March 22, 2025 • 55 mins
The legendary Tracii Guns joins to talk L.A. Guns' new album "Leopard Skin" and dive deep into his musical journey, including how Guns N' Roses first formed. How does he feel about Guns' 40th anniversary? We spotlight the forgotten O.G. of GN'R, the late Ole Beich.
"Leopard Skin" available 4/4
More info:
http://www.lagunsmusic.com/
https://www.instagram.com/traciiguns/
Our website: www.afdpod.com
"Leopard Skin" available 4/4
More info:
http://www.lagunsmusic.com/
https://www.instagram.com/traciiguns/
Our website: www.afdpod.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
This is Appetite for Distortion. Welcome to the podcast Appetite
for Distortion, Episode number four hundred and ninety nine. My
(00:37):
name is Branda Damn is right. Welcome to the podcast.
Mister Tracy Gunns. How are you, sir?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm great man, Thanks for having me on. I'm sorry
it takes so long to get here. You know, that's
how things.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Go, right on. I'm happy of men. I think it's
appropriate for you to be four ninety nine and were
to get to like why today as we're recording this
is serendipitous. Actually, I don't want to tease it too
much because we'll get into it, but it's the fortieth
anniversary of the first ever Guns n' Roses interview with
you back in nineteen eighty five, like and Rasq is
(01:12):
the one who unearthed that and it's been online and
we'll get into that. But yeah, you for those obviously,
I mean, Tracy Gunn's one of those people. You've been
a very requested guest over my near five hundred episodes.
And I'm sorry, I'm distracted by a cat. What is that?
What's his name?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
This is Winter?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Winter.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Winter has a lot to say because we.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Just lost two of our older guys.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Some man, that's brutal.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I know, eighteen and nineteen in the same time.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Like it's just that's what they did. So it's kind
of like old couples when one goes the other one goes.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, it's well, you know, it's said. So whenever I
see a cat. Now we're already talking about adopting another one.
But uh oh, and that reminds me I won't have
any cats cats to interrupt us. But my so soon
to be two uh sometimes co host Baby Brownstone that's
his nickname, Harrison Rex is his real name, Harrison named
(02:08):
after the Beatle. He's napping in the back, so I
don't know, it's like take a ticking time bomb back there.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So I have two boys, and when they were a
little yeah, I had a solid three years of uncertainty
for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Right on. See, I knew right away we were that
was the thing. I knew we would get along. And
long story short, and Tracy and I spoke a little
bit beforehand. And this is again all on anyone who
knows me my neuros. I'm neurotic. I'm the Tracy. I
know you're you're You're the West Coast jew. I'm the
East Coast, so I felt like someone something's always bothering me.
(02:46):
That's who I am, and I admit it. Uh So
years ago I asked you because sometimes you get interviews
on social media and it's happened before you put politely
declined that happens, no big deal, and it was a
few years ago. I guess this is for anybody who
just may have caught that on Facebook, and I own
(03:07):
it because I misread somebody who was trying to connect
this for an interview wrote something that I took the
wrong way, and I'm like, Okay, this is never going
to happen. And he's still talking about guns and roses.
I don't understand, and something's wrong with me. And you
were so professional about it, and you're like, I don't
even know you, but you know there's nothing personal. I
(03:27):
don't and I believed you because I believe a lot
of times as a manager getting in between the talents,
and so I apologize to you off.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
The way, a lot of times the manager heads between
the talent. Okay, let's carry out.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
That's the truth. So anyway, I mean, any of those
who have followed Appetite for distortion for almost five hundred episodes.
You may know that story. I just needed to get
it out, just publicly apologize to you because I I
don't know, I reacted like I do that sometimes I
take things too personally and it's from my insecurity and
it's just not good. I try to pride myself and
(04:05):
being professional and that wasn't one of those moments. So
I'm glad that we can make.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Human you know, we're all human. Humans are peculiar creatures
and you don't need to apologize.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Man, well, thank you. And having that cat there makes
a lot everything. They're like therapy cats.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
You want to say, this is my buddy.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Well, I guess you can say right now because you're
with your your buddy. I'm with Tracy Guns. We're lucky
motherfucker's right.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
As we are lucky motherfucker.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
You see that there's there's the segue into that's course
one of the singles for the new album that is
coming out to April fourth, Leopard Skin. So tell me
about that because one of the common questions I ask,
and it's just because it's I don't know if this
is old hat for you putting on a record, or
is there a different level of excitement or is their nerves?
(04:56):
What are old fans going to think? What are some
new fans gonna think? What's kind of the you know,
the patridish of emotions for a new album.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Well, I think you know, it changes over the years.
You know, this is our like one hundredth album, something ridiculous.
You know, we really I try to guide the band
in a way that's mentally stimulating for the band, you know,
to where you know, we don't get kind of complacent
(05:26):
or in a resting on our laurels kind of mentality,
so you know, there's always something to look forward to,
you know, you know, and that's what keeps it exciting
for everybody. And with this album, this is a much
lighter up tempo, less suicidal La Guns record, you know,
(05:50):
to say the least, a lot more swinging in a
lot more rock and roll kind of influences, and you know,
hence the name Leopard scheme, you know, which is like
really to me, very symbolic of classic you know, rock
and roll, you know, starting with rockability and you know,
all that kind of stuff. So it all ties together,
and you know, I don't always think about the fans,
(06:14):
you know, When putting together albums, you know, I think
about the band, you know, I think about, you know,
what do we want to do? What what is something
that we have? Haven't you know, really explored in a
long time? What album were we missing from our collection?
You know, because we're a very diverse rock band. You know,
we do a lot of things, then fill things on
top of whatever shit I write, and then it sounds
(06:37):
like la guns, you know. So we're at this point
where you know, taste it and lucky motherfucker, and you
know those are kind of you know, reflections of the band.
We know we're lucky, you know. We know that we've
been around a long time and have had, you know,
an unbelievable amount of drama and the stuff legends are
(06:59):
made out of, you know, But here we are having
a great time, you know, putting albums out, playing to
tons of people, and traveling around mostly the country these days.
We haven't been out of the country a while. But
that's what this album is really about. It's it's it's
you know, mostly about us having a great.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Time, and that wasn't always that way. So that's it's
kind of awesome that you're able to kind of sing
and celebrate it, you know, at the end towards this, uh,
this portion of your career. You know, it's how strategic
of it of a choice was the word motherfucker though,
because it's such a feeling. But also obviously, I mean
(07:39):
it's not radio really plays rock new rock today anyway,
But I mean maybe serious will play lucky motherfucker.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I don't know, I mean, oddly, oddly, this is a
single that's gotten the most airplay already.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Fair enough, Okay, I'm wrong from the last.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Five Yeah, you know you can't. You can't form it
lies rock and roll, you know what I mean. When
it becomes formulized, that's when it dies. You know, that's
when you know people are like, oh yeah, they're just
trying to cash in. So Mitch Davis, Phil's writing partner,
(08:19):
came up with that line, and I didn't hear it
until they recorded it, Okay, I was like, oh hell yeah.
And I think Mitch and Phil even asked me like,
are you okay with it? So I'm like, you have
no idea? How okay? I you know, you know, I'm
(08:39):
like I'm like, yeah, this is our wet ass pussy. Yeah,
let's yeah, fuck yeah you know, no problem. Yeah, you
know so, and it's silly, you know. I mean La
Guns was a young person's band, you know, that was
who we were. That's what we represented when we came out.
And you know, it's pretty cringe worthy to think of,
(09:00):
you know, past middle age singing about sex and know
these things. And we're aware of that, but we do
it anyways. You know, we love it. That's who we are.
You know, your your soul doesn't age, you know, only
you're aesthetic. So it just makes it that much tastier,
(09:21):
that much more fun.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That's very true. And I'm noticing that as you know,
I'm forty one and I still feel like I'm in
my twenties and like dealing with my son and I'm like, oh,
when did that happen? Like when did I become a
dad and have to deal with this and having to
watch my language around him? You know I might have
had you know, if he's he will repeat words now,
so I might not listen to that one around him.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
So two years old, oh boy, yeah, they turned into
minor birds.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
That's what they say. So yeah, it's act same month,
so it's a big April New La Guns and he
turns two on the twenty six, so.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Amazing, amazing. Congratulations by the way, thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And this is a question I like bringing them now
and now I have a reason too, because I I'm
always interested in a rock star's childhood and this same
kind of comparing it to I don't know, maybe it's
me and again going back to my therapeutic issues and
being like a you know, my own issues, where do
they come from? Well, just a parallel to my son.
I'm what we're talking about? What show we should want
(10:24):
to bring him to his first rock show? Like we
were thinking about we almost brought him to Slash last summer,
but we've been too close, too loud. Yeah, my wife's
brought to the Dave Matthews Quiet. It's fine headphones. Do you
remember your first show, like your first hard rock show?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
My first hard rock show was Van Halen at the
Form on the Women and Children First Tour. Okay, and
that really? Really? I mean what did I see before that?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Like maybe a show you're your parents or like an
older you know?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Well, my real first concert was the Jackson five and
earth Wind and Fire Support with my mom when I
was six. I remember, I remember a little bit of
it and then I've never been a real big concert
goer unless it's something that I got to see, you
(11:22):
know what I mean, unless it's something that I'm just
like wow, because I just don't have the attention span
for it. Unless it's something I'm like truly invested in,
you know with my brain. Did you just fart?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I hear him? So is that what?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, He's like, he's like early eleven. You still got
control of it anyway. So, you know, the bands that
I have seen just in general, you know, that was
my first concert, and then I saw Motley Crue like
their second or third show, and Wasp and like that
stuff when I was fifteen six. But then me and
(12:02):
my cousin Willie, we went to see Van Halen, and boy,
that's sealed the deal for me. You know. I was
just like, yes, this is it, this is how you
do it, you know, and live music is a is
a real motivator for me when it's something I'm investing in,
you know, when it's something that, you know, because I
(12:23):
don't have a big record collection now, it's mostly you know,
four or five bands from the fifties, you know, ten
bands from the sixties, twenty bands from the seventies, couple
eighties bands and and yeah, you know what I mean.
It's like it's like that's that's what I mean too,
because I'm more of a creator, you know what I mean.
