Todd Kerns on Slash, Guns N' Roses, and Cats | Ep. 489

The multi-talented Todd Kerns returns to the podcast to talk about watching horror movies with Slash, singing rare Guns N' Roses songs on tour with Myles Kennedy, when we might see the new SMKC record, and love for our pets.

This episode is dedicated to Gee Bee, my cat. Rest in meower little buddy.

More info: https://www.instagram.com/toddkerns/ 

Our website: afdpod.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
This is Appetite for Distortion.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Welcome to the podcast Appetite four Distortion, Episode number four
hundred and eighty nine. My name is Brando. Welcome back
to the podcast. Mister Todd Kerns, you know better than
to talk during my intro.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Oh wow, I'm not going to be asked back after that,
not at all.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
You could say whatever.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Your stage manager's like, that's it, brother, you're out.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
No, because we were just bullshitting and talking before about
before we even hit record. I guess we wanted to
catch up before we we did. So it's like we
were just in mid conversation essentially, and my gamlets just
hit records so exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Otherwise all the gold will just be spent.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, but some things are meant for off air, and
you know sometimes insider jokes things I don't know. I
don't want to I don't want to have too many
wink wink nudge nudges.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
If people exactly yeah, people.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Listening just an audio only they won't see that, so.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
They know exactly we want everybody in on the joke.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
So are you in your your home base of a
Vegas right now?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I am, and I'm actually delighted it's funny because I
just came back from Nam.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
You know, in Anaheim, you have to explain that you
haven't done that from that to nineteen to sixties.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah. No, no, I don't have a time machine in
my house, and I wouldn't refer to Vietnam now as NAM,
but no. NAM is the National Association of Music Merchants.
I believe it's called I might be saying that totally wrong,
but it's the It's basically a convention for all the
music guitar companies, drums, everything, microphones, anything you can imagine, trombones,

(02:09):
whatever you can think of. They do that in Anaheim.
So I went down there on Thursday. I was supposed
to play a fill in gig with Ace Frehley's band
this weekend. On Saturday, it snowed in New Orleans and
they were one million percent unprepared and had to cancel

(02:30):
basically everything. They were apparently bringing down equipment from like Wisconsin,
like snow plows and stuff like that because they are
completely unprepared for it. And I was like, it's funny
because as soon as I saw somebody showed me this
like on their phone, Dude, check it out. That's new
Orleans and immediately went in my head like, oh, that's
not happening. So there's a part of me that's kind

(02:52):
of like super bumm because I've played like a few
things with Ace. I'm one of those guys I played,
let's see, three out of the four original Kiss members.
I've been on stage with quite a few of the
replacement guys I've been on stage with, and but this
would have been my show with Ace, Like I can
also say similar things about guns and roses. It's it's
I was thinking to myself the other day, how cool

(03:14):
it is to be able to say, you know, I've
been on stage with original members of these things that
are a big deal to me, you know, and it's
but long story short, that didn't happen. So I'm home
and my wife and I were like like, it's it's
it's almost embarrassing to admit how quickly my wife and
I are so insanc when it comes to like, oh,

(03:35):
it's that the Walking Dead, the ones who lived. We
haven't watched this boom knock off six episodes Darryl The
Walking Dead, Darryl Dixon boom into season two already, you know,
it's just kind of like one of those funny things
where I'm like, uh, you know, because you know, going
through that entire the Walking Debt, you want to hear
a funny story about the Walking Debts. Is this sort

(03:56):
of connects with your world? Because Greg Nikottaro is a
good friend of sshes and Greg Nigoutaro is, He's worked
on all kinds of crazy stuff on my list.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I haven't officially reached out. I don't know how to
reach out, but I would love to get him anyway.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
He's great. But he's a friend of Slashes, And in
the very beginning, I was like I would I would
talk it up to Slash. I'm like, you know, you
haven't seen The Walking Dead because he's a horror guy, right,
And I'm like, well, it's from a comic book. Robert
Kirkley made this comic book and it's fucking awesome and
the fucking show is so great. And he's like, eh,

(04:30):
like he's just kind of like, I don't know. And
then like suddenly he was like I think something. We
were on some sort of break and he just like
devoured like season one and he was like, yeah, okay, cool,
and then all of a sudden he was like in
Atlanta on the set and like Norman Retis is a
homie and Greg's a homie, and I'm like, god, damn man.

(04:53):
I just loved witnessing it because then of course on
the next tour we would all have these like you know,
Walking Dead nights if the if the show was on,
we would you know, hunker down and watch the show together.
So but it's the It's the funniest thing with me
and Slash is that like half the time if I'm
in contact with him, I just think I've been in

(05:13):
contact with him, because I was going, have you seen this?
This is you know, like these sort of uh spin
offs of the Walking Dead, and he sort of talks
to me through Oh yeah, that one's cool. This is cool.
I went to see The wolf Man, which was kind
of underwhelming, but we went back. It's always about movies,
and usually about horror movies. When we go back and forth,
it's rarely about music. It's it's always about like, have

(05:36):
you seen the substance? Have you seen you know whatever?
You know, all those kind of things. And but I
really do trust his He loves a really good gory
slash or flick. I'm kind of more like I like
a great film or a great show. The gore aspect

(05:57):
can be there or not be there. But I still
kind of like it's a movies. I'm certainly one of
those guys who can go, oh yeah, that movie was terrible,
but there were some amazing killings, you know. And he
just comes on the bus sometimes with stacks of DVDs.
Were not so much anymore, but we used to and
it would be all like super like you know, Indie
b horror movies, and they would be off the charts,

(06:20):
violent and gory, and I was usually the only one
that could handle it. Everybody's like, oh man, and I'd
be like, Brent Fitz can't even stand the sight of blood.
I'm like, how we was how can we watch anything
with you? It's like, you know, romantic comedies. What are
we supposed to want? And he would just wander off
to the back back of the bus because we'd be
up there just watching just splatter fast, you know. But anyway,

(06:41):
so that was a long story short of me saying
I'm home. I'm loving being home. Twenty twenty four was
absolutely bananas. Twenty twenty five is getting bananas. But right
now I'm kind of like at home getting ready for
this fill in gig with Michael Monroe's bands coming over. Yeah,
Michael Monroe course from Hanoi Rocks, which is another huge

(07:02):
connection to guns and Roses and and uh yeah, so
you know, I got a bunch of other stuff coming
up my band too, because we're currently writing and recording
some new music. And you know, it's it's it's just
being busy really, it's kind of but right now busy
in my house talking to Brando, well, drinking Tim Horton's coffee.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Tim Horton's. That's that's when you know you're talking to.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
A real Yeah, embarrassingly Canadian. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
The only time I ever went was when I it
always sounds like a made up story when you say
I had a girlfriend in Canada. I really did, I
really did. I was like, what's Tim Horton's what's Canadian tire?
What are these these places tire? Yeah, it's used to
work at one. But before we get sterical, before we
get into all the bananas for uh this year, just

(07:49):
to mention, jump off the Walking Dead because you're talking
to you know me, I'm a horror guy. Had a
short lived Yeah, I'm not sure it's on pause because
of the child my appetite for horror podcast because I
noticed call.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
Me sometimes, Well, I'm not what I would call a
big horror guy. Like I said, I like great movies
and a lot of them are horror movies. But I
will say that I don't necessarily jump into everything just
because I have friends who literally were just all they
want to watch is horror movies. And I'm like, this
is a terrible movie regardless of you know, what you
want to call it. It's just not a good film.

