Dave Abbruzzese talks about his stint as GnR drummer and friendship with Axl

[Blackstar]

1 minute ago, Sydney Fan said:

So how did zakk wylde come into the picture?.

As a candidate for the second guitar slot (Izzy's/Gilby's replacement). Paul Tobias didn't take part in the rehearsals with Zakk Wylde, it was two guitars.

[Sydney Fan]

3 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

As a candidate for the second guitar slot (Izzy's/Gilby's replacement). Paul Tobias didn't take part in the rehearsals with Zakk Wylde, it was two guitars.

Thank god that never eventuated. Have no idea why axl thought zakk would work in the band.....in terms of skill and personality. Sounds like axl was throwing mudd at a wall, in terms of different players, and seeing what would stick rather than really thinking who would be the appropriate player in the mould of izzy and gilby.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Sydney Fan

[WhazUp]

One thing is for sure, Zakk Wylde not joining the band means that all the GNR material since then has had 95 percent less pinch harmonics than it would have otherwise 

[Sydney Fan]

44 minutes ago, WhazUp said:

One thing is for sure, Zakk Wylde not joining the band means that all the GNR material since then has had 95 percent less pinch harmonics than it would have otherwise 

Its absolutely fucking annoying to hear, on every Ozzy release he played on.

I dont know why continually does it. It makes him a one trick pony.

Edited December 15, 2020 by Sydney Fan

[Blackstar]

Well, that was the most interesting GnR related interview in a long time. 

For anyone interested, I have transcribed it all here:

https://www.a-4-d.com/t5240-2020-10-18-12-20-2020-d-podcast-interviews-with-david-abbruzzese

[ToonGuns]

3 hours ago, WhazUp said:

One thing is for sure, Zakk Wylde not joining the band means that all the GNR material since then has had 95 percent less pinch harmonics than it would have otherwise 

Only 95%?

There's a video on YouTube with Guthrie Govan playing in the style of loads of different guitarists, very impressive. The first time I heard it when he gets to playing in the style of Zakk I nearly spat out my tea, it's hilarious. 

To be fully transparent, I like Zakk. Book of Shadows is a great album, as is Pride and Glory. His mid career stuff (BLS) was very basic... the problem was he had a poor drummer, played all other instrumentation himself (rather than a band working up the songs), and lacked decent production with a very muddy sound.

[Swedish]

Did we every get any clarification if that supposed rehearsal tape with Abbruzze that leaked a couple of years back was real of fake? If I remember correctly it sounded pretty good.

[soon]

57 minutes ago, youngswedishvinyl said:

Did we every get any clarification if that supposed rehearsal tape with Abbruzze that leaked a couple of years back was real of fake? If I remember correctly it sounded pretty good.

If its the same tape Im thinking of, heres what I know,

The PJ fan who bought a collection of PJ related tapes couldn't I.D the one tape but it indicated Abbrruzzesse on it and a date. Based on the date he thought to explore the possibility that it was a guns tape. So they made an account here to get input. It was more inquiry then a statement of fact.

I remember discussing it with some folks, including the tape owner, and the few of us didnt think it was Guns. It seemed to only have one drummer iirc. Wasnt Duffs tone (although his tone was in transition at the time). It didnt sound at all like Robin, but maybe a bit more finessed than much of what we've heard from Tobias.

We thought, given the date, that it could have been Abbrruzzesse with the so called shadow company though (Riggs and co). Which would be cool too! It certainly sounded like people trying to do Guns to some degree. And yeah, there was some fun stuff on there!

Having said all this - we could have been wrong! Id love to hear anyone elses thoughts. Maybe others got to the bottom of it with different conclusions?!

 

EDIT - Would have been great to have heard the village leaks for comparison. Some of those tracks arent so stamped with Robins touch either, to my ears. Which could tip the scales back to it being legit!

2nd EDIT - Wait, werent you one of the people in those PM conversations?! haha

Edited December 15, 2020 by soon

[Swedish]

1 hour ago, soon said:

If its the same tape Im thinking of, heres what I know,

The PJ fan who bought a collection of PJ related tapes couldn't I.D the one tape but it indicated Abbrruzzesse on it and a date. Based on the date he thought to explore the possibility that it was a guns tape. So they made an account here to get input. It was more inquiry then a statement of fact.

