Peter Napoliello: Part IV (Geffen, Guns N' Roses, and The Power of Legacy) | Ep. 547 - Appetite for Distortion

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And why it matters with GNR is because they prove
the power of legacy when it's done right.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite for Distortion, Episode number five
hundred and forty seven. My name is Brando. Happy New Year,
your bad Apples, and Happy New Year, Peter. Happy New Year,
Peter napole Yello. How are you, sir?

Speaker 1 (00:24):
I'm great, Brando, and happy twenty twenty six to you too.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's crazy twenty twenty six and you celebrated it just
a few hours before me here in New York. Here
you're still in Estonia, although it looks like you're in
You can be in a discotheque right now, anywhere in
the world right now with your setup. I love your setup.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
I'm putting together a new addition to my studio. When
I had done my radio show a few years back,
when COVID hit, they closed building down, so I elected
to build a studio in my house. And in this
part of the world, getting gear and getting the right equipment, wiring, etc.
Is like pulling teeth. So I was able to finally

(01:06):
get it together. And now I'm starting to put a
lot of video stuff in now and I'm really entertaining
doing a podcast. Believe it or not, I'm going to
cross over to the dark side with you with you guys,
but I just got to learn a little bit more
about how social media works and the algorithms and things like.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
That podcast Everyone in the World and Their Mother as
a podcast. I still it's going to be ten years
ten years that I've been doing this podcast this year,
because that's the amount of time of the reunion. The
Guns and Roses are three union, whatever you want to
call it. So if you're not familiar. Peter the former

(01:46):
senior vice president of promotions at Geffen EMI and A
and M Records. He has been on this podcast a
few times before. I believe this makes number four number four.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, I feel like the old days of the Johnny
Kosh Show, where I'm a repeat guest, you're a.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Fan favorite, and with under the guys of New Years
and Guns and Roses. Of course, you know, I want
to I'm not usually somebody who does New Year's resolutions,
because you shouldn't try to change something about yourself every day,
and it's just, I don't know, it's just like a
fun thing you can say you did I have a
New Year's resolution to do this, but on the show,

(02:24):
I have a new Year's resolution, and that's to get
better at crediting listeners, which I do, but I feel
like I was. I've been slacking lately. I've been because
my son is usually running around during interviews, so I
feel like I have to keep so focused on the
guests and get in and out before he freaks out.
Right now, he's at the park, so I'm able to

(02:45):
know I have my thoughts together a little bit. So
shout out to Desi Benjamin who first was the one
who recommended you come on the podcast. My boy Desi
long old school promoter of manager.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, yeah, he had face to face. He had Mark Curry,
who was an amazing artist, and Desi had a company
called Subculture Entertainment, and yeah, he was really great and
great guy. Still, I'm still a close friend to his.
I still speak to him and I love him to death.
He's in Las Vegas.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Now, okay, yeah, yeah, other than you. He actually I
was talking to him this morning on Facebook, which you
and I speak through just recommending guests, and I appreciate
that so much because that's how this podcast has lasted.
This I wouldn't have known obviously, Peter Napoleello for those
who know in the know is a name, but it's
just unless it's in the liner note it's subby G

(03:38):
and R song. This is a name I'm not going
to come across. And I've been so lucky to learn
about your life and to get inspired by you like
you've just been very That's why I'm looking forward to
talking to you again today. And You're like, hey, let's
let's do another one. So this was like your idea
and I was like, yeah, of course, why wouldn't I
want to talk to you again? So I got to
get better at shot out listeners like Deisi about and

(04:04):
again I get to say to Matthew, who helped me
get Juliettes, I don't know if you ever if you
met Juliette because she was dating Izzy during the Confine
the Okay, Alan was very Allen actually had reached out
to me. He listened to that episode and he had
nothing but amazing things to say about her. So it's

(04:24):
crediting those and I also need to credit and you'll
help me because this goes to the promotion part of
it and everything. It's how it's getting things. I have
to make corrections I guess on this podcast, which I
do when I remember I guess I Sometimes it's obviously
my fault I because it's not a daily news show
where it's like the evening news and you can make

(04:46):
yesterday's corrections on the following show. I'll do it on
maybe a podcast down the line. I'll talk it about
on social media. So one I need to correct I
guess myself, which wasn't a mistake I had on a
few episodes ago. Dan Cleary from Jane's Addiction, who did
the last tour from Guns and Roses does? This was

(05:08):
the last tour of twenty twenty five before they go
on to this year the first tour Apparently they have
done without the mc mcbob and why am I forgetting there?
There's their stage man, Tom Mayhew, without the Mayhew Brothers
since like eighty seven or whatever. So he was the
tech during that time, and I was like, oh, did
you get to do since you filled in for mcbob,

(05:29):
did you get to do? You know, ladies and gentlemen
you wanted the best? Will they even funking me? He's like, no, no,
that's Tom Actually, Richard Fordyce and a bunch of all
the listeners, DMed me saying, I was right. It is
mcbob who does that. So I thought I was wrong
because why would I correct the guy who was out

(05:49):
on tour with GNR. I didn't know. I didn't know.
So now we're going to go back to a pretty
big correction. I need to kick off the year with.
And it's about what somebody you know. And you worked
with Alan Niven back in the day. You were there
for appetite and also lies and illusion and the illusions.

(06:09):
But Richard also rightfully, so he corrected me or reminded
me of a correction. He told me, I guess I
didn't know what I could say, but he said, now
I can quote him that what Alan said about is
he Stradlin going to a reunion rehearsal is factually incorrect

(06:31):
that he never did that. He doesn't know where he
got that story from. Is he being part of the
reunion is not whatever the story Alan said, And that
story went pretty viral when he said about is he
showing up? And also last year Alan talked about and
this is something I massed. I guess I tried to
make a correction on the next episode or the next

(06:53):
interview I did with Alan, but people aren't going to
capture that until Axel owns fifty percent of GNR. I
understand how that looks optically, but that also doesn't the
business tactics and people were in and out of the
band for so long. So I asked Alan about it
the second time and he's like, oh, I don't know firsthand.

(07:13):
So Alan has his sources. I don't want to call him.
It's his stories, or maybe he has bad sources because
he doesn't work with the band anymore. So I want
to kind of get those out because you're somebody who
also worked closely with them back in the day, but
you don't work with them now, so now I'm just
going to get your opinion. But I needed to get
that out, so New Year's resolution, shout out the fans more.

(07:39):
And also if I make if there's a factually incorrect story,
I mean, it's not ever going to come purposely for me,
like if I read if I say something again that
a guest has said that was wrong, let me know,
or it's maybe I'm just have the mindset of like
there's always three sides to it, your side and that's

(07:59):
the truth. Like I just here's what I've heard. You
make up your opinion whatever.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
There's always room for a little fact checking on everything.
So as long as egos are in check, and as
long as nobody gets hurt. You know, you can call
it hear say, you can call it gossip, you can
call yourself a yent though, whatever you want to do.
But all in all, it's information and people ingested and
digested and spit it out in different ways. But speaking

(08:28):
of Fortis, that guy is a monster guitar player. I
mean for me, I mean, I think in my past
conversations I explained to you that I'm a guitar freak
and I was never able to play well myself. But
I'm proud to say that I saw the greats throughout
my life. I've seen Hendricks at the Fillmore East on

(08:49):
New Year's Eve with the band of Gypsies, which was
mind blowing. I've sat so close to Jeff Back many
times and watched them play. I saw Johnny win Or
like five times in one year. I work with Page,
as I mentioned before, Jimmy Page on the Outrider album,
and there have been many great conversations him sitting in
my office and were chopping it up and the same

(09:12):
thing goes for Clapton and all the other guitar heroes,
including Prince. But I got to put Richard Fords right
up there, because that guy is incredible, and sometimes he's overshadowed.
Sometimes he's overlooked, but those that know know, and my
props go out to him in a big, big way.