(08:24):
And I think that's true in most categories. You know.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Look, you know my dream is to have this conversation
not just with you, but with Slash because I am
that person now in the not I mean, if you
want you if you're still a physical media guy like
Del James is always his Twitter account is amazing. He's
always talking about old films and yah, physical media and
he's definitely a huge horror guy as well. But to

(08:47):
b t ub I is such a free sight has
such a collection of old school horror movies. Really just
to me, favor just mentioned this one Slash okay, and
maybe you'll tell me what he says. Okay, it is
called It's so low budget, la aids Jabber. I'll repeat it.

(09:09):
L A eight is what it sounds like. It's about
a year.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
What year did this come?

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Early nineties? Early for real? Yeah, there are some really
obviously shitty ones in the seventies. I don't know if
you ever saw the the Bed that Eats the bed.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Of course, the bed that Eats people.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, and with the dad from A Boy Meets World.
That was one of his early roles was in that.
But yeah, no eighties where you know, oh, it's.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
A it's a It's the funny thing is it's like
I was young enough to not be discerning about the
quality of this film. I think that the eighties was
just a treasure trovee of like insanity, whatever they thought
of it. Yeah, yeah, And there was like it's like
like Patton Oswald talks about that with the Bed that
Eat It was kind of like it's like, you know,
like budgets are in place, it's like we're building sets,

(10:02):
We're gonna make the bed that eats people. You know,
You're like, and I would think that every time. You know,
now when I watch those movies in retrospect, I'm like,
you know, you're like, whether it's sleep Away Camp or whatever.
You're like green Light, Baby green Light. It's like whatever
the script is, it's almost kind of like, Wow, how gory?
Can you make it perfect? Boom, make it. Here's here's
a check, go make that movie. I don't know that

(10:23):
it's quite like that so much anymore, because horror has
become a lot more sophisticated in many ways. Of course,
it's also not sophisticated, but there seems to be almost
sort of more of a respected genre in and of
itself too.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
To combine the two, and then because we can, we
could spend that after.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
We're talking about horror or down a rabbit Hole.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, uh is terrifier. I haven't seen the new one yet.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
But I haven't either. I haven't. I don't think I've
seen any of them, but I know Chris Jericho is
in My friend Chris Jerich was in three somehow the
end of.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
The He's in the end of the second one, so
that what it is. Okay, I don't know if he's
in the third one. I'm not sure, but I know he.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Thought he was. But maybe I'm understanding that wrong. But yeah, okay,
I'll check out that they're both on everybody. Everybody tells
me about that, and I'm always like, okay, I'll get around.
I figure that's one of those bus watches with Slash.
I'll talk them into putting there are trilogy.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
It's it's some people will just think it's h you know,
torture porn or gore porn. I think it's a throwback.
I think the way that they're shot is just beautiful.
I think it's just kind of like really just going
back in the eighties and just making everything spiffy and news.
And there's a thing there's you'll know, get back to
me after the after you tell Slash about the la

(11:33):
Aids jabber Watch Terrifier one. There are a specific scene.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
That everybody tells me about that.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
All righty, But he and.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
I are both in agreement that the torture stuff is
a little rough. But I think that you know, most
of us can survive, you know. The It's like it's
like I I always imagine, like, you know, my daughter
just got married, and I keep thinking to myself, I
was just making a joke to my wife. It's like,
and then we'll sit the grandkids down and go, this

(12:03):
is called the Walking Dead or whatever. You know, or
like this is called Terrifier, or this is called Friday
the thirteenth, you know, just the idea of imagining that
experience with it with a grandchild at the proper age.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
MINDI one day, I'm telling you, I'm gonna tell baby
Brownstone Harrison Rex and his father's favorite movie of all
time is Killer Clowns from out of Space, and we're
gonna watch it together.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah, I think he should.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
He's gonna think his father is not just physically disabled.
He's gonna think somebody's wrong with me, which is good.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Well, they're kind of true. But the disappointing thing is
when you play something for your kids that you think
is I remember my kids had seen they had started
to get into stuff like The Sixth Sense and then
like The Ring. There was a great nineties run of
fuel horror stuff that was starting to happen, and I
just happened to be like one of those Blockbuster nights,

(12:54):
probably not even Blockbuster by that point, probably, And I
was like, you know, you guys have never seen the
creep shit. I loved The Creep Show when I was
a kid, and they were just like, this is stupid,
and it was so disappointing. He were like, yeah, because
you know, objectively watching it now, I was like, yeah,
this is pretty dumb, But at the time it was great.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
At the time, this was really great.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
You have and even now you watch it with this
sorta like cartoony kind of comic book aspect to it,
that's kind of fun. But yeah, they were just kind
of like they weren't getting it. I think that, like
I said, horror has become so much more sophisticated that
it's a different thing.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Well, that segues into you know, my son, I thought
I knew what he liked. How dare I start assuming
things he's not even two yet.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, it's really been How dare you assume he's not
gonna have his own taste?

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, that it's not going to change. Yeah, basically since
he was born, the TV show that really he gravitated
towards was Blues Clues. Recently, now that he's like he
doesn't like, he doesn't want it, I'm like, oh my god,
he's starting to change so obviously that once it's to
I'm sure he's gonna grow up to hate guns of roses.

(14:04):
I'm sure it's gonna happen. I mean My wife grew
up hating the Beatles because of her mom, because like everything,
she was being crammed down her throat, and then she
ended up loving them now naming our son after George. So,
but he's gonna have he's gonna have a lot of
episodes someone about Guns of Roses and then I'm telling you,
so that's the segue here, because you brought back songs

(14:27):
that we Guns to Roses fans have not heard live,
one of them which has never been heard live. You
and Slash featuring Miles Kennedy and the Conspirators. So this
was the most recent tour. Uh, yes, you played a
perfect crime, bad Apples, yes, and Don't Damn Me and

(14:49):
not just play you sing right?

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
I Don't Damn Me, which has never been played ever
by Guns and Roses. So I guess question is how
did that conversation come up?

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Well, it's funny with him because anybody who knows even
I say all the time I just joined Slash's band,
I was the bass player. I didn't know if that
was going to last a few months of just kind
of supporting the twenty ten solo album, and then we
were never going to play together again, or or it
was going to be fifteen years later and I'll be

(15:25):
talking to you about this. You know, it's like that,
and that's literally where we're at is. It's kind of
like as time went by, it was kind of like
it started with Doctor Alibi and We're all going to die,
where Miles was like, that's not really my jam, why
don't you sing them? I was kind of like okay,
and then and then all of a sudden it'd be
like mid tour, be like, do you know the words

(15:46):
to out to get me? I'd be like, yeah, I
could do it right now, what about you know? It
would just be random things like that. And the weird
thing about it is this savant kind of ability to
just call up songs that are just sort of in
there somewhere. People keep saying to me more recently than ever,
they're kind of like, how are you going from a
kiss charity show into a slash thing into a tuk

(16:10):
thing into you know? And I'm like, because those are
all different categories of music just sort of stuck in
my brain. It does mean sometimes I have to kind
of refresh, but it does come up. So when something
like don't damn me comes up. It's funny because it's
one of those things that Slash really loves that song,
like he really feels connected. That's his riff and Dan,

(16:31):
that's his riff. He just loved that riff. And he goes, yeah,
we never played it live. I'd love to try it.
And I go, well, let me listen to it. And
we're in the middle of rehearsals for the last run,
or not in the middle, but at the beginning of rehearsals,
and I listened to it and I go, oh, man,
it's one of those class if you call it up
on your phone, it's one of those classic axle songs

(16:52):
where you're like scrolling I do a led Zeppelin one
once where we did stuff like Cashmere or Fool in
the Rain. Just like the lyrics just go on and
on and on. It's kind of like I can just
imagine I'm sitting at a typewriter going, you know, and
you're like, whoa, whoa, You got to sing this. You
got to remember this live, you know, at least in
axles case. I don't know what it looked, what it's

(17:13):
like up there, but I assume at their level of
technology that there's probably a teleprompter there.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Teleprompters are not. Everybody goes like it's cheating. I go, no,
telepropters are there because you're running around, you're doing your thing, somebody,
you know, you trip over a cable and you get
kind of like and you get to look down and
it goes, oh okay, you just kind of remember and
then off you go. It's and it happens to me
all the time. It's like, you know, you'll just be
sitting there playing a song, singing along and you look
at some guy's T shirt and go what does that say?

