Dość ciekawy,myślę,że warty przeczytania i przemyślenia artykuł o rozpadzie Gn'R.
Niestety po angielsku,ale może ktos przetłumaczy w wolnej chwili,bo myślę,że naprawdę warto
In Depth: Why Did They Split Up?
October, 2006
The GnR Info Page
By Jan
This was originally written a few years back, so I hope you can read it with that in mind. I have rewritten parts of it but I've left most of it the way it was. The intro may leave a print of a time we've left, since it talks about a reunion and so. Maybe that isn't always what people want today, but to a much greater degree it was back then.
Having said that, I also want to add that I have gotten complaints from people who claim I make this up. Well, the last time I checked, I make no money on this so why cheat? But I have followed up one of the complaints from these people, and that is to add more quotes. Maybe I could add more, but I think I'm done. Maybe I will write a follow-up about the new members, though.
Lots of people wonder why Guns n' Roses split up. Axl and Slash seemed like such a tight unit, but something obviously went wrong... When the former members are interviewed, they are often asked the question whether or not 'there will be a Guns N' Roses reunion?'. The answers are always something like 'No' or 'I don't know', but they also give a small bit of hope for the old Guns n' Roses fans who would die to see and hear the original Guns n' Roses line-up again. In some way, it is impossible to talk to the guys without asking the question everybody wants to know. Some may not get it out, and some may ask it and still be quite blank on the issue. But one thing is certain - just like Winona Ryder "always" will be asked if "they are real?", people will always wonder Slash will ever stand on the same stage as Axl again. If you're here looking for a complete answer, you got to the wrong place. Slash doesn't know, neither does the others, so I can't tell either.
However, I will try my best to give you my view of why they broke up. Some of you may disagree with what I write, but it's all based on quotes, and I try to make it as objective as possible. This does include bringing the story of the leaving members, as well as the story of the "established", by which I mean whatever was remaining of the band at the time. The last task is at times hard, since especially Axl has not spoken much. Still, by using the rational assumption model, assuming that Axl is a rational actor, I will try to build up reasons for why he did what he did.
Before I start, I need to say that I don't want a reunion right now, I do think Izzy leaving was the start of the end for that line-up, and I also think Axl was right at not accepting Slash' material for the follow up to "Use Your Illusion". I still hope this little article stays objective though.
STEVEN ADLER - Drums (1985-1990)
Reason: Fired
The Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler was the first member to leave the band.
Adler did not want to leave the band, but he was forced to, because the other members fired him. Axl was the last one to agree that they had to fire Steven, because he didn't have to deal with him as much as the others when they were making music. The band version was that they had made an agreement with Steven, which said that if he didn't stop taking drugs, he would be out of the band. Steven claims drugs wasn't the reason he got fired: "They said the reason they threw me out of the band was because of drugs, but I thought that was the pot calling the kettle black. I was doing drugs with them. It hurt more than anything. They were my family."
Slash has claimed that they did somewhere around 70 drum takes of "Civil War" before they got it right, and that Steven slowed down the process. But, one question that shows up is, since they played "Civil War" with Steven live, could there be another reason why he got fired? It is impossible to answer this question, but there has been some speculations about Steven raping and almost killing Axl's ex-wife, Erin Everly, and that it was the real reason. This is the story according to Andy McCoy from Hanoi Rocks, but it may not be the truth. Axl has said that they didn't record the Hanoi Rocks song "Beer and a Cigarette" for "The Spaghetti Incident" because he didn't want Andy McCoy to earn money because of them covering a song he wrote. Steven also talked about McCoy in negative terms. Whether or not Andy McCoy is lying is the only question on this page that I won't try to answer.
IZZY STRADLIN - Guitar (1985-1991)
Reason: Left the band
The 2nd original member to leave Guns N' Roses, was Izzy Stradlin. Why Izzy left is hard to sum up, but I will give it a try. First, I think we have to go back to the early and mid 80s to find out Izzy's intentions with the band. Izzy played in a lot more raw rock n' roll bands back in the club years. With rawer, I mean a lot rawer than the "Appetite" sound. Izzy was a big fan of Ramones, Johnny Thunders and the NY Dolls and for those of you who know that sound, you'll know what I mean with "rawer". Everyone else - check them out! According to Tracii Guns', Izzy was the silent controller of the band back when they first started. Izzy wrote a lot of the band's material and silently dictated the band's direction, while Axl was more in the background. This stayed intact until "Appetite For Destruction" was released; Izzy had influence on the sound (he wrote around 35-40% of the album), and he was talked to about decisions. It's also clear that Izzy liked how "Appetite" sounded "back then". However, Izzy disliked the Marshall sound Slash brought with him on the "Illusions" records. He didn't like that he wasn't playing much on the album. Still, Izzy said he only spent two weeks recording his stuff on the album, and the rest spent around a year. Then it's logical to ask if he even had the right to not be satisfied when he didn't involve himself more in the project.