(12:45):
I'm more of a music creator. You know, I'm not
good at replicating other people's like learning somebody's solo or
something that's that's not my forte. You know, that's not
what I can do well. So music, to me and
the way that I perceive it is like an encyclopedia,
(13:07):
you know. It's the encyclopedia that that motivates me to
make these musical puzzles over and over and over and
over and over and over again. And that's why we're
able to make so many albums and recordings because it's
really my hobby, you know, you know, you know, creating
(13:29):
something that I need to hear, that I need to feel,
and that all stems ultimately from some live you know music.
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Where do you go then for when you know you're gonna, Okay,
I'm gonna work on this next La Gun's record. For inspiration,
whether there is a limited amount of music you listen
to or or do you or is that or those
are the moments that you do listen to music or
what what kind of space do you put yourself into
to find the inspiration to put you down a new album.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
So normally what gets me motivated is I get a deadline. Okay,
label goes, hey we need this turned in, you know,
four months from now. Then I freak out. I'm like,
what the fuck am I going to do? And then
then I look at you know, the past three records,
(14:23):
four records, look back twenty years. Oh yeah, we did
that already. Earn you're not going to do that. And
for this record, I was in such a great mood overall. Anyways,
before I started writing that, I was mostly listening to
like really good time rock, you know, everything from Slying
(14:44):
the Family Stone to Eddie Cochran, Aerosmith, James Gang, Funkadelic,
you know, like really fun, up tempo stuff. And you know,
there's there's the one day I walked down into the studio,
I turned an amp on and and I go, now what,
you know, It's like like what now what do I do?
(15:06):
And I hit up adam our drummer, our studio drummer
and go, hey, I'm starting today, and he goes and
then he always says I can't wait, you know. As
soon as Adam says I can't wait, then I just
start riffing out and it starts coming. And then after
I do one arrangement, he sends me a drum track
(15:28):
and I build one out. It's kind of like building
hot rods. I get out a role and the stuff
just comes pouring out, you know. And you know, kind
of the thing in the context of a whole album
is to not repeat yourself or repeat myself or the
band repeat itself within the album. There are things from
(15:50):
album to album where you can go, oh, that's an
awful lot, like that one, you know, fifteen years ago.
But that's just that's my nature, you know. I mean,
that's what I do. This is the sound I make.
So but on an album basis I try. The only
thing that I'm conscious of is not repeating something on
(16:10):
an album, you know, like you know, every song has
to be its own thing, stand on its own before
there's vocals, you know. So that's what Adam and I
do first, is we make these musical pieces that we
want to hear, and then we send it off to
the you know, the lyric you know, Harmony Melody Factory
(16:32):
with Phil and his buddy Mitch. So it's a real
process for us. It's a real set in stone process
the way that we do. We don't jam it out
like we used to. You know, we don't do anything.
You know, most of the time, by the time our
records come out, the band has never played any of
(16:53):
the songs as a band, you know. So it's like
Ace and Johnny they're the last to come in and play.
Well no, yeah, yeah, they're the last, and so they're
there right before we mix, and nobody hears anything until
after the mixes, and then everybody gets excited, like I
(17:16):
can't wait to you know, go rehearse or go play
this one or that one or the other one. And
everybody always has a different favorite, so you know, it
makes it kind of difficult to like, which one or
two songs will we add to the live set list
after doing you know, twenty studio records or whatever the number.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Is what she says, fifteen, but who's counting.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, I think there's fifteen original music studio albums. I
think this is the fifteenth one, right, so.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
You know that's what they say.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's what they say, I don't know.
I think we've we've had ten times more members than
albums something like that.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Well, you mentioned how you alluded to the way that
you used to do it. It's not like the way
you used to do it, So what was the way
that you used to put a song together? And you
consider that just the old school way or the wrong way.
So like young Tracys, you're okay.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
When when when when you're young? When I was young,
like you know, even with Guns N' Roses La Guns,
you know, and bands surrounding us and things, we had
lockout rehearsal halls and we rehearsed every day, every single day,
even weekends. That that you know, when you're in your
(18:40):
late teens early twenties and you're going to do this,
that's what you do. That's how you get it together,
that's how you grow quickly, that's how you come up
with songs and ideas and things like that. And with
La Guns, we did that all the way through really
(19:01):
our third through Hollywood Vampires and then Visious Circle was
a different kind of jammy thing, but that was just
the way that we did it. And then we did
it again on Man in the Moon and Waking the Dead,
and you know those are all great records as definitely
some pageantry to that. You know, there's some kind of
(19:23):
you know, makes it feel like, hey, you know, we
put in the work, we sweat, we yelled at each other,
you know, we got these songs, you know what I mean.
And then when I started, you know, really learning how
to engineer and make records on my own, around twenty eleven,
twenty twelve, I found it, you know, really being able
(19:48):
to create something without everybody's fucking opinion was much more focused,
much more direct, and less watered down because to me,
and I think a lot of times in country modern
country music, that's the bye by I get is that
too many writers, that's why this music sounds watered down.
(20:09):
To me, It's not one person's vision, you know. So
when an architect is doing the blueprints for a building,
yes there are other people involved, but it's the guy's
vision that's making that gorgeous building that's going to overlook
the water. The airplanes are going to see it, and
(20:29):
the birds are going to fly into it, and you
know all that crowd. So so since two thousand and
ten eleven, twenty twelve, I've been making the records. It's
much easier for me to create a whole thing then
ask for some constructive criticism, like say, hey, what do
you guys think is this missing? You want to add something?
(20:51):
You know, So it's still a group effort, but at
least I get to go in and do the bulk
of the of the creation first, you know, and with
my guys, they just respect it, you know what I mean.
The track record has shown in the past eight years
that we've stayed on the right track. And then you know,
(21:13):
Ace and Phil and Johnny they bring in their tunes
and then we carefully craft them together and so everything
is cohesive and it's fun that way. It's like it's
not like being in a stinky rehearsal room for you know,
six weeks, you know, getting frustrated and having things on
(21:35):
your mind that you want to you know, I got
to go outside and smoke ten cigarettes right now because
I just I can't be in this room anymore. So
that doesn't happen anymore, you know, And that's that's a
big upgrade.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
It seems like it's taken you know, it's taken a
long time, but finally you have the right formula to
how you want to make a record and the people
you want to be around. So yeah, it must be
like you said, you've never been happier make a record,
would you. I got to imagine that's part of it,
you know.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, yeah, Well, when things become fun, then you become
addicted to it, and then it's that's why we put
out so many records.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Sure, and fans are loving it, you know. I shout
out to one of my my journalist friends, Matt Wake
who writes for al dot com and a lot of
other great public publications like Spin and other, and he
praises you guys all the time. But how great your
last few records have been. And uh, according to these
first two singles, this new album will be up to par,
(22:31):
will be up to par with all your recent efforts.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Well, you know, I pay I paid Matt, I pay Matt,
and I pay Andrew Dally. Uh, you know, to be
my friend. Okay, I'm kidding, but.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Your VENMO hasn't come through yet, by the way, I'm
just kidding.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I'm sorry. I just got to sell one of these
pedals over here. I got you covered. Yeah, but uh,
those guys get the music sometimes before the other band
members do, you know, because they they're very critical thinkers.
They think with their emotions as far as rock and
(23:08):
roll guys. And so when when when Matthew gets excited,
like let's say I'm halfway through something and I hey,
what do you think of this? You know, and he
gets excited, then that pumps me up. Sure, So those
are like really some you know, allies within the journalistic
(23:28):
you know, part of what we do.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Well, that's good. I'm sure that those have been a
few and a few far in between in the last
few years, you know, last few decades, because not everybody
is out for you know, the artist's best interest. They
want to get cleansed. I try. I do my best
not to do that. So that's why I asked beforehand,
is there anything you don't want to talk about?
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Knowing that you know, Well, it's not so much the
journalists anymore. It's my my buddies at Blabbermouth. And I
love those guys, I really do. And you know, people
don't really know who they are, but they're very intelligent people.
And you know, a lot of times, like when they
will make a headline for me, I know exactly what
(24:11):
they're doing. And I and I sit here laughing my
ass off and I and I curse them at the
same time. Yeah, I understand fuckers. You know, it's kind
of like like like that kind of thing. But you know,
they're a business as well, right, you know, and the
tabloid business does not have to have uh so much
(24:34):
a sense of seriousness, you know what I mean, as
much as you know, you know, Elvis tripped over an
alien on his way to bodyboarding, you know, in the glacier,
you know what I mean, Like that's a headline, you know,
that's that's a tabloid thing. And Flabbermouth they provide the news,
(24:56):
but they also you know, they know where they're They're
bread is b uttered and you know, I just take
it all with a grain of assault. But yeah, I mean,
journalistic integrity still exists, but it's few and far in between.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I try to be some of the few because I
don't I cause I get it. Blabbermouth is usually the
one that so many people cite that like that, come
on here is as long as like everything's quoted correctly,
I don't ever freak out. And it's there's always interesting.
They are smart with their headlines because there are other
(25:34):
online magazines that are just really like they make you
think this other this person killed somebody, and it's just like,
oh they they really just slayd the crowd or it's
just like they make it. It's like almost like a lie,
a real clickbait, right.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
But the phenomenon, the phenomenon of blabbermouth is the comment section.
It always has to bring that up too, Yeah, is
there's so many people expose their anger there, you know,
which is a really strange phenomenon. Is it's like, you know,
(26:09):
like they'll post, uh something about the motels, let's say,
and you'll get you know, all these guys in there,
what the fuck does this have to do with you know,
a hard rock or you you know, you know, it's
like why are you so angry? Man?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Scroll?
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, like you know, so that's the thing. And you know,
I have no problem speaking on the internet, and a
lot of times I'll go on and let people know
in the comments like hey, take it easy, you know,
and then they then everybody does you know people you know,
they have the moment that you know, it's reaction versus response.
(26:46):
People on the internet tend to react right away without
really thinking about what they're writing, you know, rather than
sit in back take a breath to Okay, I'm going
to respond to this because it affected me in a way,
you know.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
But they don't do No, it's wanting. It's some sort
of accolades for saying, who like, you want just to
be cool because you don't know this band, or it's
like a whole comment section of Beavis and butt Head
characters where this sucks. That sucks all right, Sorry you
don't like Disturbed, Sorry they're not Slayer. It gets just
the you don't right right, right, crawling, you know, just
(27:21):
just funny things like that. So obviously I've it's been
a topic of discussion throughout my tenure doing this podcast
because guns and Roses. I can't help. I can't help.
