Izzy Stradlin' Leaves GnR: A Retrospective (Vintage Quotes 1991-2017)

[RONIN]

GNR LIES: Izzy Stradlin' Edition

(Non Izzy-related quotes provided for additional insight and/or context)

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A hypothetical question then: Axl’s [solo] album flops, and he offers you all the chance to get back together - just like Aerosmith and Black Sabbath - would you do it? I mean, assuming Axl would be… “… broke?” he cuts in with a laugh. “I could hear the call.” Goes into gruff Axl impersonation: “‘You know, I've been, ah, thinking’. He talks really slow when he gets an idea like that. ‘Aahhh, I've been thinking…’ And I'd be thinking, ‘He must be broke’,” he chuckles. “That’s how I imagine the call.”

He says the band still get hopeful promoters trying to tempt them back together with promises of enormous wedge. “Oh, yeah. Around the big millennium hype, for sure.” Is he ever tempted? “Yeah, why not?” he chuckles. “A [one-off] gig would be easy, I would think.” What about an album, though? Now he really does laugh. “Well, you know what? It’s funny, cos like me, Duff and Slash - we could go in and make a Guns N’ Roses record in a week. Basic tracks. [But] vocals and leads [instrumentation] could take God knows how long…”

- Izzy Stradlin'

http://www.a-4-d.com/t2673-2001-xxdd-classic-rock-interview-with-izzy

 

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ON IZZY:

He's a sweetheart. Had a lot of nice times with him, soft-spoken, nice good-hearted guy [BUMBLEFOOT, REDDIT AMA, December 2013]

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I also identify a lot with Izzy, personally and musically, and what he does, where he came from. And again, there's a lot of similarities, you know. When we are together, when we play together, we have a lot of fun playing old Stones's stuff, Aerosmith.. We came up with the same type of stuff. So I think I approach it in a similar way that he did. I tend to go for a lower gain type of sound, maybe a bit more vintage-y, than Slash's high gain sound, and I think that is where he just naturally went as well. So I think there are similarities in that. We also have similar taste in guitars, so in what we want to hear 

[FORTUS, Reverb, August 2016].

PROLOGUE:

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LEMMY KILMISTER: We played with Guns N’ Roses at the Rose Bowl then, and they were already fragmenting. Axl was on his own–it didn’t feel like they were thinking as a band anymore. [SPIN 1999]

 

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ALAN NIVEN:

METAL SLUDGE: So go through your last day with the Guns N’ Roses, the day you were fired. What happened?

I was in the Meadowlands, in New Jersey, in 1991. I got a phone call in the production office. It was Axl. He very quietly said, “I can’t work with you anymore.” I said, “Sorry to hear that. I’ll be back in Los Angeles in two days, let’s go out and have dinner together and talk about it.” That was the last time I ever spoke to him. To this day, we’ve never spoken a word to each other.

METAL SLUDGE: The others went along with it?

They had to. My understanding of the situation was that Axl stated to the band he would not go on tour if I remained as manager. Didn't give the others much of a choice there, did he?... By this point, Axl was kind of taking over. Let’s look at the first thing he did once I left: He had everyone else in the band sign the name over to him. It was a control move between Axl and Doug Goldstein. They both knew I would never stand for anything like that. Axl never even brought it up when I was the manager because he knew what I would tell him to do with it.

METAL SLUDGE: So what are you saying? Axl and Doug Goldstein had a secret alliance?

That sounds very accurate.

METAL SLUDGE: Wow.

I think that both Axl and Goldstein were, at that time, both controlling and greedy. Axl complained all the time that Steven Adler got a percentage of composing royalties. I had recommended that the band have a share-and-share-alike approach to such income -- as did Van Halen, Great White, and others – because my observation was that the primary factors that destroyed bands were women and arguing over differential splits of income, especially mechanical royalties. Hence, I would recommend equal sharing of royalties -- and not women! In any case with GNR, Axl got more than anyone else, and Adler got less. The other three got the same: less than Axl and more than Adler. Ultimately, the fracture between Axl and Adler was exacerbated by the two factors that always rupture bands -- money and a woman.

 

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... [Goldstein] been climbing the stairs strategically. It was like a predator in an ambush. While no one has been more responsible for Guns of the dissolution of the Guns own, Doug Goldstein was a catalyst. His techniques to divide and conquer were a instrument for the arrival of our end, "wrote Slash in the eponymous 2007 book, published in Brazil by Editora Ediouro.

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“During this process (the mixing of ‘UYI’) the animosity between our manager, Alan Niven, and Axl came to a head. The rest of us had been trying to squash it for a while, but Axl's issues with Alan had been brewing for years - since the moment he found out that Alan also managed and produced and co-wrote Great White. There was also the fact that Alan was opinionated on a lot of things and Axl didn’t always agree with his point of view. So at times Axl felt like he was being forced to do things that he didn't necessarily want to do.

“I knew it was going to happen but I didn’t think it would be the tipping point. Looking back, I feel that shift was the moment, the pause at the pinnacle of the band’s success... and the start of its downfall… All the same, I saw Doug coming. He made a place for himself in Axl’s life, and once Axl had made his feelings about Alan clear, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Doug was right there to pick up the reins. He had been strategically moving up the ladder from the beginning. He was like an ambush predator.”[Slash Autobiography]

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Slash, recounting the period right prior to the release of the Illusions albums:

This was when Axl started getting obsessive about the details of everything to do with Guns N' Roses, starting with the publishing splits of the songs on Illusion I and II. (...) In the end, because of contributors like Paul Huge and West Arkeen and Del James, Axl insisted upon splits that were like 22.75 percent or 32.2 percent per song for us core members [bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York, p.319].

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Slash, about the band name:

As far as contractually - and this is a discrepancy between myself and our attorneys - apparently Axl owns it. Now I should have known that, because I could have then said: "Okay." I don't give a fuck who owns the name. But I find out later that Axl legally owns it - apparently. It's like everybody is on Axl's side from the business point of view, y'know? Everybody's scared that they're going to get fired. Because if Axl decides that he can't work with you you'll get fired, no matter what I say! I can fight till I fucking turn blue, but I won't be able to get anything done with the band if Axl won't work. And that's how the latter part, from "Use Your Illusion" till now, has been. And that's why we had big blow-up dolls and background singers and horns! It was ridiculous [Guns N' Roses: Is It All Over? Does Anyone Care? Metal Hammer, November 1995].

 

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DUFF on signing over the band name:

Fuck it. I signed. So did Slash. Guns N' Roses - the trademark now owned by Axl - took the stage. The next day, I grabbed Doug Goldstein on the tarmac at the airport. I had woken up really upset about what had happened the previous night. Slash and I shouldn't have signed those papers. But management wouldn't let the whole thing go forward anyway. Right? I shouted at Doug, saying he needed to fix things.

DG: "Look, Duff, you're a smart guy. I manage Guns N' Roses"

Duff: Yeah, I know, Doug. And that's why we have to -

DG: "No, you're not getting it. I manage Guns N' Roses."

Duff: Are you trying to tell me you manage the name Guns N' Roses?

I was still a member of the band. Not a paid hand. Slash and I still had the same equity stake as before. We had just relinquished control of the name. Doug looked at me with no expression.

Duff: You manage the guy who owns the name Guns N' Roses - is that where you're going, Doug?

He shrugged. That was where he was going. I was apoplectic with rage. I couldn't even speak.

[Duff Autobiography]

http://www.mtv.com/news/1451669/i-was-curious-slash-says-of-gnr-show-he-was-banned-from/

 

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Doug Goldstein On Slash's accusations against him:

"I'd love to find Slash and clarify this because the truth is that we have been for seven years the people who took care of the band's business. I doubled the amount of commissions that were paid to them. Love Slash to death, is one of my favorite people in the whole world and for some reason he has these ideas." [Doug Goldstein, Mitch Lafon Interview 2017]

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Doug Goldstein On Alan Niven:

"Every day after work he went to the room, put a black hood and swore against Axl and me. I was in Hawaii, enjoying my life and Niven came, made new friends with Slash and Duff [McKagan, original bassist Guns] and took credit everything I did. Then Slash told me that Niven tried to have sex with his girlfriend. " [Doug Goldstein, Mitch Lafon Interview 2017]

 

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Marc Canter on Doug Goldstein

When he was their tour manger he was the one keeping things cool. When he became their manger things were ok for a while and then he became a Yes Man to Axl. Maybe because he thought he would get fired? Catering to one members needs while he should have had also been looking out for the other guys too. I don't think Doug knew what he became until years after he was not working with the band. I talked to him a few years ago and he told me to tell Slash that he was sorry for the things that went down. I guess he felt that he didn't represent them evenly But as a tour manger, there was no one like him. He took care of shit that no one would think of doing and he was doing the job of what it would take 3 people to do.

http://www.mygnrforum.com/topic/194694-doug-goldstein/

 

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Slash On being barred from Axl's comeback show in Vegas 2001:

He was told that no former members of the band would be admitted. Slash offered to enter the show late and leave early, sitting in the back where he wouldn't be noticed, he said, but they refused.