You may now wonder why Izzy didn't involve himself. This takes us back to 1989, when Izzy stopped drinking and doing drugs. Back then, "music was still uniting us. Slash, Steven, Duff and I were living very close to each others and we were playing a lot". Izzy thought about leaving the band in 1989, but he eventually decided to stay, even though he was clean and the others weren't, he still wanted to try to keep it going.
After the first leg of the "Use Your Illusion" tour, Axl offered Izzy a contract: "Axl wanted to make me sign a contract which meant that I was less involved and less paid. I couldn't believe it. This contract was coming from someone I grew up with for fuck's sake. We always considered GnR as a best friend band, and now Axl was telling me: 'now we are doing business.' Why should I carry on? Where was the fun? That was the last drop." Some people may dislike the fact that Axl made that contract, and blame him solely for Izzy leaving. But it's still true that Izzy didn't involve himself. Did he deserve the same amount money as everyone else? The others had to make him work on his own songs, and according to Axl, that wasn't the easiest thing to do. A question many fail to ask is what Slash and Duff thought about this. Were they really negative about giving Izzy this contract, or is it just a coincidence that they have never really spoken about this?
It is clear that Izzy was tired of the direction the band took. He wanted to play different music than what ended up on "Use Your Illusions" and he disliked Dizzy and what he brought with him: "Dizzy plays great, that's not the problem, but that's not rock n' roll..."; Izzy was tired of not having anything to say in the band anymore: "In the early days I had some sort of balancing factor in the band, and we'd discuss things. But towards the end, I was less and less spoken to about decisions. I never really knew what was happening. I just felt like my opinions were no longer considered valid". Izzy was tired of the fact that Axl didn't want to go on stage on time: "The one thing I wanted to see was the gigs running on time. And whoever was responsible for being late should have been prepared to pay the late charges to the union guys. It's ugly that it comes down to money, but we fucked away hundreds of thousands of dollars over these late gigs. I didn't think it was fair for the band to keep turning up late. People have got jobs to go back to in the morning, they have families and kids, they've got to get babysitters, and I just figured, 'Shit', these people are shelling out money for tickets, and we should be on time. If the monitors are fucked, too fucking bad. We should just roll with it and try to get them working".
Izzy was tired of the band, because he wasn't sure if the crowd could hear his guitar parts when they played live. He couldn't hear his guitar parts on the "Use Your Illusion" records either: "On the last record I wasn't around for the mixes, and when they finished them you really don't hear my guitar at all. It was just a big Les Paul through a Marshall sound on most of the songs. Live, it got to the point where I didn't even know if the audience could hear my guitar."
For Izzy, quitting drugs and drinking probably made the biggest effect on him: "Once I quit drugs, I couldn't help looking around and asking myself, 'Is this all there is?' I was just tired of it; I needed to get out. I wasn't happy anymore - so I told myself, all right let's do something different!" And he did.
Slash commented Izzy leaving with these words: "He didn't want to do the amount of work that Guns N' Roses has to do to keep it together. He didn't want to do videos or spend all those hours in the studio, and slowly but surely he started to drop out. I love the guy dearly, so I don't want to belittle his character by saying anything about him. But he just got sick and tired of dealing with everything."
GILBY CLARKE - Guitar (1991-1993)
Reason: Finished his contract with the band.
As replacements for Steven and Izzy, Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarke were brought in. Dizzy Reed, who already has been mentioned, was also brought in to play keyboards. Nothing indicates that Duff, Slash or Axl had any problems with neither Matt, Dizzy nor Gilby. However, the problems started when the band had released "The Spaghetti Incident". After a break, Slash, Gilby and Matt started working together on material for the next album. As Axl rejected the material, the three of them formed their own project called Slash's Snakepit, based on "stuff that we have put together for the next GN'R record". This indicated there was a split in the GnR camp: "Duff and Axl [had] an idea what the album should be, and the rest of us have another idea," Gilby said. Gilby, who thought he would be going back to GnR, later found out they had already replaced him. "I didn't quit and I wasn't fired, I just came back from my tour and found that they made a record without me". Axl felt that he needed someone else who could write better than Gilby, and the choice fell on Paul Tobias.
SLASH - Guitar (1985-1995)
Reason: Left the band
In 1994, after Gilby was fired from the band, Slash wanted to make the band gear up again, and he got the others into making a cover of the Rolling Stones song "Sympathy For The Devil" for the "Interview With The Vampire" movie: "It was my vehicle to help get the band into one room". Hoping for success does however not guarantee it, as Slash realised when he couldn't get the band in one room at the same time: "Who shows up? It's Duff and Matt and me who do the whole track, then Axl did the other bit by himself a week later. That wasn't my idea of something that we should've released". After the release, Slash also found out Paul Tobias was on the song, which he disliked: "There's this "answer" guitar going on during my guitar solo! It's Paul Huge! I will probably never forgive Axl for that. But we talked about it. We made a deal that if Paul ever plays on anything, then I should at least be told first, because it really took me off guard. I wasn't there when he did it. Axl likes the song. I haven't listened to it since it was mixed. It's not like it was lousy guitar playing or anything; I think it's how it went down. If people like it, then fine. I haven't gone to see the movie again because I don't think I could bear it."
