Axl - What's happening?

Steve Downs - Not much. And Slash. Fresh from a… An invigorating game of pinball, I understand.

Slash - Yeah, something like that.

Steve Downs - It's somewhat of a rarity to have the both of you in the same place at the same time.

Axl - I don't know…

Slash - Someone asked me: "Are you both guys gonna be on the radio?" I was like: "Yeah!" It's been a couple of years since we did an interview together.

Steve Downs - And you Axl were telling me that when you guys write, it's actually done over the phone.

Axl - The majority of things are done on the phone, until we actually get in the studio. A lot of things over the phone and sending tapes back and forth. And we've done this for years.

Slash - I just delivered my last tape to Axl. My latest tape to Axl.

Steve Downs - Just minutes ago.

Axl - I've been eagerly awaiting.

Steve Downs - Really? Well, we'll eagerly awaiting a chance to hear it some point down the line. Tell me about "The Spaghetti Incident?". How did this thing come together, and what did you want to do with this?

Slash - I think the easiest way to… It wasn't supposed to be taken that seriously in the beginning. It was a… Seriously, in the beginning , it was a… some songs that… It started out with some songs that we were jamming that we were gonna make an EP out of. And then we started adding more songs into it, and eventually it turned into a 13-song record which obviously is the result on the CD.

Axl - We had an idea of this going into the first album… that there were some songs that, what we called "punk" to us, or whatever, that we wanted to record a long time ago, that we wanted people to hear, that we liked a lot. And there's songs that Izzy and I liked, there's songs that Slash and I liked, there's songs that Duff and Izzy liked. Things like that, and then it turned into… We had a collection over about nine years of over ten songs that we really liked and we realized we could make an album instead of just a little EP and throw out there.

Steve Downs - Would you say that what is on "The Spaghetti Incident?" is fairly representative of what the influences were to Guns N' Roses in the early days?

Slash - It's a coup…

Axl - Some.

Slash - It's… A drop in the bucket, you know.

Axl - Some, but the energy of the songs and stuff, but it's a… It's some… Some of the influences that I don't think mainstream radio, and a lot of like, I don't know… Mid-western and things like that, people haven't really heard.

Slash - The funny thing about it though, is that when we started doing this, it was just to levitate the pressure of making the Illusions records. [laughs]

Steve Downs - [laughs] Really?

Slash - I mean really, when it comes down to it, we were jamming stuff in the studio on off-time and that's how it started.

Axl - I was like, going: "Well, jam on these songs". Kinda like steer it into a project for later.

Slash - [laughs]

Steve Downs - The first song we're gonna play tonight is "Hair Of The Dog", which I guess was a part of the early GN'R repertoire, right?

Slash - Actually, that goes back to Hollywood Rose.

Axl - Yeah, we played it only a few times a very long time ago. When we were in the studio, finishing up the recording of the song, Slash is going: "This is cool!". 'Cause he's the one that brought it to our attention to do it for this album and Duff reminded him… He goes: "Remember the old days? This was cool." Duff reminds him: "You hated this song".

Slash - [laughs]

Axl - Slash goes: "Oh, yeah". Which was very strange when he brought it to us: "We gotta do this song." I was like: "You hated it". I was confused for months.

Slash - [laughs]

Steve Downs - "Hair Of The Dog". Guns N' Roses on Rockline

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"Hair Of The Dog" is played

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Steve Downs - We're back. Just getting underway with a full 90-minutes with Axl Rose and Slash from Guns N' Roses. The phones are lit up so let's get to 'em right now. We're gonna take our first stop at Muscatine, Iowa. Beth is listening to us at 97X in Davenport. Beth, you're on with Axl and Slash.

Beth - Hi Axl, hi Slash. Happy new year.

Slash - Happy new year.

Axl - Happy new year.

Beth - Thank you. I'd like to know what it was about punk that influenced, or attracted you. You know, was it the scene or the sound. Also, you guys have been credited so many times with breathing new life into rock n' roll, and with this success of the new CD doing covers of old punk, and old-time metal or rock n' roll, do you feel you're helping metal make a comeback? Or more importantly, are you helping punk comeback?