"I even found a security guard who said he would sneak me in, but the promoter found out about that and nixed that. Basically, if they found me inside, they said, someone would get fired."

At that point he realized it was pointless to try to attend the show, he said, so he gave up and to went to another casino for the night. The evening wasn't a total loss, though — Slash ran into GN'R crew members who were old friends and partied with them after the show, he said.

"Really, I just wanted to go to the show, not cause a scene. If I had wanted to cause a scene," Slash said, "I could have called the head of security on my cell phone and said I was in the middle of the venue and to come and get me, just to f--- with him. I even thought about doing that, but that's just my mischievous side. It shouldn't have been a big deal. And if, even after all this time, if Axl had wanted to do a song, any number of our old GN'R songs, it would have been way cool."

He said he made some calls and got on the guest list for the December 29 show via the venue and the promoter.

"I've never actually seen Guns N' Roses from that perspective," he said, "and I was curious. And I wanted to go in a supportive capacity as well. ... I was trying to be discreet about it, but apparently Guns N' Roses' management found out and it was major pandemonium. It was like they sent out an all-points bulletin."

Doug Goldstein: "We didn’t know what his intentions were. If nothing else, it would have been a distraction. Axl was really nervous about these shows. We decided on our own not to take any risk."

http://www.mtv.com/news/1451669/i-was-curious-slash-says-of-gnr-show-he-was-banned-from/

 

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Slash on Doug Goldstein (2015)

“I did not read it,” he added, referring to Goldstein’s Rolling Stone Brazil interview. “I don’t want to read or hear that guy’s BS. So I just avoid it. That way I stay sane.”

https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/slash-denies-claim-that-michael-jackson-was-behind-gnr-breakup-video

 

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GN'R's management company, Big F D Entertainment (headed up by Doug Goldstein) is suing former bandmembers Slash (Saul Hudson) and Duff McKagan (Michael McKagan) for what Big F D says are monies owed, according to papers dated December 14 and filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. The suit claims that the pair is in debt to the company to the tune of at least $400,000.Slash's lawyer, Zia Modabber, told MTV News that the guitarist's contract with Goldstein ended some time ago and that the manager isn't owed anything. The lawyer added that Slash intends to vigorously defend himself in court. [January 2000]

http://www.mtv.com/news/1429769/guns-n-roses-management-sues-former-members-slash-duff/

 

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"I looooove Slash. Did I really sue him?"

[Doug Goldstein, Mitch Lafon Interview 2017]

IZZY LEAVES GNR

 

 

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“That motherfucker makes us miserable every fuckin' day,” he groaned.

Izzy left GN'R three months after I was kicked aside by Axl. Iz found me, somehow, when I was with The Whites in Winterthur, Switzerland.

“I can't deal with it anymore,” he said. There had almost been a riot at a Guns show in Germany. Rose had stormed off the stage for some reason, and Izzy was freaked by the idea of submachine gun toting cops breaking heads. He had the jitters. The binding pressure and exposure of expectation and fame, the anxieties that Rose generated, were not worth it to him. They were burning him down. He was going to quit there and then. He did not intend to play the tour closing show at Wembley Stadium.

“You can't let the fans and the others down like that Iz. You're not the bad guy. Don't be seen as one.”

I reserved and paid for a suite at the Wembley Stadium Hilton where Izzy could chill, away from the backstage area, and wait to see if Axl would turn up. Only when he knew that Rose was at the venue did he join the others for his last performance as a member of the band that was mostly built on his insight, songs and style.

When the band was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Izzy set up a meeting with Axl at a L.A. Hotel. He wanted to get an agreement for the original band to play together one last time - do the fuckin' re-union there in that moment and then say “thank you, good fuckin' night.” After waiting for two hours for Axl to show, he drove home to Ojai. No-show Axl had made him miserable one more fuckin' time.

- ALAN NIVEN

http://teamrock.com/feature/2014-06-04/opinion-why-izzy-stradlin-was-the-heart-of-guns-n-roses

 

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"I don't know for sure what Izzy's demands were. I do know that he didn't want to spend a million bucks to make a video. So thats probably why he was a no show that day. Izzy left for many different reasons and I don't think he would have done it differently if he was to go back in time. As far as did Izzy think he was breaking up the band? No he knew that they could come up with songs without him. I think that if Izzy didn't leave the band would have put out a record in 1995/1996. deciding on a replacement guitar player was a big part of why Slash didn't stick around.

The band was not happy with Izzy leaving and how he went about it. I thought they would be able to make it work without Izzy and I also thought that Izzy would still be a part of the song writing for the next record. I think they were pissed at Izzy and didn't try to include him until it was too late.

All the people in the band were important on how songs were put together. Izzy fit well between Slash and Duff. Izzy was the rock n roll duff was the punk and Slash was the hard rock Axl was all of the above Steven was the grove. It was a team effort some were more important than others. Izzy leaving was a big blow but Slash or Axl would have also been a big blow and Duff still a blow but not as big same with steven even less. The truth is that for the AFD days Izzy was a great song starter but still needed the rest of the band to change and add things. Slash and Izzy's relationship. in 1984 it was nothing but 1985 they clicked and worked together very well. Neither one will ever be able to work as well with other people. Slash knew what to change to make Izzy's song work well and Izzy knew how to ad structure to Slash's riffs. Izzy will never put out a book that chances are zero. " 

- MARC CANTER

http://www.mygnrforum.com/topic/193943-about-izzy/

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Since I couldn't play [because of a broken hand] it was intended that Izzy was going to take my place for the first five shows and then stay if he was needed. We didn't know if I could play, because I held a guitar for the first time exactly before my "first" gig. Izzy had promised to stay with us, but after Milton Keynes he said, "I call to see if you need me" and went off. Axl was really pissed. This is not my opinion, but what the others have told me - there was a lot of bad blood between Axl and Izzyand when they then sat down and talked everything was cool. They had fun together but as soon as Izzy had made his money he left. And now there's bad blood again

[Gilby Clarke - A "Pawned" Rocker, Heavy Mental, June 1994]

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When I was hired in GNR, it was hell in the band and I patched things up. When Izzy left, I wasn't happy. I spent hours on the phone with him, asking him not to leave us. And when he did the 5 shows with us to replace Gilby, I said: "Wow, this guy is a part of the chemistry, when he plays, it sounds totally like Guns N' Roses." - Matt Sorum, Hard Rock Magazine 1996

http://www.gnrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?id=2967

W. AXL ROSE

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Being asked if Izzy would help to record things: 

Never again! No, not at all. We brought Izzy back in Europe when Gilby had hurt his arm. And then we kinda got blackmailed and we haven't… We really don't wanna have anything to do with Izzy ever since then [Axl and Slash interview, Rockline 1994]

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Everybody hated each other in the band, with the exception of me. Slash was fighting for power with (the guitarist) Izzy (Stradlin) because he wanted to take control of the band and destroy it.

- W. Axl Rose

http://www.a-4-d.com/t1683-2001-01-15-interview-with-axl

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You know, I read something somewhere. Someone was writing an article about my other friends. And they wrote this thing about how 'in the old days, you know, there were lots of problems and technical errors of the band and Izzy couldn't hear himself' [laughing] The reason that Izzy couldn't hear himself - this isn't being mean - is our roadies would stand behind Izzy's amp, 'cause Izzy would be so whacked out of his mind that he would basically be playing a different song in the wrong key, and the only way we could do the songs was that every time he would go to him amps, he would turn his amps up and turn around to the crowd. When he would turn around to the crowd the roadie would reach around and turn his amps back down so that we could play the song. That worked especially well in Tel Aviv (1993) [laughter] Just a full tippit there for your Trivia Pursuit [Onstage Boston, December 2002]

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Izzy went back to Indiana [Axl shakes his head in disbelief]. That pretty much explains the absurdity of the whole goddamn thing. The fucking idea of going back to Indiana - I am not even bagging on Indiana - I just know how much Izzy hated it. I went to high school with this guy. It's pitiful. It was the fame of the heroin addiction and the fear of death. When Izzy woke up in New York with EKG pads all over his body and doesn't know how they got there, and knows, 'I think I OD'd last night and made it back home' - that was pretty much it. Before that he was pulling away, but that was the end. Then when he got straight...I think it really has to do with what it takes to face that big audience. I wouldn't call it stage fright. It's something else, and to psyche yourself up for that, the old Guns doesn't seem to be able to do it without medication [Axl Speaks, Rolling Stone, January 2000]

