Rock News
VIDEO: Axl Rose Gives 3 Reasons Why Guns 'N' Roses Were Always Late Post by: Chris E Leigh 14 November, 2011 - 2:12 PM
(Video Source: That Metal Show - MTV)
Guns 'n' Roses singer Axl Rose is famously late. In delivering albums. In arriving onstage. There's not much about lateness that doesn't have a corresponding Axl Rose joke.
Apparently, there were three simple reasons Guns 'n' Roses' 'Use Your Illusion' tour was so late it caused endless drama.
Axl revealed all three reasons on Eddie Trunk's That Metal Show, marking his first TV interview in five years.
"A lot of this goes way, way back to 1991, when we were super-late going on stage," Axl explained of his band's ridiculously late starts to their concerts.
That really more had to do with [the fact that] I should not have been on tour," Axl told That Metal Show's Eddie Trunk.
"I only went on tour for three reasons," Axl explained. As follows:
1. Management booked it. I didn't want to do it.
"My manager had booked a tour without authorisation. He just booked a tour. [If I left] I'm going to be sued for it," Axl said.
1. Slash might have died of a heroin overdose if we went off tour.
"[My manager] was also telling me if Slash dies from heroin, it's my fault." Apparently, back in the early 90's, most sleaze rock bands were at risk of over-indulging in drugs if they came off the road. They needed the challenges of touring to keep them at least conscious.
3. Slash forced him into touring.
"Slash pushing me" was Axl's other reason he just couldn't get onstage until the fans had been waiting for (quite literally) hours. By this stage, relations between the founding bandmates had disintegrated significantly.
Apparently, what eventually changed their onstage times from massively late to reasonably late, was Axl Rose's own concern for their production crew (according to the singer himself, it had absolutely nothing to do with the fans).
"The only thing that started cutting down the late times was when I realised it was really being hard on the crew," Axl told That Metal Show.
"The band didnt care about me, so my head wasn't about them," he scoffed.
"The public was a different kind of violent crowd,where they wanted you to succeed or tear you apart," he continued, referring to the infamous St. Louis riot.
"The crew [who was really supportive of me] ... they weren't getting enough sleep," Axl added. And that single reason was apparently enough to stop him keeping everyone waiting.
What do you think? Good enough excuse (20 years later)?
