August 15, 2025 • 52 mins
Exactly what the title says. I'm so very tired of people trying to drag down legends. We'll be honest with each other...with the right perspective. Didn't want to do this, but let's talk about Axl Rose's voice and those who criticize him.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite four Distortion, episode number five
hundred and twenty two. My name is Brando, and fine,
let's talk about Axel's voice. If you're familiar with the podcast,
here an avid listener. I've addressed it. I've spoken about it,
but it seems to be the big thing now to
just make a unique content creator thing of just talking
(00:27):
about Axel's vibe and shitting on him, and I'm just
tired of it, I hope, but not to come off
too annoyed. In this episode, I'm here to offer you
perspective that's gonna be the pee wee word of the day,
rip perspective You're gonna hear from some of the people
that I've had on this podcast talk about Axel's voice,
(00:48):
those who actually worked with him, So people who rely
on YouTube clips and YouTubers who are vocal coaches and
just say, oh, he's doing this, he's not doing that.
I've been thinking about doing this episode for a while
and I don't know the guy. I'm sure he's very nice,
(01:08):
but I was really inspired by a YouTube thumbnail I
did watch like a couple of seconds about whatever. Some guy.
I think he's a vocal coach talking about Axel's voice
and his thumbnail just going.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Shrug. Does he have his voice anymore? Does he still
have it? Nobody knows who I am, but m hohum,
poor Axel ho hum.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I'm never gonna do this mister beast style YouTube thumb.
I know I have some friends that do it. I can't.
No wucking mo me listen to what I gotta say. Yeah, oh,
I'm going to point to the text. Look at what
the text that says, now, you're just gonna see me?
And uh, usually the person I interview in some sort
of candid moment, I guess I can't. It comes off
(01:53):
to corny to me. And I also think it's a
little corny to critique Axel Rose professionally like that. I mean,
it's one thing if you're a fan, I get it,
and we're going to talk about the fan perspective and
the vocal coach perspective. I find very humorous and interesting.
I'm sure he's a very nice individual, because there are
(02:16):
other videos of vocal coaches talking about Axel Rose and
even Justin Hawkins from the Darkness talking of Axel's voice.
And even though I like Justin, I'm not going to
expect a real answer from him because he opens for GNR,
they open for gn R. I don't think he would
ever see anything to ruin that. So I have no
despite my background the theme of my podcast, I really
(02:39):
have no ties to guns and roses. This isn't some
sort of dog whistle cry to interview Axel. To me,
that seems as impossible as interviewing at triceratops. It's just
like it's a real thing, that's a real thing that
exists that but that's logistically that can't happen. So it's
just I don't don't think that's gonna happen. I dream
(03:00):
about it. It'd be nice, but that's not what I'm here.
I'm here to offer you a fan perspective. And I
understand maybe you think I'm biased looking at life through
guns and rose colored glasses, but I'll be honest with you.
I'm very honest with myself. I'm hard on myself, and
I'll be honest with you about Axel. But I'm gonna
offer you perspective. And I'm also going to talk about
(03:22):
a lot of the comments that I see online. So
I'm gonna talk about what I see in line my
perspective as somebody who's done over five hundred episodes and
interviews with people who worked with who know Axel Rose,
and also you the listener who have been on this show,
you the fan who have nothing to HI. You're as
honest as honest cats. So we're gonna get to that.
(03:44):
But one comment I see often is does he know
he sounds like?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Ah?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Is he embarrassed? That's how I read those comments. He
knows what he sounds like, he is ears the Axel
is one of the reasons why I became a fan
of GNR, not just because of the music. I'm just
how intelligent he and that band is. I know they
have a very silly side and sense of humor, but
(04:11):
you listen to Axel, you read anything he's ever written, uh,
or just even his rants on stage, I understand you
may be like what listen to them? Compared to other
rants of other rock stars where it's laced with profanities
and all that. Axel has such an intelligence about him,
the way that he speaks. He's a smart guy. He's
(04:33):
not an idiot. He knows what he sounds like, and
he's working with what he has. So that's just one
of the dumbest comments. Does he know what he's sound like? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
He does.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Do you know what he sounds like? And that's part
of the conversation. We're not talking about AI here. We're
not to trust your eyes and your ears. You want
to look at a video as somebody you know went
to a Guns and Roses show watching on line to
make your opinion solely on that, I guess I can't
stop you there. But I've had actual fans on this show.
(05:07):
I'm not talking about just myself and my opinion. Go back.
I wish I did them this year, but I couldn't know.
I was just too busy with my son, my two
year old son, Harrison Rex aka Baby Brownstone, just making
it difficult because I'm interviewing you the fans from all
over the world to figure out the right time. So
it just hasn't happened this year. However, go back. I've
(05:28):
done plenty of fan reviews from all over the United States,
this country of hours, to Canada, to Australia, to Brazil
to Greece, so many different countries or Guns of Roses
and Axl Rose has visited different venues with different acoustics,
getting different opinion. You're gonna hear from fans that are
(05:50):
actually there. He sounds so much better live. You're gonna
hear that constantly. This isn't I'm not looking at life
through guns and rose colored glasses. It is different live
than in person. It's like hockey. Some people don't like
watching hockey on TV, but in person, whoa, this is
my new favorite thing. So there's a major difference between
(06:11):
online and in person. So if you're a vocal coach
or a YouTuber or whatever critiquing Axl Rose by breaking
down online clips, I think there's only so much to
be taken from that, and I guess hope there's some
sort of humility there on the critiquer's part saying that, yeah,
(06:32):
you know, here's what I think. Maybe there's a breathing
issue there. But this could have happened. That could have happened.
It's like in sports when somebody's trying to oh what
what what went wrong with the play? You know, why
do they throw that interception? You know, where do the
fumble happen? And it's just people in the studio now critiquing,
And yeah, they may get it right, but they may not.
They were not there in the play, having to make
(06:55):
the decisions they needed to make that cause the reaction
or whatever the result in the play. So you don't
know why Axel may be mistiming. There was something that
went viral. Uh, there was an inner ear monitor h
feed that you can hear between guns and roses and
Axle communicating to people. And there was a kind of
(07:15):
a funny one where he's trying to communicate with the
the new drummer, Isaac Carpenter about what song to play,
and he couldn't hear him, and he was like yelling
at him, sounded like real old Axel, bad abassion, and
he just Isaac was playing mister Brownstone. There are so
many things that can go wrong with the inner ear monitor,
so many things, And that's what has been said about
(07:38):
Black Sabbath. Was there because there are a timing back
to the beginning with Axel? Was there a timing issue?
These things happen because he is a human being all
But if you can do it in rehearsal, or if
you can do it at all, if you know how
to breathe, why can't you do it? There again, the
human element, which is make it. I'm gonna make sport,
(08:00):
its analogies. You know, people who believe in analytics and
just the numbers don't take into account the human element
of it all. Axel was pumped as fuck to play
that show and just can you imagine at that age
still being so excited and loving what you do And yeah,
sometimes that's gonna take over and that's not your breathing
(08:22):
is gonna get off and you know what, that's okay.
I'm not Simon Cowell. This isn't the X factor who
gives a shit. As long as I see my favorite
band having fun on stage, that is gonna make me
have fun. So just very very silly to just go
by the clips. I mean, if that's all you have
(08:42):
to go by, then that's just the world that we
live in. I mean, it's more than we used to get.
I mean, back in the day, all we would get
to our magazine articles and critiques and telling you about
someone who sucked or something. And now you can kind
of form your own opinion. But I'm telling you what
others aren't telling you that if you talk to real fans,
and it's not just sick of a fan that like
(09:04):
I'm not saying, oh he sounds like eighty seven. He
sounds like ninety one. He sounds like two thousand and six. No,
I'm not saying that. Can Axel Rose sing? Can he
still sing?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yes, he can still sing? Does he sing the same?
Speaker 4 (09:21):
No?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
And is that okay? Yes? That is okay? There for
a variety of reasons. But but but Ozzy, he was
two weeks away from dying, and look how good he sounded.
Completely different person Ozzy, unless I'm mistaken, doesn't have a
history of vocal problems. But Stephen Tyler, how good he sounded.
(09:44):
Stephen sang for fifteen minutes. That's it. You want a
fifteen minute guns and Roses concert. I guess if that's
all you're gonna get for the rest of your life.
You just want to see Axel popping up here and there.
If that's what he can do. I don't know if
that's what he can do. Uh, so few things that Okay,
what can Axel do? Is he prepared? You know he
(10:05):
should be prepared for this? Well, he is prepared for this.
So I'm gonna play some clips for you of interviews
that I've done people who worked with Axel who know
a hell of a lot more than you, and I
about his approach to things. So here's Chris Slade, former
ACDC drummer. But how Axel Rose would warm up before
(10:27):
and cool down after the show.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
In my experience, he was great, very professional. He was
never late anywhere anytime, and he used to warm up
two hours before every show. I'm long down for two
hours every show because I know that for a fact,
(10:53):
because I was next door to him.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
That's somebody who knows this is serious, who knows this
is serious work to do that two hours before and after,
that's that's hard man. And that kind of aligns itself
to what Doug Goldstein, former Guns the Roses manager told me,
is that, yeah, he will spend he had I think
at one point during the Illusion tours he had a
(11:18):
four hour routine. Whether you want to believe it or
not because it's coming from Doug, but he had a
I mean, you got a two hour routine. Maybe that's
what Doug meant, the four hour routine, the two hours
before and after. Maybe that's what he meant. But how
he was so everything needed to be just so. Well,
if it's just so, how can he let this happen?
(11:39):
How can he let this happen to his voice. Did
you ruin it with ACDC? I think that's an easy
thing to say and to point to, and maybe maybe
there's some truth to that. I don't know. I was
up front Mason Square Garden were the best shows I've
ever seen, if not the best show I've seen. I
couldn't believe how good he sounded, needed to anybody around me,
(12:01):
like Axel's going to sing this, I don't know how
this is going to sound out. And as soon as
those first few notes started, man he destroyed. He killed it.
He is famously known for having killed that role. Did
he kill his voice? The problem started way back before then.
So I had the privilege in honor of interviewing Lou
(12:21):
Graham from Foreigner, and I was just going to ask
him about what he thought about Axel as a vocalist
from the eighties, about just being two different singers in
Saint Arrow. What he thought, And this is the answer
he gave me.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Axell's voice he had a great range, but I could
tell that he was because they toured a lot too.
I could tell that he was damaging his vocal chords
simply by the way he sang. I know that when
I sing at towards the end of the night, some
of my high range starts to go a little bit.