I remember discussing it with some folks, including the tape owner, and the few of us didnt think it was Guns. It seemed to only have one drummer iirc. Wasnt Duffs tone (although his tone was in transition at the time). It didnt sound at all like Robin, but maybe a bit more finessed than much of what we've heard from Tobias.

We thought, given the date, that it could have been Abbrruzzesse with the so called shadow company though (Riggs and co). Which would be cool too! It certainly sounded like people trying to do Guns to some degree. And yeah, there was some fun stuff on there!

Having said all this - we could have been wrong! Id love to hear anyone elses thoughts. Maybe others got to the bottom of it with different conclusions?!

 

EDIT - Would have been great to have heard the village leaks for comparison. Some of those tracks arent so stamped with Robins touch either, to my ears. Which could tip the scales back to it being legit!

2nd EDIT - Wait, werent you one of the people in those PM conversations?! haha

I probably was! 

I remember that there where a lot of uncertainty and stuff about it but I didn’t remember if we finally reached a consensus on it, I take it we didn’t

[The Holographic Universe]

On 12/14/2020 at 8:57 PM, lame ass security said:

And when he does it's without fail hilarious.

Lol. Very true. Without fail. He said some weird shit to his photographer Robert John. Robert was photographing Marlyn Manson and Axl told him Manson didn’t like Roberts work, and only wanted to suck Axl energies thru Robert. I always thought it was untrue until the “dark lord” story. It’s awesome to know a drummer, a particular unknown drummer, had the power to prevent Axl from bringing light into the world. No wonder he hated Slash assumed his ultimate form and blocked out Axl’s light from the world. I can’t believe the world made it from ‘94-‘01 without Axl’s light. 

[Ratam]

8 hours ago, The Holographic Universe said:

Lol. Very true. Without fail. He said some weird shit to his photographer Robert John. Robert was photographing Marlyn Manson and Axl told him Manson didn’t like Roberts work, and only wanted to suck Axl energies thru Robert. I always thought it was untrue until the “dark lord” story. It’s awesome to know a drummer, a particular unknown drummer, had the power to prevent Axl from bringing light into the world. No wonder he hated Slash assumed his ultimate form and blocked out Axl’s light from the world. I can’t believe the world made it from ‘94-‘01 without Axl’s light. 

It Axl's shit is very ignorant, just hope that Axl grown and not believe in it ignorant shit anymore!

[MaskingApathy]

I read Blackstar's transcription (thank you @Blackstar) and I think Dave is very misinformed about the classic era lineup. That stuff about the product band put together by the label is just incorrect. It doesn't seem like he listened to much GnR back in the day other than the songs that were around on the radio back then.

[Birdman]

Yes, Dave must be incorrect. It’s pretty well known that the classic lineup was completely formed by the summer of 1985. They didn’t sign with a label until 1986.

[soon]

2 hours ago, Birdman said:

Yes, Dave must be incorrect. It’s pretty well known that the classic lineup was completely formed by the summer of 1985. They didn’t sign with a label until 1986.

But many of them had lots of contact with labels prior to that. 
 

[Blackstar]

1 hour ago, soon said:

But many of them had lots of contact with labels prior to that. 
 

Apparently Duff had contacts with indie labels in Seattle. And Slash knew David Geffen through his parents. But other than that, there are no sources suggesting contacts with labels - at least major ones - before early 1986. They had an offer from an indie label in late 1985.

[Homefuck]

On 12/15/2020 at 9:13 AM, Blackstar said:

Well, that was the most interesting GnR related interview in a long time. 

For anyone interested, I have transcribed it all here:

https://www.a-4-d.com/t5240-2020-10-18-12-20-2020-d-podcast-interviews-with-david-abbruzzese

I always prefer reading rather than watching/listening to interviews. Cudos! I really appreciate all the work you do with that site.

[denin]

On 12/15/2020 at 5:36 AM, Sydney Fan said:

Thank god that never eventuated. Have no idea why axl thought zakk would work in the band.....in terms of skill and personality. Sounds like axl was throwing mudd at a wall, in terms of different players, and seeing what would stick rather than really thinking who would be the appropriate player in the mould of izzy and gilby.

I think Slash played live with Pride & Glory in late '94, and in Jan '95 the Guns sessions happened. Zakk's contract with Ozzy was expiring at the time. Ozzy concluded that Zakk's manager had orchestrated all that Guns affinity around Zakk to raise his market value. Why not, that manager was Doug Goldstein.

Edited December 17, 2020 by denin