for destruction get us.
That's a that's a good angle, and that's a very
well done tattoo.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Thank you. Yeah, I said back in late twenty fifteen,
I said, look, if these guys reunite, I'm committing. I'm
getting the appetite for destruction. Tattoo. I'm getting it right
where Axel's got it on his forearm. I'm going to
do it. And then the years kept ticking along, and
finally my wife was like, are you ever gonna actually
(01:51):
commit and do this thing? I said, you know what,
it's time. Time to stop messing around. I got the time,
I got the money. Let's go.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
So many questions there because I follow again, I follow
you on Instagram. I see you rocking out with your
band near Dwell and we'll get into that, and you
have the Appletite crossed on stage and looking badass. So
you had just a bet within yourself, within friends that
Axel and Slash would reunite or guns of Roses would reunite.
(02:21):
Where there's stipulations. How did that come about? Because I
don't know if we spoke about that last time, and
the fact that your wife encouraged it, I think is
pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
No, it was no bet per se. It was just
you know, something that I said, part offhanded, but you
know there was there was some some seriousness buried underneath that.
It's just always been my favorite record and they've been
my favorite band for as long as I can remember,
and I remember as I'm sure you do, Brando that
(02:51):
that brief period of time in late twenty fifteen when
all eyes were on Guns N' Roses, and as a
die hard fan who had never seen the any version
of the semi original lineup, I was just like checking
for updates and looking at the rumor mill every day.
I was like making myself sick. I was like, man,
I'm I'm just like, I'm gonna throw up. They need
to just announce something or not. And so yeah, I
(03:15):
was like, you know what, I got to commemorate this
because whoever thought that we would see it in our lifetimes.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
It makes me think of that you should have been
on earlier than episode four some three something, because I
was the same way.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And my version of throwing up was.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
This podcast was just I was a fan always just
happened to be in radio.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
On the forums, check them things.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
And now I'm doing an extra because of the podcast
and the fact that it happened in our lifetime, because
I had just seen Slash with the Delvelet Revolver and
Axle with a version of a Chinese Democracy lineup, so in.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
My head they were together.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
They were never going to get back together ever, ever
or whatever Taylor Swift says, I don't. I already didn't
have a Tailor Swift episode of this podcast. I don't
need to go into it more. We're obviously a diehard,
so we'll make you well. I look forward to your
articles on Ultimate Classic Rock because I know it's coming
from a diehard. But the one thing came out, it's
(04:15):
just very interesting because you're on it, but also the
opinions of some of your other your your fellow OULDA
mcclassickers as, is that a phrase?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Can we coin that.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Our ultimate classic rockers? Well, yeah, something like that. We're
not the ones making it, but uh, we're there. We're
on the scene, the proverbial scene.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Proverbial fun story.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I once got yelled at or skuld or whatever by
a higher up at a radio station by the word
proverbial was too high brow for our audience. I'm like,
it's not even that heart of a word, it's not whatever.
But I aggress again. So this is a fun topic
that we often talk about on social media. I say here,
(05:00):
the conversation continues on social media. Whatever you're you know,
your fancy is, and the set list is always comes up.
We're not talking about new music. We're not talking about
Izzy and Steven. We're talking about just this focus of
the set list, and a lot of it is well,
is it too long? And that can come with a
(05:21):
lot of variables, whether it's they're getting older, we're getting older,
not wanting to be there, or certain songs we want
to hear. Some songs there we say that we don't
want to hear even though it's our favorite band. So
ultimate classic rock. They came out with this. I retweeted it,
and I'm gonna call it retweet it. What are you
gonna call it? Re exit?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
No way?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Five songs, Guns and Roses need to cut from there.
Set in twenty twenty five a round table. So we're
going to extend the round table between Brian and I. Now,
I don't know if you have the article in front
of you or do you want me to poorly read
your words, then we'll dissect it.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I've got it up on my end as well. Yeah,
I had to remind myself which which cuts I made
and which swaps I made. So yeah, I'm I've got
it here at the ready.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
All right, So I go ahead.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
I I want I don't want to mistake your inflection
for something. But I think compared to the others that
we'll talk about, you are pretty safe.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I could say, yeah, I do think that, you know,
my my picks for what songs I would cut were
probably fairly uncontroversial. And I again, and I wanted to
make sure to preface this in the written story, and
I'm going to preface it this way again with you.
But and I'm sure you'll understand this, but when it
(06:41):
comes to making cuts from a set list from a
band like Guns n' Roses, there's again I'm coming at
it from the perspective of there are very few songs,
if any, that I would be outright unhappy to hear
Guns n' Roses play. And if there are any songs
that I would cut or would not be so excited
to hear them play nowadays, it's only because I've seen
(07:03):
them many times at this point, and I'm grateful to
have seen these songs performed live, but as a fan
who is as a fan who craves something new, but
also has to reconcile that with the fact that this
is not a band that does things to pander to
(07:24):
the whims of their fans. They they've always cut their
own path forward. You know, I was just I wanted
to get into a little wishful thinking per se.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
So yeah, with that said, I agree with you.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
By the way, I'm both both accounts, so I'm with you,
you know, with what you just said, as far as
you know, it's there are reasons.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Why we're doing this.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
We're grateful for what we have, but we give reasons,
and that's part of the conversation. It's not cut just
the cut. We're not doing that. There are reason so
that's part of the conversation.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Right absolutely, And again I appreciate that they are still
playing upwards of three hours on stage every night. I
think that's great. But a lot of the songs that
I did cut A they've been in the set lists
pretty much since the beginning of the reunion, and B
the bulk of them are covers. So with that said,
my choices and I went a little over. I went
(08:22):
to seven. It would be their covers of Slither by
Velvet Revolver, in which it's all Linemen by Glenn Campbell.
I think their heartfelt gestures. I appreciate the novelty of them,
but it's been a long time. I think they've they've
kind of outworn their welcome a little bit at this point,
(08:42):
or we could, you know, get something a little more
exciting in there. Likewise, I think that when it comes
time for Duff to take a turn on lead vocals,
I could think of a better way to use that
moment during the set than one of the punk covers
they've been using, which was most recently the Stooge's TVI.
(09:03):
And here's the one that I probably feel most strongly about,
simply because I've heard of a zillion times and because
it is such a long song, I could probably go
the rest of my life without hearing or watching them
play Knocking on Heaven's Door. I appreciate its importance in
the GNR cannon, but I've gotten my fill of it,
(09:25):
unless they want to bring back give me some reggae,
in which case then they're welcome to keep it for
as long as they want. So those are four of them.
Those are my cover choices. I've got a few originals
that I would cut as well. Again, now that the
novelty of some new material has worn off, I think
we could probably get absurd out of the rotation. For me,
(09:46):
it just kind of sticks out like a sore Thumb
in the set, and I'll admit not one of my
favorite GNR tunes. I would also probably put perhaps on
the chopping block if I had to pick some more.