Slash - The main thing… We didn't do what we call a punk comeback or anything like that. We just took a bunch of songs which I thought represented where we came from… Had a certain amount of attitude. I mean, punk didn't last…

Axl - Energy.

Slash - …all that long. It's all about a vibe and about a certain attitude directed towards... I don't know. It's the way that the band plays and there's a lot of different types of music that forms the way we sound. So… that's really what it's all about.

Steve Downs - Thanks Beth for the call…

Slash - That was short. [laughs]

Steve Downs - Got to the point. I'm not sure metal needs a comeback at this point.

Slash - No, it's…

Axl - It's got nothing to do with that…

Slash - It's the attitude.

Axl - It's just like, we like the energy and the defiance that punk rock had and that it… It didn't really hit the mainstream all that much. And we are, whether we like it or not, in some ways in the mainstream. So we gotta bring certain songs to people's attention.

Slash - Yeah.

Axl - For me, it was like, some of those songs I liked, I got ridiculed and criticized for at the times those songs were out. So, it was kinda like, well, now maybe some of those people will listen to it

Slash - It's a crime that a lot of the band that we did cover and other bands that we didn't cover, that if we had all the time in the world to do, didn't… They're almost forgotten now. I mean, completely… Out-of-print and out-of-mind.

Axl - Can say we wanted to call the record "Pension Fund". 'Cause we're kind of paying some… Helping these guys pay some rent.

Steve Downs - There you go.

Slash - Yeah, Cheetah Crome's happy.

Axl - Yeah.

Steve Downs - We're gonna go to Louisville, Kentucky now. Jan is on 95.7 WQMF.

Jan - Hi Axl, hi Slash. How you doing?

Axl - Hi.

Slash - Doing great.

Jan - Great. Over the years you've taken a lot of criticism over music. And now all of a sudden, I'm hearing a lot of empathy coming out. Over the last couple of years… Like this new video I just recently saw, with the whales and dolphins. That's beautiful.

Axl - Thank you. And yeah… In some areas there is a different vibe coming and that's really nice.

Jan - Do… Are you going to keep going that way?

Axl - You know… What? Trying to get people to like us, but still doing what we want? Sure.

[everybody laughs]

Jan - Keep progressing, you know, the criticism will stop and they will understand, you know, that the music is for what you make it.

Slash - The two don't often meet on the same ground. We'll always do what we want. 'Cause otherwise we'll get seriously bored and the critics will always have something bad to say about it. It's just… It goes with the territory so we just gotten used to it. As long as it doesn't affect what we do as a band then we're fine.

Axl - I think there's a level of… You know, level of people out there, the so-called "moral majority" and things like that, that will always have a problem with certain things in the media. But then again, these people can be won over in other ways and maybe that'll happen. I guess it depends on how politically correct we are with our incorrectness.

Slash - [laughs] Where do we fit in?

Steve Downs - Jan, thanks for the call. We're gonna go from Louisville to Augusta, Georgia. Carl's on 96 RXR in Augusta. Carl, you're on Rockline with Guns N' Roses.

Carl - Axl, Slash. It's great to talk to you.

Axl - What's happening?

Carl - You have such an incredible sound when you're live. I'd like to know, when do you plan on releasing a full-length live album?

Axl - We recorded every single show we did and there is a… You know, we've talked for a long time about compiling something out of that. I have no idea… I mean, then again, it could sound like crap. [laughs] We don't know.

Slash - Basically…

Axl - We haven't had the time to go back and listen to everything yet, but…

Slash - Basically we're just waiting to find somebody who has the patience to sit trough it. [laughs]

Axl - We'd like to make a movie. We filmed everything that we did on the road for the last few years, and we'd like to make a documentary movie and put out a soundtrack to that.

Steve Downs - That'd be hot. We're gonna… Carl, thanks for the call. We're gonna play another track now from the album "The Spaghetti Incident?". This is the Steve Jones/Sex Pistols tune "Black Leather". A caller earlier was talking about punk and the fact that this album is certainly shedding new light on that era again. And most people think of the Sex Pistols as the… Sort of the, you know, the star of the era, if you will.