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We were filming 'Don't Cry,' and he had to be there. Instead, he sent a really short, cold letter and didn't show up. We got this letter saying, "This changes, this changes, and maybe I'll tour in January." And they were ridiculous demands that weren't going to be met. I talked to Izzy for four and a half hours on the phone. At some points, I was crying, and I was begging. I was doing everything I could to keep him in the band. There were stipulations, though. If he was going to do like the old Izzy did, he wasn't going to make as much money. It was like "You're not giving an equal share." Slash and I were having to do too much work to keep the attention and the energy up in the crowd. You're onstage going, "This is really hard, and I'm into it and I'm doing it, but that guy just gets to stand there" [Axl Rose: The Rolling Stone Interview; Rolling Stone, April 1992]

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It was always kind of a triad between Slash, Izzy and me. And when Izzy wasn't so much being a part of that triad, Doug Goldstein, our manager, kind of took his place. As far as keeping Guns N' Roses going and figuring out what we're doing, Izzy really wasn't that much involved anymore. He wrote songs, but those songs were on the record because I wanted them on the record and because the band agreed to learn them and liked them and we all worked on them. I really believed in Izzy. I was an Izzy fan for 15 years and I wanted his songs to be a part of this project. But it was like pulling teeth to make that happen. A lot of people might have liked the way Izzy was standing there onstage and it was kind of cool, but the truth of the matter was that Izzy wasn't handling any of the weight [Shadow Boxing with Axl Rose, June 1992]

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Izzy wanted the financial rewards and the power rewards of my vision. Izzy's vision was much smaller [Shadow Boxing with Axl Rose, June 1992]

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I'm no longer working with Izzy, and people have written about how that went down. [Axl laughs] They weren't around. They didn't see it. They didn't know. They didn't know how painful that experience was. They had no clue. But yet, I was just a dick. [Axl laughs] I just went off on Izzy. You know, he tried to talk to me nicely and l went off. That's not how it went down. It was funny: when Bruce Weber was taking the photos of Stephanie and l for this article, that's when l got the call that Izzy was leaving the band. Bruce was taking photos and I was standing there crying. l was blown away. (...) Stephanie was helping to comfort me. We didn't go, "Well, let's hug and kiss for the photos." She was comforting me -- my friend of fifteen years was leaving [Interview Magazine talks to Axl Rose, 1992]

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l feel like he shit all over me, and I wiped it off and ain't too happy that it happened. l think for a long period of time Izzy wanted to be more independent, but Guns N' Roses took off fast, and he was such a part of it, it was hard to take that step. That's my opinion. There are certain responsibilities to Guns N' Roses that Izzy didn't want to face. He basically didn't want to work as hard at certain things as we did. He pretty much just showed up before we went on onstage, would get upset that l wasn't on time, played, then split. There were times when we'd get off stage, and five minutes later he was gone. He didn't socialize with the band on any level, and he had a real problem being sober and being around us. Izzy's always been very compulsive and impulsive, and although he's quit abusing various substances, he still hasn't gotten to the base of the reason why he was abusive. (...)

 Getting Izzy to work hard on the album was like pulling fucking teeth. Everybody dreaded it. Nobody would go by the studio while he was there, because no one wanted to deal with it. He'd play something out of key, and we'd ask him to do it again, and he'd be like, "Why? l just did it." (...) There are ways that miss him and wish it could've gone on, but he was a real fucking asshole to me. I was always a massive Izzy fan and supporter, but now that he's working with Alan Niven [former GNR manager], fuck him -- and you can print this. Even if we work things out between us, l won't regret what's coming out in this interview, because it's how l feel. I'm glad we got the songs out of him that we did, and I'm glad he's gone ["I, Axl" Del James, RIP Magazine - 1992]

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On being questioned why Izzy left the band: 

To get a clear answer, you'd have to ask Izzy. My personal belief is that Izzy never really wanted something this big. There were responsibilities that Izzy didn't want to deal with. He didn't want to work at the standards that Slash and I set for ourselves (...) He didn't want to do videos. He just wasn't into it. Getting Izzy to work on his own songs on this record was like pulling teeth. When Izzy had 'em on a four-track, they were done. I mean, I like tapes like that, but we'd just get destroyed if we came out with a garage tape. People want a high-quality album. And it was really hard to get Izzy to do that, even on his own material.

Izzy's songs were on the record because I wanted them on the record, not because Izzy gave a shit either way. If people think I don't respect Izzy or acknowledge his talent, they're sadly mistaken. He was my friend. I haven't always been right. Sometimes I've been massively wrong, and Izzy's been the one to help steer me back to the things that were right. But I know that I wanted to get as big as we possibly could from Day One, and that wasn't Izzy's intention at all. I think he's ready to do like an X-Pensive Winos (Keith Richards's band) thing. So maybe the world'll get another really cool band. I know that I'll be trying to get an advance tape, just like everybody else [Axl Rose: The Rolling Stone Interview; Rolling Stone, April 1992]

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DANIEL PEARL: Axl was as unreliable a person as you could possibly imagine, but at the same time he was a good benefactor. I did three big videos with Andy Morahan for Guns N' Roses — "Don't Cry," "November Rain," and "Estranged" — and each one cost over a million dollars, God bless 'em.

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DOUG GOLDSTEIN: The videos caused tension in the band. Axl would just not show up for a day of shooting, so it doubled the cost. He did that on every video. Everybody else in the band was upset about it, and Slash was the only one who spoke up.

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ALAN NIVEN: The videos that were done under my watch totaled something like $500,000, of which half went into "Paradise City." I was told it cost $1.25 million to shoot "November Rain," which to me is a preposterous waste of money.

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ANDY MORAHAN: I wanted to cry when I saw "Teen Spirit." I thought it was per­fect. In a way, Guns N' Roses, myself, we became the dinosaurs, the kind of artists punk rockers hated. We'd become overblown and indulgent and kind of stupid, and then Nirvana happened and suddenly everything was grunge and cheap, and thank god for it, you know?

DUFF

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"It's not Guns. It's not anything that it started off to be.....I could give a shit who's playing. It has nothing to do with me" 

On reunion: "To go and play...I guess it would be for money alone. And I never started playing music for money, so why would I start now? Screw that."

 - Duff McKagan, June 2002 Guitar One magazine

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What I do regret is we let down a huge fan base that was there waiting for a next record, and Axl made us all--we all balled at one point or another. We couldn't deal with him. There wasn't any sort of rationality. It's just too bad. God, I don't want to come off bad mouthing him because the guy has a lot of great attributes. But how it worked before was the band would write all the music and rehearse it all, and kind of give it to Axl and he'd write lyrics to it. Or Izzy or I would already have lyrics, and he would just come in at the end. Later he wanted to be the ringleader and it didn't go anywhere. And I guess it still hasn't. Whatever, I have no resentment [Thrasher Magazine, January 2005].

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"Axl Rose is a very, very fickle guy, and he changes his mind all the time" [POP QUIZ: DUFF MCKAGAN OF VELVET REVOLVER, April 2005].

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The perception in popular culture is that the singer and the lead guitar player are generally the artistic brain trust of any band. In our case, Izzy was probably the most significant force—without his initial vision and his songwriting cues, there would have been no Guns N’ Roses. - [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 194]

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On whether Izzy was the unsung hero of the band:

 “I don’t think he’s unsung. I think he’s sung pretty well. “He was a big part of that band, but everybody was. If you wanna say that anybody was unsung, then everybody was unsung."

[Chris Jericho Interview 11/2017]

https://metalwani.com/2017/11/duff-mckagan-i-dont-think-izzy-stradlin-is-an-unsung-hero-of-gnr-at-all.html

 

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On writing and rehearsing for Use Your Illusion: Axl did finally show up in Chicago. It was a little too late. He got there, got into a fight with a girl he had befriended, and trashed the place where we were living. That happened the day Izzy showed up. Already nervous because of his court-mandated sobriety, Izzy came upstairs, took one look at all the damage Axl had just wrought (not to mention the various powders all over the place), and hightailed it the fuck out of there. He would still send riffs and ideas for Use Your Illusion and didn't officially quit until 1991, but his day-to-day involvement with the band pretty much died that day [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 153]

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I could see right there and then [when the Oslo gig in August, 1991, was cancelled because Axl was in France] that Izzy wasn't going to last. The cadence of his walk was different now: I saw it clearly as the lurch of a bicycle with a misshapen wheel. His face was drawn, his eyes blank, his body language exhausted. He had made it with us, sober, touring. But he couldn't stand pissing off the fans an torturing the crew. He had to confront that reality sober. And at the same time he had to deal with Slash, Matt, and me trying to bury our frustrations by obliterating ourselves with drunk and drugs. It was only a matter of time now [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 191]

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I’ve never had a problem with Izzy. Izzy and I are very amicable and always have been. He had his reasons, and they were very valid. I’m not one to go, Fuck you, man! I could tell he was just miserable. I knew it wasn’t his bag, and it was killing him. He was all clean and sober, and no way I would’ve wanted to have any part in making him stay in the band, and driving him back to whatever he was doing. So, between him and me there was never a problem [Kerrang, April 1993]

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Izzy is a good guy. My birthday was last week and he drove 11 hours from Baja to get to this party. He's just a straight-up good dude [Trasher Magazine, January 2005]

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DUFF McKagan:

Actually nobody could fire somebody in that band, because everyone was the equal partner. I quit. I left the band two weeks before my daughter Grace (she is two now) was born. It was not fun. That's the reason. The reason why I stayed in the band was to be a bridge between AXL and Slash. That's what I stick to. But I didn't want to stay there, cause that's not GN'R any more. There were only three guys left. What they want us to do? Me and AXL release the album as GN'R? 

