Latest / DISGRACELAND / Guns N’ Roses Pt. 1: Brawling with Bowie, Juvenile Delinquency, Dealing Dope and Death at Donington

Transcript

Guns N’ Roses Pt. 1: Brawling with Bowie, Juvenile Delinquency, Dealing Dope and Death at Donington · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
0:17
Speaker 1: Guns n' Roses are insane. They brawled with cops, delp drugs,
0:22
Speaker 1: robbed unsuspecting friends, fans, and one night stands. Singer Axel
0:27
Speaker 1: Rose once slept with drummer Stephen Adler's girlfriend and recorded
0:32
Speaker 1: her orgasm for an overdub in one of their songs.
0:35
Speaker 1: Their music and the attitude that propelled it was so
0:39
Speaker 1: authentic and so compelling that it instigated riots on multiple occasions.
0:44
Speaker 1: Guns n' Roses was the real deal, violent, aggressive of
0:48
Speaker 1: the street and for the street, a product of nineteen
0:51
Speaker 1: eighties Los Angeles, as bipolar, as gnar, as notoriously short
0:56
Speaker 1: tempered and moody frontman, hard and hedonistic all at once.
1:00
Speaker 1: And they made great music. That music you heard at
1:04
Speaker 1: the top of the show that wasn't great music. That
1:07
Speaker 1: was a preset loop for my mellotron called Castro McQueen's
1:11
Speaker 1: Last Call MK one. I played you that loop because
1:16
Speaker 1: I can't afford the rights to roll with It by
1:18
Speaker 1: Steve Winwood. And why would I play you that specific
1:22
Speaker 1: slice of divorce rock Cheese? Could I afford it? Because
1:26
Speaker 1: that was the number one song in America on August twentieth,
1:30
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight, and that was the day Guns N'
1:33
Speaker 1: Roses took the stage at Castle Donnington, kicking off one
1:37
Speaker 1: of the deadliest days in rock and roll. On This
1:41
Speaker 1: the first of a special two part episode to commence
1:44
Speaker 1: season five, Castro McQueen's Last Call Divorce, Rock Cheese, Too
1:49
Speaker 1: Dead at Donnington and Guns N' Roses. I'm Jake Brennan
1:54
Speaker 1: and this this Disgraceland. David Bowie simply did not care
2:22
Speaker 1: who her boyfriend was. He had to have her. She
2:25
Speaker 1: was too much, too much for the eyes, his mysteriously
2:29
Speaker 1: colored eyes, too much for the camera, too much for
2:32
Speaker 1: the crew on the video set, and clearly too much
2:34
Speaker 1: for her infamous lover, who was off somewhere else at
2:37
Speaker 1: the moment, most likely pissed off about something.
2:42
Speaker 2: Except for the fish nets.
2:43
Speaker 1: She was wearing all leather, leather bra thong, knee high boots, bondage,
2:48
Speaker 1: ballgag handcuffs, total s and m total vamp chips, tips, chains, whips.
2:54
Speaker 1: You know, you're basically if your middle origin type of thing,
2:56
Speaker 1: and she was drawing all the attention on set, even
2:59
Speaker 1: from her boyfriend's bandmates, who, despite the fact that they
3:02
Speaker 1: were accompanied by their own smoke show girlfriends couldn't avoid
3:06
Speaker 1: seeking peeps at the video vam whenever she walked by
3:09
Speaker 1: or took to her blocking under the lights. It was
3:12
Speaker 1: a hyper sex charged situation. Steven Adler, drummer in the band,
3:19
Speaker 1: did his best damask his lust, but there was almost
3:21
Speaker 1: no use in trying. However, this was the singers and
3:25
Speaker 1: best friend's girl. But the holy shit, she was something else.
3:29
Speaker 1: She was rock and roll Royalty, born to one half
3:32
Speaker 1: of the greatest harmony singing duo of all time, Don
3:35
Speaker 1: Everley of the Everly Brothers. Aaron Everley, dark hair, big eyes,
3:39
Speaker 1: oozing sex Appeal was in nineteen eighty nine, half of
3:43
Speaker 1: rock's current royal couple, having hooked up with Axel Rose,
3:46
Speaker 1: singer of what was fast becoming the biggest band on
3:49
Speaker 1: the planet, then notorious Guns N' Roses. But David Bowie,
3:54
Speaker 1: mister well hung and snow white Tan, couldn't care less.
3:57
Speaker 1: He had to have her give her the royal Wham,
4:00
Speaker 1: thank you man treatment, and Bowie, at the time was
4:03
Speaker 1: enjoying in another career reinvention, this time as part of
4:06
Speaker 1: the fantastic and indefinable Rock group Tin Machine and making
4:10
Speaker 1: waves on stage and on MTV, and he was a
4:13
Speaker 1: course already by this point legend. He was also a
4:16
Speaker 1: sort of uncle Slash cool stepdad to Guns n' Roses
4:20
Speaker 1: lead guitarist, whose mom was a costume designer back in
4:23
Speaker 1: the seventies, and that's how she linked up with Bowie
4:26
Speaker 1: designing his clothes during his manic Coke Field Thin White
4:29
Speaker 1: Duke days. Their working relationship eventually turned sexual, and Bowie
4:34
Speaker 1: took a shine to his costume designer's young son, Saul Hudson,
4:39
Speaker 1: who would go on to become the one and only Slash,
4:41
Speaker 1: and as fate would have it, by the time of
4:43
Speaker 1: the eighties was coming to a close. Slash was in
4:46
Speaker 1: a bigger band than Bowie at the time, which was
4:51
Speaker 1: how David Bowie found himself on set for the Guns n'
4:54
Speaker 1: Roses video shoot, checking in on Slash and seeing what
4:57
Speaker 1: he and his band were all above.
5:00
Speaker 2: That was the motivation anyway, The.