It's not that I dislike it, but again I think
that space could be better used. And lastly, and this
(10:09):
might be the more the most controversial choice, but again
because of the version that it's morphed into on stage,
I think they could maybe retire Rocket Queen for a
little while. It's it's I love the song. I have
nothing against it, but again, the kind of like it's
(10:30):
like a Hammy, almost like Broadway, aified version of the original.
It's such a long, like kind of extravagant production now
when they do it live compared to the kind of sinister,
raw original version. I think that again we could work
that out of the set and get one, maybe even
two songs in its place.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
You know, it's this is not what today's public wants.
People want people, you know, arguing talking heads opposite viewpoints.
I can't really argue with anything that you said. I
agree with you. There are songs that you know I
would like to keep, and I'll talk about that, you
know versus you know or why I might retire a
song different reasons why. But I agree with you on
(11:13):
your point, so I'm not going to push back really
on you.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Slither. It's just for what I love.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Elvet Revolver. I was fortunate I just have seen them twice.
I had never seen Stone Teple Pilots. Scott Wiland was
almost like it was close to seeing Axel for me
than Axel before I saw him. I just got to
see him in what two thousand and twenty years ago,
essentially still had a lot left to give and it
(11:43):
was just incredible.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
But Axel, I don't know why. There's the way he's.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And I don't feel good saying this because there are
people who can take it a certain way, fans take
it a certain way. It's just the way he approaches
certain songs. Now it just doesn't fit. I would still
I still very much want Velvet Revolver represented. I think
there are better songs better suited for that that are
not a slether fallow to pieces You've got no right, Uh,
(12:12):
there's a sucker train.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Blues can be fun.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
There's a lot of things that that Scott did in
just to be frank Ah, not for air, but just
the term of phrase. Uh, it's a lower register where
I think Axel still has a lot of strength in
his voice. And when I say that, you know, look,
listen to me. I'm on Long Islands, you know, I
(12:35):
know from Queen's Now it's like, you know ge Brian talking.
It sound like one of you know, Fran Dresser's you
know I sound. That's what I swear for. I would
tell people this I know of in radio for the
longest time. I love on air, But I I it's
funny because I heard Billy Joel said this. But so
(12:56):
I'm not going to compare myself to Billy Joel, but
it's funny when the great to say this. I'm not
a fan of my voice. I always sounded like, uh,
you know, mister Cheffieale, like the real version of that.
But for whatever reason, I get enough the people that
are okay listening to me.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Uh So with Axel, I don't know what his.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
The thing with guns and Roses, they wouldn't be gen
R without Axel's voice. And I can't critique you know
who said it perfectly and I'm gonna paraphrase his His
perfection is uh Adam Mars who a couple episodes ago.
He does a lot of T shirts for Uh. He's
done a lot of teachers for Axel, most one of
(13:39):
the most famous ones when they were with Snoop Dogg.
You know, they're all smiling except for Axel, who's got
the the mean muggin and he's got the uh the palm.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Tree that's his hell.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
He sent me that, so he basically he's like Axel
invented these notes, like they're they're his to own. So
it's taking nothing away, but author time is what it is,
or maybe this is what he wants to how he
wants to approach it. There are fan theories about what
being the lead singer of a C d C.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Did you know?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
It's a slippery slope to have this conversation, But I
think you need to have need to have this conversation
in order to talk about the setlist. So that's why
I don't want to take away a velvet song. I
want to replace it with something that's in his wheelhouse.
Like yes, So that's how I feel about that. That said,
hold on, take a sip of water. That's okay, I'll
(14:34):
allow it. I feel like a comedian is Wichita Lineman.
I know I get pushed back on it. It's not
like I'm some crazy Glenn Campbell fan. I really it's
before my time. I know I'm older than you. It's
he wasn't he was before my time. My mom knew
(14:54):
wo he was. I really remember him from my mom
being like, do you know a Glenn Campbell? And that's
how my mom sounds in my you know, he got dementia.
You know he's got Oh my thank you mom. Like,
that's that's what I want to hear. That's so sad.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Did you hear it? So sad?
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yes, it's very sad. So Axel does the Witch Wichita
Limon live and I had never listened to the actual
version before I knew of it, and something about it
hit me, and something about keeping with the kind of
same theme with the voice Axel's voice. Now, if it's
it perfectly like this, this is nothing the way he
(15:32):
I know, I'm at butcher it now, but the line, like,
just the way he holds it, I think is fantastic.
I would be okay, because I want the greater good
of what fans want. I know a lot of people
are not familiar with that song. Give me a recorded
version of it, so I can have it listen to
whatever I it's whatever I want, and then you could
(15:53):
take it away. But right now that might be the
only time I get to experience wichital Liman is to
see it live, which is a unique thing to say.
That's gin r is kind of known for that. You
can only hear this live. So those are the only
two things. Well, Rocket Queen, well you said that that
is a tough pick, but I think I have to
(16:14):
be I have to go into twenty twenty five being honest.
I understand what Axl's voice is now, and I think
he is still an act to see, but there are
certain ways to approach it. So if he were, if
Rocket Queen left, that wouldn't bother me, just because of
the way it's been, for a lack of a better
word or phrase, approached.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Over the last few years. So I'm I'm with you
on that. And Knock on the Heaven's Door.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I think that's the only one that I missed, right,
you said, if they bring back some reggae yes or
Tracy and Roberta, then I will sing my longsu very poorly.
But yeah that I don't need to hear that song anymore.
In another cover for me Live and Let Die. Look,
(17:04):
my wife and I especially my wife being like a
Paul McCartney fan Beatles fan, but being having worked in radio,
there are select songs from every band that really get
played a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
If you haven't noticed.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Yes, I don't get sick of Welcome to the Jungle
or Paradise City, you know. Yeah, but Live and Let
Die and Knocking on Heaven's Door or those for me
if they're not for you, cool. And here's the great thing. Yeah,
what you said at the beginning, three hours is long.
It's fucking long, man, especially now that I have a kid,
(17:38):
and if I'm gonna when I bring him, he's probably
gonna fall asleep. I mean, thankfully they're on time now,
so maybe he can stay up for Paradise City at
the end. But short and set? Could that be better
for Actual's voice? Again, why I needed to have that
conversation earlier, which I don't know if you could tell
(18:00):
I'm uncomfortable talking about it because you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
The Golden Voice like our favorite band. You know, how
do you do that? You know?
Speaker 3 (18:09):
How do you? So?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I don't want to look.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
At it, and I hope people don't take it as criticism.
It's just more of like, hey, your favorite athlete gets older,
adjust things, your favorite pro wrestler gets older, And I
love seeing the old guys come back.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Man, I'll pay you to see those.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
You know, Undertaker comes back, you know, Stong Cold comes back,
The Rock comes back.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Sign me up.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
But I'm still watching every week, so I don't know
if that's the best analogy. So that's kind of so
that's who I would cut. I don't know if you
have any thoughts on what I said, but because I
basically agreed with you with some caveats.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, well I think you're right. I mean we might
have even talked about this directly before, either on the
pod or on social media. But again, I mean, the
reason that we want to go see Guns n' Roses
in their twenty twenty five iteration or whatever current form
they're taking versus a cover band that can sing and
(19:06):
play these songs note perfect as they were recorded is
because we're not interested so much in the perfection as
we're interested in seeing the authors and creators of these
songs doing their thing. It's like I want, I want
to see the members of this band, of my favorite band,
putting in the work, and if they're having to struggle
(19:29):
in spots or reinterpret things or make changes as they
get older, that's completely natural, and I'm okay with that.
