Slash Oldie But Goodie: Slash bashing 'Sympathy for the Devil'

[Chuzeville]

"Axl and his lawsuits"--great name for a solo project.

[niceguy]

Then Axl wanted to bring in a guy named Paul Huge. "You want to bring in your buddy from Indiana?" Slash said incredulously. "Look, he'll just jam with us and maybe it'll work out," Axl said. "No," both Slash and I said. "Yes," said Axl. This wasn't some wedding band you could just bring friends into. If I wasn't going to bend for the sake of one of my best friends - Slash , and his Southern-rock songs [which Slash wanted to use for GN'R's next record] - I sure as hell wasn't going to let a stranger come in and fuck around with Guns. "Fine," Axl said. "How's this: you guys try him out on your own, give him a few days." We let him come in. Gave him a couple of days. It was hopeless [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 242]

And yet, so many people here worship this Paul Huge guy as the second coming of Christ.

In my 9 years on this forum I've never seen anyone rate Paul Huge as anything better than ok. Perhaps you can link me to posts where people praise him?

Dude I have a life and there's no way I'm going to put aside my precious time to research this forum.

People here love his "contributions" to ChiDem. They think he's this genius songwriter who is now a genius stock broker. The guy probably trades penny stocks online in his mother's basement.

[DieselDaisy]

From what I have read, Slash was not too impressed with the the results. Firstly, he thought it was pointless, believing The Stones' version perfect; he only agreed to do it as an attempt to, 'get Guns back into the studio again'. He would have prefered to work on something original instead of, another cover. Secondly, Slash's original lead guitar solo did not make the finished master; Slash had strayed from Keith in his original lead, believing, you cannot improve upon perfection, however Axl pulled him back into the studio to re-record it so it sounded, 'more like Keith'. Thirdly, you have Tobias's overdub ontop of that said solo which Slash never knew about.

The sessions were also jinxed from the very beginning as Axl did not turn up at the allocated time. So, Slash, Duff, Matt and Dizzy just did what they could wheras Axl would turn up when everybody had left, at night.

[magisme]

I love the song, but he's right that it did nothing for the band. I remember when it came out I felt exactly the same. I loved hearing it on the radio, but it felt like the band was in stall mode. 20 years later, still in stall mode.

[Nosaj Thing]

Slash is pretty much spot on. The cover was supposed to bring all the guys together in a room again. Yet when they were going to record the song, all of them were there sans Axl.

Edited May 17, 2014 by Nosaj Thing

[there is no dana only zool]

From Mick Wall's W. Axl Rose book :

According to Matt, he walked out after a massive argument with Axl - about Slash. They had been talking in the studio when Paul Huge remarked he had seen Slash play with his band, the Snakepit, on the David Letterman show the previous night and that it had sounded like shit and looked like shit. Says Matt now: He was just bagging on Slash. I said, 'Listen motherfucker, when I'm sitting in the room, I'd appreciate it if you don't fucking say shit about Slash. He's still my friend. You can't even hold a fucking candle to that fucking guy. He's got more talent in his little toe than you, motherfucker, shut up!' And then Axl got in my face. I said, 'You know what, Axl, man? You're fucking smoking crack if you think this band's GN'R without Slash. You're gonna go play 'Sweet Child O' Mine' with fucking Paul Huge? Sorry, dude, it ain't gonna sound right. Fucking 'Welcome to the Jungle' without Slash?' [Axl] says, 'I'm Guns N' Roses - I don't need Slash'. I said, 'You know what? No, you aren't'. We got into a big pissy match; it went onto a bunch of other bullshit for about another 20 minutes. And then he finally said, 'Well, are you gonna fucking quit?' I said, 'No, I don't fucking quit'. And then he said, 'Well, then you're fucking fired.