But it's not like I set out to do it.
I'm just a nerd where I grew up there with
my favorite band, and I happen to be in radio
that all of a sudden, you know, all these sites
picking up because that everyone wants to say things fed
about axel or or whatever it is. So if you
(27:44):
don't mind, and and I've told you before and all
my listeners know, I'm not that kind of guy, but
I have genuine questions, like, here's probably one you've never
been asked for, and it might be the dumbest one.
Was there ever a thought where you would do roses
and guns? Did he ever want? Who's the first?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
No, because the the name of the band was originally
a five minute idea that we were going to just
keep recording together and our label would be called Guns
n' Rows. So that's that's the very origin of the name.
So there's some memory loss with me because when Duff
(28:26):
first joined the band, which was, you know, a couple
of months in after Oli Bike was the original bass player,
he was Michael Rose for a minute, you know, And
I can never remember if that's why we changed it
to Guns and Roses or if just magically we were
just like, oh, guns and Roses, that's a cool band.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
I can't remember, okay, because there were there would be
two Roses at that point, or or maybe.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
We did and when Duff was Duff Rose, it kind
of validated the idea. I can't remember. That was a
fucking a wild time ago, dude.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I know, and I'm sorry to do it to you
again because this is just too the day that we're
recording this so March twenty fourth. This is twenty twenty five,
So nineteen eighty five, forty years ago. Today, Guns and
Roses give their first ever interview to kp FK in
North Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
It was released thankfully because of ras Q, former guests
friend the show, you know, former first La Guns manager.
I believe and actually yeah, So according to raz Is,
he set up the interview Tracy's mom, your mom taped
it on cassette and Wow. Duff had literally joined the
band hours prior, but had to go home to sleep
(29:42):
for his nine to five job the next day.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
I don't know if you remember any of this. You
guys played think about early versions of Think About You,
Anything Goes and Don't Cry? Do you remember any of that?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
So we were playing live.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Yeah at this radio station.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Oh wow, Wow.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
No, I don't expect you to but.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Another day in the life, but I'd love to hear it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Well you can listen online and you know, yeah, because
it's a it's a long one if fans want to listen.
I have some of it on episode fifty where we
interviewed Rob Gardner, but the whole thing lives online. I
posted just a talk portion on my social media today.
So I was just curious. It just was interesting that
that happens to be today. I interviewed Tracy. So I
didn't expect you to remember anything of that, however.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
What you aside from the music, you know, were we talking,
were we saying anything?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Yeah? Yeah, And he was doing a lot of the
talking ironically.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
You know, it's funny for such a quiet guy. So
much of the stuff that we would talk about before
and after rehearsal, he would be very vocal about, you know,
about our the way we present ourselves, you know, you know,
what influences do we mellow out on, what do we
(31:03):
bring in, you know, the cool factor of the band,
you know, like like is. He was always very concerned
about the cool factor, you know, and how do we
make our guitars sound different from one another? How do
we make our guitars look different from one another? And
you know, so for a long time, he played a
black class Paul, I played a cream last Paul. You know,
(31:24):
all those kind of things. Those were all thought out,
you know, those were all things and Izzy, you know,
who wasn't in the band at first, you know, I
called him after we decided to do this and said,
do you want to be in this band? And he
was like, yeah, I want to be in this band.
(31:45):
So he comes in and you know, Izzy and I
had already lived together for like a year and a half,
two years, and my mom's you know, well before we
decided to do this, and so we spent so much
time talking about you know, what's past, but what's vintage cool?
You know what what's timeless and stuff like that. So
(32:07):
it doesn't surprise me that in this very early interview
that that he would make sure that he was talking
about the vision like what we are. You know, I
got to hear this.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
That's oh, I'll send it to you. I probably back
in it again, remembering I'm lucky. I remember what I
had it for breakfast? You know, did I even eat
breakfast that I remember to eat breakfast all those Uh,
but just too to rewind because I think I tagged
you in it back in the day. But again, I
really would love you know, if you come back, I
would love for you to give your you know, your
(32:39):
breakdown of all of that. But a couple of things
I want to I hit on that you mentioned just
for historical reasons. You said you asked Izzie to be
in the band. So who was Guns and Rows first?
Was it you? Axel? And Duff like, who was who
was it first?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
No? No, no, no. So how it came to be
was we played with La Guns with Axel singing. We
did a show opening for London and uh, somebody from
London detooed all my guitars before we went on. And
I'm not naming names, and Axel can name names if
he wants. But Axel went lunatic, you know, once we
(33:18):
finally got out there. He tore up a London poster.
There's a picture of it. And so our manager, your
friend ras Q, on the way home fired accent from
La Guns like that's unprofessional. I can't deal with this.
So that was bullshit kind of thing. And you know,
Axel and I are looking at each other in the
car like what you know, what fuck are you talking about?
(33:39):
So we get home and we were sitting on this
couch is late like three in the morning, and uh,
you know, we were serious guys. You know, we were
funny guys, but we were serious guys. We were definitely
serious about our music. And we had just recorded an
EP that hadn't come out yet. So we're sitting there
(34:00):
and asked him goes, well, we can keep writing and
recording because we know how to do it. We know
how to do that now, you know. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
we can do We could do that certainly. And I go,
we can call the label guns and Rows and he goes,
he goes, yeah, that's easy, you know what I mean.
So that was guns and Rows, like that's how it started.
(34:24):
And I said, well, that's a great name for a band. Yeah,
he goes. I go, we could just change the name
of the band, you know. He goes, yeah, look that,
let's just do that. And I'm like okay, and I said,
you know, I bet Izzy quits London to day. You know,
I'm gonna call him in the morning and see if
he wants to be in the band. And he goes,
(34:44):
all right, you know, I called Izzy first thing in
the morning. You want to be in this new band?
And he's like yeah, you know. And so that was that.
So the original band was you know, La Guns it
was it was Rob Gardner and Holy Bike and uh
is he in me an Axel And we started rehearsing
(35:06):
right away and then we did you know, I stuck
around for I don't know, six eight months something like that.
And then, uh, the first guy to go was Rob.
You know, he got an ultimatum from his girlfriend Devin,
it's me or the band. He dumped the.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Band and made the wrong choice.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
And then she dumped him. Yeah. It was like so stupid.
I can't even look him in the face to this day.
And then Holy, he decided I don't know I was
going on. Holy, I named my son after him.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
I want to talk about him specifically, because yeah, you
did name your son after him. We don't get I
don't get to talk about him enough. Please tell me
what kind of guy he was. He was Danish, right, No,
I mean I don't mean like that, like I mean
but but.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
But but when I say that, I mean he was stoic,
you know what I mean, and full of love inside
and full of insight and education because people from Denmark
are educated. They're musically educated, they're scholastically educated, they're healthy
and blah blah blah. So he came into my life
(36:12):
and joined La Guns originally, and he played with with
King Diamond a merciful faith you know, for a while
before he came over. He's ten years older than me.
He was a very much of a guiding kind of
big brother figure for me, you know, kind of navigating
in my early years, you know, like you know, pre
(36:34):
twenty years old kind of thing. And we were into metal,
you know what I mean. We were into metal, metal, metal, metal, metal.
And although that we were huge Aerosmith and led Zeppelin
and Johnny Thunders fans and all that stuff, Ollie and
I we met on metal. So you know, when it
(36:56):
turned into guns and roses, he felt that we were
what's the word, kind of pushing metal aside, okay, you know,
and all of a sudden just decided that, like, well
I don't want anything to do with the glam thing
or you know, anything like that. And he didn't even
(37:17):
tell me. He just didn't show up. He told Axel,
which really hurt my feelings, you know. And then I
was like what you know, and is he was very
you know, consoling with me. I was like, don't worry, man,
my neighbor, this guy, you know, Mike McKagan, he's so
cool and he'll come right in. Don't worry. Everybody's worried
(37:37):
because they knew he was my guy. He was like
only but only you know, he had gotten into drugs,
he had become friends with a couple of people that
are real shit fucking human beings and ultimately only killed himself.
You know, he killed himself. He he walked right into
these little shallow lakes in the center of copd Hagen.
(38:01):
And you know, nobody says it suicide, but he tried
to kill himself earlier by slitting his wrists, so you know,
he killed himself. He drowned himself, and it's the most
tragic story of a casualty of la guns and guns
(38:21):
and roses. And the same with Mike Jagos. You know,
he odeed on heroin mad and.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
You know West Arkeen is a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
West Rakeene. You know, these guys that were the passionate ones, right,
you know, that's the thing. Wes was one of the
passionate ones. Only was a passionate one. Mike Jegos was
a passionate one. But they had their own ideas and
they had their own whatever it is. You know, whatever
(38:50):
it is, it makes people that sad and that dark.
But anyways, back to the subject, Oli left and then
you know is he was right about Duff. You know,
he came in. I'll never forget the first time I
saw him. We were pulling into the alley of H
and H rehearsal and there was Duff. It was like
(39:13):
nine point thirty in the morning, and he's drinking a
big Foster's lagger can and like none of us really
drank at that point, you know, and we're in our
big white man and I'm like, is that him? You know?
He's like, yeah, yeah, don't worry about that, you know, like, okay, whatever,
go in. And he had a little amp and he
(39:33):
had a chorus pedal. I had never seen a bass
player play with a chorus pedal, and you know, he
had that white bass, same one he plays now. And
he started playing like this, like geddy lee shit, and
I was like, oh, hell yeah. I was like, ohh,
I love this guy. And he had a Johnny thundershirt
out at the same time, you know, playing I don't
(39:55):
remember what he was playing. But then we started playing
our tunes and he knew him all done his homework.
