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Ashba Interview from Nuvo


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December 07, 2011 MUSIC » ROCK

Interview: Guns N' Roses' Dj Ashba

by Jeff Napier

Guns N' Roses guitarist Dj Ashba got his start husking corn in Monticello, Ind.

Ever since Guns N' Roses announced their first Indianapolis concert in almost 20 years for this Thursday, nine out of the ten people I've spoken to about it have something negative to say. Yeah, yeah, W. Axl Rose is fully responsible for a lot of this negative sentiment. After all, he is a man who thinks nothing of starting a show two hours late.Hell, he has not shown up for entire toursin the past. This is also the man who broke up his band because he wanted to be more like Elton John or Freddy Mercury, and started wearing fishnet shirts and spandex boy shorts. This is a guy who incited riots that caused hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to venues after walking off stage.

Yet, no one can deny that, despite his disastrous proclivities, Axl is one of rock's all-time greatest vocalists, if for no other reason than because he is the last lead vocalist of his kind. He is a prima donna, but he is not afraid to get his hands dirty.

He rebuilt a new Guns N' Roses with former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson and a revolving door of guitarists. It took 14 years to release the follow up to Use Your Illusion, and when it was finally done, the response shook the music industry.

click to enlarge

Axl bares his heart.

That follow up, Chinese Democracy, isn't a bad record. The tracks "I.R.S" and "Shackler's Revenge" are killer punches of heaviness, while "Sorry" and "Street of Dreams" continue Rose's quest to write the ultimate power ballad (a la "Don't Cry" and "November Rain"). If you love rock and roll music, it should be mandatory to be in Conseco Fieldhouse Thursday night, despite any negative feeling you may have about Bill Bailey (Rose's given name).

I recently had a few minutes with Dj Ashba, the newest member of the group.He spoke with me before a recent Canadian stop. Ashba was born in Monticello, Ind. and earned money for his first guitar in a truly Hoosier way -- by detasseling corn as a teenager. He eventually made it to L.A., where he joined The BulletBoys.

In the 2000s, he formed Beautiful Creatures and then hooked up with Nikki Sixx in Sixx A.M. Ashba also penned most of Motley Crue's last album, Saints of Los Angeles. Outside of his tenures in Guns N' Roses and Sixx A.M., Ashba also runs Ashba Media, which, among other things, is responsible for thedesign of Virgin Megastores and Ovation guitars.

NUVO: How's it feel to be coming home?

Ashba: It feels great. I love coming home.

NUVO: You've come a long way from the cornfields...

Ashba:Yeah, but those corn fields are where I learned a great set of values and mores that have sustained me. I learned the importance of hard work in making dreams come true.

NUVO: Your first concert was with Motley Crue and now you are bandmates with Nikki Sixx. How did that first show affect you?

Ashba: It made up my mind for me that I was going to be in the rock and roll business. There was nowhere else to go at that point. From then on, I set out to make my dreams happen.

NUVO: How did you get the call to join Guns N' Roses? Did your Indiana ties help?

Ashba: The management called me up. I'd met Axl a few times at that point, but I think I was asked to join because of my involvement in the Hollywood scene.

NUVO: Tell me about the current tour.

Ashba: This tour is amazing. The production is killer and the band just sounds incredible. We are doing stuff from all three periods of G n' R. I don't think anybody's going home disappointed.

NUVO: How long are we going to have to wait before the show starts?

Ashba: Actually, we been pretty good about starting on time during this tour. But, y'know this is Guns N' Roses so you can never be certain. [chuckles]

NUVO: What do you do when you see Slash?

Ashba: I've actually had dinner with Slash, and y'know, it's cool. I always put myself in the fans' shoes. They come to see all of those great Appetite songs, and who am I to change it up? I'm a fan too, so my motivation is to stay true to Slash's sound.

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Its Freddie with an ie, not a fucking Y. How can these fuckers call themselves music journalists when they can't even spell his fucking name right. Its not even the correct way to spell it. Fucking retards.

Now I am going to read the rest of the article.

Edited by BirdCatcher
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I didn't know "Use Your Illusion" was released in 1994. :eyeroll:

Fuckin lame assed journalists- i'll tell you who's a prima donna- the dipshit author who's too lazy to do any fact checking, instead preferring to make shit up like "broke up the band to be more like Elton John or Freddie Mercury." Yeah dumbass, Chinese Democracy sounds like both of those two. :eyeroll #2:

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Dude (DJ) has a huge respect for Slash. He pays homage to him. Lights a candle. Dedicates a thrust into a chick for him. He doesn't trash his work.

Not saying Robin had no respect for Slash. Robin was Robin.

Edited by BirdCatcher
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This guy made a follow up post today, it's chock full of douche-bag-ness:

http://www.nuvo.net/MusicBlog/archives/2011/12/12/banned-from-guns-n-roses

OMG, what a fucking douche bag! The worst thing about that "article" was that he states "Chinese Democracy stuff (which, I'll say it again, I love)" and other off-handed compliments as though that will spare him all the shit that Gn'R fans are (undoubtedly) going to give him for all the BS he has written.

His internet privileges should be taken away! :fuckyou:

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I just kind of wish the whole dinner thing with Slash would've been explained with a bit more detail. Could this be part of the reason why Slash told Eddie Trunk him and Axl have been cool lately? Interesting little tidbit. Just would like to know more about it...

I'd to hear Slash's side of the story.

I also want to know what they had for dinner. Did they have beer or wine and what kind?

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Just read the follow-up he wrote. Not that he is a good journalist (because he is not), but it is still hella-lame to "ban" him from the show because of the initial article. Who knows what happened there, but that is some petty shit.

Given all the inaccuracies in his initial and follow up piece, I'm given to wonder how much of his story about "being banned" is true in the first place.