(12:53):
You kind of have to acknowledge the characteristics of your
voice and when they're tired, if you keep pushing sho
them at that level, their damage and you shouldn't be
singing for the next six months. Your ear nose and
throat doctor will tell you that they need rest and
time to heal and then get supple again. When you
sing too often and too hard, there's something called nodes
(13:19):
then develop on your vocal cords and they're like little
tiny hard callouses.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Very interesting, and Axel has a documented history of throat problems,
of going to different doctors, different specialists. Whether you want
to believe Doug Goldstein or not, that was the reason
why Axel left the stage for the Montreal Riot before
that happened, because why would Axel do an hour show
(13:46):
and then just decide to leave. According to Doug, he
goes to the side the stage when he's singing, it's
like I can't I got no voice. That happened a
lot during the Illusions, and he forced himself out there.
He forced himself out there for a lot of reasons
because he wasn't mentally there. That's also been documented that
(14:07):
he was just a very They kept him on the
road because they knew, and they were right as soon
as he came off the road that band was gonna
break up. And that's exactly what happened. But he pushed
himself years ago, well before Axel DC. What I call
Axel DC is that what happened was at the final
nail in the proverbial coffin. I don't know. I don't know.
(14:31):
He is just too intelligent to know, and has the
right doctors around him to know what to do what
not to do. And maybe part of me thinks that
if he sings the way that he did with Axel
DC now, he may destroy his voice. This is just
me theorizing maybe this is a stylistic choice to preserve. Otherwise,
(14:55):
if he starts, I'm gonna be like Axel and then
all of a sudden, my throats could be bloody after
I have for an hour, and then I'm done, and
then you're never getting Axel again. I don't know if
that's the case, but that's certainly that I think that
needs to be taken into account because he's somebody that
why would he forget to know how to sing. Axel
Rose little Bill Bailey was in choir. He was a
(15:18):
choir boy. He's been singing since he was a little kid.
And he worked with Ron Anderson, one of the greatest
vocal coaches, arguably of all time. Rest in peace, Ron.
He knows what he's doing, he knows what he sounds like.
I know there are many people who blamed it on
his the extra weight. He had some extra weight during ACDC,
(15:38):
and he sounded fantastic. That's a whole other conversation. By
the way that the physical attacks and I'm glad some
of the controls. Now, Oh he lost all that weight.
Finally he looks great. I'm here to tell you know,
somebody who talks to the fans and of interviewed people,
Axel has never had a problem getting girls. So if you,
(16:00):
mister troll, thinks Axel is ugly or fat or old,
do you want to date him? Do you want to
be tracted to him? Again? What do you care? I
have never seen an issue online some of these comments
from women to Axel. My god, that's where I always
(16:20):
felt like, that's when you know you're famous, like you
just like you can tweet anything and just people like
marry me in this and then, So I don't think
that had anything to do with it. It could, I mean,
it's I make sports analogies. It's interesting because CC Sabathias
I'm wearing a Yankees hat were recently aducted into the
Hall of Fame. And he lost a lot of weight
(16:42):
after retirement because he was a bigger dude. He needed
that weight to pitch, and people called him fat back then.
He's he needed that weight to pitch to be the
best at his his ability, and now he's in a different
phase of his life, kind of like Deve Batista wrestler.
It's another more of the athlete analogy, changing your body
(17:04):
type as you get older, because it's different. And I'll
also use those analogies because of just sports, whether Yankees
and football, or if you're a wrestler, it's different than if
you're a musician. Because there are those who say Axel,
just retire, just give it up already. How about you
(17:27):
go fuck yourself. Nobody should ever tell anyone what to
do with their life unless they're harming themselves or somebody else.
My grandfather was a pharmacist. He was a pharmacist for
fifty years, and he hated the fact that he had
to retire. He was miserable. He wanted to keep doing it.
So if Axel wants to keep doing it, if the
(17:47):
rest of the band wants to keep doing it, if
Davide Rotha wants to keep doing his thing, more power
to them, because one day they're going to be gone,
just like Ozzie, and it sucks. I'm gonna have to
tell my son about all the rock stars I grew
up with because they're probably gonna be all gone by
the time that he's really cognizant of just a rock
(18:07):
and roll and Daddy, can you tell me about Megadeath?
As I'm recording this, Megadeth just announced their retirement you know,
farewell album and tour crazy. So enjoy these bands and
artists now. And if they're not up to your level
or they don't sound right to you, that's okay because
there are they sound just fine to millions of other people.
(18:31):
So another question is can Axel still sing in the
studio because that's the whole thing. Okay, get off the road,
protect your voice, save it from the studio. Well, the
nuke g and R the air quote nug and our songs.
It's interesting because those vocals were probably recorded late nineties,
early two thousands. So can Axel still sing in the studio?
(18:51):
My answer to you is yeah, I believe he can
still sing in the studio, just like with singing live.
Can he still sing? Yes? Is it different?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Does it matter? No? Because he could still do it?
Proof right here when I got the interview, one of
my favorite interviews ever with Rob Janis and Kevin Fleming.
They are two writers and actors. They wrote for New
Looney Tunes cartoon, and I'm sure you remember that Axel
was in the Looney Tunes and he sang a song
Rock the Rock. We couldn't believe that we had new
(19:24):
Axel from Looney Tunes, you know, the first thing since
Chinese Democracy. And they were there in studio with him
when he recorded the song. And this is Axle's approach
to recording new music.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
He said, all right, let's hear the song. So he
put the headphones on and we watched him listen to it,
and he listened to it once and it seemed like
an eternity and he's like, okay, sounds like you want
me to do kind of like an ac DC thing here,
So I can do that, but would i'd like to
do I'm just gonna kind of sing along to it,
he'd sing. He kind of mumble it, you know a
(19:58):
little bit. He was kind of seeing along to it
as he went. So he goes, we get the lights
down low, and he sang it his high kind of
Axel rose voice. So he sang it like ac DC,
the screamy version. And then he came out and he's like,
here's what i'd like to do. I want to do
kind of like a low version, a low voice, and
then like a middle voice, and then we'll have that
(20:18):
high voice on top. So I want to have like
three layers. So he's like literally producing the record basically.
So he goes back in and he sings like a
low voice, and he sings like a middle voice. So
he's got like a ten octave range. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So he can still do it, and if you want
to even go more currents and the fact that how
much effort he puts into it, and because the whole
lazy thing, I think that's when people call Axel lazy.
That's a lazy cop out to call him because you
don't know what's going on behind the scenes. So I
got the interview Michael Shanker last year and Axel and
Slasher both on his guests on his album This is
(20:55):
UFO like by fifty years with UFO an Axel has
saying on one song love to Love, but he actually
originally sang on three, as Michael told us on the podcast.
But he has expectations for himself. So here's what Michael
had to say.
Speaker 6 (21:10):
Actually ended up singing too Hot to Handle, only You
Can Rop Me and Love to Love. But I think
they also were on tour at the time, and so
they was not actually happy with his performance on only
You Can Rob Me and too Hot to Handle, And
(21:31):
I guess it was too many songs because they were
in the middle of a tour and he preferred to
just focus on Love to Love. And he's a perfectionist,
I have noticed, and so you know, we waited until
he was ready, and then finally he went, Okay, love
to Love. I approve he can release it.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
So take it from the loud Tunes guys and Michael Shanker,
Axel can still get it done in the studio. That's
just not me. Sickophant Rando saying it. These are people
who have worked with him, and maybe you don't like
rock to Rock or love to Love. It's funny how
it's these are the songs that he sang, then you
don't like it. There are people who always who never
liked Axel that always he sounds like a dying cat.
Speaker 7 (22:15):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I had two cats that died earlier this year, and
the sounds are so much worse than Axel at his worst.
They are so bad they will haunt me for the
rest of my life. That's what a cat dying sounds like.
So no, but if you don't like Axel, you don't,
then this this episode really wasn't this podcast really isn't
for you anyway. No, I would to win everybody over
(22:38):
because it's it's all about perspective again. You don't have
to be the biggest gun to Roses fan in the
world or Axel rose fan in the world to have
this perspective because it goes toward so many different aging people,
like I'll give you a great example. I think it's
a great example. Pamela Anderson. She's aging. She looked one
(23:03):
way her entire life, the blond bombshell, and now she's
famously going really without very little to no makeup, and
she's being very strong and bald, and she's not going
the route that plastic plastic surgery. My wife loves those
Real Housewives shows. My god, man, it's just whatever makes
(23:24):
them happy.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Man.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
But it's like they can't move their face. They can't
move their face. So Pamela Anderson is not doing it.
But you're still gonna find people who criticize her for
aging gracefully. So Axel's voice can't age the way that
it's aging all. But this person's still hot at that
you know, at this age, why can't Pamela Anderson be
as hot as you know, look at a But I'm
(23:45):
using example how Axel he doesn't sound like like this,
but this person, Stephen Tyler, sounds like this. Everybody is
different different, there's a different medical history, it's different chemical makeup.
Everybody is different. So the judge acts by others is
just very silly. But I will compare it to David
Lee Roth and Vince Neil now because that's what some
(24:07):
people like to do. David Lee Roth, you know, I
understand that he's been having some vocal issues last few years.
I never thought it was as bad as people are
making it out to be because he was more of
like a speaky singing way rather than singing. And again,
that's like him adjusting and being different. I'll never forget
what Johnny Cash sounded like when he was older. It's
(24:30):
just different. But davidly Roth now has done and he
has his issues. You don't have to like him whatever,
But what I think he's doing right now is really
brave and putting himself out there because he has backup singers.
He's not hiding it. He's not doing a fake track
that he's lying to you about. It looks like he
has like the starting lineup of the Knicks behind him.
(24:50):
He's like a little Jewish guy like me. He's like
five big black guys behind him, all rocking out to
Van Halen. That looks awesome. Now, look all those clips
online the people that are hating on, just like how
people hate on the clips online with Axel. That looks fun.
I would Daily Roth comes around here. I'm gonna go
see him because one day these Eddie van Haalin's not here,
(25:13):
Daily Roth is still here. If you don't want to go,
it's not for you, it's fine, but he's out there.
Oh retire, No, no, retire when you want to retire. Look,
if you want to be like Mickey Frankie Valance, Frankie Valley,
you're rather who's singing in ninety air quote singing? Who's
really just singing along to a track. And you know
(25:34):
that assuming he is meant, he's got to be all there.
He knows what he's doing. He's just ninety and it
just doesn't look like it. But he's out there performing.