Izzy and I used to make cassette tapes of every rehearsal,
and I'll be really pissed at Izzy if he didn't
keep them. But but so Duff comes in nails it
right away, and we already had Adler. That was another
(40:17):
struggle because Axel really didn't want Adler in the band,
but he knew the stuff that was kind of derivative
of Hollywood Rose because Adler was in Hollywood Rose, so
got him in there. And immediately the swing change because
Adler has a very specific swing, and so that was
really good. And then Duff came in. It was really
good and we were all happy. And then that's really
(40:40):
when when when it started finding on our cylinders, you know,
and like the shows started getting packed out, and it
became a really good time for me for about seven
or eight months, and then that was that was done.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
And I know you've spoken about some of that before,
and believe me, I wish I could I could talk
to you for hours. I mean that, I'm I'm sure
that's something that a lot of interviewers have said to you,
because you're very conversational, you're very friendly, or you're funny,
and you just have all these great stories and you've
been part of so many different things. So I guess
within that before we wrap up, and I want to
wrap up with the of course, the new La Guns
(41:15):
record just with the legacy of of La Guns. I
know it would never happen just because of the rock
and Roll Hall of Fame is what it is. Yeah,
but would you would you say that La Guns and
like the Sunset Strip and what all that represents, really
deserves a place in what's called the rock and roll
Hall of Fame if it was a rock and roll
(41:37):
Hall of fame, or might like my overthinking it is
a useless argument. I mean, I think Fish is winning
the van vote over like Soundgardens, So I think I've
given up all hope.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, I mean that's a weird thing. You know, when
when G and I R went in, you know, I
got an invitation that I had to pay for, by
the way, I'm sure Al did and as you did too,
And we also said no man like you know, you know,
bands like us, musicians like us that were purely in
(42:12):
it to rile up the audience. You know, boards are fine.
I'll take my Gold Records and my band of the
gear guitarist in the ear. I love that stuff because it's
a good ego Strow. But to put any kind of
you know, legitimacy into the Ohio's rock and Roll Hall
(42:39):
of fame is anything other than just a beauty pageant,
you know what I mean. It's more of a place
for people to pay for their tables so they can
hear about their band getting inducted and then having all
(43:00):
out for a party. What's at the party? Part? I'm
all about? You know, I'm always up for a good party.
But but to place like you know, any kind of
it does not validate anybody's creativity or artistic value.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
I agree with that, and sorry because also, baby Brownstone,
I don't know. Now it's my turn to have background screeches.
You had the cats, and now I have my guy
waking up. So when you said you got an invited,
you would have had to paid for invitation. Would you
have been inducted with guns, roses or just too No?
Speaker 1 (43:33):
No, I don't think I would have been inducted with
the band.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
It was stuns.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Hey, little Brownstone.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Oh it's okay.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Look how sleepy you are?
Speaker 2 (43:48):
I know he's got his Kirklebain hair cut.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Looks so cool, mantle dude.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
He doesn't like where I wear headphones. He likes to
grab my ear Who I readjust my headset? I can
hear no word I can hear you. Yeah, uh so yeah,
I mean wait, so answer that again. Forgive me.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
This is okay?
Speaker 2 (44:09):
So you would not have been inducted with G and R.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Right, No, I don't think so. I just got an invitation,
and I'm sure other people did too, people involved with
Guns and Roses like you probably Yeah, like I don't know,
because did Gilby play?
Speaker 2 (44:27):
He played, but he wasn't of course, right.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Right, right right, But I mean I don't. I don't
need any Guns and Roses validation. I mean, my name's
right there, you know, like.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Me with that, let me ask, with this year being
the fortieth anniversary that you started it, should you be
acknowledged somehow? I think you should.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
My name is right there now, Okay, Yeah, there's only
two guys name there, and I'm one of them.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Fair enough, fair enough, you.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Know I didn't look. I knew Guns n' Roses was
going to do something I had. There's no doubt in
my mind, you know. But I really believe that I
made the right decision for everybody, you know what I mean,
because it was you know, I remember, you know, I
(45:22):
grew up with slash right, and at that time when
when we were just starting to like really get that audience,
like it was really turning into something. Slash would come
and stand in the audience, you know, and he was
working I think at Tower Records, a Tower video or something,
(45:44):
and he's such a brilliant artist. You know, he made
our first love that I had already had my name
out there without guns and roses because of La Guns
for example, you know what already in the scene doing
my thing. I see my buddy, my rival, my buddy,
(46:06):
my rival, you know, on any given day, and you know,
when things went down and is he said, well, we're
just going to have you know, Slash go into you
that until you get your head out of your ass
whatever it was, you know, And I was like, yeah, exactly,
like this isn't this isn't a hard equation to figure out,
(46:28):
you know. And it lifted so much weight off my
shoulders because as you know, I leave my own bands.
Yeah you know what I mean. And then that bears
some like really strange perception for people that are looking
in like you know, what's wrong with this guy? You know,
why does he do these things? And it's because you know,
(46:49):
my well being comes first, you know, and I don't
I don't put you know, some artists, not just messicians,
but they they they measure their success by maybe money
or maybe by kind of like that way people want
(47:12):
to be validated on the internet, you know, it was like,
you know, fuck, look at all this, all these people
following me, you know whatever. Yeah, but for me, And
if you ask Izzy, if you asked Axel, if you
ask Slash, if you ask Duff, if you ask anybody
I've ever worked with, they would all say Tracy doesn't care,
you know. He just he wants to play the guitar.
(47:33):
He wants to write the music, and he wants to
do his thing. And if there ever becomes a time
in a working unit where I can't just do my thing,
I'm gone.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
You sound like Izsy? Do you sound like you sound
like Iusy?
Speaker 1 (47:49):
I is? He and I are so aligned with what
we think is not embarrassing, you know, and we all
do embarrassing things, but we really try hard not to.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
What was the last time you spoke to him?
Speaker 1 (48:05):
It's been a while now, you know, is he he
really he checks out way more than I do. Obviously, Yes,
it's been over twenty years now, because the last time
we talked was when there was some celebration of guns
and Roses at the Key Club, and I think that
(48:26):
was the last time I talked to Slash too. Slash
and I had a long one and Izzy and I
kind of laugh.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Look got more, don't worry.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
You want milk. I don't blame him, you know, do.
Speaker 2 (48:38):
You for Tracy Gunns? That's what he wants.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
I don't blame him for that either. But it was funny,
you know, because Izzy was with Henry and Joseph, these
guys that are retail flood, I think, the coolest DJs
in LA and they had been friends for twenty years
at that point. He was there with them, and then
Slash kind of showed up and I was hiding out
(49:01):
in the trailer in the back, and it came up
and we talked for about and you're just supposed to play,
you know, I ain't doing this shit, you know what
I mean. So that was kind of the last two
things I've heard from those two guys. And it's been
a long I don't remember how long ago that was.
It was a while ago.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
Well right on, you hope, Because I'm one of those
like I love members past and present. You all have
contributed to music that we love in one way or another,
and it's just one. It's a small family. That's how
I you know this podcast, I always do what I
call it a six degrees of gen r Bacon. Obviously,
obviously you can't get any closer than naming the band, right,
(49:38):
so I don't. I really didn't need that here, but
it's it's kind of always just to show, no matter
what differences we may have, what language, where we are
in the world, we can meet here to talk about
great music, and it kind of is all through that,
through guns and rose colored glasses. That's another one of
those really.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
Cool I like that. I like that. But you know,
the other night I decided consciously I'm not going to
write it book, okay, which was a been a real
back and forth thing, you know, from family members, band
members and the public, like you need to write a book.
You need to write a book. A book is only
(50:15):
interesting when you're telling horrible stories about people and things
that they've done. A feel good book doesn't sell. A
feel good book is what a great guy, you know,
and you know, we have this great experience. Nobody cares.
It's twenty twenty five and it takes a long time.
(50:37):
It would take a very long time for me to
write a book. But I have nothing bad to say
about anybody that I've worked with. I have lots of
horrible stories I could say, but I would never want
to hurt someone's feelings, you know, especially at our age.
(50:58):
What's the point, you know, I wouldn't want someone to
get angry with himself or angry with me. And I
think that there's enough out there already as time goes
on that if anybody's really interested, they can get to
all the meat, you know what I mean, without me
(51:20):
going and sitting in a fucking books. You know, they
come to my book sign it's like, like, really, Tracy
Guns but a little brown.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
He wants he knows how to do sign language more.
He's like, no, I want more, Tracy more.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
What you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (51:39):
Can you say, La Guns?
Speaker 1 (51:42):
What?
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Because we'll wrap up soon. We I'm so lucky that
the fact that he slept through most of this great.
But what you just as a suggestion, because my next
interview is going to be with Alan Niven.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Oh oh, I love Alan.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
He's I'm lucky enough to call him a friend. Yeah,
he's putting out a book and it's gonna be a
collection of stories rather than an autobiography. So that's something
that perhaps you can do. And just like what you're
doing with La guns Now in Leopard Skin, which is
out April fourth, is that do it the way you
want to do it, don't think about the fans, and
(52:17):
just however it comes out all positive, whatever it is,
it's your book, and if it shouldn't matter based upon
what you're personally, it shouldn't matter if it sells or not.
It's gonna make you happy.
Speaker 3 (52:29):
But I don't want to put the work into it.
That's that's what it's kind of come down to. And
that's what I would do, is exactly what out is.
It would be a collection of stories based on people.
You know what I mean, this person, this person, this person,
this person. At the end of the day, and rich Deanstock,
you know who's written everything else.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
Cool the podcast. Yeah. Yeah, he's one of my best
friends and he wants to do it, and he's wanted
to do it, but I just ain't I gonna do it, Okay,
all right, I'm gonna write more music instead.
Speaker 2 (52:59):
I want to twist your He just keep doing more
podcasts and I'll be happy.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Yeah, I think We're going to start l A Gun's podcast.
I'm going to look at an outline in my email
and I'll keep you posted on that and it will
be very interactive with the band.
Speaker 2 (53:17):
But I'll let you know if you need a producer,
let me know. If someone edits some audio, I'll help
you out. Let me know.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Hey, right on, man, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
He's got his ritz crackers. He will be my co
host one of these days. Can you say, Tracy, say Tracy,
Tracy with mouth? Well, he can't say cat show. Can
you show me your cat? Maybe he'll recognize it. That
(53:46):
might be a look at the cat?
Speaker 1 (53:51):
Look at the cat.
Speaker 2 (53:53):
Isn't that cute? I think he's still waking up he
sees it. This will be the cover of the episode,
by the way, Kat and so well, anyway, Tracy, thank
you so much for your time today. A long time coming.
(54:13):
This is it was meant to happen today and have
this conversation. Just thanks for talking about New La Guns
and talk about OLA. You know, I talk about mental
wealth and addiction. And I lost my dad to suicide
eleven years ago, and it's you know, so we just
moving forward and just try to talk about the positive things.
