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"I've always loved touring": Uncirculated Izzy Stradlin 1993 Interview [The Tapes Archive podcast]


ludurigan

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11 minutes ago, default_ said:

When I first read “Izzy” and “Tapes” I tought the scrapped Juju Hounds album that was on the Zutaut locker had leaked, almost lost my shit. :lol:
 

Gonna check the interview latter!

I must have missed that - there was a Ju Ju hounds scrapped album? What else was in the locker?

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Great find!

I haven't listened to it yet, but this is probably the source tape Marc Allan used to write this interview that was published in The Indianapolis Star on February 21, 1993: https://www.a-4-d.com/t3914-1993-02-21-the-indianapolis-star-no-stradlin-from-izzy

This also wasn't the first time Izzy refused the accusation that he quit because he didn't like the touring. He said the following in September 1992 to MTV:

Izzy: "I ain’t got a problem, really, with touring. I think I got a bad rap on all that, but... You know what I mean, it’s like... […] Well, I had a bus and they had a plane. And I beat them; to the gig (chuckles). [...] You get to the point where you’re like, am I gonna carry on like this or am I not, you know. And I said I’m not." [MTV, September 1992].

 

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3 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

Great find!

I haven't listened to it yet, but this is probably the source tape Marc Allan used to write this interview that was published in The Indianapolis Star on February 21, 1993: https://www.a-4-d.com/t3914-1993-02-21-the-indianapolis-star-no-stradlin-from-izzy

This also wasn't the first time Izzy refused the accusation that he quit because he didn't like the touring. He said the following in September 1992 to MTV:

Izzy: "I ain’t got a problem, really, with touring. I think I got a bad rap on all that, but... You know what I mean, it’s like... […] Well, I had a bus and they had a plane. And I beat them; to the gig (chuckles). [...] You get to the point where you’re like, am I gonna carry on like this or am I not, you know. And I said I’m not." [MTV, September 1992].

 

exactly

izzy refuses the accusation again here

i have added the quote

===

it's pretty obvious that izzy doesn't hate touring

what he hates is touring with a crazy fuck that makes touring life a living hell

Edited by ludurigan
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4 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

Great find!

I haven't listened to it yet, but this is probably the source tape Marc Allan used to write this interview that was published in The Indianapolis Star on February 21, 1993: https://www.a-4-d.com/t3914-1993-02-21-the-indianapolis-star-no-stradlin-from-izzy

This also wasn't the first time Izzy refused the accusation that he quit because he didn't like the touring. He said the following in September 1992 to MTV:

Izzy: "I ain’t got a problem, really, with touring. I think I got a bad rap on all that, but... You know what I mean, it’s like... […] Well, I had a bus and they had a plane. And I beat them; to the gig (chuckles). [...] You get to the point where you’re like, am I gonna carry on like this or am I not, you know. And I said I’m not." [MTV, September 1992].

 

on the tapes archives podcast there is a lot of additional info to this interview including this article

https://www.thetapesarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Dave-Bangerts-Izzy-article-1.pdf

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2 minutes ago, ludurigan said:

on the tapes archives podcast there is a lot of additional info to this interview including this article

https://www.thetapesarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Dave-Bangerts-Izzy-article-1.pdf

Thanks. We have this interview already, actually, it is from February 21, 1993, published in Journal and Courier: https://www.a-4-d.com/t2856-1993-02-21-journal-and-courier-hey-hey-mr-ju-ju-man-izzy

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5 minutes ago, ludurigan said:

exactly

izzy refuses the accusation again here

i have added the quote

===

it's pretty obvious that izzy doesn't hate touring

what he hates is touring with a crazy fuck that makes touring life a living hell

Of all the things the band accused him of (not rehearsing, not adding overdubs, sending in sloppy demos, not being active in stage, not showing up for videos), accusing him of not liking to tour seems to have been the only accusation Izzy would with some effort challenge.

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25 minutes ago, DTJ80 said:

I must have missed that - there was a Ju Ju hounds scrapped album? What else was in the locker?

Yeah, there was an Izzy tape for a second Juju Hounds there but it was sold to a different person and havent leaked. Not sure what else was on the lockers, but the Izzy tape was amongst the itens.

This is the info the guy put on discogs:

https://www.discogs.com/Izzy-Stradlin-And-The-Ju-Ju-Hounds-November-1993-DAT-Bill-Price-Rough-Mixes/release/13850373

 

Edited by default_
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10 minutes ago, default_ said:

Yeah, there was an Izzy tape for a second Juju Hounds there but it was sold to a different person and havent leaked. Not sure what else was on the lockers, but the Izzy tape was amongst the itens.