Paul Huge chased me out to the parking lot and said, 'What the fuck, man? Just come back in and apologise!' I said, 'Fuck you, Yoko! I'm gone!' And that was it. I went home to my fucking six-level palatial rock star estate with two elevators and my Porsche. I was producing a band called Candlebox at the time, they were living in my house. And I said, 'I just got fired'. They said, 'Ah, fuck he'll call you back', and I said, 'No, not this time'. Cos he'd fired me before but he always called me back. I said, 'No, I don't think so'. And about a month later I got the letter from the lawyers.

I've never believed a word Mick Wall has said about GN'R and have always thought that he was so offended by Get in the Ring, that, fueled by a planet-sized butthurt, he vowed to trash Axl in any way he could, whenever he could. Wouldn't be surprised if 100% of his book is made up.

[Nosaj Thing]

I believe everything Mick Wall has to say.

[niceguy]

I've never believed a word Mick Wall has said about GN'R and have always thought that he was so offended by Get in the Ring, that, fueled by a planet-sized butthurt, he vowed to trash Axl in any way he could, whenever he could. Wouldn't be surprised if 100% of his book is made up.

So, you think he completely made up a quote from Matt Sorum, published it, and yet Matt Sorum has never taken legal action?

Yeah, OK man.

[Chuzeville]

I've never believed a word Mick Wall has said about GN'R and have always thought that he was so offended by Get in the Ring, that, fueled by a planet-sized butthurt, he vowed to trash Axl in any way he could, whenever he could. Wouldn't be surprised if 100% of his book is made up.

Has it ever occured to you that Axl was so butthurt himself that he wen't and recorded a rant aimed at rock critics?

[Crash Diet]

I believe everything Mick Wall has to say.

That's not a wise thing

[Nosaj Thing]

I believe everything Mick Wall has to say.

That's not a wise thing

It's wiser than believing Axl's words.

Edited May 18, 2014 by Nosaj Thing

[there is no dana only zool]

I've never believed a word Mick Wall has said about GN'R and have always thought that he was so offended by Get in the Ring, that, fueled by a planet-sized butthurt, he vowed to trash Axl in any way he could, whenever he could. Wouldn't be surprised if 100% of his book is made up.

So, you think he completely made up a quote from Matt Sorum, published it, and yet Matt Sorum has never taken legal action?

Yeah, OK man.

Ha, I genuinely do. Or, if not completely made up Matt's quote, he probably read a skeletal version of it elsewhere and twisted it into something else, with more fireworks and put it into his book. Obviously, I could be wrong here, but sometimes I kind of think that some celebrities - even though they're misquoted or taken advantage of - either don't care enough to take action, or, the offender didn't deal that much damage to them where it'd be worth dealing with it. I could see that being the case here.

I've never believed a word Mick Wall has said about GN'R and have always thought that he was so offended by Get in the Ring, that, fueled by a planet-sized butthurt, he vowed to trash Axl in any way he could, whenever he could. Wouldn't be surprised if 100% of his book is made up.

Has it ever occured to you that Axl was so butthurt himself that he wen't and recorded a rant aimed at rock critics?

Well yes, of course. I would have done the same thing if I had the platform. GITR was cool as hell because what musicians had ever done something like that before? Personally, I think it would be awesome if either through music, or just SOME form of art, someone threw a punch at the worthless fucks at Blabbermouth who live solely to cupcake musicians. They have done some pretty unforgivable shit in their day. Anyway, I'm going off topic here, but to answer your question, yes. *However, I also believe Axl during the TMS interview when he said he was sort of "put up to it."

[RussTCB]

I've never believed a word Mick Wall has said about GN'R and have always thought that he was so offended by Get in the Ring, that, fueled by a planet-sized butthurt, he vowed to trash Axl in any way he could, whenever he could. Wouldn't be surprised if 100% of his book is made up.

So, you think he completely made up a quote from Matt Sorum, published it, and yet Matt Sorum has never taken legal action?

Yeah, OK man.

