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 car’s tires got flattened by a vandal’s ice pick through the sidewalls. Meaning them fucking hundred-fifty-bucks-each Goodyear Eagles could not be patched. Some remained convinced that Axl did it, but not me. I pointed out, “Axl wouldn’t slash my tires, smashing my car’s windows is more his style.” Plus, I really didn’t believe he cared enough about being in L.A. Guns to make the trip all the way across Hollywood to flatten my (car’s) tires.
Axl’s departure meant the band did not own even one complete original song. Tracii made an attempt to pen some lyrics, but no one liked his ideas. My fondness for booze and cocaine translated into stacks of notebooks filled with scribbled poems and clever wordplay. After initially declining my offer to muse something up, Tracii relented and provided me a noisy, distorted, all-guitar boombox-recorded cassette. Try as I might, I could not make anything fit into the “song’s” structure. So I offered a novice’s advice, “Maybe if you were to repeat this part three times, lose that part, and tie it all together with a bridge, I’d give it another shot.”
Tracii was unwilling to restructure his semi-cool riffs into a cohesive tune artfully crafted to make young girls shed knickers, and dismissed my suggestions outright. It made me think back to Axl’s collaboration frustrations, and Mike Jagosz’s complaints of Tracii’s unwillingness to work on anything other than his own ideas. Unable to get Tracii to accept his lack of composing talent, I recommended that he seek pointers from Izzy. But Tracii knew better and dismissed yet another of my helpful suggestions.
Then the pragmatic-spiteful-stubborn Raz reared his ugly head and told Tracii, “We’re going to get Mike.”
In my youth, the passing of time felt ultra-compressed, with all matters urgent. It seemed like forever had passed since Axl resigned, but it took less than two weeks for me to accept the fact he would not return. The band had shows booked, as well as a half-finished record with an advertised release date; something needed to get done. Tracii wanted to put out the word that L.A. Guns was looking for a singer, but I put my foot down. “There’s no time to audition singers and write songs.” Then the pragmatic-spiteful-stubborn Raz reared his ugly head and told Tracii, “We’re going to get Mike.”
Axl liked Mike Jagosz far less than Al Capone liked the IRS, so I got that wonderful rush of spiteful satisfaction by replacing him with Mike. For the longest time, I couldn’t understand the animosity between those two, but they both disliked each other equally and more than a lot. Eventually, I figured out why Mike didn’t like Axl. It could all be summed up by a mutual girl liking Axl better, plus Tracii, me, and music lovers worldwide preferring Axl over him. Axl’s problems with Mike were likely the result of always being called Bill, plus Mike would act smug, semi-friendly, and then talk mega shit behind Axl’s back.
Hiring Mike was a no-brainer. He and Tracii already had seven songs written and another dozen covers to pull out of their asses once they removed their thumbs. Tracii initially refused, threatening to quit. I laughed in his face and pointed to the door. “Fuck off then, I’ll find a guitar player, too.” I meant it, too. Guitar players were not in short supply. So once he realized I was dead serious, and with Ole and Robbie on my side, Mike Jagosz became L.A. Guns’ second singer. Yes, I said “second.” You see, when L.A. Guns formed, and soon after I came onboard as manager/investor, the band never had a singer until Axl Rose agreed to join the group. Most likely the reason Mike is wrongly referred to as the “original singer” is that he’s the voice on the EP.
You might remember a mention of Axl recording vocals for “Heartbreak Hotel,” leading one to wonder, “Where is that song with him singing?” Well, you see, within days of Mike coming onboard, Chuck arranged time in a studio near Mulholland and Valley Circle; Preferred Sound, I believe. There, Mike recorded vocals for “Don’t Love Me” and “When Dreams Don’t Follow Through.” Both tracks were previously recorded and waiting for Axl-penned lyrics, but Mike’s versions contained entirely different melodies and lyrics.
Over the next week, Mike rested his voice and Tracii added more guitars before adding even more guitars to “Heartbreak Hotel.” When Mike returned to the booth to perform the vocals, there were no available tracks, so I said, “Erase Axl’s vocals.”
Then Mike attempted a few takes, but couldn’t pull off anything less than awful compared to Axl’s version. When G N’ R blew up, Tracii asked me about Axl’s vocals on “Heartbreak Hotel.” I reminded him, “There were nine guitar tracks, so we erased Axl for Mike’s vocals.” I have no regrets. The fact those vocal tracks no longer existed likely helped me avoid costly legal entanglements.
Mike never could get into the groove of “Heartbreak Hotel,” so Robbie moved Vinnie Appice’s drums aside and set up his own kit and then the boys laid down basic tracks for “It’s Not True” and “Something Heavy.”
Chuck’s love of Mike’s voice and stationary inclination meant those two got along great. Chuck became reenergized with the project, and we soon bounced from Preferred Sound into a kick-ass high-dollar studio, Westwind, located in Thousand Oaks. Mike never could get into the groove of “Heartbreak Hotel,” so Robbie moved Vinnie Appice’s drums aside and set up his own kit and then the boys laid down basic tracks for “It’s Not True” and “Something Heavy.”