A lot of negative things we can't talk about, and
(54:34):
let's focus on the positive. So that's what I'll we'll
keep doing. So that does it for this episode of
Appetite for Distortion. When we 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.
(54:55):
Thanks to the lame ass security, I'm going home.
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
This is Appetite for Distortion. Welcome to the podcast Appetite
for Distortion, Episode number four hundred and ninety nine. My
(00:37):
name is Branda Damn is right. Welcome to the podcast.
Mister Tracy Gunns. How are you, sir?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm great man, Thanks for having me on. I'm sorry
it takes so long to get here. You know, that's
how things.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Go, right on. I'm happy of men. I think it's
appropriate for you to be four ninety nine and were
to get to like why today as we're recording this
is serendipitous. Actually, I don't want to tease it too
much because we'll get into it, but it's the fortieth
anniversary of the first ever Guns n' Roses interview with
you back in nineteen eighty five, like and Rasq is
(01:12):
the one who unearthed that and it's been online and
we'll get into that. But yeah, you for those obviously,
I mean, Tracy Gunn's one of those people. You've been
a very requested guest over my near five hundred episodes.
And I'm sorry, I'm distracted by a cat. What is that?
What's his name?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
This is Winter?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Winter.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Winter has a lot to say because we.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Just lost two of our older guys.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Some man, that's brutal.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I know, eighteen and nineteen in the same time.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Like it's just that's what they did. So it's kind
of like old couples when one goes the other one goes.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, it's well, you know, it's said. So whenever I
see a cat. Now we're already talking about adopting another one.
But uh oh, and that reminds me I won't have
any cats cats to interrupt us. But my so soon
to be two uh sometimes co host Baby Brownstone that's
his nickname, Harrison Rex is his real name, Harrison named
(02:08):
after the Beatle. He's napping in the back, so I
don't know, it's like take a ticking time bomb back there.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So I have two boys, and when they were a
little yeah, I had a solid three years of uncertainty
for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Right on. See, I knew right away we were that
was the thing. I knew we would get along. And
long story short, and Tracy and I spoke a little
bit beforehand. And this is again all on anyone who
knows me my neuros. I'm neurotic. I'm the Tracy. I
know you're you're You're the West Coast jew. I'm the
East Coast, so I felt like someone something's always bothering me.
(02:46):
That's who I am, and I admit it. Uh So
years ago I asked you because sometimes you get interviews
on social media and it's happened before you put politely
declined that happens, no big deal, and it was a
few years ago. I guess this is for anybody who
just may have caught that on Facebook, and I own
(03:07):
it because I misread somebody who was trying to connect
this for an interview wrote something that I took the
wrong way, and I'm like, Okay, this is never going
to happen. And he's still talking about guns and roses.
I don't understand, and something's wrong with me. And you
were so professional about it, and you're like, I don't
even know you, but you know there's nothing personal. I
(03:27):
don't and I believed you because I believe a lot
of times as a manager getting in between the talents,
and so I apologize to you off.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
The way, a lot of times the manager heads between
the talent. Okay, let's carry out.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
That's the truth. So anyway, I mean, any of those
who have followed Appetite for distortion for almost five hundred episodes.
You may know that story. I just needed to get
it out, just publicly apologize to you because I I
don't know, I reacted like I do that sometimes I
take things too personally and it's from my insecurity and
it's just not good. I try to pride myself and
(04:05):
being professional and that wasn't one of those moments. So
I'm glad that we can make.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Human you know, we're all human. Humans are peculiar creatures
and you don't need to apologize.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Man, well, thank you. And having that cat there makes
a lot everything. They're like therapy cats.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
You want to say, this is my buddy.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Well, I guess you can say right now because you're
with your your buddy. I'm with Tracy Guns. We're lucky
motherfucker's right.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
As we are lucky motherfucker.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
You see that there's there's the segue into that's course
one of the singles for the new album that is
coming out to April fourth, Leopard Skin. So tell me
about that because one of the common questions I ask,
and it's just because it's I don't know if this
is old hat for you putting on a record, or
is there a different level of excitement or is their nerves?
(04:56):
What are old fans going to think? What are some
new fans gonna think? What's kind of the you know,
the patridish of emotions for a new album.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Well, I think you know, it changes over the years.
You know, this is our like one hundredth album, something ridiculous.
You know, we really I try to guide the band
in a way that's mentally stimulating for the band, you know,
to where you know, we don't get kind of complacent
(05:26):
or in a resting on our laurels kind of mentality,
so you know, there's always something to look forward to,
you know, you know, and that's what keeps it exciting
for everybody. And with this album, this is a much
lighter up tempo, less suicidal La Guns record, you know,
(05:50):
to say the least, a lot more swinging in a
lot more rock and roll kind of influences, and you know,
hence the name Leopard scheme, you know, which is like
really to me, very symbolic of classic you know, rock
and roll, you know, starting with rockability and you know,
all that kind of stuff. So it all ties together,
and you know, I don't always think about the fans,
(06:14):
you know, When putting together albums, you know, I think
about the band, you know, I think about, you know,
what do we want to do? What what is something
that we have? Haven't you know, really explored in a
long time? What album were we missing from our collection?
You know, because we're a very diverse rock band. You know,
we do a lot of things, then fill things on
top of whatever shit I write, and then it sounds
(06:37):
like la guns, you know. So we're at this point
where you know, taste it and lucky motherfucker, and you
know those are kind of you know, reflections of the band.
We know we're lucky, you know. We know that we've
been around a long time and have had, you know,
an unbelievable amount of drama and the stuff legends are
(06:59):
made out of, you know, But here we are having
a great time, you know, putting albums out, playing to
tons of people, and traveling around mostly the country these days.
We haven't been out of the country a while. But
that's what this album is really about. It's it's it's
you know, mostly about us having a great.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Time, and that wasn't always that way. So that's it's
kind of awesome that you're able to kind of sing
and celebrate it, you know, at the end towards this, uh,
this portion of your career. You know, it's how strategic
of it of a choice was the word motherfucker though,
because it's such a feeling. But also obviously, I mean
(07:39):
it's not radio really plays rock new rock today anyway,
But I mean maybe serious will play lucky motherfucker.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I don't know, I mean, oddly, oddly, this is a
single that's gotten the most airplay already.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Fair enough, Okay, I'm wrong from the last.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Five Yeah, you know you can't. You can't form it
lies rock and roll, you know what I mean. When
it becomes formulized, that's when it dies. You know, that's
when you know people are like, oh yeah, they're just
trying to cash in. So Mitch Davis, Phil's writing partner,
(08:19):
came up with that line, and I didn't hear it
until they recorded it, Okay, I was like, oh hell yeah.
And I think Mitch and Phil even asked me like,
are you okay with it? So I'm like, you have
no idea? How okay? I you know, you know, I'm
(08:39):
like I'm like, yeah, this is our wet ass pussy. Yeah,
let's yeah, fuck yeah you know, no problem. Yeah, you
know so, and it's silly, you know. I mean La
Guns was a young person's band, you know, that was
who we were. That's what we represented when we came out.
And you know, it's pretty cringe worthy to think of,
(09:00):
you know, past middle age singing about sex and know
these things. And we're aware of that, but we do
it anyways. You know, we love it. That's who we are.
You know, your your soul doesn't age, you know, only
you're aesthetic. So it just makes it that much tastier,
(09:21):
that much more fun.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That's very true. And I'm noticing that as you know,
I'm forty one and I still feel like I'm in
my twenties and like dealing with my son and I'm like, oh,
when did that happen? Like when did I become a
dad and have to deal with this and having to
watch my language around him? You know I might have
had you know, if he's he will repeat words now,
so I might not listen to that one around him.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
So two years old, oh boy, yeah, they turned into
minor birds.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
That's what they say. So yeah, it's act same month,
so it's a big April New La Guns and he
turns two on the twenty six, so.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Amazing, amazing. Congratulations by the way, thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And this is a question I like bringing them now
and now I have a reason too, because I I'm
always interested in a rock star's childhood and this same
kind of comparing it to I don't know, maybe it's
me and again going back to my therapeutic issues and
being like a you know, my own issues, where do
they come from? Well, just a parallel to my son.
I'm what we're talking about? What show we should want
(10:24):
to bring him to his first rock show? Like we
were thinking about we almost brought him to Slash last summer,
but we've been too close, too loud. Yeah, my wife's
brought to the Dave Matthews Quiet. It's fine headphones. Do you
remember your first show, like your first hard rock show?
Speaker 1 (10:41):
My first hard rock show was Van Halen at the
Form on the Women and Children First Tour. Okay, and
that really? Really? I mean what did I see before that?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Like maybe a show you're your parents or like an
older you know?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Well, my real first concert was the Jackson five and
earth Wind and Fire Support with my mom when I
was six. I remember, I remember a little bit of
it and then I've never been a real big concert
goer unless it's something that I got to see, you
(11:22):
know what I mean, unless it's something that I'm just
like wow, because I just don't have the attention span
for it. Unless it's something I'm like truly invested in,
you know with my brain. Did you just fart?
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I hear him? So is that what?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, He's like, he's like early eleven. You still got
control of it anyway. So, you know, the bands that
I have seen just in general, you know, that was
my first concert, and then I saw Motley Crue like
their second or third show, and Wasp and like that
stuff when I was fifteen six. But then me and
(12:02):
my cousin Willie, we went to see Van Halen, and boy,
that's sealed the deal for me. You know. I was
just like, yes, this is it, this is how you
do it, you know, and live music is a is
a real motivator for me when it's something I'm investing in,
you know, when it's something that, you know, because I
(12:23):
don't have a big record collection now, it's mostly you know,
four or five bands from the fifties, you know, ten
bands from the sixties, twenty bands from the seventies, couple
eighties bands and and yeah, you know what I mean.
It's like it's like that's that's what I mean too,
because I'm more of a creator, you know what I mean.
(12:45):
I'm more of a music creator. You know, I'm not
good at replicating other people's like learning somebody's solo or
something that's that's not my forte. You know, that's not
what I can do well. So music, to me and
the way that I perceive it is like an encyclopedia,
(13:07):
you know. It's the encyclopedia that that motivates me to
make these musical puzzles over and over and over and
over and over and over again. And that's why we're
able to make so many albums and recordings because it's
really my hobby, you know, you know, you know, creating
(13:29):
something that I need to hear, that I need to feel,
and that all stems ultimately from some live you know music.