(09:33):
I pay homage to that guy. I don't know him
well well, but I know him well enough to give
him a hug and a nod and a wink. And
if I ever see him, you know, it'll always be good.
But a while back, I was taking a holiday from
here Europe, and I went back home and I was
staying at my sister's house in New York, and I
was watching the Jay Leno Show and they had a

(09:56):
band called Country Bones playing. Country Bones consisted of a
guy named Larry Dennison. I believe his name is Excuse me,
I apologize if I'm not correct, but he was one
of the texts on the jay Leno Show. But he
was also a killing musician, and he was Dio's bass
player for years. And he put together a band and

(10:17):
he had Richard in it, and all of a sudden
they hit the stage and they just knocked me on
my ass and it was magic. And I made my
business right away is to get a hold of Larry.
I wanted to get involved with him somehow, some way,
and I took a bunch of meetings with him in
La Unfortunately nothing of a materialized, but got together with

(10:38):
Fortis out there, went over to Fortis's house, hung out
with him, showed me some of his guitars and really
really solid guy. And I really this guy's a monster
guitar player. He really really is up there with the best.
He can play his ass off. So in terms of
him being guns n' Roses, being a part of Guns
and Roses, that to me is the per fit. And

(11:02):
I like to consider myself a connoisseur both on guitar
players and guns n' Roses, and that's a marriage made
in pain Weber. I think that's a really beautiful fit.
And the way he balances with Slash is really really
respectful too, So props to Richard and Richard if you're listening,
big hello buddy.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Which is such a it can't have a laugh, like
if he's listening, you know, ten years ago starting this
this podcast with my friend Ian not really any goal
in mine, let alone, whether interviewing or having a member
of gen R listen is still kind of incredible to me.
And I want to get your opinion because of course

(11:41):
Richard is featured, and I appreciate thank you Richard for
correcting that letting giving me an opportunity to correct it.
And I don't want to spread any sort of information
because it's I'm a guy who's had both Alan excuse
me as I hit my microphone. I've had Alan and
dug On who obviously have conflicting stories. So it's like

(12:03):
I sometimes I just leave it up to believe who
you want to believe, Like I just I really don't know.
And maybe it's my fault because you would think I
would take it seriously as somebody who does this, not
that they don't take it seriously, but it's guns n' roses.
It's not like we're giving away government secrets. So sometimes
I'm like, all, I believe whatever you want to believe.
And I don't really get too angry one way or another,

(12:26):
but I understand if you're involved in the band. Not
saying Richard he wasn't angry, but just saying, hey, this
is something that didn't happen, and there's still fans out
there crying for Izzy, which I never saw him with GNR.
I wish I did. I mean, if I was younger,
maybe I would be the same if that's the GNR
I grew up with. But I'm just not one of

(12:47):
those people. I'm happy with what we got.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
But it was as he was, you know, an unbelievable songwriter,
a wonderful presence, a hell of a guy, really really sweet,
accessible guy, and he was the invisible backbone of the band.
So that's the way you have to look at it,
you know. And it's sad that he's gone because I

(13:11):
think he was a big, big part of great songwriting.
But like I always say, Brando, never say never. You
never know what could happen. You know. You think about
the origins and the myth building around his band, you know,
and the La explosion and why it matters, and you
got to tell yourself that Guns and Roses just didn't arrive.

(13:31):
They detonated, you know, from Hollywood Rows to La Guns
to Guns n' Roses, that whole Sunset strip scene with
the hair metal polish. This evolved into something that you
really can't put into words at certain times. But what
was and what is now or very very different, but

(13:54):
it's still relevant and it's really great. And you know,
the early gigs, the chaos and the reputation lives on.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
You saw so much of the evolution of you know,
taking this band that nobody wanted right and then having
it become lies you know, stripped down and using the
EP and then losing. You know, how did you you
know what? Let me bring up as I said, I
want to be better with my New Year's resolution. So
rather than just saying oh, a listener asked me this

(14:24):
because while I look it up, it's how did the
label respond to Izzy leaving? Because that's a that's a
big deal. You as the you know, VP of promotions,
you know, and you have a key guy. Is there
something that the label? Is there a way that you respond?
Do you respond? Is it just a band? So? Actually

(14:45):
this is from Marty from Michigan. Uh so, So Marty
actually used to be in a band called the London
Souls with Tommy London, who now is on Serious XM.
Sorry I needed to say that Marty is a nice guy,
so he wants to know about how you guys felt
about when is he left? Is that how does the
label feel about a band change or remember change?

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Well, first and foremost, we were numb to anything because
so much transpired before that record was even made, this band,
so it was like anything was possible on any given day.
It was heartbreaking. There was a lot of I don't

(15:28):
know how to put it, being politically correct, but there
were a lot of side taking, a lot of accusations
why he left. Nobody really knew. It just happened, and
it happened quick, and the transition happened quick, so it
was almost like they didn't miss a beat. He was gone,
and they moved on and the show went on as
the same way that happened, the same way it happened

(15:50):
with Steven. When Steven left, you know, Storm stepped in
and it was upward and onward, and it was like
a freight train. But speaking as for myself, I mean,
of course I was devastated. I knew relatively soon that
there was going to be something solo coming from Izzy
and Juju Hounds was great, and you know, you've got

(16:13):
to respect his reason for leaving. Now, there's a lot
of things you mentioned, conflicting stories, and people have different
interpretations and people fact check. There might be a lot
of things that I've said and that I'll say tonight
that people might contradict and might say no, no, no, no, no,
that's not right, And that's okay. But is he left

(16:33):
for his reason? He got tired of it. He wanted
to be in the biggest club band in the world.
He didn't want to be in the biggest stadium, touring
NonStop every night in a different city. And it was
it was serious enough and hurtful enough, and you know,

(16:56):
he was trying to deal with sobriety at the same time.
That he made a conscious choice. And obviously it was
the right choice for him. Because he's still doing very
very well, and he's still upward and onward, and you know,
he's still be he's still an enigma. You don't hear
too much about him.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
I mean, we think he's doing well. Whenever we do
hear about him, he's doing well.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
That that's I would bet that he's doing quite well.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
I'm sure. I mean, he's living, he's living his life.
That The last I heard about him is when I
got to interview Bernard Fowler from the Stones, because he
posted a picture of him is the backstage show, and
as he's talking about writing music, and I'm just where
is this music? I mean, or is it just as
a musician you can just write music for yourself, I mean,

(17:40):
because there's still fans not just clamoring for him. You know,
it's crazy to get ten years into this reunion, forty
one years into this band at twenty twenty six, and
we talk about Richard Fords, who's been in the band
for so long and is contributing to these you know,
new if you want to say, new ish songs. Who's
getting praise not just from you or I but there

(18:02):
was a whole post from Duf mcgagan about it. It's just, uh,
it's just interesting to still have these kinds of conversations
about these this have these storylines still be storylines all
these years later. Uh, fans are passionate and they want
to hear more from They want to hear more from Izy,
they want to hear more from Guns and Roses. It's
like this, is there a band like this that's that

(18:23):
has you know, they don't have the biggest catalog. This
is totally offshoot Chinese democracy era, you know, which is
really its own storyline I mean with all the bands
that you've artist you've worked with, like, is there anyone
that can even compare to this as far as the
storylines and the potential controversy and the actual you know,

(18:44):
music being backing it up like it's they're not all controversy,
they're actually backing it up with with the actual talent.
Is there No one comes to mind for me like
on that on the same level for me, no.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Obvious reasons. I mean, if you think about it, you
know this started, like I have said before, they gave
birth to the music, We gave birth to the career.
And let's look at it honestly, Appetite for Destruction didn't
sound like nineteen eighty seven. That was the perfect storm.

(19:21):
And what matters most, it was one of the most
successful debut albums ever and guess what it almost didn't
happen recording of that album, budget production, studio tension. You
talk about the labeled doubts and the risk tolerance that's involved.
How about radio resistance and MTV's delayed Embrace. You know,

(19:45):
the list goes on controversial album artwork, and you know,
you look at it. In today's world, nobody would tolerate
that no label would put up with anything that's in
that in that record, And I had a big punctuation
mark at the end of that comment. You know, Appetite

(20:08):
was the album that refused to behave. And you know,
when you have a band like that and you take
it and you make it a big hit and you
look fifty years or forty years ahead and it's still
out there, rolling and still relevant, you know, there's a

(20:29):
stroke of genius there, you know, and you've got to
control that chaos. You know, it is no doubt that Axel.
You know, he's unstoppable as a lyricist, and he's a
perfectionist to boot, not to mention, he's a force in
nature coupled as being one of the most understood men

(20:52):
in rock. And I've said this before with you Brando.
A lot of the stuff that he deals with and
a lot of the things that he portrays, there's a
lot of misunderstanding, and you've got to respect him because
he's a man of conviction and he sticks to his guns.
He's not politically correct, he doesn't play the game. He

(21:12):
sees it his way, he does it his way, and
I admire people like that. And it doesn't jibe with anybody,
because he's a lone Wilf when it comes to that,
not too many people and not too many artists to
be yet, not too many entertainers, be it in film,
music or television, are like that. He's one of a kind.
And then you add to the chemistry of him and Slash,

(21:35):
you know, and Slash can't be replaced, and you're throw
in Duff's punk image, Adler's old groove and that swing
drum sound is and as I said before, the invisible
backbone of Issy. You know, that was a time and
a place.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
And do you remember that because you've shared some photos
online and I've shared them before, including leading up to
our conversation. Do you remember the time and place with
you when Slash and is he the where that photo
was taken or the one with you in Axel? Do
you remember those those?