(17:40):
And you'll be completely pulled out of the moment. What's
this next line? You know? But that song don't damn
Me just goes on and on and on and on
and on. So it was really there, you know, I'm like,
just that was my whole world the whole time. I'm
like going over all the other music. But at the
same time, every second I had was like, well, you know,

(18:02):
it's just like perpetually going over those lyrics. And I
sort of said because then Bad Apples was the other
one Slash brought up. He said, and I'd also like,
take a look at Bad Apples at some point I go, okay,
well we're gonna focus on don't Damn Me, because that's
going to be a bitch. Once we get into the
tour and we do you know, once that song has

(18:23):
become kind of like clockwork, then we'll add bad Apples.
And then Frank was the one that brought up Perfect Crime.
He was like, can we do perfect Crime? And Slash
was like, you know, that's the best thing about Slashes.
He often he rarely kind of goes like an emphatic yeah, yeah,
that's kind of more like a huh, and then like

(18:44):
a week, you know, a little while later he'll be like, yeah, okay,
let's try He said that.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
I remember, yeah, the same thing in our last inter
of you, and it's it's consistent. I love that. Yeah, okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
He doesn't really like I think he's careful with it.
I think he wants to think about it and go
you know, I guess it has been a long time
since Perfect Crime has been performed live, and uh, you know,
I think, like anything else, that's kind of like if
we just jammed something and it felt good. The one
song he pitched at me a long time ago was

(19:17):
Garden of Eden. You know which was you know, uh,
you know the rambling.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Oh yeah, it's like one of my my favorite video.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
It's the greatest. Yeah, it's one of the greatest of
all time. And but it was like okay, and then
you go put on your buds and you go, good Lord, Like,
not only do you need to like have a teleprompter,
you would need ten of them to kind of follow.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
Well, they would have a video with a bouncing ball
over the lyrics.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah, exactly. And I don't know that that was I
doubt that was ever performed live because it's bananas. Like.
It's just like the one thing about Axel and maybe
Dell and those guys whoever was involved and probably easy
to something we too, is is that they were never
at a you know, at a loss for words and
if if anything, they just kind of love to just

(20:09):
throw down. And I think that's kind of part of
the charms on that. So that one I kind of
got a little gun shy on and I was like, oh,
more than a little gun shy. I was kind of like, oh,
this is this is just too much work really, I mean,
for the I don't know that anybody could sit down
and memorize the words to that song, but then don't
damn me, because I'm always the guy that's kind of like, yeah,
that sounds like fun. Then I go home and listen

(20:30):
and I go, what if I just agreed to you know,
it's kind of like, you know, I do that in
the Kiss camp too, Like Bruce Cullick will ask me
there's a list of songs. I go cool, and I
go home and I go, oh my god, because Paul
Stanley was singing at the peak of his range back
then and all that kind of stuff. So but it's
part of the you know, it's part of the the
weird challenge that I complain about yet also can't live

(20:54):
without at the same time. You know, it's kind of
like I just my wife always kind of giggles at
me because I'm kind of like, oh my god, I
got it.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (21:03):
She's like, no one put a gun to your head
and told you to do this. You actually you actually
agreed to this, and it sometimes you offered it up,
like you know, I kind of like, yeah, you're right,
So so I just, you know, and it's they say
it's really good for your brain to kind of like
learn new music, learn new words, learn you know yeah,
and I go, okay, so I kind of take the

(21:24):
challenge now, like it's weird going through this whole weekend
that just came by and as freely canceled. But you know,
learning a bunch of new music, not a bunch. I
kind of knew most of it. But if you and
then people like I am so sorry for making you
do all that work, I go, dude, no, It's like,
first of all, it's a pleasure to do it. I
enjoy learning music. I you know, it's good for my brain,

(21:45):
and you know it's good immediately goes in the delete
file as soon as I'm not using it. So stuff
like don't damn me. I wonder if you put a
gun to my head right now, if I could play
it for you and sing all the words no from no,
it might be interesting to see where that is within
the recesses of my brain, like pulling out that song.
But yeah, between that one and Bad Apples and Perfect Crime,

(22:09):
bad Apples was nuts. Bad Apples is also your What
Duff mccagan is playing is not in any way related
to what Axel is singing, Like in no way is
actual thinking what's stuff playing while I'm singing this. I
was singing this, and Duff isn't thinking what's actual singing
while I'm playing this, He's just I'm playing the bassline,
he's singing the lead vocal. And this happens to me
all the time. As a musician who sings, is that

(22:32):
sometimes you'll be like playing cover songs and someone will
say let's do this, and you'll go the bass player
should never have you know, could never have played and
sang the song because they're completely conflicting parts. But a
lot of that I got accustomed to when I was
a kid. I was really into the Police learning sting
bass lines while singing and his stuff. Never I mean

(22:53):
often it does jib, but it is very much like
this part of your brain, this is the bass, that's
the vocals, and you just have to kind of learn
and become comfortable with it. Was really I was really
comforted by reading Geddy Lee's book because it was always
kind of like, look at this fucking guy. Yeah yeah,
Like he's up there playing keyboards and bass and foot

(23:14):
pedals and singing, and you're like, and it just makes
you feel like an idiot. But it was comforting to
hear him say how much it really he really has
to rehearse that till it's muscle memory, and I go, oh, okay,
well that's comforting to know. I mean, otherwise he's basically
he's superhuman anyway, but I think the fact that it
actually takes a little bit for him to be superhuman
is like comforting. So it's kind of what I have

(23:35):
to do with songs like that is and you learn
the bass part, and you learn the vocal, and then
you try to somehow put it into a big stew
that works together. You know, it's a lot of work.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
Do you do one first before the other learning it
or is it together?

Speaker 2 (23:51):
I think sometimes I'll just pick up the bass and
kind of figure out the arrangement of what's going on,
and then the vocal is a totally separate thing. And
some songs are easier than other, some just kind of
like flow, and then some are like because there's a
lot going on in songs like Bad Apples where stuff,
and Duff is really good at coming up with these
kind of funky walking lines and stuff like that, and

(24:13):
I hate sacrificing some certain parts because it can't be
sung and done at the same time. It happens sometimes
but I try to be as faithful to it as
I can. And then Axel's no joke, I mean, honestly, axels.
You know, vocals are amongst the most challenging in the
history of rock and roll. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Do you try because I know you have your own voice,
but do you ever find yourself slipping into doing an
axel a little bit?

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Well, I think a lot of it is kind of
like sort of unavoidable. It's in certain parts. But I
also don't try to be like, I don't want it
to be kind of like a parody of sorts, like
it's kind of like a like fucking weird al or something.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
You know.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
It's like, I'm not trying to like, you know, it's
not a comedy act to me or like an impression
as much as I'm just trying to sing the song.
And when he somebody who's higher range and all that,
it's kind of like it's no joke straight up. It's
like he's, like, you know, one of the most challenging
voices there is. And then but yeah, there are you know,
there are ways he pronounces words and things like that

(25:13):
that if you pronounce it any other way, it just
doesn't it doesn't sound right, so you have to kind
of do it. Put an axel on there.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, sure cool. And by the way, Garden of Eden
has been played live, but only only a couple of times,
maybe one. It's the only songs that they have never
been played live. Don't Damn Me? And now because of
Todd damn It Kerrns that has been played live at
least with slash get in the ring. So maybe that

(25:40):
Shotgun Blues, and in my world, I don't I don't.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
Know, Okay, what about the and what about from Democracy?