I would much rather see a less than technically perfect
performance from this band than a quote unquote perfect performance
from somebody else playing these songs. And so I think
(19:51):
that applies to I think that line of thinking can
apply to the type of set list and the length
of set list that we might want too. You're right,
I've thought about it myself, like, would I rather have
a more streamlined, you know all killer, no filler, two
hour set list, or would I prefer a three hour
(20:13):
set list that has maybe some questionable ebbs and flows
or different dynamics. And I've at this point, I've seen
almost both versions of that from Guns. I've seen some
slightly shorter sets in I think like twenty twenty one,
they were doing maybe like two hours and fifteen minutes.
When I last saw them a Power Trip in twenty
(20:34):
twenty three, it was a full three hour performance. And
I'll be honest, in the longer shows, yeah, the mind
tends to wander a little bit.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
You get a little.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Restless, you get a little fidgety, especially if it's like
a festival environment and maybe you don't have like a
great vantage point. But still it's I'm not going to
complain about getting more from my favorite band. I think
it's just a matter of like both both types of
performances have their pros and cons to them. They're both different,
(21:07):
and at the end of the day, I am ultimately
grateful for whatever version I do get. I've got my
you know, favorite shows from them. But I can never
say that I've regretted seeing any version of a Guns
and Roses show.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Agreed there, yeah, no, again, agreed on all those accounts.
Oh that's the one thing I did in comment on
was absurd, you know, crazy.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I like that song for whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I hated Silkworms, but for I don't know whatever reason it's.
I don't think it's like gn R rose colored colored
Glasses that I'm like thinking about. Oh because just because
Slash and Duffer on this record, I like it. No,
just sonically whatever it is, you know, British punk rock style.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, yeah, the vocal delivery, especially very low, very like
gruff for sure.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
And he would like to bring Shadow of Your Love back,
which I think was a great attachment. Also wants to
get rid of Wicharl Loman. Look, I know him in
the minority. I accept it he wants to also, he
wants to bring back Hair of the Dog, which I agree,
(22:23):
and he makes a dealer's choice. I'm sorry he can't
do Perfect Crime. I respect the choice, but he can't
do it. Yeah, you surprised me. Please.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
It's funny because that one, like it's been u rumored
to have been like an alternate choice on set lists
or like a rehearsal song. Pretty much since the reunion began,
I've seen so many discussions on Reddit of people talking about,
like Tonight the Night, are they going to do Perfect Crime.
I'm hearing some chatter about perfect Crime, and I do
(22:57):
think that maybe in twenty sixteen that would have that
would have flown. But yeah, I do agree with you,
probably not the best move in twenty twenty five, because
that was one that I was debating as well. If
I'm talking just about songs that I love from GNR
that I would like to hear, sure, I would love
to hear Perfect Crime. It's one of my favorite songs
(23:17):
they've ever done. But I want to hear Perfect Crime
as performed by Guns N' Roses circa nineteen ninety one
in Indiana, when actuals throwing the mic, stand around and
running around stage in his you know leg cast. I
don't think I want to have that memory of that
(23:38):
song messed with by hearing the modern day bands version
of it. I was. I was. That was a tough
one for me. I did debate throwing that on my list,
but ultimately I had to reconcile, you know, my hypothetical
wish list with what is actually feasible for them to
do nowadays.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Right, which is again why there are reasons why we're
having this conversation. Each one of us have a different
reason with whatever song. YadA YadA. See, I'm like a
seinfold character. But he also said deal with choice. So
this one I think he could pull off. Oh my god,
I think he could do it.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
That would be really interesting.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
I would flip out if I was at that show.
I would in a good way. I don't know if
that translates I would flip out being like, oh, oh
my god, it's oh my god.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
I would. I'd be pretty excited to hear that one.
I remember, God, I remember hearing that song back in
the pre Chinese Democracy days, like when I was really
just getting into the band, and I don't even know.
I guess it was publicly available because it was on
that soundtrack, but I remember getting some version of it
downloaded off LimeWire that my best friend got for me
(24:49):
because I was too scared to torrent songs on the
family computer. So he would get me all of these things.
And I remember like he got me this big batch
of like pre Chinese democracy leaks and oh my god,
was part of that. And yeah, I've always thought it
was an absolutely blistering song, just really interesting and one
that I think has slept on.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
I agreed again, And LimeWire kids today they don't know,
they have no clue the struggle of destroying your parents'
computer or destroying the computer at work or whatever computer
that's not yours for a variety of reasons. Anyway, So Matt,
that was Matt Wardlaw's list.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Uh pretty much? Can we follow you? Told her on Twitter.
I gotta. I don't think I've ever had them on
the show. We got to make that happen. Yeah, he's
crazy safe? Is you get to buy my head off?
Speaker 3 (25:40):
I know?
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Wardlaw is about as friendly as they come.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Okay, just make sure.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Uh the last one, Matthew Wilkining, you know I need
to bring up because and shut up to my my
friend Graham Scotland from Scotland who does all my graphics,
working hard on my website afdpod dot com and h
on my YouTube page with again with all the graphics
and putting in a lot of work, he said, how
(26:07):
dare that person say bad obsession and pretty tied up?
Speaker 2 (26:12):
How dare they cut those songs?
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Those are and you know what I agree with with Graham,
how can you those songs I think still fit like
Axel's wheelhouse. He can still do it, and they're great
songs and they're not they're not overplayed. So I h
He mentioned Chinese Democracy the song, Well, I can see.
(26:37):
I think he wanted to replace it with sorry. Uh
perhaps so I can say, okay not perhaps see so
many goods and roses songs are also words, so you
don't know what you're referencing. It's a giant Abbott and
cassell over team, so sorry he would replace it with sorry? Okay,
that's the personal opinion. No worries there, slither that seems
(26:59):
to be the consensus.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Absurd. Perhaps the General Civil War. When they do play it,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Fortunately or unfortunately. The words are still poignant and still
reflect today and a good chance for him to change
his wardrobe.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Also for acts all he needs to change.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
True anything goes underrated. Shout out to Chris Weber, one
of the writers on Oh Yeah Yeah, So Who's been
you know?
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Very nice?
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Whenever that song comes up on my Facebook feed, he's
like thanks, like shout out. I I don't think he
gets royalties from what I when I say it, But uh,
the other one, I mean, I will here. There's the
voice conversation Coma that is a fan favorite if you're
a diehard fan. Yeah, my wife, who likes guns and Roses,
(27:53):
will go there.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Unlike me.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
When we go to London, she goes to see Dave Matthews.