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I remember like it was yesterday. That
was in northern California. I think it's the I believe
they were opening for Aerosmith on that tour. That was
the Aerosmith tour where they were out there doing the
dates and I want to say it was the Pacific
Amphitheater if I'm correct, but it was not in the
southern California area. That was up north, and I jumped

(22:34):
on a plane and went up there and hung out
with him, and uh, you know that was early on.
Let me tell you something, that show was incredible. They
really were great.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
See that's something, and I admit it. I think that's
that's lost in a lot of personalities today and I
hate the group myself into you know, personality, somebody who
makes content. It was a microphone, you know. I feel
like I'm a little different because I'm old school radio
and I had to do it before everybody and their
mother had a podcast. But it's had. People are still

(23:09):
talking about that everything You're talking about, that chemistry back
then and the invisible backbone of Busy, but we're also
comparing it's I think for this is kind of like
the invisible backbone of this new band holding it together
for so long while there has been changes. While Duff
would come in being so cool, like when Izzy would

(23:32):
come back and make a you know, appearances. I mean
this is years years ago, of course, when Axel still
had the corn rows and I liked that look. By
the way, we had the corn rows and the ponytail.
I thought that that was cool, but nowadays, you know,
it's very different. Obviously, the push and the struggle to
get appetite across the finish line. Now we're talking about

(23:54):
just songs, just songs that have been around for the
most part for twenty years or so. And I I asked,
if you listen, did you listen to Nothing and at Less?

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Did you get a chance I've heard both of them, yes, okay.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
And I hope I'm not speaking at a school here,
you know, because in my conversation with Fortas, he says
he just really loves that song Nothing and just really
is really proud of it, and it's a great It
is a great song, and so is Atlas. And I
like the majority of these new Ish songs. Obviously you
don't work with the band now, but I'm just trying
to like. And a lot of fans are making trying

(24:28):
to make sense of It's ten years of the reunion.
It's not even just talking about like an album. Obviously
an album would be great, It would be great. You
think ten years for an album, it's been like it's
been since two thousand and eight, since Chinese democracy. But
we're getting these slow drips of a couple songs that
existed and reworked, And I want to always make the

(24:52):
side argument there were songs like that that existed, an
appetite on the illusions that were there before then that
we've got reworked. So I understand that part of it.
But as a promotions guy, I'm just trying to think
what is what's the endgame? Is it just the slow
leak of like, hey, we're going on tour again, here's
a couple of other here's some updated, fresh, unreleased material.

(25:15):
There's no real true interviews. I know Axel stopped doing
interviews after a while. During your day. I remember conversations
I've had with Doug Goldstein about how conversations he would
have with Axel about like I don't need to explain
my art. I don't want to explain my art. You
know if this famous artist, if Picasa didn't explain it,

(25:37):
why do I have to explain it? Or Alan Niven
saying you got to get because they're going to make
up stories about you, so you know what, I'm going
to make up stories and the press for you. And
now one would release stories about Axel like killing dogs
or something which was obviously completely false. Got the media
to react the way that he wanted and just manipulating them.
Now we get little to nothing pun intended is do

(25:59):
you have a what are your thoughts on that? It
could be very frustrating as a fan, and there are
many fans that are frustrated. I have there's a little
frustration in my part, but I have other priorities. I
have a sogn I'm not going to get all twisted
about new G and R music at this point, but
I'll leave it here. My wife actually made a joke
the other day about the lack of new Guns and

(26:19):
Roses music, Miss Steve Matthews fan. So it's infecting my
home now, the lack of music. So I'm just curious
of your thoughts of just the lack of communication with
the band when they released these new songs, they was
delayed two days without mentioning why or what happened. It
just keeps going, just like when they lost so arm

(26:41):
or Izzy or hadl or Izzy. Because the train keeps going.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, let me put the jail like this. It could
be a number of reasons why those songs were released
the way they were released, and if anybody cares or
not on the inside, you just don't know. And as
far as Axel's concerned, my personal opinion is he doesn't
need to explain himself or his theory orist philosophy to anybody.

(27:09):
He's been there and done that, and let's not forget
when he has done that. In the past. There was misogyny,
misogyny accusations, there were race controversies, there was the violence
at the shows and the riots. They were never about
political correctness that band. So you know, if Axel has

(27:32):
something to say, believe me, you stand up enough to
get in front of a microphone and he'll say it.
But as far as interviews are concerned, now, they got
nothing to say. They're too busy out there doing their
shows and they're doing a bang up job and they're
performing and that is exhausting. The schedule, air keeping, the

(27:52):
pace that they're going at, it's not stop. You know,
they just keep going and going and going and going
and going, and I got to give it up. He
looks great too, He looks happy. I mean, I see
a lot of the snippets on the internet. You know
he's smiling now, he's more. He did more interaction with
the fans as he's exiting a car or if he's

(28:12):
in any particular city, he's going up and he's signing things.
He's got a great smile on his face. He looks
like he's getting into really, really good shape too. So
I'm happy for him. And you know, my personal opinion
is you don't need to do interviews, and at the
time comes to do an interview, if there's a new
record and new album that drops, or something that he

(28:35):
feels he needs to explain, he'll step up.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
You're right if he needs to say something, because he
was saying a lot of things on Twitter for a while.
But it's a double edged sword, I think more now
than ever, because whenever Axel did explain himself back then,
people would still find a way to make him the enemy.
You know, it's funny a halfway now.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
I mean, we live in a new dawn. I mean,
would cancel. Culture is a little bit behind us. But
you know, there are so many great television shows that
were very popular in the past that that kept us
laughing comedians. Today, everybody's got to have a muzzle on.
Everybody's offended. Everybody's you know, worried about saying something. He

(29:19):
wouldn't be afraid of saying anything. But I don't think
he needs to walk that plank, so to speak. I
think he's better off focusing on routing out that tour,
staying in great shape, getting out there, giving the fans
what they want.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
I think it's it is the smart way to do it,
because again, you know as much as any fan. I'm
not even just talking about selfishly on this show like
to Dare to Dream, but I'm just saying, like if
he was on it with Eddie Trunk or Joe Rogan
or something like that, I don't know. It's just would
be the way people treat artists today. It would be

(29:58):
dissected to a point where I don't even know if
it could be enjoyed, because there's always like the fan
base that enjoys things. And I guess this is a
question I wanted to ask because you mentioned how acts,
because he does look great, and it's always funny when
somebody still tries to make the fat jokes, which he
was never anyway, I'd say, I I don't want to
get off on a too much of a tangent about that,

(30:19):
but it's these aging artists, these because you have pictures
with and you've worked with Schaer, you worked with the
Rolling Stones and the way people. You know, I have
to escape out of my guns and Roses bubble and
then look at other artists while I scroll on TikTok
and all these other things I have to be on
because of the podcast and people saying you have to

(30:41):
certain artists have to retire, you're too old, it's not
the same. I just don't agree with that, Like even
Frankie Valley, which is clearly a tape, and I don't
think there's anyone's trying to like lie to you. I mean,
the guy is like ninety something. He's just out there.
You get the see him while he's alive kind of thing.

(31:04):
I feel like we have to shift how we treat
our aging artists. About if a woman who doesn't fit
in the same spandex like she did in the eighties
does today or Axel he can't. You know, see you're
expecting sixty three sixty four year old Axel to hit
that same scream. I know it's not the same. You

(31:25):
want it to be the same, but it's just not.
You're not the same. I'm not the same. I have
less hair. You know, things change, So I guess curious
of your opinion about how we treat because you worked
with them on your heyday and now you're seeing them
a lot of these artists still out there doing it.
Like Rod Stewart, they're doing it, and I guess I
hate seeing comments about these artists need to know when

(31:47):
to retire.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Shut up, wellby shut up cheer critic. The bottom line
is if people are willing to pay the ticket, and
the ticket prices are pretty expensive today, and make a
night of it and show up, and you know what,
you see the audience in those shows, be it Rod
or whoever. Everybody's singing along, everybody's smiling. They're catering to

(32:08):
their core, catering to their demographic. Look what are they
going to do sit home and watch Oprah Winfrey. They
can stand, they can go out, they can sing. They're
still holding the notes. Frankie Valley, you know that guy
had an incredible voice. And if he can still do
it even a quarter of what he had, you know

(32:30):
he's worthy. Rod still goes out there and they're just
banging out the hits. The Beach Boys are going to
be out there again. If you've ever been to a
Beach Boys concert, sadly we don't have the Wilson brothers anymore,
well three of them are gone, but you still got
Mike Love up there kicking it out and every single
song is a smash. You walk away a satisfied customer

