Sympathy for the Devil questions

[Vincent Vega]

A couple of questions.....

1) Does Slash REALLY hate Guns' cover of Sympathy as much as he says publicly? Does he really feel it's the "sound of the band breaking up"? Or is that him just sort of embellishing stuff? I ask because that's a rather dramatic stance...Like designed to make the public feel negatively about the song.

2) How did Axl feel about the cover, back when it was first done? Was he proud of it at the time? Does he too feel negatively about it nowadays?

3) What about the other band members? Do you know how any of the others feel about the track or felt about it back in '94 when it was done?

4) Did Axl ever talk to you about why he added Paul Huge to the song? Do you know why he did it without asking Slash? Was Paul's name ever brought up in terms of being Gilby's replacement before Sympathy was recorded?

5) Do you know if the stories that Slash said about the song's recording--That Slash went to try and talk to Axl when Axl recorded his vocals for the song and Axl just talked to him from behind a magazine and didn't really listen to him--is that true? What about the story Slash told of Axl demanding Slash re-record his solo to sound more like the original song's solo, which pissed Slash off?

Anything else you know behind the scenes about the song and/or it's recording would be really cool to know!

I ask because as it's the last recording ever done or released by Axl, Slash & Duff together as a band, so it's pretty significant.

Edited August 24, 2012 by Vincent Vega

[dalsh327]

Did they ever talk about making a video for Sympathy?

Prob. a little too homoerotic for Slash's liking. Axl should've auditioned to be Lestat in the one with Aaliyah.

[Vincent Vega]

Did they ever talk about making a video for Sympathy?

Prob. a little too homoerotic for Slash's liking. Axl should've auditioned to be Lestat in the one with Aaliyah.

I get the impression that Axl and Slash weren't talking much in late '94. The Snakepit fiasco had already occurred (Snakepit was recorded instrumentally by the end of January 1994) and I think that put a permanent strain between them. The last interview done with Axl and Slash together was on January 3rd 1994. Axl said he was shooting for the next record to come out in '96, and Slash was sending tapes of what became Snakepit to Axl.

On the other hand, it seems that in 1994, Axl and Duff were very close. Axl was the only one in the band to visit Duff in the hospital after Duff nearly died; They went biking together often during Duff's recovery, they went to concerts together. Duff says he had a conversation with Axl over the phone in late '94 which lasted over an hour. They talked the band's accomplishments, the band's collective vision and why it resonated, about how successful the band had been.

Duf: "We never sat down and said 'look what we did'. I know we're not the type of band to high-five or whatever, but we never even went out to dinner and just shook each other's hands."

"You're right." replied Axl, "But we still could."

Then sometime after this convo the Sympathy fiasco went down in October '94, and Slash became more pissed than ever with Axl. The song was released in December '94, the band had a few weeks of sessions with Zak Wylde in January 1995. Snakepit was released in February '95 and Slash took Snakepit out on tour in March. He began badmouthing Axl to the press in April 1995 and this continued for most of the year. The Snakepit tour ended in July '95 after Axl sent word that he was ready to begin working on the album. Work commenced throughout '95 and '96 and they had recorded 7 songs by mid '96.

Also, by '94, Slash HATED doing videos.

[recklessroad]

A couple of questions.....

1) Does Slash REALLY hate Guns' cover of Sympathy as much as he says publicly? Does he really feel it's the "sound of the band breaking up"? Or is that him just sort of embellishing stuff? I ask because that's a rather dramatic stance...Like designed to make the public feel negatively about the song.

2) How did Axl feel about the cover, back when it was first done? Was he proud of it at the time? Does he too feel negatively about it nowadays?

3) What about the other band members? Do you know how any of the others feel about the track or felt about it back in '94 when it was done?

4) Did Axl ever talk to you about why he added Paul Huge to the song? Do you know why he did it without asking Slash? Was Paul's name ever brought up in terms of being Gilby's replacement before Sympathy was recorded?

5) Do you know if the stories that Slash said about the song's recording--That Slash went to try and talk to Axl when Axl recorded his vocals for the song and Axl just talked to him from behind a magazine and didn't really listen to him--is that true? What about the story Slash told of Axl demanding Slash re-record his solo to sound more like the original song's solo, which pissed Slash off?

Anything else you know behind the scenes about the song and/or it's recording would be really cool to know!

I ask because as it's the last recording ever done or released by Axl, Slash & Duff together as a band, so it's pretty significant.

Slash said that he really didn't feel the song needed to be remade but did it because he thought it was a way to get them working together again.

I think Axl was happy with it. when it was done he gave me a tape of it. I don't know how he feels now about it.

I don't know how the rest of the band felt.

Axl said that after Slash went back to fix the lead at the end of the song to do it like Keith did it, Axl said Slash winged it and didn't listen to the real one with headphones to get the timing right. He had Paul do it too and Paul did use the headphones so the timing was different between Slash and the one that Paul did. They mixed them together and Axl liked it. Slash was pissed. However when Axl added Robin to the second part of the main lead of Sweet Child for a movie soundtrack a few years latter, I was not happy with that, it was misleading and anyways Robin didn't play it right so the same thing goes, don't fuck with a signature lead.

I don't know about the hiding behind a magazine, but the re-recording of the lead was true. Axl wanted it be like the one on the record.( Axl was right about that, it was a signature lead and should be there) Don't fuck with something that everyone already knows. Slash had to go back and fix it before Axl would do more work on the song.

[spunko12345]

I don't understand the point in doing cover versions unless you add your own take to it.

For example if I want to hear that song like the original I will just put on the stones version. Recreating it note for note is pointless, it's just an ego trip by Axl in my opinion if everyone else has to stay precisely to the stones version why not mimic Micks voice aswell because you can argue that that's a signature part of the song too.

On the whole I say bands should just leave classics be unless they have a different spin to put on them.

[dalsh327]

I'd be curious to hear how GNR would do it now at the shows.

[Crash Diet]

I'd be curious to hear how GNR would do it now at the shows.

Would be better than AC/DC covers

[Iron MikeyJ]

I'd be curious to hear how GNR would do it now at the shows.

Would be better than AC/DC covers

Agreed. I like whole lotta rosie because thats an old gnr cover, but riff raff can go. Id rrather here sympathy any day over that.

[Iron MikeyJ]

I know quite a few videos for this song already exist on youtube but here is my take in it if anyone is interested.

Sympathy for the devil