Speaker 1 (25:51):
I think I think played live. Well, a quick AI
overview is just saying that these are the four I
don't call as I'm just going through the roll decks
in my brain of all the songs, I think they've
all been played, you.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Know, or even Spaghetti Incident. I mean, there's gonna be
stuff from there, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
From the Spaghetti Incident, I'm sure. Yeah, So I guess
I guess we're talking originals here, I guess. So, yeah,
as far as originals go, because yeah, they haven't played
everything from a Spaghetti that I know for sure. They
haven't played everything.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, of course, But but you know, those were cover
songs anyway, but yeah, because I think that that's kind
of the fun part about but a band like that
is the catalog is well it's not as fast as
it could be, but it is quite fast, you know.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, it's it's funny because I want to see if
I can bring this guy's tweet about you up because
he said he was at a show and this is
when you played bad Apples. But unfortunately I want to
find his name that he was the only one that
knew all the words, so he was just it was
just kind of funny that came out. Do you get

(26:54):
like a certain reaction when do you do you call
certain reactions when you played any of those three songs,
don't oh yeah, yeah, background, what were they because they
were obviously surprises.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Well, don't damn me? Became like I think it started
to precede us in a way, like it you know,
it did start to kind of in the first initial shows.
It's sort of the word went out, you know what
I mean, and the and the YouTube footage went out
and people became aware that it was being played, so
that when it was played, there was a big reaction
and there was South America. Keep in mind we started

(27:27):
down there in Latin America where that stuff. It's like
I do the Kiss world at Kiss Camp as well.
We play songs, and I find that the deeper the cuts,
the bigger the reaction in a way within that community,
within the deep hardcore fan community. I mean saying, the
average person, no matter what you do, there's going to
be like more of the the average person that's going

(27:50):
to know, you know, the hits, and then the deeper
you did, you start to lose people. But the hardcorees
appreciate when you make that effort, you know, I mean
I think that they truly appreciate it. So I did notice, Yeah,
like some of the reactions were pretty huge, and I
think that that's kind of uh, you know, I I

(28:11):
would would I wouldn't say it was to be expected,
but it was. It was it was more of an
appreciation than it was, like because in some cases it
may not even be the fact that that Bad Apples
is your favorite song anyway, but it's the fact that
these guys are playing it that we appreciate that that's
kind of for sure. We look at it.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
This is I found another comment that's still worthy from
Troy Candy Love Todd Kerns such a brilliant player, but
also help the singer. Those tunes are hard to sing
and he does an amazing job. Great guy to can't
wait for the record. Speaking of g and R tunes,
ask him if there are any, in particular more of
the obscure ones that you haven't been adding that you

(28:49):
have been adding that you would like to sing but
you haven't yet. So maybe is there a gn R
tune out there that you know while you're you've gone
deeper in their catalog, or maybe it's something off appetite
you know that you're like, you know what that Miles
isn't going to sing this one, but I want to
sing this one.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Well that's kind of funny too, because later on things
like I have done things like my Michelle and Welcome
to the Jungle and something else I was gonna say
thinking to you, but I can't remember what it was.
But anyway, there was a few things along the way
that Miles just kind of went like, like with Welcome
to the Jungle, he felt very specifically like it's just

(29:27):
such a signature axle thing that it kind of felt like, yeah,
to remember that axle is one of those I mean
that Miles is one of those guys that stepped into
Scott's Stabs shoes at one point, and then he stepped
into essentially Axle shoes. It's hard to say that alter
Bridge was Creed or that slash Speach of mouse Canadan's
computers is guns and Rows, because they're not, but it

(29:49):
is essentially you're stepping into this position where everybody gets
out there magnifying glass and goes, Okay, now, impress me,
how can.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
We compare this to yeah, that person's other band exactly.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Luckily he didn't have to sing Creed songs in alter Bridge.
I don't think. I don't know how that worked, but
so that that comparison game didn't happen. But within the
guns community, you know, we I mean, we've heard a
million cover bands do Sweet Child of Mine, but we
still we still fucking know that's fucking Axl's voice. Axle's

(30:23):
voice belongs. And that's another one of those songs that
you know you really can I I I you have
to do those things. And that is one hundred percent
that guy. You know, nobody else would have thought to
do that, because that's who he is, that's what he does.
So and he just kind of felt like stuff like
Jungle was just so much more of a signature thing

(30:44):
that he just kind of felt like, I just, you know,
I just feel like sometimes I don't need to attract
any extra attention to myself. And I think it was
at a time where he was starting to feel more
and more like I just want to focus on what
we do and focus on I'm being Miles, you know
what I mean, I go okay, So suddenly I found
myself going like Jungle. There was there was a couple
of nights where Miles or a couple runs where Miles

(31:05):
would get sick and they'd be like, do you know
the words to Rocket Queen? Yeah. So there's random times
where I would be singing you know, gun saws just
to kind of stretch out a bit of the of
the set so he could have a bit of a
break and you know, so that kind of stuff. So
when you ask like, is there anything I'd like to sing?

(31:25):
I will say that in talking about it now, I
do feel like stuff like Garden of Eden feels like
a missed opportunity or something that I let myself down on.
But at the same time, that's like saying, you know,
that that marathon I didn't run, you know what I'm saying.
It's kind of like, oh god, I just don't know that.
It's really it might be a lot more than, you know,

(31:50):
more to bite off than I could chew. And I
think that, but at the same time saying it and
realizing that it was something asked of me, and my
inability to come to come through sort of is not
my not the way I operate. I'm usually like, Okay,
let's do that, you know, and and I go home

(32:11):
and I kill myself going don't damn me, like lying
in bed, driving, don't damn me. It's like your whole
life is like standing at the bank and line the
lady asked, can I help you, sir, don't damn me.
It's like you just got like your whole world is
just kind of learning this song. But I feel like
if we were going to tour, who knows when we'll
tour next late twenty five, early twenty six, that's me

(32:33):
just being because I don't really know, But I would
start working on the Garden of Eden today, you know,
and maybe I might have it by the time we
get to rehearsals.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
You know, who knows, right, and then so that's a
nice little segue because at some point I would have
asked about a tour.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
They're like, how I got ahead of that? Not my
first rodeo, it's my second roado No, not at all.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
I mean you're you're a cowboy man, You're the Canadian cowboy.
I don't want to steel horse, I ride, don't do
a spectator man the keyboard crying on us.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
So obviously because Guns and Roses have announced to European tours,
so there's no Yes, I know a Slash is uh
likes to fit in dates here and there with other projects,
but obviously Slash with Miles Kennedy and the Conspirators, we'll
go out.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
With a We'll go out with a sub like some
other guy playing guitar for us.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Would you imagine you're the sub You're, oh, well, someone
else is Slash. That would be weird, like.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Slash feature Miles Kennedy and the Conspirators featuring David Yeah right.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Right, Yeah, that's how some bands are today, though I
know it really can be.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah, so that would never happen, just so you know,
because there's people go like, what if he gets sick?
I go Slash is one of those people who has
been uh incapacitated in many ways. First of all, I
didn't know about it. Second of all, he still played
the show. He wouldn't even thought twice about it. He's like,
it doesn't matter if, like there's a storm in town
and no one can get to the gig or all

