Mike Clink

[Vincent Vega]

Hey Marc, a couple of questions

1) How important to "The GN'R sound" would you say Mike Clink was? Was he as important as George Martin was to The Beatles?

2) Do you know if Mike Clink was ever approached to produce Chinese Democracy, if so what happened? How come Slash hasn't used Clink on any of his albums since the first Snakepit?

[DieselDaisy]

Clink's involvement with Chinese Democracy was early and brief:

"Long-time G n' R collaborator Mike Clink [...] sat in on rehearsals for a few months (early 1998) before ducking out of the project. 'Axl is trying to define his direction and trying out a lot of different collaborators,' Clink says of the delay and direction of the forthcoming Guns album. 'I've heard some of the material Axl has written and it's phenomenal, but he's a perfectionist and he needs everything to be just perfect. He needs the music to move him.'" (Rolling Stone, 11/14/

http://www.gnrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?id=3390

[recklessroad]

Mike was very important to the way AFD sounds. For years he was a great engineer that is the reason they hired him. The Songs on AFD didn't need much producing. It needed a great engineer. Mike knew how it get the sound that was needed fro the band.

[DieselDaisy]

Do you why they didn't use Thompson/Barbiero for Use Your Illusion?

I suspect it is something to do with something as mundane as a conflict of schedules but perhaps not. I have often wondered that as they were struggling with the Illusion mix (the rejection of Bob Clearmountain). In my opinion, Appetite has one of the greatest mixes ever. It is superior to Bill Price's Illusion mix (which has Izzy's guitar too low).

[T.wa.T]

I think Thompson and Barbiero had split up prior to GnR recording UYI.

[DieselDaisy]

Thompson minus a Barbiero then or vice versa?

I prefer the mix on Appetite, the prominance of Izzy's guitar, the less high and warmer drum sound. UYI just didn't sound right: big heavy metal guitars drowning Izzy out.