Latest / DISGRACELAND / Guns N’ Roses Pt. 2: Real life Rocket Queen, Raging Press, Recovered Memories, and the Riverport Riot

Transcript

Guns N’ Roses Pt. 2: Real life Rocket Queen, Raging Press, Recovered Memories, and the Riverport Riot · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.
0:17
Speaker 2: The story of Axel Rose and his band Guns N' Roses,
0:21
Speaker 2: their immense success and destructiveness is so wild and intense
0:25
Speaker 2: that two episodes were needed to properly tell this story.
0:29
Speaker 2: If you're just getting hip to this now, I suggest
0:32
Speaker 2: you hit pause and go back to Disgraceland Episode forty nine,
0:35
Speaker 2: Part one of the Guns N' Roses story, where we
0:38
Speaker 2: discuss Axel Rose's upbringing, the origins of the band, and
0:41
Speaker 2: the influence the city of Los Angeles had on their music,
0:45
Speaker 2: as well as the tragic events at the Donnington Monsters
0:48
Speaker 2: of Rock festival in nineteen eighty eight. In this episode,
0:52
Speaker 2: we dive deeper into the band's inner dynamics, Axel's state
0:55
Speaker 2: of mind and highly antagonistic relationship with the press, and
0:59
Speaker 2: of course, more of the band's great music. That music
1:04
Speaker 2: I played you at the top of the show. That
1:06
Speaker 2: wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my
1:09
Speaker 2: melotron called Mellow Stuffed Shirts MK.
1:13
Speaker 3: One.
1:14
Speaker 2: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
1:16
Speaker 2: rights to Rush Rush by Paula Abdul, And why would
1:20
Speaker 2: I play you that specific slice of former La Laker
1:23
Speaker 2: Cheerleader Cheese, Could I afford it? Because that was the
1:28
Speaker 2: number one song in America on July second, nineteen ninety one,
1:32
Speaker 2: and that was the day Guns N' Roses took the
1:34
Speaker 2: stage at the Riverport Theater in Saint Louis, Missouri, and
1:38
Speaker 2: all hell broke loose. On this our fiftieth episode, Cheerleader, Cheese,
1:45
Speaker 2: Rocket Queens Recovered Memories and Guns n' Roses.
1:49
Speaker 4: I'm Jake Brennan.
1:50
Speaker 3: In this this disgraceland.
2:16
Speaker 2: Neither girl was doing it for Axel. It was hot, sure,
2:20
Speaker 2: for a seventeen year old who couldn't get laid, maybe,
2:22
Speaker 2: but for anyone who knew anything about sex, it was
2:25
Speaker 2: kind of a lame. These girls sounded like they were
2:28
Speaker 2: faking it, forcing it for the microphones, and they were
2:31
Speaker 2: having sex with Axel on the floor, both at different times.
2:35
Speaker 2: He was doing his best, but he was in his
2:37
Speaker 2: head distracted too, concerned with getting a good take and
2:41
Speaker 2: giving a good lay. The microphones must have distracted the
2:45
Speaker 2: girls too. Axel didn't really know. He just wanted them
2:48
Speaker 2: to be natural, to do what they would normally do.
2:51
Speaker 2: But it was a lot to ask of anyone, and
2:54
Speaker 2: a lot to ask for everyone who was in the
2:56
Speaker 2: studio with him while he tried recording a real life
2:58
Speaker 2: female orgasm ministered by him for the benefit of the
3:02
Speaker 2: Guns and Roses song Rocket Queen that his band was
3:05
Speaker 2: recording for their debut album. Too many oh yeah babies
3:11
Speaker 2: and forced breathiness, too many quizical squeals and ill placed moans.
3:16
Speaker 2: Axel didn't want this to sound like a cheesy Corno
3:18
Speaker 2: flick or worse, like something out of a goddamn Zucker
3:21
Speaker 2: Brothers movie.
3:22
Speaker 4: He wanted it to sound real hard like his band.
3:26
Speaker 2: But Axel couldn't blame the girls, and they were giving
3:29
Speaker 2: it the old Sunset try. But sex is sometimes messy.
3:33
Speaker 2: It's physical, and given the circumstance demanding, the mics were
3:37
Speaker 2: constantly being bumped into carefully placed by the studio engineer
3:42
Speaker 2: to perfectly capture the sound act, so wanted every time
3:45
Speaker 2: the mics were disturbed the engineer to come back into
3:48
Speaker 2: the live room in the middle of the sex act
3:50
Speaker 2: to readjust the mics nothing to see here, keep doing
3:53
Speaker 2: what you're doing. I'm just gonna yep, that's it right
3:56
Speaker 2: right there. Okay, I'll set get back to it, and
3:59
Speaker 2: i'llah yeah, I'm just gonna head back in there. The
4:03
Speaker 2: engineer would then head back into the control room, where
4:06
Speaker 2: various bandmates with rolling eyes and snickering cocaine tongues would
4:09
Speaker 2: do their best to keep it in their pants. It's
4:12
Speaker 2: not like the girls were oblivious to what was going on.
4:15
Speaker 2: The candles in the dimly lit studio couldn't hide the
4:18
Speaker 2: awkwardness of the situation, and the interruptions from the engineer
4:22
Speaker 2: happened continuously, and as a result, the rhythm was busted
4:24
Speaker 2: up constantly, and as anyone who was experienced with sex
4:28
Speaker 2: can tell you, rhythm is the key to good sex.
4:31
Speaker 2: And Axel wasn't just going for good sex. He was
4:34
Speaker 2: going for great sex. It needed to sound authentic and
4:37
Speaker 2: it wasn't, and he was getting pissed. He needed a
4:41
Speaker 2: pro not a prostitute, but a professional. A girl who
4:45
Speaker 2: was dialed in turned up sex minded nearly one hundred
4:48
Speaker 2: percent of the time, the type of girl who walked
4:51
Speaker 2: in a room and you just got the vibe immediately.