5:01
Speaker 1: Leather eye candy ruling the day with her dime spot
5:04
Speaker 1: sexuality was the bonus sweet child. At whoever she was,
5:08
Speaker 1: it didn't matter, and it all happened so fast. One
5:15
Speaker 1: minute Bowie was oggling Aaron the next her short tempered
5:18
Speaker 1: boyfriend Axel was chasing him off the set and down
5:21
Speaker 1: Lascianaga Boulevard, screaming.
5:23
Speaker 2: I'm gonna kill you ten men.
5:25
Speaker 1: Supposedly, a punch was thrown and landed, but nobody really
5:28
Speaker 1: knows what happened, except for Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton.
5:33
Speaker 1: A few days after the Dusktop, Mick and Eric cornered
5:36
Speaker 1: Axel backstage at a show, demanding to hear about the
5:39
Speaker 1: heavily rumored fight with their old mate David Bowie. Axel
5:43
Speaker 1: quickly told them the story, and none of it seemed
5:45
Speaker 1: far fetched to Jagger and Clapton. Bowie had been moving
5:49
Speaker 1: in on their women for years, and the two went
5:52
Speaker 1: on back and forth to each other. By the time
5:54
Speaker 1: Bowie did this, the time Bowie did that, Axel wasn't
5:57
Speaker 1: even sure he was in the conversation anymore. Stood there
6:00
Speaker 1: listening to two of his childhood heroes go on in
6:03
Speaker 1: a spirited and highly comical conversation about the dude who
6:07
Speaker 1: was hitting on his girlfriend days earlier, a duty still
6:10
Speaker 1: wanted to pummel into oblivion, a dude who also just
6:13
Speaker 1: happened to be none other than David fucking Bowie. Axel
6:16
Speaker 1: couldn't help but think what the hell had he done
6:18
Speaker 1: to end up with this insane life. Lafayette, Indiana, his hometown,
6:25
Speaker 1: was a long way off in the rear view mirror.
6:27
Speaker 1: Axel had a squint to see it with his mind's eye,
6:31
Speaker 1: but the trauma and the shame of those days were
6:33
Speaker 1: always burbling just beneath the surface, Surveying his daily routine,
6:38
Speaker 1: his habits, his interactions, any in all events that would
6:41
Speaker 1: provide an opportunity to explode his emotions. Ran The show
6:45
Speaker 1: Volatile Artists doesn't even begin to explain the complexity and
6:49
Speaker 1: behavior of Axel Rose, and there were constant physical altercations
6:53
Speaker 1: with fans, friends, cops, neighbors, thin white dukes, and, according
6:57
Speaker 1: to Aaron Everley, with her as well. Axel Rose, from
7:01
Speaker 1: a young age had been scraping, clawing, fighting his way
7:04
Speaker 1: away from something, something welling up inside, something horrific and indescribable.
7:10
Speaker 1: It was a feeling he couldn't shake, and a feeling
7:12
Speaker 1: that would drive him to create one of the most explosive.
7:15
Speaker 2: Albums of all time.
7:37
Speaker 1: Axel Rose felt at home on Saint Mark's Place in
7:40
Speaker 1: Manhattan's East Village, he could feel the inspiration that drove
7:44
Speaker 1: his heroes, the Ramones and the New York Dolls, to
7:47
Speaker 1: create some of the most dangerous music he'd ever heard,
7:51
Speaker 1: music that to this day February two, nineteen eighty eight,
7:55
Speaker 1: still spoke to the angry.
7:56
Speaker 2: Young man in him.
7:58
Speaker 1: Squalor, crime and crime, punk rockers, skinheads and hippies, hanging
8:02
Speaker 1: on for dear life, homeless people, drag queens, junkies and tourists.
8:07
Speaker 1: Saint Mark's was a low key bohemian bizarre of countercultures
8:11
Speaker 1: clashing up against one another in the form of hard
8:13
Speaker 1: to find books, harder to find records, and imported porn
8:18
Speaker 1: studded belts, Doctor Martin's boots, Leather for Days, and other edgy,
8:22
Speaker 1: irreverent fashion items unavailable to the rest of America, like
8:25
Speaker 1: that Charlie Don't Surf t shirt hanging in the window
8:28
Speaker 1: of Trash in Vaudeville, the one with Manson's nineteen sixty
8:31
Speaker 1: nine mugshot Big and Intense emblazoned across the front. Axel
8:36
Speaker 1: thought it was killer, so he popped into the store
8:38
Speaker 1: and had the dude with the peroxide hair and Eggy
8:41
Speaker 1: Pop tattoo behind the counter grab it for him.
8:44
Speaker 2: Axel wouldn't wear.
8:45
Speaker 1: It on stage that night, though now he had his
8:48
Speaker 1: thin Lizzie shirt teed up for that.
8:51
Speaker 2: The show.
8:52
Speaker 1: Later that evening at the Ritz, a couple blocks north
8:54
Speaker 1: of Saint Mark's, was being broadcast live on MTV, and
8:58
Speaker 1: Axel's band Guns Roses was wired tight for maximum rock
9:02
Speaker 1: and roll America took notice when it aired.
9:06
Speaker 2: The show was watched by a relatively.
9:08
Speaker 1: Small audience of American teenagers up way past their bedtimes,
9:13
Speaker 1: but the show was recorded on dusty VHS tapes and
9:16
Speaker 1: passed around high school corridors repeatedly over the coming months
9:19
Speaker 1: until the ferocity of Guns n' Roses was recognized and
9:23
Speaker 1: salivated over en mass by high school kids everywhere. Axel
9:27
Speaker 1: Rose came to life on the screen as a real
9:29
Speaker 1: life version of The Breakfast Club's Johnny Bender. He was
9:32
Speaker 1: the high school burnout who we all knew growing up,
9:35
Speaker 1: the one who doubled down on shop electives and wore
9:38
Speaker 1: ripped jeans out of necessity, not out of a sense
9:41
Speaker 1: of fashion. The guy who sported self imposed cigarette burns
9:44
Speaker 1: on his muscular forearms and was rumored.