Everybody was trying to persuade me to stay in the band for money. I didn't want to stay the band. It was not good as it used be. It won't go well. Only three guys, not five. And AXL wanted to do something else. He didn't know what he was doing. I don't want to repeat what he said on MTV. If I do, it would be his advantage. Music wise, he was invaded completely by guys he brought. He brought a guy and said "He is our new guitar player." I said "What the fuck?" That's not right. That's like if I bring a guy and say "He is a new member." 

There was no democracy. Slash started to take it seriously said "Fuck it. Is that his band? Since when? That's ridiculous." Even if I went to rehearsal at nine at night, AXL shows up at four or five in the next morning for about two years. I could not keep up with the schedule. There was no respect for me. That's enough, so I quit. I went to dinner with AXL and his manager. He was a manager of GN'R and still AXL's. I said "AXL, We had very fun together, but it's your own band now. I'm not interested in you as a dictator. I didn't come here to talk about the money advanced for next record. You can have it. See Ya." That's it. 

(When was that you had contact with AXL last time?) 

A year ago. That means we haven't talked since he was putting live album together. Our managers talk each other or FedEX it back and force. It was not like Slash. I told Izzy to check out mixing. "You are in that album also. Come check it out." He said, "I might as well check it." 

(He was the first member who left the band.) 

Yeah, he was willing to [come back] if the situation had fixed. To tell the truth, he visited AXL's house about two weeks ago. 

(Really? Are you kidding me?) 

Yes, he did visit there. But somebody told him that AXL is not there answering over the inter phone at the gate. First he said "Wait a minute" and he came back and said "He is gone." Izzy said "OK" and went back. There is always emotional thing with GN'R. At least the old GN'R. 

I want to say something against in that MTV interview. He said the he likes the Seattle sound, on the other hand, Slash and me hated the music comes out new. It's stupid, but let me do the self defense. I'm the one who brought ICE-T or Killing Joke etc. in the band and listened to other kind of music. I'm not a country boy from Indiana. I'm from Seattle! 

(What do you think about AXL's shitty story or what he's saying? It is different, that's obvious.) 

I'm planning to fix the story that I got fired. The reason I didn't say anything is that is OK with me knowing only myself about how it happened. I don't care what the rumor is, fired or I quit, cause I know what I have done. I heard something that AXL was fucked up by Slash. More I heard, more stimulated to save friendship. Don't talk badly about me or Slash! Stop it! I worked so hard and did as much as I could do to keep running the band and recognize the greatest band in 
this century. That's OK to say things about me, but I live my life frankly and have responsibility. If I do wrong, that hurts myself. I don't care what other people say. I did care about was lying this time. And that was very big one. I don't want to ruin the history what I was the part of the creation for rock n' roll. I couldn't stand that I was insulted by my friend when I watched that interview. He is just looking for excuse to make his band bigger. That's fine, but Do not make me involved in. Slash is a killer rock n' roll guitar player and great guy. AXL was not able to live in Malibu without us playing on the stage. Most important thing to him now is to make all the lies put it together and not to be contradicted. That's no way to make Slash to be involved. Finally that made me stand up for it.

(What was the best thing of GN'R?)

 I would say relationship of the unit. 

(What was the biggest pitfall?) 

Success. I got no doubt about it.

http://www.a-4-d.com/t1663-1999-12-dd-interview-with-duff

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I knew now [after Mannheim, Germany, August 24, 1991] that Izzy was definitely going to quit, but nobody knew for sure when he would actually leave us. Izzy didn't walk away and force the cancellation of the Wembley show [August 31, 1991]. He stayed and played one last gig to draw the curtains on this leg of the tour [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 194]

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Izzy and I started out as neighbors who would take a city bus to get to a gig where we were the fourth band on a bill of four bands, just happy to be playing a gig with a band we believed in with everything we had. And we saw it through. Now [in May 1993] I looked at Izzy and recognized the clarity he had, the sense of purpose behind his decisions. Izzy had his feet beneath him and could walk away [Duff's autobiography, "It's So Easy", 2011, p. 220]

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We are real fast friends. By the way, when my pancreas fucked Izzy phoned too. We've always been friends and our friendship has gone beyond music. We've been through a lot of things together. I play in his records, which usually takes no more than two days. It's like "Here's the song, play, thank you" [Popular 1, July 2000]

SLASH:

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So when I finally quit, I was like, "I have no choice. I'm going into deep depression here. I'm not having any kind of a good time, and all my bandmates are gone. I have nothing to hold onto." People were saying, "No, You can't quit." But I was like, "Well, I gotta go." And they said, "No, you can't." So I said, "Axl wants to make a Guns N' Roses record, and he wants to do it with me. But he doesn't [care] about Matt, Steve, Izzy, or Duff. And I can't do it that way. I don't wanna work with these people who are suddenly becoming involved in the band." That was about five years ago [Guitar One Magazine, April 2000].

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 I don't care what Axl might say - this band was formed on the camaraderie between a little gang, against all odds [GUNS N' ROSES -"We Ain't Dead Yet" , Kerrang, September 1996].

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So we managed to get on tour during the making of the '...Illusions' albums. Then we took one short break - and Izzy quit two weeks before the next leg of the tour was to start! Without talking t the guys i the band, he called management and the accountants' office. I'll never forgive for that, because I've known him for so long and we've been through so much together, blah, blah, blah [Kerrang! January 1994]

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"Izzy resigned from Guns on November 7, 1991, because his heart wasn't in it," explains Slash. "He's just not interested anymore. It was one of those things where he just didn't want to tour again. Izzy's been keeping himself more or less clean for quite a while now, and the chaos of being on the road, especially with the rest of us driving him crazy, he just couldn't deal with it. He tried to come back though. He came to a couple rehearsals, but he really wasn't there. He didn't care. His heart wasn't in it. Izzy's still gonna write with us, and he might make a few special appearances on the road, but he's no longer a touring member of the band." 

The night Izzy resigned from Guns, he had a meeting with Axl, Slash and manager Doug Goldstein. There was no fight, no shouting, no lawsuits. 

http://www.a-4-d.com/t543-1992-03-dd-interview-with-axl-slash-and-duff

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[...] We just came to the conclusion that Izzy wasn't putting in the time we thought was necessary for the good of the band. It had been building up for a long time. And finally Izzy came out in the open with me and Axl and said he didn't want to deal with the work that was involved. So we decided to work with someone else [...] I just can't understand how he could let something like this fall apart. I mean the guy didn't want to tour or do videos; he hardly wanted to record. I just never thought he was one of those guys that this would happen with [Guitar World, February 1992]

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I love the guy dearly, so I don't want to belittle his character by saying anything about him. But he just got sick and tired of dealing with everything. I think more than anything he didn't want to do the amount of work that Guns N' Roses has to do to keep it together. I totally sold my soul to this thing, but Izzy wasn't that way. He didn't want to do videos or spend all those hours in the studio, and slowly but surely he started to drop out. In fact, I was really happy because I could never understand what was going on with him. Like even on stage, he would just sort of stand there--and that was the only time I'd see him on the road because he traveled separately. When he finally left, it was like a relief because there had been no communication at all. [Los Angeles Times, August 1992]