Again, Slash tried to make things happen, and he came in with some songs he wrote, but Axl refused to use those. "I built a studio in my house and started writing songs". He originally wanted the songs to be on a new Guns N' Roses record: "No one seemed to be interested in the material. Axl said, 'That's not the kind of music I want to do.' I said, 'OK,' and took it all back. We've had that happen too many times in Guns, when certain songs just didn't make it, and they would have been killer. I didn't want to lose any more material." The songs later turned out on Slash's Snakepit's debut "It's Five O' Clock Somewhere". Matt has later said that Axl hated Snakepit's first album.
The loss of Izzy must've bothered Axl for a long time after he left, and especially at this time, I believe it was something Axl thought about a lot. The songs Slash had written were not good enough, and there wasn't really anyone to contribute with music like Izzy had done. Paul Tobias didn't get along with Slash, and Duff didn't like the fact that Axl had just brought him in. After a year with nothing happening, Slash left the band. This was in 1995 (though he wasn't formally out before the next year).
MATT SORUM - Drums (1990-1996)
Reason: Fired
The next member to leave GnR, was Matt. Matt disagreed with Axl on several things, and according to Axl, Matt forced him to fire him. Matt said he had introduced Axl to Robin Finck, and he said to Axl that Robin would be great alongside Slash, to which Axl (according to Matt) responded "No, he would be a great replacement for Slash". Matt's relationship with Slash seems to have been a strong one, since Slash was the person who brought Matt into GnR. Obviously, Matt didn't like that Axl counted Slash out.
Matt didn't like Paul Tobias either: "Paul [Tobias] walked into the studio and made a bad comment about Slash. I said, 'You don't say that when I'm in the room.' Then Axl laid in, I argued with him and it was over. Huge followed me out into the parking lot and said, 'Come back.' I said, 'I can't come back, he's fired me. Do you feel good about breaking up one of the greatest bands that ever lived?'"
It seems like the tension between Matt and Paul had gotten so bad at this point, that one of them had to leave. They did not get along, and as Axl had to choose, the choice fell on Matt, probably because Axl considered Tobias to be a more important member of the band.
DUFF McKAGAN - Bass (1985-1997)
Reason: Left the band
With Matt fired, 50% of the Use Your Illusion line-up was gone. Duff was the next to leave. Duff had stayed loyal to Axl and he was on Axl's side when Slash, Gilby and Matt wrote the Snakepit album as GnR. Duff had different visions for GnR than they had, but he also had an "enjoyment"-factor he needed to satisfy.
"They wanted to keep me in the band, they were depending on me," Duff recalls. Duff was promised large sums of money, but he decided to leave the band: "I was offered a lot of money to stay in Guns N' Roses, and I was very honored by that. I thought, 'Wait a minute. I have a house, I've got a car. More than that, I never did this for the money in the first place, so why would I start now?'. "I went to dinner with Axl and his manager. I said 'Axl, we had very fun together, but it's your own band now. I'm not interested in you as a dictator. Enough is enough. This band is a dictatorship and I don’t see myself playing in those conditions. I didn't come here to talk about the money advanced for next record. You can have it. Find someone else.'" "He brought a guy and said 'He is our new guitar player.' I said 'What a fuck?' That's not right. That's same thing I bring a guy and say 'He is a new member.' There was no democracy." Duff also thought the band wasn't Guns n' Roses anymore: "I didn't want to stay there, cause that's not Gn'R any more. There were only three guys left. What they want us to do? Me and Axl release the album as Gn'R?" After Duff left, Axl hired Tommy Stinson to replace Duff. Duff concluded: "I hope Axl won’t feel like I let him down. I was just honest".
Two weeks after Duff left - in the summer of 1997 - he finally became a father as his daughter Grace was born. This also was important to his decision to leave the band.
Final Words
Lots of people blame Axl for the break up of the old band, and to say that he had no part in this would be naive. It's the same as blaming only the other part for a failed marriage. The year you split up, maybe you do, but over time you learn. At the end of the day, the reason Axl did what he did seems to have been musical differences. Others could say it was personal, but does that make sense? Did he hate Matt? Did he hate friends he had for years? If you ask me, the answer is that it's unlikely. And thus I feel it's hard to see him having any other reason than music.
Slash is among those who has always blamed Axl for what happened. Axl on the other hand blamed Slash: "Slash told me, 'I don't want to work that hard'". This seems unfair and oversimplified by Axl: Slash did indeed work hard enough to get two Snakepit albums out, and he toured with both Snakepit and Slash's Blues Ball. On top of that, Slash guested nearly every musician recording music over the years. Slash was also the one who pushed to get the band back in studio and one who took initiative. Still, what he did did not at all satisfy Axl, and then the options were to comprise or change. We all know they did not (and could not) compromise.
Since Axl has gotten relatively few words during this essay, I feel it's OK to let him close it with some of the premise of the essay: "The reality is, go buy those guys' solo records. There are neat ideas and parts there, but they wouldn't have worked for a Guns N' Roses records".
Ankieta