4:54
Speaker 2: To Axel, these girls were rare. Most groupies acted like
4:57
Speaker 2: they wanted sex, and sure some most definitely did, but
5:01
Speaker 2: what most wanted was to just get up close to
5:03
Speaker 2: the rock star gods see what they were all about,
5:06
Speaker 2: coax their personalities out through their vulnerabilities, and wormed their
5:10
Speaker 2: way into some sort of relationship via their own natural
5:13
Speaker 2: maternal instincts. And before you knew it, if the group
5:16
Speaker 2: he was lucky and any good, she'd be dating her
5:19
Speaker 2: rock god, and then who knew what could happen? Her
5:22
Speaker 2: whole world would open up. Sex was just the price
5:25
Speaker 2: of admission. Axel wasn't looking for this type of girl.
5:29
Speaker 2: He was looking for that rare woman, the kind with
5:31
Speaker 2: the torturous libido, The kind that thought about basically one
5:34
Speaker 2: thing in any social situation, which guy.
5:37
Speaker 4: Am I gonna fuck?
5:40
Speaker 2: The kind that didn't care about your feelings or hers
5:42
Speaker 2: for that matter, The kind of girl who exuded sex,
5:45
Speaker 2: and not just because of her looks. With this type
5:48
Speaker 2: of girl, the attraction was different, less physical, more chemical, scientific.
5:53
Speaker 2: Wherever she went, she exploded into the room, and her presence,
5:56
Speaker 2: her pheromones, set off tiny little explosions in the mind.
6:00
Speaker 2: Whichever men were lucky enough to be around her. What
6:03
Speaker 2: in the hell they imagined would sex? Would this woman
6:06
Speaker 2: be like? This type of girl's vibe, her essence was
6:10
Speaker 2: that combustible explosive like a rocket, drawing everyone in like
6:15
Speaker 2: a queen, Like a rocket Queen, Axel knew just the girl.
6:22
Speaker 2: Only problem was she was dating one of his best
6:24
Speaker 2: friends and the drummer in his band, Steven Adler. She
6:28
Speaker 2: was a nineteen year old stripper who went by the
6:30
Speaker 2: name Adriana. Who knew if that was her real name?
6:33
Speaker 2: Did it matter? No, All that mattered was that she
6:36
Speaker 2: was pissed at her want to be rock star. A boyfriend,
6:38
Speaker 2: Steven Adler was dipping his little vic firth and whatever
6:41
Speaker 2: horror he could get his hands on around the strip.
6:44
Speaker 2: So when Axel laid it on her, what he wanted
6:46
Speaker 2: to do have sex with her in the studio and
6:48
Speaker 2: record the act of overdub onto a song that Stephen
6:51
Speaker 2: was actually playing drums on. Adrianna jumped at the chance.
6:55
Speaker 2: Revenge is a dish best served hot and in front
6:58
Speaker 2: of a live studio audience.
6:59
Speaker 4: With the tape.
7:02
Speaker 2: Axel's inclination was correct, and the results speak for themselves.
7:06
Speaker 2: The song Rocket Queen is one of their best recorded tracks,
7:10
Speaker 2: and the recorded sex act in the middle does indeed
7:13
Speaker 2: sound authentic. Almost as important, the rumors about the recording
7:17
Speaker 2: session spread like wildfire, and the infamous reputation of the
7:20
Speaker 2: band spread even further. People in the industry and the
7:24
Speaker 2: Sunset Strip metal scene took note. This wasn't a band
7:27
Speaker 2: of opposers. These guys were the real deal, and their
7:30
Speaker 2: singer was fucking crazy. And there were other rumors too,
7:35
Speaker 2: mainly involving Heroin. The band were savage junkies and they
7:39
Speaker 2: were going to be lucky to live to see the
7:41
Speaker 2: release of their debut album, or so on the thinking.
7:44
Speaker 2: And if Heroin didn't kill them, then AIDS would. Words
7:48
Speaker 2: started spreading that Slash, the band's guitarist, was openly worrying
7:52
Speaker 2: to anyone who would listen about a coming La metal
7:55
Speaker 2: scene AIDS epidemic and if he or David Lee Roth
7:58
Speaker 2: or Gene Simmons caught the dead at the time HIV virus,
8:02
Speaker 2: that it would be an instant death sentence for him,
8:04
Speaker 2: his band, in the entire Los Angeles heavy metal community,
8:08
Speaker 2: with or without dangerous sex, the band was doing their
8:11
Speaker 2: best to make truth of the death rumors. Bassis stuff.
8:15
Speaker 2: McKagan was drowning himself in Vodga, stuffing himself with pills,
8:19
Speaker 2: and there simply weren't enough of either to satiate his appetite.
8:22
Speaker 2: Same goes for heroin and Steven Adler. He was consumed
8:26
Speaker 2: by the drug and rendered incompetent as a drummer on
8:28
Speaker 2: numerous occasions. The fact that he had other assets, like
8:31
Speaker 2: his electric nice guy Eddi personality likely kept him in
8:34
Speaker 2: the band despite his terrible addiction. Heroin was just as
8:38
Speaker 2: gripping on other members of the band as well. Axel
8:42
Speaker 2: did his time with the drug, but got hip quick
8:44
Speaker 2: and quit. Slash was another story. While recording their first album,
8:49
Speaker 2: he was so blitzed on smack that during a photo shoot,
8:52
Speaker 2: the photographer needed to dispatch an intern to crouch behind
8:56
Speaker 2: Slash in order to hold him up like a life
8:58
Speaker 2: sized rock and roll muppet, just so he could stand
9:01
Speaker 2: long enough to have his picture taken. Slash was also
9:05
Speaker 2: found one morning literally passed out in the gutter on
9:07
Speaker 2: Hollywood Boulevard, sleeping off a dope bingch He'd overdosed once
9:12
Speaker 2: already and was quickly brought back to life, but still
9:15
Speaker 2: rumors spread that the guitarists of the most promising band
9:18
Speaker 2: on the strip had died of a heroin overdose. It
9:22
Speaker 2: was a surprise to pretty much nobody. Heroin and Guns N'
9:25
Speaker 2: Roses went hand in hand, and it was in large
9:28
Speaker 2: part because of the band's other guitarist, is He Stradlin.
