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Duff interview: New music is a logical thing- No beef with Izzy


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Without knowing what's going on behind the scenes it's not easy to tell. 

We simply don't know what they offered Izzy and what they wanted from him. Should he be a permanent member or should he join the band for some songs on different locations like Steven did?

We don't even know how they split their money between the three of them, so how could we tell about Izzy in this situation.

IMO it should have been a full reunion with everybody getting an equal share of what they earned. But it's not and there is this partnership contract between Axl, Slash and Duff from back in the day. Maybe that matters too. It's a hard topic for conjectures. 

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5 hours ago, double talkin jive mfkr said:

theres no huge beef with izzy because they did the whole box set thing which him and adler benefited from 

 

there is smaller beef now 

Thinking about this would steven and izzy have to sign off on the rerelease or not because they signed their rights away as part of the guns agreement?. 

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On 7.10.2018 at 2:15 AM, RussTCB said:

He's not known that well outside of hard core fans, at least in my opinion. 

Unfortunately you're right. I recently  have watched a documenatrya bout GNR and Izzy wasn't mentioned until he just left the band. Like he was an ordinary guitarist, not an important person in GNR.
I think there are fans, especially the younger generations who  became fans after Izzy left the band and unfortunately they do not care about him as much as they should. besides this- the fact that Izzy is out
of the spotlight also doesn't help pretty much in this situation.
Of course Im not talking about all fans here. I dont generalize. My comment is about the exeptions that exist.

 
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Would've rather seen Izzy involved over Duff, not that I have anything against duff... they should've offered Izzy more money and not been greedy. Just because Izzy left the UYI tour 25 years ago doesn't mean he couldn't be counted on for NITL. different time, different set of circumstances. Same could be said (to a lesser degree) about Adler. 

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I think the promoters put the money up for Axl and Slash. Duff brokered the deal and is part of the legal partnership. Duff isn’t seem as a liability having completed many tours. So Izzy and Steven aren’t seen as money by promoters. They have no leverage. 

Izzy played no part in setting up the shows and has no leverage, so business heads would expect him to take Dj Ashba money. 

But Izzy doesn’t like touring that much and without the money and respect that comes with, he isn’t that excited about it.

It’s not a big drama. It’s just sad that casual fans don’t know Izzy’s importance. Maybe he’s not in terms of the live show. 

It might even be the best for everyone. I think Axl, Slash and Duff have more overheads than Izzy or Steven. 

I think we’ll see the 5 even if it’s in a small venue or something like that. Might be fun. 

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On 9/30/2018 at 9:35 AM, Blackstar said:

Izzy wrote a few songs with Duff in 1995.

I think Slash said it for the songs they wrote with Izzy for Velvet Revolver though.

They wrote an album's worth of material as the project, and Izzy bailed like a bitch once they decided to go with Scott as he singer

 

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On 10/8/2018 at 9:03 AM, YourMother'sDruthers said:

Would've rather seen Izzy involved over Duff, not that I have anything against duff... they should've offered Izzy more money and not been greedy. Just because Izzy left the UYI tour 25 years ago doesn't mean he couldn't be counted on for NITL. different time, different set of circumstances. Same could be said (to a lesser degree) about Adler. 

Please,  Izzy bailed on Guns right before a stadium tour for the illusions,  bailed on VR once they decided to go with Scott,  bailed on a nitl appearance and bailed a few times on guest appearances with both guns and VR. To say he's reliable on a multi year stadium tour is just naive wishful thinking. 

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32 minutes ago, jmapelian said:

They wrote an album's worth of material as the project, and Izzy bailed like a bitch once they decided to go with Scott as he singer

 

Bailed like a bitch? Show some respect.

The guy knew what it was like to have a narcissistic egomaniac as a singer/leader. Why would he put himself through that AGAIN? He saw the red flags and acted accordingly based on his own experience.

On the other hand, Duff and Slash wanted to be big at all costs... and look at what happened, drama from the get go, turned a blind eye to it, Duff got addicted to painkillers and Slash was hitting the bottle... They were too dumb to see the red flags, or too blinded by the idea of making it big again that they decided to ignore the coming shitstorm.

 

Very smart move from Izzy.

