Carlos Castaneda Posted August 23, 2012 Posted August 23, 2012 Marc,You have mentioned many times here in this forum that Axl had big plans in 95/96 , and that the failure to realize these plans was a factor in his emotions towards Slash. Do you have specifics on these plans or did Axl just make general statements? Also, i know you released Reckless Road for the fans and it still stands as the only christmas present that I was genuinely excited to recieve as an adult, seriously I was so excited man and I thank you for its publication. But, was there a different falling out between you and Axl that you have not spoken of? I just cant understand why you would release a book that axl did not support for a group of people you have never met. I have a couple of close friends and I would never jepordize my friendship with them for anything. There must have been other stuff between Axl and you. I'm not trying to be a dick , but could you explain your thought process on releasing this book in detail? The "for the fans" explantion dosent ring true to me.
recklessroad Posted August 23, 2012 Posted August 23, 2012 Marc,You have mentioned many times here in this forum that Axl had big plans in 95/96 , and that the failure to realize these plans was a factor in his emotions towards Slash. Do you have specifics on these plans or did Axl just make general statements? Also, i know you released Reckless Road for the fans and it still stands as the only christmas present that I was genuinely excited to recieve as an adult, seriously I was so excited man and I thank you for its publication. But, was there a different falling out between you and Axl that you have not spoken of? I just cant understand why you would release a book that axl did not support for a group of people you have never met. I have a couple of close friends and I would never jepordize my friendship with them for anything. There must have been other stuff between Axl and you. I'm not trying to be a dick , but could you explain your thought process on releasing this book in detail? The "for the fans" explantion dosent ring true to me.Axl knew that my book was done and that I really wanted it out. I knew that it wouldn't be something that he would fully support and help me promote it but I never thought he would end our friendship because of it. I also thought he would help me with some more information that I needed to complete it. I was very hurt that he was upset with me. I would never do anything to hurt him. The problem is as soon as I do anything to promote something that Slash took part in, I'm already hurting him. Somehow I thought he would just let that go because it was the history of the band. I know how he felt about Slash but I thought he would for my sake let it go. That time when the band started was very special and it meant everything to me. I was very proud of the work I did to document it while helping support the band. I wished that things were maybe handled a bit differently in 2007 as far as the communication between me and Axl but it's too late now. I did talk to some people in his camp but it looks like they failed or was afraid to say anything to Axl about it. Maybe I should have just went over to his house to talk to him. The truth is, looking back now on it, Axl may have talked me out of it and I would have ended up being very upset with him over that. I'm too nice of a person and probably would have never got my work out to the people. Also there are so many conflicts when it comes to promote it. Axl doesn't like anyone talking to the press. I know sometimes they get some things wrong and make up shit as they please to make their story sound better. So every time I would need to talk to a radio station or a magazine, it would go against what Axl would want me to do. So the more I do it, the deeper apart we become. It's fuck up and there is nothing I can do about it. I have to live my life and not his. The sad part is I don't think that he is capable of understanding that. Maybe someday we will cross paths and talk about all of. I'm sure there will be lots to say. By the way he did say in 2008 that he may have supported by book at a latter time. The problem is that could have been 20 years from now? Or maybe never. I can't do that. I had to do what I thought was the right thing to do for me and if Axl was upset about it for a while that would have been fine not everything can be perfect there will always be disagreements between friends as long it gets worked out at some point.
PITBOSS Posted August 23, 2012 Posted August 23, 2012 Marc, he had to have signed off the okay for the book at some point otherwise couldn't you get sued over using his image? Do you have to share any of the proceeds with GNR? Did they have any say on what you could or couldn't put in the book?
recklessroad Posted August 23, 2012 Posted August 23, 2012 (edited) Marc, he had to have signed off the okay for the book at some point otherwise couldn't you get sued over using his image? Do you have to share any of the proceeds with GNR? Did they have any say on what you could or couldn't put in the book?First of all there are no proceeds. We still owe $660.000 to the investors who put up the money to produce the book and that does not include the 50 to 100% return on that money that we also owe them after the $660.000 is paid. As of now we have paid back about $20,000 of that. There were just too many storage fees and a lot of other problems. I don't get my author fee of about $1.00 a book till everything is paid back. That won't happened in my life time but at some point my kids may see something. I do make some money on the books that I sell myself because I get them for the wholesale price which is half the cover price. However its a lot of work packaging them and taking them to the post office a book at a time. I do sell about 30 of them a month at Canter's which has been that way since 2008. There is nothing more exciting than to see someone that came to Canter's to eat and on the way out flipped through the book and then decided to buy it. I also sell about 3 or 4 a week in my Ebay store plus every now and then a fine art photo of a classic moment from the club dayshttp://stores.ebay.com/Marc-Canter I asked permission in 1993/1994 to do the book and of course it was approved. It also does not matter because there are lots of GNR books that are out there that were done without the bands approval. They love it and thought is was very cool at the time. I wished it had gotten published when it was first done in 1994 by a real publisher. My situation with Axl would be fine right now and I would not have to work so hard to get one book at a time to the fans. I will keep doing it till I'm gone and when that times comes I hope that I will be remembered as someone that made a difference in peoples lives. Edited August 23, 2012 by recklessroad
spunko12345 Posted August 23, 2012 Posted August 23, 2012 Marc, I think the way you conduct yourself and the way you have got the book out has shown a lot of class. I don't think you have any reason to feel like you have acted against Axl.It must be hard that your friendship with Axl has suffered but the book is a factual document and however much Axl hates Slash even he can't make it so that the past never happened. All a person can do is what they feel is right and try not to screw people along the way and you have bent over backwards to try and keep everyone satisfied all along the way, even at your own personal expense. There comes a time though where it was right to let your collection out.You were the one who took the time to collect this awesome stuff and fans around the world are very grateful that you did.