9:32
Speaker 2: It's hard to see it now, just how cool is he?
9:35
Speaker 2: Strablin was sure. You see him in the videos and
9:38
Speaker 2: in the pictures, and he looks cool enough, but next
9:41
Speaker 2: to Slash and Axel, he definitely reads supporting role.
9:45
Speaker 4: But that's just image.
9:46
Speaker 2: Talking to those who knew the band back then and
9:51
Speaker 2: who knew and came in contact with Eazy Stradlin, there
9:54
Speaker 2: was no doubt about it. He was the coolest dude
9:56
Speaker 2: they'd ever met. Nowadays, we throw around the word influencer
10:01
Speaker 2: like it actually means anything real aside from ad dollars. Today,
10:05
Speaker 2: all an influencer is is someone who can best represent
10:08
Speaker 2: a highly curated, stylized, and staged version of themselves online.
10:13
Speaker 2: Their authenticity is heralded as an attribute, which is ironic
10:17
Speaker 2: because digital life is so often disconnected from one's authentic life.
10:21
Speaker 2: Social media influencers are highly selective in determining what parts
10:25
Speaker 2: of their lives they let the public in on, and
10:27
Speaker 2: if they can calibrate their content correctly, the result for
10:31
Speaker 2: them is a massive following in voila influence. Because of
10:35
Speaker 2: the nature of how an influencer becomes an influencer, it
10:39
Speaker 2: is therefore impossible for an influencer to not care, which
10:42
Speaker 2: is also ironic given that the very essence of cool
10:46
Speaker 2: is to not care. And back in the pre Internet
10:49
Speaker 2: days of rock and roll, cool meant influence, and in
10:52
Speaker 2: the Sunset strip scene at the time, nobody was cooler
10:56
Speaker 2: and thus more influential than Izzy Straddlin. His attitude cut
11:03
Speaker 2: whatever vibe was in the room. You knew he was
11:05
Speaker 2: there and that he was somebody. Even when he was
11:07
Speaker 2: a nobody. You were only slightly intimidated by him. But
11:10
Speaker 2: it was more his vibe than his physicality. You wanted
11:13
Speaker 2: to know what kind of trip he was on, where
11:16
Speaker 2: he got his junkie lean those stone coal secondhand threads
11:19
Speaker 2: in that minimalist jewelry. His scraggly snarl and dyed jet
11:23
Speaker 2: black hair set against his relative youth, gave him a.
11:26
Speaker 4: Weird, pirate intern look.
11:28
Speaker 2: He looked like Keith Richards's mini meat, like his cool
11:31
Speaker 2: was cut from the same cloth as Keith. With his
11:33
Speaker 2: disaffected gaze and casual grasp of whatever the hell happened
11:37
Speaker 2: to be going on, around him. He was there wherever,
11:40
Speaker 2: but far away at the same time and still demanding
11:43
Speaker 2: everyone's attention. Izzy Strablan wasn't waiting for his man. He
11:48
Speaker 2: was the man, and he truly did not care about
11:52
Speaker 2: anything but his guitar and by extension, his band sort
11:56
Speaker 2: of but not really. He didn't really care about his bandmates,
12:00
Speaker 2: his girlfriends, or his own well being, and as a result,
12:03
Speaker 2: he shot a lot of heroin. He didn't care who knew,
12:07
Speaker 2: and he didn't care about getting arrested for dealing it.
12:09
Speaker 2: He was too cool to care. So along with being cool,
12:13
Speaker 2: heroin became part of his y Stradlin's identity, and because
12:16
Speaker 2: of his influence, lots of other musicians, scenisters and kids
12:20
Speaker 2: in the metal scene at the time started doing heroin.
12:24
Speaker 2: Axel later, when discussing with a reporter Gnar's early days
12:27
Speaker 2: during the time of Heroin's resurgence in Los Angeles, said well,
12:31
Speaker 2: it was Izzy that brought it back. This is entirely
12:35
Speaker 2: screwed up and strikes me as something so shallow and
12:37
Speaker 2: simple that it could only happen in La Los Angeles.
12:42
Speaker 2: Sex drugs, hard rock and roll, unquestionable cool influence and
12:47
Speaker 2: a no fox given attitude. Each element combined to form
12:51
Speaker 2: one of the most successful debut albums of all time,
12:54
Speaker 2: Guns n' Roses, aptly titled Appetite for Destruction. Guns n' Roses,
13:19
Speaker 2: with the release of Appetite for Destruction were firmly on
13:22
Speaker 2: their way to becoming the biggest band on the planet,
13:25
Speaker 2: with constant touring and the eventual support of radio and
13:28
Speaker 2: MTV behind their early videos and singles stories in Rolling
13:32
Speaker 2: Stone and Spin magazine, not to mention fawning praise from
13:35
Speaker 2: the heavy metal press. The band by the time the
13:38
Speaker 2: Fall of eighty nine rolled around, were by all accounts massive,
13:43
Speaker 2: But despite Axel roses bands growing fame, things were not right.
13:48
Speaker 2: The deaths at Donnington by themselves were hard enough to swallow.
13:52
Speaker 2: These were kids, fans, and they were dead, and the
13:55
Speaker 2: press had blamed the band. Two dead at Donnington, screamed
13:59
Speaker 2: the headlines. That was one more than Altamont. Axel couldn't
14:02
Speaker 2: let it go. His rage intensified. It seemed that whatever
14:06
Speaker 2: he did, the press was out to get him, and
14:08
Speaker 2: the notoriety caused his band's popularity to grow even more,
14:12
Speaker 2: and the more his own fame and celebrity grew, the
14:15
Speaker 2: more shitty seemed to have to take from the press.
14:18
Speaker 2: He tried retreating into himself, but MTV had begun playing
14:22
Speaker 2: the band's videos in heavy rotation and their popularities skyrocketed,
14:27
Speaker 2: and with it a need for the record label to
14:29
Speaker 2: satisfy the demand of the growing Guns n' Roses fan base.