9:46
Speaker 2: To have a Budman tattoo on his ass.
9:49
Speaker 1: This was the same dude who sat in the back
9:51
Speaker 1: of the classroom and simultaneously frightened and attracted the cheerleaders,
9:55
Speaker 1: those same cheerleaders who wouldn't give you the time of day.
9:58
Speaker 1: You saw this dude standing alone, quiet at the edge
10:01
Speaker 1: of the keg party up off of the train tracks.
10:04
Speaker 1: You left him alone because you heard the story about
10:06
Speaker 1: the time he busted the bottle of michelob across the
10:08
Speaker 1: jock with the big mouth's face.
10:10
Speaker 2: But inside you burned to know more about it.
10:13
Speaker 1: What made him tick, what made him so pissed, and
10:16
Speaker 1: what made him so fucking cool? And just like that kid,
10:20
Speaker 1: Axel was filled with contempt and untapped confidence. On stage
10:25
Speaker 1: at the Ritz, he could feel his anger. It was
10:28
Speaker 1: something that had been building up in size since birth.
10:30
Speaker 1: It was coming out one way or another, likely through
10:33
Speaker 1: violent rage or petty crime or both, but rock and
10:37
Speaker 1: roll saves. Otherwise Axel Rose would likely have been in
10:40
Speaker 1: jail on that night instead of blowing the minds of
10:43
Speaker 1: all in attendance, as well as everyone watching at home
10:45
Speaker 1: on television and later on memorys. On stage, Axel looked
10:50
Speaker 1: a little older than the millions of high school burnouts
10:53
Speaker 1: who had soon come to worship him. In his band,
10:56
Speaker 1: he was essentially the same angry young man he was
10:58
Speaker 1: growing up back in Lafayette, Indiana. But at the Ritz
11:02
Speaker 1: it was clear that his time had come and he'd
11:05
Speaker 1: arrived for the murderous row of bandmates. Slash, the Bronzed
11:10
Speaker 1: Mad Hatter, Adonnis, Izzy Straddlin with his Ronnie wood Via
11:13
Speaker 1: Johnny Thunders, Cool Duff mckag and eleven feet Tall and
11:17
Speaker 1: oozing punk rock, sex and excitement, and last the wide
11:21
Speaker 1: eyed ball of heavy metal puppy Dog Charisma Stephen Adler,
11:25
Speaker 1: a band that you could immediately tell never had a
11:27
Speaker 1: fuck to give, and their live show was flawless. Even
11:32
Speaker 1: with the flaws, it was flawless songs like the Didley
11:35
Speaker 1: asque Mister Brownstone, the Jet Fueled Night Train and the
11:39
Speaker 1: Showstopper Rocket Queen Veer from brilliant to train wreck and
11:43
Speaker 1: back again, and the time it takes to Suck a
11:45
Speaker 1: Marlborough Red from first flame down to toxic filter. Genarro
11:50
Speaker 1: was from the Street in four the Street and their
11:53
Speaker 1: lyrics represented a band living a hand and mouth life
11:56
Speaker 1: of rock and roll debauchery and all two willing to
11:58
Speaker 1: let themselves die.
11:59
Speaker 2: In the pursuit of it.
12:01
Speaker 1: You couldn't tell if they were creatively brave, risking it
12:04
Speaker 1: all in the service of making totally authentic rock and roll,
12:07
Speaker 1: or if they were just too stupid to know any better.
12:10
Speaker 1: And through it all, the band was impossibly cool. Every shot,
12:14
Speaker 1: every pose, every note, even the out of tune ones
12:17
Speaker 1: from Slash, every vocal, even the ones from Axel Told
12:20
Speaker 1: run out of Breath, all.
12:22
Speaker 2: Combined to somehow make them seem even cooler.
12:25
Speaker 1: And if you tried, you couldn't have created a more
12:27
Speaker 1: representative version of a rock and roll band then the
12:29
Speaker 1: one that Axel Rose took to the stage on February second,
12:32
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight. You wouldn't know it from watching them,
12:36
Speaker 1: but that band and the fuck all attitude that propelled it,
12:39
Speaker 1: and more specifically, its singer, had been a long time
12:42
Speaker 1: in the making. The crack from the back of the
12:47
Speaker 1: hand to his mouth came quick, it was unexpected, and
12:51
Speaker 1: it stung like a motherfucker. Young Axel could taste his
12:54
Speaker 1: blood bubbling up from his lip. The damage could have
12:57
Speaker 1: been worse, but luckily Axel's dad didn't wear rings. Jewelry
13:01
Speaker 1: was too ostentatious for Pentecostal, So was Barry Manilow and
13:05
Speaker 1: his number one hit Mandy, which was what put Axel
13:08
Speaker 1: on the receiving end of another blow to the grill.
13:11
Speaker 1: Axel made the mistake of absent mindedly singing along to
13:14
Speaker 1: the song's chorus, with its lyrics that his dad somehow
13:17
Speaker 1: considered sexually suggestive. What Axel seriously did not understand how
13:23
Speaker 1: he was related to this dude, his old man, this
13:25
Speaker 1: abusive religious nutback. But that was because Axel wasn't actually
13:30
Speaker 1: related to him, He just didn't know it yet. And
13:32
Speaker 1: then again, young Axel Rose didn't know much beyond led Zeppelin,
13:36
Speaker 1: ri of Selton John melodies and pent up rage for
13:38
Speaker 1: the man he thought was his father. Soon, young Axel
13:43
Speaker 1: would learn that his father was really his stepfather and
13:46
Speaker 1: that his real father was never to be brought up.
13:50
Speaker 1: It was a discovery that did little to endear Axel
13:52
Speaker 1: to his stepdad, and thus the violence continued. It wasn't
13:56
Speaker 1: reserved for just Axel either, his stepdad, through his fist.