I stay in the hotel. I don't want to see
him anymore. Why wife, is not that I want to
see guns and Roses. I want to experience this. So
she said Coma was not she didn't like it.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
She's like, I'm.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Honest, I didn't like this song. And I'm like, all right,
well it's a long song. It's not exactly in his Wheelhouse. Now,
I can't hate on you for that opinion. What do
you think That's a tough one.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I again, I've seen them do it a couple of times,
because I caught their twenty sixteen run a few dates
on that, and so I mean that was I would say,
the best time in the reunion to see them right
at the beginning, I think, when they were still fresh
and Actule's voice was really having quite a miraculous comeback,
(28:42):
i'd say. And yeah, I think the last time I
saw them play Coma was maybe twenty nineteen, and even
by that point, things were starting to change a little bit.
And it's tough because just those last three minutes, really
there's just so many words and it's just easy.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I can't do it. It's tough.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
And when you're you know, alternating between that chest voice
and the head voice, when there's that many words and
there's like no room to kind of get a breath
and adjust and modify the approach, Yeah, it can get
a little messy. And I think I had seen him
do it maybe once or twice where it was like,
(29:22):
you know, again, he kind of just had to like
stop mid phrase, you know, kind of collect himself. And
continue doing it. So yeah, I think at this point
I don't begrudge somebody for thinking that that song should
be cut. It's just such a huge undertaking and there
are probably better ways to fill that slot, even other
(29:45):
rarities that they could put in than I think fans
would be equally happy to hear.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Hey, if they played Corn Trucker back to back instead
of Coma, I'd be into it.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
That'd be man.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Not only would a debut it live.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I know Duff I think has played it at his
solo shows, but they would play it live twice for
whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Just for me, because I'm crazy beautiful. I love that.
So I know people have a lot of opinions.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
I share the article alto Classic Rock on both Facebook
and Twitter, and people are sharing their opinions. But overall,
fans are excited. We're all excited. I know where in
the world that you are. Just that the fact that
Guns and Roses are back in business next year is
a cool thing. And let's see what happens with new music.
(30:32):
I really don't know more reworked Chinese and material that
should have been on a triple.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Album to begin with.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I don't know whether it's all new just so I'm
here with no why gosh ya, do you have any thoughts,
any guesses, any vegas odds you want to take on
what we're going to get?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Oh gosh, man, I have long since given up trying
to predict what this band is going to do, the
band that where they where you think they're going to
zig zag? I will say, I just pulled up a
list that I wrote a few years ago now some
of the most intriguing unreleased GNR songs, And I mean, look,
(31:10):
there's plenty from that big leak from twenty nineteen. I
think it was that I would love to hear in
their final forms. I still am holding out for Atlas Shrugged.
Such a brilliant song. I think that's probably, for me,
my favorite of all the unreleased songs that are like
pretty close to completion that we've heard kind of full fledged,
(31:32):
you know, demo versions of them. I'm seeing if there's
anything else. Oh, I remember I on you. That was
an interesting one.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Do you have monsters at the time that you wrote it?
Do we have monsters? Then? I don't know if we did.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
No, I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
You've heard that right or now?
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah? What that? Because that was the that was the
physical b side to the general.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Right in theory, it was it came out with the
leak after you know, the general got real quiet, outcomes
monsters or incomes monsters, how do you want to approach it.
So it was just that leak that went around. I
don't know who started it, why it happened. I know
is I listened to it, and I'm sorry. I actually
(32:17):
I've stopped listening to it because I'm waiting. So I'm
hoping at least monsters, monsters and something else as the
has to come out this year. So I kind of
believe whatever breadcrumbs Slash and Duff have given us I
think are real. I think are going to happen. Vegas
(32:38):
are g and R time. Yeah, we are not a
privia to so exactly.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
I can only imagine that, like, uh, you know, when
one of them, and let's be real, I think it's
typically Slash when he goes on and does an interview
and very offhandedly he's like, oh, yeah, man, I'm really
excited about these guns things were working on. There's we
got this awesome epic ten minute jam that we've been
working on. It will probably be out sometime next year.
And then I imagine like the managers and publicists and
(33:06):
bad everyone's phone is like lighting up and they're like,
oh Jesus Christ, did he do this again?
Speaker 3 (33:12):
So I mentioned it before, tell me about near dwell? Uh,
because again you're rocking. Now I get to see your
gun throws a tattoo often because you're you're with your
cut off leather jacket. I got to ask did you
cut off the sleeves or did it come that way? Uh?
Speaker 1 (33:29):
No, that was that was it was.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
It's a leather vests.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Yeah it came. I'd be I'd be pretty scared to
make a false move cutting up a jacket like that.
So I just got to get I'll get it. I'll
get it sleeve then I'll get it sleeveless, and then
I'll never have to choose, you know, I get the
best of both worlds. Yeah, and that was that was intentional.
I was. I was going back and forth on what
arm I wanted to get it on, and ultimately I
figured it's going to be the most visible when I'm
(33:56):
playing gigs on the on the strumming, so that's the
one that's always going to be facing the crowd. So yeah,
I want to I wanted to keep that visible. It
was not the only determining factor. But I would be
lying if I said it wasn't a factor.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
I forgot to ask too, That's funny. I was like,
did you get it exactly where Axel? I was going
to ask you before where Axel got it? Did you
check the right diameter?
Speaker 2 (34:21):
You know?
Speaker 3 (34:21):
But no, the fact that you it's something I would
do too, because it's a tattoo placement.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
It's your a guitarist. That's why I know.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Hearing your opinion on you know, Axel's voice and coma.
How do you know how difficult it is? You know
for you as a singer, knows how difficult that is.
I can only speculate, and I'll admit I'm not.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
I haven't done myself any favors when it comes to
like telling strangers in a loud bar like what what's
your band name? Ne'er do well? And they're like, uh what,
I'm like, yeah, we're on Instagram. They're like, okay, I'll
I'll look you up. How do you spell that a posture? Yeah?
Oh yeah? Man? The uh the amount of flyers that
(35:05):
have had it as like three words rather than one
with the hyphens. I'm like, look, I know at the
end of the day it's not that important, but it
matters to me.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Hey, look, it's for those who say guns and roses
right exactly where the apostureph?
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Is it before the end? Is it after the end
or the two apostrophes? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
It's a writer passage to get your your name butchered
by some places. So uh yeah, it's is it you
have your own or neardiwell has their own? And what
is the correct spelling including the punctuation?
Speaker 1 (35:37):
All right, deep breath, it's ne apostrophe e er dash
or hyphen d o hyphen w E l L.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
I'll put it in the summary.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yeah, man, exactly, good idea.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Thank you Brian for your time.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Oh, thank you, Brandon, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Thanks to the lame at security. I'm going home.
Do you know what.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Is Appetite for distortion?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite four Distortion, Episode number four
hundred and eighty five. My name is Brando. Welcome back
to the podcast, mister Brian Raleigh. How are you, sir?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I'm doing well, Brando. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You got it.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Some of you may remember that Brian was on. I
say some of you, and it wasn't me. I knew
you were on before, but I remind myself what episode
it was, three p fifty nine. It's so random number.