(32:53):
and the next day you move on. So again, these
people that sit back as armchair critics and the guy,
I don't know what this. I want to do that. Yeah,
what are they doing? You know what I mean? This
isn't back there being critical. The thing that bothers me
though about what's going on right now, and I shouldn't
say it bothers me. I'm a little mythed by.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
It is.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Young blood who is for me, unbelievable. I love the guy.
I think he's great. I think he presents rock in
a really really honest, sophisticated fashion. He throws down, he
can sing, he's a performer. He's got the swagger, he's
got the look, he's got it all. But there's something

(33:37):
called in my personal opinion, and I might be wrong,
and there might be people that are going to see
this podcast and say, well, this guy's dreaming. But for me,
sometimes there's a thing called overexposure. When I was young,
there was nothing better than to look at the liner
notes on the back of the album and the picture

(34:00):
that you'd see in Cream magazine and Hit Parade or whatever,
and you look at that artist and you fantasize and
you come up with your own interpretation of who they are.
It let your mind wander. It's the magic of music.
But when you have social media now, and there isn't
a day goes by that you see these guys over

(34:21):
and over and over and over and over and over
and over again, it becomes a little bit much. Not
to mention he's got a great album out called Idols,
which a lot of people are overlooking, including me, because
I'm so focused on what he's doing with Aerosmith, and
I'm so focused on what he's doing with Billy Corgan

(34:41):
and the Smashing Pumpkins. Now, it's like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You know, the time, we know the planet is spending
a little bit quicker and time is going a lot faster.
But let's take a look at our priorities. Let's line
things up. That's my professional, personal opinion. How to handle
a career that brings you longevity. There's no burnout, there's

(35:02):
no overexposure. It's like, who wants to eat Chinese food
every fucking day? You know you can't, you don't, but
you look at the likely I hear you. So in
regards to guns and roses, I like the fact that
they're not out in everybody's face. They still are an enigma.
Nobody knows what Axel is doing, what he does in

(35:25):
his downtime. Nobody sees him out in public. The paparazzi
aren't catching him out there, with the exception if he's
leaving a venue or he's getting out of a car
to go into the venue or walking out of his hotel.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Not now, I mean during the socialite Axel era of
like yeah, of course six when he's fighting Tommy hillfigure
or whatever. Let me, I want to bounce off that
as you're frozen, either you're you're doing your best mannequin
impression or your your video has been frozen for like
the last three minutes. But I hear you, I'm just fine.
That's so you don't want to interrupt you because you

(35:59):
had a great story. I don't know. You're a handsome
guy anyway, so it doesn't matter if you're still or moving.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
It's Okay, am I still frozen?

Speaker 2 (36:04):
Now, yeah, you're still frozen. I'll let you know when
you're moving. But I just want to bounce off because
it was brought up recently, and this will help bring
up another fan question as well. When I had Matt
Soremon recently and Matt played on that album with Arrowsmith
and Young Blood, and he, you know, when I asked
him about that, he kind of compared doing young Blood

(36:25):
having the back in the Saddle cover with guns and
roses covering Sympathy for the Devil, how they were the
young bloods of that generation. And I didn't, you know,
Matt said what he said. I didn't want to push back,
which I don't agree with. I understand that from an
abstract sense where you just want a more maybe more
vibrant name on a very popular song to be out there.

(36:50):
But what you're saying is true where you know, young
Blood has his own album, which I'm not overly familiar with.
I've heard maybe one or two original songs from the guy,
but I know more about him his work with Arrowsmith
and now this is the song with which I believe
is his song, but it's more about doing it with
Smashing pumpkins and it's just interesting and you should read

(37:12):
the comments. I think the over promotion is doing him
a disservice because there's a lot of he has talent,
but there's a lot of rock fans that just feel
like he's just either either either by him or the
other artists that they're either like you're using each other
for like, which I guess is kind of the point
of being like, hey, I'm working with these established rock artists.

(37:34):
Oh hey, I'm staying relevant by working with this young guy.
There are a lot of fans who feel that way,
but he's obviously extremely talented. Just because it may not
be my favorite, I don't want to be then I'd
be a hypocrite. If somebody doesn't like guns or roses,
somebody doesn't like Axel, that's I don't need to convince them.
So it's everyone has their own prior prerogative as far

(37:55):
as what they enjoy. And he's fine. I'm just a
little annoyed with the he's here to say rock music
kind of thing. I just that needs to come organically,
just like with gn R that came organically, that there's
no one here to the last time, I'll let you
take over and your your camera is still frozen. F YI.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Remember when this zoom or is it your camera or I.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
Don't know, I'm moving around, I don't see. I mean
we can pause, you know what. You can shut off
your camera and turn it back on. See if that works.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Let me give it a shout.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Hold on you can and we can. I'll leave this
s in. This is uh you know, I want to
be real on this podcast. And that's the organicness I'm
talking about. It's when people people can sense that, whether
it's in music, whether it's wrestling, which I talk about
a lot, when someone's and I'm not saying young Blood
is not real or organic, but I think it's the

(38:47):
machine that is really making them seem not that way
and forcing it like they did with like, Hey, the
Strokes are the new band of Vines the Hives, and
they were like all the the bands and this they
aren't really they're around kind of except for the Vines.
But they didn't save rock and roll. It's I don't
know if someone's gonna save rock and roll but needs saving.

(39:09):
It's not gonna be by some sort of self proclaimed
not by a media proclaimed uh self. You know, savior
is what I'm trying to say.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
Am I backup? Or am I still frozen with you?

Speaker 2 (39:21):
Are frozen as a turkey?

Speaker 1 (39:24):
It's called up here in Estonia. Winter is finally around.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
So I'm gonna stop your video and then I'm gonna
have a pop back up. I'm gonna ask you to
start the video again and see if that works. And
now you're moving. Look at that. I should have done
that ten minutes ago. But now your move. But we
heard you. People got to see my face move, whichause
I know that's very enjoyable. But that's something else I

(39:47):
kind of wanted to bring up. It's not a correction
because I started the episode with like, hey, I want
to make corrections if the if I guest says something
wrong or if I say something wrong. But there was
a lot of like when I posted that clip about
Matt like, people like really like, but I also would
be in the fan, and I understood that I wasn't.
I didn't side with Matts.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
Hey.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
The Guns of Roses was the young blood. They already
were an established act. They already had like hits and
they promoted their album like you knew. They had their
albums In addition to these collaborations that they did with
young Blood. Yes, thank you for your point of view,
because as a promotions guy like it just seems promote
what he's doing, don't just promote the collaboration.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Again, strictly, solely my opinion, I love the young Blood.
I don't think he's saving rock and roll. But what
I do think he's doing is he's got a massive
young audience base out there that needs to know what
rock and roll is. They've been spoon fed a lot
of shit and they really don't know. And if they

(40:53):
can rediscover Aerosmith's the greatness of Aerosmith, and if they
can rediscover the prolific sund and the songwriting of Smashing Pumpkins,
so be it. But again, my opinion, my opinion only.
I'm Capitol Records, which is signed, which has Young Blood,

(41:13):
and I got a brand new album. I want to
work that album. I don't want to cannibalize it with
doing inside projects. I don't think Youngblood, whose real name
is Dominic Harrison, I don't think dom is one of
the type of guys saying, oh look at me, I'm
playing with this guy and I'm playing with that guy. No,
I think he's out there having fun. I think he's

(41:36):
a really really solid human being. And if you've really
followed him and seeing his interaction with his fans, he
really cares about his fans. A lot of his fans
suffer from a lot of emotional distress. That kid is
hugging them, consulting them, making them feel like they're one.

