Robb Flynn Rants - Mentions GnR!

jonesy

Robb Flynn had a rant on his FB page. I'm not on FB, I read this from Blabbermouth.

I like his take on things, he has a point. And thinking about what he says about Axl and band, I agree with him there too.

Apologies if its a long load of shit that shouldn't be in this forum, but it's slow round here so thought I'd post it up.

Source: http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/machin … reativity/

"I'm in a shitty mood.

"Not for the story I'm about to tell, but because of my thoughts afterward.

"I went out to San Francisco for my buddy Joe's birthday shenanigans. We went out for Moroccan food at a joint called El Mansour. The place had a great vibe, belly dancing, sword balancing, and amazing food! The lamb in particular was to-freakin'-die-for, slow roasted and covered in honey and cinnamon.

"On the way out there, Joe's buddy Tony picked me up from JingleTown [studio], since I didn't want to drive as I knew I'd be drinking. On the hour-long trip out (Saturday traffic to San Francisco), he was telling me some pretty awesome stories about growing up in the ''70s. You see, Tony was a teenager in 1975, and used to go the famous San Francisco venue Winterland. Winterland was before my time, but being part of the scene you heard the legend, the stories and the history.

"Tony is a big BLACK SABBATH fan, saw them back in '75 on the 'Sabotage' tour and said it was a life-changing experience. Him and his buddies used to go to Winterland, load up on LSD, cigarettes, and weed, and go watch pretty much the cream of the crop of classic rock bands. TED NUGENT, SABBATH, DEEP PURPLE, JOURNEY, MONTROSE, you name it, he went and saw it. The shows would start and if people loved the opening band (essentially cheering non-stop) they'd get to do encores. He was telling me about a show JOURNEY (the opener!), killed it, and they got 4 encores, the support band got 4 encores! Then the headliner, MONTROSE, got 5 ENCORES! MONTROSE didn't stop playing until 2:30 in the morning, everyone stayed, no one would even dare consider leaving and people experienced some of the best music of their lives.

"An opener getting encores, crazy…

"And the venue allowed things like this to happen. The venue just kept the bands rolling.

"Not only that, but all of the shows at Winterland were $4.50.

"4 dollars and 50 cents…..18 freakin' quarters!

"Wow…?!?

"All I could think of was 'what an amazing time for music.'

"People wonder why the 'classic rock' bands were so good. They were playing by their own rules, and they had a culture of venues and people around that were as crazy and fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants as the bands themselves. The promoters around that time did anything to make the bands happy and if it meant playing all goddamn night? Let 'em!

"I tell you right now, though, there isn't a band out there who would play til 2:30 a.m. nowadays, let alone find a major venue that would even ALLOW such a thing.

"I remember when I first started going to /playing thrash shows, it was a very similar thing. It was no rules, no security, no safety, no curfews, and for the most part anything went!
Venues these days are mostly run with union workers. In most major cities, you have to take breaks during the day, where a band can't even sound check for an hour because the union workers need a 'break.' Nowadays if you play 1 minute past 11 p.m. at any of the large union venues, it costs the band $1,000 dollars a minute. When we were out with METALLICA playing arenas they regularly play 20 minutes past 11:00 p.m., and they regularly paid $20,000 to do so.

"I went and saw PEARL JAM about a month ago, and they played one of the best, most truly rock 'n' roll shows I've seen in eons. It was fucking magical, Eddie Vedder drank 3 bottles of wine, and about 2 hours into the set, he started getting a little sloppy, forgetting lyrics, missing cues, it looked like it was about to fall off the rails. The band then they took a quick break and he came back and played 'Black'.

"Let me tell you, it was magic! I'm getting goose bumps writing this, just remembering it. It was such a turn-around; it totally took the night to an even higher level. At this point they were already 45 minutes past 11. They played several more songs and eventually the Oakland Arena (currently called the Oracle Arena, until some different stupid corporate sponsor buys it and changes it to something ridiculous like Florida's 1-800-Ask Gary Amphitheater) turned on the house lights, signaling them to stop. PEARL JAM said 'fuck you!' and played 2 more songs with the house lights on! Eddie Vedder then brought the band back out onstage to do an extra-long goodbye to the crowd. I love their fucking attitude.

"In the end, they played 70 minutes over 'curfew' and I'd imagine left Oakland about $70,000 dollars lighter to do so. Of course PEARL JAM can afford it, and frankly it gave every single person there one of the best shows of their life. But this gesture to keep the 'room' in a good mood in conjunction with the Winterland conversation, it got me thinking.

"Shit has changed.

"On the one hand, I love PEARL JAM's 'fuck you, were doing it our way' attitude, and on the other hand, it angered and depressed me.

"Only the METALLICAs and PEARL JAMs can pull things like this. Bands that have sold millions of records, and they can afford it.

"If MACHINE HEAD tried playing an hour over curfew at say, the House Of Blues in Dallas, Texas, we'd be walking out of there with our entire guarantee eaten up. Even if the fans wanted it, some venue would do their best to shut it down, cut power, close curtain, whatever.