I'm sure you remember that. I'm sure you re listened
to that episode quite often. Now you don't tour. I'm
(01:07):
happy to talk to you today because we follow each
other on Instagram and I just think you're Oh, before
we go anywhere, this is gonna set the table. Let's
see the fresh new ink.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Oh yes, sir, For those of.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Us watching on YouTube, the appetite for destruction get us.
That's a that's a good angle, and that's a very
well done tattoo.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Thank you. Yeah, I said back in late twenty fifteen,
I said, look, if these guys reunite, I'm committing. I'm
getting the appetite for destruction. Tattoo. I'm getting it right
where Axel's got it on his forearm. I'm going to
do it. And then the years kept ticking along, and
finally my wife was like, are you ever gonna actually
(01:51):
commit and do this thing? I said, you know what,
it's time. Time to stop messing around. I got the time,
I got the money. Let's go.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
So many questions there because I follow again, I follow
you on Instagram. I see you rocking out with your
band near Dwell and we'll get into that, and you
have the Appletite crossed on stage and looking badass. So
you had just a bet within yourself, within friends that
Axel and Slash would reunite or guns of Roses would reunite.
(02:21):
Where there's stipulations. How did that come about? Because I
don't know if we spoke about that last time, and
the fact that your wife encouraged it, I think is
pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
No, it was no bet per se. It was just
you know, something that I said, part offhanded, but you
know there was there was some some seriousness buried underneath that.
It's just always been my favorite record and they've been
my favorite band for as long as I can remember,
and I remember as I'm sure you do, Brando that
(02:51):
that brief period of time in late twenty fifteen when
all eyes were on Guns N' Roses, and as a
die hard fan who had never seen the any version
of the semi original lineup, I was just like checking
for updates and looking at the rumor mill every day.
I was like making myself sick. I was like, man,
I'm I'm just like, I'm gonna throw up. They need
to just announce something or not. And so yeah, I
(03:15):
was like, you know what, I got to commemorate this
because whoever thought that we would see it in our lifetimes.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
It makes me think of that you should have been
on earlier than episode four some three something, because I
was the same way.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
And my version of throwing up was.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
This podcast was just I was a fan always just
happened to be in radio.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
On the forums, check them things.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
And now I'm doing an extra because of the podcast
and the fact that it happened in our lifetime, because
I had just seen Slash with the Delvelet Revolver and
Axle with a version of a Chinese Democracy lineup, so in.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
My head they were together.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
They were never going to get back together ever, ever
or whatever Taylor Swift says, I don't. I already didn't
have a Tailor Swift episode of this podcast. I don't
need to go into it more. We're obviously a diehard,
so we'll make you well. I look forward to your
articles on Ultimate Classic Rock because I know it's coming
from a diehard. But the one thing came out, it's
(04:15):
just very interesting because you're on it, but also the
opinions of some of your other your your fellow OULDA
mcclassickers as, is that a phrase?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Can we coin that.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Our ultimate classic rockers? Well, yeah, something like that. We're
not the ones making it, but uh, we're there. We're
on the scene, the proverbial scene.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Proverbial fun story.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I once got yelled at or skuld or whatever by
a higher up at a radio station by the word
proverbial was too high brow for our audience. I'm like,
it's not even that heart of a word, it's not whatever.
But I aggress again. So this is a fun topic
that we often talk about on social media. I say here,
(05:00):
the conversation continues on social media. Whatever you're you know,
your fancy is, and the set list is always comes up.
We're not talking about new music. We're not talking about
Izzy and Steven. We're talking about just this focus of
the set list, and a lot of it is well,
is it too long? And that can come with a
(05:21):
lot of variables, whether it's they're getting older, we're getting older,
not wanting to be there, or certain songs we want
to hear. Some songs there we say that we don't
want to hear even though it's our favorite band. So
ultimate classic rock. They came out with this. I retweeted it,
and I'm gonna call it retweet it. What are you
gonna call it? Re exit?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
No way?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Five songs, Guns and Roses need to cut from there.
Set in twenty twenty five a round table. So we're
going to extend the round table between Brian and I. Now,
I don't know if you have the article in front
of you or do you want me to poorly read
your words, then we'll dissect it.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
I've got it up on my end as well. Yeah,
I had to remind myself which which cuts I made
and which swaps I made. So yeah, I'm I've got
it here at the ready.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
All right, So I go ahead.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
I I want I don't want to mistake your inflection
for something. But I think compared to the others that
we'll talk about, you are pretty safe.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I could say, yeah, I do think that, you know,
my my picks for what songs I would cut were
probably fairly uncontroversial. And I again, and I wanted to
make sure to preface this in the written story, and
I'm going to preface it this way again with you.
But and I'm sure you'll understand this, but when it
(06:41):
comes to making cuts from a set list from a
band like Guns n' Roses, there's again I'm coming at
it from the perspective of there are very few songs,
if any, that I would be outright unhappy to hear
Guns n' Roses play. And if there are any songs
that I would cut or would not be so excited
to hear them play nowadays, it's only because I've seen
(07:03):
them many times at this point, and I'm grateful to
have seen these songs performed live, but as a fan
who is as a fan who craves something new, but
also has to reconcile that with the fact that this
is not a band that does things to pander to
(07:24):
the whims of their fans. They they've always cut their
own path forward. You know, I was just I wanted
to get into a little wishful thinking per se.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
So yeah, with that said, I agree with you.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
By the way, I'm both both accounts, so I'm with you,
you know, with what you just said, as far as
you know, it's there are reasons.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Why we're doing this.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
We're grateful for what we have, but we give reasons,
and that's part of the conversation. It's not cut just
the cut. We're not doing that. There are reason so
that's part of the conversation.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Right absolutely, And again I appreciate that they are still
playing upwards of three hours on stage every night. I
think that's great. But a lot of the songs that
I did cut A they've been in the set lists
pretty much since the beginning of the reunion, and B
the bulk of them are covers. So with that said,
my choices and I went a little over. I went
(08:22):
to seven. It would be their covers of Slither by
Velvet Revolver, in which it's all Linemen by Glenn Campbell.
I think their heartfelt gestures. I appreciate the novelty of them,
but it's been a long time. I think they've they've
kind of outworn their welcome a little bit at this point,
(08:42):
or we could, you know, get something a little more
exciting in there. Likewise, I think that when it comes
time for Duff to take a turn on lead vocals,
I could think of a better way to use that
moment during the set than one of the punk covers
they've been using, which was most recently the Stooge's TVI.
(09:03):
And here's the one that I probably feel most strongly about,
simply because I've heard of a zillion times and because
it is such a long song, I could probably go
the rest of my life without hearing or watching them
play Knocking on Heaven's Door. I appreciate its importance in
the GNR cannon, but I've gotten my fill of it,
(09:25):
unless they want to bring back give me some reggae,
in which case then they're welcome to keep it for
as long as they want. So those are four of them.