(41:56):
He is doing great, great, great humanitarian work as well
as making great music. Watch this guy. Watch this guy's
older material. He had a little bit of an emo
vibe some years. Bag he's been around for a minute,
he's been in the UK, he's gone through some transitions,
some changes. But let me tell you something. You put

(42:19):
a microphone in front of that kid, and he'll go
and he'll go, and he'll go very entertaining, very very smart.
He's Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Steven Tyler, everybody combined.
And he's got pipes and he can write. The guy
is great. I really really believe in him. And you know,

(42:41):
if he was my artist, believe me, I'd be all
over people. You know, he's already monstrous, but he's done
a lot, and plus he's got his own festival, Bloodfest,
which is going to be a monster powerhouse tour that
I think is probably going to happen again this summer.
You know, Ozzie and I.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
Didn't even know that, And you're making really great points
because of his fan base in the age, which is
my secondary theme of mental health. You know, if you
have somebody who champions that is open about their struggles, that's.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
To the point where he was. He's this Sigmund Freud
of young people suffering today and he himself suffers, and
he's out there really doing it. And I love people
like that, and I support people like that. He's not
out there playing games. He's certainly not donna want to be.
You know, he's got a great girlfriend. The familiar with

(43:33):
the clothing line or the leather clothing line or whatever
you want to call it. Chrom hearts Richard Stark, who's
been around for a long time, and he initially started
early on with Share and Guns. They wore his gear
way back when quite pricey. Now he is dating Richard's daughter,

(43:54):
Jesse Joe, and she's a great artist in herself. She
does some really really interesting and really cool music and
I think she's a star in her own right. And
he's wearing a lot of that gear. All his leather
is that chrome heart stuff, and you know he walks
around the pants he wears constantly or Iggy Pops. They
say Iggy on the inside. They were made originally for

(44:15):
Iggy Pop and they were gifted to him by either
Jesse Joe or Dad Richards. So he's sporting those. But
try to catch some of his interviews. He recently did
Bill Maher's podcast. He sat down in a nice controlled environment.
He holds himself well, a good guy. He's a good egg,
and I think he's worthy of everybody's attention out there.

(44:39):
And don't judge this guy too harshly. He's the real deal.
He's no wanna be, he's no fake. And that's not
smoking mirrors. That's pure, that's powerful.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
Yeah, that's why I couldn't have said it better than you.
I don't want to ever come off like a hater
and I would be such an apocrat just because it's
maybe mine, not my thing. But I back at all
and I understand them. I'm stuck. You know, I'm forty,
my early forties. You know, I almost stuck in what

(45:09):
I like already. You know, I'm seeing it more there's
very little, you know. I want to like new things.
I sound so desperate. I want to like new things,
but it's it's difficult at times. Again, I'm not saying
I don't like young Blood. I just want to represent
what I see online. And that bothers me too, where

(45:29):
it's like, hey, he may not be my favorite either,
And it's not like I have anything specific. It's just
I like guns of Roses. I don't know what else
to say. We should stop trying to in the rash community.
We should stop bringing each other down in a way.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
I did something he recently played with Slash and Bruno
Mars and a few other musicians recently.

Speaker 2 (45:49):
Yeah, that's an interesting and that's something I didn't talk
about online because I feel I don't know how I
had had to feel about it. Maybe you can, you
can help me, so they Yeah, it was sah Duff,
young Blood, Bruno Mars, I think Anthony Ketis and Chad
Smith and the Chili Peppers. Sure, if I knew about it,
because it was apparently in New York City, I would

(46:11):
have went. But it was some Uh, it was a business.
It was like it was for it was like an
office Christmas party. Some like rich business and forgive me,
I'm not remembering like who is specifically it was for,
but that's basically what it was. It was like a
really rich business party, and I was kind of like,
whoa they these guys could still play birthday parties, like

(46:34):
at their their level. I mean, the money obviously was
really good, or they just like playing and they had
an off day. I don't want to come off a
certain way because I don't want to put my hands
in anyone's pockets and saying oh, that's not rock and
roll to I don't know. I don't know how to
feel about it. That's why I didn't. There are a

(46:54):
lot of people who sent me those articles in those
videos and they came out and I said nothing because
I'm like, I feel like, whatever I'm an to say,
then I come off negative and I'm just like, all right,
that's kind of cool because they're covering songs. It's not
like they were playing I don't know, it was just weird.
It just came off very weird to me. It was
very cool, I'm sure. I Again, if I had access

(47:15):
to that party, being in New York, I would have went,
but it just seemed very strange at the same time,
I don't know if you've got that opinion at all,
or those thoughts, or you just thought it was cool.
I don't know. I thinking too deep about it, as usual.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
I have a philosophy. I don't subscribe to success becoming
the enemy, and clearly that's the success. Sometimes you got
to read the book. You can't just read the cliff notes.
And getting back to Youngblood and him as an artist
is real. So look at it as if I'm your
stockbroker and I got a lot of credibility with you.

(47:51):
I'm telling you invest by this stock. This is good.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
I know, I know.

Speaker 1 (47:59):
Go deeper.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
He's good, Okay, all right, Well I always listen to you,
you know. So that's that's what I want to. I
want to at the right perspective, because I've talked about that,
the perspective, especially when concerning guns of Roses and Axel's voice.
I did a whole episode about that, people talking about
seeing guns of roses in twenty twenty six, and I'm excited.
I can't wait to take my son. I'm going to

(48:22):
go to Saratoga at least, you know, I don't know
if it'll be more shows than that, but at least
they go to one show and take him. But it's perspective.
It's all about the older artists. I told you about
you know, you worked with with with Shaer and she
got inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and
people were criticizing her voice. I'm like, it's share man, Like,
what are we doing?

Speaker 1 (48:43):
She was saying, back up for Phil Spector when the
Wrecking Crew back in the sixties. I mean, that woman's
got history. She has survived a business dominated by men
for forever, crossed over into films, back and forth, and
today she's still relevant. I mean, if it was a

(49:04):
tour announced, people would show up. She could go do
a stint in Vegas. She could do a lot of things.
So you can't take it away from people like that.
It just irks me that people sometimes can be so
critical and so combative over other people's success. It's just like,

(49:26):
get a life, you know, move on, find something else
to whine about. You know, they're the same people that say, oh,
the sky's too blue and the water's too wet. You know,
they cavetch, covet's cvetch. They chill out. You know, life
is short. Enjoy it. Live for now, don't live for yesterday,
don't think about tomorrow. Be here and now in the moment.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
I agree. I got a comment yesterday about being excited
to see Guns and Roses this year, and somebody's like, Okay,
waste your money. I'm like, I can't wait to spend
that time with my wife and son. Yeah, wasting my
money on a memory that I'm gonna I'm gonna have forever.
And then again, I said, what you said, you're taking
something away from it. He's the guy that did appetite,

(50:09):
He's the guy that did the illusions, he did all
these things that will live on forever. Why are we
Why are we attacking? Because they're just they're aging like
normal human beings. And it would be one thing if
you know, like an athlete, if you're just not taking
care of your body and you just don't give a
crap and you're just you know, then you're putting on

(50:30):
a shitty performance and you're just bringing it upon yourself.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
That's um. I'm bummed about the Stones canceling there European tour.
I wanted to go see that show and that's so
bummed when I heard it was off.

Speaker 2 (50:42):
You know, but yeah, Keith Richards, it's just we think
he's immortal. We think he's immortal.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
I mean, I don't know arthritis. I heard that hand
isn't what it is. And he just doesn't feel he
can sustain that tour, which is he's really all about it.
He's the one that always pressed for that band to
stay on the road. Jagger wanted to go off and
you know, do his thing, but Keith always wanted to
be on the road. So it has to be really
hardcore for him to say, let's take a step back

(51:11):
for a minute.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
I can I can only imagine. I still think about
because I'm a hardcore Simpsons fan and there's an old
episode that made a joke about the Rolling Stones being
too old to tour, and they're like, this is like
a twenty years ago, you know, And here we are
where they could have been touring in twenty twenty six.
And I guess hope gn R continues the same. So

(51:37):
what so what did you think of? Well, Okay, let's bout.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
You're a Simpson you're a Simpsons fan.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Oh diehard?

Speaker 1 (51:44):
If this wasn't I have a platinum record to do
the bart Man that was my record I'm not kidding.
It has it's an ri I double, a certified hologram
and everything, Bart Simpson, Peter and it to Peter and
to commemorate the sale of them. I don't know how
many albums this is sold, maybe two million albums. And

(52:06):
it's a planum album for the Simpsons. So I talk
about a little novelty there.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Yeah, that might be your prize possession, at least from
my opinion.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
That's yeah. You know, we spread it around.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
See that. That's what I was into when Guns of
Roses were still out. You know, I was into do
the bar Man. If this wasn't a Guns of Roses podcast,
it would be, you know, maybe a Simpsons podcast.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
So yeah, well, thank you. You contributed to my Christmas
bonus that year. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Awesome. No, I love that. Uh. You know, I'm going
to get another question because from from listeners, because I
said I want to do the good New Year's thing.
What were your thoughts? This is coming from Orlando, uh
and Anderson. I believe he's from Texas. We spoke about
earlier how the band kept running when is he left?

(52:56):
And they got Gilby? Everyone speaks so hi of Gilby
I believe he was still on that label and everyone
participated he was on Geffen, but it wasn't released on
Geffen like he wasn't. Do you know if there was
thought what happened back then? Why Pawnop Guitars wasn't released
on Geffen even though he was an ex g and

(53:18):
Our member and he basically had everybody on Guns or
Roses on the album. Do you remember anything about that?

Speaker 1 (53:24):
I honestly don't know what label did that record come
out on? Do you remember? I?

