The Trews: Talkin' Guns N' Roses | Ep. 559

Canadian rockers Colin and John Angus MacDonald of The Trews join to talk about their Guns N' Roses experiences. Opening for GN'R in '06, funny interactions with Axl and Slash, sharing their joint love for the band, the brothers tell some entertaining stories.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Said, hey, excellent, I'll see you tomorrow. He goes, best
line of rockstar has ever said to me.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
He goes, maybe, yes.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Welcome to the podcast appetite for that sort in. My
name is Brando, episode number five hundred and fifty nine.
Welcome to the podcast from the trus Colin and John
Angus the McDonald's how are you, sir? Sirs?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Great, so great to be here. Yeah, doing well. Thanks
for having us on. Brando.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Hey, you're used to you tell me off the air.
You're used to saying that name, but to a crew member, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
One of our crew guys.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Actually, he played in the band, the Canadian band Monster Truck,
who you might be familiar with. He was the keyboard player,
like one of the founding members of Monster Truck. But
since the band has ceased to exist, he's gone into
the teching world in a pretty heavy way. And he's
been out with us for like a year and he's
been a great addition to the team. And he goes
by Brando, so it rolls off the tongue naturally for us.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Okay, all right, cool, I told you briefly off air,
you know, I introduced myself as Brandon in real life.
Because I'm just I don't consider myself a slash an axle,
a share all these one name people.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
And I even checked me as more of a Madonna.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Okay, all right, fair, I'll take that. But it's just
something that's stuck for a long time that I've been
doing this, this radio thing for a while. And before
we get into the truths and in Guns and Roses,
so we I've been doing radio for a while, but
this podcast is coming up on ten years. And the
only reason I say that now is because I have
to talk about myself. Will gives a shit. That's the
way I think about it. But Colin, you reached out

(01:34):
to me on Instagram.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Yeah, I loved it. I just got home from a
really long tour. We were out for a couple of months.
We did we did a rundown in the US, and
then we did a whole Canadian tour and I was
just like exhausted, and I don't know, like like Guns
n' Roses was my first favorite band. So every time
I'm just kind of trying to chill and you know,
collect my thoughts and get back to, you know, my

(01:57):
initial love for music, especially after a long tour or something.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
I just kind of go back to the basics.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
And and I was just wondering, like, I wonder if
it's any good podcasts on on on the band, because
it's kind of hard to find a lot of deep
divy stuff on guns and Rows, especially like Axelo is
so you know, mysterious and opaque. And so I just
found this appetite for distortion thing and I just started
binging it and I loved it. Ringing Ear to ear

(02:22):
just great. I really loved that you had Doug Goldstein
on and Alan Nivin and they you know, Alan obviously
was very vocal in his eyre towards towards Doug, but
and but Doug was a little bit more diplomatic.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
But it was great. There was so many of them.

Speaker 4 (02:39):
I was just going back through all of the great
great and he has some great, great guests on there.
So it was great for an old school fan like me.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Thank you, and you're gonna you're added now to that
great guest list. And I can't help but think, you know,
Alan and Doug, those are great episodes. I just don't
know if I could do them again. They cost too much.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yah, it's step shock, It's so so much drama. It's great.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah, I tried to avoid the drama. But I guess
that's my fault for.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Thinking it's not you, it's bringing in, it's it's.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
I know whatever. I not want to go off on
too much of the tangent. So yeah, I wanted a
little bit of your your message, because that's awesome that
your guns and Roses and you said your brother, I mean,
among your favorite bands. But you guys opened for G
and R twenty years ago for a couple of shows.
It's funny. I think that was the time I was
dating a Canadian, but I saw them in Ottawa, so

(03:35):
I guess I missed out on seeing you guys.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, that was Sebastian Box supporting the show you saw
in Ottawa.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
It was Sebastian and the Suicide Girls.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, so we were on that tour. Just a few
shows later, I was at the Toronto show on that tour.
I think by then we knew we were going to
get the East Coast dates and they put us up.
They put me and my girlfriend now wife on the
guest list and we went and watched Axcell at ACC
and it was like he went on like two hours late.
It's like so typical of that era. And yeah, it

(04:08):
was a really good show. And then a week later
we found ourselves sharing the stage with him.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah it's pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
I'm sorry I missed it, and that's that remains. It's Colin.
I told you off in Instagram and I'll bring it
up to you. Guys. I think it goes to this
whole conversation. I'm sure you're gonna have a lot of
your fans watch this. You know, I'm I'm based in
New York. Yeah, my much of my Canadian spirit experience.
It always sounds like a fake story. My Canadian ex girlfriend, No,

(04:37):
she was a real person.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Sure she was when I started calling you brand right, yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
Right, Uh she's the one that actually, she's the one
that started saying it like off air, like like your
guns and roses shirt.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
For the occasioned, No, do you see what.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
I'm wearing for the occasion? By the way, Nordis and
the Canucks. I had to wear some Canadian fire.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
The Colorado Avalanche.

Speaker 4 (05:03):
I've been wearing the old school Nordiks jerseys because before
they went to Colorado, they were the Nordicks.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
So I love that really when uh, I'm a big
Islanders fan. I know, I have all these other jerseys
and things like when I was a kid, that's what
I loved, especially the hockey one. But the Island is
really really terrible then, and I loved the Avalanche jerseys
and the colors, and Patrick Waugh was already my favorite player.

(05:29):
Came stutcha a little Bandwagon Avalanche fan at the time.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
But uh but I digress. So yeah, we saw them
in a in Ottawa. I wish I got to see
you guys. But the reason I even bring her up
for there are a lot of things I learned about
Canada from her. Okay, it's my my dumb ignorance. It
could be the American school system could be we don't
have a good weed here. True story that reminds me.
I got caught on the going over the Canadian border. Yeah,