14:32
Speaker 2: A new album was needed quickly to capitalize on their success,
14:36
Speaker 2: but a proper full length was impossible to put together
14:39
Speaker 2: with the band's touring schedule, not to mention the near
14:42
Speaker 2: debilitating heroin habits of Izzy, Slash and Stephen, and the
14:46
Speaker 2: general growing dysfunction of the band as a unit. So
14:51
Speaker 2: it was decided that an EP called GNR Lives would
14:54
Speaker 2: be released as a stopgap. The concept was tabloid trash,
14:58
Speaker 2: a world that the band was becoming all too familiar with.
15:01
Speaker 2: The artwork was a National Inquirer like cover that poked
15:04
Speaker 2: fun at the press and its growing fascination with the band,
15:08
Speaker 2: and the music was a mix of covers and unreleased
15:10
Speaker 2: tunes that the band had been working up Live to
15:13
Speaker 2: axel g and R Live scanned the world of celebrity
15:16
Speaker 2: decadence and tawdry gossip against a tough, talking, hard living
15:20
Speaker 2: unseen street reality as a record, it was bipolar, just
15:25
Speaker 2: like Axel's Los Angeles. Just like him, Axel saw himself
15:29
Speaker 2: as a voice for this reality, just as he believed
15:32
Speaker 2: Easy E saw himself as a voice for his reality
15:35
Speaker 2: down in South Central. So Axel was going to spare
15:39
Speaker 2: none of the details and none of the reality he'd
15:41
Speaker 2: come to learn and to live around in Los Angeles.
15:44
Speaker 2: On the song Weren't in a Million, he sang out
15:46
Speaker 2: shockingly offensive slurs. When you first hear the N word
15:52
Speaker 2: and the lyrics, there is a split second where your
15:54
Speaker 2: brain stops listening and you involuntarily ask yourself, did he
15:58
Speaker 2: really just say that? And then, as if to answer
16:01
Speaker 2: your internal monologue, Axel immediately follows up the N word
16:05
Speaker 2: with that's right, as in, yeah, motherfucker, I just said that,
16:10
Speaker 2: so what. Understandably, the press lost its collective mind. Axel
16:16
Speaker 2: was quickly labeled a racist as well as a homophobe.
16:23
Speaker 2: The backlash was immediate. Radio refused to play the song.
16:27
Speaker 2: Billboard magazine excoriated the band, Certain promoters refused to market
16:31
Speaker 2: the record. Comedians, celebrities, politicians, fellow musicians all called out
16:36
Speaker 2: Axel publicly. Axel claimed that the song was about a
16:40
Speaker 2: real life experience he had at a bus station in Hollywood.
16:43
Speaker 2: It was reality and therefore in his mind, worthy of documenting. However,
16:48
Speaker 2: the actual reality was that Axel was leveling a haymaker
16:51
Speaker 2: at the press, who he must have known would react
16:54
Speaker 2: intensely in response to his highly offensive lyrics. It was
16:58
Speaker 2: the sixteen year old in Lafay at Indiana lashing out,
17:01
Speaker 2: but this time at a bigger straw man and under
17:04
Speaker 2: a much bigger spotlight. But somehow none of it mattered.
17:09
Speaker 2: The album was an immense seller, and despite the public
17:13
Speaker 2: outcry and notoriety of the band, or perhaps because of it,
17:17
Speaker 2: Mick Jagger wanted Guns and Roses to open for the
17:19
Speaker 2: Rolling Stones at LA's Coliseum. It was a big deal
17:23
Speaker 2: to open for the Stones, even for a band as
17:26
Speaker 2: massive as Guns and Roses at the time, and their
17:28
Speaker 2: payday was immense. The band was stoked, most of them anyways.
17:33
Speaker 2: After gin R soundcheck and having to entertain Mick and
17:36
Speaker 2: Eric Clapton with his David Bowie dust up story, Axel
17:39
Speaker 2: bailed split for his girlfriend Aaron Everly's apartment in Beverly
17:43
Speaker 2: Hills and there was nothing there for him backstage After soundchecking.
17:47
Speaker 2: His band wasn't talking to each other. All of them,
17:50
Speaker 2: with the exception of himself and Duff, were completely consumed
17:53
Speaker 2: by heroin, and Duff was drunk all the time. Axel
17:56
Speaker 2: told Izzie the night before that he was quitting the
17:58
Speaker 2: band was too much, too dark, too destructive. By all accounts.
18:03
Speaker 2: This day, this night was shaping up to be more
18:05
Speaker 2: of the same, so Axel bounced. The Colosseum filled up,
18:12
Speaker 2: g and Ra sat backstage doing drugs, drinking jack, listening
18:17
Speaker 2: to Prince. With each tick of the clock, their management
18:20
Speaker 2: grew more worried. Where was Axel and their set was
18:24
Speaker 2: at nine. It was now six. Axel had previously demonstrated
18:28
Speaker 2: his ability to pull a no show, and being laid
18:30
Speaker 2: to the stage had already become a regular occurrence, but
18:33
Speaker 2: this was different. This was the Stones, This was an
18:36
Speaker 2: opening slot and they were lucky to have the gig
18:39
Speaker 2: showing up late going on later Worse, no showing would
18:43
Speaker 2: not only be the ultimate sign of disrespect, it would
18:45
Speaker 2: very likely break up the band.
18:47
Speaker 4: But that didn't matter to Axel, who.
18:49
Speaker 2: Ensconced in his girlfriend's apartment, had already broken up the band.
18:52
Speaker 4: In his mind.
18:54
Speaker 2: He wasn't going to head down to sell Centric to
18:55
Speaker 2: the Coliseum to do the gig. Fuck slash fuck is
18:59
Speaker 2: he fuck Steven off his management and fucking fucking Mick
19:02
Speaker 2: fucking Jagger and his fucking David Bowie stories. Axel was done.
