How to End It All on a High Note
While I was still in the music business, I attempted to purchase a music rehearsal studio. I couldn’t secure financing, but remained confident the bank got it wrong. Then, during my open-mic career, while still believing I was to be the next Raz Cue, Pops suggested I find something to fall back on; just in […]
How to Make it Big in Show Business: 1989
So there I was, dicking along in life, figuring my embarrassing juvenile criminal record automatically sealed upon the day I turned eighteen. Wrong! One needed to apply and then have a hearing before a judge. A year after beginning the process, I received a letter informing me that my juvenile idiocy no longer existed. From […]
How I Learnt to Love the Normies: 1986-89
Theoretically, this book is about me, so let’s jump back to 1986 and right after Guns N’ Roses signed with Geffen Records. While they were busy conquering the universe, I was living my version of a normal life. I turned twenty-one, so Pops took me on a long-anticipated trip to Fabulous Las Vegas. It was […]
How to Become a Legend in Twelve Steps: 1989
I don’t know if it was something I did or said, but Axl never again called or gave me his phone number. I wasn’t officially blacklisted, and never had an issue getting show tickets and passes. Plus, whenever I ran into Axl, he never seemed unhappy to see me. We’d chat and get caught up […]
How to Get a Thrill That Will Get You: 1988
After months of relentless touring, G N’ R earned themselves a little time off. At the start of 1988, they returned to Hollywood as conquering heroes and were without a doubt the new band with the biggest buzz in the business. But in a flash, they were on the road again for most of February, […]
When Guns N’ Roses Were Brand New: 1987
By the start of 87, The Wild were also long gone from their Gardner Street studio. All the cool 24/7 parties moved to Orange Street, right around the corner from the iconic Chinese Theater. A recent building boom had produced several mostly-wheelchair-accessible, poorly built, half-occupied, future-overpriced-slum apartment complexes on the block. There they waited for […]
The Very First Steps to Becoming Infamous: 1986
Guns N’ Roses pulled a capacity crowd into the Troubadour on the first Saturday night of 1986. Along with a first-ever opportunity for fans to purchase Guns N’ Roses T-shirts, club goers also heard and felt the “My Michelle” debut. For months, Axl had wanted to use a particular segment from Scarface’s score for the […]
A New L.A. Guns Steps Up to Challenge GNR: 1985
Whatever Tracii Guns believed he had going on, right after getting the boot from G N’ R, never panned out. After a few months of sitting around twiddling his thumbs, one afternoon he dropped by my house to tell me he formed a new band with Nickey Alexander. Tracii asked if he could use the […]
The Guns N’ Roses You Know N’ Love: 1985
Axl only had one guitarist in mind. But Izzy expressed a desire to explore all options, in hopes of finding an older, more established musician. Axl remained steadfast and eventually convinced Izzy to at least invite Slash over to talk music, and perhaps those two might play some guitar together. The day after that get-together, […]
How to Get Invited to Guns ‘N’ Roses First Show
Shortly after that Iron Maiden concert, Izzy and Axl regrouped Hollywood Rose for a one-off gig at Dancing Waters. The South Bay club featured an actual waterfall cascading down behind the stage, but I never actually saw it because the joint wasn’t so wheelchair friendly. The flyer warned of “Hollywood Rose: The Band That Refuses […]
How to Make Ten Bucks In The Music Business: 1985
My freelance music-business school courses depleted my settlement funds at a pace comparable to lighting up blunts using hundred dollar bills. I invested in the wind and blew through eighty-five grand in six months. Plus, when there’s a dude selling killer blow right upstairs, withdrawing two hundred bucks daily from an ATM is a recipe […]
How to Squander a Shot at the Big Time: More 84
Six days after Axl Rose departed L.A. Guns, Ronald Regan earned a second presidential term with the largest electoral vote landslide victory in United States history. Maybe it just seemed like it because I was nineteen, but times were good in a proud and strong America. Well, except for the day all four of my […]