(05:57):
a little bit of weed. And this is again before
he was legal. Me and my stoner friend. The Canadian said,
as I said, why are you bringing it in? We
have better stuff here. Yeah, that's good the American's So
that was actually that was one of my fla.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's true.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
It is especially especially dumb, especially out in BC.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Whatever I was dumb in twenty or something. Uh, so
she would a lot of things. I learned about Canada.
I even know there was actually as a Canadian tire. Okay,
so that's one thing she worked there. You guys both
not in Unison. What are you talking about. I did
not know about the Trailer Park Boys. I didn't know,
never heard of them.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
I'm told there's a guns and Roses connection there too,
but we can get to that.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, with bubbles for sure.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (06:40):
Well you were there the first the show that we
did in Halifax in ninety, so you can correct me
if I'm wrong. I think it was the first time
Axel brought the Trailer Right.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Boys on stage, the first time that they officially met.
So I don't know if you got yeah, like that
was two thousand and six.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
I think that a long time ago. Yeah, memorable.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
So we just get into this part of the story
or do you want to finish your Canadian let's go
do the Canadian thing.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
I know, sorry to bother people with my own story. Yes,
we were going to get into that. I mean, all
of it was just uh, I didn't hear of the truths,
and forgive me, I had this was again twenty years ago.
And I'm like, the truths, the falses I didn't understand,
and it was just all these years ago, So I
needed to just get that little thing off the top

(07:26):
of my head that I all these years it just
still I told you this, Colin when you DMed me.
It's just so funny all these years later and you
reach out to me and I don't know, it's a
little kids met thing. Anyway, enough of my bullshit. Tell
me that's funny.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Great, that's how that's how the world goes around. Yeah,
world stuff.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
No, no, it is a small world stuff. So I'm
not it's the honor to get to talk to you,
and they hear about these gn R stories. So you
had to tell me said that was the first time
Axual met Bubbles. Is that what I misunderstand?

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, with the way it all went down, we were
rehearsing the The Dnis Thieves, our second album, which was.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
A pretty big success up here.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
That album cycle was coming to a close and we
were sort of getting back to the writing and the
working and we were at our rehearsal space one day
and our manager called and said, like, would you like
to open for Guns and Roses.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
I'm like, yes, we would. We one hundred percent would.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
When he's like in like a week and a half,
like it was really eminent, and he's like, well, they're
playing the ACC tonight or tomorrow. I can't remember how
the timeline, but you can go down and see it.
But Sebastian Bock has to drop off or something.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Was going on.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
They want you to do the East Coast dates in
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. So it all came together
really frantically and last minute, and we got ourselves down
to Halifax and I'll just tell the full story and
let the chips fall.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Where they may. But we had one of our tour
manager was a.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Really big character, got taken aside by their tour manager,
who I'm assuming is a big character.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
And was told like basically, listen, guys, you're lucky to
be here.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
We don't need you bother ring the band. You know,
if you see Axel and catering, just just move on.
You know, if you see him walk, make eye contact. Yeah,
if you see him walking down the hall, maybe just
start walking the other way. There's no point like that,
Like basically, stay in your dressing room, go to your show,
go back to your dressing room, avoid everybody.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
This. This is what he told our tour manager. And
he came and told us this.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
And I'm like twenty five years old and like, you know,
grew up loving this band, and like I was scared shitless.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
I was like, We're gonna fuck this up somehow, you know.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
It was my my interpretation, like one of us is
going to fuck this up. And we went and played
the show, and it was at the Metro Center in Halifax,
which is an arena we grew up going to shows at.
And I think it might have been our first time
playing the Metro Center. You can correct me if that's wrong, callin.
I can't remember, but it.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Was the first time I ever played.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
So we were playing like our hometown arena for the
first time, and we were opening for Guns N' Roses
and all this cool stuff. And I recall being told
to stretch our setout.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
During our last song.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
Yeah no, I know, I know exactly what because we
had our set kind of dialed by then. We've been
on the road for a couple of years and shows
are different than club shows. Club shows you can get
away with a little painting outside the lines and maybe
doing some unusual gems, but playing in front of like
ten thousand people, you want to have like a dialed set,
you know. And I remember during our very last song

(10:22):
there was like a guitar bit where, you know, we
stretched it out a bit. And then my road manager,
who was told we couldn't talk to Axel his name
is Wiggy by the way, he kept flashing the light.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
At me and I had to go over. He goes,
Axel doesn't want to go on.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
You guys have to play for like twenty five more minutes,
and I'm like, oh.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
And we played all of our radios hits and do
you know what I mean? So I send up going
on for like another ten It became a very experimental gem.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Like we played all the hits already. So I looked
up our setlist knowing that we were coming on this.
It's online. Everything's online. Setlist FM has us playing like
like why bother every division and stray or something like
our fans will know what I mean by that, like
just deep cuts off.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
Of our first record after all the big hits, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Like you'd already written the set to be forty five minutes,
and here we are making it an hour and five
minutes or whatever it was. But I thought that was
the coolest thing in the world because just loving guns
and Roses my whole youth, and just knowing that's part
of the deal. Like he goes on when he wants
to go on, So who am I to to get
in the way of that. So it's also way more

(11:25):
shambalic than every other arena shit we've ever.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Been a part of. Like you can set your.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Watch to when the lights are going to go out,
and if you're not done when you're supposed to be done,
they're going to start unplugging your stuff like that. That's
how rigid these things can be. And like just to
have somebody be like, no, no, you got to.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Stretch, you gotta go, It's like okay in an arena, Okay,
let's do it.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
And then we all high five had a good show,
and then we had to watch Guns n' Roses and I
went into the Chilprap Boys backstage and they're like up
actual like sent for us, like we've been summoned, like
Sebastian Bach got him into our show. Sebastian either from
Peterborough or married somebody from Peterborough. He's got a problem.
He's Canadian Sebastian, Canadian Peterborough. Yeah, so he got him.