19:10
Speaker 2: Six o'clock became six thirty. By this time, G and
19:13
Speaker 2: R management started talking about a plan. How are they
19:16
Speaker 2: going to not only find their lead singer, but how
19:18
Speaker 2: are they going to get him to the gig iz
19:22
Speaker 2: He spoke up out of his heroin ase he wanted
19:25
Speaker 2: to do this gig. Keith and Ronnie were his heroes,
19:27
Speaker 2: and he didn't want to look like an asshole. He's
19:29
Speaker 2: at Errands, he blurted out to anyone into no one
19:32
Speaker 2: in particular. Management quit dialing Axel's pad and quickly dialed Errands.
19:39
Speaker 2: The phone rang and rang, nothing, and they tried again,
19:44
Speaker 2: more ringing, more of the same, nothing, no answer. Six
19:49
Speaker 2: point thirty became seven. They tried Erins again and again,
19:53
Speaker 2: and seven became seven thirty and again eight o'clock, one
19:59
Speaker 2: hour to showtime. One more call, and finally they heard
20:03
Speaker 2: a voice. Aaron's he's not fucking calming, He's quitting you.
20:07
Speaker 2: Hear that He's done. In the background, they heard yelling
20:10
Speaker 2: and music, Axel on a tear. They tried reason it
20:14
Speaker 2: was gonna be all right, Tell him that. Tell him
20:16
Speaker 2: Slash is going to clean himself up after the gig,
20:18
Speaker 2: so is Izzy. It's all gonna be fine. We're gonna
20:21
Speaker 2: send a car to pick him. As she hung up
20:23
Speaker 2: on them, management wasted no time. They, along with the
20:30
Speaker 2: production chief who had a buddy on the forest, quickly
20:32
Speaker 2: dialed LAPD and told them who they were, who they
20:35
Speaker 2: were looking for, and what they needed. Two uniform cops
20:38
Speaker 2: wh knew how to not ask questions, to quickly head
20:40
Speaker 2: over to this address in Beverly Hills and to grab
20:42
Speaker 2: both occupants, to cuff them if necessary, and deliver them
20:45
Speaker 2: to the backstage coliseum.
20:47
Speaker 4: Within the next sixty minutes.
20:51
Speaker 2: The banging on Aaron's door startled both her and Axel.
20:55
Speaker 2: The cops meant business. It was clear Axel knew he'd
20:58
Speaker 2: been beak. He grabbed his leather and hopped in the
21:00
Speaker 2: back of the cruiser, sirens blazing. It blasted through La
21:04
Speaker 2: Traffic down sunset, over to La Sienaga, onto the ten
21:08
Speaker 2: down the off ramp, through the throngs of fans crowding
21:10
Speaker 2: the streets surrounding the Colosseum, into the gated production lot
21:14
Speaker 2: to the back stage with minutes despair before Axel would
21:17
Speaker 2: jump on stage in front of eighty thousand people and
21:19
Speaker 2: drop one hell of a bomb. The hometown crowd was
21:25
Speaker 2: with them from the moment they took the stage, and
21:28
Speaker 2: the roar from the audience was massive and the energy
21:31
Speaker 2: was so intense that Axel and the band were in
21:34
Speaker 2: and out of the first song in what felt like seconds.
21:37
Speaker 2: In the break before the next song, Axel took a beat.
21:40
Speaker 2: He held the microphone in his left hand, grabbed the
21:42
Speaker 2: mic stand with his right, and started to the tip
21:44
Speaker 2: of center stage. He saddled the mic into its stand
21:47
Speaker 2: and began addressing the crowd.
21:51
Speaker 4: I just want to.
21:51
Speaker 2: Say, I hate to do this on stage, but I
21:54
Speaker 2: tried every other fucking way, and unless certain people in
21:58
Speaker 2: this band get their shit together, these will be the
22:01
Speaker 2: last Guns and Roses shows you will fucking ever see.
22:05
Speaker 2: Slash and Izzy could not believe what they were hearing,
22:09
Speaker 2: getting called out on stage in front of nearly one
22:12
Speaker 2: hundred thousand people, five of whom were rolling stones into
22:16
Speaker 2: their horror.
22:17
Speaker 4: Axel wasn't done.
22:18
Speaker 2: Because I'm tired of too many people in this organization
22:22
Speaker 2: dancing with mister goddamn Brownstone. The band kicked into the
22:29
Speaker 2: song or staggered into it. It sucked everyone, but Axel
22:33
Speaker 2: was too shell shocked to focus on playing, not to
22:36
Speaker 2: mention Stone out of their gourds, and the rest of
22:39
Speaker 2: the sets sucked too.
22:41
Speaker 4: The Stones, on the other hand, killed it.
22:44
Speaker 2: Mick Jagger, cute bastard that he is, dedicated their latest single,
22:47
Speaker 2: Mixed Emotions to Axel.
22:49
Speaker 4: Button your Lip, Baby, Button your Lip.
22:52
Speaker 2: The gig sucked, but in a way for Axel it
22:54
Speaker 2: was a triumph. He made his point and he had
22:57
Speaker 2: to something had to give. He couldn't take the pressure
23:00
Speaker 2: of leading around a band of junkies on top of
23:02
Speaker 2: everything else, his relationship with Aaron, the demands of the
23:06
Speaker 2: record label, and increasingly the press, who as of late
23:09
Speaker 2: had become an insanely prickish thorn in his side. Axels
23:13
Speaker 2: split after their set half, joking to David lee Roth
23:16
Speaker 2: on the way out of the backstage area that if
23:18
Speaker 2: he wanted the gig, he could fucking have it.
23:22
Speaker 4: We'll be right back after this word word word.
23:28
Speaker 2: In regards to giving up on dancing with mister Brownstone.
23:31
Speaker 2: Unlike slash Is, he got the message. It was a
23:34
Speaker 2: combination of Axel's threat and seeing his hero as Stone's
23:38
Speaker 2: guitarist Keith Richard's up close and personal cheating death throughout
23:41
Speaker 2: middle age.
