Summer 1989: When Axl was reading the news...

[Blackstar]

In the summer of 1989, GnR booked a rehearsal space in Chicago in an attempt to get back together and concentrate in writing new material away from the distractions of L.A.. Another reason for picking that particular city (by Slash's and Duff's accounts Axl had suggested that they went there) was that it was close to Indiana, where, according to Slash, Izzy lived at the time trying to clean up from heroin (Alan Niven's recollection, though, is that Izzy was in L.A. and still deep into heroin).

When, however, all the band was supposed to settle in Chicago (probably in early June or maybe late May), only Slash, Duff and Steven went. Izzy didn't show up (almost?) at all during their stay and Axl showed up some time later, something that caused friction between them.

The timeline is unclear as to how long they stayed in Chicago altogether - probably about two months, until mid-late July (based on local press articles and other indications) - and as to when Axl showed up.

This "irrelevant" international news report from July 9, 1989 though, found only in Chicago Tribune, indicates that Axl was there on that date:

 

Spoiler

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These days Axl seems to be reading the news a lot. Who knows, maybe he has or will find inspiration there for a song again.

 

Edited October 27, 2018 by Blackstar
added full article

[sidman69]

thanks for posting that is awesome!

[janrichmond]

@Blackstar isn't this when Izzy showed up and plates and stuff were getting thrown out the window by Axl, so Izzy left and returned to Indiana. 

[Blackstar]

Just now, janrichmond said:

@Blackstar isn't this when Izzy showed up and plates and stuff were getting thrown out the window by Axl, so Izzy left and returned to Indiana. 

Yeah, that story is in Slash's book

It's a bit confusing though, because Slash says Izzy went to Chicago from Indiana, but Niven says that Izzy was in L.A. (he doesn't mention Indiana) and then went to join Axl and West Arkeen in New York (they were there by the 20th of July).

[janrichmond]

7 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

Yeah, that story is in Slash's book

It's a bit confusing though, because Slash says Izzy went to Chicago from Indiana, but Niven says that Izzy was in L.A. (he doesn't mention Indiana) and then went to join Axl and West Arkeen in New York (they were there by the 20th of July).

Niven has got things wrong and/or confused before. Wasn't it  in Duff's book too?

[Blackstar]

5 minutes ago, janrichmond said:

Niven has got things wrong and/or confused before. Wasn't it  in Duff's book too?

Yeah, I think it was in Duff's book too. Maybe Izzy went to Chicago from L.A. and not Indiana, who knows.

Izzy did join Axl in New York, though. They both jammed there with the Cult at a private party on July 21/22

07.21/22.89 - The Loft, New York, NY
set: Mama Kin, Rock And Roll, Satisfaction, Paranoid
audio/video recording?: no
notes: Axl & Izzy jam with some members of The Cult - Ian Astbury, Jamie Stewart & future GN'R drummer Matt Sorum. From around 4 a.m. till 8 a.m., playing Aerosmith, Stones & Black Sabbath covers!

http://gnrontour.com/

[ludurigan]

6 hours ago, Blackstar said:

In the summer of 1989, GnR booked a rehearsal space in Chicago in an attempt to get back together and concentrate in writing new material away from the distractions of L.A.. Another reason for picking that particular city (by Slash's and Duff's accounts Axl had suggested that they went there) was that it was close to Indiana, where, according to Slash, Izzy lived at the time trying to clean up from heroin (Alan Niven's recollection, though, is that Izzy was in L.A. and still deep into heroin).

When, however, all the band was supposed to settle in Chicago (probably in early June or maybe late May), only Slash, Duff and Steven went. Izzy didn't show up (almost?) at all during their stay and Axl showed up some time later, something that caused friction between them.

The timeline is unclear as to how long they stayed in Chicago altogether - probably about two months, until mid-late July (based on local press articles and other indications) - and as to when Axl showed up.

This "irrelevant" international news report from July 9, 1989 though, found only in Chicago Tribune, indicates that Axl was there on that date:

  Hide contents

-----------------

These days Axl seems to be reading the news a lot. Who knows, maybe he has or will find inspiration there for a song again.