This is the info the guy put on discogs:

https://www.discogs.com/Izzy-Stradlin-And-The-Ju-Ju-Hounds-November-1993-DAT-Bill-Price-Rough-Mixes/release/13850373

 

That rings a bell now. Cheers for the info - I wonder what else was in there......!

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35 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

Of all the things the band accused him of (not rehearsing, not adding overdubs, sending in sloppy demos, not being active in stage, not showing up for videos), accusing him of not liking to tour seems to have been the only accusation Izzy would with some effort challenge.

anyone that knows a bit about Guns N' Roses knows that most of these accusations are bullshit

- not rehearsing?

i don't remember anyone accusing izzy of that. anyway even the most loyal axl fan knows that axl is the one that didn't go to rehearsals during the guns n' roses era and he kept not going even during the solo era. does he go to rehearsals these days?

- not adding overdubs?

izzy quote on this interview: "Yeah, well after working on Illusions records for like two years, you know, and recording, I don’t know, God, there was so many songs, I can’t remember all of ’em, I just really had the urge to just go in and do it how we did Appetite for Destruction, which was you go in and just track it live, do three or four takes and move right along. You know, no messin’ around."

seriously, what does "adding overdubs" even mean? it means spending ten years to make an album? it means not adding 89 layers of guitars? axl was very successful at doing that on his solo album, wasn't he?

or maybe "adding overdubs" means "erasing the guitar parts of your bandmate and re-recording them without even telling him about it" like slash did on the uyi albums? seriously...

sending in sloppy demos?

seriously, people accuse izzy of that? i don't remember that one.

not being active in stage?

that is the ultimate axl nonsense. the very fact that axl does not have the ability to understand that izzy's presence onstage was so fucking cool even if he moved 10 times less than axl did and that not everybody in a band needs to do the same thing just shows how blind axl is to what makes a band great.

not showing up for videos?

izzy has always showed up for videos in GNR except when they decided to do very expensive videos which were more like mini axl movies in which izzy didn't believe in. And Izzy didn't have a say on the matter -- Axl decided to do those videos with the bands money and shoved it down the throath of everyone that didn't agree with him. also izzy was basically out of the band by the time of those videos so, yeah, that is another useless axl accusation.

it is beyond my comprehension how people 1) fall for these crap axl accusations and 2) repeat these crap axl accusations over and over for all these years

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31 minutes ago, jacdaniel said:

There is a huge period of time between 1993 and 2020 that would suggest he really isn’t too keen on touring. 

 

25 minutes ago, EvanG said:

Yeah, it does make you curious why he pretty much retired from touring in 1993 if he loves it. Maybe just a change of heart?

 

he never had a functioning band during all these years

duff and rick richards have said countless times that they would get a call from izzy out of nowhere saying "hey I got some songs let's record them" and they would get together for 2 or 3 weeks to learn the songs and record them

yes he could have toured but he probably had his reasons for not touring

it doesn't mean he doesn't like touring

it only means that he didn't do it

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4 minutes ago, ludurigan said:

anyone that knows a bit about Guns N' Roses knows that most of these accusations are bullshit

- not rehearsing?

i don't remember anyone accusing izzy of that. anyway even the most loyal axl fan knows that axl is the one that didn't go to rehearsals during the guns n' roses era and he kept not going even during the solo era. does he go to rehearsals these days?

- not adding overdubs?

izzy quote on this interview: "Yeah, well after working on Illusions records for like two years, you know, and recording, I don’t know, God, there was so many songs, I can’t remember all of ’em, I just really had the urge to just go in and do it how we did Appetite for Destruction, which was you go in and just track it live, do three or four takes and move right along. You know, no messin’ around."

seriously, what does "adding overdubs" even mean? it means spending ten years to make an album? it means not adding 89 layers of guitars? axl was very successful at doing that on his solo album, wasn't he?

or maybe "adding overdubs" means "erasing the guitar parts of your bandmate and re-recording them without even telling him about it" like slash did on the uyi albums? seriously...

sending in sloppy demos?

seriously, people accuse izzy of that? i don't remember that one.

not being active in stage?

that is the ultimate axl nonsense. the very fact that axl does not have the ability to understand that izzy's presence onstage was so fucking cool even if he moved 10 times less than axl did and that not everybody in a band needs to do the same thing just shows how blind axl is to what makes a band great.

not showing up for videos?