Speaker 2 (53:28):
Well, I don't remember, but I will look it up.
I think Orlando for his question, my listeners asked better
questions than I can ever even dream about asking. So
when we look up pawn shop guitars, not pawn shops
near me, what are we doing? I'm not going to
a punch shop in fares Hales.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
Queen's Kilby was signed to another label prior to him
really getting involved with Guns, right.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
That, I don't want to off the correctness it was.
It was released on Virgin, by the way, he might
have had.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
A solo deal on Virgin and where contractually he was
obligated for all futures too, which would have automatically made
that recoruld be released by Virgin by default. Hey, Virgin
was a great label. I mean, you know, Gevin Virgin, whatever,
But who knows.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
Okay, while I got you here, and I'm so glad
that my son must be having a great time at
the park. I thought he was going to come in
here like a tornado after like forty five minutes. Any
good Keith stories, any good Keith stories from you know,
since we were just talking about mister Richards. You know,
I know you don't get a chance to see him
this year by any stories, and you gotta you may recall.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
No, But I mean, okay, I was well put it
this way. I was weaned on the stones. The stones
could they shaped my childhood, They shaped my teen years.
They could do no wrong. And as much as I
love them, as much as I pay homage to them,
you know, I saw them in nineteen sixty nine Madison

(55:00):
Square Garden. I saw the Mick Taylor Tours, the Exile
of Main Street Tour. These were unbelievable shows, the trials
and tribulations of Keith Richards and his decade in rock
and roll life. I think every artist out there, you know,
from Izzy to Joe Perry, to many many many more

(55:24):
and Johnny Thunders. They all wanted to be Keith Richards.
You know, he's the mold that that broke. But you know, personally,
I don't think they made a great record since you know,
it's only rock and roll, and you know, it happens,
you know, you know, they get to a certain point

(55:45):
where maybe they're not hungry anymore, maybe they're so caught up,
they're a little bit older, they don't have that same
magic in songwriting. You know, Steve Wheels was a great
record for me, but everything else in between that came
during the late seventies in the eighties, Like, I was
never a fan of Miss You and songs like that
and emotional rescue. I thought it was a little redundant.

(56:08):
You know, they might get pissed off on me saying that,
but it's just my opinion as a HARDCOREUS Stones fan.
You know, it's pretty amazing and pretty surreal when your
father brings you're thirteen years old and your father brings
your home a record, which was the case with me,
called English newest hit Makers the Rolling Stones, And I

(56:30):
went up into my bedroom and I put that record
on and not fade away. It opens up with and
I trashed my fucking room and that was it.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
That was it.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
I was all about the Stones from then on, so
you know, I love them, you know. And I didn't
catch all the tours, but I was ready to catch
this one, thinking it might be the last one. And
sure enough, Boom got pulled out from under me. And
it hurts a little bit, but there's always the memory.

(57:05):
And like I said, they were one of the bands
that were very much an enigma. They weren't out there
doing press all the time, and when they were, it
was only for promotional purposes. But those were the bands
that you would look and you would see the pictures
and the clothes and the haircuts, and the women and
the you know, just the whole aura really is what

(57:28):
sparks rock and roll. Too much of live snet snippets
on TikTok or YouTube. There's a little bit of a
burnout there, something that's got to be really really looked at.
But I might be wrong. Young people today, maybe they
can't get enough of that shit.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
Well. I like to think that the classic albums are
consistently being found. You know, you can have shows like
Strenger things highlighting older music, you know, my brother who's
not even thirty yet, he bought Appetite for Destruction on
vinyl recently.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
So it's just like and I didn't tell him to
do it. He did it on his own. And he's like, look,
he's like, look, he wanted to like impress me. He's like, look,
ad I got him. Like all right, cool, I ain't
making like a big deal out of it. I wasn't
like I was like, all right, cool, I want to buy.
I don't want to. Like with my son, I know,
I act like I'm kind of pushing I'm not really,
He's two and a half. What am I really pushing
on him? Other than to stop drooling so much. That's

(58:25):
like the big thing with him, Like why are you
still drooling? Like a Saint Bernard?

Speaker 1 (58:28):
And like, let's you know, that's legacy, man. That's when
a band outlives the band, and that's that's the magic
of it. So that's really really cool it is.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
And that goes in obviously to bring it back the
Guns of Roses and a lot of people have your
opinion on what your opinion that you shared about the
stones and just pointing that towards G and R that
they're a fan of a certain era, and I think
we're lucky that, for whatever reason, a lot of variables,
that there's still Guns of Roses, there's Rolling Stones in

(59:01):
twenty twenty six, and you said a word I don't
want to get lost on me. It's how it's mysterious,
how the Stones are. I know, that's I know, but
I don't want to like I know, but I don't know.
But that's how Guns of Roses likes to be. They
still like to be mysterious. I think that's it's behind

(59:22):
everything a little bit. Why they don't say anything, Why
something can happen, like the release dates of these new songs,
Why they're not doing a lot of interviews. If Slash
and Duff when they do interviews, it's not a Guns
of Roses really like a hardcore interview. It's about other things.
If they do GENR stuff, it's always like very politically
correct or this is you know, yeah, sure it's nothing.

(59:45):
It's never a Guns or Roses interview with those guys
like specific ever. So I think there's a huge mystery
that will always surround this band, and I think that's
the way that they like it.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
Let me go to that you know, you talk about reunion,
nostalgia and the modern era, and why it matters with
GNR is because they prove the power of legacy when
it's done right, the slash and duff return, you know,
the economics of not in this lifetime tour, the fan

(01:00:18):
forgiveness okay, and the gnr's place in modern rock culture.
It's a legacy. And why does guns and roses still matter?
Why are they what they are? It's because gn R
is bigger than a band. It's a fucking case study.
And that's the way you got to look at it.

(01:00:40):
You know, it's a case study. You know its influence
on grunge and hard rock. You know appetite, you know,
the all of the appetite, cultural status. It goes on
and on and on, and young artists today can learn
from their rise and fall. They're one of the last

(01:01:01):
true rock bands with a great case study of why
chaos sometimes makes great art. And this is what people
forget today because so much of it today that shove
down people's throats is manufactured bullshit. And this certainly wasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
You have such a way with words. That's why you
should get to get a podcast, you know, a case
I can study.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
Come on, I'm there to do it, and let me
tell you something. I'm going to talk shit on this
podcast because I got nothing to lose, you know what
I mean. I'm out to do it. But I'll let
you know about that. But realistically, it's a case study.
You know, their place in modern rock culture is relevant,

(01:01:48):
and like I said, young bands and young people and
young aspiring musicians or artists of any kind can learn
from these things, the good and the bad.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
And that's why I what I love about guns and
roses and what doesn't exist today is how it could
be manufactured today. Axel and Slash and all of them,
they didn't manufacture any of that. Like they were that
and they still are that to a degree. Obviously they've
matured so they're not, you know, canceling concerts, not doing drugs.

(01:02:21):
But there's still these people that are organic and real,
and that is very rare because people try to emulate that.
And if you emulate it, then you're not being real.
That's the whole. That's that's like the opposite. If you're
emulating something, you're not being yourself. So the fact that
they were all that's what drew me in addition to

(01:02:42):
the music, and why I've been doing why I became
a fan in the first place, why I enjoy talking
about this band for ten years, why I am able
to incorporate the mental health into it is because they're
all real people who have done real things, who and
you know, I don't want to lose it either, because
I know where I don't want to like You'll come

(01:03:05):
on again and again and again. It's great, but it's
it's got me thinking because I don't know if we
ever really talked, because you talked about appetite, of course,
but with the with gn R Lives because you mentioned
like we were talking about how acts of those new
interviews now and you know when he did talk it
could be misogyny or racist. If you don't know the guy,
it could seem that way obviously because you're reading lyrics

(01:03:26):
and if you don't do the research behind it and
know because I don't see him that way, I understand
why if you're just a casual viewer you can pick
up on that. But when gn R Lives happened with
the album cover with that song, was it easier or
harder for you or is it the same or whenever

(01:03:47):
option you want to pick uh than Appetite? Like, how
how was it? It was because it was almost like
more controversial in a way because you were with those words,
and so I guess what your thoughts when Lives came out.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Well, it was a first for me in the respect
that when you're working a record like Appetite for Destruction,
you want to put it this way. You could have
pulled every track off that album and made it this single.
And at that time, the game plan and the goal
was is to maintain and sustain the life of the album.