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I saw him for the first time here in New York, we met in a neutral place, a neutral hotel [laughs]. It was great because there is so much red tape and so much politics involved. You don't communicate at all, there are people you go through, you know, management calls so and so and so and so, calls the accountant, messages go back and forth. Everything snowballs. And you get to a point where it's so out of hand this whole split that I can admit we like hated Izzy. Because he wouldn't deal with us directly, he didn't quit directly. He sent out a memo, or a letter of resignation, to the accountants, the management and stuff, and we were just like...because we felt closer than that. [...] We got a chance to actually talk about a lot of the personal things that we felt, in all of this, you know, Guns N' Roses hype and hysteria, because, like band members, we never felt part of it. It was built up around us. And it got to a point where he didn't want to be involved in the amount of work that took, and the amount of stress and energy and sleepless nights it took to keep it going so it didn't fall apart. He just bailed and we took that really personally, but having seen him recently, it was...I missed the guy. It was nice t actually see him.[MTV?, 1992]

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After, after the whole drug period… Um, I think everybody went in their own directions. And as far as dealing with getting off the drugs, everybody had their own approach. And from the time that we'd more or less quit, you know, dope and stuff. Um, Izzy had more or less lost interest in… I don't know if he lost interest or, I mean there could have a lot of phases, and I don't wanna, you know, put Izzy's personality into one little sentence. But what it seemed to me was that he'd lost interest in doing the work that was involved. He didn't feel comfortable with all the other guys. Because we'd all gone through this massive emotional experience in trying to get ourselves out of the slum. And he just didn't wanna run with the ball anymore. So, when we finally did get through that whole period and we, we got into the studio he wasn't that interested. He didn't have that much input, as far as recording and all that was concerned. And that was a really stressful time for the entire band anyway. And we went out on tour, and he finally quit. And the time that he was on tour, right before he quit, I was just really pissed off. Because it seemed like he'd show up and he would stand on the stage, for the alotted two and a half, three hours. And then, you know, split. I felt for that whole period of time that he was on stage, he really didn't wanna be there [Slash, Civil War Single / Making Fuckin' Boxes, March 1993]

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And even before Izzy quit, he was pretty much phased out - he's even phased out of his own band. He's just not interested any more. But Izzy started to lose interest anyway, so that was another thing that made the record hard to make. Going on tour was… the band had such a ball, and we managed to tour for two and a half years against all the fuckin' odds. It really was a fuckin' endurance test, of pretty big proportions. [Q Magazine, March 1994]

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[The Spaghetti Incident?] was recorded the way I'd prefer to do any Guns N' Roses record. When we did Appetite and Use Your Illusion, I had to deal with Izzy. I never liked playing with Izzy the whole time I've been in this band. It was great not having to deal with him on this record. It sounds a lot tighter, or at least a little more cool than it sounded before. I always used to get bummed out about certain songs on Appetite that Izzy didn't play right. For this record, we took off all of Izzy's tracks and Gilby played them. I wasn't there when Gilby did it, but when I got the tapes back, it was a relief. It sounded perfect.[Guitar Player, January 1994]

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I never really have to go, "Izzy, play this part this way." He just plays his thing his own way, and we never really talk about it much. Last night, we went in and took two songs from scratch, just basic chord changes, and worked them into full songs. That's one of the things about me and Izzy working together, he knows where I'm at, and I know where he's at. And that's the way it's always been. I make up something that accompanies his part, and at the same time accents it, and he does the same with my parts. We have that kind of chemistry. We've always been good friends, so for us to get in a room and play is a very easy thing to do [Guitar One Magazine, 2002]

 

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Dave [Kushner] and Izzy are the only two guitar players I really mesh with [Velvet Revolver, Total Guitar #121 April 2004]

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Talking about Izzy replacing Gilby: "Fuck it," Axl said. "Let's call Izzy." I was surprised and happy to hear that Izzy went for it (...). Izzy showed up...with dreadlocks...and hadn't practised one song. So we did what we could [Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York, p.369-370]

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I really looked forward to playing with him again and really hoped that he had changed. I booked a place before the first gigs in Tel Aviv to rehearse. But Izzy thought it was unnecessary, that it was just wasted time. He hadn't changed one bit and therefore the gigs turned out the way they did. [...] Izzy simply doesn't like playing rock at the level where we are right now. We understand it no and I'm personally very fucking disappointed at his previous behavior [Slash, Metal Zone, December 1993]

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It was my idea to call Izzy; I thought it would be interesting. I didn't know he hadn't picked up his guitar in the last fucking year! It was really nice at first, because regardless of whatever animosity, it wasn't anything so deep-rooted that it didn't blow over. So, we hung out, we went shopping in London together, we had fun. Then right towards the end he turned around and did certain things that were so fucked. Right towards the fifth date, because of his hand Gilby still wasn't sure if he was going to be able to play, and Izzy all of a sudden turned around and stabbed us in the back again, asked for an amazing amount of money to do one show - it's like, 'I can't believe this, go home!'. That's the last time we talked. I don't know what's going on in his head...I have this great photo of Gilby, Izzy and Ronnie Wood together - the flunkies from hell [Kerrang! March 1994]

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We thought it was a good idea to, you know, call him up and see if he wanted to come down and hang out and do a couple of gigs. And then it turned sour at the end so… It took us right back to square one [Axl and Slash interview, Rockline 1994]

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On rumours of Izzy returning to the band in 1995: Izzy agrees with writing stuff but he's not interested in touring... He doesn't want to deal with Axl y'know? The Rockstar thing... Like me, he just wanna play... We never thought GNR would become so big [Folha De Sao Paulo Journal 21st of July 1995]

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Slash: I work with the band; I don't work with Axl when we record. I work with the band and we just jam the stuff live, and Axl goes in and spends... Well last time it was a year in the studio, just adding and adding. I don't necessarily agree with that, but Axl's so talented he can go in and whip it out like that. But everything has to be perfect. Sometimes some of his ideas - like a harmony or something - I can go along with, but all the additional stuff...'Use Your Illusion' sounded amazing when it was just the basic tracks. It was fucking great. But then by the time all the tracks were done it was like impossible to fucking mix it, and it came out sounding... The more stuff you put on tape, the less "big" it sounds. I tried to tell Axl that but he wouldn't listen. But I'm not gonna do it that way this time, and that's what we have to talk about. I have the rough mixes, which are more or less the basic tracks and the basic overdubs - very simplified and try - and those fucking rock! You could come over to my house and I'll play you "Use Your Illusion" before it went into the mixing stage, and you'd be like, "Fucking what?!" It's very brash. But this is before synthesizers and all this outside stuff got involved. [Guns N' Roses: Is It All Over? Does Anyone Care? Metal Hammer, November 1995].

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"The problem was with Izzy (Stradlin)," Slash says in the MusicRadar interview. "Because the album reached such gargantuan proportions as far as the production and complexity and the massive expectations [that] Izzy started to bow out. He was harder to find, because that was against his rock 'n' roll philosophy, which I totally agree with."

"We got through the basic tracks and I think that's what gave the albums such a natural feel. But when we started getting into the time it took to do overdubs and vocals, he sorta disappeared."

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/slash-use-your-illusion-interview/

 

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Izzy completed the tour, and I tried to talk him out of leaving a few times, but at the same time I couldn't blame him at all. "Hey, man, I know it's been hard, but I think we can turn it around," I remember telling him, "The shows are really great, man. The audiences are great, we're playing stadiums..." "I know," he said. "But, man, I can't...I just can't do it anymore." The way he looked at me at that moment said it all [Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York, p.344]

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Slash, listing his villains:

He’s the closest person I’ve ever worked with that was as villainesque as they get. You know, in a sort of harmless kind of way, but not totally. All that is sort of self-explanatory as well. I definitely gotta put him on the list cos as much as I love the guy he’s definitely way up there. I don’t know how familiar you are with Guns history, but I quit the band five years ago and haven’t looked back since. Axl’s probably still in them, but I haven’t seem him. He’s just a really fucking huge mindfuck. He has a sweet side to him and a nasty side to him, if memory serves. He would be very, very violent and have very wicked thoughts and sore points. I guess I last saw him in an attorney’s office. I quit the group because of musical differences. I wanted to continue doing the hard rock thing, and he wanted to do techno-rock or something. We’re still to see the end result. I just do what I do because that’s what I like doing, but his thing seems to be a little more convoluted [slash’s Heroes & Villains, NME, October 7, 2000].