(34:00):
these kinds of things. That's like, the show goes on,
and he's the guy who is the last guy that
will not do the gig. That's just how he rolls.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
But go ahead, And I don't know if you can
answer this now, just because it's it's timely. There was
a picture that Eddie Trunk shared of of Duff and him.
They're both going to talk on a documentary.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
To Eddie, I was supposed to see him. I'm supposed
to see him this week, so I was actually going
to get down with that myself. I think it's a
from what I understand, a documentary about ed Yeah, Eddie's
Eddie's life.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
Career or whatever you career, Yeah, longest story.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah, So I guess Duff and and and Slash are
going to appear in it or whatever or talking to
about it, which I think is really cool.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
No, absolutely, and you know, anything that puts the focus
on radio in itself and just the world, that's you
know what, Eddie, Whether I'm a fan, but what I mean,
whether you're a fan or not, because I know so
he could be a hot topic for some. I mean,
he did a lot for for radio and in a
genre that needed fighting the store. But absolutely in that
photo and I don't you could say, I don't know,

(35:06):
Slash is wearing what looks like like a brace on
his wrist. Yeah, yeah, do you know what that's about?

Speaker 2 (35:13):
I don't. I know he's been working on some some
I was gonna say muscle type stuff, So I don't
know if that's what he's had done there. So I
don't know if that was just kind of like a
you know, like a carpal tunnelly kind of thing or
what's going on. But I'm not sure, so he's I
haven't really you know. It's funny that you mentioned that

(35:34):
because somebody else asked me how I go. I have
no idea. I assume he's, you know, maybe just kind
of maybe he's just resting it for the tour. Who knows.
I don't know. He's a like I say, that guy
is a machine. So if he's ever taking any kind
of break, it would be, you know, as his friend,

(35:57):
i'd be like, let's take a break. But it's kind
of like he's one of those guys. He's just not
wired that way. You know. I've said it a million
times where I'm like, when he sends me a text
and says, hey, you want to get together on Thursday,
and I go, okay, great, and then I look online
and he's flying in from South Africa on Wednesday, and
You're like, what I mean, like, you know, take some
time break. He's just wired that way. He's just kind

(36:18):
of like loves to be doing stuff. So I don't know.
I'm hoping he's hoping obviously it's not even serious, because
otherwise I think it might be just something RESTful.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
He should keep it in a glass case like David
d'covney did in Zoolander Model. Yeah, it's like, yeah, clink clink,
I just got to keep it protected. Or George could
stands it with the oven mits when he was a short.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Lived exactly exactly when he was the hand model.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah, so what can you tell us? I know there's
been some you know, little information coming about out about
the news slash with Miles record. You know, I guess
it was where does that stand? And might when could
we see it? I mean, it's so exciting to know
that you're working on it, but what are you able
to tell us now?

Speaker 2 (37:05):
It's well, we're I would say we're probably halfway through it.
We've taken a bit of a hiatus for I mean,
that's the best thing about the funniest thing about this
kind of stuff is it's like everybody's off in different directions.
I was thinking about this the other day, how it's
kind of like even guys like Mark Tremani, Creed alter
Bridge Tremanni, he's singing Sinatra Sinatra tunes. It's like, you know,

(37:29):
he's one of those guys, And like everybody's in so
many different things. I always think, like, how weird it
must be for a guy like Alex van Halen, who
have been in van Halen and that's the end of
his list of things he's ever done. But what a list,
you know what I mean. It's an interesting time. So
I think that everybody's kind of like doing other things.
It was sort of this window of like you know,

(37:52):
of the four of us essentially slashing the conspirators to
try and get in and record the music and then
and we'll eventually get around of singing with Miles, and
then I'll come out and all that kind of stuff.
So it's you know, Miles is doing a solo run
and the songs are written like we have you know,
we've we've all heard the songs, but we went in

(38:16):
and sort of focused on the musical side of it
so that it'll be sung at some point as well.
So it's kind of it's been really interesting, kind of like,
let's just we have a moment, a window of time
to make this record. We will figure out where to
place that down the line, so that being release hopefully

(38:39):
I'm hope hopeful for the end of twenty five, but
you know, I've been around long enough to kind of
go that can easily turn into early twenty six, no problem,
which is messed up to talk about in January of
twenty five, but knowing how quick how it was yesterday
it was January of twenty twenty four, So to me,
I kind of feel like, you know, it's, uh, it

(39:02):
just feels like these these these these time goes fast,
you know, I mean, it just I'm already looking at
my calendar looked till pretty much September, you know, and
I'm like, wow, you know, it's just like and you're
just kind of like it's like you get on the
treadmill and it just takes you all the way to
September in the blink of an eye and you go, whoa,
what's just happened? And you know, and then by then,

(39:22):
who knows what we'll be talking about? So I'm hoping that,
like I said, I'm hoping it'll be out in the
world by then, but it could very easily be twenty
six at this point, so who knows.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
All right, I mean this is the fact. I mean,
you're talking to you know.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
But it's happening. That's the important thing.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, And that's my point, the fact that you know,
you're talking to a guns and Roses guy that just
wants to hear that it's either happening or it's not happening.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
So, I mean, patience isn't in my vocabulary. But is
there anything? It's just is there anything?

Speaker 2 (39:55):
And a song title?

Speaker 1 (39:56):
But go ahead, Well that was that was the joke.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
That was the joke. I know, I followed you. I
was there with you sorry, since I was I was
driving at home. Yeah, and that's.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Going over my head, so I missed the joke, I guess.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
So I was trying to Ed McMahon, you're Johnny Carson.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
Anything is far I know we're so far away. But
is there anything that's been you've whether you've heard or
you've read, as far as what Miles has written, that
has gotten you excited that you can't wait for to put,
you know, to record.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
Well, I mean, that's the cool thing about Miles is
that he's just so like I'll be honest with you.
There have been times in the past where we have songs.
I could point out a few. There's one called the
Unholy World on Fire and a few others where I've
been like, this is going to be I have to
be an instrumental. There's no way anybody can put a
melody this. It's so crazy because sometimes the rifts are

(40:48):
so like the riffs become the hooks in a way.
And I think that's the interesting thing about a guy
like Slash is you know, I've said it before. The
joke to me was always that Slash plays me a rift,
and I immediately go, I know that there's gonna be
a kid on YouTube playing this riff that I'm witnessing
in real time. In a year from now, there's some

(41:09):
kid will be playing this riff on YouTube because it's
immediately a classic iconic riff because he's that guy. But
Miles has a way of being able to find a
melody in there or a song in there. And you
and it's funny because you and I were talking about
pets and losing pets and being separated from our pets

(41:30):
and from and the equivalent of being separated from humans.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
And losing well, yeah, we're going to get to that.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
That's losing people and whatnot. And Miles is the king
of that man. He's the guy that writes songs and
you just go, this is the most heartfelt thing I've
ever heard a man write about a woman and you go,
oh no, that's about my dog and you go okay.
And he does it all the time. It's like two
or three different songs he's had where he goes like, yeah,
because the one you tell me a story, and I'll go,
this is the most heartbreaking thing I've ever heard, you know.