SONOFABITCH Posted August 23, 2012 Posted August 23, 2012 Marc,If this is getting too personal I udnerstand:How did you learn Axl was upset with you about the book? Did he stop calling/returning your calls, or did he let you know he was deeply hurt?
recklessroad Posted August 24, 2012 Posted August 24, 2012 Marc,If this is getting too personal I udnerstand:How did you learn Axl was upset with you about the book? Did he stop calling/returning your calls, or did he let you know he was deeply hurt?I sent a email to Beta asking for some things that I needed from Axl to help finish the book. I was giving Axl some space while he was trying to get the record out but we ran out of time. Axl got the email first and was not happy at all about it. I got a call from Beta
SONOFABITCH Posted August 24, 2012 Posted August 24, 2012 That's a damn shame. I wonder if Axl gets insulted by the royalty checks he still gets from the Appetite era.
recklessroad Posted August 24, 2012 Posted August 24, 2012 That's a damn shame. I wonder if Axl gets insulted by the royalty checks he still gets from the Appetite era.I almost understand it. I'm promoting something that Axl wants to be as far as possible away from. Somehow he sees it as a betrayal because why would I do something like that if I know that he hates it and doesn't know how to deal with it. However I don't see it that way. I see it as a very special time in my life that everyone besides Axl would agree with. There is no way that I would hold the book back from coming out when after 12 years of trying to get my work out and finely finding someone to publish it. Because it meant so much to me I thought Axl would let it go and take one for me. I was told to hold on till after the record comes out. I had planed to do that anyway. I heard a shit load of new finished songs in Aug 2006 and was told by Axl that the record would be out in Nov. Reckless Road was going to come out in the summer of 2006. Nov came and went then I was told March the record would come out. I thought that would still work. March came and went. Then I was able to stall the book a few months till Sept or October and if I could I still would have held it back for 6 more months if there was a record really coming out. The problem was I signed a contract that I think said the book would come out in July 2006. The people that put up the money to produce the book were not going to hold the book back they had dates that had to be met. This is the worst part, I was told by someone in the GNR camp that if the book comes out before the record that I would loose a friend. I knew this was a bit much for Axl at the time but I thought he would see after a while that it was not a big deal and that it would not effect the new record in anyway but if anything only help it by having a cool history book about the birth of the band in the news would help sell records.
sleeper Posted August 24, 2012 Posted August 24, 2012 Marc, does Slash ever try to put restrictions on you as to what you talk about in reference to him? Has he ever implied that if you don't do as he ask you will lose him as a friend? What does he think about you being on this forum as a mod now? Thanks in advance for your answers.
recklessroad Posted August 24, 2012 Posted August 24, 2012 (edited) Marc, does Slash ever try to put restrictions on you as to what you talk about in reference to him? Has he ever implied that if you don't do as he ask you will lose him as a friend? What does he think about you being on this forum as a mod now? Thanks in advance for your answers.No the only thing Slash ever said to me about that is back in 1993 when I started working on the book he said use your discretion as far of what photos to use. It's the cool factor. However he did call me up after reading one of my first interviews where I gave my approval regarding Axl using the GNR name. I think he was a bit hurt by that statement. The funny thing was Axl was also hurt by me saying something from that same interview that he just took out of context. I also thought I was off the record and the interview person kept prying and only printed the last few words of what I said. Edited August 24, 2012 by recklessroad
SONOFABITCH Posted August 24, 2012 Posted August 24, 2012 That is sad because odds are your book had zero impact on Chinese Democracy.
ShadowOfTheWave Posted August 24, 2012 Posted August 24, 2012 (edited) That is sad because odds are your book had zero impact on Chinese Democracy.If anything, releasing a book or anything GNR related leads to more exposure and therefore more sales for anything GNR related. Why would someone not buy CD because of a book about the band's early days? Edited August 24, 2012 by ShadowOfTheWave
dalsh327 Posted August 24, 2012 Posted August 24, 2012 (edited) What was the interview they both read? There must be some really good photos for Slash to say "use your discretion", I'm sure they're good for a laugh among close friends but nothing they'd want the public to see (maybe when they're in their 70s, they won't care as much). We've seen Keith Richards full frontal, can't be worse than that. Edited August 24, 2012 by dalsh327
31illusions Posted August 25, 2012 Posted August 25, 2012 Wow. I had no idea this was going on between you guys Marc. In the end you did the right thing. Your book is Awesome.
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