14:00
Speaker 2: Around to keep Axel's mom in line as well.
14:02
Speaker 1: Axel saw it all as a little boy and a teenager,
14:05
Speaker 1: the beatings and.
14:06
Speaker 2: The mental anguish, and.
14:08
Speaker 1: By the time he was sixteen, Rock and roll was
14:10
Speaker 1: his only salvation. That and his new friend Izzy, and
14:14
Speaker 1: they vibed on the stones ACDC Arrowsmith and the new
14:18
Speaker 1: Onslaught of British punk bands invading America, the sex Pistols,
14:22
Speaker 1: Generation X and the Clash, and they also bonded over beer,
14:27
Speaker 1: grass and pills, and of course the two of them,
14:31
Speaker 1: especially Axel, took every opportunity possible to fuck with the
14:34
Speaker 1: local authorities. Axel had a real hatred for the small
14:38
Speaker 1: town conservative, square job local cops. To him, there were
14:42
Speaker 1: just an extension of the repression and bullshit rules imposed
14:46
Speaker 1: by his stepdad. Except out on the street he could
14:49
Speaker 1: talk back and let Lucy in a rage. He carried
14:52
Speaker 1: an arrest for disturbing the peace was worth it. He
14:55
Speaker 1: could never let loose on his stepdad like he could
14:57
Speaker 1: on the cops. Plus the cops would have to catch
15:00
Speaker 1: him first, So Axel mouthed off to Lafayette's finest every
15:04
Speaker 1: chance he got, and the cops, in turn, found a
15:07
Speaker 1: special kind of satisfaction whenever they could bust his ass
15:10
Speaker 1: and throw him in jail. And the result was a
15:13
Speaker 1: long string of juvenile arrests for petty crimes, public drunkenness, loitering, etc.
15:18
Speaker 1: Fucking with the cops was always fun, but music was
15:21
Speaker 1: becoming the main focus for Axel and Crazy, and they
15:24
Speaker 1: put a little band together and played when they could,
15:27
Speaker 1: but mostly they studied and listened to the masters whenever
15:29
Speaker 1: they got the chance. And their latest obsession was the
15:33
Speaker 1: soundtrack album for the film Over the Edge, an adolescent
15:36
Speaker 1: crime drama set in the fictional suburb of Granada, where
15:40
Speaker 1: the town's kids, bored and tired of being neglected by
15:43
Speaker 1: their parents and other authority figures, finally rebel, setting about
15:47
Speaker 1: to destroy and terrorize their town through a fiery crime spree.
15:51
Speaker 1: He could relate to the teenage wasteland anti authority vibe
15:55
Speaker 1: at portrayed just like the kids in Granada, Axel felt neglected, ignored,
16:00
Speaker 1: and oppressed, and was compelled to vent his unhappiness through violence.
16:04
Speaker 1: Plus the movie soundtrack was the Shit Cheap Trick Van Halen,
16:08
Speaker 1: the Cars, Jimi Hendricks, and even that ballot at the end,
16:11
Speaker 1: the one by Valerie Carter that played while the kids
16:14
Speaker 1: were busted off to juvenile Hall.
16:16
Speaker 2: It was all right up Axel's alley. But Axel wouldn't
16:19
Speaker 2: be shipped off to Juvie. He'd soon be on a
16:22
Speaker 2: bus headed for a different kind of jungle altogether, Los Angeles, California.
16:28
Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this word word word. Joe
16:38
Speaker 2: Perry needed to score.
16:40
Speaker 1: His band Aerosmith was indeed one of the biggest in
16:43
Speaker 1: the world at the time.
16:44
Speaker 2: That didn't change anything.
16:46
Speaker 1: He was supposedly sober, clean, off the junk, and that
16:49
Speaker 1: was true, sure some of the time, But then there
16:52
Speaker 1: were the days where he just needed the familiarity of
16:55
Speaker 1: a comforting buzz. The heroin would take it all away,
16:58
Speaker 1: the pressure, the pain, and the reality of dealing with
17:01
Speaker 1: his frenetic high wire act of a frontman, Stephen Tyler,
17:04
Speaker 1: who had his own addiction, dragons to slay and procuring
17:08
Speaker 1: the dope discretion was of utmost importance. He couldn't go
17:11
Speaker 1: to any of the known dealers. Word might get out
17:14
Speaker 1: that he was off the wagon, back on the horrors,
17:16
Speaker 1: back in the saddle, but not in a good way.
17:19
Speaker 1: So he decided to try out a new dealer. He'd
17:21
Speaker 1: heard a guitarist in one of the newer Aerosmith's clone
17:24
Speaker 1: bands playing down on the strip in the mid nineteen
17:28
Speaker 1: eighties on the side of Los Angeles were a mile
17:31
Speaker 1: and a half stretch of Sunset Boulevard curls through West
17:34
Speaker 1: Hollywood and is known as the Strip or Sunset Strip.
17:38
Speaker 1: A new kind of heavy metal was doing everything it
17:41
Speaker 1: could to put La on the musical map, glam metal.
17:45
Speaker 1: Glam metal took its musical cues from British glam rock.