(41:55):
But it's like, so he's that guy, and I think
that part of the harm he's in two Thy eleven.
When we were recording two thousand and ten Tentosy eleven,
we were recording Apocalyptic Love, he was he's the lead singer,
that he's the sort of you know. I was, like
I said, I was very respectful of his position, and

(42:19):
I think it was that real experiment that we kind
of like started to kind of create harmonies and parts
for me to sing along with him. But I think
I gained his confidence that by the next couple of
records he was kind of like he would sing his
lead vocal and he'd be like, I'm good. It might
be the odd thing here and there he would sing
a octave of himself or like the odd little thing
here and there, but most of the time he would

(42:39):
just walk away and go like, whatever you're going to do,
go for it. I want to make sure you do
your thing on top of it. So it's always part
of the fun for me. Is the interesting thing for
me from my perspective is being there in the very
beginning when we're putting the music together and being basically
the last guy in the studio because the harmony vocals
are amongst the very last things ever recorded on a record,

(43:02):
so I'm often there in the very beginning and at
the very end, And I remember like walking singing the
my parts in World on Fire and then walking into
the control room and then calling it up and me
going like hearing it like kind of like as a
song with all the harmonies and the solo and everything
kind of in it, and I just felt like, this

(43:24):
is really special. Like I just felt like, Wow, this
is like, you know, I felt like as a fan,
I was getting this real kind of like you know,
like I was getting this real great preview of hearing
this song before everybody else, and I'm like, except that
I'm on this song, you know. So it was kind
of like it's kind of the beauty of that position
is being able to kind of like hear these songs finished,

(43:46):
hear them what they're going to sound like in their
rough mixes, but hearing them like in their completed form.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
I love that, I mean, and I hope to get
more of the the harmonies between you and Miles. I
think that's such a strength of this band. So you know, hopefully,
you know, whether it comes out later at the end
of this year or the early next year, whenever it
comes out, you know, we get to hear more of
your I mean, we're going to hear you on the

(44:15):
record throughout, you know, instrumentally, but we want want to
hear your voice more too. So I think that's kind
of the special part of adding not just the guns
Roses tracks, but it's adding more todd to Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
I mean, honestly, like I said, I'm very respectful of
of Miles's position in that thing. Not only respectful, but
kind of like I'm a fan, you know, I mean,
I want him to shine, and so whatever I can
do to support that is great. I've said to him
a thousand times, like i don't need to sing any songs.
I'm like perfectly happy to just kind of like and

(44:48):
he goes like, no, no, no, no, I like to break
you do your thing. It's cool. I'm like, okay, So,
you know, it's if at any point I felt like
I was stepping on anybody's toes or like that, but
he's always kind of like, no, no, just do your thing.
I mean, it's hard to step up on Miles Kennedy's toes.
He's like, you know, he's like the best at what
he does. Period. I don't think that there's anybody who
can really do what he does in almost any you know,

(45:09):
in any of the things that he does. It's like
he's kind of a in a league of his own,
you know.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
Uh, well, I it's actually it's a great band because
it just seems like a you're all team players. And
I think that's that's the best part of being a
fan of a band, not just you know, when you
just know that they're all friends. And I love hearing
stories about you know, even Slash don't even talk about music.
You talk about horror movies, and you know, it's just
like the respect that you and Miles have for each

(45:37):
other's roles and you know, welcoming each other to do
different things. It's not just one person. Hey this it's
going to be this way, and everyone else's got to
fall on line. So I think that's why this band
has been successful and being able to stay together, because
you said you didn't know if it was in the
last ten months or ten years, and that's why it's
it's lasted this long and continuing to do so. And

(45:58):
I'm telling you whenever you do tour or next because
that's that It's something I have not been able to
do is see a show.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
For whatever reason I'm working at the time, I don't know.
But now the fact that that I have my my son,
my wife loves going to shows, I can't wait for
the next slash.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Yeah, well we'll do it next time we're back east.
We'll let you know for sure.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Yeah, right on. And so you alluded to something just
conversationally because we were talking about it before the air,
And I know you don't think it's silly, but I
feel partially silly saying it. But I based upon the
responses from everybody on social media, it's not I'm dedicating
this episode to my cat GB, Yes, who passed away.

(46:41):
He's over. There's a picture of him wearing a suit.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
I don't know if you've ever seen I have similar
ones like that. Yeah, yeah, we have similar.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
See like ads for like you can put your pet's
face in like some like oil painting or.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
Something like that exactly.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
So we have GB in like a nice little suit.
And then we have the brothers Blackie and pig It
look like their army generals.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Amazing.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Piggy we lost a few years ago. Blackie's still kicking.
He's eighteen. Yeah, So those were my my wife's parents' cats.
But we had to take them in at the beginning
of the pandemic because our father got Parkinson's and dementia
and couldn't take care of them anymore. So we actually

(47:26):
drove a twelve hours a round trip in a day too,
because they live in Chicago. We drove to Youngstown, Ohio
to bring these two cats, these two brothers, back to
our apartment. Now I was living with three cats. I'm
already allergic. I how bad, how bad I was when

(47:46):
I was until I was suffocating in my own home?

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Oh god, yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
For real. I would have to go out on the porch.
One time. It was like three in the morning. My
wife is driving me around in the car so I
can breathe. It wasn't until I started getting like shots
I had. I'm like, I don't want to get rid
of these cats, they're all older. I don't, but I
didn't want to leave. My wife was gonna you know.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
What were they shooting you up with? Exactly like some
kind of like banadrill or some kind of.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
Well, I to analogist and they specifically do that, and
they give you a test for you know what you
are and what you aren't alert to and it's kind of.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
Like allergic to cats. Here's some drugs.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
Well, I told they just wanted to see how much
to give you. So they give you like little pricks, right,
and I see how the reaction is. So I did
it for maybe once every week, then once every other week,
then once a month, and I probably would still be going,
but I had my son and things just got crazy,

(48:45):
and then all of a sudden, I realized, I'm like, hey,
I can kind of breathe naw right. So, but it
all started with GBI when it was just me, him
and my girlfriend at the apartment.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
What does GB stand for?

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Grandpa Bill? It was a Grandpa Bill, even though she
spelled it with G E E B e E. That's
how it was it. So it's interesting. I wasn't. I
didn't meet him until like our third date or whatever.
Otherwise I would be I would question who I fell
in love with first. So I wasn't much of a
cat person. I never disliked them. I just you know,

(49:21):
I grew up with the dog. I was allergic to dogs,
so I kind of stayed away. Really, I wasn't, you know,
I like, I like animals, but I just i'd see
a dog or a cat, I'd be like hello, but
I wouldn't pet.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
Them because exactly I knew you sneezing.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Or rubbing my eyes within minutes. But for whatever reason,
I loved your cat. It was like the cues cat
I've ever seen, even though he was a dick, a
typical typical dick cat that would, you know, only want
your affection only when he wanted it, would run away
if you were ever tried too hard. He would hiss

(49:56):
at you, scream, you know, get mad at you. And
I learned right away because I'm thinking, like it's a
dog where you're supposed to be.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
Like no, no, yeah, no, no.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
He would get even madder. Yea, So I learned a
lot about myself and patience. It took nearly almost a
year for him to finally come up to me and
let me hold him. Sure, yeah, yeah, he just maybe
moments overnight where he would, you know, if I got
up to pee or whatever, he I'd sit on the
couch with him. He'd let me give him some paths
for a limited amount of time. So again it was

(50:25):
a building of trust and just earning that was one
of the best. Again, this is the cat of my wife,
So sorry, wife. One of the best loves I ever
earned was like, is this is a guy that hated me,
you know, and we get to you know, years later
that he will cuddle with me, sleep with me, but

(50:45):
he still had a respect to space. It's funny that
he he would only go up to me and my
son when he was sleeping because otherwise he would run
away from him. So just a lot, you know. And
also even before my son was born, where my wife
and I would go on vacation, I would be like,
I missed the cats. And she got to a point
where she's like, can you please stop with the cats?

