During an appearance on The Bad Decisions Podcast With Scott Nathan, L.A. GUNS guitarist Tracii Guns spoke about his early years as a member of GUNS N’ ROSES. Asked what GN’R singer Axl Rose was like as a roommate, Tracii said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “He was a great roommate. The interesting thing about Axl is he really knows right from wrong. Let’s just start there. He’s smart, he’s responsible, he is not afraid to ask for help when he needs help, he’s always ready to give help. A really solid person. We really had a great friendship. We were inseparable for a few years. The thing that changed — and I had known; he had told me — he had… What did we call it back then? Manic depression is what he called? ‘Well, yeah, I have manic depression,’ blah, blah, blah. ‘I’m supposed to be taking these meds, but I’m okay.’ And I would have never known — until the one day. And the one day was, he was off with a junior high school friend of mine. And he had taken some ecstasy, and we didn’t see him for, like, a week and he showed up at this gig and he was just like a completely different person. I was, like, ‘Whoa. Who are you? Who’s this guy?’ And that’s when the other side of that kind of kicked in.”
Tracii continued: “I knew I wasn’t gonna… I couldn’t deal with that. I loved him on the one side, the person I knew, and we were creative together, we were funny together, but at that time, he really wanted to take control over everything around him. And that’s when we were getting really popular. Before that, he was more aware and taking in information and kind of sorting out what we were doing and how this is going and all that stuff. But once we knew, once he knew that we were locked, that GUNS N’ ROSES was going only one direction… I mean, sometimes he would talk for 40 minutes out of a 60-minute set on stage, stuff like that. And I would look at Izzy [Stradlin, GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist] and Izzy would be very passive about it. I’d be, like, ‘Fuck that, man. I’m here to play guitar.’
“And so that’s when that whole thing started, the platform, the Axl Rose platform, and I think people really connected with it, , obviously, and I think they still do,” Guns added. “The things that he has to say, the things that are interesting to people, and his very — what’s the word? — loud and confident opinions on things like that. People latch to them, and it’s very heartfelt, and he’s very sincere when he says things, even if later he kind of might backtrack a little bit and say, ‘Well, I really meant it then, but humans grow and we move on.’ He’s very in [his head], and that’s what makes him great. But at that point, it just scared the shit out of me. I was just, like, ‘This isn’t a fun rock and roll band anymore. This is something else.'”
Back in 2007, Tracii told the South Wales Echo about his time with GUNS N’ ROSES: “If I had stayed with Axl, I don’t know if GUNS N’ ROSES would have been any better or worse but I think it would have been a very different band. We would have had a bit more fire. But the key to that band’s success was Axl because at that time his singing really connected with people on a social level.”
“I haven’t spoken to Axl since 1988, but we still have a lot of mutual friends. I don’t wish him ill, but it’s hard because he never stops saying bad things about me.
“Axl‘s problem is that if people don’t support him 100 percent in what he’s doing, he just doesn’t want to know them anymore. He’s so talented but that talent comes from being a nervous wreck and some place in your head you need to be happy, which he isn’t.”
“If I’d stayed with GUNS N’ ROSES for two more years, I could have financed my rock and roll dreams — got Blackie Lawless to play bass, Nikki Sixx on drums and Robert Plant to sing — but at the same time we had a pretty good run with L.A. GUNS, so I take the positives.”
In 2016, Tracii was asked by Jacky BamBam of Philadelphia’s 93.3 WMMR radio station if Axl was difficult to work with in the early days of GUNS N’ ROSES. Guns responded: “No. I loved it. There came a point in time where I don’t know exactly what was going on with him. I mean, I probably do, but it’s not important. It became really less about the music toward the end of when I was in the band and more about this kind of statement, this lifestyle, this kind of shoutout mentality — negative and positive. And I mean, that was cool, and he really found his calling; GUNS N’ ROSES became really Axl‘s voice, and we’ve seen that through the years. He can be really reclusive, but with GUNS N’ ROSES, being on stage and writing songs, he’s really able to express himself and really connect with millions and millions of people. And I’ve always been really supportive since I left, and I’m still supportive to this day. One of the happiest things I’ve ever seen in my life is seeing Axl singing for AC/DC. It’s just, like, ‘Wow, dude! You’re singing for AC/DC.’ It’s, like, ‘Wow!'”
L.A. GUNS‘ new album, “Leopard Skin”, will be released on April 4, 2025. It will mark the first fruit of L.A. GUNS‘ reunion with Cleopatra Records, a label known for its diverse roster and innovative approach to music production. The LP’s first single, “Taste It”, was released in early February on all digital outlets, along with a Jason Wisch-directed music video.
Source: blabbermouth.net
