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why West Arkeen didn t form official part of gnr?


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On 7/27/2022 at 3:31 PM, Sausagebrain said:

That's rough but, again, hardly the only time that something like that has happened.

 

To go back to the case of Ian Stewart - he is the guy who pretty much bought the Stones together, and that didn't prevent him from being kicked to the curb.

 

The music business can be a shit business.

It's the worst, and there's not a close second. Trust me. I believe Hunter S. Thompson once said "the music business is full of low lifes, cutthroats, and scum. Then there's the bad part."

Edited by lame ass security
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2 hours ago, darkside259 said:

don t know man... sound like bullshit to me lol

Why? To not want a really small guy in the band is believable, they were trying to be this badass rock n roll band, it doesn't really fit, and image was everything in that genre at the time. Do you know that Axl already is barely 5'9, which most people consider short for a guy, so West must have been like 5'3, if you look at footage of them together.

It's not like they kicked him to the curb completely, they still utilized his songwriting and he made a fortune with it. He just wasn't actually in the band.

Edited by StrangerInThisTown
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On 7/27/2022 at 7:38 PM, Blackstar said:

According to Gregg Buchwalter, who played in West's band The Outpatience, West wanted to join GN'R (didn't clarify when), but they didn't let him because he didn't have the right looks:

“Unfortunately in LA at that time, MTV was happening, and everyone wanted band members that had a look, and poor West. Brilliant guitar player, was really thrilled that his friends in Guns N’ Roses were playing some of his tunes, and writing with him and shit. They wouldn’t let him in the band because he was too short and fat. He didn’t look right.”

“His girlfriend told me. She said, ‘He’s asked them a bunch of times to join the band, but they told him, ‘No, you’re too short and fat man, you don’t look right.’ Isn’t that sick?”

“He was a great guitar player man, really good.”

It's the second interview in this video  (great interviews by @Gambit83):

 

How the heck do you know all these obscure references to even side characters of GNR, it's incredible. Did you ever consider writing a GNR book? I think even the band would learn from it, seriously.

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On 7/29/2022 at 1:32 AM, axl666 said:

Also if you look at his discography he contributed to several second level gnr songs and one top level one (it's so easy). He had very few other songs after that, and none of those were successful. So to be honest I don't see why you'd add someone like that to your band. There's no real 'added value' there.

He also wrote Yesterdays and The Garden which are as good a GNR song as they come. I think when everything is said and done with this band years down the line and everything officially released, Crash Diet (which he also wrote) will also be considered among those top level GNR songs, even if it is only a demo.

Edited by StrangerInThisTown
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On 7/29/2022 at 2:10 AM, vloors said:

Duff is around 6'1 or 6'2 and he just looks huge compared to the others

He’s 6’3, as he states in his book, but that’s not exactly tall either. Or maybe it is compared to the other guys…

 

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1 hour ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

Why? To not want a really small guy in the band is believable, they were trying to be this badass rock n roll band, it doesn't really fit, and image was everything in that genre at the time. Do you know that Axl already is barely 5'9, which most people consider short for a guy, so West must have been like 5'3, if you look at footage of them together.

It's not like they kicked him to the curb completely, they still utilized his songwriting and he made a fortune with it. He just wasn't actually in the band.

Steve Adler is even a few inches smaller than Axl.

Let's be honest Axl let some weirdo with a KFC bucket on his head who refused to record unless it was in a chicken pen into the band. I think it's less about the size and more about letting another drug junky into the band.

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31 minutes ago, vloors said:

Steve Adler is even a few inches smaller than Axl.

Let's be honest Axl let some weirdo with a KFC bucket on his head who refused to record unless it was in a chicken pen into the band. I think it's less about the size and more about letting another drug junky into the band.

Buckethead had already made a name for himself as an amazing player and was a respected musician, of course he's gonna pick a guy that good when you have to replace Slash no matter how he looks, I don't find that comparison makes sense at all. Buckethead had an identity and was not some nameless shredder which I believe was important for Axl. Not to mention that GNR had also already made it and it didn't matter by that point and that was already 2002, not the MTV rock era.

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40 minutes ago, vloors said:

Steve Adler is even a few inches smaller than Axl.

Let's be honest Axl let some weirdo with a KFC bucket on his head who refused to record unless it was in a chicken pen into the band. I think it's less about the size and more about letting another drug junky into the band.

that weirdo with a KFC bucket on his head is probably in the top 1% of guitar players in the world in his style. Axl didn't "let him into the band" he bascially courted him musically to join Gn'R when Bucket wasn't even interested. It's the opposite of letting him into the band. Bucket let Axl hire him and even that was possible cause Bucket was under the impression it was going to be more of the Axl and Bucket show according to Brain I think it was.

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18 hours ago, Rovim said:

that weirdo with a KFC bucket on his head is probably in the top 1% of guitar players in the world in his style. Axl didn't "let him into the band" he bascially courted him musically to join Gn'R when Bucket wasn't even interested. It's the opposite of letting him into the band. Bucket let Axl hire him and even that was possible cause Bucket was under the impression it was going to be more of the Axl and Bucket show according to Brain I think it was.

That may be true but he is still a weirdo with a KFC bucket on his head....

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19 hours ago, vloors said:

Steve Adler is even a few inches smaller than Axl.

Let's be honest Axl let some weirdo with a KFC bucket on his head who refused to record unless it was in a chicken pen into the band. I think it's less about the size and more about letting another drug junky into the band.

Those were different eras though. With NuGnR Axl didn't care about the band having a classic "rock 'n' roll" image.

Also, the height is not the only thing mentioned in the quote regarding West Arkeen; it was a combination of height and weight.

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21 hours ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

How the heck do you know all these obscure references to even side characters of GNR, it's incredible. Did you ever consider writing a GNR book? I think even the band would learn from it, seriously.

I don't think the band would like or appreciate it :lol: But @SoulMonster is already doing something like that and I'm helping.

That particular quote was recent. We were discussing these West Arkeen related interviews on here even before they happened, so then I listened to them.

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4 hours ago, DK6 said:

That may be true but he is still a weirdo with a KFC bucket on his head....

I like his image and I like his style of playing. I think his sound worked really well in Gn'R, but for most fans his image was too weird to be taken seriously I guess. Always found it amusing how Bucket's image was beyond Ozzy. He didn't get any of it and actually told him "just be yourself" which by putting a mask and the KFC bucket on his head, he was doing just that. Rock n' roll is about being yourself as well, not looking like any other musician. I find the clinging to the cliches ironic.

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23 minutes ago, Scream of the Butterfly said:

Kind of surprising that his height was an issue, considering rockstars must be the shortest people out there after jockeys.

He doesn't look all that fat, either. Think of Dizzy at the time.

I'm pretty certain 6'3 is tall anywhere in the world.

I'd like to live in this land of giants where anything under 6 feet is child size.

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2 minutes ago, Free Bird said:

6'3 is 1,92m

I can't imagine a place in the world in which this isn't tall. Where are you from?

6'3 is 190 cm to be precise.
I'm from one of the tallest nations in the world. (if not the tallest nation)
I realize in most other countries 6'3 is considered tall, but here it's just not. I can't help that. This is a stupid discussion because you guys don't live in my county, so you wouldn't know.

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2 minutes ago, EvanG said:

6'3 is 190 cm to be precise.
I'm from one of the tallest nations in the world. (if not the tallest nation)
I realize in most other countries 6'3 is considered tall, but here it's just not. I can't help that. This is a stupid discussion because you guys don't live in my county, so you wouldn't know.

Asgard?

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