(12:08):
He got Axel into it, and he sent for the guys.
I'd love to meet the guys, but they didn't connect beforehand,
and Axel was just gonna have them up to do
the song Liquor and whoors like during his show, and
they hadn't met.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
And then lo and Behole.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
He's like, please, welcome to Jelpark boys and they come
out in their costumes and the place goes completely wild
and they sing, you know, cigarettes and dope and mustard
and boloney, liquors.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Lickers and oars and it's just like hilarious.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
And then they come off and Bubbles says, you know,
I'm having an after party. I just bought a house
and uh, you know, once you guys come out. Apparently
Axel is gonna come after the show. And I was like, yeah,
believe that one.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
I see it. But I'll be at your house for
the party.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
So Jack and I are bass player and I went
to the party with some like stragglers and our tour
manager and this I think girls were on that built too.
Suicide girls weren't there, and this party was like going off,
like it was like half the arena showed up at
this party.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
Like there was hundreds of people at this party, and.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Like you know, midnight came, and then like one in
the morning came, and then like maybe close to two
in the morning came, and then suddenly, like an escalade
pulls up and fucking Axel Rose gets out of his
vehicle with like his crew and he's entering a party
with like hundreds of people at it, you know.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Like a big, crazy party.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
And he ends up coming in the front door and
like sequestering himself behind a piano, like a grand piano
that was like in the living room.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
And I don't know how this happened, but Jack and I.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
And the trailer park boys ended up inside that circle
with him and his security.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
And now here we are like just.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Face to face with Axel I'm not supposed to be
looking at and our tour manager was told don't introduce yourself.
I just stuck my hand out. I was like, hey,
I'm John Angus from the Truth. It's really nice to
meet you, man, thank you so much for having us.
And he was like grab my hand, shook it and
was like hey, you know thanks for doing the show.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
He's drinking out of.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
A bottle of champagne, and then the conversation just turns
to the Trailer Park Boys, and everybody just talks about
He's talking about their their favorite episodes and you know,
like how'd you guys come up with this and that
it's just a big old trailer park boys like bro down.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, and then like three, like two turns to three
and three turns to four. Whatever it was.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
It's getting very late, and our tour manager's like, you
guys got to get out of here, like to me
and Jack, because we're driving six hours or something to
the next show the next day and we got to
be there first because we're opening and yeah, yeah yahda.
So he like eventually drags us out of there, and
I said to Axel, who's still drinking directly out of
a bottle of champagne. I said, hey, Axel, I'll see
you tomorrow, and he goes, best best line of Rockstar

(14:49):
as I ever said to me. He goes maybe, and
then continues.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
To trail like maybe what does that mean? Am I fired?
Are you not coming? Like? What does that mean? You
know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (15:00):
But it was like so such an epic encounter to
be told, you know, you might see me tomorrow, you know,
And I don't even know what that means. And so
we did the show and he played, and then during
that next show he gave us a shout out from
the stage. He said he wanted to thank everybody for
being here in the crowd and and the truths no,

(15:21):
I think he sank the trews first, and his crew
and the suicide girl, and but most like most of
all want to thank the crowd. And he goes, see,
I know who's asked to kiss correct quote.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
So anyway, we got we got props from him on that.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
So let's see, that's that's brilliant. And you hear those
stories about don't make eye contact, and but then people
meet him and it's never liked that. So you always
wonder where is there disconnect or is it just like
Axe will be playing nice while the other person play
you know.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
Well, interesting interesting side note. We played his last Canadian
date in Saint John, New Brunswick. Now I don't know
if you're familiar with kings Jack, but that's East and
Newswick and the next day and he and he liked
us enough to say thank you from the stage and
to say hi to Johan. The very next day, all
over Rolling Stone in the news was that he fired

(16:13):
Eagles of Death Metal from the stage at their show
in Cleveland. It was like two days after our last show,
So I think there might be two sides to opening.
I remember his line was, I'm sorry for exposing you
to the pigeons of shit metal.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
That's the line, and.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
I just remember thinking, I'm really glad we didn't end
up on that side.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
Of the Yeah, that's true, and you're Yeah, you're a
true gungs and Rosen's fandom is coming out both of you. Yeah,
that's that's a funny thing that often I talk about
the pigeons of ship metal. Yeah, there are certain bands
that are just like, we have a great experience. But
I'm glad you guys did. Yeah, that's super cool. I mean,
did you have everyone because he said it was a

(16:57):
hometown show, asking you for tickets and everything like that,
yet people, Yeah, it.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
Was a pretty big deal, Like we used every inch
of that guest list.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
I can tell you that.

Speaker 4 (17:06):
Yeah, we've been lucky to get on some really really
big kind of shows, and every time those things happen
and like people we haven't heard from it for twenty
five years, like reach out, Hey, you just wondering if
there might be some room on the guest list. And
I don't even recognize, like the number is not even
a name on my phone anymore.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
I'm like, who is this?

Speaker 3 (17:25):
But that's to be expected. And then that's why I
had to squeeze in my little story before and then
because I like, who is this trailer park boys? And
who was Axle singing with? And the truth there was
this whole, this whole side of this North side of America,
of North America that I was just not familiar with.
And as far as radio play, because they're talking about,

(17:48):
you know, a certain amount of Canadian dates and you
guys are obviously really successful. Do you see a difference,
you know, because you're playing here, you know, do you
see a difference when you're playing Canada verse America? Because
I kind of I still find it funny to how
professionally you introduced yourself Colin, And I'm just thinking, like,
if I was a Canadian broadcaster, you would be like,

(18:10):
it's comming from the truths, Yeah, come on, And it
was kind of explained who you were, yeah, and like
this got you have been famous for a minute. So
I just thought that was kind of like a cute
humble yeah. Successful. I don't know, is it American or
is it excuse because you're nice? Is a combination of
the two?

Speaker 4 (18:26):
Well, I mean it's no secret like we've we've had
a very successful career in Canada, you know, sold a
lot of records and had a lot of hits and
did a lot of great touring, but you know, we
never really quite cracked the whole of America. We've got
pockets where we do all right, But that tends to
be the Canadian conundrum. A lot of Canadian bands that
get successful up here have a little bit harder time

(18:47):
south of the border. But you know, we still pick
away at it. We still we still go down there
and tour. But I don't expect Guns n' Roses podcast
out of Forest Hills to know exactly who the truths are.
So I figured I should introduce myself, And I was
just actually just reaching out as a fan. I thought
it was just such a great fun podcast and and

(19:08):
I and I love that stuff. I actually one of
my really best friends, really really good friends up here
is a guy named Josh Treger, and he plays drums
for an amazing band called the Sam Roberts Band, and
we he filled in on a couple of dates for
us on the drums and the way we hit it
off as we started talking about use your Illusion era
guns n' Roses on a really hungover van ride from where.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
Were we in Spain.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
We had to go get the we were playing in
Spain and we had to take a long drive to
get to the airport, and we just started growing down
over guns n' Roses and usually Losings in particular because
he's he was an obsessed Matt Soum fan, and that
was unusual for me because I was usually thinking, you know,
it's always Steve Adler.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
But we had good, good, good chats over that.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
So that's cool, and we can we could talk about
that stuff if it comes up organically, just as as
fans talking, but as far as actual experiences. You got
to got a chance to open up for Slash as well.
In fourteen.

