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Re: Duff Book
Read it last night. I only read the GN'R parts which infortunately didn't take as long as I'd hoped. Kinda extensive with 360 pages but the vast majority involves his private life. Compared to Slash' it's completly different types of work.
All in all I'm disappointed. Not only is the GN'R stuff scarce but what we do hear is pretty much what we've always heard. I never thought I'd say it but Axl gets it worse here than in Slash'. Duff tries to play it diplomatic but I can't say that I buy it all that much. He doesn't sound resentfull but Axls name is put in the middle of most problems.
Funny part. Meeting Axl again after 13 years:
In the end I just went to the door of his hotel room. People from his entourage stopped me in the hallway. "You can't go in right now, man" said one. "He's about to get in the shower to get ready for the show tonight."
"I've seen him naked before," I said.
Another part was kinda interesting. It's about signing the name over. According to Duff this happened in 93 now (?). An assistant of Axl came down and said they had to sign it over because anyday he or Slash could be dead and all the legal bullshit following that wouldn't be good for anyone. The assistant also made veiled threat of Axl not taking the stage. So I guess that solved the issue of somebody lying about that.
Re: Duff Book
Thanks to Mack Arillo:
On this last European leg of the tour, we sometimes weren't all together in the same city except for the performance itself. On a few occasions, we weren't even in the same country. Our plane could drop some of us here and others there.
On July 5, 1993, we all rendezvoused in Barcelona for a huge outdoor show at the Olympic Stadium. Axl came in from Venice. I returned from who a visit with Linda to the Spanish island of Ibiza. Slash was already in Barcelona.
After Suicidal Tendencies and Brian May had played their opening sets, our manager, Doug Goldstein, sent an oddly formal request to see me and Slash before the show. This was unusual.
When Slash and I arrived at the vibe room, one of the tour managers was sitting there waiting for us. The guy was clutching some papers. He put a slim stack of pages down in front of each of us. I leafed through it. It was a legal document giving Axl the right to continue to play as Guns N' Roses even if either Slash or I - or both of us - were not part of it. Though it didn't affect our status as shareholders in the operation, Axl and Axl alone would control the name if we signed this agreement.
"What the fuck?" I said.
"Look man," the tour manager said. "The truth is, you guys are not in good shape - you know that yourselves. If one of you dies, nobody wants to have to spend years in court battling your families or whatever."
That was not what it said, however. There was nothing about death in these documents.
With the crowd outside already getting rowdy, the guy then implied Axl wouldn't go onstage that night unless we signed the documents.
I pictured people getting hurt if a riot started - at least that was my fear. And I was so fucking exhausted - it felt as though I'd been dragging a house around behind me for the last two years. Besides, at the time I never thought GN'R could possibly exist without us. The idea seemed ridiculous. And in that case, maybe the documents didn't need to be fixed?
Fuck it.
I signed, so did Slash.
Guns N' Roses - the trademark now owned by Axl - took the stage.
The next day, I grabbed Doug Goldstein on the tarmac at the airport. I had woken up really upset about what had happened the previous night. Slash and I shouldn't have signed those papers. But management wouldn't let the whole thing go forward anyway. Right? I shouted at Doug, saying he needed to fix things.
"Look, Duff," he said, "you're a smart guy. I manage Guns N' Roses."
"Yeah, I know, Doug. And that's why we have to - "
"No, you're not getting it
"Are you trying to tell me you manage the name Guns N' Roses?"
I was still a member of the band. Not a paid hand. Slash and I still had the same equity stake as before. We had just relinquished control of the name.
Doug looked at me with no expression.
"You manage the guy who owns the name Guns N' Roses - is where you're going, Doug?"
He shrugged. That was where he was going.
I was apoplectic with rage. I couldn't even speak.
We boarded the plane.
Only five more shows in Europe. Five. More. Shows.
You can make it.
After twenty-six months, the final concerts of the Use Your Illusion tour appeared on the horizon.
Re: Duff Book
I normally believe Duff is a pretty level-headed guy, but I don't buy it.
That explanation REEKS of bullshit.
I still think the name thing was thrown in during Niven renegotiating with Geffen, and the guys were too busy partying to give a shit. By the time it became an issue, Slash & Duff saw too many dollar signs to stop the UYI tour in order to fight Axl on it.
Duff's explanation just sounds WAY too dumb for a guy like that, and not consistent with what he's said in the past. Duff was a full blown drunk by '93, and self-admittedly exhausted. He was passing out on stage at the time, and admitted numerous times over the years to not remember many of the shows during the final legs of the UYI tour. YET, he remembers IN DETAIL when this happened, and what show. Sounds kinda selective, eh?
Then on top of that he puts himself over with fans, by basically saying he did to "protect them from a riot".
Huh? So he signed away his part in Guns N' Roses future, simply to "get on with the show, because Axl won't play if you don't".
Duff might've been a drunk, and also pre-business then (so without the knowledge), but he has NEVER struck me as a stupid man.
That's an incredibly amateur, stupid move at the pinnacle of GNR's fame, that I just DO NOT see Duff doing, or at least not doing for the reasons he stated. It reeks of bullshit.
I'm not an Axl apologist, but his explanation makes the most sense, and I believe was also consistent with what Alan Niven said in one of his interviews.
Re: Duff Book
I'm waiting for my book to come from Amazon to read, but I had feared the GNR aspects of it might be small.
I know Duff has said in interviews it was more a personal book rather than his side of the GNR story. That said I have wondered if he has kept a lid on a lot of the GNR stuff in an attempt to be more diplomatic.
Duff's tune has changed over more recent years and with Slash ditching him and VR for his solo stuff, maybe he feels it's best not to roast Axl too badly. That way he can play both sides of the argument without standing too much in either camp.
Re: Duff Book
Duff tries to play it diplomatic but I can't say that I buy it all that much. He doesn't sound resentfull but Axls name is put in the middle of most problems.
i kinda always got this impression from duff & have been expecting more insight into axl's behaviour in this manner opposed to slashs' more sensational outbursts
disappointed (tho again not unexpected) it isn't a GnR book. duff has been trying to put his time in GnR in it's place & move on & he has been more successful than the others in that regard. but unless his private life is extremely interesting the only people buying the book will be GnR fans..
Re: Duff Book
slippery manager hi-jacks rock n roll band?
he saw an opportunity and made the most of it. Slash & Duff shouldn't have been so out of the loop. & Axl should have been a better bandmate. but can't really blame an outside opportunist like goldstein, behaving like his people taught him.
(that last line was a joke. sort of.)
- Mikkamakka
- Rep: 217
Re: Duff Book
Everyone has the same story about the name issue, except one. The one who got it, and he got it, according to the others' stories, a very nasty way. That's it. And his people are talking about Slash being a thief and shit like that... Welcome to Axl land, when reality is forbidden, cause it may hurt the emperor's feelings.