It's ok though, I left a comment with a link to my music blog where REAL reviews of the 3 GN'R shows I went to are located.

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Am I the only one who finds it weird everyone in the GNR world runs into each other all the time? Duff and Axl in England, Sorum and Axl, Slash and DJ, Sorum and Adler, basically all the old band seemingly often for some of them. We always get the impression they never talk anymore but whenever anyone's interviewed they're like "oh I was talking to Slash like last week" or Izzy, or Axl, whoever. It seems like they all live in the same place but LA is a big place let alone them not living anywhere near each other with their own families and careers. I just find that weird. It's obvious the Slash dinner was planned, why though? Was it some event?

:question:

:shrugs:

It is a little creepy if you think about it like that. I think the music industry is just that close knit? Its all about connections right? So you'll end up coming across someone you have worked with or someone who works for people you've previously worked with. Often artists will have common management or their managers/assistants will know of each other and set it up. Or maybe its just like that 6 degree of separation thing?

Still... weird. :confused:

EDIT:

Also, why is it every time I read about these 'dinners' I think of some kind of intimate candlelit dinner in some posh restaurant? Is it just me?

Edited by KiraMPD
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Am I the only one who finds it weird everyone in the GNR world runs into each other all the time? Duff and Axl in England, Sorum and Axl, Slash and DJ, Sorum and Adler, basically all the old band seemingly often for some of them. We always get the impression they never talk anymore but whenever anyone's interviewed they're like "oh I was talking to Slash like last week" or Izzy, or Axl, whoever. It seems like they all live in the same place but LA is a big place let alone them not living anywhere near each other with their own families and careers. I just find that weird. It's obvious the Slash dinner was planned, why though? Was it some event?

:question:

:shrugs:

It is a little creepy if you think about it like that. I think the music industry is just that close knit? Its all about connections right? So you'll end up coming across someone you have worked with or someone who works for people you've previously worked with. Often artists will have common management or their managers/assistants will know of each other and set it up. Or maybe its just like that 6 degree of separation thing?

Still... weird. :confused:

EDIT:

Also, why is it every time I read about these 'dinners' I think of some kind of intimate candlelit dinner in some posh restaurant? Is it just me?

They're upscale restaurants - sushi bars, fusion places, steakhouses... they usually go midweek at random times, but you'll see high end cars pull into an In N Out and taco shops late at night, too.

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Given all the inaccuracies in his initial and follow up piece, I'm given to wonder how much of his story about "being banned" is true in the first place.

It's ok though, I left a comment with a link to my music blog where REAL reviews of the 3 GN'R shows I went to are located.

Awesome blog post! I'm jealous you got to see three shows -- I made it to two (Atlanta and Nashville), but then again I did get to witness the surprise performance of Civil War in Nashville which was pretty goddamn epic. rock3 Completely agree with your assessment of the current GN'R lineup and Axl's vocals.

For others who may have missed the link in the comments, check it out here. Much better reading than Jeff Napier's hissy fit.

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Given all the inaccuracies in his initial and follow up piece, I'm given to wonder how much of his story about "being banned" is true in the first place.

It's ok though, I left a comment with a link to my music blog where REAL reviews of the 3 GN'R shows I went to are located.

Awesome blog post! I'm jealous you got to see three shows -- I made it to two (Atlanta and Nashville), but then again I did get to witness the surprise performance of Civil War in Nashville which was pretty goddamn epic. rock3 Completely agree with your assessment of the current GN'R lineup and Axl's vocals.

For others who may have missed the link in the comments, check it out here. Much better reading than Jeff Napier's hissy fit.

Thank you very much for the kind words :) (and yes, I'm jealous of you and the others that got the Civil War surprise!)

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Am I the only one who finds it weird everyone in the GNR world runs into each other all the time? Duff and Axl in England, Sorum and Axl, Slash and DJ, Sorum and Adler, basically all the old band seemingly often for some of them. We always get the impression they never talk anymore but whenever anyone's interviewed they're like "oh I was talking to Slash like last week" or Izzy, or Axl, whoever. It seems like they all live in the same place but LA is a big place let alone them not living anywhere near each other with their own families and careers. I just find that weird. It's obvious the Slash dinner was planned, why though? Was it some event?

:question:

:shrugs:

It is a little creepy if you think about it like that. I think the music industry is just that close knit? Its all about connections right? So you'll end up coming across someone you have worked with or someone who works for people you've previously worked with. Often artists will have common management or their managers/assistants will know of each other and set it up. Or maybe its just like that 6 degree of separation thing?

Still... weird. :confused:

EDIT:

Also, why is it every time I read about these 'dinners' I think of some kind of intimate candlelit dinner in some posh restaurant? Is it just me?

They're upscale restaurants - sushi bars, fusion places, steakhouses... they usually go midweek at random times, but you'll see high end cars pull into an In N Out and taco shops late at night, too.

I know how it works with high-profile guests in restaurants and hotels (I have practically grown up in the hotel industry because my father was an executive chef in Sheraton hotels). Usually the venue is warned in advance so preparations can be made to suit any need for privacy and stuff. I also know how fickle guests like these can be (a particular story that my dad once told me comes to mind) <_<

No, I guess the point I was trying to make is that I always assume that these "dinners" are more of an intimate affair than they really are? As a fan I've made-up relationships/friendships between these celebrities (in my mind) to be more that they really are. I wonder if anyone else thinks like that.

Edited by KiraMPD
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I just kind of wish the whole dinner thing with Slash would've been explained with a bit more detail. Could this be part of the reason why Slash told Eddie Trunk him and Axl have been cool lately?

Who knows ?

I just hope both Axl and Slash will show up on April 14. :)

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