Let him do it. I'd rather see Frankie Valley pantomime
than somebody covering his songs. I'd rather see him the
guy who was there, then some Douop cover bands. That's
(25:57):
why it's just a very stupid comment when everyone's any
anyone's ever said Axel should be replaced to you know,
get the guy from Adler's band in there, it's a
different band. Then it's not Axel's singing those songs. I
want to see the guys who did the thing, no
matter what, if they can still do the thing. A
good example I think with that to get compared it
(26:19):
to music would be wrestling. You know, I'm a big
wrestling fan of By the my last interview previous interviewer
did with with with Carrie and Cross who was let
go or they let his contract expire? WW, come on,
what are we doing? He's awesome, Bring him back. He
just goes to show you you never know what can
(26:39):
happen in a shorter amount of time, So enjoy the
time that we got now. Axel's doing this now, enjoy
it now because he was gone for a long time
and where was slash up his ass? As he said,
they're together now and they've been together for as longer
than they were in the first place. So go back
(27:00):
to wrestling. John Steena is on his farewell tour. His
body's hurting, but he doesn't want to take a slot
away from a younger person. He has his reasons. No
one's telling him to retire. No one told him. This
is his decision now. Chris Jericho, who I really hope
to get on the podcast one day in ae W
(27:21):
and I've heard chance of because he doesn't it look
the same. He looks like a fifty year old guy
rather than twenty year old y two jay chance of,
please retire, go fuck yourself. There was a great response
with Chris Jericho where he was at a Rolling Stone
show and he was doing that chance facetiously to Mick Jagger.
(27:44):
So do you gonna tell me Jagger to retire? Because
he's up there. He still loves doing it, Jericho still
loves doing it. Axel still loves doing it. Again, unless
you're going to hurt yourself, like if Axel of him performing,
like wow, if I keep performing, I'm really good my voice,
I gotta take like a year off or something like that.
You know, I gotta up straight up, like like Stephen Tyler,
(28:06):
I gotta straight up retire from touring. Otherwise I'm gonna
destroy my voice. I'm gonna destroy myself and I'm not
going to enjoy the rest of my life. Then keep
doing it. Who are you or anybody to tell Axe
or anybody else not to do it. It's obnoxious, it's obnoxious,
and it's fucking arrogance. Stop. I like just it's obnoxious
(28:31):
and it's arrogance. Again. I need to reiterate that to
tell someone else. If you don't like it, you think
he sounds.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Like shit, you think he sounds like Mickey Mouse.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Then don't listen to it. I'm not gonna be a
fake fan or a fake person and say that he
sounds great all the time. Do I hear those really
mean analogies, the Mickey Mouse, the Herbert from Family Guy. Yeah,
I can hear those at times. But you know what,
when I listen to myself back.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
In the podcast, I sound likes you know, French rusher,
mister chuffing way. I sound like a June from Long Island,
because that's what I am. I pick aut part of
my voice. I make fun of myself. You could do
that with anybody you want to make fun of act
so you could. There are some people aren't doing that,
which you shouldn't.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
With Slash. There are times I listened to Slash and
I'm like, that doesn't really sound like sweet Child of mine,
you know, especially in the commercial one video that he
uh the commercial, no it was whatever, it was a
bank commercial. I forget the name of the bank. Gives
the fuck uh? And he was doing the solo for
sweet Child that it sounded weird. I don't know, man,
(29:43):
I'm not a musician. Let him do what he's gonna do.
I'm like, oh, Slashes in a commercial cool? I get
to talk about it. These people are still around having
living their life, because again, one day they're gonna be gone.
It doesn't really rub me any sort of way. It
rubs me a certain way when those who can't are criticizing.
(30:06):
Oh but Branda, I'm a diehard Guns and Roses fan.
I love Axel. You gotta be real. He doesn't sound good.
Look I'm telling you. There are times where he sound
good and there are times here that he doesn't. It's
like with any It's like with a lot of people,
a lot of musicians. GIF your out there, We're not.
This isn't American idol. He is making adjustments and you
(30:29):
hear it with the lower register with Melissa Reese helping
out on vocals. Should he do more? I don't know.
Maybe that's something to come. Maybe it's it's gotta be
so difficult when you sang a certain way your entire life.
It's like an athlete. Derek Jeter. I've been hitting the
(30:50):
ball this way my entire life. Why can't I make
contact anymore?
Speaker 4 (30:54):
You know?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Chris Jericho, I've been able to do this moon salt
lift moosalt my entire life. I can't do it anymore.
It's mentally I know how to do it, but I
physically can't do it. Then you have to adjust great,
I think, Axel, and it's easier. Is also easier said
than done, because I don't know how to do it.
(31:16):
Maybe these vocal coaches, you know how to do it.
Breathing techniques. These are things that I guarantee you. Axel
already knows. You're not telling him anything that he doesn't know. Oh, YouTuber,
you were you cracked the code. Axel couldn't do it
with his billions of dollars and all this. He knows,
he knows what he needs to do. And I hope
(31:37):
he's not online because he he doesn't deserve all that hate.
If you want to say, oh, I don't know why
he sounds he did that in ac DC, But you
want to continue to use the word Mickey in a
certain way for lack of a better analogy, be my guest.
I don't like using that because it's going to be
an insult every single time around, and it diminishes everything
he's ever accomplished, no matter what he sounds like. Now,
(32:02):
Welcome to the Jungle is always gonna sound the same
on the record, whether you have it a cassette, you
have it in final A. You gotta through napster. Back
in the day, you're hearing it in a sports arena,
you're hearing it in the supermarket. I just literally heard
it yesterday at a commercial for one of those sports
betting sites. Forever, his voice is forever. He doesn't need
(32:25):
to prove himself anymore. If he didn't want to tour,
he didn't, he could still make a lot of money.
There's so many ways guns and roses can make money.
I know money isn't touring, but there's so many things
that guns and roses don't do, like release music and
all the things that they could make a ton of
money off of that they just they don't do. This
(32:46):
is what Axal likes to do, and this is what
he's doing right now, and I'm gonna enjoy it. And
this is a clip I want to play. And she
kind of you can see what my expression because she
said how I was feeling. Carla Harvey, of course, for
We're Butcher Baby now working with her boyfriend Slash, a
drummer from Anthrax, Charlie Bananty and a new band, The
(33:07):
Violent Hour, and they were both at Back to the Beginning,
of course, Charlie performed with Anthrax and Pantera. Carlo was
there also in support and where was she during Guns
and Rosa set side stage because Dell James put her there,
And here's what she had to say. Keep in mind,
she's not talking about a YouTube clip. She was there.
Speaker 8 (33:28):
So I was on tour a couple of years ago
and we played a show with Guns and Roses and
they went on stage for like something crazy like three hours.
If someone's going to put a three hour show on
for me, I'm not going to complain that they don't
sound like they did in nineteen eighty seven. He puts
on a great show. He's still running around everywhere. He
looks great. And I don't know. I like side stage,
(33:52):
the sound was great. I didn't hear anything amiss. I've
I've Charlie knows. I get really worked up when people.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Talking about.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Why no, I you're the right person, so.
Speaker 8 (34:06):
Upset because and I hate that people aren't allowed to
like to have missteps sometimes or have a bad day.
I've got bad days. I was just on the road
for five weeks with Lords of Acid singing, and I
got really sick, and thank god, everything came out every
day and I was able to sing every day. But
every day I was worried, like, what's going to come
(34:26):
out of my mouth?
Speaker 6 (34:27):
What are people going to think?
Speaker 8 (34:28):
It is incredibly stressful to be a vocalist, and I
can't imagine how stressful it is for people to want
to hear exactly what they heard, like I said in
nineteen eighty seven, all the time. And I think ninety
percent of his vocals are still awesome. I think he's
you know, and man, if your heroes are still out
(34:53):
there again putting on three hour shows for you, two
hour shows.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
For you, take it and shut up. So being there
makes a difference. You want to go back and listen
to the episode of the review that I did about
back to the beginning with the fan that I was
there Jason, or any of the reviews that I've done,
they are vastly different in opinion. And it's not because
they're coming on my podcast and it's a G and
(35:17):
R themed podcast. I have listeners that tell me just
like it is, and I don't tell them to feel
a certain way. I want people to act respectful and
not be a jackass about things. You know, there's a
difference between constructive criticism and just being nasty. If I
have to explain that to you, I mean, I'm gonna
have to explain that to my son. I shouldn't have
(35:39):
to explain that to you at whatever age you are,
if you're able to understand what I'm saying, there's the
difference between Yeah, he just doesn't. It's not the same.
Maybe it's not for you anymore. That's okay. I'm not
here to convince you than just being a nasty piece
of shit and fucking retire. Who needs a you know,
fuck that guy. He was never good. Shut up. He
(35:59):
was never her good. Again, it may not have been
your thing, but to say that, it's so stupid. Taylor
Swift is not my thing. She is so Overlea. Where
am I gonna say she sucks? No, No, she is
so talented and millions love her. It's not my thing.
I like that song style, but it's not my thing.
(36:21):
It's that that's where we're at. So now it's compared
that with davidly Roth, I think it's very brave what
he's doing. But with Vince Neil, Okay, I think we
got to get a point where body shaming. He's got
to stop. We gotta stop doing it with we're talking
about doing with women with men, we get to stop.
We were doing it with Axel. I don't say week
(36:42):
because I wasn't and Vince, and also I'm not gonna
be a hypo. I never made fun of his physical
appearance because I'm too. I'm just insecure about my own,
so I don't make fun of other people's physical appearances.
But his voice, I mean, he's Vince Neil. He never
had like the greatest voice in the world. He had
voice that fit Motley Crue fine, but I it was
(37:04):
one of those that would make fun of, like you
can't understand what he's saying, But that could be said
of so many people. You understand what the fuck Eddie
Vedder is saying. They don't understand what Kirk Obain was saying.
Weird Out did a song about you can't understand what
the hell he's saying. So but with Vince Neil in
the recent videos, it looked like he wasn't giving effort,
like he was going through the motions. There's to me,
(37:26):
this is the second point here. To me, there's the difference.
If you put in the effort and look like you
care and you want to be there, then do whatever
entertain you know, more power to you. But then somebody
on one of my because I said that online on
my Twitter, said that he's been having health issues lately,
And you know what, if that's the case, then I apologize.
And if he's really struggling right now and he needs
(37:47):
to perform for whatever reason or loves performing, but he's
hurting and that's affecting him and it seems a certain way,
then that sucks. And Vince an Axel and davili Off
and bon Jovi, who's been open honest about his vocal issues,
they don't really owe us an answer. They don't owe us.
(38:07):
They gave us the music already. Some of these people
they don't need to tour forever they made their music.
They're not gonna make any guns or roses are not
gonna whether new music comes or not, nothing is gonna
be better than appetite. I'm sorry because it's just the
legacy that it has. It's gonna be could be great music,
but it's just the legacy is already cemented for all
(38:30):
these bands and artists. It's great that they're still out
there doing it and performing for us. No matter whether
they they are they sound like they did back in
the day or not again, if you're out there having fun,
which every single Guns or Roses fan that I've spoken to,
every single one, that's not a generalization. The ones that
I've spoken to, ones that have been on the podcast
(38:53):
have enjoyed themselves. I'm not saying every single one says
actual sounds amazing.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
But it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
It wasn't like it deterred them from everyone wanting to
go again. There'd be setless issues or which shouldn't be
the case anymore. They really mess with the set list now,
or I don't want to go into those new music.