17:49
Speaker 1: The sounds of bands like Sweet Slave, t Rex and
17:52
Speaker 1: mot the Hoople traded on big, crunchy guitar riffs, deep
17:55
Speaker 1: pocket grooves, sex laden vocals, and hedonistic lyrics. British glam
18:00
Speaker 1: was a sophisticated kind of cool that owed much to
18:03
Speaker 1: David Bowie and Queen, but its American offshoot, glam metal,
18:07
Speaker 1: kept one foot planet in the concrete jungles of Iggy
18:10
Speaker 1: Pop and Alice Cooper while peacocking through the glit streets
18:13
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles. Fashion threaded the two styles together, but
18:17
Speaker 1: the US version was more masculine, tougher, and a touch
18:20
Speaker 1: of violent. La Glam bands like Motley Crue would meld
18:24
Speaker 1: the androgyny of Mark Bowen with the apocalyptic look of
18:27
Speaker 1: Mad Max, and the result was something wildly unique and
18:31
Speaker 1: somehow representative of the violence tearing through the streets of
18:34
Speaker 1: Los Angeles at the time. In nineteen eighty five, violent
18:39
Speaker 1: crime in LA exploded to unprecedented levels due to the
18:43
Speaker 1: city's heavy trafficking of crack cocaine. You couldn't avoid the
18:46
Speaker 1: headlines if you tried, but glam metal heads did their
18:49
Speaker 1: best to ignore the harsh reality enveloping their city by
18:53
Speaker 1: setting up their own bacchanalia on Sunset where every night
18:56
Speaker 1: they drank, drugged, and fucked away their worries to the
18:59
Speaker 1: sounds of the strips hottest bands at the time, Wasp Rat, Poison,
19:03
Speaker 1: and the aforementioned Motley Crue, and there was no mistaking
19:07
Speaker 1: what LA's new music scene was all about.
19:09
Speaker 2: Debauchery, and their fans loved it.
19:12
Speaker 1: They showed up every night on mass packing clubs like
19:15
Speaker 1: the Starwood and the Whiskey, a go go to get
19:17
Speaker 1: a glimpse of the hedonism up close and personal.
19:20
Speaker 2: Glam music was an escape from reality, unlike the.
19:23
Speaker 1: Music being made on the other end of town, down
19:27
Speaker 1: in south central Los Angeles, where the effects of the
19:30
Speaker 1: crack epidemic were being felt most severely. Rap music, up
19:34
Speaker 1: until that point, mostly an East Coast export, was taking
19:37
Speaker 1: on a new identity, one that mirrored the harsh circumstances
19:41
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles street life.
19:43
Speaker 2: It would come to be known as.
19:44
Speaker 1: Gangster rap, and where LA's glam rock ran from reality,
19:48
Speaker 1: LA's gangster rap ran straight toward it and smacked it
19:52
Speaker 1: in its mouth with the butt of a clock. The
19:55
Speaker 1: beats these LA rappers made were bigger than anything from
19:57
Speaker 1: the East Coast, and the lyrics they spat out were
20:00
Speaker 1: more direct, honest, and profane than anything anyone had heard
20:04
Speaker 1: in music before.
20:05
Speaker 2: Anywhere, and Axel Rose loved it, all of it.
20:09
Speaker 1: Mid eighties LA music was as fraught with tension and
20:12
Speaker 1: manic energy as he was. It was bipolar on one end,
20:16
Speaker 1: a low down slap of unforgiving reality, a gut punch
20:20
Speaker 1: to authority, and on the other end, a high flying,
20:23
Speaker 1: endless party distraction via debauchery. He could appreciate the scene
20:27
Speaker 1: upon sunset, but in his heart he knew that there
20:30
Speaker 1: wasn't one band among them who could fuck with what
20:32
Speaker 1: he and his.
20:33
Speaker 2: New bandmates were about to bring to the party.
20:36
Speaker 1: Once Axel Rose arrived in Hollywood from Lafayette, Indiana, the
20:40
Speaker 1: transformation from small town delinquent the street walking cheetah was quick.
20:45
Speaker 1: After a few false starts, and along with his hometown
20:48
Speaker 1: bud Izzy Axel formed Guns N' Roses out on the
20:53
Speaker 1: streets and in the clubs. The band quickly developed a
20:56
Speaker 1: reputation as the nastiest hard rock and roll band on
20:59
Speaker 1: the Sunsets Strip. Let those other LA bands call themselves
21:03
Speaker 1: Glam Guns or GNR was going to stand out in
21:06
Speaker 1: the scene by separating themselves from the scene. They weren't glam,
21:10
Speaker 1: they were hard, and they weren't metal. They were rock
21:14
Speaker 1: hard rock, a simple but novel distinction to bring to
21:17
Speaker 1: the stage on the Strip an off stage, Axel Izzy
21:22
Speaker 1: and their new bandmates slash Stuff and Steven lived the
21:25
Speaker 1: life authentically. They drank and drugged harder than Motley Cruz.
21:29
Speaker 1: They fucked more strippers than poison. They got into it
21:33
Speaker 1: with the La County Sheriff's Department whenever they could, and
21:36
Speaker 1: were quick to brawl with posers, yuppie squares, or whoever
21:40
Speaker 1: else got in their faces. They were the real deal
21:43
Speaker 1: and their songs were great, totally authentic, and as such
21:47
Speaker 1: the band's appeal was undeniable. They packed them in at
21:51
Speaker 1: the Troubadour, the star Ward, and the Whiskey in nineteen
21:54
Speaker 1: eighty six, GNR signed to Geffen Records despite fears from
21:57
Speaker 1: executives that the band would be dead before before their
22:00
Speaker 1: record was even released. The thinking among Geffen employees was
22:04
Speaker 1: that if the drink and drugs didn't get them, then
22:06
Speaker 1: they'd self destruct. Via Axel's wild temper. The band was
22:11
Speaker 1: generally a mess. They were basically homeless. Guns and Roses
22:15
Speaker 1: squatted in the rehearsal space, a one car sized storage
22:19
Speaker 1: unit off of Sunset Boulevard behind the Sunset Grill, and
22:23
Speaker 1: they slept among their gear and there was no kitchen
22:26
Speaker 1: and no bathroom. But there was a constant party. When
22:29
Speaker 1: not rehearsing, which they did all the time, they'd get
22:32
Speaker 1: high and get drunk on night train with the Horrors
22:35
Speaker 1: from down on Hollywood Boulevard and party with members of Faster, Pussycat,
22:39
Speaker 1: Red Cross, and the looniest monster bands who liked to
22:42
Speaker 1: mix it up together but likely never shared space on
22:45
Speaker 1: anyone's mix dat Soon young kids from the valley.
