cineater Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 (edited) Marc, what was David Geffen's involvement with GNR? Were they just another band on his label or did he have a personal interest in them? Any good GNR/Geffen stories? Edited July 25, 2012 by recklessroad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recklessroad Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Marc, what was David Geffen's involvement with GNR? Were they just another band on his label or did he have a personal interest in them? Any good GNR/Geffen stories?David had nothing to do with GNR getting on his label. Tom Zutaut was the one who found them and signed them. However Slash did have an old tie with David from when he was a kid but had nothing to do with getting the band signed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsh327 Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Tom Freston, the CEO of MTV at the time, kept getting calls from David Geffen about getting Guns N' Roses played, he noticed sales were going up, but John Cannelli, a senior VP for talent and artist relations was the one who went to bat for Guns N' Roses at MTV and had been trying to get them played on there (The GNR chapter in "I Want My MTV" p 436-450). There's also some good stories about the making of the AFD videos in there (Adler, Goldstein and Niven as well as Nigel Dick are in the book). What's interesting to me is how far apart Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child O' Mine were released as singles, but SCOM will forever be one of the summer classics. If it's true that Axl wanted SCOM to be about drug trafficking, Alan Niven should be credited for tricking Axl into thinking they didn't have the budget. It would've been collecting dust right along with It's So Easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dariablue Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 What's interesting to me is how far apart Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child O' Mine were released as singles, but SCOM will forever be one of the summer classics. If it's true that Axl wanted SCOM to be about drug traffickingAxl wanted SCOM to be about drug trafficking, Alan Niven should be credited for tricking Axl into thinking they didn't have the budget. It would've been collecting dust right along with It's So Easy.Whoa! I've never heard this before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsh327 Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 What's interesting to me is how far apart Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child O' Mine were released as singles, but SCOM will forever be one of the summer classics. If it's true that Axl wanted SCOM to be about drug traffickingAxl wanted SCOM to be about drug trafficking, Alan Niven should be credited for tricking Axl into thinking they didn't have the budget. It would've been collecting dust right along with It's So Easy.Whoa! I've never heard this before.All Niven says in the book is "he (Axl) had an incredibly involved story line that he wanted to apply with his microscopic sense of myopic detail." Wikipedia (under SCOM) : On an interview on Eddie Trunk's New York radio show in May 2006, Axl Rose stated that his original concept for the video focused on the theme of drug trafficking. According to Rose, the video was to depict an Asian woman carrying a baby into a foreign land, only to discover at the end that the child was dead and filled with heroin. This concept was rejected by Geffen Records. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dariablue Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Because that would have fit the song perfectly. Thanks for posting that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cineater Posted July 26, 2012 Author Share Posted July 26, 2012 Dead baby filled with heroin, what kind of sick mind comes up with that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estranged Reality Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 Dead baby filled with heroin, what kind of sick mind comes up with that?Please don't bash any of the bandmembers in this section - we're trying to keep a comfortable atmosphere in here and Subsy has asked that members respect the rules. Not having a go at you, just trying to reinforce this - we don't want to be deleting posts and stuff but if people keep pushing the limits we're gonna have to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cineater Posted July 26, 2012 Author Share Posted July 26, 2012 That's not a bash at Axl. I don't think he's a mental case of any kind but I can see where my wording came off that way. I think Axl would agree that imagery would have been pretty powerful. I don't think he's some whack job just trying to shock with that and getting his jollies off our reaction. I think he wanted to say something. I think the imagery probably came out of his experiences, not exactly that but a combination of stuff. Who knows, he travels the world and maybe that is something that happen and he was trying to tell us. Guess I should have said where did that come from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cineater Posted July 27, 2012 Author Share Posted July 27, 2012 I was thinking about it. I listen to that whole interview and I just don't remember Axl saying that about the dead baby. Did anybody else hear that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GNRfan2008 Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 I was thinking about it. I listen to that whole interview and I just don't remember Axl saying that about the dead baby. Did anybody else hear that?Yes, I heard it. In fact I listened to the interview again last night and laughed my ass off once again. It's a great interview with awesome stories and that SCOM one is a perfect example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsh327 Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 When did David Geffen realize Slash was the son of a former employee of his? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recklessroad Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 When did David Geffen realize Slash was the son of a former employee of his?Sometime in 1986 probably about 2 or 3 months after the band was signed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