(51:06):
They're fine, Like they're fine. She's like, I'm the cat person,
like they're fine.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I just now.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
We have so many cat pillows and different things. I
became a cat person. So we got back from Chicago
for Christmas vacation and he just he seemed fine beforehand.
Then I know he was older seventeen's minor health issues,
but then he just got really sick. Yeah. We tried
to help him with medication. We had him at home,
so he passed it home. It's kind of crazy. I

(51:34):
told you off the air that you know, my son
finally were like to learn how watch the interactions between
him and the cats from like when he didn't was
not aware of them at all too starting to be
aware and loving them too much. Yeah, like nice Harrison nice, Yeah, nice,
Nice's Nice's nice. He's like hitting them.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Like he's like he's like bam bam on the pebbles. Yeah,
plastones bad. So it's just be little boys, man, Little
boys are like next level. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
So he's doing that with like a dying cat and like,
oh my god, what are you doing? Like his first
day game was Duck Duck Goose was like with me
dying cat and my other cat who's like I is
falling out because he's watching Miss Rachel I go for
mister Brownstone and Miss Rachel in my life and I'm
just like I can't make this up. So but GIV

(52:24):
passed and you're just look. I cried now it broke
my heart. I would call him my adopted son. Sure, yeah,
you know, and just to my son finally learned he
started he knows his letters, but he calls him VV
and I'm like, you just learned his name all these things.
So we talked, you know, Slash has shared a story.

(52:48):
You know Meecan shares a lot of the stories. When
he had that cat going through chemo years ago, uh
Axel posted he had a cat, Dexter.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
That he had.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
He had three cats. They're all like beautiful. I don't
know if they're like they're like white Russian cats. They're
just a very unique looking beautiful cats. And he posted
like when Dexter passed like this. Really he doesn't post
all the time. And I learned in my interview with
the this is a funny way to get interviews, to
learn facts through the interviews that I get. When he

(53:21):
did an interview when he did uh that Looney Tunes
episode that he wanted it to be drawn a specific
way with dog collars around his ankle, and those were
from the pets that he had lost, and I learned
that from the writers. So I mean these are and
he's had pictures taken with like three cats on a hat.

(53:42):
Shout out to Margo. I've only seen the picture that
she's taken, so I mean, get Duff. I see they
always they always have this little yippie dogs, the him
and Susan. It really is guns of roses, is of
animal loving band.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Oh yeah, I know that you are.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
You're constantly sharing pictures with cats.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
Yeah you foster, Yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Mean you foster cats. I mean, is there anything you
could talk about? You know that you're leaving home, but
I know some people like it's just a cat. They
don't even know you're gone, but you leave in like,
I know, you have a million things going on the road,
but you've got to miss them, like and when you
come home. It's different to a dog would be like, yeah, yeah,
they can't wait till your home, but it cat's that

(54:29):
cat's like pissed and yeah, we earn their trust again.
So tell me about your cats if you don't mind.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
It is a funny thing that you say that, because
there is a weird dynamic that happens when I come home,
Like it's almost kind of at first that I really
excited your home, and then it almost kind of is
a reminder of like, oh wait a second, where have
you been? And then they'll do it again. Yeah, I
think go through this weird sort of standoffish phase of
of you know, just and then it kind of like

(54:57):
cycles back. But it's funny that you say about like
earning the trust or like the patience. I also feel
like animals, especially with cats. I can't speak for dogs,
because dogs always just seem kind of friendly and you know,
just want attention and they want love. And certain cats,
I find ones that were standoffish can like five years

(55:19):
later be inseparable from you, or like even a year later.
Sometime it's almost like these phases of their of their
existence sort of change. Like the one, the young one
that was wild growing around, Like we have one that
was nuts, like he was like, this guy is more
feral than all of these other cats put together. And
now he's the biggest baby and likes to be carried around.

(55:40):
And the weird thing is it's like I went through,
you know, the last time I had a pet. We
had a dog many many years ago, like fifteen twenty
years agoing out he passed, and it was like so
brutal on the whole family that it was just kind
of like on top of the fat that I'm constantly traveling,

(56:01):
it just became kind of like, look, we just can't. Yeah,
and we face that now because during COVID, you know,
the first of this flock just walked into our house
and we went around the neighborhood going like whose cat
is this? And long story short, it's our cat, and
then we add a bunch more on top of that.
But up to that point, it had always been like

(56:23):
we don't we can't have pets because we're constantly away.
When I say we kids are grown, wife's going to
come out for you know, a few weeks. In Europe.
Now it's like now it's like having children where we're like, okay,
we have cat sitters. We have like this one's available,
then that one's availble to hear, this is costing money,

(56:44):
you know, all that kind of stuff. But we're very
lucky that people who are very reliable and really wonderful people.
So but it is it becomes a responsibility. And we're
not the kind of people who just kind of go like, oh,
don't know, just throw some kibble down and bail for
two weeks. It's like, no, we're we're we take it
pretty serious. And you know, my wife is incredible with
you know, placing. We've placed quite a few. I'd like

(57:07):
to say we, but it's mostly her. But you know,
my involvement as well as as much as you know,
taking in a cat or multiples and then trying to
find places for them, and we've been really successful that way.
We've also been very unsuccessful but also successful in keeping
a lot of cats, because you know, that's sort of

(57:29):
the the you know, I was going to say, it's
not a negative that we've kept them, because in reality,
I can't imagine life without the current cast, the character
that we have. But I'm sort of like you in
that I always like cats. But I wouldn't necessarily have
said I was a cat person and I had cats,
like back in the day when I was younger, and

(57:49):
I don't think I was quite as hands on. I
was always very sort of like you said, like hi,
respectfully distant. I go to people's houses and they'd have
a pet and I'd be like hello, the same with
I'm the same with people's kids. It's like hello. I
don't go up and go like how are you. It's
just kind of like, you know, I just figure if
that kid wants to come say hello to me, or
that dog or that cat, they'll come find me. And uh.

(58:13):
But I I since this lot, it's a lot more
like we picked them up, we carry them around, we
talked to them. We I'm a lot more hands on
than I kind of ever have been, only because I
just didn't think of it as a thing. My wife
is the kind that picks them up and smooches on

(58:34):
them and carries them around, and I'm like, oh, I
never did that with cats, because I just because of
the way they are. They're always like, yeah, it's like
a like a casual roommate that you kind of hello,
how are you? And they walk off in their direction.
But in doing that, our you know, our connection is
so much more, uh, you know, tighter and closer and involved,

(58:56):
and you know, there it's a bed full of mammal.
You know, it's this NonStop kind of thing. But you
know in hearing you, you lose your guys. It's like
ours are still five is the oldest we have in
the house now, so we still have, barring any unforeseen circumstances,

(59:16):
should be around for quite a while. But it's one
of the terrible things that I went through with my dog. Honestly,
it was kind of like it's kind of like almost
like breaking up with a girl and deciding I'm never
going to be with anybody again because this hurts too much. Yeah,
and you're and it seems like you're protecting yourself, but
you're also you know, cutting off a giant part of

(59:41):
your life and a giant part of your world. That
would be you have to make yourself available for to
love these animals and to love another person, because yes,
you're saving yourself from being heartbroken, but you're also missing
out on a lot of amazing things. And I think
it's one of those things that you I'm sure it
can account for that the time you spent in the

(01:00:03):
time memories that you have are far more important than
the pain that it came with. You gave them a
good life, and that's you know, that's really all you
can ask for, really, is to have given them a
better life than had they because most of ours come
from the streets. So it's like, you know, all we'd
have to do is be like, you know, the hottest
day in Las Vegas, and I'd say, can you imagine
if those guys are on the street right now, And
just like I don't know how anybody, how any animal