22:49
Speaker 2: Started showing up to listen to the band rehearse.
22:52
Speaker 1: Stephen and Slash would play nice for a bit and
22:55
Speaker 1: scam them out of their money into the guys of
22:56
Speaker 1: procuring drugs for them. Axel didn't have time for such
22:59
Speaker 1: pret tenses. He would just roll them for whatever cash
23:02
Speaker 1: he could get. Young women, valley girls and prostitutes alike
23:06
Speaker 1: were subjected to a get naked or leave policy, and
23:10
Speaker 1: the fucking would spill out into the alley, and while
23:12
Speaker 1: little suburban valley boys realized their fantasies and gout with
23:16
Speaker 1: the professionals from Hollywood and Vine, the guys in the
23:19
Speaker 1: band would empty their pants pockets for their cash and
23:22
Speaker 1: clean out the purses of the less suspecting prostitutes. Word
23:26
Speaker 1: on the strip spread there was a party going on,
23:29
Speaker 1: and it was wild, and Joe Perry couldn't believe his
23:34
Speaker 1: eyes broad daylight fucking in the streets, he saw his man,
23:38
Speaker 1: short dude, greasy black hair aviators sitting on the hood
23:42
Speaker 1: of a car in the alley, restringing his less pall
23:45
Speaker 1: to Joe. The kid reminded him of someone himself wired
23:49
Speaker 1: to the actions surrounding him, but despite it all, in
23:52
Speaker 1: constant touch with his true love his guitar. Joe approached
23:57
Speaker 1: the kid, looked up immediately recognized his tar god hero.
24:01
Speaker 1: He also took note of the desperation in his eyes.
24:04
Speaker 1: The Jones Joe Perry started talking. If there was any
24:08
Speaker 1: doubt before of who he was, it was immediately erased
24:11
Speaker 1: by his thick Boston accent. Joe asked the kid, I'm
24:15
Speaker 1: looking for something, are you my man? The kid looked
24:18
Speaker 1: up from his guitar and deadpant, Hey, man, I'm just Izzy,
24:22
Speaker 1: But what can I get for you? On July twenty first,
24:41
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, Guns N' Roses' debut album, Appetite for Destruction.
24:46
Speaker 2: Was released.
24:47
Speaker 1: Their stars started to slowly rise, but growing fame didn't
24:51
Speaker 1: curtail the band's behavior, It only intensified it. Newfound celebrity
24:56
Speaker 1: and notoriety started to create a sense of isolation for
24:59
Speaker 1: Axel Rose. Wherever he went, he believed most people were
25:03
Speaker 1: trying to keep him down, just like the authority figures
25:06
Speaker 1: back home. Nowadays, the cops, the record labeled, the promoters,
25:10
Speaker 1: and increasingly the press were all trying to bleed out
25:13
Speaker 1: of him what it was that made him special in
25:15
Speaker 1: the first place, To get him to tone it down,
25:17
Speaker 1: to conform to their bullshit, to watch him bleed it
25:21
Speaker 1: made no sense. His sense of self was what was
25:24
Speaker 1: propelling his artistry and thus his band's popularity, and of
25:27
Speaker 1: course his behavior but now he was supposed to what
25:31
Speaker 1: becomes someone else, just because he now had a little fame,
25:34
Speaker 1: It was making him paranoid and causing very dramatic mood swings.
25:39
Speaker 1: The mood swings were always there, but when the band
25:41
Speaker 1: was starting out, they'd derail a rehearsal or a party,
25:44
Speaker 1: maybe a show. But as the band grew, so did
25:47
Speaker 1: the stakes. The mood swings at this stage of Axel's
25:51
Speaker 1: career were much harder for everyone to deal with. In
25:55
Speaker 1: February nineteen eighty eight, just after their triumphant show at
25:58
Speaker 1: the Ritz in New York City, Guns n' Roses embarked
26:01
Speaker 1: on their first headlining tour. It was a big deal,
26:04
Speaker 1: and Axel was a big mess. He was jankier than
26:08
Speaker 1: usual and emotionally volatile. On February twelfth, for unspecified reasons,
26:14
Speaker 1: Axel blew off one of the band's first headlining shows
26:17
Speaker 1: in Phoenix, Arizona. He went missing and no one knew
26:20
Speaker 1: where he was. The second show in Phoenix the next
26:23
Speaker 1: night was also canceled. Axel's bandmates were incensed. You don't
26:28
Speaker 1: pull a no show, not in the music business. It's
26:30
Speaker 1: a death sentence, a career killer, and they contemplated kicking
26:34
Speaker 1: Axel out of the band for the offense, and he
26:36
Speaker 1: had little contrition in less than the way of an excuse.
26:39
Speaker 1: He simply didn't show and he simply didn't care. If
26:42
Speaker 1: they wanted to kick him out of the band, go ahead,
26:44
Speaker 1: He told him who are you going to get to
26:45
Speaker 1: replace me? And he knew his place in the band
26:48
Speaker 1: was secure, but not without one major concession.
26:51
Speaker 2: Axel had to agree with.
26:53
Speaker 1: His band management and label to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
26:59
Speaker 1: Straight jacket, metal head brace, strapped down on a steel chair,
27:03
Speaker 1: some sort of post World War two torture chamber type technique.
27:07
Speaker 1: When people think of Axel Rose being psychologically evaluated by
27:10
Speaker 1: a team of UCLA doctors, this is what they think of,
27:14
Speaker 1: because this is the imagery and the famous Guns n'
27:16
Speaker 1: Roses music video for Welcome to the Jungle. When the
27:19
Speaker 1: song breaks down toward the end, we see the serpentine
27:23
Speaker 1: singer strapped in clockwork oranged opposite a wall of violent
27:27
Speaker 1: TV imagery. He looks insane, or at the very least
27:30
Speaker 1: is being treated as such. Its art imitating life in way,
27:35
Speaker 1: for Axel Rose, the real life evaluation was much scarier.