Personally I think Matt Sorum made that shit up and Wall just quoted his BS.

[dalsh327]

I still wonder what Izzy thought of Paul being in GNR, or what his friendship with him was or is.

There were a lot of people reluctant to work in GNR in the mid 90s, that's probably why Duff and Slash couldn't come up with any names. Probably in a few years when Seattle died down they probably would have had a lot of names come their way.

Did Mick Wall interview Matt for his book, or was he pulling his info from magazine interviews?

Get In The Ring should have just been on the first run of UYI and made it a collectible.

[Crash Diet]

I believe everything Mick Wall has to say.

That's not a wise thing

It's wiser than believing Axl's words.

Nope

Mick Wall is a journalist

Never trust a journalist

That being said, Axl said a lot of things that turned out nothing...

Edited May 18, 2014 by Crash Diet

[DieselDaisy]

The quotations in Wall's book are not individually sourced but there is an extensive bibliography in the back, of the sources Wall utilised. This includes numerous Matt Sorum interviews (e.g. Drum, April-May 2004; Mojo, January 2005), anyone of which, could be the origin of the passage in question.

Edited May 18, 2014 by DieselDaisy

[dude69]

Slash absolutely nailed it. You can see the anger in his face when he talks about this.

I'm not sure how many of you were actually alive and old enough to appreciate this era..but this cover was absolutely unnecessary and accomplished nothing for the band.

Somewhere toward the end of the Illusions is where Axl really started to slip into the insane state he is in today....I think "Sympathy for the Devil" was when he jumped the shark.

I'm going to recap where I believe Axl started to lose his mind and made some questionable decisions:

-Putting "My World" on Use Your Illusion II without anyone else's permission from the band

-Two versions of "Don't Cry"....really very unneccessary

-A horn section and backup singers on the 1992-1993 leg of the tour

-The whole album "The Spaghetti Incident".....GNR had already done covers of "Live and Let Die" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".....releasing an entire album of covers was a downright bizarre move that nobody but hardcore fans appreciated

-The Sympathy for the Devil cover....as Slash stated, this was a disaster....this song did nothing in the US...the Stones song couldn't be improved...Axl basically did what he wanted with it without the permission of the rest of the band

-"Oh My God" in 1999.....nobody outside of a handful of people in this forum thought this was anything but garbage...a huge disappointment

-The MTV appearance in 2002....Axl's voice was horrible....he embarrassed the rest of the band

-Aborted 2003 tour...a missed opportunity by where there was still a window of acceptance for the music

-Waiting until November 2008 for Chinese Democracy release....this whole release was a disaster....no promotion, picking a crappy album cover when the other artwork was fantastic; not releasing singles which might have been hits (This I Love)....no videos....just a horrible mess

-Hiring his stupid housekeeper and her son as his manager....these bush league amateurs continue to run the band into the ground

This band is a joke today. They are basically a shadow of what they were...it is basically the Guns N Roses travelling revue. What was once one of the coolest rock bands of all time has been systematically destroyed and turned into a joke by Axl....I think it became real to Slash in 1994 that it was happening when Sympathy for the Devil came out and you can see his frustration as it was going up in flames.

[vegasjunkie2004]

Well said...........

Slash absolutely nailed it. You can see the anger in his face when he talks about this.

I'm not sure how many of you were actually alive and old enough to appreciate this era..but this cover was absolutely unnecessary and accomplished nothing for the band.

Somewhere toward the end of the Illusions is where Axl really started to slip into the insane state he is in today....I think "Sympathy for the Devil" was when he jumped the shark.