izzy has always showed up for videos in GNR except when they decided to do very expensive videos which were more like mini axl movies in which izzy didn't believe in. And Izzy didn't have a say on the matter -- Axl decided to do those videos with the bands money and shoved it down the throath of everyone that didn't agree with him. also izzy was basically out of the band by the time of those videos so, yeah, that is another useless axl accusation.

it is beyond my comprehension how people 1) fall for these crap axl accusations and 2) repeat these crap axl accusations over and over for all these years

All of these accusations came from Slash ;) 

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2 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

All of these accusations came from Slash ;) 

axl has sais that a lot too.

not being active onstage is specifically an axl accusation.

remember the contract he wanted izzy to sign?

not willing to tour has been saiid by axl, slash and duff countless times over the years

but yes you are correct slash said a lot of that

what a nice fella

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1 minute ago, ludurigan said:

axl has sais that a lot too

but yes you are correct slash said a lot of that

Yes, you are right, Axl also complained about Izzy not doing what they expected from him. But Slash seems to have been most vocal about this, likely because Slash had to deal with Izzy on a regular basis during the recording of UYIs. Izzy himself admitted he started to phase out in the period '89-'91 and didn't really defend himself against these accusations (except stating that he did enjoy touring). It seems like the accusations weren't entirely unfair - Izzy only had one step in the band in this period. That being said, one cannot really blame Izzy for distancing himself from the absurdity, the dysfunction, of the band in this period. But it did result in Axl and Slash feeling he deserted them and didn't do what was required. Then Izzy presented demands to the band - what he needed and wanted for the band do be better - and Axl and Slash presented demands to Izzy and threatened with putting him on a salary if he didn't start pulling his weight, which just made it all worse and naturally pushed Izzy further away. On top of this came all the bullshit during the '91 touring that really hurt a sober Izzy, like the late starts, the waste of money, the riot. So he quit the band.

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16 minutes ago, ludurigan said:

he never had a functioning band during all these years

yes he could have toured but he probably had his reasons for not touring

it only means that he didn't do it

I know, and I'm sure they are good reasons, but it makes me curious what they are. It shouldn't have been hard for him to find musicians to tour, so it can't be that.

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3 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

Yes, you are right, Axl also complained about Izzy not doing what they expected from him. But Slash seems to have been most vocal about this, likely because Slash had to deal with Izzy on a regular basis during the recording of UYIs. Izzy himself admitted he started to phase out in the period '89-'91 and didn't really defend himself against these accusations (except stating that he did enjoy touring). It seems like the accusations weren't entirely unfair - Izzy only had one step in the band in this period. That being said, one cannot really blame Izzy for distancing himself from the absurdity, the dysfunction, of the band in this period. But it did result in Axl and Slash feeling he deserted them and didn't do what was required. Then Izzy presented demands to the band - what he needed and wanted for the band do be better - and Axl and Slash presented demands to Izzy and threatened with putting him on a salary if he didn't start pulling his weight, which just made it all worse and naturally pushed Izzy further away. On top of this came all the bullshit during the '91 touring that really hurt a sober Izzy, like the late starts, the waste of money, the riot. So he quit the band.

i don't like how you phrase some of it (example: "Slash had to deal with Izzy on a regular basis during the recording of UYIs" like if dealing with izzy was "hard") but yeah it was pretty much like that

what baffles me is that axl was in no position to complain about anything as most of the absurdity and the dysfunction was (and has always been) caused directly by him

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1 minute ago, EvanG said:

I know, and I'm sure they are good reasons, but it makes me curious what they are. It shouldn't have been hard for him to find musicians to tour, so it can't be that.

maybe yes, maybe not

i don't see izzy touring with musicians he doesn't have a strong bond and affinity with

maybe the guys he wanted to tour with were not all available at the same time?

 

 

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Just now, ludurigan said:

maybe yes, maybe not

i don't see izzy touring with musicians he doesn't have a strong bond and affinity with

maybe the guys he wanted to tour with were not all available at the same time?

Maybe. I never pictured Izzy to be very picky like Axl, I can imagine him being happy with anyone who loves the Stones, rock n roll and can play the songs with a good groove and is fun enough to hang around with. And there are enough professional musicians out there who could fit those shoes. But maybe I'm wrong and he is so critical of his bandmates that this is the reason he hasn't toured for 27 years... 

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33 minutes ago, ludurigan said:

remember the contract he wanted izzy to sign?