Speaker 4 (20:06):
We have kind of a few connections with him, mostly
through once again through a little bit through John Angus,
because you're really good buds with Brett Fitz Who's I mean,
he's a friend of all of ours.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
But he's the right.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
He's got you know, it speaks volumes to slash his temperament,
that he put two Canadians in his bed and humbles
you know.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
You know, he's the chill one when he wants. Yeah,
but he so Brent. We hooked up. You know, we
became friendly with Brent when he was playing drums in
a band called Theory of a Dead Man. But I
was really intrigued.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
He's such a sweet guy and really talented. But he
had also played with like Alice Cooper and Vince Neil
and these guys when when we met him, so we
always stayed in pretty close contact. And then he got
the Slash gig and I was just so happy for him,
and he brought in Todd, who Todd is like a
guitar player front man by trade.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
But you've got Todd Kurn's on here too, haven't you. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah, he's awesome. I want to acknowledge that it's because
I think Todd, because if you guys have noticed, gene
Are just played bad Apples on this tour, they haven't
played it in thirty five years. They you see a
clip of Isaac and Duff rehearsing Right next Door to
Hell and they did you heard a rehearsal of Perfect Crime.

(21:18):
Those are all songs Todd has sang now recently with
Slash with Miles Kennedy. So I don't know.

Speaker 4 (21:23):
I think I Always Bad Don't Damn Me were my
two favorite late late in the album, like such great songs.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, those are great, great tunes.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
So the connections, no, I love them. So I and
I also have I'm putting it out there in the universe.
I don't think anybody will like it, even Todd me
saying it, but I think guns Roses has had three
guitars before. Okay, they should add Todd Kerns he could sing.
I think he would be Like It's like I was thinking,
like a baseball or basketball team or whatever. I just think,

(21:55):
especially with Melissa out not being able to help with vocals,
I'm putting it out there in the universe.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Todd and g Well, you know that's funny because like
with such a good idea and with Aerosmith, like Steven
hasn't had a second righteous singer on stage with him
in like two decades. Like it doesn't mean, it doesn't
mean Steven's not up to. It's just like those songs
are really ambitious and really like take a lot out
of you, and if you could take a lower harmony,
then you should, you know, and.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Like let's let somebody else do the heavy lift.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
And although I did see I'm going to digress again,
but I saw a clip. Eddie Trunk posted a clip
of them doing Mister Brownstone and Opening Night, and Axel
sounded wicked, like he sounded stronger than he has in
Now mind you, Brownstone is in a lower register.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
It's not a Welcome to the Jungle. But he sounded really,
really good and really strong.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Anyway, I just wanted to say that, like, so I'm
looking forward to seeing this tour if I get a chance.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Yeah, not right on, And you guys can if you
guys see them, come back and give a review, to
do reviews.

Speaker 4 (22:52):
We're hoping to catch the Toronto show because are the
Black Crows opening Toronto.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
No, they're doing Vancouver in another show. But so with Brent,
we were friends before he joined Slash. He joined Slash.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
They do that.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
Record with all the different singers on it, the Slash
record with all the different like Aussie's on it and
all those guys a great record, and then they were
they were replacing the guitar player and they wanted to
do like a reality show style thing, and they held
auditions in La and he actually called me and said
like he's like you should come down, Like why don't
you come down and like, uh, you know, jam with us.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Like wouldn't that be fun?

Speaker 1 (23:29):
And I remember just thinking, like our third record was
just in the can. I'm like, I can't do this.
I can't like uproot my whole life and like, but
I remember thinking like that was a really cool offer
that he made, and I would have done it just
for Jam, just to jam with Slash, even just once,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
But it didn't come to pass. But those guys have
been in our orbit, you know, for a while.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
And then when they played Toronto on that tour, we
all went did you go Colin?

Speaker 2 (23:53):
No, I wasn't at that show, but I remember seeing
it and then event and then I mean we met
Slash like a bunch of times, like even before that
we met him.

Speaker 4 (24:01):
From Jack Douglas and also I remember, yeah, the first
time we met Duff and Slash, we were signed to
Sony BMG and Velvet Revolver were riding high on their
first record, and the head of and that was on Sony,
and the head of Sony, you know, hooked us up
with tickets to go down and meet them, and we
met Duff and Slash and we were in the studio

(24:22):
with Jack Douglas, who produced He produced our second record,
Denni Thieves. He's also he produced all the big seventies
Aerosmith records and Cheap Trick and you know, he's a legend.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Beautiful famously forbidden from producing Abbaday for Destruction. He was
the first choice, first choice to produce Apbadet for Destruction
because he did Rocks, which is, you know, Slash's favorite
Aerosmith record. Yeah, and he was so fucked up at
the time because he was coming off of a heroin
phase addiction after after John Lennon's death, because he was
he produced John Lennon's last record.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Anyway, he went through a really dark time and he
was in.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Such a bad state that the label forbade the band
from work king with Jack Douglas. But anyway, like the
happy ending is, Jack gets clean, gets sober, starts producing
records again. In like the late nineties early aughts, he
Slashed a snake Pit one of those records, so you
got to know what Slash really well.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
Yeah, and then when we when we met Slash and
Duff that we went back to the studio and you know,
that was a great show. But the next day Slash
actually called called Jack and said, oh, I met your
your friends and the truths they seem like nice fellas.
I guess so far we're like two for two with
with leaving a decent impression on founding Guns and Roses members.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
So it's the Canadian way.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, so so then to play with and then I
went and saw him in Australia. We happened to be
in Australia at the same time and I went with
Todd and Brent down to this festival they were playing
and I met Slashed again there and like so you
just I mean, yeah, I'd just be bumped into each
other a lot. And then we found ourselves on a
show in kip Retton with us Slash and Aerosmith, which

(25:58):
was like a big dream bill for us. And again
it's in like rural Nova Scotia. You know, Sydney k
Bretton is not exactly Queen's.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
So but it was cool.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
It was really cool, and like, especially Miles Kennedy was
very gracious and they were bigging us up from the
stage and all this kind of stuff. And then so, yeah,
just another great memory.