(01:00:25):
can survive through this, but and I think that's true
in life, you have to kind of put yourself out there,
you know. I guess it's a much bigger conversation, but
whether it's pets or or or your heart in general.
It's like that the pain at the end of the day,
probably you hope will be worth the love you give

(01:00:47):
is equal to the love you take. I don't know whatever.
The love you make is equal to love you take.
That's it. Yeah, yeah, basically something like that. You kind
of hope that that kind of comes out in a wash. So, yeah,
it's going to suck, and I I know exactly what
to expect, but it is going to be you know,
I'm the cup will be half full in that. You know,

(01:01:09):
the circle of life and blah blah blah blah blah
is just the way things kind of play out, because
you know, when it comes to parents and relatives and
all these things, it's sort of like, if you're lucky
enough to be on a straight, straight enough timeline and
everything goes the way it's supposed to go, you're going
to lose people that and you're going to lose your animals,
and you're going to lose things along the way. And

(01:01:30):
that's not necessarily a negative thing. It means that you
have surrounded yourself with so much good and positive and
loving things that you feel that you know so much
because because you were lucky enough to have that in
your life. And that's kind of what I feel like.
It's like, well, you know, I was in retrospect. I

(01:01:51):
was like protecting myself. I didn't want to fall in
love with any animals because I knew it was going
to be terrifyingly heartbreaking. Our dog died at like six
or seven. I can't remember exactly how he was, but
it was very unexpected and very very young, you know,
for what seemed like an otherwise very healthy dog. Just
some it just came on quickly and it was like
it just tore us apart. But that said, it's kind

(01:02:13):
of like, hey, you know what, he had six or
seven amazing years, you know, and that's really all you
can you can count on you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
No, I agree. I know the brothers. I know one
of the brothers that's still around, Blackie Clawless I call
him because he doesn't have any claws in his front paws.
That's sorry. I was like her mom that declawed them
years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
We don't. Oh yeah, yeah, we don't. Support that was
a big thing back in the day. I don't. I don't.
I don't prescribe to that now, but yeah, it used
to be a thing people used to do a lot more.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
I noticed the Yeah, no, none of that. But no,
that's that's how I feel. I feel. You know, that's
what my wife says. Because he's eighteen, obviously, I mean,
how much longer can he go? But he's relatively okay
despite his uh his elements is. My wife is like,
I don't know if we can get another one. I'm like,
I don't want to live my life without a cat
right now again, And I don't think Harrison should the

(01:03:05):
fact that he loves cats. Yeah, and I think the uh.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Well, you do have to think about your allergies.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
I mean, I know, off to get shots again. Yeah,
I mean we three again or maybe two. I think
it's always going to be uh, always going to be one.
But it's opened, you know, it's it's been special. I
was just watching, you know, there was an episode where
GB walked in front of my camera during an interview
with fat Mic from No Effects, right right, right, So,

(01:03:32):
I mean they've been a part of the show, so
it's I'm surprised.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
They're usually a pain in the ass with this kind
of stuff, but they must be like it must be
nap time or something. For that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
Yeah, Black, he's just chewing on the couch.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
It's just he's like, why isn't anybody in here?

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
He's I think he's just happy that there is a
near two year olds going like tail tail, Yes, you
know the word tail. Please don't pull it, Harrison, please. Well,
it's just anything again. It's opened me up to, you know,
just the love of the of the creature. And that's
why I know it was what turned out to be
a good situation. Megan sharing videos of packing the cats

(01:04:09):
when they had to temporarily leave their their house during
the LA fires and putting the cats the hotel room
and then bring them back. So I'm like a safe
little kiddies.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Everyone's saying, what a nightmer. I mean, Slash has had
so many animals in his life. I mean, like when
I I don't think he has any of his snakes anymore,
but in the beginning, when I first knew him, he
still had a couple of snakes. Maybe one I don't remember.
But I mean he's you know, he's notoriously had snakes
and wizards and reptiles and a lot of crazy stuff
over the years. I think he's I think I think
there might have been some kind of big cat. I

(01:04:40):
think even I mean a bunch of those guys had
crazy stuff. And I think it wasn't because he was
trying to be. He was basically a lover and a
savor of animals really is what it was. He really
just really loved rescuing these these animals. And he he's
been doing this as long as I mean, he brings
it up all once in a while. How he like,

(01:05:02):
you know, you know, rescuing cats back and you know,
like from the street, back when he was a kid.
You know, I'm just kind of like, okay, there's our cat. Now.
I'm like, okay, here we go. Probably a very patient
mother and parents, but uh, it's you know, it's just
kind of how he's wired. And I think he's uh,
he's incredible with uh with with those cats. We were

(01:05:22):
there when they first got them too. I remember there
was four of them in the beginning. It's it's tragic
that they've they've lost a couple of the way, but
that's again, what great lives those animals have had.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
Yeah, some a couple of rockstars, you some rockstar cats.
I know my cats are rock stars, you know, my
my co hosts perfect co host at times. But anyway, GB,
I love you, buddy. I'll think about him forever. Todd,
just thank you so much. I know we went over time,
but it's like we always do. We always do. It's

(01:05:53):
not so easy to talk to. You don't have to
respond to this. But I know some people say that
Dave Grohl, they have their opinion about him. You are
the nicest person in rock and roll. Oh you can
that that that title if you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
Take it away from him, Yeah, I'll take it. I'll
take it from you. I I you know, I have
to earn it with everybody else. That's just sort of
the way it goes. The nicest guy to you in
rock and roll. There, we'll accept that, and then I
have to earn everybody else's nicest guy along the way.
We'll see how that goes. Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
Here, Brett Miller doesn't get enough credit for how talented
he is. Love love for Todd Curns. That's on Facebook.
This is from Oliver Great he is the best. We
from Mikael very good singer. By the way, we got Oh,
this is I guess a question. It's from Twisted kiss Uh.

(01:06:45):
Any update on heroes and monsters or Blackbird Angels, Vinyl
and Future Music as well well.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Blackbird Angels was sort of a one off that Tracy
and I got up to during COVID. It was very
much the tail end of COVID, but we were like,
we were talking about it and it was kind of yeah,
let's make some music and then you know, we've never
really had any intention in touring it. It was just kind
of like, you know, friends writing songs and it was like, yeah, great,
and then you put it out there and then here's
some monsters. We might do a run this summer, like

(01:07:12):
a quick batch of dates, probably in Italy. It always
ends up being Italy, so I don't know. Honestly, it's
like the big focus is here is finishing up the
Duke record, or well, yeah, finishing up a Duke record,
finishing up the Slash record and all that kind of
stuff for now, and then we will see how it
all plays out from there. You know, hopefully it'll hopefully

(01:07:36):
it'll all be kind of like I say, it'll be
September before I know it. I put my head up
and go. Honestly, as the calendar starts to fill along
the way, I won't even really have a stopping point
where I look up, It'll just be like crashing into it.
And then someday I'll be in rehearsal with Slash and
the guys going whoa, oh, we're into this already, it's happening. Okay,
you know, off we go. Well.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
I look forward to following your adventures on social media
Instagram specifically Todd. I can't thank you enough.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Thank you my friend, and always.

Speaker 1 (01:08:06):
One of these days we will meet in person.

Speaker 2 (01:08:08):
One of these days, yes, and like I'm about to
do right now, we'll go for a shmear.

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
So that does it it this episode of Appetite for
the Stortion? When will you see the next one? In
the words of Axel Rose, concerning Chinese democracy, I don't
know as soon as the word, but you'll see it.
Thanks to the lame ass security, I'm going home.