Those are my cover choices. I've got a few originals
that I would cut as well. Again, now that the
novelty of some new material has worn off, I think
we could probably get absurd out of the rotation. For me,
(09:46):
it just kind of sticks out like a sore Thumb
in the set, and I'll admit not one of my
favorite GNR tunes. I would also probably put perhaps on
the chopping block if I had to pick some more.
It's not that I dislike it, but again I think
that space could be better used. And lastly, and this
(10:09):
might be the more the most controversial choice, but again
because of the version that it's morphed into on stage,
I think they could maybe retire Rocket Queen for a
little while. It's it's I love the song. I have
nothing against it, but again, the kind of like it's
(10:30):
like a Hammy, almost like Broadway, aified version of the original.
It's such a long, like kind of extravagant production now
when they do it live compared to the kind of sinister,
raw original version. I think that again we could work
that out of the set and get one, maybe even
two songs in its place.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
You know, it's this is not what today's public wants.
People want people, you know, arguing talking heads opposite viewpoints.
I can't really argue with anything that you said. I
agree with you. There are songs that you know I
would like to keep, and I'll talk about that, you
know versus you know or why I might retire a
song different reasons why. But I agree with you on
(11:13):
your point, so I'm not going to push back really
on you.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Slither. It's just for what I love.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Elvet Revolver. I was fortunate I just have seen them twice.
I had never seen Stone Teple Pilots. Scott Wiland was
almost like it was close to seeing Axel for me
than Axel before I saw him. I just got to
see him in what two thousand and twenty years ago,
essentially still had a lot left to give and it
(11:43):
was just incredible.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
But Axel, I don't know why. There's the way he's.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And I don't feel good saying this because there are
people who can take it a certain way, fans take
it a certain way. It's just the way he approaches
certain songs. Now it just doesn't fit. I would still
I still very much want Velvet Revolver represented. I think
there are better songs better suited for that that are
not a slether fallow to pieces You've got no right, Uh,
(12:12):
there's a sucker train.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Blues can be fun.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
There's a lot of things that that Scott did in
just to be frank Ah, not for air, but just
the term of phrase. Uh, it's a lower register where
I think Axel still has a lot of strength in
his voice. And when I say that, you know, look,
listen to me. I'm on Long Islands, you know, I
(12:35):
know from Queen's Now it's like, you know ge Brian talking.
It sound like one of you know, Fran Dresser's you
know I sound. That's what I swear for. I would
tell people this I know of in radio for the
longest time. I love on air, But I I it's
funny because I heard Billy Joel said this. But so
(12:56):
I'm not going to compare myself to Billy Joel, but
it's funny when the great to say this. I'm not
a fan of my voice. I always sounded like, uh,
you know, mister Cheffieale, like the real version of that.
But for whatever reason, I get enough the people that
are okay listening to me.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Uh So with Axel, I don't know what his.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
The thing with guns and Roses, they wouldn't be gen
R without Axel's voice. And I can't critique you know
who said it perfectly and I'm gonna paraphrase his His
perfection is uh Adam Mars who a couple episodes ago.
He does a lot of T shirts for Uh. He's
done a lot of teachers for Axel, most one of
(13:39):
the most famous ones when they were with Snoop Dogg.
You know, they're all smiling except for Axel, who's got
the the mean muggin and he's got the uh the palm.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Tree that's his hell.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
He sent me that, so he basically he's like Axel
invented these notes, like they're they're his to own. So
it's taking nothing away, but author time is what it is,
or maybe this is what he wants to how he
wants to approach it. There are fan theories about what
being the lead singer of a C d C.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Did you know?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
It's a slippery slope to have this conversation, But I
think you need to have need to have this conversation
in order to talk about the setlist. So that's why
I don't want to take away a velvet song. I
want to replace it with something that's in his wheelhouse.
Like yes, So that's how I feel about that. That said,
hold on, take a sip of water. That's okay, I'll
(14:34):
allow it. I feel like a comedian is Wichita Lineman.
I know I get pushed back on it. It's not
like I'm some crazy Glenn Campbell fan. I really it's
before my time. I know I'm older than you. It's
he wasn't he was before my time. My mom knew
(14:54):
wo he was. I really remember him from my mom
being like, do you know a Glenn Campbell? And that's
how my mom sounds in my you know, he got dementia.
You know he's got Oh my thank you mom. Like,
that's that's what I want to hear. That's so sad.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Did you hear it? So sad?
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yes, it's very sad. So Axel does the Witch Wichita
Limon live and I had never listened to the actual
version before I knew of it, and something about it
hit me, and something about keeping with the kind of
same theme with the voice Axel's voice. Now, if it's
it perfectly like this, this is nothing the way he
(15:32):
I know, I'm at butcher it now, but the line, like,
just the way he holds it, I think is fantastic.
I would be okay, because I want the greater good
of what fans want. I know a lot of people
are not familiar with that song. Give me a recorded
version of it, so I can have it listen to
whatever I it's whatever I want, and then you could
(15:53):
take it away. But right now that might be the
only time I get to experience wichital Liman is to
see it live, which is a unique thing to say.
That's gin r is kind of known for that. You
can only hear this live. So those are the only
two things. Well, Rocket Queen, well you said that that
is a tough pick, but I think I have to
(16:14):
be I have to go into twenty twenty five being honest.
I understand what Axl's voice is now, and I think
he is still an act to see, but there are
certain ways to approach it. So if he were, if
Rocket Queen left, that wouldn't bother me, just because of
the way it's been, for a lack of a better
word or phrase, approached.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Over the last few years. So I'm I'm with you
on that. And Knock on the Heaven's Door.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I think that's the only one that I missed, right,
you said, if they bring back some reggae yes or
Tracy and Roberta, then I will sing my longsu very poorly.
But yeah that I don't need to hear that song anymore.
In another cover for me Live and Let Die. Look,
(17:04):
my wife and I especially my wife being like a
Paul McCartney fan Beatles fan, but being having worked in radio,
there are select songs from every band that really get
played a lot.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
If you haven't noticed.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Yes, I don't get sick of Welcome to the Jungle
or Paradise City, you know. Yeah, but Live and Let
Die and Knocking on Heaven's Door or those for me
if they're not for you, cool. And here's the great thing. Yeah,
what you said at the beginning, three hours is long.
It's fucking long, man, especially now that I have a kid,
(17:38):
and if I'm gonna when I bring him, he's probably
gonna fall asleep. I mean, thankfully they're on time now,
so maybe he can stay up for Paradise City at
the end. But short and set? Could that be better
for Actual's voice? Again, why I needed to have that
conversation earlier, which I don't know if you could tell
(18:00):
I'm uncomfortable talking about it because you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
The Golden Voice like our favorite band. You know, how
do you do that? You know?
Speaker 3 (18:09):
How do you? So?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I don't want to look.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
At it, and I hope people don't take it as criticism.