23:43
Speaker 4: What were the.
23:43
Speaker 2: Odds that a second chuck Berry obsessed guitarist in one
23:46
Speaker 2: of the world's greatest rock and roll bands would also
23:48
Speaker 2: escape Heroine's mortal grip and live to see his forties?
23:52
Speaker 2: I Is. He didn't know the answer, but he knew
23:54
Speaker 2: his odds weren't good, so he gave up dancing with
23:57
Speaker 2: every kind of intoxican. But as a result, he now
24:00
Speaker 2: barely interacted with his bandmates and elected to travel via
24:03
Speaker 2: his own tour bus with the smoke show of a
24:05
Speaker 2: girlfriend rather than fly with the traveling party including groupies
24:09
Speaker 2: on the band's chartered plane. Steven Adler either refused or
24:13
Speaker 2: was simply unable to give up Heroin, and he was
24:16
Speaker 2: unceremoniously kicked out of the band. Duff, depressed from splitting
24:20
Speaker 2: with his wife, had retreated into his own bummed out,
24:23
Speaker 2: alcoholic nightmare, while his new bandmates drummer Matt Sorum and
24:27
Speaker 2: newly added keyboard player Dizzy Reid did their best to
24:30
Speaker 2: fit into the highly dysfunctional band, a band that was
24:34
Speaker 2: under immense pressure to deliver a follow up album that
24:37
Speaker 2: would outperform their massively successful debut. The recording of set
24:42
Speaker 2: follow up was rot with tension. Axel's bandmates seldom appeared
24:46
Speaker 2: in the studio at the same time as he did,
24:48
Speaker 2: for fear of running up against his violent mood swings
24:51
Speaker 2: and thus sandbagging whatever slogging progress they'd made up to
24:54
Speaker 2: that point. The album was recorded piecemeal and at times
24:58
Speaker 2: by remote committee, the exact opposite of Appetite for Destruction,
25:02
Speaker 2: which was a short, frenetic shotgun blast of a musical
25:05
Speaker 2: statement made by five guys living the same life, dealing
25:09
Speaker 2: with the same problems and trying to get to the
25:11
Speaker 2: same place at the same time. That simplicity of intent
25:15
Speaker 2: was gone. Now Axel was trying to make a grand
25:18
Speaker 2: creative statement, while various members of his band were at
25:21
Speaker 2: times trying to work around dysfunctions, addiction, newfound fame, and
25:25
Speaker 2: an increasingly volatile and uncompromising lead singer Guns N' Roses'
25:31
Speaker 2: new album or album's plural Use Your Illusion I and
25:35
Speaker 2: Use Your Illusion two marked a new era, but the
25:38
Speaker 2: majority of the band checked out in one way or another.
25:41
Speaker 2: It became the Axel Rose Show, and it was a
25:44
Speaker 2: glorious shit show to watch unfold the combination of insane
25:48
Speaker 2: rock star behavior and creative excess, involving video dolphins, public
25:52
Speaker 2: spatting with Warren Beatty, mountain lion pets, and stage attire
25:56
Speaker 2: that ran the gammut from protective baseball gear to kilt
26:00
Speaker 2: and two tight bicycle shorts. The pure rock and roll
26:04
Speaker 2: days of the Rich Show were long gone. These days,
26:07
Speaker 2: Guns and Roses were a worldwide phenom, the greatest rock
26:10
Speaker 2: and roll band on the planet. Guns and Roses were
26:13
Speaker 2: the real deal and very nearly coming apart of the Seams.
26:16
Speaker 2: Because of it, Life at the moment for Axel and
26:19
Speaker 2: the rest of the band was tense, but backstage at
26:22
Speaker 2: the Riverport Amphitheater on July second, nineteen ninety one, things
26:26
Speaker 2: were calm. While Izzy fingered his guitar slash Oblivious, fucked
26:30
Speaker 2: with the FM dial on a transistor radio, and nursed
26:33
Speaker 2: a bottle of Jack Daniels Duff mixed up his hundredth
26:37
Speaker 2: vodka cranberry, his head somewhere else entirely. Matt warmed up
26:41
Speaker 2: with a drum bad an endless triplestroke drum roll eighth
26:45
Speaker 2: note triplets, then sixteenth note triplets that were both only
26:48
Speaker 2: slightly out of time with Izzie's riff. Matt dropped the
26:51
Speaker 2: beat indiscriminately to sip cold domestic from a can in
26:55
Speaker 2: this being Saint Louis. The domestic was Clysdale, pissed from
26:58
Speaker 2: the brewery of miss Anheuser and Bush and Dizzy was
27:02
Speaker 2: nowhere in sight, off somewhere chasing Skurt taking advantage of
27:06
Speaker 2: his new fame, and Axel was quiet sipping champagne.
27:13
Speaker 4: Pre show.
27:14
Speaker 2: Jitter's time was the only time the band could stand
27:16
Speaker 2: each other's presence, and they waited and bonded by the
27:19
Speaker 2: incredibly rare reality they were about to go through together,
27:23
Speaker 2: something very few people on the planet ever experience. The
27:27
Speaker 2: adoration of twenty thousand screaming fans who all want to
27:30
Speaker 2: either be you or fuck you, the exact type of
27:34
Speaker 2: rare experience that can bond you together and overcome even
27:37
Speaker 2: the deepest divisions. Axel had one in a million on
27:41
Speaker 2: his mind. It had been a while since they performed it,
27:44
Speaker 2: and who needed the headache. Axel took this as a
27:47
Speaker 2: defeat of sorts. Despite the controversy surrounding the song's lyrics,
27:51
Speaker 2: it was still a good song. Axel toyed at the
27:54
Speaker 2: idea of stinking it into the set that night, but
27:56
Speaker 2: the thought of it was short lived. It was nearly showtime,
28:00
Speaker 2: the only time of day that mattered. Gin R took
28:03
Speaker 2: the stage to a packed and rabbit house, and by
28:06
Speaker 2: now the band had their stage show wired tight. Axel
28:10
Speaker 2: insisted they fly by the seat of their Spandex and
28:12
Speaker 2: Levi's without a set list to keep it fresh, but
28:15
Speaker 2: the band did rely on a handful of sequential songs
28:18
Speaker 2: guaranteed to drive audiences wild Welcome to the Jungle and
28:23
Speaker 2: then a down shift into the anthemic ballad Civil War.