 

FANTASTIC FIND!

 

[Hollywood Gunner]

whats to say he didnt pick up an old news paper at a later date or that it wasnt published anywhere else? did they sell the chicago tribune in other cities back then? maybe slash or duff kept it at the hotel... idk it is a cool find but i dont think it necessarily means he was there on that date

[UsedYourIllusion]

Thats cool as shit, didn't know that quote could traced back to a newspaper article. On a serious note, I hope everyone knows the history and degree of devastation Latin America faced in the '80s. 

[lilacmess]

 @Blackstar great find again! You should seriously consider writing a book. I mean it! I was given Mick Wall's latest Gn'R book for my birthday and he sometimes claims that certain facts are unknown. For example if Axls parents ever got married. And I go while reading... well I know, because of @Blackstar

[Blackstar]

9 hours ago, Hollywood Gunner said:

whats to say he didnt pick up an old news paper at a later date or that it wasnt published anywhere else? did they sell the chicago tribune in other cities back then? maybe slash or duff kept it at the hotel... idk it is a cool find but i dont think it necessarily means he was there on that date

Yeah, it's common for articles to be reproduced in other newspapers and I thought of that, so I looked for this article elsewhere too. I didn't find it in any other of the many newspapers that are archived online (including the L.A Times, NY Times and other big papers) though. All the other newspapers just had short reports on Peru from AP, but Chicago Tribune had its own correspondent and there were other lengthy reports in it.

And I don't know why Axl would read the Chicago Tribune while he was in L.A or NY - maybe if he was in Indiana. I guess he could have read it on a later date in Chicago, but the time window is small anyway, since 10 days after that date he was in NY and stayed there for quite a while.

[appetite4illusions]

I always thought that quote was so asinine. 

Now that I have a little context for it...it’s still a little asinine.

[smiley]

I also always wondered the backstory to that quote. thank for the info!

As for Axl's source of finding it... who knows where else it may have popped up... we'll need to continue waiting for the Axl autobiography.

 

[EvanG]

23 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

And I don't know why Axl would read the Chicago Tribune while he was in L.A or NY 

Maybe because of his midwestern roots. My dad used to do the same thing when he was somewhere else... buy newspapers from the region he is from just to keep up with the local news or whatever, mind you this was before the internet. Wasn't that the reason why Axl wanted to rehearse in Chicago in the first place? To connect to his midwestern roots? 

Still, great find!

[soon]

What an awesome find! For me that means Axl was in Chicago, reading the paper and inspiration struck. So cool! And its a really neat way that he utilized it in the song, because to my ears the part can go by as some 'simple rock star being a bad ass' lines ending with a promise that "peace is closer" and it doesnt slap you in the face that Axl is directly protesting the ongoing carnage in Latin America when the chorus comes back in right after with "I dont need your civil war." Axl is staring down and calling BS on a real life guerrilla Commander in the present tense! And Riad was also in the mix of the theme. Who else but Axl publicly shames commandos and international arms dealers whom they visit with, in their hit songs?

Notable how it happened to be a Maoist given Axls later commentary on models of governance in China.

[Blackstar]

According to this Chicago Tribune article from June 26, 1989, GnR had been in Chicago at least since early June (there were sightings of Slash and Duff):

http://www.a-4-d.com/t3147-1989-06-26-chicago-tribune-if-you-see-guns-n-roses-in-chicago-just-remember-you-didn-t

Axl said he arrived there a month later and stayed for two weeks with the band:

We got into fights in Chicago, when we went there last year to escape LA and try and get some writing done. Everybody’s timing schedules were weird and we were all showing up at different times. But when I would show up I was like,OK, let’s do this, let’s do that, let’s do this one of yours Slash, OK, now let’s hear that one Duff’s got....And that’s when everybody would decide I was a dictator, a completely selfish dick, y’know? But fuck, man, as far as I was concerned we were on a roll. Slash is complaining we’re getting nothing done and I’m like « What do you mean? We just put down six new parts for songs! We’ve got all this stuff done in, like, a couple of weeks. » And he was like "Yeah, but I’ve been sitting here a month on my ass waitin’ for you to show up » I had driven cross-country in my truck to Chicago from LA and it had taken me weeks."