It's just more of like, hey, your favorite athlete gets older,
adjust things, your favorite pro wrestler gets older, And I
love seeing the old guys come back.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Man, I'll pay you to see those.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
You know, Undertaker comes back, you know, Stong Cold comes back,
The Rock comes back.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Sign me up.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
But I'm still watching every week, so I don't know
if that's the best analogy. So that's kind of so
that's who I would cut. I don't know if you
have any thoughts on what I said, but because I
basically agreed with you with some caveats.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, well I think you're right. I mean we might
have even talked about this directly before, either on the
pod or on social media. But again, I mean, the
reason that we want to go see Guns n' Roses
in their twenty twenty five iteration or whatever current form
they're taking versus a cover band that can sing and
(19:06):
play these songs note perfect as they were recorded is
because we're not interested so much in the perfection as
we're interested in seeing the authors and creators of these
songs doing their thing. It's like I want, I want
to see the members of this band, of my favorite band,
putting in the work, and if they're having to struggle
(19:29):
in spots or reinterpret things or make changes as they
get older, that's completely natural, and I'm okay with that.
I would much rather see a less than technically perfect
performance from this band than a quote unquote perfect performance
from somebody else playing these songs. And so I think
(19:51):
that applies to I think that line of thinking can
apply to the type of set list and the length
of set list that we might want too. You're right,
I've thought about it myself, like, would I rather have
a more streamlined, you know all killer, no filler, two
hour set list, or would I prefer a three hour
(20:13):
set list that has maybe some questionable ebbs and flows
or different dynamics. And I've at this point, I've seen
almost both versions of that from Guns. I've seen some
slightly shorter sets in I think like twenty twenty one,
they were doing maybe like two hours and fifteen minutes.
When I last saw them a Power Trip in twenty
(20:34):
twenty three, it was a full three hour performance. And
I'll be honest, in the longer shows, yeah, the mind
tends to wander a little bit.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
You get a little.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Restless, you get a little fidgety, especially if it's like
a festival environment and maybe you don't have like a
great vantage point. But still it's I'm not going to
complain about getting more from my favorite band. I think
it's just a matter of like both both types of
performances have their pros and cons to them. They're both different,
(21:07):
and at the end of the day, I am ultimately
grateful for whatever version I do get. I've got my
you know, favorite shows from them. But I can never
say that I've regretted seeing any version of a Guns
and Roses show.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Agreed there, yeah, no, again, agreed on all those accounts.
Oh that's the one thing I did in comment on
was absurd, you know, crazy.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I like that song for whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I hated Silkworms, but for I don't know whatever reason it's.
I don't think it's like gn R rose colored colored
Glasses that I'm like thinking about. Oh because just because
Slash and Duffer on this record, I like it. No,
just sonically whatever it is, you know, British punk rock style.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, yeah, the vocal delivery, especially very low, very like
gruff for sure.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
And he would like to bring Shadow of Your Love back,
which I think was a great attachment. Also wants to
get rid of Wicharl Loman. Look, I know him in
the minority. I accept it he wants to also, he
wants to bring back Hair of the Dog, which I agree,
(22:23):
and he makes a dealer's choice. I'm sorry he can't
do Perfect Crime. I respect the choice, but he can't
do it. Yeah, you surprised me. Please.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
It's funny because that one, like it's been u rumored
to have been like an alternate choice on set lists
or like a rehearsal song. Pretty much since the reunion began,
I've seen so many discussions on Reddit of people talking about,
like Tonight the Night, are they going to do Perfect Crime.
I'm hearing some chatter about perfect Crime, and I do
(22:57):
think that maybe in twenty sixteen that would have that
would have flown. But yeah, I do agree with you,
probably not the best move in twenty twenty five, because
that was one that I was debating as well. If
I'm talking just about songs that I love from GNR
that I would like to hear, sure, I would love
to hear Perfect Crime. It's one of my favorite songs
(23:17):
they've ever done. But I want to hear Perfect Crime
as performed by Guns N' Roses circa nineteen ninety one
in Indiana, when actuals throwing the mic, stand around and
running around stage in his you know leg cast. I
don't think I want to have that memory of that
(23:38):
song messed with by hearing the modern day bands version
of it. I was. I was. That was a tough
one for me. I did debate throwing that on my list,
but ultimately I had to reconcile, you know, my hypothetical
wish list with what is actually feasible for them to
do nowadays.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Right, which is again why there are reasons why we're
having this conversation. Each one of us have a different
reason with whatever song. YadA YadA. See, I'm like a
seinfold character. But he also said deal with choice. So
this one I think he could pull off. Oh my god,
I think he could do it.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
That would be really interesting.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
I would flip out if I was at that show.
I would in a good way. I don't know if
that translates I would flip out being like, oh, oh
my god, it's oh my god.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
I would. I'd be pretty excited to hear that one.
I remember, God, I remember hearing that song back in
the pre Chinese Democracy days, like when I was really
just getting into the band, and I don't even know.
I guess it was publicly available because it was on
that soundtrack, but I remember getting some version of it
downloaded off LimeWire that my best friend got for me
(24:49):
because I was too scared to torrent songs on the
family computer. So he would get me all of these things.
And I remember like he got me this big batch
of like pre Chinese democracy leaks and oh my god,
was part of that. And yeah, I've always thought it
was an absolutely blistering song, just really interesting and one
that I think has slept on.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
I agreed again, And LimeWire kids today they don't know,
they have no clue the struggle of destroying your parents'
computer or destroying the computer at work or whatever computer
that's not yours for a variety of reasons. Anyway, So Matt,
that was Matt Wardlaw's list.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Uh pretty much? Can we follow you? Told her on Twitter.
I gotta. I don't think I've ever had them on
the show. We got to make that happen. Yeah, he's
crazy safe? Is you get to buy my head off?
Speaker 3 (25:40):
I know?
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Wardlaw is about as friendly as they come.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Okay, just make sure.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Uh the last one, Matthew Wilkining, you know I need
to bring up because and shut up to my my
friend Graham Scotland from Scotland who does all my graphics,
working hard on my website afdpod dot com and h
on my YouTube page with again with all the graphics
and putting in a lot of work, he said, how
(26:07):
dare that person say bad obsession and pretty tied up?
Speaker 2 (26:12):
How dare they cut those songs?
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Those are and you know what I agree with with Graham,
how can you those songs I think still fit like
Axel's wheelhouse. He can still do it, and they're great
songs and they're not they're not overplayed. So I h
He mentioned Chinese Democracy the song, Well, I can see.
(26:37):
I think he wanted to replace it with sorry. Uh
perhaps so I can say, okay not perhaps see so
many goods and roses songs are also words, so you
don't know what you're referencing. It's a giant Abbott and
cassell over team, so sorry he would replace it with sorry? Okay,
that's the personal opinion. No worries there, slither that seems
(26:59):
to be the consensus.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Absurd. Perhaps the General Civil War. When they do play it,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
I like it.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
Fortunately or unfortunately. The words are still poignant and still
reflect today and a good chance for him to change
his wardrobe.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Also for acts all he needs to change.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
True anything goes underrated. Shout out to Chris Weber, one
of the writers on Oh Yeah Yeah, So Who's been
you know?
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Very nice?