28:26
Speaker 2: After that, a drum solo from Matt so Axel could
28:29
Speaker 2: suck on an oxygen mass backstage, and then a guitar
28:32
Speaker 2: solo from Slash and into the theme from The Godfather
28:35
Speaker 2: and finally into the barn Burning Rocket Queen to close
28:39
Speaker 2: the show. The crowd recognized the song that instant the
28:43
Speaker 2: drums picked up. They knew this was the closer, their
28:48
Speaker 2: last moments of the show to dig in and enjoy,
28:51
Speaker 2: to stay transported taken away to that special place, from
28:54
Speaker 2: the realities of the real world, from their shitty jobs,
28:57
Speaker 2: their parents, their schools. They pump their fists, dance, sang along,
29:01
Speaker 2: and did their best to rage with their rock gods
29:04
Speaker 2: on stage in front of them. From the blinding stage lights,
29:07
Speaker 2: Axel could only see them swaying on mass flashback to Donnington.
29:12
Speaker 4: He ripped into the first verse.
29:14
Speaker 2: He wondered about security up front of his lax To Axel,
29:18
Speaker 2: the security staff seemed more interested in the band than
29:21
Speaker 2: in protecting the crowd pigs. His anger shot up through
29:25
Speaker 2: his chest and into his throat. His breath quickened. In
29:28
Speaker 2: the words to the second half of the verse, came
29:30
Speaker 2: out rushed and erratic. Axel honed in on a civilian
29:34
Speaker 2: in the first couple of rows. Was that a fan
29:36
Speaker 2: or a member of the press snapping photos. The press
29:39
Speaker 2: were rowing allowed a certain amount of sanctioned pictures per show,
29:42
Speaker 2: and the band was to be photographed during set times,
29:44
Speaker 2: at the beginning of their set and from the confines
29:46
Speaker 2: of the camera well up in front of the stage,
29:48
Speaker 2: only not.
29:49
Speaker 4: From within the audience.
29:52
Speaker 2: Axel boiled, fucking press, give them an inch, and they
29:55
Speaker 2: take a goddamn mile. The press did whatever the hell
29:58
Speaker 2: they liked, wrote whatever the hell they want it, spread
30:00
Speaker 2: whatever fucking rumors they felt like spreading, and they had
30:03
Speaker 2: carte blanche to fuck with you, just like Mick Jagger
30:05
Speaker 2: and David Bowie and Warren fucking Baby, just like the
30:08
Speaker 2: West Hollywood sheriff's deputies, and most definitely just like the
30:11
Speaker 2: hit cops back in Lafayette. And they're all out to
30:14
Speaker 2: get him to take advantage of them, just like his
30:18
Speaker 2: father had done.
30:43
Speaker 4: During the manic rise of his band.
30:44
Speaker 2: Over the past couple of years, Axel Rose doubled down
30:47
Speaker 2: on therapy and through analysis, uncovered what is believed by
30:51
Speaker 2: some in the psychotherapy community to be called quote unquote
30:55
Speaker 2: recovered memories. Recovered memories are exactly what they sound like.
31:00
Speaker 2: They are memories recovered from deep in your past. Oftentimes
31:04
Speaker 2: they are events so traumatic you've blocked them out. Other
31:08
Speaker 2: times there are memories from your infancy or even from
31:10
Speaker 2: the wound. In Axel's case, it was a combination of
31:14
Speaker 2: the former two. Axel claimed that through therapy he had
31:17
Speaker 2: discovered that his father, his real father, the father whose
31:20
Speaker 2: name he was never to mention in his house, had
31:23
Speaker 2: raped him as a two year old. Axel bravely went
31:28
Speaker 2: to public with the information as he tried to sort
31:31
Speaker 2: out his emotions in real time, and the public watched
31:34
Speaker 2: him burn fast and loud with his band across the
31:36
Speaker 2: world stage, and the press took note, of course, and
31:40
Speaker 2: continued to pile on with psychotherapy. Axel felt himself making progress,
31:45
Speaker 2: but toward what he didn't exactly know. A torrent of pain, shame,
31:50
Speaker 2: and high pitched anger raged inside of him, stronger and
31:53
Speaker 2: more intensely than ever before, and on stage in Saint
31:57
Speaker 2: Louis that night, just as he was every night, he
32:00
Speaker 2: was about to blow. As he sang out the chorus
32:04
Speaker 2: to Rocket Queen, Axel focused on the dude in the
32:07
Speaker 2: audience taking pictures. Shit, it was worse than he thought.
32:11
Speaker 2: Dude wasn't taking photos, he was videotaping. Axel got three
32:14
Speaker 2: lines deep before it all became too much to take.
32:17
Speaker 4: He stopped singing and screamed into the mic, hey take that.
32:21
Speaker 4: Take that.
32:22
Speaker 3: Now, get that.
32:23
Speaker 4: Guy and take that.
32:25
Speaker 2: Axel stopped singing completely and was pointing at the dude
32:28
Speaker 2: to the camera, imploring security to stop him. Axel could
32:31
Speaker 2: see now dude wasn't a member of the press. He
32:33
Speaker 2: was a biker. Nobody did anything. Axel raged at the inaction.
32:38
Speaker 2: Here he was helpless again. The band, confused, continued to
32:41
Speaker 2: the chorus behind it. Fuck this, Axel thought, press member, biker, whatever,
32:46
Speaker 2: it didn't matter. When not one member of the venue's
32:49
Speaker 2: security team moved to help him, Axel literally flew into action.