27:39
Speaker 1: What he saw the brief glimpse into his past while
27:43
Speaker 1: being mentally poked and prodded by doctors. It was truly traumatic,
27:48
Speaker 1: and despite Axel's pension to follow gg Allen's lead and
27:52
Speaker 1: the fuck authority, Axel knew the authority figures were finally
27:55
Speaker 1: onto something. With the diagnosis bipolar. Whatever that even was,
28:00
Speaker 1: it sure explained a lot the mood swings, the violence,
28:03
Speaker 1: the intense irritability. At least now there was some sort
28:06
Speaker 1: of reason in something to treat or at the very
28:09
Speaker 1: least unpacked to rationalize things. And it was agreed by
28:13
Speaker 1: everyone Axel would seek treatment and he'd be allowed back
28:17
Speaker 1: in the band. But the mood swings didn't just all
28:20
Speaker 1: of a sudden stop. Axel in the rest of the
28:23
Speaker 1: Guns n' Roses camp might have had a loose explanation
28:25
Speaker 1: for what their volatile singer felt inside, but it didn't
28:29
Speaker 1: just make the rage go away. And on August twentieth,
28:32
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight, Axel Rose was thinking of none of
28:35
Speaker 1: this as.
28:35
Speaker 2: He took the stage.
28:39
Speaker 1: Castle Donnington, England Monsters of Rock Festival on the bill
28:44
Speaker 1: Headliner's Iron Maiden direct support Kiss Below Them solo David
28:49
Speaker 1: Lee Roth and Megadeth on the Undercart, Guns N' Roses,
28:53
Speaker 1: and Openers Halloween. Aside from Halloween, the other acts were
28:58
Speaker 1: well established favorites, BUTS and Roses were fresh meat.
29:01
Speaker 2: The new sensation.
29:03
Speaker 1: Their single Sweet Child of Mine, released a month earlier,
29:06
Speaker 1: was everywhere a monster hit, and as such G and
29:10
Speaker 1: R were outperforming their positioning on the bottom of the bill.
29:14
Speaker 1: Given their explosion of popularity at the time and the
29:17
Speaker 1: excitement surrounding their unique brand of American hard rock, Guns
29:21
Speaker 1: and Roses could very well have headlined Monsters to Rock,
29:23
Speaker 1: and nobody would have gone home. Upset, Axel looked out
29:27
Speaker 1: into the crowd, an ocean of leather, long hair, and denim,
29:31
Speaker 1: one hundred and ten thousand strong. It had been raining
29:34
Speaker 1: for a week, and the festival grounds were muddy, messy,
29:38
Speaker 1: kind of like his band. The sky was dark, moody,
29:41
Speaker 1: just like him. The crowd was pitched with excitement, ready
29:45
Speaker 1: to embrace him, but also ready to buy back, a
29:48
Speaker 1: lot like those Axel loved and feared. At the same time,
29:51
Speaker 1: those closest to him don't get too close. Don't get
29:54
Speaker 1: too close. Axel could feel that the whole band could.
29:58
Speaker 1: This was a different type of crowd a different a
30:00
Speaker 1: vibed than anything they'd encountered before, and there were homemade
30:04
Speaker 1: guns and roses banners rising up from the crowd. A
30:07
Speaker 1: chance started burbling up from the back, thunder in the distance.
30:11
Speaker 1: Random projectiles were being hurled around from impatient fans. A
30:15
Speaker 1: squawk of feedback from Slash his less pall as he
30:18
Speaker 1: checked his hand. Two quick hits on the snare from
30:20
Speaker 1: Stephen as he took his seat. The champ grew louder. Axel,
30:25
Speaker 1: from behind the drum kit nearly backstage, looked over Izzy
30:29
Speaker 1: already on the stage, standing in front of his amp,
30:31
Speaker 1: facing Axel, avoiding eye contact, dealing with detention, the anticipation
30:36
Speaker 1: in his own way. His guitars slung over him, ltting
30:40
Speaker 1: a cigarette, and to his right bassis stuff McKagan all
30:43
Speaker 1: twenty two feet of him, standing straight facing the crowd,
30:46
Speaker 1: his bass slung low nearly it seemed to his ankles,
30:50
Speaker 1: ready to take the storm head on.
30:52
Speaker 2: Axel looked Stephen in the eye. It was time.
30:55
Speaker 1: Stephen knew what to do. He went at his toms
30:58
Speaker 1: with a fury. It was a hiccup, a signal to
31:00
Speaker 1: the crowd.
31:01
Speaker 2: Shit was about to go. Off, not quite yet.
31:04
Speaker 1: The crowd nearly lost it at the first hint through
31:07
Speaker 1: real music from the stage, and they could see the band,
31:10
Speaker 1: everyone but Axel, who was mostly hidden behind the kit,
31:13
Speaker 1: and they screamed and they chanted as he rolled the
31:17
Speaker 1: volume knob on his less pall to ten, gave his
31:19
Speaker 1: strings a quick swap test his weapon, and turned and
31:22
Speaker 1: nodded to Duff, who began beating his bass with the
31:25
Speaker 1: opening downstroke line for it so easy. With this, the
31:28
Speaker 1: crowd began screaming even louder, the drums and both guitars
31:35
Speaker 1: claying down on the dusk's bassline. Stephen picked up with
31:38
Speaker 1: the rolling snare, building the tension and the intro swelled.
31:43
Speaker 1: The band hammered down into the song's opening riff, and
31:46
Speaker 1: Axel sprinted out from backstage with mike in hand, and
31:50
Speaker 1: the crowd lost at the collective shit. The crowd saw nothing.