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And so when Tracii had a falling out with Axl, they called me up and I came down and that's where Hollywood Rose started. Then Izzy quit, because... That whole guitar player syndrome, you know, like... I don't wanna have to... Izzy is the kinda guy that don't want somebody else making his decisions for him. And so when I came around...I'm sort of like a power-freak too, I guess. You know, I'm sorta like: "this is what we should do here". You know, and so we got into conflict. So he quit. Me and Axl carried the band on for a while. And then Axl and I had falling outs, until the point where we separated for a bit. And then Guns N' Roses started.

http://www.a-4-d.com/t620-1994-01-dd-interview-with-slash

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Now I know that bolting is Izzy's defense mechanism when he thinks things aren't quite right: he never makes a show of it, he just slips out and won't look back. (...) Izzy always maintained an aura of cool; he was never ruffled, he never let his guard down. But when I asked him about [Axl firing Chris Weber from Hollywood Rose without talking to Izzy about it], he leveled a deathly serious gaze at me, so I had no doubt that he was sincere. "It's pretty fucking simple," he said. "I just don't like being dictated to under any circumstances." [Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York]

 

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Recounting the first rehearsals with Matt:

"Izzy was around, but not like he used to be. When Izzy met Matt they got along fine, but it was under the condition that  the decision had already been made: it was all okay, but I think Izzy felt dictated to - and he hated that. Izzy was pretty fragile from the time he came back to the band until he left, and as I look back, this whole shift probably didn't sit entirely well with him."[Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York, p.311]

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Izzy quit Guns because of the same bullshit that sort of forced me to take off for a while. He's been writing; he wrote some stuff with Duff. He wants to write songs, but he doesn't wanna deal with the whole thing. And it took me a while to finally get to the point where I couldn't handle it either, y'know? He wants to write material, but he's not really sure what he wants to do. He's so laid back. He doesn't want to deal any pressure. Izzy does what he wants to do. As much as has gone on, and as much as I resent Izzy for quitting and all that, and leaving me in weird spots where I had to find a replacement weeks before the next leg of a tour, or if he didn't play on the "Use Your Illusion" records - which is for the most part true - looking back on it, Izzy's Izzy. I had to double guitars up for him on most of [Illusions]. He didn't play very much

[Guns N' Roses: Is It All Over? Does Anyone Care? Metal Hammer November 1995]

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We went on late [Mannheim, Germany, on August 21, 1991] - late even for us - then, pretty early in the set, something happened and Axl walked off for what reason I have no idea. (...) He went to to the van and headed off to the dressing room. "Fuck that guy," [Matt] said. "I'm gonna go straighten him out." Matt felt that Duff and Izzy and I had played it too delicate with Axl for too long (...). By this point we'd discovered that Axl's van had not left for the dressing room; he was sitting in it but refused to come out and return to the stage. So Matt went down to Axl's van to rally him, but as he got down there, he ran into Axl, who had emerged to head back to the stage.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Matt yelled. "Get back onstage!"(...) Axl went back to his van, and it didn't look like he was coming out again. (...) The local police were already there in riot gear, ready to deal with a full-on situation. It was a scary, tense scene, and a very near miss. We got Axl back onstage once he realized he had no choice, and the rest of the show went as planned. All I remember thinking as I walked offstage after the encore was 'Fuck, that was close.' Well, too close, as it turned out: by the next morning, Izzy sent a message through Alan [Niven] informing us that he was quitting the band

[bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York, p.343-344].

Izzy Stradlin'

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When [Axl] wants something from you he's on the phone being all nice and friendly. As soon as your usefulness has run out he turns on you. He's said some shit about me in the past, and right after I'd done those dates [stepping in for five gigs in 1993 when Gilby's arm was broken] he was back in the media putting me down. He's an odd guy [Metal CD, 1993].

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"For the 'Use Your Illusion' albums, I was sober doing those tracks, and it was just frustrating. When you're sober and you gotta be someplace at four, and when other people come in at six or seven, and they're, like, not quite together, you find yourself thinking, why the fuck was I here at four?

"For the basic tracks on 'Illusions', I was done with my stuff in about four or five weeks. That was easy.

http://www.a-4-d.com/t571-1992-12-05-interview-with-izzy

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 I guess in some ways I was sort of a balancing factor between Axl and the rest of the guys at one point [RIP; 1992].

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When I have something I wanna do, I gotta do it. I like just doing it. I didn't like the complications that became such a part of daily life in Guns N' Roses. Sometimes for the simplest things to happen would take days. Time was so slow, you sat around for days just to do a photo shoot. Schedule it, get a phone call, it's been delayed. Reschedule it, get a phone call, it's been delayed again. That pattern could stretch out for weeks. On "Illusion", we did the basic tracks in about a month. Then there was a time lag of about a year before the vocals were finished. I went back to Indiana and painted the house. If you've got a group and people are focused, it just shouldn't take that long."
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/izzy-stradlin-last-guns-n-roses-show/

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"On "Illusion" I did the basic tracks, then he did his tracks, like a month or two by himself. Then came Axl's vocal parts. I went back to Indiana. I'd been around for rehearsals, learning the songs and all that stuff. I didn't really listen to the record until it was out. When I finally did hear it, it was what I expected: The guitars were basically buried."

Slash has accused you of turning in sloppily made demo tapes.

"That's not Slash talking. That's Axl talking and Slash repeating it. Axl did say the tapes weren't up to GNR standards. Well, in the beginning nobody owned an eight-track. All our tapes were made on a cassette player. Whatever, I'm credited with just about everything I wrote. I will say that Slash was much better at keeping tapes in order. He always labeled stuff."

http://www.a-4-d.com/t570-1992-11-dd-interview-with-izzy

 

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 Listen, to sum it up, at a momemt, I felt like scraping it all down to the bone. Do some rock n' roll. Stop complicating the thing with a six-piece brass band, three back up singers, the harpist and the pianist... Dizzy plays great, that's not the problem, but that's not rock n' roll... What Guns did well, and that I will always defend, is our erruption on the scene. You remember? Our songs were good too! But me, I wanted to go ahead.

M: I felt like I couldn't hear your guitar in the final mix of the "Illusions".

I: Yeah, what happened there? (laughs) They took two years to finish the two records, and at the end I don't even feel like listening to the final product. Not at all! In fact I listened to the records only after the concert at Wembley in August 91, and I freaked out: "Where the hell is my fucking guitar?" It's gone! From there I lost the little interest I had left in the G N' R enterprise. This and the stadium tour!

http://www.a-4-d.com/t1659-1992-09-dd-interview-with-izzy

 

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"Guns N' Roses was pure chaos," confesses Izzy. "The smallest thing could turn into a massive problem. You'd get pulled in one direction and then the other. It was really difficult keeping hold of where you were supposed to be going. What really bothered me was working on 'Use Your Illusion I and II'. It progressed really slowly. Each song kept being taken to bits and analysed again and again and remade and before you knew it was weeks and months had gone by. When we finally finished a song I'd forgotten how to play the others. Slowly but surely, I began to realise that I wanted to have less and less to do with it. When things went on and on I finally realised that I'd have to do something about it."

http://www.a-4-d.com/t569-1992-11-dd-interview-with-izzy

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M: And I find you with Alan Niven as manager, which I have met with Great White, and who was Guns' first manager!

I: Yes, yes, yes... Alan of course. Axl fired him.

M: How?

I: We weren't given any choice! It happened like that. Four members of the band were against and Axlsaid "All right, take him as a singer then because if he stays, I leave!" What can you do? What can you say?

M: You say: "We're four and you're alone!"

I: Yeah, but at this time, discussion had a little bit rarefied..

M: Slash's position is "I haven't spent two years of my life giving birth to the "Illusions" albums to give up when the first incident comes around".

I: Slash's forgetting that he didn't spend two years on these records. He spent like... hmmm, two months! Like all of us! Afterwards, we waited for a year for the other guy to write the lyrics, you see? So... But it all gets too complicated. Hey! Music! Rock'n'roll! After all, four guys write some songs, record them, and go play them in front of the public... Keep it simple. What about listening to the EP?

http://www.a-4-d.com/t1659-1992-09-dd-interview-with-izzy

 

Quote

TOM ZUTAUT: 

The band was paying thousands of dollars in curfew violation fees. Izzy finally had it and went over to Axl’s house and told him that if he insisted on going on late, the late fees should be charged to him. That was it–Izzy was out of the band. [SPIN 1999]

 

Quote

It was made clear to me by Axl that he and Slash would steer the machine, control the videos, the direction of the band, everything, and that I had to put up or step out," Stradlin says. "So I said, `Fine, I'll go home and paint."'

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-02-26/entertainment/9303185116_1_izzy-stradlin-axl-rose-rick-richards

 

Quote

 Before I left [Guns N' Roses] I spoke with Axl for a couple of hours on the telephone, and he made it real clear to me that he was going to be running things, so to speak, and there were some conditions put up that I was going to have go by. He was trying to make it good for me as well, I guess, but at the same time I realized that was it, I was done. The next day I signed my leaving papers [RIP, 1992].

 

Quote

"I tried talking to him," Stradlin says, "during the Illusion albums: 'If we had a schedule here, come in at a certain time...' And he completely blew up at me: 'There is no fucking schedule.'

