Carlos Castaneda Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 (edited) Marc,Have you ever drawn any parallels between your journey to get out your book and Axl's journey to get out CD? Both took roughly about the sometime to get to the public and was beset by a slew of unforeseen obstacles. I would like to know what the "fuck it" moment was for you in releasing your book. There had to be a moment when you said Im doing this regardless of Axl's wishes. What was that moment. It can't just be sharing it with the fans. This was a passion project. Edited December 6, 2014 by Carlos Castaneda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post recklessroad Posted December 6, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted December 6, 2014 (edited) I wanted the book out when the band made their mark in 1988 but I didn't want to step on Robert John's toes because thats how he made his living selling his GNR photos. After he put out his book in 1993 is when I had the fuck it moment. So thats when I told Axl that I was putting it together. It took be over a year to put together the first draft and then my agent said that we had to wait for the band to put out a record to get the book out. After 4 or 5 months of nothing happening with the band or the book, I got a new agent. The problem was almost the same thing, they were greedy and wanted to get a nice advance for the book so they can make their money. I just wanted the book out and didn't care about any advance. After a year they send it back to me. I then sold my rock n roll collection of magazine on Ebay. 2,000 of them one item at a time which took 2 years to do. My plane was to self publish it with the money I made from selling my stuff. After looking into it at that time, it was a big challenge so I just put the draft of the book in my closet where it sat until I found someone to help me get it out which was near the end of 2006. I found them by accident because I really wasn't looking at that time to get it done. I signed a deal and the book was going to be out in the summer of 2007.There was no fuck it moment in 2007. In fact I was able to stall it a few months because Axl had asked me to hold it until after his CD came out but I didn't have the power to do that for more then a few months. I was under contract and when the book was ready it was going to come out. I was not trying to put it out with the new record. The record was going to come out in Nov 2006 and I had heard most of the tracts that sounded mixed and ready to come out in Aug 2006. So i thought 6 or 7 months after the record would be a good time to have the book come out.I was sad that Axl didn't help out with the new interviews that we were doing in 2007 for the book. I know he wanted to help me but it was just too much for him to handle at that time. Somehow he believes or was told that I didn't want to work with them meaning the GNR camp. Beta told me that Axl will help with the book if I wait until after CD comes out but that was not an option for me.I knew how Axl felt about Slash at the time which was all he has to do is come clean about all those lies that he told and then Axl will let him play on a few songs on the record. I didn't think that it mattered that Slash was no longer in the band because when Axl saw my first draft back in 1994, Izzy and Steven were not in the band and they also were not on good terms with Axl at the time. Axl didn't have a problem with Steven and Izzy being on every page of the book. So the way I saw it was it was the history of the band and most importantly, it was my work that I really really wanted out for the fans to enjoy and after waiting 12 years, I had the chance to get it out. My true thoughts were Axl probably would rather not have me put it out ever but at the same time as a true friend would take one for a friend. It didn't really work out for either one as far as the friendship between us but it did work out for the fans that got the chance to see the bands history. Also It does feel good every time someone thanks me for what I did and knowing that I did make a difference in the GNR world. Edited December 6, 2014 by recklessroad 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LyndaRose Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 (edited) Marc, you told us before that it took a long time to get the book out, but at the same time you told us that you did not have the time to edit it properly, because it had to be released.....I do not really understand this. Edited December 6, 2014 by LyndaRose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recklessroad Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 The draft that I gave them didn't have any typos. The problem was in 2007 we decided to interview all the other people that talk in the book. Those interviews were then transcribed and then parts of them put in the book as place holders around the photos. Then my publisher when ahead and spent a lot of the investors money on himself and thought he would pay it back with the preorders. The problem is my publisher thought there would be about 30 thousand preorders but was wrong, we only had 13 hundred. So he was out of money and rushed out the book thinking that stores would start to sell them faster and that he would then have money to promote the book the way it should have been done. All I know is that I got to look at word docs of the text one day before it went to print. I found a ton of mistakes plus some things that should not have been in the book. I made a list of over 100 things that needed to be fixed. I sent it in and also changed a lot of them on the phone with the publisher but there were problems with the format that the book was in while it was at the printer. Every time we fixed one thing, it would grab a word from the next page to make up for something we took out. My publisher informed me that there is nothing he can do but wait until the reprint. None of this would have happened if he didn't spend money that was not his. We could have had the book proofread and I could have taking out a few things that didn't belong in the book in the first place. Also I wanted to add more info that got cut out because it didn't fit with the sections of subjects of text chats that were put in the book after the interviews were done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T.wa.T Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Interesting read Marc. Can you tell us what you wanted removed from the book, and why the sudden change?? About Slash playing on CD. Did he ever talk with you about that? Did he ever come close to actually doing it?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recklessroad Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Spencer Proffer and Desi Craft said some things that were not true and I would have taken the out.At the time which was in 2001 I told Slash about playing on a few songs on CD and what Axl's demands were. There was no way he would do that, he felt that he did nothing wrong and had nothing to apologize for and would no way work with the people that were in the band at that time. He would have still done a reunion but not play on just a few songs with a different band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T.wa.T Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Great insite, thanks as always Marc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strange Broue Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Spencer Proffer and Desi Craft said some things that were not true and I would have taken the out.At the time which was in 2001 I told Slash about playing on a few songs on CD and what Axl's demands were. There was no way he would do that, he felt that he did nothing wrong and had nothing to apologize for and would no way work with the people that were in the band at that time. He would have still done a reunion but not play on just a few songs with a different band.So there would be zero chance for a reunion even if Axl wants it, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recklessroad Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 If Axl wanted to work with Slash again, then I'm sure that they would work something out between them to keep it fair, but first Axl would have to want to and thats as things stand thats a big a reach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsh327 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Rami Jaffee was on Stern talking about his friendship with Jakob Dylan being pretty shaky, but I don't think they're as bad as Slash and Axl as far as the disconnect goes. I guess after 10-20 years, something's going to give.I think working with family has to be a lot tougher, so how do you do it?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WFA Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Marc-Can you share anything that you wanted in the book didn't make it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recklessroad Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Marc-Can you share anything that you wanted in the book didn't make it?I just wanted to fill in somethings that took place around the time of each gig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sploit Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Marc, if you had been around during the transitional period in which the Newer Lineups developed and had taken pictures and stuff......do you think you would have released a book based around that era?I ask because that period of time is largely shrouded in mystery......I think it would be cool to hear their stories too. What do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lim666 Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 In the beginning of the release of the book there was the mentioning of an 2nd edition of the book without all the typos. Will that somehow be available in the future? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recklessroad Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 Yes after we sell the 50.000 copies that were holding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victor.vFo Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Yes after we sell the 50.000 copies that were holdingDo you have the numbers of how the book sold worldwide?If you do, can you share with us?I don't know if you can or if you want to share such info, but it just came to my mind... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recklessroad Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 I don't have any real numbers but I can guess that around 35 to 40 K of the american ones have been sold. There were 6 or 7 other ones made for different countries and they probably printed up around 2 to 5K each and then there are around 5K that were made bad and have bad spines . All I know is that I'm storing around 50k of them so i'm up to my ears in Reckless Road books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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