31:54
Speaker 1: They were blind with excitement. From the stage. The audience
31:58
Speaker 1: looked so big and so energized that it seemed like
32:01
Speaker 1: it was all one giant mass of humanity. It surged
32:04
Speaker 1: as one a big, scary lurch. All of the band
32:09
Speaker 1: members took notice, and this wasn't normal. There was no
32:12
Speaker 1: crowd organization, no seating, barely any effect of security holding
32:16
Speaker 1: the crowd in place. The band hit the chorus, another
32:20
Speaker 1: giant surge. Bottles were now raining down onto the crowd
32:24
Speaker 1: and the stage, big thirty two ounce beer bottles that
32:27
Speaker 1: were purchased empty and then pissed into by the crowd
32:30
Speaker 1: to avoid the bathroom lines. The little piss bombs exploded
32:34
Speaker 1: onto the stage. Slash exploded into the solo. The song
32:38
Speaker 1: soon rapped. The band looked at each other with trepidation.
32:41
Speaker 1: Something clearly was right. They eased into their neck song, hesited, instinctively,
32:47
Speaker 1: afraid of what might happen, of what this crowd, this giant, unhinged,
32:52
Speaker 1: unsecured men of crowd that was unlike anything any of
32:55
Speaker 1: them had ever seen before, might do, and their hesitancy didn't.
33:00
Speaker 1: Seconds into the next song, the crowd went ape shit.
33:03
Speaker 1: It lurched forward again in one giant wave, and then
33:06
Speaker 1: a hole in the middle of the crowd opened up.
33:08
Speaker 1: Within seconds, bodies were sucked into an undertow of humanity.
33:12
Speaker 1: A massive moshpit began. Most in the audience were powerless
33:18
Speaker 1: to the will of the collective crowd. It moved as
33:20
Speaker 1: one fan's feet were lifted up off the ground and
33:23
Speaker 1: their bodies swept up on top of the crowd, where
33:25
Speaker 1: they were passed over and over again until they'd eventually
33:29
Speaker 1: land back on their feet in an entirely different part
33:31
Speaker 1: of the festival grounds. The violent collective movement of the
33:35
Speaker 1: audience was so intense that Izzy stopped playing. The rest
33:39
Speaker 1: of the band quickly followed suit. Axel tried his best
33:42
Speaker 1: from the front of the stage to chill the crowd.
33:44
Speaker 1: Out bodies began being pulled out of the muddy melee, injured,
33:48
Speaker 1: in need of medical attention, but alive, order, it seemed,
33:52
Speaker 1: had been restored. The band kicked back into their set
33:55
Speaker 1: with Paradise City, and then shit got real.
34:10
Speaker 2: The Masian Ultra Violet relentless.
34:13
Speaker 1: Tens of thousands of people worked into a fit, slamming
34:16
Speaker 1: wildly into each other to the sounds of what was
34:18
Speaker 1: now clearly the most dangerous band on the planet in
34:22
Speaker 1: front of them. Off of the center of the stage,
34:24
Speaker 1: the crowd collapsed into itself. Thirty to fifty people sank
34:27
Speaker 1: down and into the muddy ground, and when they did,
34:30
Speaker 1: a wave of more fans washed over them. Most tripped,
34:34
Speaker 1: some fell, Swarms of bodies passed overhead, trampling others under
34:38
Speaker 1: their feet. The crowd continued to sway uncontrollably as one,
34:42
Speaker 1: and with a single false move, it seemed to the
34:44
Speaker 1: band that it could collapse in on itself again at
34:47
Speaker 1: any moment, or perhaps even overtake the stage, and.
34:50
Speaker 2: The band was frightened.
34:51
Speaker 1: They tried cooling things down with a new acoustic number, Patients,
34:55
Speaker 1: and then gave it one more shot with Sweet Child
34:58
Speaker 1: of Mind, but it was no use. The crowd was
35:01
Speaker 1: too intense, too terrifying, and after the tune the band bailed.
35:06
Speaker 1: Axel's temper once again got the better of him, and
35:08
Speaker 1: he spat into the mic before leaving the stage, have
35:11
Speaker 1: a great fucking day, and try not to fucking kill yourselves.
35:16
Speaker 1: Little did he know two of his fans in the
35:18
Speaker 1: crowd were already dead, stomped to death during his band's
35:22
Speaker 1: short set. Both bodies were so mangled they needed to
35:26
Speaker 1: be identified by the tattoos on their arms. When the
35:30
Speaker 1: band learned of the deaths, they were devastated, shocked, and saddened.
35:35
Speaker 1: When they learned that the press was blaming the band
35:37
Speaker 1: for the deaths, they were pissed. The newspapers and the
35:40
Speaker 1: magazines neglected to report the Guns n' Roses had stopped
35:44
Speaker 1: the show multiple times, or that they had cut their
35:47
Speaker 1: short set due to the violence, and the press is
35:49
Speaker 1: categorization of the event of the dead kids at the
35:52
Speaker 1: concert that it was all somehow the fault of the
35:55
Speaker 1: dangerous rockers from hedonistic Los Angeles was total bullshit. Band
36:00
Speaker 1: knew it, and the press, if they were being honest
36:02
Speaker 1: with themselves, knew it too. But the truth doesn't necessarily sell,
36:07
Speaker 1: and so began Axelrose's long term war with the media.
36:11
Speaker 2: It seemed to him that the press.
36:13
Speaker 1: Had no appetite for the truth, only an appetite for
36:17
Speaker 1: his personal destruction.
36:19
Speaker 2: It was a complete disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and this
36:24
Speaker 2: is Disgraceland.
36:42
Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership.
36:46
Speaker 2: With Double Elvis.
36:47
Speaker 1: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
36:49
Speaker 1: notes page at disgracelandpod dot com. If you're listening as
36:53
Speaker 1: a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for supporting the show.
36:56
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36:59
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37:32
Speaker 1: Rock a Roller
37:36
Speaker 2: He then Man