Speaker 4 (26:19):
And I remember I was I was trying to warm
up my voice and I and I was like, we
were an hour before we were getting ready to play,
and Slash was must have been two hours before their say,
and he was already out there running scales, just warming
up practicing. I'm like, you don't need to practice your slash,
but you know.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Apparently, yeah, apparently he does it. I mean, and it
never ends, you know, right. So actually, if I can
rewind a little bit, Yeah, who's the older brother? Forgive me,
who's the older brother here? So older brother Colin is.
So I'm an older brother as well. I'm the oldest
of four. We're all four years apart. I've obviously tried.

(26:57):
I've tried to. I mean, they like rock, but none
of the degree that I do. I mean none of
us were musicians, but I mean growing up listening to
music together, going some concerts together. Yeah, how did you
did you guys discover G and R together? Like, how
did you guys like no some music. How did you
I guess was there the little brother thing? How did
you guys get into music together? I know it's probably

(27:18):
anna asked question too often, so.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
Well as far as Guns n' Roses is concerned.

Speaker 4 (27:22):
It was the summer of Grade five, which was nineteen
eighty nine, and I was hanging out with my cousin
and a bunch of his friends, and they were all
getting into rock music, and they were into Kiss and
Motley Crue and Appetite for Destruction guns n' Roses, and
I just like immediately was like that looks like the
coolest thing, just even the album cover. And then I

(27:44):
listened to like Motley Crue, and I listened to like
some Kiss and and you know, I kind of like
those bands for what they are later on, but like
when I listened Appetite for Destruction, my mind was blown.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
I was like, all bets are off. I'm not doing
anything else but.

Speaker 4 (27:57):
Just obsessing over this this thing, what ever this is?

Speaker 2 (28:00):
I want as much of it as I can get.

Speaker 4 (28:03):
And then I got totally into it and I would
buy like any magazines that were on the rocks in
Saint John's, Newfoundland and nineteen eighty nine with guns and
roses on the cover, and they by then they had exploded, right,
So I and so they were always like the hit
Parader magazines and all those things, and I would my
whole bedroom was just all guns and roses posters. So

(28:25):
it became an obsession really early on. But you definitely
introduced me to them in that way. I would never
have heard I was too young. Like the thing is that,
now that I have siblings, you realize that the contraband
gets smuggled in via the older. Yeah, so if you're
in grade five, that puts me in grade two, right
or two or three.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
So I'm a little bit young to be listening to
that old man. He's a real motherfucker gonna carry. But
I had a whole thing in my mind.

Speaker 4 (28:52):
I had to, like I had to defend Axel to
mom and dad constantly because there was all this curse
words and like, never mind when they heard one in
a Million, which is not did not age well and whatever.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
We won't even talk about that song.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
But I remember being such an Axle apologist for like
all the the F words and all the shit on
his on his records, and be like, no, he's really
a good guy.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Like I tried to say, say, like he's just doing
a thing because he's angry, Like I would.

Speaker 4 (29:17):
Actually defend him to just so my mom and dad
wouldn't take away my tape.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
So I feel like I'm doing that now. And even
we don't have to go there. I mean, I have
spoken about one in a million.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, even that.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
I mean, he's using harsh language because he's like he's like,
I'm saying that racism is bad. Yeah, So I mean
it's an anti racism song. So but I can understand that's.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
A tough one to break. It's like but it's like
it's like it's like having to explain a joke. You
have to explain it. It's not funny, and it's like
same with that.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
It's like if you have to explain it, it's probably
not landing on the right side of it.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
That's fair. No, that is fair. You know. I've I've
been fortunate to have these kind I don't know if
you guys have listened to these episodes yet.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
I have. I've listened to a lot of them with.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
Robert Freeman talking about it and Tracy Gunn Tracy Amos
talking about that song. You know, like It's one thing
for you know, a white Jew to talk about that song.
But let's let's talk to someone of color. Let's talk
to I spoke to Roddy Bottom from Faith No More.
How do you feel about that song? So it is
I think it's already see from body Counts, and I

(30:26):
liked his answer. You know, it's it's the man with
the tent, you know, somebody with intent to hurt. That's different.
But I respect Tracy Amos is more along your guys
thinking is you know, it's I understand where it's coming from,
but it lacks a certain sensitivity. You know that, you
know it's still hurt people, even though like that may
not that's not you, you know, So I mean I

(30:48):
get all that. Yeah, I.

Speaker 4 (30:50):
Think you have to separate intention with impact when it
comes to that song, and I think the impact overall
was very negative. I don't obviously just from he said.
His intention was not to do that, but the impact
in the end was not a great impact. And that
album is great without that song.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
You know. That's how I feel.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
So that's that's fair. No, And I can't take it
away from you. I can see both sides of it.
But the fact that you had to defend your you know,
the cursing and.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
Yeah, I want to, yeah, but I was mostly talking
about like that old man. He's a real motherfucker and
still the greatest vocal line ever committed to a rock song,
which is uh, but there's something I've been building up
inside for so fucking long, like that greatest raging rock

(31:40):
vocal I think ever recorded?

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Does that beat? Why don't you just fuck offs?

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Ever covered? Ganire? Have you guys ever covered many many times?
Forget Me?

Speaker 2 (31:55):
We used to do Locomotive, like when we when we
started Wow we were we were recovered.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
We did a lot of covers because the only gigs
you could get in Nova Scotia were like you had
to play three hour long sets a night. We had
like maybe forty five minutes of like presentableish original material.
We wrote a lot more than that, but like you
had to fill it out with a lot of other things,
and we did a lot of guns and roses and
like we did pretty tied up.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
We did Locomotive, We've.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
Done Brownstone, We've recently did sweech out to Mine on
like an eighties tribute thing on the rock Boat.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Actually that's what got me.

Speaker 4 (32:29):
That's what got me back in Like I've had like
this on again, off again thing with guns and Roses
for so long because you know, they were like the.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
I'm gonna so fucking long. You had to say, we're
so fucking.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
Long, and that's great God when I think of that.
But we learned, we we did this thing. Have you
ever heard of the rock boat?

Speaker 3 (32:50):
Rock Boat?

Speaker 4 (32:50):
It's a floating music festival, so it leaves out if
the boat it's like a cruise ship and a bunch
of like bands that you know, like I guess the
headliners would be would have been like switch Foot Need
to Breathe put on by the band Sister Hazel, and
they had like the buge hit All for You in
the late nineties. And they started putting on this festival

(33:13):
on a boat like twenty five years ago, and we
actually have done it a few times over the years,
and this was the was it the twenty fifth anniversary
this year?

