Robin Finck pissed off

[rocknroll41]

9 minutes ago, Sosso said:

No, the rehearsals were set before December 31st. I was a pretty bad situation for them anyway. 

Gotchya. Thanks for clarifying.

i was reading some of the reviews from people at the 12/29/01 show on that link provided in an earlier post on this thread. What interesting times those were! This band has a lot of crazy history to it.

[Modano09]

The first clip was from an infamous NIN show in Japan in 2000 or 2001. I think 2000. Trent was a mess, could barely sing or stand up and kept bumping into Finck.

[RageKage]

The gnr show where Finck acted like a diva was Budapest 2006

[PatrickS77]

12 hours ago, F*ck Fear said:

He worked for a guy who was #1 spoiled, entitled prat, no?

So?? That doesn't make it better or excuse anything.

[F*ck Fear]

1 hour ago, PatrickS77 said:

So?? That doesn't make it better or excuse anything.

It's not an excuse, just ironic.

[Sweersa]

18 hours ago, smeagol2124 said:

 It ended with a red white and blue GNR logo, that was featured on one of the t-shirts from the show.  I have that T-shirt somewhere, come to think of it.  

I think I have that shirt.  Mine is gray, with the GNR logo of that era in red, white, and blue towards the bottom with what looks like a "V" shaped printed strap connected to it.

[Crashey]

Still, he fitted GNR style more than any guitarist since Izzy and Slash.
 

 

[Dezso1989]

On 2019. 01. 13. at 12:25 AM, ChrisMaciel said:

Regarding 2006 angry Finck, I remember that it was rumored that his guitar tech was fired in that show. Bumblefoot had to do better’s final solo and even Axl went backstage trying to calm down Robin. If I’m not wrong, Finck also had an argument with Tom Mayhue.

It was in Budapest, Hungary when Finck pissed off and drop his guitar and kick the mic stand.I guess.
I was there.

[AXL_N_DIZZY]

20 hours ago, Modano09 said:

The first clip was from an infamous NIN show in Japan in 2000 or 2001. I think 2000. Trent was a mess, could barely sing or stand up and kept bumping into Finck.

Must have been 2000 as Robin was full-on back in Guns by NYE 2000/NYD 2001, and did not return to NIN until 2008.

[Legendador]

2 hours ago, Crashey said:

Still, he fitted GNR style more than any guitarist since Izzy and Slash.

 

Love Finck, but Fortus is the best fit and this dynamic of him being rythim and lead at the same time is so cool. Just check out all the work he has done with the 2016/17/18 Rocket Queen.

I read somewhere that Axl invited Ashba to the "reunion" tour, but he declined, it would ruin the entire experience. Ashba is just the worst.

[Jordan Rose]

Man, I still get goosebumps when I read about that time and how excited and 100% I was on board for the future of that band. 

On 1/13/2019 at 2:44 AM, Dean said:

There was a lot of sound issues, right?

Can you shed any light on the video montage? Unfortunately there are no audio/video recordings of these shows so this is news to me. Those are two shows I'd have loved to have been able to go to, due to those who attended both saying he sounded vastly superior to HOB and Rio from the January of that year, and just to see if there was much of a difference in his voice from then to 2002.

Yeah exactly. As i've said before whilst people bang on about the supposed "Holy Grail" of the MTV rehearsals, the fact that we only have a few pictures from these shows with zero audio or video makes them the real Holy Grail as far as New Guns goes. He's got fucking washboard abs and he looks mean and fierce as fuck. Same kind of attitude as 2006 as opposed to the damaged/deer in headlights vibe of Rio/HOB. Also, the few reviews suggest he sounded way better than those shows. My gut tells me maybe best ever versions of Madagascar and SOD. Plus the versions of the new songs would likely be different to any others. It really fucking sucks that we have nothing from them.

From the review: " Axl went on to say that they band had been working on the album for a long time, and that it kick everything else out of the fucking ball park. He said he didn’t know if we would like it, but all he could promise was that they would work very, very hard in order to produce a kick ass album."

I just wish they would have been able to put out the record then in 01/02 and do the full promo/tour with that band. Axl went from believing the record was awesome to being told by all these fuckers that it wasn't good enough. I forget the name of the old timer exec who went and listened and told him he had 3.5 good songs. Like, just fuck you. It could very well be that just one thing like that sent Axl in another direction for six more years re-re-re-recording and layering everything. To this day i'd still trade the reunion tour and whatever might happen in the future for the Chinese era band going out on tour endlessly and dropping those 3 records back to back and burying the fuck out of Appetite. 

He talked about the fact that Buckethead and Finck hadn’t met before rehearsals for December 31st, 2000 and that was a problem. He said that there were all these people who were joining the band and some of them didn’t want to be here but they liked the image that the celebrity that the title offered.

Obviously this is paraphrased but it's gotta be a little weird for Robin and Bucket standing these whilst Axl explains how dysfunctional the band is and how they don't get along. Also, I wonder which people he means joined the band for the wrong reasons? Could he mean people who just came in to try out because the only person who was an actual member who left was Freese who was clearly contributed significantly between writing and drumming for the length of his 1-year contract. I really can't think of who else he could mean. Edit: He as talking about Slash etc. 