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Whenever that song comes up on my Facebook feed, he's
like thanks, like shout out. I I don't think he
gets royalties from what I when I say it, But uh,
the other one, I mean, I will here. There's the
voice conversation Coma that is a fan favorite if you're
a diehard fan. Yeah, my wife, who likes guns and Roses,
(27:53):
will go there.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Unlike me.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
When we go to London, she goes to see Dave Matthews.
I stay in the hotel. I don't want to see
him anymore. Why wife, is not that I want to
see guns and Roses. I want to experience this. So
she said Coma was not she didn't like it.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
She's like, I'm.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Honest, I didn't like this song. And I'm like, all right,
well it's a long song. It's not exactly in his Wheelhouse. Now,
I can't hate on you for that opinion. What do
you think That's a tough one.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I again, I've seen them do it a couple of times,
because I caught their twenty sixteen run a few dates
on that, and so I mean that was I would say,
the best time in the reunion to see them right
at the beginning, I think, when they were still fresh
and Actule's voice was really having quite a miraculous comeback,
(28:42):
i'd say. And yeah, I think the last time I
saw them play Coma was maybe twenty nineteen, and even
by that point, things were starting to change a little bit.
And it's tough because just those last three minutes, really
there's just so many words and it's just easy.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I can't do it. It's tough.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
And when you're you know, alternating between that chest voice
and the head voice, when there's that many words and
there's like no room to kind of get a breath
and adjust and modify the approach, Yeah, it can get
a little messy. And I think I had seen him
do it maybe once or twice where it was like,
(29:22):
you know, again, he kind of just had to like
stop mid phrase, you know, kind of collect himself. And
continue doing it. So yeah, I think at this point
I don't begrudge somebody for thinking that that song should
be cut. It's just such a huge undertaking and there
are probably better ways to fill that slot, even other
(29:45):
rarities that they could put in than I think fans
would be equally happy to hear.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Hey, if they played Corn Trucker back to back instead
of Coma, I'd be into it.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
That'd be man.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Not only would a debut it live.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I know Duff I think has played it at his
solo shows, but they would play it live twice for
whatever reason.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Just for me, because I'm crazy beautiful. I love that.
So I know people have a lot of opinions.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
I share the article alto Classic Rock on both Facebook
and Twitter, and people are sharing their opinions. But overall,
fans are excited. We're all excited. I know where in
the world that you are. Just that the fact that
Guns and Roses are back in business next year is
a cool thing. And let's see what happens with new music.
(30:32):
I really don't know more reworked Chinese and material that
should have been on a triple.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Album to begin with.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I don't know whether it's all new just so I'm
here with no why gosh ya, do you have any thoughts,
any guesses, any vegas odds you want to take on
what we're going to get?
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Oh gosh, man, I have long since given up trying
to predict what this band is going to do, the
band that where they where you think they're going to
zig zag? I will say, I just pulled up a
list that I wrote a few years ago now some
of the most intriguing unreleased GNR songs, And I mean, look,
(31:10):
there's plenty from that big leak from twenty nineteen. I
think it was that I would love to hear in
their final forms. I still am holding out for Atlas Shrugged.
Such a brilliant song. I think that's probably, for me,
my favorite of all the unreleased songs that are like
pretty close to completion that we've heard kind of full fledged,
(31:32):
you know, demo versions of them. I'm seeing if there's
anything else. Oh, I remember I on you. That was
an interesting one.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Do you have monsters at the time that you wrote it?
Do we have monsters? Then? I don't know if we did.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
No, I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
You've heard that right or now?
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah? What that? Because that was the that was the
physical b side to the general.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Right in theory, it was it came out with the
leak after you know, the general got real quiet, outcomes
monsters or incomes monsters, how do you want to approach it.
So it was just that leak that went around. I
don't know who started it, why it happened. I know
is I listened to it, and I'm sorry. I actually
(32:17):
I've stopped listening to it because I'm waiting. So I'm
hoping at least monsters, monsters and something else as the
has to come out this year. So I kind of
believe whatever breadcrumbs Slash and Duff have given us I
think are real. I think are going to happen. Vegas
(32:38):
are g and R time. Yeah, we are not a
privia to so exactly.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
I can only imagine that, like, uh, you know, when
one of them, and let's be real, I think it's
typically Slash when he goes on and does an interview
and very offhandedly he's like, oh, yeah, man, I'm really
excited about these guns things were working on. There's we
got this awesome epic ten minute jam that we've been
working on. It will probably be out sometime next year.
And then I imagine like the managers and publicists and
(33:06):
bad everyone's phone is like lighting up and they're like,
oh Jesus Christ, did he do this again?
Speaker 3 (33:12):
So I mentioned it before, tell me about near dwell? Uh,
because again you're rocking. Now I get to see your
gun throws a tattoo often because you're you're with your
cut off leather jacket. I got to ask did you
cut off the sleeves or did it come that way? Uh?
Speaker 1 (33:29):
No, that was that was it was.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
It's a leather vests.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Yeah it came. I'd be I'd be pretty scared to
make a false move cutting up a jacket like that.
So I just got to get I'll get it. I'll
get it sleeve then I'll get it sleeveless, and then
I'll never have to choose, you know, I get the
best of both worlds. Yeah, and that was that was intentional.
I was. I was going back and forth on what
arm I wanted to get it on, and ultimately I
figured it's going to be the most visible when I'm
(33:56):
playing gigs on the on the strumming, so that's the
one that's always going to be facing the crowd. So yeah,
I want to I wanted to keep that visible. It
was not the only determining factor. But I would be
lying if I said it wasn't a factor.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
I forgot to ask too, That's funny. I was like,
did you get it exactly where Axel? I was going
to ask you before where Axel got it? Did you
check the right diameter?
Speaker 2 (34:21):
You know?
Speaker 3 (34:21):
But no, the fact that you it's something I would
do too, because it's a tattoo placement.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
It's your a guitarist. That's why I know.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Hearing your opinion on you know, Axel's voice and coma.
How do you know how difficult it is? You know
for you as a singer, knows how difficult that is.
I can only speculate, and I'll admit I'm not.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
I haven't done myself any favors when it comes to
like telling strangers in a loud bar like what what's
your band name? Ne'er do well? And they're like, uh what,
I'm like, yeah, we're on Instagram. They're like, okay, I'll
I'll look you up. How do you spell that a posture? Yeah?
Oh yeah? Man? The uh the amount of flyers that
(35:05):
have had it as like three words rather than one
with the hyphens. I'm like, look, I know at the
end of the day it's not that important, but it
matters to me.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
Hey, look, it's for those who say guns and roses
right exactly where the apostureph?
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Is it before the end? Is it after the end
or the two apostrophes? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
It's a writer passage to get your your name butchered
by some places. So uh yeah, it's is it you
have your own or neardiwell has their own? And what
is the correct spelling including the punctuation?
Speaker 1 (35:37):
All right, deep breath, it's ne apostrophe e er dash
or hyphen d o hyphen w E l L.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
I'll put it in the summary.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yeah, man, exactly, good idea.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Thank you Brian for your time.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Oh, thank you, Brandon, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Thanks to the lame at security. I'm going home.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com