Speaker 2 (33:22):
I think so. Yeah. So anyway, they.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
Had an eighties night theme, so we had to learn
a couple of and we just wanted to do like
eighties rock songs, so we learned sweet Child of Mind,
like Note for Note and Loving an Elevator, by Aerosmith,
which is super awesome. But yeah, but then when I started,
you know, learning guns and listening to Axel, and I
started youtubing a bunch of his live performances, I think
I just the addiction started kicking in again.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
And then I found your podcast and it was right
there here.

Speaker 3 (33:50):
Oh and I'm happy that happened. I really have enjoyed
this conversation so far. So then I want you guys,
it's not even over, and I want you guys to
come back. That's how That's how I feel about it.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
So Brando speak, just speak before we move off to
the younger brother, older brother influenced thing I want.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
I want you to know.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
I can pinpoint to the exact second, the moment I
realized that I had to learn how to play electric guitar,
and like I'm a Les Paul guy, but through like, no,
it's not a coincidence. I mean, it's because like Slash
made that guitar look so alluring and so appealing. But
it was when the second half of the mister Brownstone
solo when they hit the chorus, you know how he

(34:30):
solos over the verse and then they hit the chorus
and he plays that lick and as soon as I
heard that, I was like, my life's mission is to
figure that out.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
I have to figure out how to make that thing
sound like that. And I went about doing it.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
And you know, that's like again like I hadn't I
hadn't had any guitar experience. I was playing violin at
the time in lessons, and I was like, I'm I'm
going to learn that.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
That's that's something I have to learn in me.

Speaker 4 (34:58):
But I just distinctly remember you having a conversation with
Slash instead, like you were kind of effusive and drunk,
and he said, you're the reason. I wait, You're the
reason I exist, man.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
I was like, you're, like, you're the reason I play guitar.
Like here, I am like I have this whole life
and career and like that's because of you. And he's like,
he said, soberly, what does one say to that, I
love it, that.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
I love you man, that.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
I've had a few moments like that.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
You've earned it, you you guys have earned it. I
think that's that's It's cool as hell. But I'm sure
Slash gets that often, you know, I'm sure he's done
that too.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
So I mean our friend Scott Donnelley, who plays in
a band called Super Sacks, says, like, you know, that
band's ruined many a life in that Like people are
going to chase.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
Whatever that whatever drug is.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Embedded in those tracks is like it's like heroin and
people are sure pure rock and roll and it'll chase
people will chase that dragon right off a cliff, you
know what I mean. And like not everybody can do it.
I mean, like even that band couldn't do it again.
I mean it's like it's it's such a fragile chemistry.
It's such a beautiful thing when it happens like a
comet and uh, it's just not recreatable, you know, it

(36:17):
just it happens or it doesn't. And and it's it's
a magic you can chase all the way to your
early grave.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
I think that's brilliant that they hear that it's one
thing coming from a fan, you know, but the air
from such accomplished musicians such as yourselves to the praise.
I think that's that speaks volumes more than just more
than a lot. I think it really does. Uh so
as musicians and you both are honest, you know, I
feel like I can ask, you know, especially with the

(36:48):
opinion with one in a million. Am I being like?
Am I looking through life through guns and rose colored glasses?
When I see Axel Rose at sixty four, and we
talked about how he sounds great and on mister Brownstone,
I know, not welcome to the jungle. We said that,
but I feel like there's a certain expectation for him
to be and he's six to four. And it's not

(37:09):
just Axel. I see it with musicians across the board.
I see on TikTok or instinct Instagram people trying to shame,
like Rod Stewart or or obviously David Lee. Roth is
the butt of a lot of people's jokes. People there
who go to the shows seem to have a lot
of fun. It's like there's gonna be a time with
these people aren't here anymore. I understand they're not going
to be They're not going to sound like appetite. So

(37:29):
am I looking at life through a fan? I don't
like I hate hearing I'll end it here when fans
say certain artists don't know when to retire.

Speaker 4 (37:38):
Yeah, well, I'm looking at the turnouts at those Guns
n' Roses shows and it certainly looks like lots of
people want to be there and having a great time,
and there's lots of people that are buying tickets and
lots of people that want to go see them. And
I think he sounds great. I think he's the most
compelling front man. He's just he's managed to keep that

(37:59):
air of mystery throughout his entire career, so it's not
just the voice, it's the whole vibe.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
And I think he looks great.

Speaker 4 (38:07):
And I think he also, unlike a lot of his peers,
like he insists on still playing those songs in the
original key. A lot of older bands will lower the
keys and stuff, So he's still playing Welcome to the
Jungle in the key of Welcome to the Jungle, and
a twenty two year old is going to have a
hard time singing that, let alone, you know, a sixty
something year old guy. So I mean, they're not doing

(38:29):
a lot of things wrong. You know, they're making lots
of people happy, and they're like, the thing that they
have at their best is magic. And the longer you
do this crazy job called music, that's all there is,
you know, That's what everybody hooks onto is just the
magic of it all and that's the most elusive part

(38:51):
of it, and those guys have an abundance of it
and captured a lot of it on some pretty great records.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
And yeah, I don't.

Speaker 4 (38:58):
See anybody in the crowd going h that note. I
just see people rocking out and having the time of
their lives, which is the job.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
I also think that the singers just have it so tough,
like compared to everybody else. Like Slash could go on
with a broken foot and pneumonia and it was still
sound like Slashed once you put that less poll in
his hand through those marshals, like, oh there he is.
It sounds just like them, you know what I mean.
And that same is just not true of singers, so
they get caught in a lot of embarrassing you know,

(39:29):
probably some really disgruntled sound men slipping the naked vocal
out to some fans, and like it does look and
sometimes sound really bad.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
And unfortunately that's like the.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
Cross the singers have to bear, as like your instrument
is like every other part of your body, you know,
it's like it's aging. And that's not something other guys
in the band have to deal with, except for maybe drummers.
There's no secret that these guys will end up hiring
younger drummers too, but you know, it's just part.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
Of the deal.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
And like said, it's like people still want to show
up and see it, So why not Bob Dylan turns
eighty five in May and he's playing in Cleveland tomorrow.
You know, Uh, there's no there's no reason to stop.
People want to see it.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
There's too much. I I I see it a lot,
and I know because people want views and people, you know,
clicks and all that. The people who go to a
show just to be a troll. And I saw one
with Axel the other day about someone like shake. They
showed the stage and they'll turn back and pay it
to themselves and they shake their head like what is this?