"There was one song on that record that I didn't even know was on it until it came out, 'My World' (the closing song on Illusion II, written and sung by Rose)," Stradlin continues. "I gave it a listen and thought, 'What the fuck is this?' "

Stradlin concedes that the growing estrangement was partly his own fault. "I had to let go of certain aspects of it," he says. "I didn't feel my opinions were really being taken seriously anymore." When Guns N' Roses finally hit the road in May 1991, Stradlin traveled between shows in a separate tour bus. He failed to show up for the shooting of the video for "Don't Cry," saying now that the million-dollar cost of the clip was a pointless indulgence: "I didn't have any say in it, and I didn't want to be in it."

Push finally came to shove in the fall after GN' R completed the first European leg of the tour. Stradlin says he confronted Rose and the band with some changes he felt had to be made "for the sake of the livelihood of the band." One of them was ending the chronic lateness of the shows. Stradlin even went so far as to propose that the responsible party should be fined. That was the last straw.

"It was really fucked that it even had to come into play, to base something like that on money," Stradlin grumbles. "But the reality was that it was bumming me out, to be waiting there because someone else is late. It's just not fair to the audience, to the other band members. And the crew! When you go on three hours late, that's three hours less sleep they get."

"I expressed my feeling to Axl," he continues, "and the very next night on MTV I saw that I was going to be replaced by the guy in Jane's Addiction. So I took that as an indication that I'd really pissed him off."

Stradlin insists that he never wanted to quit GN' R and pursue a solo career. "But Axl made it clear that he was going to do things his way, and there was no space for debate," he says. "So I had to make it clear to everybody that that was the end of the line for me." Two days before Thanksgiving, Guns N' Roses officially announced that Izzy Stradlin had left the group.

http://www.a-4-d.com/t521-1992-10-29-interview-with-izzy

Quote

They say that in the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king, but for Izzy, returning to the road with Guns N’ Roses, in 1991. was “a nightmare.” Axl’s ‘mood swings’ had become so regular, “I said to Duff and Slash, we gotta learn a cover song or something, for when [Axl] leaves the stage. They were like, ‘Ah, let’s have another beer…’ They didn’t care.” 

http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-11-07/izzy-stradlin-in-too-deep

 

Quote

Izzy’s decision to leave Guns N’ Roses was announced officially in November 1991. Looking back at the cuttings, it seems like nobody made much fuss about it. The downsizing of GN’R to the Axl & Slash Show had begun long before that.

Suddenly he was trying to control everything. Did you ever see those fucked up contracts for the journalists to sign?” he asks, referring to the notorious ‘consent forms’ that Axl foolishly tried to foist on the media in 1991. “The control issues just became worse and worse and eventually it filtered down to the band. He was trying to draw up contracts for everybody! And this guy, he’s not a Harvard graduate, Axl. He’s just a guy, just a little guy, who sings, is talented. But man, he turned into this fucking maniac. 

When Axl finally sent his old school friend a contract to sign, it was the final straw.

“This is right before I left - demoting me to some lower position. They were gonna cut my percentage of royalties down. I was like ‘Fuck you! I’ve been there from day one, why should I do that? Fuck you, I’ll go play the Whiskey’. That’s what happened. It was insane.”

http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-11-07/izzy-stradlin-in-too-deep

Quote

Izzy: Part of the reason [for doing these five shows] was that I had time off in Indiana, I wasn't really doing anything important, just working on bikes, motorcycles, and, yeah, "maybe it's fun". They played Turkey, they played Greece, they played Israel, so maybe it's cool to go see those places since I've never been there. And I knew all the music so it wasn't like I had to study or practise much, just take a guitar and go over. But the main reason was that for a year and a half since I left them they had never paid me all the money that I was owed, because there was a dispute about what was. So I told them, "look, tell your people to call my people and write up some paperwork and pay me my fucking money" [interview with Izzy in Japan, September 22, 1993]

Quote

“it was weird. We toured Greece, Istanbul, London – I liked that side of it, seeing some places I’d never seen.” But that was the only thing he did like about it. After he’d left the band, he had “a big shit load of money sitting somewhere [for me] and they weren’t paying me [it]. I don’t know the deal was, some kind of legal bullshit.” Funds, he claims, which were only released after he agreed to come back temporarily. “Money was a big sore point. I did the dates just for salary. I mean, I helped start this band…” Up comes the guitar again. A flurry of angry notes ensue. These were his final shows with Guns N’ Roses. He left without saying goodbye. “I didn’t actually say ‘see you’ cos they were all fucked up. Duff and these guys, they didn’t even recognise me. It was really bizarre. It was like playing with zombies. Ah, man, it was just horrible. Nobody was laughing anymore…”

http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-11-07/izzy-stradlin-in-too-deep

Quote

What was the last straw, which made you leave the band? 

After the first part of the Use Your Illusion tour, Axl wanted to make me sign a contract which put me aside a little, which meant that I was less paid. I couldn't believe it. This contract came from a guy who I grew up with. We'd always taken Guns N' Roses as a friends' thing and, at one go, roughly, the singer said to me: "now, we're doing business." Why was I going to continue? Where was the fun? That was the last straw, but there'd been antecedents which had made me flip: during our first concert in London (EDITOR'S NOTE: Donnington), kids died during the show. What the fuck is that? Is that rock 'n' roll? 

It's to have fun and then read in the newspaper of an airport that kids died during your concert? It's fun to play in stadiums every evening and to start a riot in Saint Louis because the singer threw a fit? You really manage at some point to say to yourself: "none of this is funny anymore." Axl didn't do his job of frontman anymore. And, besides, the others were totally smashed, I didn't even manage to make them learn covers: we would have been able to pass the time when Axl leaves the scene, to entertain the kids. Instead we came up with a drum solo. What's more annoying than a drum solo? 

I imagine that you were his closest friend in group given that you'd both grown up in Lafayette. You couln't manage to reason with him? 

When he began to gain some money and to get laid, he wasn't controllable any more. Everybody was too wasted. I still managed to control myself, but I saw Steven, Slash and Duff literally killing themselves before my eyes. I don't even know any more if Steven was still in the group in fact: what was that bullshit anyway? A musician is fired from Guns N' Roses because he's on drugs while the group spent all of their time on that? I stopped everything a year before leaving the band. So, during this year, I attended the spectacle of my friends killing themselves. I didn't want to be an accomplice to that, I didn't want to wake up one day next to Slash's corpse telling myself that indirectly, I'd participated in it. And so, I left. 

But you returned to help carry out some shows a little later when Gilby Clarke broke his hand... 

It's simple. I'd returned to Indiana, I lived peacefully, and one day, Axl called me. He asked me whether, effectively, I could help them on some concerts. I asked where these shows would take place, and it answered in Istanbul, in Athens, in London...you think that I hesitated (laughter)?! I love to travel and see new countries! Besides, Alan Niven, my manager, who was also that of Guns in the beginning, explained to me that the band still owed me some money. He advised me to accept to make them pay what they still owed me. It's only afterwards that I realized that Alan was going to get 20% of this sum (laughter)! I did these shows and I didn't enjoy myself a lot because Duff and Slash were always still wasted. I don't want to pretend I'm a saint, 'cause I did everything, but when you're clean, there's nothing funny about seeing your friends like that. 

http://www.a-4-d.com/t1653-2001-06-dd-interview-izzy

Edited March 1, 2018 by RONIN

[EvanG]

Izzy leaving the band has always been clear, I want to know why he isn't part of this so-called reunion in any shape or form. Money can't be the only reason.

[Len Cnut]

My overriding feeling when I skim through all this stuff is that GnR were a bunch of minges, bottlejobs, whiners and tarts that basically wanted to be these hard rocking drug taking groupie shagging Stones types but didn't have the constitution for it all, couldn't handle their drugs, couldn't balance that shit out with the creative process, couldn't fuckin' get it together, couldn't handle the money or the pressure and just fuckin' fraggled out in a miasma of overdoses and fuckin' quitting and business bullshit.  Didn't have the talent or the arse to see any of it through.  I mean you think anything these guys were doing was more or worse or crazier than what The Stones were doing in the 60s?  Fuck, every show The Stones did was a riot back then, they certainly weren't doing more drugs or shagging more birds...so what then?  Didn't have the arse for it basically. 

The only reason all this soap opera bullshit is in the least bit interesting with other bands is cuz they've got the fuckin' body of work to justify it, otherwise its just reality TV and thats what it is with GnR, just fuckin' boring, one Appetite, two illusions (released on the same day, might as well be the same album) and an EP ain't worth the attention, when you balance it out its fuckin' 95% reality tv drama gossip bollocks and 5% good music.

Edited March 1, 2018 by Len Cnut

[RONIN]

1 hour ago, EvanG said:

Izzy leaving the band has always been clear, I want to know why he isn't part of this so-called reunion in any shape or form. Money can't be the only reason.