32:53
Speaker 2: He barked into the mic, I'll take it, goddamn it,
32:56
Speaker 2: before slamming the mic down and diving headfirst into the
32:59
Speaker 2: audience the problem himself. The band, almost on cue, resolved
33:03
Speaker 2: the chorus and began muddling through an instrumental version of
33:06
Speaker 2: the second verse while their singer went at it wildly,
33:09
Speaker 2: throwing punches in the first few rows.
33:12
Speaker 4: Axel, unaware of who he.
33:13
Speaker 2: Was fucking with, began manically flailing and seriously pissing off
33:17
Speaker 2: members of the Saddle Tramps motorcycle club. Local security knew
33:21
Speaker 2: where their bread was buttered and went at Axel instead
33:23
Speaker 2: of the bikers. Axel resisted, kicking, punching at everyone in sight,
33:28
Speaker 2: but when it became clear that security wasn't helping, Ginar's
33:31
Speaker 2: roadies entered the fray and pulled Axel back up on stage,
33:34
Speaker 2: but not before he landed a full fisted punch in
33:36
Speaker 2: the grill of one of the crowd members who got
33:38
Speaker 2: up into his face. But once he was back on stage,
33:41
Speaker 2: Axel grabbed the mic, pissed and quickening his pace towards
33:44
Speaker 2: the side of the stage, said well, thanks to the
33:46
Speaker 2: lame mass security, I'm going home, and with that he
33:50
Speaker 2: slammed the mic into the stage and stormed off. Slash
33:54
Speaker 2: leaned into a mic and added a casual We're out
33:56
Speaker 2: of here, and that was it. Show over. The crowd
34:01
Speaker 2: was stunned, confused, No one moved, no one knew what
34:05
Speaker 2: was going on. Gn r's roadies quickly went about breaking
34:07
Speaker 2: down the band's gear, a clear signal that the show
34:10
Speaker 2: was definitely done and the party was over. Guns and
34:13
Speaker 2: roses weren't coming back, and beer cans began raining down
34:16
Speaker 2: on the stage from the audience. The booze started, at
34:19
Speaker 2: first the smattering and then the chorus of an angry mob.
34:23
Speaker 4: The roadies were pissed, and rightly so.
34:25
Speaker 2: They began to taunt the audience, inciting them even more drunk, angry,
34:29
Speaker 2: and violent. The audience turned on itself. The saddle tramps
34:32
Speaker 2: went alpha, erupting on.
34:33
Speaker 4: Anyone who got in their way.
34:34
Speaker 2: While making their exit, a naked man ran around the
34:37
Speaker 2: floor frantically, blood pouring from a wound in his head.
34:40
Speaker 2: The police descended to restore order and were openly challenged
34:43
Speaker 2: by fans. Beatings commenced Button's steel toad kicks.
34:47
Speaker 4: To the skull. A chant of fuck you pigs rose
34:49
Speaker 4: up from the audience.
34:50
Speaker 2: The crowd started ripping up the chairs and the floor,
34:53
Speaker 2: pulling them apart and launching them to the stage, and
34:55
Speaker 2: the cops reeled out the fire hose and attempted to
34:58
Speaker 2: use it to beat back the crowd, but the water
35:00
Speaker 2: pressure was so weak that the audience began moving toward
35:03
Speaker 2: the water to cool off, and thus toward the stage.
35:06
Speaker 2: One of the giant video screens on the side of
35:08
Speaker 2: the stage was pulled down, and the massive sixty ton
35:11
Speaker 2: sound and light rig lurched uncomfortably from side to side
35:15
Speaker 2: as idiotic fans swung from its cables. Riverport was about
35:20
Speaker 2: to make Donnington look like a walk in the park
35:22
Speaker 2: until the cops broke out a tear gas like substance
35:25
Speaker 2: and get a hold of the situation. In the end,
35:31
Speaker 2: it was a bloody riot that Axelrose's deep well of
35:33
Speaker 2: anger had incited sixty five people badly injured, twenty five
35:38
Speaker 2: of them police officers, dozens arrested, and hundreds of thousands
35:42
Speaker 2: of dollars.
35:42
Speaker 4: In property damage.
35:44
Speaker 2: Axel was eventually charged with four counts of assault and
35:47
Speaker 2: one for property damage. The jury found him guilty and
35:51
Speaker 2: the judge fined him fifty thousand dollars. It was worth
35:54
Speaker 2: at Axel thought they all had it coming. Axel Roses
35:58
Speaker 2: passed both as a severe villon and a celebrity. Is
36:01
Speaker 2: filled with intense drama, violence, riots, beef, arrests, scandal, and
36:06
Speaker 2: so much more. It's impossible to detail all of it
36:09
Speaker 2: in two thirty minute podcasts without sounding like you're piling
36:13
Speaker 2: on or being exploitative. On the other hand, the physical
36:17
Speaker 2: abuse allegations by ex wives Aaron Everley in supermodel Stephanie
36:21
Speaker 2: Seymour must be mentioned, even though claims by both were
36:25
Speaker 2: denied by Axel and eventually settled out of court, and
36:29
Speaker 2: there is no clean explanation of Axel Rose or of
36:32
Speaker 2: Guns N' Roses. Rock Stars are messy. It's part of
36:35
Speaker 2: what makes them great artists. All of the psychosis, that
36:38
Speaker 2: inner turmoil, that anger. It often leads to great music.
36:42
Speaker 2: You know this, We talk about it all the time.
36:44
Speaker 2: In this case, Axel Rose is no different than James Brown's,
36:48
Speaker 2: said Vicious, John Lennon, Easye, and too many others to
36:51
Speaker 2: list like them. He made great music and liked them.
36:56
Speaker 2: His behavior is hard to forgive, and like them, from
36:59
Speaker 2: his early days, he was scarred by severe trauma. What
37:03
Speaker 2: that does to someone in their formative years is unexplainable,
37:08
Speaker 2: and that's a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and this is DISGRACELAMD.
37:27
Speaker 2: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
37:30
Speaker 2: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
37:33
Speaker 2: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
37:37
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37:40
Speaker 2: you for supporting the show.
37:41
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37:42
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37:45
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Speaker 3: The bed Don Man