Speaker 2 (40:30):
Well the joke Jo has a lot of ticket to
go do that.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
Like whatever exactly. So it's it's just it's I feel
embarrassed for those people. So it's uh, I wanted to
get that out there because even my diehard guns and
Roses fan friends to be like, well, can't you say,
like he's not the same, Like why do I need
to say that, Like I'm going there for the environment.
He's still Axel, even I wouldn't want to see somebody
sound exactly like Axel that isn't Axled. That doesn't make

(40:57):
any sense to me.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Well, I think the whole package. Man, there's no replace
in that guy.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
And at the end of the day, it's the material,
Like it's so it's so so much strong material. Like
that's the thing about you show up because you're going
to see like fifteen of your favorite songs of all time,
and you know they're going to be in the set,
and like, even if it's a rough night, you're still
listening to Paradise City. But like twenty thousand like minded folks,
you know it doesn't suck.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Yeah, But when we played get It.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
Yeah, But when we played with him in six and
this is a long time ago, and this was still
two years before Chinese Democracy came out, that was still
I remember the head of our record label at the
time was like, I've heard tracks from Chinese Democracy and
it was just this huge, mysterious thing. And he played
November Rain and his and I got like, I was
so moved and it was just so incredible. I remember

(41:49):
I tried to I was just we had had a
long couple of years of like brand new everything's and
touring and working, and I remember I wanted to sacrifice
my guitar at the end of our set because, you know,
finally shared the stage or axel.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
And he had one of those.

Speaker 4 (42:03):
Like metal you know, one of those colleges that the
grid iron kind of stage setups or whatever.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
It's like it's it's it's metal, Like it's just like, yeah,
it's a grippy metal.

Speaker 4 (42:14):
I think I have this four hundred dollars Mexican telecaster
I bought in nineteen ninety eight that is indestructible. I
swear it will survive the apocalypse because I tried to
put it through a metal stage as my sacrifice for
you know whatever luck brought us to opening for Guns
N' Roses, and it just bounced and did not break.
But I remember being so moved by the but just

(42:37):
by the full circle moment of like how many people
get to like share the stage with the guy that
literally was the band that made you even want to
start doing this. I mean, it was pretty overwhelming for me.
And anyway, sorry, I break my guitar, but it doesn't
want to break.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
I like that story and it's a full circle moment
for me here. You know, this is an ex girlfriend
many years ago, but she is somebody who really me
into guns of roses. And it'd be many years after
I would start this silly little podcast you get a
chance to talk to you, to you guys, I wouldn't
be doing the right thing if I got you out
of here before talking without talking about the truths just
a little bit and what you guys have going on.

(43:15):
You know, new song, new album out, The Bloody Light
came out late last year, right, Yeah, the Breakdown videos
out now, so tell me about it. The reaction has
been fantastic.

Speaker 4 (43:27):
Yeah, we had we had a really good we've had
so far, so good with it. You know, we had
a number one single last year in Canada with the Breakdown.
We made the record The Bloody Light with our friends
in a band called the Glorious Suns, who are a great,
great Canadian band also pretty well known in the States,
and Brett and Jay, the singer and the guitar player,

(43:49):
co produced the record with us, And yeah, we were
really proud of it and we've been torn behind it
and the reaction has been great and we're just carrying
on doing it.

Speaker 2 (43:58):
You know, when does this episode air.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
Or drop or so we're taping this on Isy I'll
say because it will relate to the episode and the conversation.
We're taping this at Izzy's birthday April right sixty fourth
birthday is the wherever you are.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
I've never met I've never met Izzie. I would love to.
He's one of the coolest.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
But depending on when this airs, we do have a
handful of shows out your way.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
It'll be out next week, That's what I was gonna say.
So it'll be out, you know, in just a few days.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
So myself and Colin and our bass player were like
the three original members of the band. We do like
an acoustic version of the band where we go out
and do a whole bunch of songs, like the only
three guys that can play everything The Truth have ever
released the same camp be said for everybody else that's
coming gone. But uh so we go up and we
do these kind of intimate shows and I think the
fans really appreciate them. So we're doing one in Brooklyn

(44:50):
at Little Field and that's May. I want to get
the date right, that's May.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
The come on because.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
I fourteenth, that's May fourteenth, and thirteenth were in Philly
and the sixteenth were in Clayton, New York, which is
kind of right on the Canadian border.

Speaker 3 (45:10):
I'll see what happens to fourteenth. Because I said I'm
in Queens Brooklyn, you might as well. You might as
well be in Halifax. Honestly, sometimes we're getting from Brooklyn
the Queens even though it's right next to each other.
But it's a Thursday, So I'll see what I can do.
You can do, because I mean, you are you often?
Is this rarefied air that you're in the States? Like,
is I never see you again? If I mess you?

Speaker 2 (45:32):
No? No.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
We try to stay reasonably consistent, like our good our
better markets in the States are Buffalo and Cleveland and Detroit,
and you know, we New York always has a bit
of like a like a showcase kind of feel to
it to me, like we're playing for industry. But we
like the last time we were there we play City Winery.
We had a great turnout, and so we're going to
keep it up. But we don't We don't get down

(45:54):
to the States nearly as much as we do Canada.
But we are going to do Buffalo later in the summer,
so a festival out that way. It's not announced yet,
but yeah, we're going to be coming and going here
and there.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
All right, cool, you've.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
Had our manager on here. We're managed by Danny Goldberg
out of New York. Did you not have him on
your podcast?

Speaker 3 (46:12):
Danny was It was like a side podcast like that
I was going to do. So it's me. It's on
my YouTube page, the ex manager of a Nirvana right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Because I thought I could have sworn.

Speaker 4 (46:22):
I saw that in your in the podcast about talking
about the excellent Kirk Cobain thing, and.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
Yeah, no, it's it's in there. It's on my page.
It wasn't under I mean, this is just semantics under
appetite for distortion. I did like a quick like a
nineties podcast I was going to do with Alternative Nation
that website, but that only lasted like a couple But
I mean they're my interviews, so they're up my my
on my YouTube page. Yeah, yeah, that's there.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Like, what's your history with Guns n Roses?