There's conversations that could be had, but the effort, I
mean again, three hours he's running around doing all these things.
(39:20):
The voice. Again, It's all about perspective. So if your
perspective is somebody who makes memes, you're the person who
like to makes the meme of making Axle look bigger
than he is. That's a weird flex.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Bro.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
If you want to make fun of Axel's appearance, find
a real picture, I guess if you want to go
that route, but to manipulate one, you've got to have
some real deep self hatred to do that, and that's coming.
I hated myself for a long time and I would
lash out of people and make fun of people online,
and I don't want to be that person. I'm embarrassed
(39:54):
about it, but I matured therapy you should be. That's
who should be embarrassed. Those are the kind of people
who should be embarrassed. Again, you may think he sounds
a certain way, but if you're hey, this is like
a guns and Roses post about nothing to do with
Axel's voice celebrating his song. And if you're the kind
of person that just posts a Mickey gift, you're just
(40:15):
kind of a loser. There has nothing to do with anything.
You're just there to put somebody down that doesn't know
who you are, that has achieved more than you have.
You may have a nice little life going on for you,
but you'll be forgotten by the world, not by your
family and friends. Nobody were all important. Don't get me
wrong there, but Axel. For as long as human history is,
(40:39):
until we're destroyed by the dinosaurs or they come back,
or we destroy ourselves with AI or whatever, Axel's voice
recorded voice who will live on forever is yours. So
it's just very very strange what people do and react.
So just I feel the way you want to feel
(41:02):
but just maybe conduct yourself differently online. But if that's
the imprint you want to leave, do that again. This
is all aimed at trolls, not opinions. You can have
your opinion. I think that I've given you a well
rounded opinion, because that's what this is. I don't have
any insider info. I don't talk to anybody inside the
Guns to Roses camp. Richard Fordess follows me on Instagram
(41:23):
message show every now and then. Nothing serious, but I
don't know what's really going on. I know what you know,
but I also know how to present the case. And
I think all the cases out there about Axel's voice,
you're just not good. He knows what he's doing and
(41:44):
he's adjusting that the best of his ability. Age all
this stuff is taken to account. He's a single person.
Should not be compared to anybody else. It should not
take away from what he's accomplished already in the music world.
And this is what it is now. You either get
this Guns or Roses or you get none. You want
(42:05):
Steven and izzieback, It's not gonna happen, you know. I
heard an interview recently with Kelly Hansen from Farner who
was their singer for twenty years. You know, I'm not
talking about Lou Graham, the original singer, but you were
asking him because because he just announced his retirement and
he's made himself like kind of the face of Fargner
(42:25):
for a while, and he's those aren't his songs. People
had a problem with it. But he's like, I got
the blessing of Mick Jones to play this catalog and
bring it around the world to people who love it,
and this this music. He's like he used this analogy
of like I have this fruit basket and I got
to pick out like the most ripe, beautiful bananas and
(42:47):
apples and oranges. And it's always like it's a different
foreigner song. It's like I can give you this fruit,
we can enjoy it, or you get nothing. It's you
either get this guns of roses or you get nothing.
We got nothing for a long time, Axel was m
I a we don't you know the wilderness years, as
we affectionately call it. We thought that this reunion wouldn't last.
(43:11):
So it's lasting now. You know, Slash and daff are
going to perform until they're dead. You know that the
way that they're built just like Ozzy or a lot
of these blues artists, you know BB King people performing.
I could see Slash going on. God for Bidd he's
ever in a wheelchair. But like when I saw bb
King in eighty six, he came out at eighty six,
(43:31):
not in eighty six. I saw him at eighty six
years old, came out in a wheelchair and still rock
the place. We don't know what's gonna happen with Axel.
The voice is a different thing. It's a different animal.
It's not like he can pick up another guitar or
another voice box. Could he get more backup vocals? Would
we ever embrace an AI? Should he use auto tune?
(43:55):
My God, God for Biddy uses auto tune? I don't
think I would like that at all. So would you
rather have an AI or auto tuned axle or just
hear him blemishes at all? I think I prefer the
blemishes because I know what the record sounds like. I
know what the record sounds like. If I don't, okay,
I don't like that live version, Okay, I'll go listen
(44:17):
to bad Obsession online, then you know we want my records.
If I don't like the version, I mean bad obsession.
That's a bad example because he's been that's a lower
register song, Rocket Queen. Okay, he doesn't sing You're like, oh,
I don't like the way he sings Rocket Queen anymore. Okay,
then listen to the record again, adjustments. It's gonna be
(44:38):
very interesting how they go keep going forward because I
don't think that the tour is not gonna stop this
year or next. What's gonna happen. What do you do
with the song on Paradise City? Hire a register? Do
you change that song? I don't think you can ever
drop it because I think Guns and Roses have always
played that song. It's a popular song. You can't get
(44:58):
rid of it. So there's just so many things to
take into account why they do what they do, and
why Axel sounds the way that he does, the choices
that he makes. It's not just does he have it
or does he not? There's so much more to it
than that, And it's more than I could tell you
in these forty something minutes, and more than any vocal
(45:19):
coach on this platform or whatever it could tell you.
Only Axel can tell you what's really going on. So
you can either enjoy it or shut the fuck up,
get bent, don't enjoy it anymore. Okay, that's it. Let
people enjoy things. We live in a world so where
(45:43):
we're supposed to be supportive of mental health, and you
have fans who love and adore guns and roses, and
you'll see those certain fans inject themselves into certain conversations
just to sayy, he sucks.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
Now this what.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
What dopamine fix are you getting from doing that? That's
that's all social media. That's not with just guns and roses.
That's just such strange way of how people interact now,
just trying to make people angry or telling them that
they're their way of thinking sucks, that they're they're right,
that you're wrong. I see that stuff online all day.
(46:17):
I could say I'm sometimes I've typed out a response
to somebody and I've just said, you know what, forget it.
I don't I don't need to respond it to this.
I'm just moving on with my life. So just move
on with your life. If if axel rose sounds that
bad to you now, because you know what, again, he
can sing because he's out there doing it, and the
(46:37):
fans hear it, the ones that are there and they're
still paying to see it. So you're just you're casting
a shadow over something that he's doing successfully now. And
while you may not be inaccurate with some of your assessment,
this is what I learned in therapy. It's all perspective.
(46:59):
You're looking at a really poor perspective. Just look at
it different and again, mental health and Axel Rose, knowing
his history, knowing that this was a kid that was
so horrifically horrifically abused, that's putting it lightly. Horrifically abused
(47:19):
as a child. His life could have gone so different.
You could have ended up like Kurt Cobain. As horrible
as that is to say, that's accurate that he could
have ended up like Kurt Cobain. That he's sixty three
years old now, smiling on stage, hugging, slash autographs, galower,
taking pictures with fans, and it's gonna bother you that
(47:40):
he doesn't sound right, that you're gonna focus on he
sounds like a cartoon character. And I'm gonna make a
meme of that. I'm gonna make a video of that
where it's guns and roses, but I'm gonna I'm gonna
superimposed Mickey Mouse's face onto it because you know what,
I hate myself and I have nothing else to do
with my time. I'm year doing this around my other jobs,
(48:03):
trying to view as much positivity as possible. I don't
think I'm really wasting my time doing this, But if
you want to waste your time on hate, focusing on
the negative things, do it, then do it. Enjoy your life.
Axel is enjoying his. I'm going to enjoy mine. And
this is just a one of the quotes that lives
(48:24):
rent free in my head from this podcast. And this
goes towards Axel Rose. And this is not like I'm
not trying to Axel doesn't need my defense. Famous people
don't need my defense. This is more of a mental
health conversation about if you really are a mental health advocate,
be careful what you say online because you don't know
(48:46):
who reads it, whether it's the famous person or a
fan or whatever. This is from Dave Navarro talking about
depression and how it doesn't matter if you're the common
man or you seemingly have everything.
Speaker 7 (48:57):
I've suffered with depression my whole life. Okay, I lost
my mother to murder at fifteen, so I have a
deeply rooted history in trauma and PTSD, lucky enough to
join a band at seventeen Jane's addiction, and there were
all these finish lines in my head, like, once we
get a record deal, I'm going to be okay. Once
(49:19):
we get a gold record, We're going to be okay.
Once I make a certain amount of money, We're going
to be okay.
Speaker 4 (49:24):
Once we get a.
Speaker 7 (49:25):
Certain level of visibility, or I get a certain girl,
or once I make it here, I'm going to be okay.
And I'm here to tell you that there is no
external thing that is going to fix the deep rooted
problem of trauma. So it's not about like, well he
had everything, why was he depressed? Depression is a is
(49:46):
a mental disorder. It is something that can be worked
with and can be held and guided and healed.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
So look, I've been guilty too of being a hater.
I don't want to be that way. I want to
change my son to be raised that way. But what
are we doing? What are we doing that We're spending
so much time focusing on this guy's voice. Well, we hear,
we know there's weakness. It's like I got Paul McCartney
when people start criticizing his voice at the SNL performance,
(50:15):
it's Paul McCartney, what are we doing? Do you criticize
your mom for getting older? Hey, grandpa, how come we don't?
What's with all the wrinkles on your face? It happens
to all of us. It happens to all of us.
So just take that into account the next time you
watch Guns and Roses or an actual Rose clip online,
(50:38):
and hopefully I'll see you at the next Guns of
Roses show. All right, So that does it for this
episode of Appetite for Distortion. Please let me know your thoughts,
whether it's on the YouTube comments or wherever you listen
to the podcast. Conversation continues in between the broadcasts on
social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Leave me a message on
(51:00):
the website afdpod dot com. Lots of things to do
up there. By March. Checkout Guns Roses on this day.
If you check out every day, you can find out
what happened in the history of GNR or GNR adjacent
And also before I leave, because it's up on the website. Now,
rest in peace because it's the highlight of the day.
(51:22):
But rest in peace to David Roach from Junkyard. He's
been battling. He had been battling cancer and just a
lot of physical problems and financial issues the last few years,
and I guess I'm just glad he's not suffering anymore.
I really enjoyed my two conversations with him. Just a
very kind man. Junkyard perhaps never got the respect they
(51:44):
deserve in the landscape of rock and roll, like those
who know know, but it's just very sad. So I
just want to say, before I get out of here,
rest in peace to the David Roach. See, you could
be gone the next day. He could be gone. So
before you tell Axel Rose to retire, before you tell
(52:04):
Chris Jericho to retire, before you tell Pamela Anderson to
not making movies anymore, look in the mirror and just
realize you're gonna be gone one day too. All right,
So that does have this episode of appetite for distortion.
When will you see the next one? In the words
of Axel Rose concerning Chinese democracy, I don't know as
soon as the word, but you'll see it.