(01:04:23):
If you were blessed enough to have a record that
you could work for two years, because you release a single,
six months later, you release the next single, and you
write them out, and you write them out and you
write them out. You've got a two three year record
that's been selling consistently off the new material that you're
releasing off that specific album. Mid stream into that album,

(01:04:45):
the decision is made to put out lies. And I
think the spaghetti incident might have been thrown out there too.
That was an A and R decision, That was a
management decision, that was a band decision. I had no
say in that at all. I just knew my marching orders.
Put it under my arm, hit the road, go out there,
give direction to the staff, get it played, get it exposed.

(01:05:09):
And every department within the company, be it publicity, be
it sales, be it you know, if we would make videos, whatever,
was all plugged in at the same time. So for me,
it was a new experience and it was a challenging
experience because I, as I said earlier, as if with
the case of Young Blood, you're cannibalizing what you already have.

(01:05:33):
But it worked because they all sold, and the same
could hold true for User Illusion one or two. You know,
it was ambition unleashed. And why that mattered is because
it was guns n' Roses at peak power and peak excess.

(01:05:54):
You know, you talk about why two albums not one?
Why expanding music with a piano, ballads and orchestration. You know,
there's a lot of things, you know, is it fractured,
is it bloated? Debate whatever, But it worked, and that's
the magic of this band. They went against the grain.

(01:06:17):
They did it their way. There were no rules, as
I always say, there was no ceiling, no floor, no walls.
It was free floating and anything went. And thank god,
they were able to survive it, and the proof is
in the pudding, because they're still out there as you
and I are speaking tonight, getting ready to make this

(01:06:39):
world assault again and again and again. And it's an
expensive gamble, but it's paying off.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
I'm for sure, absolutely. I'm telling you, I can't think
of anything else but going to see them with my son,
who just came in like a banshee. So we're going
to wrap up soon, but I wanted next time you're on,
we got to dissect user Illusion one or two from
a promotions point of view, because that really was something
special that that can never happen again. To have a

(01:07:10):
double album that people line up at midnight, you know,
the only thing well again, as like a teaser thought
for our next conversation. It's like the closest could be
like what Taylor Swift does now. I've just never seen hype,
you know. I wish I could have lived through that hype.
You know, I tried to live through it with Chinese Democracy,
but I was all alone in the middle of Best Buy,

(01:07:31):
holding up the album and CD like looking around hoping
for some usual illusion line. But that was not good
to be the case. So let me finish up with
because I was able to get into with all my
New Year's resolutions about corrections and naming listeners. I should not.
I should have done this many many, let's say, years ago.

(01:07:55):
And that's personally thank on a podcast my patrons, people
who helped me out on whether it's subscribing for free
or donating X amount of dollars. So this Daniel, This
Andy Wan, there's somebody who goes by snuff or guts
forty four, This Phillip, Jason Borke out of Australia. Thank you,

(01:08:17):
Amanda see Kimberly. There's two Amanda's here, Jason Lloyd, also
from Australia. I've it's crazy. I have a good listenership
in Australia. Stella, Jeff Beers. Who else? Janine phil Johnston
out of the UK, who I once referred to as
that guy who appreciates that. I called him that the

(01:08:39):
one time I did a giveaway Peter and I would
love to do more, but like I said, he lived
in the UK. So luckily one of his friends was
in visiting New York, so I had to and we
couldn't meet exactly because you know New York. It's just
because you're in both in the same city, doesn't mean
you're close together. You know, you could do this. You

(01:09:02):
can uber a package. So I ubered it was the
fortieth anniversary Guns to Roses book by Martin Popoff. I
got two copies of it and I signed it. He
asked for me to sign it at Phil. I signed
it and I ubered it to his friend at the
hotel that she was staying at. We brought her back
home to the UK to give to him. So Phil,

(01:09:23):
Steve Fisher, Alex Spear, just thank you so much for
taking the time. It's one people who've been listening for
ten years, chiming all the time on social media, that's
what the conversation continues on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that
fun stuff. But people who have actually taken reached into
their wallets, you know, whether it's a dollar, whether it's

(01:09:44):
twenty bucks or whatever, over the years, it just means
so much to me. You know, you ask me a
little inside of breaking their fourth wall, which I do
all the time. You're like, your camera looks so good.
It's just a nice little fifty dollars camera that I
bought because of my patron. I try to keep all
the money that I earned for my real job to
put towards my son. I look like I haven't gotten

(01:10:07):
tattoos in a while. Everything I make goes towards him.
Uh So, I guess I'm gonna do better this year.
Whether it's the questions that you ask, whether it's just
to hear you want to shout out on an upcoming
episode for no reason, just to hey, I can't wait
to see guns and roses. Uh. If if like a
guest like Peter, if I announced that he's coming on,
you want to question, you just want to say, Hey,

(01:10:29):
I really like Garrett Smith. He remembers your last episode,
you know, previous episodes. He was excited to hear from you.
Garrett Smith from Texas. He's a great musician.

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
It's been two years since the last time I was on.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
It doesn't feel that way because we talked times.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
We talk.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
Yeah every now and then.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Yeah. We chop it up hard, Buddie. You and I
we chop it up hard.

Speaker 2 (01:10:50):
You're You're nice And I don't expect this, uh from
any guests that I have. You know you'll gus because
I guess it saves on long distance calls. You call
me through a Facebook messenger and we just chat every
now and then. You know, how the kid, how's life,
how you're feeling. And you're not promoting a book. You're
not out to get something from me, Fran You're just

(01:11:11):
you're doing it because you're a nice guy.

Speaker 1 (01:11:13):
So Brandon, thank you. Let me say this too, and
I say this hopefully. I say for your fans right now.
You've done an incredible job and you stuck out ten years,
you know. And it's like people think this stuff is easy.
This stuff is a lot of prep work. You've got
to be in a good mood. You've got to find

(01:11:35):
your guest. It's like mining, you know, and every once
in a while you get a little bit of a
gold nugget. But don't stop what you're doing because I
know you love it and you know it pays off.
And it's clear that your fans appreciate it too. Because
money's tight these days. I mean, we'll be honest, you know, economically,
it's not a good place to be the planet Earth

(01:11:56):
these days. So for people to kick in out of
their own personal pocket for your Patreon account, it speaks
volumes and it's basically a reinforcement and an endorsement that
you are doing good things. I watch as much as
I possibly can. I can't get them all, but I've
been really impressed with a lot of the guests you've
had lately, and it's really interesting and it's compelling content.

(01:12:18):
So I enjoy it. And you know, you never know
who's listening out there. Everybody isn't picking up the phone.
Everybody isn't writing and telling you, you know, hey, I'm
checking you out. But believe me, people are out there.
People know you're there. I had a young gentleman who's
from Estonia. His name is Arto Kiev and a little
shout out to Ardo. He's a great musician. He had

(01:12:41):
a great band called the Dead Furies, and he wrote
me today he said, hey, You're going to be doing
an interview on Brando's podcast Appetite for Distortion, and I said, yeah,
it'll be number four. He goes, oh, I don't get
a chance to listen to them all, but I love it.
So you got a big fan here in Estonia, and
he has a great band. He's a really cool guy

(01:13:02):
and he has a lot of good things to say.
So you're out there, man, there are people there that
are aware of you and just keep on keeping on, buddy.

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
Well, thank you Peter for all the on and off
air conversations. I enjoy doing it. It was certainly not
something I thought would happen because I've been in radio
for twenty plus years. And you know, it's funny. I
spoke to my mom yesterday and she's like, do you
still like doing radio? And I still like doing radio,
but working from home now it's completely different. So this

(01:13:33):
podcast has kind of really worked its way into my
creative heart to kind of take over the actual radio
part of it because I get to I'm lucky enough
to interview certain people, and you know, like you connect
with certain people and now, like Harrison, you're back. Do
you want to say bye to Peter? Do you want
to come here and say buying the podcast? Are you

(01:13:53):
eating your no? Okay, eating cheese and crackers? Yeah? Okay,
I can't wait for his first interview.

Speaker 1 (01:14:01):
Well, when you bring them to the show, you're going
to do the headsets for him?