I'm going to recap where I believe Axl started to lose his mind and made some questionable decisions:

-Putting "My World" on Use Your Illusion II without anyone else's permission from the band

-Two versions of "Don't Cry"....really very unneccessary

-A horn section and backup singers on the 1992-1993 leg of the tour

-The whole album "The Spaghetti Incident".....GNR had already done covers of "Live and Let Die" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".....releasing an entire album of covers was a downright bizarre move that nobody but hardcore fans appreciated

-The Sympathy for the Devil cover....as Slash stated, this was a disaster....this song did nothing in the US...the Stones song couldn't be improved...Axl basically did what he wanted with it without the permission of the rest of the band

-"Oh My God" in 1999.....nobody outside of a handful of people in this forum thought this was anything but garbage...a huge disappointment

-The MTV appearance in 2002....Axl's voice was horrible....he embarrassed the rest of the band

-Aborted 2003 tour...a missed opportunity by where there was still a window of acceptance for the music

-Waiting until November 2008 for Chinese Democracy release....this whole release was a disaster....no promotion, picking a crappy album cover when the other artwork was fantastic; not releasing singles which might have been hits (This I Love)....no videos....just a horrible mess

-Hiring his stupid housekeeper and her son as his manager....these bush league amateurs continue to run the band into the ground

This band is a joke today. They are basically a shadow of what they were...it is basically the Guns N Roses travelling revue. What was once one of the coolest rock bands of all time has been systematically destroyed and turned into a joke by Axl....I think it became real to Slash in 1994 that it was happening when Sympathy for the Devil came out and you can see his frustration as it was going up in flames.

[Kapitch_77]

Your list could be much longer. There are so many bad performances it's just comical now, and to make it even funnier the most horrible ones are televised.

[ColdHeartBreaker]

Slash absolutely nailed it. You can see the anger in his face when he talks about this.

I'm not sure how many of you were actually alive and old enough to appreciate this era..but this cover was absolutely unnecessary and accomplished nothing for the band.

Somewhere toward the end of the Illusions is where Axl really started to slip into the insane state he is in today....I think "Sympathy for the Devil" was when he jumped the shark.

I'm going to recap where I believe Axl started to lose his mind and made some questionable decisions:

-Putting "My World" on Use Your Illusion II without anyone else's permission from the band

-Two versions of "Don't Cry"....really very unneccessary

-A horn section and backup singers on the 1992-1993 leg of the tour

-The whole album "The Spaghetti Incident".....GNR had already done covers of "Live and Let Die" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".....releasing an entire album of covers was a downright bizarre move that nobody but hardcore fans appreciated

-The Sympathy for the Devil cover....as Slash stated, this was a disaster....this song did nothing in the US...the Stones song couldn't be improved...Axl basically did what he wanted with it without the permission of the rest of the band

-"Oh My God" in 1999.....nobody outside of a handful of people in this forum thought this was anything but garbage...a huge disappointment

-The MTV appearance in 2002....Axl's voice was horrible....he embarrassed the rest of the band

-Aborted 2003 tour...a missed opportunity by where there was still a window of acceptance for the music

-Waiting until November 2008 for Chinese Democracy release....this whole release was a disaster....no promotion, picking a crappy album cover when the other artwork was fantastic; not releasing singles which might have been hits (This I Love)....no videos....just a horrible mess

-Hiring his stupid housekeeper and her son as his manager....these bush league amateurs continue to run the band into the ground

This band is a joke today. They are basically a shadow of what they were...it is basically the Guns N Roses travelling revue. What was once one of the coolest rock bands of all time has been systematically destroyed and turned into a joke by Axl....I think it became real to Slash in 1994 that it was happening when Sympathy for the Devil came out and you can see his frustration as it was going up in flames.

you forgot piece of shit

[dalsh327]

Slash absolutely nailed it. You can see the anger in his face when he talks about this.

I'm not sure how many of you were actually alive and old enough to appreciate this era..but this cover was absolutely unnecessary and accomplished nothing for the band.

Somewhere toward the end of the Illusions is where Axl really started to slip into the insane state he is in today....I think "Sympathy for the Devil" was when he jumped the shark.