Speaker 3 (46:50):
It just pure fandom, yeah, just pure fandom growing up,
you know, liking music. Uh, it's funny. My first favorite
rock band was probably Green Day. You know, when when
Dukie came fin or what I say that weird duque,
I think you're my Canadian is somehow coming into Duk Dukie.
I just remember that I was obsessed with that album.

(47:10):
But I was also I loved Michael Jackson at that
time when I add jokes whatever, but like Elton John
But it was it was probably because my driving around
with my dad. Classic rock radio was always on and
the full circle for me is two one, O four
three was the station we'd usually listened to, and I
worked there. You know, I worked at part time. Usually

(47:31):
I do other stuff for Ihearten Premiere, but I've I've
been in the room with Jim Kerr and produced his shows,
the radio legend who's been there for fifty years. But
I grew up listening to so yeah, just liking he
got me into the doors, he got me into the
Zeppelin and then hearing Guns of Roses, just going one
day to my my high school friends. This is the

(47:52):
days of I finally have my own CD player. What
should I get you like Guns and Roses? And I
named the songs and I only had so much money.
All I could buy was appetite and use your illusion one.
That's so That's how it's how it started. And then
oddly enough, just like the Canadian X before her, there

(48:12):
was another ex who really loved guns and Roses and
we watched Welcome to the Videos together and it was
like my first time seeing Garden the beating, and I
was like, this is She thought I would make fun
of her. I'm like, she's like, this is I like
this band? Really like this guy? And I only knew
like the singles at the time. I'm like, this is
I really like this.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
We also had a dubbed version of the Live in
Tokyo because they did like a volume one and volume
two of that too, right, and I thought we had
the Blue One dubbed from my friend Steve Schwartz out
in Newfoundland, who I we watched obsessively.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
You know, she bought me Sorry you had kids, just
try to.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
Slow things down to learn the rifts and stuff.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
I thought you'd literally like pause it and be like,
what does it look like he's doing there? You know,
like before tabs, before you could just google everything under
the sun and figure it all out instantly. You're left
to your own devices trying to figure this stuff out.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
And we're like, we're from Nova Scotia.

Speaker 4 (49:06):
So like the whole idea of like Tartan and kilts, right,
and then Axel starts wearing a kilt on the User
Illusions tour, and my dad had a kilt. So I'm like,
I gotta where you're kilt now, you.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
Know, because how the heck, how the.

Speaker 4 (49:21):
Hell he pulled that off and everybody thought it was
the coolest thing in the world.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
Is a testament to his charisma. But it was so funny.

Speaker 4 (49:29):
He was all of a sudden, it's bicycle shorts, a
kilt and a plaid shirt and nothing on underneath and
army boots, and it's like, that's the coolest thing I've
ever seen, but not on anybody.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
Else, right, That's that's him. And then people today try
too hard to be different, and it was just so effortless.
It was effortless, effortless, and you could say the same
thing about all the guys. Is he you know, That's
why I gravitate towards this band. So that's how this started.
A friend of mine, radio friend, you know, he's like,
we started Guns and Roses podcast. I'm like, that's stupid.

(50:00):
What am I gonna talk about November rain for an hour?
And here I am ten years later, you know, because
I get to do all these six degrees of gn
R Bacon and the fact that ten years into it,
and I say this all the time to my listeners people,
I get messages usually from No Slight to them the
average Joe and Jane being like, oh, hey, I just
found you yeah, and then they hear from you guys.

(50:20):
I'm like, that's cool as hell, you know. And the
fact that I have a nice library that you can
go back into, so it's a I don't remember what
I said in most of these episodes.

Speaker 4 (50:29):
So they're an endlessly fascinating band to talk about. There's
just so much to them, and there's so much still
like a lot of mystery to that to it, Like
I would love, like I heard rumored that they have
all this footage from the user allusions toward they were
going to put.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
A documentary together.

Speaker 4 (50:47):
Yeah, imagine if I guarantee there's probably full footage of
like the Montreal Riot and probably full footage of Saint
Louis and just I mean, that would make an incredibly
dramatic Netflix like eight parts year.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
I don't know, like they should.

Speaker 4 (51:01):
I hope they do something with it, because it's it's
definitely interesting.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
I have to go pick up my kids. That got
you for me.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
But to be like I talked the other thing I
should mention because you say six degrees and the tentacles
of this band run through so many things and so
many different kinds of people and different kinds of bands,
and they were just such an impactful band. But anyway,
we we had our hit record at a surprise hit
record with our first record. We made it for six
thousand dollars, our manager paid for it, and it was

(51:34):
a gold record with two hit singles, one of which
my number one. So our success was was a bit
of a surprise to everyone. But then next thing we
knew our label was like, really, reach out.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
To whoever you want. Who do you want to produce
your record?

Speaker 1 (51:46):
We'll reach out to whoever you want, Like you just
look at your records and most when and Mike I
put Mike Clink's name out there and I talked to
my Clink on the phone when we were on tour,
and like leth Bridge, I remember being like out West
on our first headlining tour talking to all these guys
and Jack Douglas came to see us, who we ultimately
ended up working with But like we were reaching out
to everybody. You know, Jack and Diino, who'd done Nirvana's

(52:09):
first couple of recordings. He came to see us, and
but y, all these guys were like, you know, eager
to chat, and that we were a band that was
sort of on the rise.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
So people were calling us back.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
But anyway, I might clink there you go, like just
because again we're just scouring the backs of our favorite records,
going who who made this?

Speaker 3 (52:25):
See all these little stories, turning these these stones over
and hearing about it. So I appreciate the stories in
the insight that both of you have given today, and
I am sincere that I want you guys to come back.
I will make it to a true show, whether it's
this may, whenever it is. Because my wife we were
recently talking about visiting Canada, especially Western Canada.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
Come see us in Canada for the first that that's
a great gon'd be a good first time to see us.
If be somewhere up here and just reach out to us,
we'll throw you on the list, we'll hang out. It'd
be great, all right.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
And so there won't be any sort of looking rules.
I can look at you guys in the eye. You
can look at us, Okay.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
You just don't don't tell anybody. We're letting you do that,
though we don't mind. You bring the weed across.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
The border, all right, we'll see. I'll put it in
my my son's diaper bag. So that does it for
this episode of Appetite for Distortion when we see the
next one. In the words of Axl Rose, concerning Chinese democracy,
I don't know as soon as the word, but you'll see.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
It thanks to the lame ass security. I'm going home.