Speaker 7 (52:25):
Thanks to the lame massed security.
Speaker 6 (52:26):
I'm going home
Welcome to the podcast Appetite four Distortion, episode number five
hundred and twenty two. My name is Brando, and fine,
let's talk about Axel's voice. If you're familiar with the podcast,
here an avid listener. I've addressed it. I've spoken about it,
but it seems to be the big thing now to
just make a unique content creator thing of just talking
(00:27):
about Axel's vibe and shitting on him, and I'm just
tired of it, I hope, but not to come off
too annoyed. In this episode, I'm here to offer you
perspective that's gonna be the pee wee word of the day,
rip perspective You're gonna hear from some of the people
that I've had on this podcast talk about Axel's voice,
(00:48):
those who actually worked with him, So people who rely
on YouTube clips and YouTubers who are vocal coaches and
just say, oh, he's doing this, he's not doing that.
I've been thinking about doing this episode for a while
and I don't know the guy. I'm sure he's very nice,
(01:08):
but I was really inspired by a YouTube thumbnail I
did watch like a couple of seconds about whatever. Some guy.
I think he's a vocal coach talking about Axel's voice
and his thumbnail just going.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Shrug. Does he have his voice anymore? Does he still
have it? Nobody knows who I am, but m hohum,
poor Axel ho hum.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I'm never gonna do this mister beast style YouTube thumb.
I know I have some friends that do it. I can't.
No wucking mo me listen to what I gotta say. Yeah, oh,
I'm going to point to the text. Look at what
the text that says, now, you're just gonna see me?
And uh, usually the person I interview in some sort
of candid moment, I guess I can't. It comes off
(01:53):
to corny to me. And I also think it's a
little corny to critique Axel Rose professionally like that. I mean,
it's one thing if you're a fan, I get it,
and we're going to talk about the fan perspective and
the vocal coach perspective. I find very humorous and interesting.
I'm sure he's a very nice individual, because there are
(02:16):
other videos of vocal coaches talking about Axel Rose and
even Justin Hawkins from the Darkness talking of Axel's voice.
And even though I like Justin, I'm not going to
expect a real answer from him because he opens for GNR,
they open for gn R. I don't think he would
ever see anything to ruin that. So I have no
despite my background the theme of my podcast, I really
(02:39):
have no ties to guns and roses. This isn't some
sort of dog whistle cry to interview Axel. To me,
that seems as impossible as interviewing at triceratops. It's just
like it's a real thing, that's a real thing that
exists that but that's logistically that can't happen. So it's
just I don't don't think that's gonna happen. I dream
(03:00):
about it. It'd be nice, but that's not what I'm here.
I'm here to offer you a fan perspective. And I
understand maybe you think I'm biased looking at life through
guns and rose colored glasses, but I'll be honest with you.
I'm very honest with myself. I'm hard on myself, and
I'll be honest with you about Axel. But I'm gonna
offer you perspective. And I'm also going to talk about
(03:22):
a lot of the comments that I see online. So
I'm gonna talk about what I see in line my
perspective as somebody who's done over five hundred episodes and
interviews with people who worked with who know Axel Rose,
and also you the listener who have been on this show,
you the fan who have nothing to HI. You're as
honest as honest cats. So we're gonna get to that.
(03:44):
But one comment I see often is does he know
he sounds like?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Ah?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Is he embarrassed? That's how I read those comments. He
knows what he sounds like, he is ears the Axel
is one of the reasons why I became a fan
of GNR, not just because of the music. I'm just
how intelligent he and that band is. I know they
have a very silly side and sense of humor, but
(04:11):
you listen to Axel, you read anything he's ever written, uh,
or just even his rants on stage, I understand you
may be like what listen to them? Compared to other
rants of other rock stars where it's laced with profanities
and all that. Axel has such an intelligence about him,
the way that he speaks. He's a smart guy. He's
(04:33):
not an idiot. He knows what he sounds like, and
he's working with what he has. So that's just one
of the dumbest comments. Does he know what he's sound like? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
He does.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Do you know what he sounds like? And that's part
of the conversation. We're not talking about AI here. We're
not to trust your eyes and your ears. You want
to look at a video as somebody you know went
to a Guns and Roses show watching on line to
make your opinion solely on that, I guess I can't
stop you there. But I've had actual fans on this show.
(05:07):
I'm not talking about just myself and my opinion. Go back.
I wish I did them this year, but I couldn't know.
I was just too busy with my son, my two
year old son, Harrison Rex aka Baby Brownstone, just making
it difficult because I'm interviewing you the fans from all
over the world to figure out the right time. So
it just hasn't happened this year. However, go back. I've
(05:28):
done plenty of fan reviews from all over the United States,
this country of hours, to Canada, to Australia, to Brazil
to Greece, so many different countries or Guns of Roses
and Axl Rose has visited different venues with different acoustics,
getting different opinion. You're gonna hear from fans that are
(05:50):
actually there. He sounds so much better live. You're gonna
hear that constantly. This isn't I'm not looking at life
through guns and rose colored glasses. It is different live
than in person. It's like hockey. Some people don't like
watching hockey on TV, but in person, whoa, this is
my new favorite thing. So there's a major difference between
(06:11):
online and in person. So if you're a vocal coach
or a YouTuber or whatever critiquing Axl Rose by breaking
down online clips, I think there's only so much to
be taken from that, and I guess hope there's some
sort of humility there on the critiquer's part saying that, yeah,
(06:32):
you know, here's what I think. Maybe there's a breathing
issue there. But this could have happened. That could have happened.
It's like in sports when somebody's trying to oh what
what what went wrong with the play? You know, why
do they throw that interception? You know, where do the
fumble happen? And it's just people in the studio now critiquing,
And yeah, they may get it right, but they may not.
They were not there in the play, having to make
(06:55):
the decisions they needed to make that cause the reaction
or whatever the result in the play. So you don't
know why Axel may be mistiming. There was something that
went viral. Uh, there was an inner ear monitor h
feed that you can hear between guns and roses and
Axle communicating to people. And there was a kind of
(07:15):
a funny one where he's trying to communicate with the
the new drummer, Isaac Carpenter about what song to play,
and he couldn't hear him, and he was like yelling
at him, sounded like real old Axel, bad abassion, and
he just Isaac was playing mister Brownstone. There are so
many things that can go wrong with the inner ear monitor,
so many things, And that's what has been said about
(07:38):
Black Sabbath. Was there because there are a timing back
to the beginning with Axel? Was there a timing issue?
These things happen because he is a human being all
But if you can do it in rehearsal, or if
you can do it at all, if you know how
to breathe, why can't you do it? There again, the
human element, which is make it. I'm gonna make sport,
(08:00):
its analogies. You know, people who believe in analytics and
just the numbers don't take into account the human element
of it all. Axel was pumped as fuck to play
that show and just can you imagine at that age
still being so excited and loving what you do And yeah,
sometimes that's gonna take over and that's not your breathing
(08:22):
is gonna get off and you know what, that's okay.
I'm not Simon Cowell. This isn't the X factor who
gives a shit. As long as I see my favorite
band having fun on stage, that is gonna make me
have fun. So just very very silly to just go
by the clips. I mean, if that's all you have
(08:42):
to go by, then that's just the world that we
live in. I mean, it's more than we used to get.
I mean, back in the day, all we would get
to our magazine articles and critiques and telling you about
someone who sucked or something. And now you can kind
of form your own opinion. But I'm telling you what
others aren't telling you that if you talk to real fans,
and it's not just sick of a fan that like
(09:04):
I'm not saying, oh he sounds like eighty seven. He
sounds like ninety one. He sounds like two thousand and six. No,
I'm not saying that. Can Axel Rose sing? Can he
still sing?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yes, he can still sing? Does he sing the same?
Speaker 4 (09:21):
No?
Speaker 1 (09:22):
And is that okay? Yes? That is okay? There for
a variety of reasons. But but but Ozzy, he was
two weeks away from dying, and look how good he sounded.
Completely different person Ozzy, unless I'm mistaken, doesn't have a
history of vocal problems. But Stephen Tyler, how good he sounded.
(09:44):
Stephen sang for fifteen minutes. That's it. You want a
fifteen minute guns and Roses concert. I guess if that's
all you're gonna get for the rest of your life.
You just want to see Axel popping up here and there.
If that's what he can do. I don't know if
that's what he can do. Uh, so few things that Okay,
what can Axel do? Is he prepared? You know he
(10:05):
should be prepared for this? Well, he is prepared for this.
So I'm gonna play some clips for you of interviews
that I've done people who worked with Axel who know
a hell of a lot more than you, and I
about his approach to things. So here's Chris Slade, former
ACDC drummer. But how Axel Rose would warm up before
(10:27):
and cool down after the show.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
In my experience, he was great, very professional. He was
never late anywhere anytime, and he used to warm up
two hours before every show. I'm long down for two
hours every show because I know that for a fact,
(10:53):
because I was next door to him.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
That's somebody who knows this is serious, who knows this
is serious work to do that two hours before and after,
that's that's hard man. And that kind of aligns itself
to what Doug Goldstein, former Guns the Roses manager told me,
is that, yeah, he will spend he had I think
at one point during the Illusion tours he had a
(11:18):
four hour routine. Whether you want to believe it or
not because it's coming from Doug, but he had a
I mean, you got a two hour routine. Maybe that's
what Doug meant, the four hour routine, the two hours
before and after. Maybe that's what he meant. But how
he was so everything needed to be just so. Well,
if it's just so, how can he let this happen?
(11:39):
How can he let this happen to his voice. Did
you ruin it with ACDC? I think that's an easy
thing to say and to point to, and maybe maybe
there's some truth to that. I don't know. I was
up front Mason Square Garden were the best shows I've
ever seen, if not the best show I've seen. I
couldn't believe how good he sounded, needed to anybody around me,
(12:01):
like Axel's going to sing this, I don't know how
this is going to sound out. And as soon as
those first few notes started, man he destroyed. He killed it.
He is famously known for having killed that role. Did
he kill his voice? The problem started way back before then.
So I had the privilege in honor of interviewing Lou
(12:21):
Graham from Foreigner, and I was just going to ask
him about what he thought about Axel as a vocalist
from the eighties, about just being two different singers in
Saint Arrow. What he thought, And this is the answer
he gave me.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Axell's voice he had a great range, but I could
tell that he was because they toured a lot too.
I could tell that he was damaging his vocal chords
simply by the way he sang. I know that when
I sing at towards the end of the night, some
of my high range starts to go a little bit.