I'm going to recap where I believe Axl started to lose his mind and made some questionable decisions:

-Putting "My World" on Use Your Illusion II without anyone else's permission from the band

-Two versions of "Don't Cry"....really very unneccessary

-A horn section and backup singers on the 1992-1993 leg of the tour

-The whole album "The Spaghetti Incident".....GNR had already done covers of "Live and Let Die" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".....releasing an entire album of covers was a downright bizarre move that nobody but hardcore fans appreciated

-The Sympathy for the Devil cover....as Slash stated, this was a disaster....this song did nothing in the US...the Stones song couldn't be improved...Axl basically did what he wanted with it without the permission of the rest of the band

-"Oh My God" in 1999.....nobody outside of a handful of people in this forum thought this was anything but garbage...a huge disappointment

-The MTV appearance in 2002....Axl's voice was horrible....he embarrassed the rest of the band

-Aborted 2003 tour...a missed opportunity by where there was still a window of acceptance for the music

-Waiting until November 2008 for Chinese Democracy release....this whole release was a disaster....no promotion, picking a crappy album cover when the other artwork was fantastic; not releasing singles which might have been hits (This I Love)....no videos....just a horrible mess

-Hiring his stupid housekeeper and her son as his manager....these bush league amateurs continue to run the band into the ground

This band is a joke today. They are basically a shadow of what they were...it is basically the Guns N Roses travelling revue. What was once one of the coolest rock bands of all time has been systematically destroyed and turned into a joke by Axl....I think it became real to Slash in 1994 that it was happening when Sympathy for the Devil came out and you can see his frustration as it was going up in flames.

The songs on TSI were nothing new though, it was just taking some things they had sitting around and adding enough songs to it to make an album. But what didn't help was putting the Estranged video out after TSI was released.

I don't think Axl slipped into insanity as much as had his future plans derailed in a big way and his personal shit put on public display and people close to him who died in a short period of time.

It seemed like everything he worked for and cared apart was gone as soon as he got off the road, but instead of them all taking an indefinite break until they could be on the same page, the tensions that Axl and Slash had been able to put aside for years was finally coming to a head when they rejected each others songs.

They should have just been able to not worry about a damn thing anymore, take care of themselves, recharge their batteries and pull it together. Recording music should have been fun, and nothing about it sounded like it was fun.

In the mid 90s, people could care less about new GNR music. 5 years later, people were more excited about hearing something new from them.

[DieselDaisy]

I do not think you can blame Axl completely for TSI. They all recorded them of their own freewill (initially with Izzy when they did Illusions and later going back to them with Gilby). I think Slash agreed to that album, as did McKagan (who has a huge role on that record). You could blame Axl for Since I Don't Have You and the Manson thing of course, but not the actual decision to record and release the rest of those songs.

Also, I heard Slash played a big role with the big band in 1992.

The rest, I agree. I would also add the cheesy videos (Don't Cry, November Rain and Estranged). That was all Axl. You can see the reluctance of the other guys in the making ofs - this is one of the reasons Stradlin bailed. These fuckin ruined that band's credibility as far as I am concerned.

[DR DOOM]

I love Duff but he wasn't the best on quality control (see: Believe In Me)...that's what drinking in such quantities does to your judgement I guess.

[Lio]

The rest, I agree. I would also add the cheesy videos (Don't Cry, November Rain and Estranged). That was all Axl. You can see the reluctance of the other guys in the making ofs - this is one of the reasons Stradlin bailed. These fuckin ruined that band's credibility as far as I am concerned.

You may find the videos cheesy, but they were a huge part of GNR's success. We grew up with MTV and watched it 24/7. The videos were immensely popular and I'm sure attracted lots of new fans. Maybe they didn't quite fit with the dangerous band image, but I'm sure that the videos contributed a lot to GNR's success back then.

[DR DOOM]

Millions of sheople enjoy Justin Bieber film clips too (apparently)...doesn't necessarily translate to "good"