It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Where do you go then for when you know you're gonna, Okay,
I'm gonna work on this next La Gun's record. For inspiration,
whether there is a limited amount of music you listen
to or or do you or is that or those
are the moments that you do listen to music or
what what kind of space do you put yourself into
to find the inspiration to put you down a new album.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
So normally what gets me motivated is I get a deadline. Okay,
label goes, hey we need this turned in, you know,
four months from now. Then I freak out. I'm like,
what the fuck am I going to do? And then
then I look at you know, the past three records,
(14:23):
four records, look back twenty years. Oh yeah, we did
that already. Earn you're not going to do that. And
for this record, I was in such a great mood overall. Anyways,
before I started writing that, I was mostly listening to
like really good time rock, you know, everything from Slying
(14:44):
the Family Stone to Eddie Cochran, Aerosmith, James Gang, Funkadelic,
you know, like really fun, up tempo stuff. And you know,
there's there's the one day I walked down into the studio,
I turned an amp on and and I go, now what,
you know, It's like like what now what do I do?
(15:06):
And I hit up adam our drummer, our studio drummer
and go, hey, I'm starting today, and he goes and
then he always says I can't wait, you know. As
soon as Adam says I can't wait, then I just
start riffing out and it starts coming. And then after
I do one arrangement, he sends me a drum track
(15:28):
and I build one out. It's kind of like building
hot rods. I get out a role and the stuff
just comes pouring out, you know. And you know, kind
of the thing in the context of a whole album
is to not repeat yourself or repeat myself or the
band repeat itself within the album. There are things from
(15:50):
album to album where you can go, oh, that's an
awful lot, like that one, you know, fifteen years ago.
But that's just that's my nature, you know. I mean,
that's what I do. This is the sound I make.
So but on an album basis I try. The only
thing that I'm conscious of is not repeating something on
(16:10):
an album, you know, like you know, every song has
to be its own thing, stand on its own before
there's vocals, you know. So that's what Adam and I
do first, is we make these musical pieces that we
want to hear, and then we send it off to
the you know, the lyric you know, Harmony Melody Factory
(16:32):
with Phil and his buddy Mitch. So it's a real
process for us. It's a real set in stone process
the way that we do. We don't jam it out
like we used to. You know, we don't do anything.
You know, most of the time, by the time our
records come out, the band has never played any of
(16:53):
the songs as a band, you know. So it's like
Ace and Johnny they're the last to come in and play.
Well no, yeah, yeah, they're the last, and so they're
there right before we mix, and nobody hears anything until
after the mixes, and then everybody gets excited, like I
(17:16):
can't wait to you know, go rehearse or go play
this one or that one or the other one. And
everybody always has a different favorite, so you know, it
makes it kind of difficult to like, which one or
two songs will we add to the live set list
after doing you know, twenty studio records or whatever the number.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Is what she says, fifteen, but who's counting.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, I think there's fifteen original music studio albums. I
think this is the fifteenth one, right, so.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
You know that's what they say.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's what they say, I don't know.
I think we've we've had ten times more members than
albums something like that.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Well, you mentioned how you alluded to the way that
you used to do it. It's not like the way
you used to do it, So what was the way
that you used to put a song together? And you
consider that just the old school way or the wrong way.
So like young Tracys, you're okay.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
When when when when you're young? When I was young,
like you know, even with Guns N' Roses La Guns,
you know, and bands surrounding us and things, we had
lockout rehearsal halls and we rehearsed every day, every single day,
even weekends. That that you know, when you're in your
(18:40):
late teens early twenties and you're going to do this,
that's what you do. That's how you get it together,
that's how you grow quickly, that's how you come up
with songs and ideas and things like that. And with
La Guns, we did that all the way through really
(19:01):
our third through Hollywood Vampires and then Visious Circle was
a different kind of jammy thing, but that was just
the way that we did it. And then we did
it again on Man in the Moon and Waking the Dead,
and you know those are all great records as definitely
some pageantry to that. You know, there's some kind of
(19:23):
you know, makes it feel like, hey, you know, we
put in the work, we sweat, we yelled at each other,
you know, we got these songs, you know what I mean.
And then when I started, you know, really learning how
to engineer and make records on my own, around twenty eleven,
twenty twelve, I found it, you know, really being able
(19:48):
to create something without everybody's fucking opinion was much more focused,
much more direct, and less watered down because to me,
and I think a lot of times in country modern
country music, that's the bye by I get is that
too many writers, that's why this music sounds watered down.
(20:09):
To me, It's not one person's vision, you know. So
when an architect is doing the blueprints for a building,
yes there are other people involved, but it's the guy's
vision that's making that gorgeous building that's going to overlook
the water. The airplanes are going to see it, and
(20:29):
the birds are going to fly into it, and you
know all that crowd. So so since two thousand and
ten eleven, twenty twelve, I've been making the records. It's
much easier for me to create a whole thing then
ask for some constructive criticism, like say, hey, what do
you guys think is this missing? You want to add something?
(20:51):
You know, So it's still a group effort, but at
least I get to go in and do the bulk
of the of the creation first, you know, and with
my guys, they just respect it, you know what I mean.
The track record has shown in the past eight years
that we've stayed on the right track. And then you know,
(21:13):
Ace and Phil and Johnny they bring in their tunes
and then we carefully craft them together and so everything
is cohesive and it's fun that way. It's like it's
not like being in a stinky rehearsal room for you know,
six weeks, you know, getting frustrated and having things on
(21:35):
your mind that you want to you know, I got
to go outside and smoke ten cigarettes right now because
I just I can't be in this room anymore. So
that doesn't happen anymore, you know, And that's that's a
big upgrade.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
It seems like it's taken you know, it's taken a
long time, but finally you have the right formula to
how you want to make a record and the people
you want to be around. So yeah, it must be
like you said, you've never been happier make a record,
would you. I got to imagine that's part of it,
you know.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, yeah, Well, when things become fun, then you become
addicted to it, and then it's that's why we put
out so many records.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Sure, and fans are loving it, you know. I shout
out to one of my my journalist friends, Matt Wake
who writes for al dot com and a lot of
other great public publications like Spin and other, and he
praises you guys all the time. But how great your
last few records have been. And uh, according to these
first two singles, this new album will be up to par,
(22:31):
will be up to par with all your recent efforts.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Well, you know, I pay I paid Matt, I pay Matt,
and I pay Andrew Dally. Uh, you know, to be
my friend. Okay, I'm kidding, but.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Your VENMO hasn't come through yet, by the way, I'm
just kidding.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I'm sorry. I just got to sell one of these
pedals over here. I got you covered. Yeah, but uh,
those guys get the music sometimes before the other band
members do, you know, because they they're very critical thinkers.
They think with their emotions as far as rock and
(23:08):
roll guys. And so when when when Matthew gets excited,
like let's say I'm halfway through something and I hey,
what do you think of this? You know, and he
gets excited, then that pumps me up. Sure, So those
are like really some you know, allies within the journalistic
(23:28):
you know, part of what we do.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Well, that's good. I'm sure that those have been a
few and a few far in between in the last
few years, you know, last few decades, because not everybody
is out for you know, the artist's best interest. They
want to get cleansed. I try. I do my best
not to do that. So that's why I asked beforehand,
is there anything you don't want to talk about?
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Knowing that you know, Well, it's not so much the
journalists anymore. It's my my buddies at Blabbermouth. And I
love those guys, I really do. And you know, people
don't really know who they are, but they're very intelligent people.
And you know, a lot of times, like when they
will make a headline for me, I know exactly what
(24:11):
they're doing. And I and I sit here laughing my
ass off and I and I curse them at the
same time. Yeah, I understand fuckers. You know, it's kind
of like like like that kind of thing. But you know,
they're a business as well, right, you know, and the
tabloid business does not have to have uh so much
(24:34):
a sense of seriousness, you know what I mean, as
much as you know, you know, Elvis tripped over an
alien on his way to bodyboarding, you know, in the glacier,
you know what I mean, Like that's a headline, you know,
that's that's a tabloid thing. And Flabbermouth they provide the news,
(24:56):
but they also you know, they know where they're They're
bread is b uttered and you know, I just take
it all with a grain of assault. But yeah, I mean,
journalistic integrity still exists, but it's few and far in between.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I try to be some of the few because I
don't I cause I get it. Blabbermouth is usually the
one that so many people cite that like that, come
on here is as long as like everything's quoted correctly,
I don't ever freak out. And it's there's always interesting.
They are smart with their headlines because there are other
(25:34):
online magazines that are just really like they make you
think this other this person killed somebody, and it's just like,
oh they they really just slayd the crowd or it's
just like they make it. It's like almost like a lie,
a real clickbait, right.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
But the phenomenon, the phenomenon of blabbermouth is the comment section.
It always has to bring that up too, Yeah, is
there's so many people expose their anger there, you know,
which is a really strange phenomenon. Is it's like, you know,
(26:09):
like they'll post, uh something about the motels, let's say,
and you'll get you know, all these guys in there,
what the fuck does this have to do with you know,
a hard rock or you you know, you know, it's
like why are you so angry? Man?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Scroll?
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, like you know, so that's the thing. And you know,
I have no problem speaking on the internet, and a
lot of times I'll go on and let people know
in the comments like hey, take it easy, you know,
and then they then everybody does you know people you know,
they have the moment that you know, it's reaction versus response.
(26:46):
People on the internet tend to react right away without
really thinking about what they're writing, you know, rather than
sit in back take a breath to Okay, I'm going
to respond to this because it affected me in a way,
you know.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
But they don't do No, it's wanting. It's some sort
of accolades for saying, who like, you want just to
be cool because you don't know this band, or it's
like a whole comment section of Beavis and butt Head
characters where this sucks. That sucks all right, Sorry you
don't like Disturbed, Sorry they're not Slayer. It gets just
the you don't right right, right, crawling, you know, just
(27:21):
just funny things like that. So obviously I've it's been
a topic of discussion throughout my tenure doing this podcast
because guns and Roses. I can't help. I can't help.
But it's not like I set out to do it.
I'm just a nerd where I grew up there with
my favorite band, and I happen to be in radio
that all of a sudden, you know, all these sites
picking up because that everyone wants to say things fed
about axel or or whatever it is. So if you
(27:44):
don't mind, and and I've told you before and all
my listeners know, I'm not that kind of guy, but
I have genuine questions, like, here's probably one you've never
been asked for, and it might be the dumbest one.