From the next review: He mentioned that these shows were the first ones that he wanted to play since the Illusions.

I think it's very telling that he WANTED to play these shows and that he clearly got in amazing shape for it (vocally too, judging by the reviews). It's the same exact look and Attitude from Hammerstein '06 through 2010. So we can assume he DIDN'T want to play Rio/HoB so much and I think it showed as far as his prep and mental state. 

He related a story of how a guy who he met in the elevators thanked him for playing the shows and how moved he was by that gesture.

I think this little story is enormously telling. The fact that Axl was moved simply by one fan telling him thank you for playing the shows should give some indication of how badly the massive backlash and criticism in general to the new band/era/songs etc affected him in the opposite direction. It reminds me of the story a fan posted on hear of meeting Axl maybe around 2010-2014 where Axl was saying generally how hurt and disappointed he was by the criticism and lack of support on the forums (Del kept trying to pull Axl away until he told Del to leave him be) and this fan started to explain to Axl how most of the criticism is out of frustration etc and it seemed like Axl was actually listening and considering a point of view that made sense which struck me as sad that there is nobody in his circle who had provided that perspective before. 

It also makes me think of how when they played those private shows Axl responded to our criticisms of "real/hardcore" fans not being able to go with something like "what's a hardcore/real fan anyway." It seems like over the years he's gone from hoping to please the core fanbase to not giving a flying fuck after the perceived rejections of his efforts and is instead happy to play the hits to the casuals. 

 He mentioned that the old members liked their Celebrity status but apparently didn’t want to work hard on the new album.

I gotta say, I do think this is somewhere even the most anti-Axl/pro classic band people would have to have some understanding as far as the fact that in the mid 90's Slash would have happily knocked out crap records and toured clubs to the point the brand suffered and yet once the money stopped pouring in and the celeb invitations dried up they did VR with the arena tours, monster hits and big budget videos and all the hoopla. 

Another reviewer notes the shows were professionally filmed. Talk about Holy Grail. He also singles out Madagascar as sounding awesome. If I ever meet Axl i'm gonna tell him this and ask him to just fucking leak it for us. 

They showed a video clip of new GN'R logo (orange/blue with the US flag in the background), then they show the space shuttle and satellite from space camera zooms in through to Earth and gets to land then they show a movie - a soldier is running through weeds and shit during this, kick ass music clips from what is most likely a new GN'R song is played (pounding drums, awesome evil guitar from hell). Then they show tanks and all hell breaks loose. It could be something from a new movie (from what he noticed, he's not sure) and then they went on to another video with a narrator that sounded like George C. Scott and he said "The Arabs have taken our money - it's time to put the money back" and it talked about the economy and it starts talking about who's the real evil in the world (money and weird shit) then they show a cartoon of chinese soldiers then it ends.

Woke Axl protoype XD

Axl said "this is the first show in 10 years that he wanted to do" and goes on to talk about how Alan Niven forced them to tour in 91 and he fired him for it. And then he talks about the European tour. He had no idea there was a European tour. He said, "One day I was sitting at home on the internet and I found out that the GN'R tour was cancelled and I had no idea that I had a tour." He said don't blame him for the cancellation. He also said has to deal with the "Internet Whores" and "Gossip Whores" (probably talking about Carrie Vrenna) He also said "We're in the studio doing this album and I can promise you that we're gonna deliver and it's gonna be out of the ballpark" And "we've been working on this album and I can tell you we're doing our best and that's all I can promise." He said someone in the elevator thanked him for doing a show and he was really moved about it. Later on he repeated again about this was the first time he wanted to do a show and it was all fucking up, but he smiled about it.

Fascinating. What could have been....

Buckethead did three solos.

He was really pushing Bucket from Day 1. I really believe they could have taken over the world together. If the fuckin' drummer from Nirvana could do it...

Someone threw a KFC bucket at Axl and he wore it. He looked at Buckethead and smiled at him and Buckethead looked back. Someone threw a black cowboy hat at Axl and he wore it - Tommy wore it at end. Axl started doing the "two-step" while having a huge smile on his face during Paradise City.

Robin Finck's guitar tech said 68 songs done - working on 14 more.

Fuck's sake. 

I don't know what the hell happened to Axl. He either got liposuction or went on some amazing diet because he looks like he lost about 25 + pounds from the RIR (Rock In Rio 3) gig. He first came out wearing a football jersey then he changed into one of those Bruce Lee kung fu gi's (the ones that are all black with white buttons). He left it unbutton. I'm gonna quote Bart Simpson when I say this but Axl "could grate cheese on his abs." 