"The music business has sucked the life out of creativity. No one is encouraged to take risks, no one is encouraged to push the envelope, because it's all about first-week sales! It's about pointless radio play and how good your last tour went. How venues and promoters are squeezing the last drop of spontaneity out of your soul by not 'allowing' you to playing past curfew and not drawing outside the line.

"When we play that game, we essentially applaud mediocrity.

"There's nothing dangerous about music these days, there's nothing surprising about it either. There can't be. Other than PEARL JAM, the only 'band' that doesn't seem to really give a flying fuck and plays by their own rules isn't really a band at all, are they? Axl and the ROSES are known for bending the rules and telling the powers that be to 'fuck off,' but because their band is so confusing they come across as a joke. But people don't see this. People don't see any of this!

"And the reason you don't care is because it's too easy to get sucked into your phone, or your Facebook, or your Twitter, or your Tumblr, or your Instagram, or your games, or your TV shows.

"Music isn't important anymore. Say it is all you want, but the fact is, the 2 biggest rock records of last year only sold 400,000 copies, neither even went gold.

"Music is in the background of a game. Why go to a show when you can watch clips of it on YouTube and bitch about how it stinks live?

"And you know what, I miss music being important! I miss live shows being important. I miss feeling a part of something that was so high on my list I'd crawl through broken glass to get it.

"All this technology we have now that's supposed to make us 'connected?' It's making me feel more fucking disconnected than ever. I mean watching all the things that other people are doing that I'm not invited to or even a apart of? And yet at the same time completely disgusted by faux-self-importance it has given everyone, (here's my dog or cat for the millionth time, here's a selfie for the millionth time, here's my kids for the millionth time, here' the food I'm eating for the millionth time, here's what I'm doing and you're not). Don't you wish you were eating what I'm eating?

"Fuck you!

I've thought of tweeting or Facebooking something so many time and just went, 'who cares', why should anyone care about this, and you SHOULDN'T care.

"You're all my 'friends,' you've all 'liked' me, but really, you're not my friends, because we don't know each other. You took a photo of me, or you interviewed me, or we talked after a show. And after you get past the initial coolness, of re-connecting with someone from high school on Facebook or Twitter, you realize you truly have drifted apart.

"And fuckin' A, I'm glad we did.

"I don't want to be 'friends' with everyone; I don't want to be 'liked' by everyone. I want to feel connected to something. And nothing I look at in the music business does that. I don't get radio bands; I don't get any of these fucking 'scene bands.' I don't get bands singing about how great being American is, as if the geographic location you were born, (and had zero control over in any way shape or form), somehow makes us better than any other geographical place of birth!?

"I don't get why people don't want to see live music anymore, I don't get it. Did you see the clip of Hetfield talking about how America needs to start 'wanting' music again? This is James 'Fucking' Hetfield talking, people! Didn't those words do anything to anyone? Didn't what he said make you feel a bit disgusted? I'm a METALLICA fan and those words being spoken kind of stung a bit.

"You can bitch all you want that MACHINE HEAD only does festival tours and only plays for 30 minutes, but all those bands (including us) that play festival tours, can't draw squat when were not on festival tours. And even the big metal festivals are having troubles. Maybe the days of bands touring is coming to an end? Bands didn't always tour, you know, Mozart didn't hit the road for a year or 2 back in the day. Touring is really a phenomenon of the last 60 years or so. People didn't always buy records, or CDs, or files, or streams, that's also a phenomenon of the last 60 or 70 years.

"I don't get the political fucking correctness of music anymore.

"I don't get the narrow-mindedness of the world anymore.

"I don't get people asking me every week to try and write 'more like 'Burn My Eyes', please.'

"I don't get religious nutjobs who think that when they die they're going to 72 virgins when they get to heaven. ('You're guaranteed to get some pussy in the afterlife, boys,' so obviously written by a man!)

"I don't get religious fucking nutjobs who think that Jesus is coming back soon, wearing a white, blood-stained robe (stained with the blood of his enemies…whoever those are) and will be carrying a sword, and by 'sword,' the bible meant an AR-15!

"What did Napoleon say? 'Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.'

"I don't get why we need to hear 'America The Beautiful' and 'thank a soldier' in a TV commercial, 22 and 14 times respectively during the Superbowl.

"I don't fucking get it.

"You don't care about music, and I don't care about music, and I sit here wondering if this feeling is a result of the business itself, or is the business a result of our own apathy towards music.

I feel lost.

"I feel alone.

"Something has to change.

"Someone has to stir the pot.

"Something needs to come along and wake us up out of the slumber."

BLS-Pride

Made the gnr reference bold. Thanks for posting this. I actually agree with a lot of it. Too much truth in that. Its a sad sad state for rock and roll and music in general. The edge is dull. Very dull. We do need a band or someone to come out of the masses and light that fuck you fire.