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
Oh yeah, yeah, we have a headset even but there's
a picture I'm staring at what you're not eating. You're
eating crackers. Okay. He's at that phase where everything is
no and you have to kind of have reason with him,
where like is it this or is it that, Like

(01:14:25):
you have to let them choose. It's very interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
But I'm actually staring at just thank you the stares
that he's not doing shots of veganmeister.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
But I'm looking at a photo of him from like
a year and a half ago. So he was sean.
How old was he when he went to Dave Matthews
the first time? Seven months? Seven months and he had
the thing on? So, I mean, I've seen younger. When
we went to go see Newfound Glory in the Offspring

(01:14:56):
last summer, somebody brought like had it been like three
five months something like that, and had like a pretty
like big apparatus around their head and the baby seemed
completely happy. Yeah, I saw the Offspring. They were great
of them the first time seeing them. Yeah, I was
really I'm glad I got to see them because they're
a band I had never seen. And I've always been

(01:15:17):
a fan of the music, and I always saved the
money for guns and roses. That's kind of been always
like my college days, I went to a lot a
lot of concerts, but ever since then, it's like saving
whatever I got the Cousey Guns and Roses. But yeah,
he's got his he's got his uh his headphones. We
already tried with Paul McCartney. I think I told you
that right, And McCartney was pretty loud, so I mean

(01:15:39):
he he survived. We would have left if he was.
We saw he was uncomfortable too, is any Yeah, we
just saw him, We saw him want to and then
people like he's the nay might even bring up that
he doesn't sound he sounds like he's in his eighties.
But it's Paul McCartney. I don't Why would I want
to see anyone else if they sounded just like the record,

(01:16:00):
I wouldn't want that. I gotta see Paul, So it's
the same thing I gotta see Axel. I I understand
the Adler singer is great. I understand there are people
who do like I'm gonna put it out there in
the universe, like if if there's ever an opportunity for
Todd Kernes to join join Guns and Roses. I know
he's in Slash's band, but he can sing Guns and
Roses songs and I think he would be a great

(01:16:22):
like backup vocalist for for Axel and make it sound
so strong. I just add him, you don't get rid
of anybody from Guns of Roses just and Todd Kerns GNR.

Speaker 1 (01:16:31):
It's he. I forgot this. What do you think of
the new drummer?

Speaker 2 (01:16:37):
I think from all accounts, because you're a musician, I'm
not so I can't tell a great musician that's that's
more than I am. That's more than I am. But
by all accounts he's great. But with with me, with drummers,
it's so much about the personality, and he seems like
it has a great personality. He makes me feel good

(01:16:59):
about being shore because we have a short guy in
Guns of Roses, just so I feel represented. But like
with Frank, I just liked that he was in New York, dude,
you know, and so I kind I miss him. I
know that might not be the most popular if you
look at the comments, A lot of fans didn't like
his playing. How can you end up happy with people

(01:17:19):
didn't think he was right for Guns of Roses. That's
how good If I'm giving an overall consensus of the
majority of comments that I see, people didn't think that
he had the right feel for GNR, and a lot
of people are ecstatic that Isaac is in there, that
it hasn't been like this since Adler, even with Sorem,
so I'm happy about it. I mean that they seem

(01:17:40):
to be firing on all cylinders, so I have no
problem with it. It's just with Frank. I liked having
a New Yorker in there, and uh and yeah, but
I I follow him on Instagram. A side shows just
like different appearances. I don't know if he's in a
band u currently yet. But actually let's end here because
I asked you before, and I asked you to do

(01:18:00):
some homework before the episode. What do you think of
their new ish songs? Nothing in Atlas? What do you
think about them? Because you you know, I would love
to hear your opinion. You were there for appetite, Now
you got a Chinese democracy, reworked, reheated.

Speaker 1 (01:18:17):
Nothing like putting me on the spot. The Guns and
Roses songs, you know what I mean, They're easily identifiable.
You hear it right away, you know it's them. It's
like every time you heard a Led Zeppelin record. You
know what's Zeppelin?

Speaker 2 (01:18:28):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:18:28):
So it's it's Guns and Roses material. It's it for me.
I mean nothing could ever touch the appetite album or
the use your illusion material. But Guns and Roses is
upwarded onward. Those songs are twenty years old, Yeah right.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
I don't know the exact you know, but rough because
Atlas was recorded during the Chinese Democracy days and I'm
pretty sure nothing was the same. I don't know how
much was done. There was a leaked version of Atlas
which sounds kind of similar to what the new version
sounds like, so I don't know how much new could
have been done to it. Both credit speaking of drummer's brain,

(01:19:11):
who hasn't been in the band, you know, a very
long time. Robin Fink is even credited on there. So
it's just it's interest. I'm happy to hear it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:19):
Well, if that was the case, I mean, I know
that Chinese Democracy, I mean that was ten plus years
in production. There was a lot of studio hoppening going around,
producer changes, you know, the media ridicule and versus the
musical quality. So I don't know if all of those
factors or reflection on the making of that record, but

(01:19:42):
you know, it's great. Look, any new or relatively new
Guns and Roses music is good, by my ears. You
know what I mean, And are you are they going
to be doing those songs in the upcoming tour or.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
The probably my guess is yeah. I mean, if they're
doing the other ones, my guess would be I mean,
they're playing Absurd and hard School in the general and
perhaps now they'll add these two, so that'll be six
newsh songs in there. So I just people not have
to stop complaining about the set list because they have
to play their hits. And you're right, once you hear
Axel's voice, I know it's different. I mean, if you

(01:20:16):
only listen to Appetite and then hear these songs, then
you can be in for a bit of a shock.
But if you listen to Chinese Democracy, that you're not
in for a shock. And it'll be a teaser for
next episode that I'm interviewing an author, James Green Junior,
who wrote a book about the fifteen year saga of
Chinese Democracy. I'm like over one hundred pages into it
and I'll finish by the time I speak with him.

Speaker 1 (01:20:39):
Well, let's not forget Chinese Democracy was the album that
broke the Internet before streaming. Think about that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:47):
Yeah, those are the days where it wasn't as accessible
where illegal. I don't want to say anything illegal is
accessible ever, but obviously you can do anything illegal now
pretty accessibly. But yeah, during those days with these leaks,
you know, one of them being by Mike Piazza on
Eddie Trunk, or they're coming out on Napster, and you

(01:21:08):
know you had to be there, you had to live it,
you know. I'm just trying. I don't know how am
I to explain these things to my son one day?
How am I going to explain to him, not a
let alone Chinese democracy, lit alone, guns of roses or Napster,
all these things. He's like, you're making these things up.
He's going to think my whole life is a fairy tale.
The things that I lived through that happened. I was

(01:21:31):
sick to my wife. He's like, you guys had to
stay inside. There was a pandemic though. What Yeah, well,
you gonna have a lot of stories for this kid
when he's able to understand.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
I think he's blessed having you as a dad. You're
a good man, and you're a good guy, and God
only knows you must be an unbelievable father. I'm not
there to witness it. Personally.

Speaker 2 (01:21:49):
But I mean, if you're trying, I'm trying.

Speaker 1 (01:21:52):
He's not even of age yet and you had taken
him to a g n R show. God bless you man.

Speaker 2 (01:21:57):
And I'll say this too because I don't want to
be there's so many content creators now who use their kids.
I will use him when he's available. I don't want
to go out of my way to do anything, but
I think he will be of age where I try
to teach him Guns of Roses and hopefully that'll be
funny because this kid, as a lot of two year
olds are, they say ridiculous things, and he's funny. So

(01:22:20):
the funniest stuff has definitely said off air with him.
It's just you're either there. Like with Guns of Roses,
you're either there for it, you lived it, or you didn't.
I just don't need to be around with the camera
all the time because then I wouldn't be due being
a dad, just being the content creator. Anyway, Peter, this
was fun. My wife is being good. I know she
wants to start me helping out with my son. He

(01:22:42):
gave me a good happy So so that's thank you.
Sixty episodes last year. This is the first this year.
Let's see how many we do in twenty twenty six. Obviously,
you're always more than welcome back. We could talk about anything.

Speaker 1 (01:22:55):
You're fun. I enjoy talking to you, and you know
we're worlds apart. I'm seven hours ahead of you.

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
So you know it's going on with time now it's oh, yeah,
you gotta go to bed soon, all right, I gotta
start my afternoon.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
Yeah, but anyway, Brandon, God bless you, man, happy twenty
twenty six, Stay healthy, stay focused, stay positive, and we'll
be in touch. And God bless your audience. Man, Thanks
for listening and keep tuning in.

Speaker 2 (01:23:20):
Thank you, Peter. And that does it for this episode
of Appetite for the Stortion. Don't forget. The conversation continues
online Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. You can email me at the
AfD Show at gmail dot com. Afdpod dot com is
the website we can find past episodes where we can
make any sort of donation. You're gonna ask me questions,
any of that fun stuff. So the next episode, which

(01:23:40):
I said, will be with James Green Junior, the author
of that Chinese democracy book, When will you see that?

Speaker 1 (01:23:47):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:23:47):
In the words of AXL. Rose concerning Chinese democracy, I
don't know as soon as the word, but you'll see
it thanks to the Lamass security. I'm going home.

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Peter Napoliello: Part IV (Geffen, Guns N' Roses, and The Power of Legacy) | Ep. 547

Episode Transcript

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Peter Napoliello: Part IV (Geffen, Guns N' Roses, and The Power of Legacy) | Ep. 547