Edited by D.Z.I.
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7 minutes ago, D.Z.I. said:

Bailed like a bitch? Show some respect.

The guy knew what it was like to have a narcissistic egomaniac as a singer/leader. Why would he put himself through that AGAIN? He saw the red flags and acted accordingly based on his own experience.

On the other hand, Duff and Slash wanted to be big at all costs... and look at what happened, drama from the get go, turned a blind eye to it, Duff got addicted to painkillers and Slash was hitting the bottle... They were too dumb to see the red flags, or too blinded by the idea of making it big again that they decided to ignore the coming shitstorm.

 

Very smart move from Izzy.

Yeah,  that happens when you have 5 personalities in a band.  And  yet everyone is clamoring for Izzy to rejoin guns?

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11 minutes ago, D.Z.I. said:

Bailed like a bitch? Show some respect.

The guy knew what it was like to have a narcissistic egomaniac as a singer/leader. Why would he put himself through that AGAIN? He saw the red flags and acted accordingly based on his own experience.

On the other hand, Duff and Slash wanted to be big at all costs... and look at what happened, drama from the get go, turned a blind eye to it, Duff got addicted to painkillers and Slash was hitting the bottle... They were too dumb to see the red flags, or too blinded by the idea of making it big again that they decided to ignore the coming shitstorm.

 

Very smart move from Izzy.

There was no red flags yet,  he bailed long before there was any drama in the band. Those came after the 1st album and tour cycle. 

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1 hour ago, D.Z.I. said:

Bailed like a bitch? Show some respect.

The guy knew what it was like to have a narcissistic egomaniac as a singer/leader. Why would he put himself through that AGAIN? He saw the red flags and acted accordingly based on his own experience.

On the other hand, Duff and Slash wanted to be big at all costs... and look at what happened, drama from the get go, turned a blind eye to it, Duff got addicted to painkillers and Slash was hitting the bottle... They were too dumb to see the red flags, or too blinded by the idea of making it big again that they decided to ignore the coming shitstorm.

 

Very smart move from Izzy.

I wouldn't say "like a bitch", but Izzy didn't want to commit to VR, didn't want it to be a big time band and casually left the scene when they went in a direction he wasn't into - which is consistent with everything that's been said of Izzy. 

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4 hours ago, jmapelian said:

They wrote an album's worth of material as the project, and Izzy bailed like a bitch once they decided to go with Scott as he singer

 

Why does everyone have to ascribe a motivation behind Izzy not wanting to be in a big band, touring?  He hates touring, and he's been really open about it.

 

Sunday: "If you throw a surprise party for my birthday, I'm leaving. I hate parties."

Monday: "If you throw a surprise party for my birthday, I'm leaving. I hate parties."

Tuesday: "If you throw a surprise party for my birthday, I'm leaving. I hate parties."

Wednesday: "If you throw a surprise party for my birthday, I'm leaving. I hate parties."

Thursday: ""If you throw a surprise party for my birthday, I'm leaving. I hate parties."

Friday: "If you throw a surprise party for my birthday, I'm leaving. I hate parties."

Saturday: <Walks into a surprise party, face palms, leaves.> 

CONCLUSION "We sprang the surprise party and he left like a bitch because they had chocolate cake."

wtf?

Edited by DeadSlash
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7 hours ago, jmapelian said:

Yeah,  that happens when you have 5 personalities in a band.  And  yet everyone is clamoring for Izzy to rejoin guns?

Izzy stuck around with 4 of those personalities without a problem, in fact he was very active and prolific while that lasted. Then Scott came around and Izzy wasn’t willing to put up with that bullshit.

And I don’t really want Izzynin GNR. I mean, if it happens, it’s alright I guess, it wouldn’t bother me, but considering what this band has become –and for my own egotistical wishes– I’d rather have him away from the band as a regular or official member.

7 hours ago, jmapelian said:

There was no red flags yet,  he bailed long before there was any drama in the band. Those came after the 1st album and tour cycle. 

I guess showing up really late (or not showing up at all) at the bery beginning are no signs of anything going wrong, it’s standard r&r spirit.

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2 hours ago, D.Z.I. said:

I don’t think that Izzy walked out because he didn’t want to commit to a big band.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to commit to anything when you haven't committed to anything in such a long time?