I have two complaints about this show. 1) They pretty much used the SAME EXACT SET LIST as they did at HOB and Rio. Except they didn't play Nightrain and Rhiad. My second complaint was the sound. All I know is by today, somebody is going to be looking for a job. Those techs did a horrible job. There were times where Axl's voice kept dropping in and out especially during Oh My God where his mic did not work at all. I have never seen him look so pissed off in my life. The band was playing a great version of Oh My God (the best I have heard) but there were no vocals. Axl kept walking backstage (probably to cuss them out) and coming back onstage. At one point he just stood there with this look on his face as if he was saying "somebody is going to die." Near the end of Oh My God, Axl walked off stage and at the very end of the song Robin Finck threw his guitar on the floor and the entire band left the stage. At this point everybody was either pissed off or worried (or both). Worried because there was a very good chance that the show was over. Then out of the blue they got back on stage as if nothing went wrong and started playing. I have to hand it to Tommy Stinson, even with all the problems going on, he maintained his composure and sang the chorus to the song.

I'd kill to go back and be at this show.

 Before this show, I would say that Madagascar was not one of my favorites of the new songs. However, for some reason this version sounded much harder. I loved it.

AAAARRRGGGHHH! I want this NOW.

And Axl...his voice gets better and better with every show. His voice sounds so much cleaner and he has more range. He is able to hold his voice for a pretty long time. He is just Altogether a much different person. I was shocked when he was shacking hands with the fans. And his speech that he gave...well it answered a lot of questions.

*Sigh* And he's probably gone and used up most of what he had left screeching fuckin' cock rock bollocks for someone else's band. 

He talked about why the European Tour was canceled. His story follows the press release that was given to the press when they canceled it. Turns out the record label wanted to make some money so they booked the shows without Axl's knowledge. It was funny because he said the first time he found out he was playing in Europe was when he read it on the Internet. He said that he was not ready for the shows and instead of canceling it they postponed it to later dates because they had already made a lot of money off of it (they sold out most of the venues according to Axl) and did not want to give a refund. And as we all know...those shows got canceled. He also talked about how the HOB and RIR shows were not planned by him and that the band was not even prepared. Axl said that before they rehearsed for the shows, much of them members in the band had never even spoken one work to each other. He also took time out to give another stab at the old members. He said they were not in GNR for GNR. They just loved the celebrity of the whole thing. Then he went on to say that these shows in Vegas were his planning and they were actually ready to play the gig. Axl jokingly acknowledged that because he planned it that everything had to mess up (the sound) and he said "but that's OK." The audience (including myself) were puzzled. Like "who the @#%$ is this guy? what did he do to Axl?" It was amazing to see Axl brush it off like it was nothing. if this had happened in the 80s or early 90s, Axl would have thrown a fit.

The most touching part of the speech was at the end where he said (this isn't an exact quote) "we have been working day and night on this album. You may like it or you may hate it but I gave it my best." This is about the time where I totally accepted the fact that GNR IS AXL ROSE.

They closed the show with Paradise City (my neck is still hurting from head banging to this song) and that was the end of what was probably the greatest GNR show.

Edited January 14, 2019 by Jordan Rose

[lame ass security]

A lot of cool stuff on that last post, good job.  The thing that struck me is the fame aspect, how the new guys in the band wanted it and the other guys wanted to keep it.  It reminds me of the the old adage, "fame isn't satisfying but it's very addictive".

[Sydney Fan]

I think jimmy iovine was probably the cause of CD not coming out earlier than what it should have and waxing axls confidence in the overall album . Im wondering if iovine thought the record was just to experimental and a radical change from thd previous albums, and with no "singles" radio couldnt play,  wanted to dumb the music somewhat.

[Rovim]

7 hours ago, Sydney Fan said:

I think jimmy iovine was probably the cause of CD not coming out earlier than what it should have and waxing axls confidence in the overall album . Im wondering if iovine thought the record was just to experimental and a radical change from thd previous albums, and with no "singles" radio couldnt play,  wanted to dumb the music somewhat.

jimmy, Roy, Bob and the other ones plus maybe Axl himself as well

[DeathCubeUK]

I only had chance to meet Robin once, and though I don't like to judge any famous musicians on one encounter, unfortunately on that occasion he was very disinterested and rude.

There were only a handful of fans and he took one look at us and walked into the van without saying a word. In fairness to him, barely anyone spoke other than calling his name, but it was obvious we just wanted a quick autograph which could have literally been done in 5 minutes.

That was the night Bumblefoot shared curry with us in London and we met Brian May going in before the show. I wish he'd have played CITR with them that night.

@Jordan Rose Great read! Thanks 

[NeonKinight]

"There were many sound problems early on in the show, with Axl often leaving the stage while the band continued to play. Tommy sang almost all of ‘Oh My God.’ Robin also threw his guitar down during ‘Oh My God,’ obviously enraged by the problems."

[appetite4illusions]

Finck seems so soft spoken and shy in interviews that it's almost shocking to see a side of him that's violent.

The fact that he never, ever publicly commented on leaving Guns N' Roses blows my mind, too. There were so many questions surrounding his departure. He jumped ship just before the ship docked harbor.

[Rovim]

3 hours ago, appetite4illusions said:

Finck seems so soft spoken and shy in interviews that it's almost shocking to see a side of him that's violent.

The fact that he never, ever publicly commented on leaving Guns N' Roses blows my mind, too. There were so many questions surrounding his departure. He jumped ship just before the ship docked harbor.

but that's what I think makes him interesting. his personality seems to be reflected in his music well and it's diverse and with a shitload of emotion. he explodes like a ripped condom