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Gilby Clarke: 'When I Was In The Band I Was A Band Member'


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Guns N' Roses' Gilby Clarke On Jamming With Slash, Johnny Depp , Axl Rose And The Kings Of Chaos

October 11, 2015

101India’s exclusive interview with one of rock’s legendary guitarists.

How do you describe your time with G N’ R, your equation with Axl and Slash? You know, with all the drugs and alcohol and craziness?

I knew the band when they first started out in LA, it was a very close knit scene and when Izzy (Stradlin) left, it was a very unique situation since most guitar players don’t play well with others, they want to be the only guitar player and in G N’ R having that two guitar sound was very important. You cannot bring on somebody like Zack (Wylde) but you also need a strong guitar player and when Slash asked me and I thought yeah, that might work.

My equation was definitely more with Slash and bassist Duff (McKagan), our rooms were next to each other (while touring). I don’t want to put Axl as being the outsider but the band guys always stay together like our rooms were next to each other, we spend a lot of time together. Singer is someone always different, they cannot hang out and party all the time, they have to rest their voice and they’re the biggest stars. Myself, Slash, Duff and Matt can go down to the local bar and get a drink and even though people come up to it’s not like when Axl walks in. As far as respect, they all respected me; they all knew who I was as I was successful in the local scene.

I definitely got a lot of different things being thrown out there, were you a band member or a hired guy. It’s funny ‘coz when I was in the band I was a band member, Axl asked my opinion quite a few times about things but when things went sour people everybody started saying different things.

Full interview: http://www.101india.com/music/guns-n-roses-gilby-clarke-jamming-slash-johnny-depp-axl-rose-and-kings-chaos

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Axl in interviews of the time always said Gilby and Matt were full members. That changed like he said, but it was a back track on Axl's part... One of the more obvious ones too.

Yeah it changed when matt was listed as a touring member on live era. I'd say matt was delighted to see that.

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Well we'll never know if he could've produced the goods on a proper record just like we'll never know about Bumblefoot or Ashba either. BBF didn't even hear the songs properly when he played his solos, remember his story of not knowing what the hell the whole song sounded like and kept being told by engineers to play something different when he finished a solo lol.

Edited by RandallFlagg
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No you weren't. Buckethead was more of a band member than you ever were

Sorry dude but Bucket was never part of these GNRs. That's a fact.
Actually he was in guns n roses from 2000-2004. He was on Chinese democracy even had some incredible solos on the song and album.. Gilby was a hired hand who was on 1 album of all covers.

Regardless of whether it was axls band or not and whether you want to admit it or not, bucket was at least given creative control and shown respect. Gilby wasn't. Gilby was given 3 weeks to learn all the gnr songs on the set list given his paycheck, then he was dumped aside.

Bucket was more of a member.. Fact

Edited by Billsfan
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No you weren't. Buckethead was more of a band member than you ever were

Sorry dude but Bucket was never part of these GNRs. That's a fact.
Actually he was in guns n roses from 2000-2004. He was on Chinese democracy even had some incredible solos on the song and album.. Gilby was a hired hand who was on 1 album of all covers.

Regardless of whether it was axls band or not and whether you want to admit it or not, bucket was at least given creative control and shown respect. Gilby wasn't. Gilby was given 3 weeks to learn all the gnr songs on the set list given his paycheck, then he was dumped aside.

Bucket was more of a member.. Fact

Bucket was member of a band that happened to be called GNR. Not to be confused with the classic band from the late 80s / early 90s.

That GNR Bucket was part of, was founded by Axl right after he quitted the classic band.

All that is pretty well documented and a fact. Not an opinion as you may think it is.

Please don't rewrite history

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Gilby was brought in to replace Izzy for the UYI tours. At that time he wasn't intended as a regular band member, but just a temporary touring replacement. Then it turned out they all liked the guy, Axl included, and it seemed like he would become a regular band member. Then Axl decided he wouldn't write music with Gilby, and so after the touring, it was over.


No you weren't. Buckethead was more of a band member than you ever were

Sorry dude but Bucket was never part of these GNRs. That's a fact.
Actually he was in guns n roses from 2000-2004. He was on Chinese democracy even had some incredible solos on the song and album.. Gilby was a hired hand who was on 1 album of all covers.

Regardless of whether it was axls band or not and whether you want to admit it or not, bucket was at least given creative control and shown respect. Gilby wasn't. Gilby was given 3 weeks to learn all the gnr songs on the set list given his paycheck, then he was dumped aside.

Bucket was more of a member.. Fact

Bucket was member of a band that happened to be called GNR. Not to be confused with the classic band from the late 80s / early 90s.

That GNR Bucket was part of, was founded by Axl right after he quitted the classic band.

All that is pretty well documented and a fact. Not an opinion as you may think it is.
Please don't rewrite history

Such a technicality :D But I can imagine it is a nice comfort blanket for the mind for people who really, really, really want to make a separation between the lineup they loved and the lineups thereafter.

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No you weren't. Buckethead was more of a band member than you ever were

Sorry dude but Bucket was never part of these GNRs. That's a fact.
Actually he was in guns n roses from 2000-2004. He was on Chinese democracy even had some incredible solos on the song and album.. Gilby was a hired hand who was on 1 album of all covers.

Regardless of whether it was axls band or not and whether you want to admit it or not, bucket was at least given creative control and shown respect. Gilby wasn't. Gilby was given 3 weeks to learn all the gnr songs on the set list given his paycheck, then he was dumped aside.

Bucket was more of a member.. Fact

Bucket was member of a band that happened to be called GNR. Not to be confused with the classic band from the late 80s / early 90s.

That GNR Bucket was part of, was founded by Axl right after he quitted the classic band.

All that is pretty well documented and a fact. Not an opinion as you may think it is.

Please don't rewrite history

Not re writing anything. The bands name is guns n roses. Always has been, always will be. That may upset people like you but regardless, axl has and always will have a legal right to perform under the name guns n roses. Slash and Duff gave him that right.

The point is, Buckethead had creative control to an extent and did it to an incredible ability. Gilby Clarke was a hired hand, like ashba and some others. But Buckethead created his own material recorded it and performed it live with guns n roses. Like it or not, Buckethead was more a part of guns n roses than gilby Clarke ever was. Not re writing history, just stating facts.

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