An Axl and Slash powerplay would be my guess for why he walked. Just like in 1991. As Slash says multiple times in the above quotes, Izzy doesn't like being dictated to.

[WhenYou'reTalkinToYourself]

2 hours ago, RONIN said:

M: I felt like I couldn't hear your guitar in the final mix of the "Illusions".

I: Yeah, what happened there? (laughs) They took two years to finish the two records, and at the end I don't even feel like listening to the final product. Not at all! In fact I listened to the records only after the concert at Wembley in August 91, and I freaked out: "Where the hell is my fucking guitar?" It's gone! From there I lost the little interest I had left in the G N' R enterprise. This and the stadium tour!

It seems that the assertion that Izzy doesn't like playing in big stadiums is valid, since he cites that as one of the two final factors that made him lose any interest in GNR.

 

[auad]

good topic. much to read and the minority here will read everything, but still ... very cool.

[ludurigan]

hey @RONINfantastic collection of quotes, truly a pleasure to read them all ordered like that one after the other

i have so much stuff to say about this but I suppose these quotes say it better than anything that i can come up with

its all there for anyone to see

[killuridols]

Damn @RONIN, you should print a book

[default_]

RONIN should get a promotion from doing all those cool threads and always bringing in cool and relevant content to existing ones.

[auad]

THIS PART IS FUCKIN GREAT:

 

"Later he wanted to be the ringleader and it didn't go anywhere. And I guess it still hasn't. "

[EvanG]

4 hours ago, RONIN said:

An Axl and Slash powerplay would be my guess for why he walked. Just like in 1991. As Slash says multiple times in the above quotes, Izzy doesn't like being dictated to.

Could be. But I don't understand why he hasn't even made a guest appearance... I'm sure he knows that many fans around the world are waiting to see the AFD lineup on stage together one more time after 28 years. Money and everything else aside, it shouldn't be too difficult to pull that off, even if it is for one song. 

[tsinindy]

7 minutes ago, EvanG said:

Could be. But I don't understand why he hasn't even made a guest appearance... I'm sure he knows that many fans around the world are waiting to see the AFD lineup on stage together one more time after 28 years. Money and everything else aside, it shouldn't be too difficult to pull that off, even if it is for one song. 

If you were offered a spot...and pissed about the money you wouldn’t play a guest spot out of principle unless you got terribly overpaid for doing so.

[moreblack]

Wonder what his price actually would be

[TheGeneral]

This band is/was an absolute brainfuck.

One minute they love each other, the next they're back to hating on each other.

I'm glad that stuff is over and that Axl/Slash/Duff all get along.

[Italian girl]

28 minutes ago, moreblack said:

Wonder what his price actually would be

"Prostitute"

[Sosso]

I'm glad that he made guest appearances during the tour in 2006. I'm still listening to that Nightrain live performance at the Download Festival frequently.

Thanks for the collection @RONIN! Great post as always

Edited March 1, 2018 by Sosso

[default_]

31 minutes ago, TheGeneral said:

This band is/was an absolute brainfuck.

One minute they love each other, the next they're back to hating on each other.

I'm glad that stuff is over and that Axl/Slash/Duff all get along.

We like to say Axl is crazy but in the end of the day they were/are all nuts to some level. But who isnt these days?

[auad]

3 minutes ago, default_ said:

We like to say Axl is crazy but in the end of the day they were/are all nuts to some level. But who isnt these days?

I agree.
I've always said that ... the people in this band (and who have been on GNR) are as strange and dysfunctional as their fans.

[RussTCB]

I barely followed Guns around the time Izzy left and I didn't really know that much about his contributions. So when he left I was kinda like "Oh whatever, this Gilby guy seems alright". It wasn't until years later that I looked into it and found out what a big deal Izzy really was/is.

[BOSSY78]

One thing that always got me is the back and forth and changing of stories as the teller saw fit.

For example it was never a secret Slash had trouble with Izzy being in the band at different points but later Slash made it all like he never felt that way. Izzy even made claims that from day one Slash didn't want him there. Sure they became close at other points but the fact still remains and crept into interviews over the years. 

I think Izzy leaving was a culmination of many things. I think Slash was just as involved as Axl in running the band and decisions being made where later it was mostly shoved on Axl as being the dictator. Many interviews over the years have shown this.

I do believe Axl was genuinely hurt by Izzy leaving and still cares about Izzy.

I belive Izzy being sober and his juggling being on the road and surrounded by all he was avoiding played a huge role.

I also believe because of his being sober he was avoiding many band functions that Axl Slash and others felt he wasn't putting in the same effort.

I feel it was hard for him and don't blame him at all for the decisions he made. I think at the time he felt it was the best decision for him.

What I also believe is that Axl had a valid point in that he was surrounded by junkies overdosing. He needed to protect the band as a whole. Of course his constant lateness didn't go over well with many. 

There's a very telling part where Izzy says he was on the phone with Axl and how Axl was basically saying he was in charge and he also admits Axl was trying to make it good for him as well. He quit the next day. This was in the conversation about the contract. He never went into detail about what Axl offered him there making it good for him as well.

To me it came down to Izzy being sober and being disillusioned with the rock star life and the drugs. He wanted to maintain his sobriety and distanced himself from his band members. Slash and Axl felt he wasn't putting in the work they were. Izzy showed up as needed and likely not more than that. I imagine Izzy felt a disconnect from some of the band as they were getting high and partying while he was sober.

All sides were valid there. Izzys was just more personal. 

Izzy became worried about lawsuits and that fear pushed him to watch money more. He didn't feel the video's should be that expensive. He wanted bare bones when Axl wanted the total vision played out on certain songs. The trilogy as deemed back then told a story and he likely wanted that to reflect in the videos. 

Again both valid points. One side just cost more.

Personally I wouldn't expect less than what we got for videos like November Rain. Those videos are iconic still today. 

I could never see that songs video any other way. The video magnified the song. Don't Cry is the same way. It also was likely a sort of way for Axl to express himself which he needed to do.

Many fans act like all GnR fans don't like UYI but it's actually quite the opposite. The majority like Appetite and the UYI era.

Just as some of the band members disliked the ballads but they are ranked as their top songs. Even people who don't like or know who GnR really is can sing along to most of those ballads.

Axl's vision paid off. Much like Slash claimed to dislike SCoM but people just couldn't get enough of his guitar in it. Personally I think his dislike was rooted in the fact that he played the part originally frustrated with Axl saying the original version was missing something. Axl however liked it and so it stayed. I could be wrong. My opinion.

As a fan rather I understand Izzy's reasons, he left. He negotiated his buyout from the partnership. 

As far as Niven. I honestly see him as many saw Goldstein.  Only he was an Izzy man where as Goldstein was an Axl man.

 

 

[BOSSY78]

11 hours ago, RussTCB said:

I barely followed Guns around the time Izzy left and I didn't really know that much about his contributions. So when he left I was kinda like "Oh whatever, this Gilby guy seems alright". It wasn't until years later that I looked into it and found out what a big deal Izzy really was/is.

Reminds me of my daughter. She became a fan of ChiDem. She loves all the albums though.

November Rain inspired her to learn violin and composing. She always tells me how inspiring musically that song and Axl's creative genious is.

She asked me about the Izzy stuff too back when he posted his equal loot comment as she saw a news article. 

 

 

[ludurigan]

11 hours ago, RussTCB said:

I barely followed Guns around the time Izzy left and I didn't really know that much about his contributions. So when he left I was kinda like "Oh whatever, this Gilby guy seems alright". It wasn't until years later that I looked into it and found out what a big deal Izzy really was/is.

yep

if there is any big three at all in GNR then it has got to be izzy, axl and slash

(in no particular order)

remove one and...

"yeah, we're fucked"

[Tori72]

28 minutes ago, ludurigan said:

yep

if there is any big three at all in GNR then it has got to be izzy, axl and slash

(in no particular order)

remove one and...

"yeah, we're fucked"

There is no big three in GnR, however you put it. They were five and they wrote songs together. I wouldn’t wanna miss Duff’s bass, neither Steven’s drumming. It is those 5 or it’s not Guns n Roses. 

[EvanG]

15 hours ago, tsinindy said:

If you were offered a spot...and pissed about the money you wouldn’t play a guest spot out of principle unless you got terribly overpaid for doing so.

They could do it for the fans for like 5 minutes, but I guess egos don't work that way.

[EvanG]

3 hours ago, Tori72 said:

There is no big three in GnR, however you put it. They were five and they wrote songs together. I wouldn’t wanna miss Duff’s bass, neither Steven’s drumming. It is those 5 or it’s not Guns n Roses. 

True, but they were the main songwriters, and that's probably what he meant. When it comes down to songwriting, Duff probably came right behind Slash, Izzy and Axl.

Edited March 2, 2018 by EvanG