(12:53):
You kind of have to acknowledge the characteristics of your
voice and when they're tired, if you keep pushing sho
them at that level, their damage and you shouldn't be
singing for the next six months. Your ear nose and
throat doctor will tell you that they need rest and
time to heal and then get supple again. When you
sing too often and too hard, there's something called nodes
(13:19):
then develop on your vocal cords and they're like little
tiny hard callouses.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Very interesting, and Axel has a documented history of throat problems,
of going to different doctors, different specialists. Whether you want
to believe Doug Goldstein or not, that was the reason
why Axel left the stage for the Montreal Riot before
that happened, because why would Axel do an hour show
(13:46):
and then just decide to leave. According to Doug, he
goes to the side the stage when he's singing, it's
like I can't I got no voice. That happened a
lot during the Illusions, and he forced himself out there.
He forced himself out there for a lot of reasons
because he wasn't mentally there. That's also been documented that
(14:07):
he was just a very They kept him on the
road because they knew, and they were right as soon
as he came off the road that band was gonna
break up. And that's exactly what happened. But he pushed
himself years ago, well before Axel DC. What I call
Axel DC is that what happened was at the final
nail in the proverbial coffin. I don't know. I don't know.
(14:31):
He is just too intelligent to know, and has the
right doctors around him to know what to do what
not to do. And maybe part of me thinks that
if he sings the way that he did with Axel
DC now, he may destroy his voice. This is just
me theorizing maybe this is a stylistic choice to preserve. Otherwise,
(14:55):
if he starts, I'm gonna be like Axel and then
all of a sudden, my throats could be bloody after
I have for an hour, and then I'm done, and
then you're never getting Axel again. I don't know if
that's the case, but that's certainly that I think that
needs to be taken into account because he's somebody that
why would he forget to know how to sing. Axel
Rose little Bill Bailey was in choir. He was a
(15:18):
choir boy. He's been singing since he was a little kid.
And he worked with Ron Anderson, one of the greatest
vocal coaches, arguably of all time. Rest in peace, Ron.
He knows what he's doing, he knows what he sounds like.
I know there are many people who blamed it on
his the extra weight. He had some extra weight during ACDC,
(15:38):
and he sounded fantastic. That's a whole other conversation. By
the way that the physical attacks and I'm glad some
of the controls. Now, Oh he lost all that weight.
Finally he looks great. I'm here to tell you know,
somebody who talks to the fans and of interviewed people,
Axel has never had a problem getting girls. So if you,
(16:00):
mister troll, thinks Axel is ugly or fat or old,
do you want to date him? Do you want to
be tracted to him? Again? What do you care? I
have never seen an issue online some of these comments
from women to Axel. My god, that's where I always
(16:20):
felt like, that's when you know you're famous, like you
just like you can tweet anything and just people like
marry me in this and then, So I don't think
that had anything to do with it. It could, I mean,
it's I make sports analogies. It's interesting because CC Sabathias
I'm wearing a Yankees hat were recently aducted into the
Hall of Fame. And he lost a lot of weight
(16:42):
after retirement because he was a bigger dude. He needed
that weight to pitch, and people called him fat back then.
He's he needed that weight to pitch to be the
best at his his ability, and now he's in a different
phase of his life, kind of like Deve Batista wrestler.
It's another more of the athlete analogy, changing your body
(17:04):
type as you get older, because it's different. And I'll
also use those analogies because of just sports, whether Yankees
and football, or if you're a wrestler, it's different than if
you're a musician. Because there are those who say Axel,
just retire, just give it up already. How about you
(17:27):
go fuck yourself. Nobody should ever tell anyone what to
do with their life unless they're harming themselves or somebody else.
My grandfather was a pharmacist. He was a pharmacist for
fifty years, and he hated the fact that he had
to retire. He was miserable. He wanted to keep doing it.
So if Axel wants to keep doing it, if the
(17:47):
rest of the band wants to keep doing it, if
Davide Rotha wants to keep doing his thing, more power
to them, because one day they're going to be gone,
just like Ozzie, and it sucks. I'm gonna have to
tell my son about all the rock stars I grew
up with because they're probably gonna be all gone by
the time that he's really cognizant of just a rock
(18:07):
and roll and Daddy, can you tell me about Megadeath?
As I'm recording this, Megadeth just announced their retirement you know,
farewell album and tour crazy. So enjoy these bands and
artists now. And if they're not up to your level
or they don't sound right to you, that's okay because
there are they sound just fine to millions of other people.
(18:31):
So another question is can Axel still sing in the
studio because that's the whole thing. Okay, get off the road,
protect your voice, save it from the studio. Well, the
nuke g and R the air quote nug and our songs.
It's interesting because those vocals were probably recorded late nineties,
early two thousands. So can Axel still sing in the studio?
(18:51):
My answer to you is yeah, I believe he can
still sing in the studio, just like with singing live.
Can he still sing? Yes? Is it different?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Does it matter? No? Because he could still do it?
Proof right here when I got the interview, one of
my favorite interviews ever with Rob Janis and Kevin Fleming.
They are two writers and actors. They wrote for New
Looney Tunes cartoon, and I'm sure you remember that Axel
was in the Looney Tunes and he sang a song
Rock the Rock. We couldn't believe that we had new
(19:24):
Axel from Looney Tunes, you know, the first thing since
Chinese Democracy. And they were there in studio with him
when he recorded the song. And this is Axle's approach
to recording new music.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
He said, all right, let's hear the song. So he
put the headphones on and we watched him listen to it,
and he listened to it once and it seemed like
an eternity and he's like, okay, sounds like you want
me to do kind of like an ac DC thing here,
So I can do that, but would i'd like to
do I'm just gonna kind of sing along to it,
he'd sing. He kind of mumble it, you know a
(19:58):
little bit. He was kind of seeing along to it
as he went. So he goes, we get the lights
down low, and he sang it his high kind of
Axel rose voice. So he sang it like ac DC,
the screamy version. And then he came out and he's like,
here's what i'd like to do. I want to do
kind of like a low version, a low voice, and
then like a middle voice, and then we'll have that
(20:18):
high voice on top. So I want to have like
three layers. So he's like literally producing the record basically.
So he goes back in and he sings like a
low voice, and he sings like a middle voice. So
he's got like a ten octave range. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So he can still do it, and if you want
to even go more currents and the fact that how
much effort he puts into it, and because the whole
lazy thing, I think that's when people call Axel lazy.
That's a lazy cop out to call him because you
don't know what's going on behind the scenes. So I
got the interview Michael Shanker last year and Axel and
Slasher both on his guests on his album This is
(20:55):
UFO like by fifty years with UFO an Axel has
saying on one song love to Love, but he actually
originally sang on three, as Michael told us on the podcast.
But he has expectations for himself. So here's what Michael
had to say.
Speaker 6 (21:10):
Actually ended up singing too Hot to Handle, only You
Can Rop Me and Love to Love. But I think
they also were on tour at the time, and so
they was not actually happy with his performance on only
You Can Rob Me and too Hot to Handle, And
(21:31):
I guess it was too many songs because they were
in the middle of a tour and he preferred to
just focus on Love to Love. And he's a perfectionist,
I have noticed, and so you know, we waited until
he was ready, and then finally he went, Okay, love
to Love. I approve he can release it.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
So take it from the loud Tunes guys and Michael Shanker,
Axel can still get it done in the studio. That's
just not me. Sickophant Rando saying it. These are people
who have worked with him, and maybe you don't like
rock to Rock or love to Love. It's funny how
it's these are the songs that he sang, then you
don't like it. There are people who always who never
liked Axel that always he sounds like a dying cat.
Speaker 7 (22:15):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I had two cats that died earlier this year, and
the sounds are so much worse than Axel at his worst.
They are so bad they will haunt me for the
rest of my life. That's what a cat dying sounds like.
So no, but if you don't like Axel, you don't,
then this this episode really wasn't this podcast really isn't
for you anyway. No, I would to win everybody over
(22:38):
because it's it's all about perspective again. You don't have
to be the biggest gun to Roses fan in the
world or Axel rose fan in the world to have
this perspective because it goes toward so many different aging people,
like I'll give you a great example. I think it's
a great example. Pamela Anderson. She's aging. She looked one
(23:03):
way her entire life, the blond bombshell, and now she's
famously going really without very little to no makeup, and
she's being very strong and bald, and she's not going
the route that plastic plastic surgery. My wife loves those
Real Housewives shows. My god, man, it's just whatever makes
(23:24):
them happy.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Man.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
But it's like they can't move their face. They can't
move their face. So Pamela Anderson is not doing it.
But you're still gonna find people who criticize her for
aging gracefully. So Axel's voice can't age the way that
it's aging all. But this person's still hot at that
you know, at this age, why can't Pamela Anderson be
as hot as you know, look at a But I'm
(23:45):
using example how Axel he doesn't sound like like this,
but this person, Stephen Tyler, sounds like this. Everybody is
different different, there's a different medical history, it's different chemical makeup.
Everybody is different. So the judge acts by others is
just very silly. But I will compare it to David
Lee Roth and Vince Neil now because that's what some
(24:07):
people like to do. David Lee Roth, you know, I
understand that he's been having some vocal issues last few years.
I never thought it was as bad as people are
making it out to be because he was more of
like a speaky singing way rather than singing. And again,
that's like him adjusting and being different. I'll never forget
what Johnny Cash sounded like when he was older. It's
(24:30):
just different. But davidly Roth now has done and he
has his issues. You don't have to like him whatever,
But what I think he's doing right now is really
brave and putting himself out there because he has backup singers.
He's not hiding it. He's not doing a fake track
that he's lying to you about. It looks like he
has like the starting lineup of the Knicks behind him.
(24:50):
He's like a little Jewish guy like me. He's like
five big black guys behind him, all rocking out to
Van Halen. That looks awesome. Now, look all those clips
online the people that are hating on, just like how
people hate on the clips online with Axel. That looks fun.
I would Daily Roth comes around here. I'm gonna go
see him because one day these Eddie van Haalin's not here,
(25:13):
Daily Roth is still here. If you don't want to go,
it's not for you, it's fine, but he's out there.
Oh retire, No, no, retire when you want to retire. Look,
if you want to be like Mickey Frankie Valance, Frankie Valley,
you're rather who's singing in ninety air quote singing? Who's
really just singing along to a track. And you know
(25:34):
that assuming he is meant, he's got to be all there.
He knows what he's doing. He's just ninety and it
just doesn't look like it. But he's out there performing.