Olorin

Nice post! I havnt really gave their album much of a chance, but I have the song Locust on my mp3 gym mix, I like it, should really delve into the rest of the album.

Thing is with GN'R, they play into the early hours of the morning because they start late, and from the parking attendants, the audience, to the band itself, they're all there waiting on Axl Rose to arrive so the show can get underway. I dont really think thats rock n roll, just Axl being a dick cause he can.

Mikkamakka

This happens, when "rebellious attitude" becomes a corporate product, something to sell. Axl is not someopne who wanna change the system. He's the little dictator who wants "his system", his "sociopsychotic state of bliss" to be the norm. For him at least, cause others' insanity drives him even more crazy. Sorry, I'm drunk, but I can't feel anything but sorry for this man, who seemed to be the greatest kick ass frotman, almost a Messiah to me and he's only jerking off for old shit. Victory or death, Axl. You're too late, anyway. Fucked it up and the real rock and roll Messiah hasn't come. Keep playing your old jukebox, keep drinking and keep talking about doing something. It will ease the pain of wasting your mega talent and your band's mega talent as well. The biggest waste ever in rock and roll.

polluxlm

The guy is right. Music is dead on the cultural level. Nobody is doing anything real anymore. No John Lennon or Muhammed Ali on tv speaking their mind and no Axl Rose's breaking the rules. No room for that anymore. It's plug your tour and album, tell some funny stories and see you on the next cycle. The biggest male star is Justin Bieber and he's about as exciting as a teletubbie. The top girls are divided by differing degrees of slut. Behind that pack there's not much going on until you get far into the forest. A scattered wasteland of ageing veterans and niche performers. None of whom is doing anything considered relevant.

Axl could stick out from that bunch if he could just get out some albums, to at least maintain an aura of contemporaneity, but he seems more comfortable being a local juggler. A traveling circus show, going around like an over the hill comedian punching out old jokes. And then, maybe, sometime new material. It doesn't look like he's even trying anymore. He's been a waste of talent for 20 years and continues to be so.

apex-twin

I'll use the opportunity to quote an interesting article on the Boss which I'm reading.

It’s a sweet day for Springsteen. “Wrecking Ball” is the No. 1 album in the U.S. and in the United Kingdom, passing Adele’s blockbuster “21.” “This is great news, but we’ll see where we are in a few weeks,” Landau says. Springsteen will never again have huge sellers like “Born in the U.S.A.,” but he will always get an initial burst of sales from his fan base. How sales sustain over time is the question. (The answer is that they don’t: after a month, “Wrecking Ball” dropped to No. 19. By summer, it had fallen off the charts.) What makes Springsteen an economic power at this point is his status as a live performer.

Mind you, this is an established performer with decades' worth of better business decisions than Axl's ever accomplished. In 2012, only hardcores buy his album. He stays afloat much like Trent Reznor, arduously rehearsing the stage shows with his band to provide spectacles. With bands like NIN or E Street, it's not as much about the music as it is about the presentation of it. The show is big, with many moving parts. You get your money's worth, and tell your friends the day after how riveting it was. The next year or so when they blow into town, your friends hopefully (for the band) decide to check it out. That's how the biggest fish survive, scaring off the sharks with sheer size.

Guns with Slash would hardly sell out stadiums anymore. Arenas, yes, if properly orchestrated. But even their comeback album would now be relegated as a curiosity for anyone aside the hardcores and it would never, ever, reach the sales figures of Appetite. This is not to put anyone involved down, but simply to say that the industry has changed to an impossible degree. Axl offers nostalgia, because it sells way more than CD2. He's lucky enough to have a household name as his mealticket, and so does Slash, who'll always be the GNR guitarist, with or without a reunion. The hardcores lose (in comparison to, say, NIN and Springsteen) on the account that Axl is too scared to release CD2 and there's no pressure coming from Universal for him to do so.

Guns are certainly a strange band. They've been around long enough to witness a good deal of changes in the music industry and have been unfortunate enough to be burned by most of them.

johndivney

Bullshit. That's all excuses. Mikka is closer to the truth.
It's not about attitude or power or oversized outdated neurosis, it's about the blatant lack of professionalism, courtesy, ambition & the squalor of living in such disarray.

You can have endless sympathy for the guy for other reasons but his professional conduct is bemusing to say the least, non-existent would perhaps be a better term..

otto

apex-twin wrote:

Guns are certainly a strange band. They've been around long enough to witness a good deal of changes in the music industry and have been unfortunate enough to be burned by most of them.

Or too lazy or too arrogant (perhaps both) to adapt, as NIN did.

Even Bumblefoot has publicly stated that the music "album" release is dead and that if they had released a single only, each leg of the infinite tour, they'd have an album worth of material right now but "Axl is stuck with the concept of an album and songs in a context".

Victory or death, indeed, and Axl chose to be in a Limbo. I really believed in the guy and I thought his Elvis in Vegas days would never come.

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