31illusions Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 (edited) Dead baby filled with heroin, what kind of sick mind comes up with that?Please don't bash any of the bandmembers in this section - we're trying to keep a comfortable atmosphere in here and Subsy has asked that members respect the rules. Not having a go at you, just trying to reinforce this - we don't want to be deleting posts and stuff but if people keep pushing the limits we're gonna have to! Estranged. You think that comment was a bash? Get real. It's more like a question and cineater would be correct in asking, because it is a perfectly valid question. Edited August 22, 2012 by 31illusions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cineater Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 I thought about it for a while. Not that I want to get preachy but for what we all thought was something we were only doing to ourselves of our own free will, we failed to realize the real crimes being committed to get that stuff to us. And the victums we left in the wake. Maybe Axl should have insisted the video be done his way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crash Diet Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 According to Rose, the video was to depict an Asian woman carrying a baby into a foreign land, only to discover at the end that the child was dead and filled with heroin. This concept was rejected by Geffen Records. Fuck, Axl had some great film ideas back in the day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsh327 Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 I just watched American Masters: David Geffen on PBS a couple of nights ago. There's a 2 minute segment on GNR about 90 min. in, where Tom Zutaut was interviewed, David talked about making the call to MTV, to get WTTJ played, but they brought up the change in management in the mid 80s where they went from mellow acts to hard rock bands - Aerosmith was the first signed to the label, and a lot of hard rock acts soon followed. They played "Mr Brownstone" during the segment. David Geffen left the label in 1990, he went on to help run Dreamworks. and do a bunch of philanthropy work. Any problems the label had with GNR (or vice versa) from that point on, had nothing to do with him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williambailey01 Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 David Geffen left the label in 1990, he went on to help run Dreamworks. and do a bunch of philanthropy work. Any problems the label had with GNR (or vice versa) from that point on, had nothing to do with him.He actually sold Geffen records in 1990 to MCA (later renamed Universal), but didn't leave until 1995. Getting those UYI records completed was a big deal for Geffen coz he knew that would significantly jack up what he could get for the sale. I believe that's why he ultimately relented and agreed to renegotiate GN'R's contract. Niven played hard ball with him and said he wouldn't get the albums unless he renegotiated the contract and instead the band would just tour and make money David didn't believe this was possible so Niven started booking tour dates and they started selling like hot cakes. Pretty quickly David realised he would need to renegotiate. Problem then was that the first lot of dates were booked and the album wasn't quite finished. So they ended up having to honour those dates and start the UYI tour even though the album wasn't out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recklessroad Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 I have heard Axl say that he had to eat some shit when Niven booked the tour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williambailey01 Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 I have heard Axl say that he had to eat some shit when Niven booked the tour.Yeah he has ranted about it a few times, once in the online chats and a couple of times on stage. One of those New Year's Eve gigs in Vegas in 2001 he said Alan Niven had forced the band to tour in 1991, which had resulted in Niven's dismissal.Haha Niven gets them a renegotiation effectively worth millions and Axl sacks him as thanks. lol nice.I heard that Niven asked Geffen to give GNR the best contract at the label. But apparently Don Henley already had a clause in his contract saying no other artist could have a better deal than him. So Niven told them to send Henley $1 every time the royalty cheque came in. haha Classic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalsh327 Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 I have heard Axl say that he had to eat some shit when Niven booked the tour.Yeah he has ranted about it a few times, once in the online chats and a couple of times on stage. One of those New Year's Eve gigs in Vegas in 2001 he said Alan Niven had forced the band to tour in 1991, which had resulted in Niven's dismissal.Haha Niven gets them a renegotiation effectively worth millions and Axl sacks him as thanks. lol nice.I heard that Niven asked Geffen to give GNR the best contract at the label. But apparently Don Henley already had a clause in his contract saying no other artist could have a better deal than him. So Niven told them to send Henley $1 every time the royalty cheque came in. haha ClassicFor Niven to go up to David Geffen and renegotiate was prob. more terrifying than any of the problems GNR caused him. He could've been blacklisted to the point of unable to manage a McDonalds.I wouldn't be surprised if "The Don" Henley gave Axl some music industry advice back in the late 80s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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