Let him do it. I'd rather see Frankie Valley pantomime
than somebody covering his songs. I'd rather see him the
guy who was there, then some Douop cover bands. That's
(25:57):
why it's just a very stupid comment when everyone's any
anyone's ever said Axel should be replaced to you know,
get the guy from Adler's band in there, it's a
different band. Then it's not Axel's singing those songs. I
want to see the guys who did the thing, no
matter what, if they can still do the thing. A
good example I think with that to get compared it
(26:19):
to music would be wrestling. You know, I'm a big
wrestling fan of By the my last interview previous interviewer
did with with with Carrie and Cross who was let
go or they let his contract expire? WW, come on,
what are we doing? He's awesome, Bring him back. He
just goes to show you you never know what can
(26:39):
happen in a shorter amount of time, So enjoy the
time that we got now. Axel's doing this now, enjoy
it now because he was gone for a long time
and where was slash up his ass? As he said,
they're together now and they've been together for as longer
than they were in the first place. So go back
(27:00):
to wrestling. John Steena is on his farewell tour. His
body's hurting, but he doesn't want to take a slot
away from a younger person. He has his reasons. No
one's telling him to retire. No one told him. This
is his decision now. Chris Jericho, who I really hope
to get on the podcast one day in ae W
(27:21):
and I've heard chance of because he doesn't it look
the same. He looks like a fifty year old guy
rather than twenty year old y two jay chance of,
please retire, go fuck yourself. There was a great response
with Chris Jericho where he was at a Rolling Stone
show and he was doing that chance facetiously to Mick Jagger.
(27:44):
So do you gonna tell me Jagger to retire? Because
he's up there. He still loves doing it, Jericho still
loves doing it. Axel still loves doing it. Again, unless
you're going to hurt yourself, like if Axel of him performing,
like wow, if I keep performing, I'm really good my voice,
I gotta take like a year off or something like that.
You know, I gotta up straight up, like like Stephen Tyler,
(28:06):
I gotta straight up retire from touring. Otherwise I'm gonna
destroy my voice. I'm gonna destroy myself and I'm not
going to enjoy the rest of my life. Then keep
doing it. Who are you or anybody to tell Axe
or anybody else not to do it. It's obnoxious, it's obnoxious,
and it's fucking arrogance. Stop. I like just it's obnoxious
(28:31):
and it's arrogance. Again. I need to reiterate that to
tell someone else. If you don't like it, you think
he sounds.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Like shit, you think he sounds like Mickey Mouse.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Then don't listen to it. I'm not gonna be a
fake fan or a fake person and say that he
sounds great all the time. Do I hear those really
mean analogies, the Mickey Mouse, the Herbert from Family Guy. Yeah,
I can hear those at times. But you know what,
when I listen to myself back.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
In the podcast, I sound likes you know, French rusher,
mister chuffing way. I sound like a June from Long Island,
because that's what I am. I pick aut part of
my voice. I make fun of myself. You could do
that with anybody you want to make fun of act
so you could. There are some people aren't doing that,
which you shouldn't.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
With Slash. There are times I listened to Slash and
I'm like, that doesn't really sound like sweet Child of mine,
you know, especially in the commercial one video that he
uh the commercial, no it was whatever, it was a
bank commercial. I forget the name of the bank. Gives
the fuck uh? And he was doing the solo for
sweet Child that it sounded weird. I don't know, man,
(29:43):
I'm not a musician. Let him do what he's gonna do.
I'm like, oh, Slashes in a commercial cool? I get
to talk about it. These people are still around having
living their life, because again, one day they're gonna be gone.
It doesn't really rub me any sort of way. It
rubs me a certain way when those who can't are criticizing.
(30:06):
Oh but Branda, I'm a diehard Guns and Roses fan.
I love Axel. You gotta be real. He doesn't sound good.
Look I'm telling you. There are times where he sound
good and there are times here that he doesn't. It's
like with any It's like with a lot of people,
a lot of musicians. GIF your out there, We're not.
This isn't American idol. He is making adjustments and you
(30:29):
hear it with the lower register with Melissa Reese helping
out on vocals. Should he do more? I don't know.
Maybe that's something to come. Maybe it's it's gotta be
so difficult when you sang a certain way your entire life.
It's like an athlete. Derek Jeter. I've been hitting the
(30:50):
ball this way my entire life. Why can't I make
contact anymore?
Speaker 4 (30:54):
You know?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Chris Jericho, I've been able to do this moon salt
lift moosalt my entire life. I can't do it anymore.
It's mentally I know how to do it, but I
physically can't do it. Then you have to adjust great,
I think, Axel, and it's easier. Is also easier said
than done, because I don't know how to do it.
(31:16):
Maybe these vocal coaches, you know how to do it.
Breathing techniques. These are things that I guarantee you. Axel
already knows. You're not telling him anything that he doesn't know. Oh, YouTuber,
you were you cracked the code. Axel couldn't do it
with his billions of dollars and all this. He knows,
he knows what he needs to do. And I hope
(31:37):
he's not online because he he doesn't deserve all that hate.
If you want to say, oh, I don't know why
he sounds he did that in ac DC, But you
want to continue to use the word Mickey in a
certain way for lack of a better analogy, be my guest.
I don't like using that because it's going to be
an insult every single time around, and it diminishes everything
he's ever accomplished, no matter what he sounds like. Now,
(32:02):
Welcome to the Jungle is always gonna sound the same
on the record, whether you have it a cassette, you
have it in final A. You gotta through napster. Back
in the day, you're hearing it in a sports arena,
you're hearing it in the supermarket. I just literally heard
it yesterday at a commercial for one of those sports
betting sites. Forever, his voice is forever. He doesn't need
(32:25):
to prove himself anymore. If he didn't want to tour,
he didn't, he could still make a lot of money.
There's so many ways guns and roses can make money.
I know money isn't touring, but there's so many things
that guns and roses don't do, like release music and
all the things that they could make a ton of
money off of that they just they don't do. This
(32:46):
is what Axal likes to do, and this is what
he's doing right now, and I'm gonna enjoy it. And
this is a clip I want to play. And she
kind of you can see what my expression because she
said how I was feeling. Carla Harvey, of course, for
We're Butcher Baby now working with her boyfriend Slash, a
drummer from Anthrax, Charlie Bananty and a new band, The
(33:07):
Violent Hour, and they were both at Back to the Beginning,
of course, Charlie performed with Anthrax and Pantera. Carlo was
there also in support and where was she during Guns
and Rosa set side stage because Dell James put her there,
And here's what she had to say. Keep in mind,
she's not talking about a YouTube clip. She was there.
Speaker 8 (33:28):
So I was on tour a couple of years ago
and we played a show with Guns and Roses and
they went on stage for like something crazy like three hours.
If someone's going to put a three hour show on
for me, I'm not going to complain that they don't
sound like they did in nineteen eighty seven. He puts
on a great show. He's still running around everywhere. He
looks great. And I don't know. I like side stage,
(33:52):
the sound was great. I didn't hear anything amiss. I've
I've Charlie knows. I get really worked up when people.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Talking about.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Why no, I you're the right person, so.
Speaker 8 (34:06):
Upset because and I hate that people aren't allowed to
like to have missteps sometimes or have a bad day.
I've got bad days. I was just on the road
for five weeks with Lords of Acid singing, and I
got really sick, and thank god, everything came out every
day and I was able to sing every day. But
every day I was worried, like, what's going to come
(34:26):
out of my mouth?
Speaker 6 (34:27):
What are people going to think?
Speaker 8 (34:28):
It is incredibly stressful to be a vocalist, and I
can't imagine how stressful it is for people to want
to hear exactly what they heard, like I said in
nineteen eighty seven, all the time. And I think ninety
percent of his vocals are still awesome. I think he's
you know, and man, if your heroes are still out
(34:53):
there again putting on three hour shows for you, two
hour shows.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
For you, take it and shut up. So being there
makes a difference. You want to go back and listen
to the episode of the review that I did about
back to the beginning with the fan that I was
there Jason, or any of the reviews that I've done,
they are vastly different in opinion. And it's not because
they're coming on my podcast and it's a G and
(35:17):
R themed podcast. I have listeners that tell me just
like it is, and I don't tell them to feel
a certain way. I want people to act respectful and
not be a jackass about things. You know, there's a
difference between constructive criticism and just being nasty. If I
have to explain that to you, I mean, I'm gonna
have to explain that to my son. I shouldn't have
(35:39):
to explain that to you at whatever age you are,
if you're able to understand what I'm saying, there's the
difference between Yeah, he just doesn't. It's not the same.
Maybe it's not for you anymore. That's okay. I'm not
here to convince you than just being a nasty piece
of shit and fucking retire. Who needs a you know,
fuck that guy. He was never good. Shut up. He
(35:59):
was never her good. Again, it may not have been
your thing, but to say that, it's so stupid. Taylor
Swift is not my thing. She is so Overlea. Where
am I gonna say she sucks? No, No, she is
so talented and millions love her. It's not my thing.
I like that song style, but it's not my thing.
(36:21):
It's that that's where we're at. So now it's compared
that with davidly Roth, I think it's very brave what
he's doing. But with Vince Neil, Okay, I think we
got to get a point where body shaming. He's got
to stop. We gotta stop doing it with we're talking
about doing with women with men, we get to stop.
We were doing it with Axel. I don't say week
(36:42):
because I wasn't and Vince, and also I'm not gonna
be a hypo. I never made fun of his physical
appearance because I'm too. I'm just insecure about my own,
so I don't make fun of other people's physical appearances.
But his voice, I mean, he's Vince Neil. He never
had like the greatest voice in the world. He had
voice that fit Motley Crue fine, but I it was
(37:04):
one of those that would make fun of, like you
can't understand what he's saying, But that could be said
of so many people. You understand what the fuck Eddie
Vedder is saying. They don't understand what Kirk Obain was saying.
Weird Out did a song about you can't understand what
the hell he's saying. So but with Vince Neil in
the recent videos, it looked like he wasn't giving effort,
like he was going through the motions. There's to me,
(37:26):
this is the second point here. To me, there's the difference.
If you put in the effort and look like you
care and you want to be there, then do whatever
entertain you know, more power to you. But then somebody
on one of my because I said that online on
my Twitter, said that he's been having health issues lately,
And you know what, if that's the case, then I apologize.
And if he's really struggling right now and he needs
(37:47):
to perform for whatever reason or loves performing, but he's
hurting and that's affecting him and it seems a certain way,
then that sucks. And Vince an Axel and davili Off
and bon Jovi, who's been open honest about his vocal issues,
they don't really owe us an answer. They don't owe us.
(38:07):
They gave us the music already. Some of these people
they don't need to tour forever they made their music.
They're not gonna make any guns or roses are not
gonna whether new music comes or not, nothing is gonna
be better than appetite. I'm sorry because it's just the
legacy that it has. It's gonna be could be great music,
but it's just the legacy is already cemented for all
(38:30):
these bands and artists. It's great that they're still out
there doing it and performing for us. No matter whether
they they are they sound like they did back in
the day or not again, if you're out there having fun,
which every single Guns or Roses fan that I've spoken to,
every single one, that's not a generalization. The ones that
I've spoken to, ones that have been on the podcast
(38:53):
have enjoyed themselves. I'm not saying every single one says
actual sounds amazing.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
But it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
It wasn't like it deterred them from everyone wanting to
go again. There'd be setless issues or which shouldn't be
the case anymore. They really mess with the set list now,
or I don't want to go into those new music.