http://www.a-4-d.com/t536-1990-04-21-28-interview-with-axl

If this is accurate, Axl arrived in Chicago in the first days of July and stayed there until about mid July (as mentioned before, on July 20th he was in NY)

And this little article on the gossip column of Chicago Tribune on July 18, 1989 indicates that Slash was still there at least a few days ago:

So I think Axl was in Chicago when he read the article where he got the quote from.

 

[DTV88]

Thanks for this, @Blackstar! Great stuff!

[Kwick1]

@Blackstar, thanks for starting this thread. The Chicago get away to work story is one of my favorites of our beloved very disfunctional GnR. From the various accounts of what occurred I can picture it all vividly in my mind. Usually my minds picture is an enhanced reality but given GnR it likely doesn't even come close. 

[moreblack]

Is there no GNR Central episode of this yet?

[dgnr]

Wow @Blackstar, awesome find as always!! Thank you!

[DPR714]

Axl should be in fine mood to do some writing now....

 

 

 

[Blackstar]

23 hours ago, EvanG said:

Maybe because of his midwestern roots. My dad used to do the same thing when he was somewhere else... buy newspapers from the region he is from just to keep up with the local news or whatever, mind you this was before the internet. Wasn't that the reason why Axl wanted to rehearse in Chicago in the first place? To connect to his midwestern roots? 

Still, great find!

Yeah, this was Duff's version. Slash's version was that Axl suggested it for Izzy who lived in Indiana at the time (Slash says Axl suggested to rehearse in Indiana first). Maybe Axl wanted it for both Izzy and himself.

I'd think Axl would read the Indianapolis Star or some other Indiana newspaper or his hometown's one if he wanted to keep in touch with his roots. Who knows; or maybe Indiana newspapers weren't sold in L.A.

But irrespective of that, the timing of the article matches with the bits of information about their stay in Chicago, so I think he read it there regardless of whether he was regularly reading the Chicago Tribune even when he was elsewhere.

On 10/26/2018 at 9:44 AM, lilacmess said:

 @Blackstar great find again! You should seriously consider writing a book. I mean it! I was given Mick Wall's latest Gn'R book for my birthday and he sometimes claims that certain facts are unknown. For example if Axls parents ever got married. And I go while reading... well I know, because of @Blackstar

Thank you but I don't have such aspiration. And it would be like another one of those books where the writer hasn't talked to anyone from or related to the band.

The laziness of the unauthorised biographies bothers me a lot though. I don't know if I expect too much from a book about a band, but I find it inadmissible that someone, who likes to be seen as a legitimate and acclaimed rock journalists, writes a book and asks people's money for it without doing proper research to get their facts straight even in sources accessible to the average fan. Mick Wall's book is lazy. Apart from the interviews he did with Alan Niven and Doug Goldstein (without even stating which Niven quotes are old and which are new) the rest of it is pretty much a repeat of his older Axl biography with all the intentional and unintentional mistakes intact.

 

Edited October 27, 2018 by Blackstar

[Blackstar]

I posted the full 1989 Chicago Tribune article in the OP, in case someone wants to read it.

Edited October 27, 2018 by Blackstar

[sidman69]

On 10/26/2018 at 11:27 AM, dgnr said:

Wow @Blackstar, awesome find as always!! Thank you!

coming soon! Thanks so much blackstar you give me such great idea sfor episodes 

[-W.A.R-]

On 10/25/2018 at 5:50 PM, Blackstar said:

Yeah, I think it was in Duff's book too. Maybe Izzy went to Chicago from L.A. and not Indiana, who knows.

That's a long ass way Him coming in from Indiana makes more sense as thats only a 2-3 hour drive.