Izzy has been living life on his own terms since he left GnR. He's been the boss of the system and has only done things on his own terms. That's a long fucking time. It's so hard to go back to living life partly on someone else's terms, which is what happens when you join a band. Axl said it best when Izzy was joining them on tour before... if he shows up it's great, but if he doesn't it's fine too, because they don't have to rely on him, the show can still go on without him. 

I think it's hard for anyone, let alone someone like Izzy, to go back to a huge machine like GnR or any other band, and committing to a two year tour when you've been living your life in freedom and doing whatever you want to do without really committing to anything for over 25 years, except making music on your own terms. I don't see it happening.

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4 hours ago, EvanG said:

Do you have any idea how hard it is to commit to anything when you haven't committed to anything in such a long time?

Izzy has been living life on his own terms since he left GnR. He's been the boss of the system and has only done things on his own terms. That's a long fucking time. It's so hard to go back to living life partly on someone else's terms, which is what happens when you join a band. Axl said it best when Izzy was joining them on tour before... if he shows up it's great, but if he doesn't it's fine too, because they don't have to rely on him, the show can still go on without him. 

I think it's hard for anyone, let alone someone like Izzy, to go back to a huge machine like GnR or any other band, and committing to a two year tour when you've been living your life in freedom and doing whatever you want to do without really committing to anything for over 25 years, except making music on your own terms. I don't see it happening.

Excellent point. And I'm sure it played a role in his decision. As DZI said earlier, Izzy probably weighed the pros/cons out in his mind and as before with VR, it just didn't seem to be worth it to him in the end. 

My guess? Duff lowballed Izzy as a non-partner contracted employee for the Coachella/warm up gigs. The rumors around early '16 were that he was offered a low 5 figure sum for each show. Izzy wanted all 5 of them to split things as equals for those few shows (maybe even merchandising, who knows) - and the rest is history. 

GnR made a wise business decision and Izzy decided that his nostalgia for the old band wasn't worth the disrespect shown from whatever paltry sum they were offering. It appears that Steven eventually felt the same way after the initial reunion euphoria wore off. It's also very likely that the terms offered to Izzy as a non-partner stipulated that had he rejoined GnR, he would have faced the same situation as '91 where Axl, Slash and Duff were running the band and he was just riding shotgun. We know from his '91 interviews that he deeply resented Axl and Slash for trying to diminish his influence - no way he was going to go through that again + work for a pittance like Steven. 

Looking back at the whole thing, it pretty much played out as most of us predicted back in late 2015/early 2016.

Edited by RONIN
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4 hours ago, EvanG said:

Do you have any idea how hard it is to commit to anything when you haven't committed to anything in such a long time?

Izzy has been living life on his own terms since he left GnR. He's been the boss of the system and has only done things on his own terms. That's a long fucking time. It's so hard to go back to living life partly on someone else's terms, which is what happens when you join a band. Axl said it best when Izzy was joining them on tour before... if he shows up it's great, but if he doesn't it's fine too, because they don't have to rely on him, the show can still go on without him. 

I think it's hard for anyone, let alone someone like Izzy, to go back to a huge machine like GnR or any other band, and committing to a two year tour when you've been living your life in freedom and doing whatever you want to do without really committing to anything for over 25 years, except making music on your own terms. I don't see it happening.

One of my points is that if it had been a project at a smaller scale with a non-narcissistic leader (or at least one who was somewhat normal), maybe he would have stayed there.

But the guys didn’t want that, they wanted to make it big again, and decided to go at it with a troubled mess of a leader –again.

Another point is that some users try to make it look as if Izzy was a total unreliable flake, unable to commit to anything, as if the whole VR thing seemed perfectly normal from day one and that it was going to be all good and healthy fun and rock & roll.

When we are in the position when we have to make a decision, we evaluate the circumstances, weigh the pros and cons and determine if it’s worth it or not. And those measures are different for everyone. I guess in Izzy’s case, his own personal stability was more important than making it big again, and why would he choose anything else when he made that same decision before and turned out for the best? Slash and Duff have different parameters and priorities. The rest is history.

 

And I wouldn’t take Axl’s word for shit when it comes to commitments, reliability or anything in that domain. 

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