Was there ever a thought where you would do roses
and guns? Did he ever want? Who's the first?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
No, because the the name of the band was originally
a five minute idea that we were going to just
keep recording together and our label would be called Guns
n' Rows. So that's that's the very origin of the name.
So there's some memory loss with me because when Duff
(28:26):
first joined the band, which was, you know, a couple
of months in after Oli Bike was the original bass player,
he was Michael Rose for a minute, you know, And
I can never remember if that's why we changed it
to Guns and Roses or if just magically we were
just like, oh, guns and Roses, that's a cool band.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
I can't remember, okay, because there were there would be
two Roses at that point, or or maybe.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
We did and when Duff was Duff Rose, it kind
of validated the idea. I can't remember. That was a
fucking a wild time ago, dude.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I know, and I'm sorry to do it to you
again because this is just too the day that we're
recording this so March twenty fourth. This is twenty twenty five,
So nineteen eighty five, forty years ago. Today, Guns and
Roses give their first ever interview to kp FK in
North Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
It was released thankfully because of ras Q, former guests
friend the show, you know, former first La Guns manager.
I believe and actually yeah, So according to raz Is,
he set up the interview Tracy's mom, your mom taped
it on cassette and Wow. Duff had literally joined the
band hours prior, but had to go home to sleep
(29:42):
for his nine to five job the next day.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
I don't know if you remember any of this. You
guys played think about early versions of Think About You,
Anything Goes and Don't Cry? Do you remember any of that?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
So we were playing live.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Yeah at this radio station.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Oh wow, Wow.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
No, I don't expect you to but.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Another day in the life, but I'd love to hear it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Well you can listen online and you know, yeah, because
it's a it's a long one if fans want to listen.
I have some of it on episode fifty where we
interviewed Rob Gardner, but the whole thing lives online. I
posted just a talk portion on my social media today.
So I was just curious. It just was interesting that
that happens to be today. I interviewed Tracy. So I
didn't expect you to remember anything of that, however.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
What you aside from the music, you know, were we talking,
were we saying anything?
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Yeah? Yeah, And he was doing a lot of the
talking ironically.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
You know, it's funny for such a quiet guy. So
much of the stuff that we would talk about before
and after rehearsal, he would be very vocal about, you know,
about our the way we present ourselves, you know, you know,
what influences do we mellow out on, what do we
(31:03):
bring in, you know, the cool factor of the band,
you know, like like is. He was always very concerned
about the cool factor, you know, and how do we
make our guitars sound different from one another? How do
we make our guitars look different from one another? And
you know, so for a long time, he played a
black class Paul, I played a cream last Paul. You know,
(31:24):
all those kind of things. Those were all thought out,
you know, those were all things and Izzy, you know,
who wasn't in the band at first, you know, I
called him after we decided to do this and said,
do you want to be in this band? And he
was like, yeah, I want to be in this band.
(31:45):
So he comes in and you know, Izzy and I
had already lived together for like a year and a half,
two years, and my mom's you know, well before we
decided to do this, and so we spent so much
time talking about you know, what's past, but what's vintage cool?
You know what what's timeless and stuff like that. So
(32:07):
it doesn't surprise me that in this very early interview
that that he would make sure that he was talking
about the vision like what we are. You know, I
got to hear this.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
That's oh, I'll send it to you. I probably back
in it again, remembering I'm lucky. I remember what I
had it for breakfast? You know, did I even eat
breakfast that I remember to eat breakfast all those Uh,
but just too to rewind because I think I tagged
you in it back in the day. But again, I
really would love you know, if you come back, I
would love for you to give your you know, your
(32:39):
breakdown of all of that. But a couple of things
I want to I hit on that you mentioned just
for historical reasons. You said you asked Izzie to be
in the band. So who was Guns and Rows first?
Was it you? Axel? And Duff like, who was who
was it first?
Speaker 1 (32:54):
No? No, no, no. So how it came to be
was we played with La Guns with Axel singing. We
did a show opening for London and uh, somebody from
London detooed all my guitars before we went on. And
I'm not naming names, and Axel can name names if
he wants. But Axel went lunatic, you know, once we
(33:18):
finally got out there. He tore up a London poster.
There's a picture of it. And so our manager, your
friend ras Q, on the way home fired accent from
La Guns like that's unprofessional. I can't deal with this.
So that was bullshit kind of thing. And you know,
Axel and I are looking at each other in the
car like what you know, what fuck are you talking about?
(33:39):
So we get home and we were sitting on this
couch is late like three in the morning, and uh,
you know, we were serious guys. You know, we were
funny guys, but we were serious guys. We were definitely
serious about our music. And we had just recorded an
EP that hadn't come out yet. So we're sitting there
(34:00):
and asked him goes, well, we can keep writing and
recording because we know how to do it. We know
how to do that now, you know. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
we can do We could do that certainly. And I go,
we can call the label guns and Rows and he goes,
he goes, yeah, that's easy, you know what I mean.
So that was guns and Rows, like that's how it started.
(34:24):
And I said, well, that's a great name for a band. Yeah,
he goes. I go, we could just change the name
of the band, you know. He goes, yeah, look that,
let's just do that. And I'm like okay, and I said,
you know, I bet Izzy quits London to day. You know,
I'm gonna call him in the morning and see if
he wants to be in the band. And he goes,
(34:44):
all right, you know, I called Izzy first thing in
the morning. You want to be in this new band?
And he's like yeah, you know. And so that was that.
So the original band was you know, La Guns it
was it was Rob Gardner and Holy Bike and uh
is he in me an Axel And we started rehearsing
(35:06):
right away and then we did you know, I stuck
around for I don't know, six eight months something like that.
And then, uh, the first guy to go was Rob.
You know, he got an ultimatum from his girlfriend Devin,
it's me or the band. He dumped the.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
Band and made the wrong choice.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
And then she dumped him. Yeah. It was like so stupid.
I can't even look him in the face to this day.
And then Holy, he decided I don't know I was
going on. Holy, I named my son after him.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
I want to talk about him specifically, because yeah, you
did name your son after him. We don't get I
don't get to talk about him enough. Please tell me
what kind of guy he was. He was Danish, right, No,
I mean I don't mean like that, like I mean
but but.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
But but when I say that, I mean he was stoic,
you know what I mean, and full of love inside
and full of insight and education because people from Denmark
are educated. They're musically educated, they're scholastically educated, they're healthy
and blah blah blah. So he came into my life
(36:12):
and joined La Guns originally, and he played with with
King Diamond a merciful faith you know, for a while
before he came over. He's ten years older than me.
He was a very much of a guiding kind of
big brother figure for me, you know, kind of navigating
in my early years, you know, like you know, pre
(36:34):
twenty years old kind of thing. And we were into metal,
you know what I mean. We were into metal, metal, metal, metal, metal.
And although that we were huge Aerosmith and led Zeppelin
and Johnny Thunders fans and all that stuff, Ollie and
I we met on metal. So you know, when it
(36:56):
turned into guns and roses, he felt that we were
what's the word, kind of pushing metal aside, okay, you know,
and all of a sudden just decided that, like, well
I don't want anything to do with the glam thing
or you know, anything like that. And he didn't even
(37:17):
tell me. He just didn't show up. He told Axel,
which really hurt my feelings, you know. And then I
was like what you know, and is he was very
you know, consoling with me. I was like, don't worry, man,
my neighbor, this guy, you know, Mike McKagan, he's so
cool and he'll come right in. Don't worry. Everybody's worried
(37:37):
because they knew he was my guy. He was like
only but only you know, he had gotten into drugs,
he had become friends with a couple of people that
are real shit fucking human beings and ultimately only killed himself.
You know, he killed himself. He he walked right into
these little shallow lakes in the center of copd Hagen.
(38:01):
And you know, nobody says it suicide, but he tried
to kill himself earlier by slitting his wrists, so you know,
he killed himself. He drowned himself, and it's the most
tragic story of a casualty of la guns and guns
(38:21):
and roses. And the same with Mike Jagos. You know,
he odeed on heroin mad and.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
You know West Arkeen is a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
West Rakeene. You know, these guys that were the passionate ones, right,
you know, that's the thing. Wes was one of the
passionate ones. Only was a passionate one. Mike Jegos was
a passionate one. But they had their own ideas and
they had their own whatever it is. You know, whatever
(38:50):
it is, it makes people that sad and that dark.
But anyways, back to the subject, Oli left and then
you know is he was right about Duff. You know,
he came in. I'll never forget the first time I
saw him. We were pulling into the alley of H
and H rehearsal and there was Duff. It was like
(39:13):
nine point thirty in the morning, and he's drinking a
big Foster's lagger can and like none of us really
drank at that point, you know, and we're in our
big white man and I'm like, is that him? You know?
He's like, yeah, yeah, don't worry about that, you know, like, okay, whatever,
go in. And he had a little amp and he
(39:33):
had a chorus pedal. I had never seen a bass
player play with a chorus pedal, and you know, he
had that white bass, same one he plays now. And
he started playing like this, like geddy lee shit, and
I was like, oh, hell yeah. I was like, ohh,
I love this guy. And he had a Johnny thundershirt
out at the same time, you know, playing I don't
(39:55):
remember what he was playing. But then we started playing
our tunes and he knew him all done his homework.
Izzy and I used to make cassette tapes of every rehearsal,
and I'll be really pissed at Izzy if he didn't
keep them. But but so Duff comes in nails it
right away, and we already had Adler. That was another
(40:17):
struggle because Axel really didn't want Adler in the band,
but he knew the stuff that was kind of derivative
of Hollywood Rose because Adler was in Hollywood Rose, so
got him in there. And immediately the swing change because
Adler has a very specific swing, and so that was
really good. And then Duff came in. It was really
good and we were all happy. And then that's really
(40:40):
when when when it started finding on our cylinders, you know,
and like the shows started getting packed out, and it
became a really good time for me for about seven
or eight months, and then that was that was done.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
And I know you've spoken about some of that before,
and believe me, I wish I could I could talk
to you for hours. I mean that, I'm I'm sure
that's something that a lot of interviewers have said to you,
because you're very conversational, you're very friendly, or you're funny,
and you just have all these great stories and you've
been part of so many different things. So I guess
within that before we wrap up, and I want to
wrap up with the of course, the new La Guns
(41:15):
record just with the legacy of of La Guns. I
know it would never happen just because of the rock
and Roll Hall of Fame is what it is. Yeah,
but would you would you say that La Guns and
like the Sunset Strip and what all that represents, really
deserves a place in what's called the rock and roll
Hall of Fame if it was a rock and roll
(41:37):
Hall of fame, or might like my overthinking it is
a useless argument. I mean, I think Fish is winning
the van vote over like Soundgardens, So I think I've
given up all hope.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, I mean that's a weird thing. You know, when
when G and I R went in, you know, I
got an invitation that I had to pay for, by
the way, I'm sure Al did and as you did too,
And we also said no man like you know, you know,
bands like us, musicians like us that were purely in
(42:12):
it to rile up the audience. You know, boards are fine.