Slash had given his (and Axl's) side on this:

“The whole things goes back quite a way. That goes back to the end of our first tour (which ended around late ’88). Izzy and I both went through a breakneck fuckin’ drug bout where we were both very scarey. There came a point where Izzy had to go out to Indiana and straighten himself out as well as me reaching a point where I had with the authorities in the US. I just felt it was ridiculous. The band weren’t doing anything, we’d just played the Stones dates and it was a case of trying to get it all back together again. We went to Chicago to try and do that, as you know. Izzy just didn’t show up for like three months or something. It was just then that it became increasingly obvious that he wasn’t making any effort to do it anymore.

“All this shit was going on but, like I said, I don’t go public about shit that’s that personal when it can harm us. And the shit that was going on with Matt (Sorum – current Guns drummer) and Steven (Adler) was enough to possibly destroy us. If it hadn’t been for Axl and I really holding on to what Guns N’ Roses is all about and what we had in store for the future was concerned, I’m sure that we would’ve broken up already by then. Izzy was doing nothing to keep it together. He wasn’t playing that great and when he finally showed up he hadn’t touched his guitar for like four months, he didn’t want to be in the videos and he hardly played on the records. All the songs on these records that are his are old demo tapes from years ago that we worked on.

“The bottom line is that you’re only as weak as your weakest member and that’s pretty true. When it got to the point where it was me, Matt and Duff rehearsing and trying to get ready for the European tour it didn’t look too good. When we came home after Wembley we carried on rehearsing ‘cos I wanted to hire some horn players. Izzy just wasn’t there.”

“While I was hiring all these horn players and doing all this work Izzy didn’t seem to care about what we were doing. He showed up right at the tail end of rehearsals and it just was like ‘What the fuck is going on with this band?!’.

“The next thing we found out though was that he’d been down to the accountants to find out how much money had been spent on what, when it had nothing to do with him. Axl and I went to him and said ‘Unless you start doing such and such you’re not a full partner anymore’ (Slash’s reference to ‘partners’ here deals with the GN’R corporation which all initial members were part of to take care of business – Ed). Then, without even calling us, he resigns through the office. Axl had a talk with him on the phone and just said ‘Well, listen if you don’t want to do this anymore then that’s fine ‘cos maybe we can write together in the future’ and Izzy was cool and it was real amicable. Then he turned around and told Matt and Duff behind our backs that we’d kicked him out. That pissed Axl and me off to no end. Izzy didn’t know we knew and he went over to Axl’s and Axl just turned around and said ‘Get the fuck out of here!’. It was pretty bad,” concludes Slash honestly and with a sigh.

[...]

“Well, that’s true [that Axl doesn't rehearse either] but we’ve never rehearsed with Axl,” explains Slash. “Since we started out that’s never happened because we’re just too loud. We rehearsed to write songs either at my house or in the real early days he’s come down and sit there in rehearsals while we played the music and he’ll come up with words even though we couldn’t hear him.

“The only thing I can say where we’ve had the odd full rehearsal thing is when we were getting something like ‘Live And Let Die’ together, otherwise we’ve always been four-piece when it comes to doing things regularly and keeping the groove going. That’s the point of our rehearsals, to get fresh ideas and keep things fresh. Not many bands work like that again but to me it still sounds really alive that way and that’s really important to us.”

[RAW Magazine, March 3, 1992]

Edited by Blackstar
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Maybe Izzy would tour if he had management and financial backing from a legit promoter? Also maybe a song thats popping online?

He has spoken about why he took the stage with Nu Guns, saying that he wanted to 'get that feeling' of being in front of a huge audience. But of course he wouldnt be playing for large audiences if he toured starting today. So perhaps he's just not as keen on a Gilby Clarke style tour of small town pool halls? Izzy did a mini tour of Japan in the aughts, right? And aint that where passe rock acts are still big? "Big in Japan."

Izzy seems like a pragmatic business person who is concerned about the bottom line. He was, after all, an entrepreneur prior to Guns. So maybe a tour that would please him and be financially viable just isnt in the cards?

For example, on the AFD Show Ashhurst spoke about the abrupt ending of Ju Ju Hounds touring. He mentioned that Izzy was using his own money to fund the tour. And Ashhurst remarked something along the lines of 'thats not so fun after a while.' (heavily paraphrased. havent listened to that interview in ages).

So having watched Izzy join twitter and capitalize on the Guns reunion hype by releasing 2 new singles, one featuring Sorum, it leads me to suspect that Izzy would love to have a song chart, a promoter foot the bill and tour theatres in a nice bus.

 

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