There's conversations that could be had, but the effort, I
mean again, three hours he's running around doing all these things.
(39:20):
The voice. Again, It's all about perspective. So if your
perspective is somebody who makes memes, you're the person who
like to makes the meme of making Axle look bigger
than he is. That's a weird flex.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Bro.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
If you want to make fun of Axel's appearance, find
a real picture, I guess if you want to go
that route, but to manipulate one, you've got to have
some real deep self hatred to do that, and that's coming.
I hated myself for a long time and I would
lash out of people and make fun of people online,
and I don't want to be that person. I'm embarrassed
(39:54):
about it, but I matured therapy you should be. That's
who should be embarrassed. Those are the kind of people
who should be embarrassed. Again, you may think he sounds
a certain way, but if you're hey, this is like
a guns and Roses post about nothing to do with
Axel's voice celebrating his song. And if you're the kind
of person that just posts a Mickey gift, you're just
(40:15):
kind of a loser. There has nothing to do with anything.
You're just there to put somebody down that doesn't know
who you are, that has achieved more than you have.
You may have a nice little life going on for you,
but you'll be forgotten by the world, not by your
family and friends. Nobody were all important. Don't get me
wrong there, but Axel. For as long as human history is,
(40:39):
until we're destroyed by the dinosaurs or they come back,
or we destroy ourselves with AI or whatever, Axel's voice
recorded voice who will live on forever is yours. So
it's just very very strange what people do and react.
So just I feel the way you want to feel
(41:02):
but just maybe conduct yourself differently online. But if that's
the imprint you want to leave, do that again. This
is all aimed at trolls, not opinions. You can have
your opinion. I think that I've given you a well
rounded opinion, because that's what this is. I don't have
any insider info. I don't talk to anybody inside the
Guns to Roses camp. Richard Fordess follows me on Instagram
(41:23):
message show every now and then. Nothing serious, but I
don't know what's really going on. I know what you know,
but I also know how to present the case. And
I think all the cases out there about Axel's voice,
you're just not good. He knows what he's doing and
(41:44):
he's adjusting that the best of his ability. Age all
this stuff is taken to account. He's a single person.
Should not be compared to anybody else. It should not
take away from what he's accomplished already in the music world.
And this is what it is now. You either get
this Guns or Roses or you get none. You want
(42:05):
Steven and izzieback, It's not gonna happen, you know. I
heard an interview recently with Kelly Hansen from Farner who
was their singer for twenty years. You know, I'm not
talking about Lou Graham, the original singer, but you were
asking him because because he just announced his retirement and
he's made himself like kind of the face of Fargner
(42:25):
for a while, and he's those aren't his songs. People
had a problem with it. But he's like, I got
the blessing of Mick Jones to play this catalog and
bring it around the world to people who love it,
and this this music. He's like he used this analogy
of like I have this fruit basket and I got
to pick out like the most ripe, beautiful bananas and
(42:47):
apples and oranges. And it's always like it's a different
foreigner song. It's like I can give you this fruit,
we can enjoy it, or you get nothing. It's you
either get this guns of roses or you get nothing.
We got nothing for a long time, Axel was m
I a we don't you know the wilderness years, as
we affectionately call it. We thought that this reunion wouldn't last.
(43:11):
So it's lasting now. You know, Slash and daff are
going to perform until they're dead. You know that the
way that they're built just like Ozzy or a lot
of these blues artists, you know BB King people performing.
I could see Slash going on. God for Bidd he's
ever in a wheelchair. But like when I saw bb
King in eighty six, he came out at eighty six,
(43:31):
not in eighty six. I saw him at eighty six
years old, came out in a wheelchair and still rock
the place. We don't know what's gonna happen with Axel.
The voice is a different thing. It's a different animal.
It's not like he can pick up another guitar or
another voice box. Could he get more backup vocals? Would
we ever embrace an AI? Should he use auto tune?
(43:55):
My God, God for Biddy uses auto tune? I don't
think I would like that at all. So would you
rather have an AI or auto tuned axle or just
hear him blemishes at all? I think I prefer the
blemishes because I know what the record sounds like. I
know what the record sounds like. If I don't, okay,
I don't like that live version, Okay, I'll go listen
(44:17):
to bad Obsession online, then you know we want my records.
If I don't like the version, I mean bad obsession.
That's a bad example because he's been that's a lower
register song, Rocket Queen. Okay, he doesn't sing You're like, oh,
I don't like the way he sings Rocket Queen anymore. Okay,
then listen to the record again, adjustments. It's gonna be
(44:38):
very interesting how they go keep going forward because I
don't think that the tour is not gonna stop this
year or next. What's gonna happen. What do you do
with the song on Paradise City? Hire a register? Do
you change that song? I don't think you can ever
drop it because I think Guns and Roses have always
played that song. It's a popular song. You can't get
(44:58):
rid of it. So there's just so many things to
take into account why they do what they do, and
why Axel sounds the way that he does, the choices
that he makes. It's not just does he have it
or does he not? There's so much more to it
than that, And it's more than I could tell you
in these forty something minutes, and more than any vocal
(45:19):
coach on this platform or whatever it could tell you.
Only Axel can tell you what's really going on. So
you can either enjoy it or shut the fuck up,
get bent, don't enjoy it anymore. Okay, that's it. Let
people enjoy things. We live in a world so where
(45:43):
we're supposed to be supportive of mental health, and you
have fans who love and adore guns and roses, and
you'll see those certain fans inject themselves into certain conversations
just to sayy, he sucks.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
Now this what.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
What dopamine fix are you getting from doing that? That's
that's all social media. That's not with just guns and roses.
That's just such strange way of how people interact now,
just trying to make people angry or telling them that
they're their way of thinking sucks, that they're they're right,
that you're wrong. I see that stuff online all day.
(46:17):
I could say I'm sometimes I've typed out a response
to somebody and I've just said, you know what, forget it.
I don't I don't need to respond it to this.
I'm just moving on with my life. So just move
on with your life. If if axel rose sounds that
bad to you now, because you know what, again, he
can sing because he's out there doing it, and the
(46:37):
fans hear it, the ones that are there and they're
still paying to see it. So you're just you're casting
a shadow over something that he's doing successfully now. And
while you may not be inaccurate with some of your assessment,
this is what I learned in therapy. It's all perspective.
(46:59):
You're looking at a really poor perspective. Just look at
it different and again, mental health and Axel Rose, knowing
his history, knowing that this was a kid that was
so horrifically horrifically abused, that's putting it lightly. Horrifically abused
(47:19):
as a child. His life could have gone so different.
You could have ended up like Kurt Cobain. As horrible
as that is to say, that's accurate that he could
have ended up like Kurt Cobain. That he's sixty three
years old now, smiling on stage, hugging, slash autographs, galower,
taking pictures with fans, and it's gonna bother you that
(47:40):
he doesn't sound right, that you're gonna focus on he
sounds like a cartoon character. And I'm gonna make a
meme of that. I'm gonna make a video of that
where it's guns and roses, but I'm gonna I'm gonna
superimposed Mickey Mouse's face onto it because you know what,
I hate myself and I have nothing else to do
with my time. I'm year doing this around my other jobs,
(48:03):
trying to view as much positivity as possible. I don't
think I'm really wasting my time doing this, But if
you want to waste your time on hate, focusing on
the negative things, do it, then do it. Enjoy your life.
Axel is enjoying his. I'm going to enjoy mine. And
this is just a one of the quotes that lives
(48:24):
rent free in my head from this podcast. And this
goes towards Axel Rose. And this is not like I'm
not trying to Axel doesn't need my defense. Famous people
don't need my defense. This is more of a mental
health conversation about if you really are a mental health advocate,
be careful what you say online because you don't know
(48:46):
who reads it, whether it's the famous person or a
fan or whatever. This is from Dave Navarro talking about
depression and how it doesn't matter if you're the common
man or you seemingly have everything.
Speaker 7 (48:57):
I've suffered with depression my whole life. Okay, I lost
my mother to murder at fifteen, so I have a
deeply rooted history in trauma and PTSD, lucky enough to
join a band at seventeen Jane's addiction, and there were
all these finish lines in my head, like, once we
get a record deal, I'm going to be okay. Once
(49:19):
we get a gold record, We're going to be okay.
Once I make a certain amount of money, We're going
to be okay.
Speaker 4 (49:24):
Once we get a.
Speaker 7 (49:25):
Certain level of visibility, or I get a certain girl,
or once I make it here, I'm going to be okay.
And I'm here to tell you that there is no
external thing that is going to fix the deep rooted
problem of trauma. So it's not about like, well he
had everything, why was he depressed? Depression is a is
(49:46):
a mental disorder. It is something that can be worked
with and can be held and guided and healed.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
So look, I've been guilty too of being a hater.
I don't want to be that way. I want to
change my son to be raised that way. But what
are we doing? What are we doing that We're spending
so much time focusing on this guy's voice. Well, we hear,
we know there's weakness. It's like I got Paul McCartney
when people start criticizing his voice at the SNL performance,
(50:15):
it's Paul McCartney, what are we doing? Do you criticize
your mom for getting older? Hey, grandpa, how come we don't?
What's with all the wrinkles on your face? It happens
to all of us. It happens to all of us.
So just take that into account the next time you
watch Guns and Roses or an actual Rose clip online,
(50:38):
and hopefully I'll see you at the next Guns of
Roses show. All right, So that does it for this
episode of Appetite for Distortion. Please let me know your thoughts,
whether it's on the YouTube comments or wherever you listen
to the podcast. Conversation continues in between the broadcasts on
social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Leave me a message on
(51:00):
the website afdpod dot com. Lots of things to do
up there. By March. Checkout Guns Roses on this day.
If you check out every day, you can find out
what happened in the history of GNR or GNR adjacent
And also before I leave, because it's up on the website. Now,
rest in peace because it's the highlight of the day.
(51:22):
But rest in peace to David Roach from Junkyard. He's
been battling. He had been battling cancer and just a
lot of physical problems and financial issues the last few years,
and I guess I'm just glad he's not suffering anymore.
I really enjoyed my two conversations with him. Just a
very kind man. Junkyard perhaps never got the respect they
(51:44):
deserve in the landscape of rock and roll, like those
who know know, but it's just very sad. So I
just want to say, before I get out of here,
rest in peace to the David Roach. See, you could
be gone the next day. He could be gone. So
before you tell Axel Rose to retire, before you tell
(52:04):
Chris Jericho to retire, before you tell Pamela Anderson to
not making movies anymore, look in the mirror and just
realize you're gonna be gone one day too. All right,
So that does have this episode of appetite for distortion.
When will you see the next one? In the words
of Axel Rose concerning Chinese democracy, I don't know as
soon as the word, but you'll see it.
Speaker 7 (52:25):
Thanks to the lame massed security.
Speaker 6 (52:26):
I'm going home
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