I'll take my Gold Records and my band of the
gear guitarist in the ear. I love that stuff because it's
a good ego Strow. But to put any kind of
you know, legitimacy into the Ohio's rock and Roll Hall
(42:39):
of fame is anything other than just a beauty pageant,
you know what I mean. It's more of a place
for people to pay for their tables so they can
hear about their band getting inducted and then having all
(43:00):
out for a party. What's at the party? Part? I'm
all about? You know, I'm always up for a good party.
But but to place like you know, any kind of
it does not validate anybody's creativity or artistic value.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
I agree with that, and sorry because also, baby Brownstone,
I don't know. Now it's my turn to have background screeches.
You had the cats, and now I have my guy
waking up. So when you said you got an invited,
you would have had to paid for invitation. Would you
have been inducted with guns, roses or just too No?
Speaker 1 (43:33):
No, I don't think I would have been inducted with
the band.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
It was stuns.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Hey, little Brownstone.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Oh it's okay.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Look how sleepy you are?
Speaker 2 (43:48):
I know he's got his Kirklebain hair cut.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Looks so cool, mantle dude.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
He doesn't like where I wear headphones. He likes to
grab my ear Who I readjust my headset? I can
hear no word I can hear you. Yeah, uh so yeah,
I mean wait, so answer that again. Forgive me.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
This is okay?
Speaker 2 (44:09):
So you would not have been inducted with G and R.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Right, No, I don't think so. I just got an invitation,
and I'm sure other people did too, people involved with
Guns and Roses like you probably Yeah, like I don't know,
because did Gilby play?
Speaker 2 (44:27):
He played, but he wasn't of course, right.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Right, right right, But I mean I don't. I don't
need any Guns and Roses validation. I mean, my name's
right there, you know, like.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
Me with that, let me ask, with this year being
the fortieth anniversary that you started it, should you be
acknowledged somehow? I think you should.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
My name is right there now, Okay, Yeah, there's only
two guys name there, and I'm one of them.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Fair enough, fair enough, you.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Know I didn't look. I knew Guns n' Roses was
going to do something I had. There's no doubt in
my mind, you know. But I really believe that I
made the right decision for everybody, you know what I mean,
because it was you know, I remember, you know, I
(45:22):
grew up with slash right, and at that time when
when we were just starting to like really get that audience,
like it was really turning into something. Slash would come
and stand in the audience, you know, and he was
working I think at Tower Records, a Tower video or something,
(45:44):
and he's such a brilliant artist. You know, he made
our first love that I had already had my name
out there without guns and roses because of La Guns
for example, you know what already in the scene doing
my thing. I see my buddy, my rival, my buddy,
(46:06):
my rival, you know, on any given day, and you know,
when things went down and is he said, well, we're
just going to have you know, Slash go into you
that until you get your head out of your ass
whatever it was, you know, And I was like, yeah, exactly,
like this isn't this isn't a hard equation to figure out,
(46:28):
you know. And it lifted so much weight off my
shoulders because as you know, I leave my own bands.
Yeah you know what I mean. And then that bears
some like really strange perception for people that are looking
in like you know, what's wrong with this guy? You know,
why does he do these things? And it's because you know,
(46:49):
my well being comes first, you know, and I don't
I don't put you know, some artists, not just messicians,
but they they they measure their success by maybe money
or maybe by kind of like that way people want
(47:12):
to be validated on the internet, you know, it was like,
you know, fuck, look at all this, all these people
following me, you know whatever. Yeah, but for me, And
if you ask Izzy, if you asked Axel, if you
ask Slash, if you ask Duff, if you ask anybody
I've ever worked with, they would all say Tracy doesn't care,
you know. He just he wants to play the guitar.
(47:33):
He wants to write the music, and he wants to
do his thing. And if there ever becomes a time
in a working unit where I can't just do my thing,
I'm gone.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
You sound like Izsy? Do you sound like you sound
like Iusy?
Speaker 1 (47:49):
I is? He and I are so aligned with what
we think is not embarrassing, you know, and we all
do embarrassing things, but we really try hard not to.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
What was the last time you spoke to him?
Speaker 1 (48:05):
It's been a while now, you know, is he he
really he checks out way more than I do. Obviously, Yes,
it's been over twenty years now, because the last time
we talked was when there was some celebration of guns
and Roses at the Key Club, and I think that
(48:26):
was the last time I talked to Slash too. Slash
and I had a long one and Izzy and I
kind of laugh.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Look got more, don't worry.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
You want milk. I don't blame him, you know, do.
Speaker 2 (48:38):
You for Tracy Gunns? That's what he wants.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
I don't blame him for that either. But it was funny,
you know, because Izzy was with Henry and Joseph, these
guys that are retail flood, I think, the coolest DJs
in LA and they had been friends for twenty years
at that point. He was there with them, and then
Slash kind of showed up and I was hiding out
(49:01):
in the trailer in the back, and it came up
and we talked for about and you're just supposed to play,
you know, I ain't doing this shit, you know what
I mean. So that was kind of the last two
things I've heard from those two guys. And it's been
a long I don't remember how long ago that was.
It was a while ago.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
Well right on, you hope, Because I'm one of those
like I love members past and present. You all have
contributed to music that we love in one way or another,
and it's just one. It's a small family. That's how
I you know this podcast, I always do what I
call it a six degrees of gen r Bacon. Obviously,
obviously you can't get any closer than naming the band, right,
(49:38):
so I don't. I really didn't need that here, but
it's it's kind of always just to show, no matter
what differences we may have, what language, where we are
in the world, we can meet here to talk about
great music, and it kind of is all through that,
through guns and rose colored glasses. That's another one of
those really.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
Cool I like that. I like that. But you know,
the other night I decided consciously I'm not going to
write it book, okay, which was a been a real
back and forth thing, you know, from family members, band
members and the public, like you need to write a book.
You need to write a book. A book is only
(50:15):
interesting when you're telling horrible stories about people and things
that they've done. A feel good book doesn't sell. A
feel good book is what a great guy, you know,
and you know, we have this great experience. Nobody cares.
It's twenty twenty five and it takes a long time.
(50:37):
It would take a very long time for me to
write a book. But I have nothing bad to say
about anybody that I've worked with. I have lots of
horrible stories I could say, but I would never want
to hurt someone's feelings, you know, especially at our age.
(50:58):
What's the point, you know, I wouldn't want someone to
get angry with himself or angry with me. And I
think that there's enough out there already as time goes
on that if anybody's really interested, they can get to
all the meat, you know what I mean, without me
(51:20):
going and sitting in a fucking books. You know, they
come to my book sign it's like, like, really, Tracy
Guns but a little brown.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
He wants he knows how to do sign language more.
He's like, no, I want more, Tracy more.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
What you gonna do?
Speaker 2 (51:39):
Can you say, La Guns?
Speaker 1 (51:42):
What?
Speaker 2 (51:43):
Because we'll wrap up soon. We I'm so lucky that
the fact that he slept through most of this great.
But what you just as a suggestion, because my next
interview is going to be with Alan Niven.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Oh oh, I love Alan.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
He's I'm lucky enough to call him a friend. Yeah,
he's putting out a book and it's gonna be a
collection of stories rather than an autobiography. So that's something
that perhaps you can do. And just like what you're
doing with La guns Now in Leopard Skin, which is
out April fourth, is that do it the way you
want to do it, don't think about the fans, and
(52:17):
just however it comes out all positive, whatever it is,
it's your book, and if it shouldn't matter based upon
what you're personally, it shouldn't matter if it sells or not.
It's gonna make you happy.
Speaker 3 (52:29):
But I don't want to put the work into it.
That's that's what it's kind of come down to. And
that's what I would do, is exactly what out is.
It would be a collection of stories based on people.
You know what I mean, this person, this person, this person,
this person. At the end of the day, and rich Deanstock,
you know who's written everything else.
Speaker 1 (52:48):
Cool the podcast. Yeah. Yeah, he's one of my best
friends and he wants to do it, and he's wanted
to do it, but I just ain't I gonna do it, Okay,
all right, I'm gonna write more music instead.
Speaker 2 (52:59):
I want to twist your He just keep doing more
podcasts and I'll be happy.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Yeah, I think We're going to start l A Gun's podcast.
I'm going to look at an outline in my email
and I'll keep you posted on that and it will
be very interactive with the band.
Speaker 2 (53:17):
But I'll let you know if you need a producer,
let me know. If someone edits some audio, I'll help
you out. Let me know.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Hey, right on, man, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
He's got his ritz crackers. He will be my co
host one of these days. Can you say, Tracy, say Tracy,
Tracy with mouth? Well, he can't say cat show. Can
you show me your cat? Maybe he'll recognize it. That
(53:46):
might be a look at the cat?
Speaker 1 (53:51):
Look at the cat.
Speaker 2 (53:53):
Isn't that cute? I think he's still waking up he
sees it. This will be the cover of the episode,
by the way, Kat and so well, anyway, Tracy, thank
you so much for your time today. A long time coming.
(54:13):
This is it was meant to happen today and have
this conversation. Just thanks for talking about New La Guns
and talk about OLA. You know, I talk about mental
wealth and addiction. And I lost my dad to suicide
eleven years ago, and it's you know, so we just
moving forward and just try to talk about the positive things.
A lot of negative things we can't talk about, and
(54:34):
let's focus on the positive. So that's what I'll we'll
keep doing. So that does it for this episode of
Appetite for Distortion. When we 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.
(54:55):
Thanks to the lame ass security, I'm going home.
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