Slash - Like I said, the whole punk thing… There was only a handful of bands that were, what you call, really good rock n' roll bands. And as far as the style of music goes, it doesn't matter. It was like a real heart-felt kind of rebellion thing that we picked up on.

Axl - Some of these songs are more obscure than others. Like the Sex Pistols songs that we did. It was a b-side that I just thought was one of the coolest songs they did and thought other people might like to hear it. I mean… You know, we have our version of it, but then again, I like listening to the original better. It depends on what mood people are in. What they want to hear. I mean, I've heard criticism about: "Well, a punk record shouldn't have drums this heavy." And this and that. But we do it GN'R-style.

Slash - That's exactly it. It was GN'R doing all these songs of ours the way that we play 'em. I mean, there's no changing that. So, we're not exactly "the best sounding punk band"… technology and decent marshals at work.

Axl - We just be paying some respect.

Steve Downs - Sounds something like this. GN'R. "Black Leather".

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"Black Leather" is played.

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Steve Downs - Guns N' Roses. "Black Leather" from "The Spaghetti Incident?". Back to the phones we go. Blaire is in Robertsonville, North Carolina, listening to WRDU 106 in Raleigh. Blaire, you're on with Axl and Slash.

Blair - Hi! I'm a fan of you. I had a question. Are you planning on pulling the Charles Manson track from the album?

Axl - At this time, no. But, we've also been notified by a fan that if we do pull the song, he'll sue us and Geffen Records for one dollar per album sold, as of the date that we pull the song. You know, he'll file s in federal court. But we don't have plans of pulling it as of now. And… You're in Raleigh?

Blair - Yeah.

Axl - Oh, okay. Cool. Hi Jennifer!

Steve Downs - [laughs]

Slash - [laughs] There was a time when we were planning on pulling it because of the fact that it was… I don't know… the messages were all crossed. As far as to what we were really doing. I mean, basically, all we did was do a track that had something to do lyrically with the band. Or… you know.

Axl - I like the lyrics of the song. I also thought it was something that people hadn't heard and was a missing part of the puzzle. And almost everything about Charles Manson has been public, but this was something that wasn't public really, on a big scale, to my knowledge, and just thought that people would be interested in hearing it. But… you know, even the… One of the… The victim's son whose getting money supposedly, was talking about people worshipping Charles Manson and I was like, getting a vibe that people were trying to paint a picture of me worshipping Charles Manson now. It's exactly, for me, the opposite of that.

Slash - It's sort of a parody almost, you know. [laughs]

Axl - He's a pop-cartoon-icon of absolutely how far off the edge you can go, which… I don't have any desire to go that far.

Slash - It's really weird because when the song was done and it was recorded and released, there was no attention drawn to it, and all the attention that's been given it so far has come from the media that's been opposing it.

Axl - 'Cause the make the bucks off that.

Slash - And it's ridiculous. At this point it's like: "Screw you, whatever." You know, it's typical, we've been going through this since we started. So, I'm not faced.

Steve Downs - And as Axl mentioned, the… I guess the royalties to this song go to the son of one of the victims of the Manson murders. They don't go to Charles Manson.

Slash - Right.

Axl - Yeah, but then I did hear also about someone else saying that Charles doesn't have the copyright on that. He does, and he wants the money. So… you know, as long as Charlie's not getting it, that's cool.

Steve Downs - It sounds…

Slash - We don't know what this guy's all about.

[everybody laughs]

Steve Downs - It is an unlisted track on the album. You won't find it, but it's at the very end. It's called "Look At Your Game Girl". Guns N' Roses on Rockline.

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"Look At Your Game Girl" is played

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Steve Downs - There you go. That's Guns N' Roses from "The Spagehtti Incident?"

Slash - I have to call Carlos and ask him what that last chord was.

Axl - [laughs]

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Commercial break

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Steve Downs - We're gonna go to the Rocky Mountain state, as a matter of fact. Colorado Springs is where we're headed. Nick…

Axl - Who wrote that Rockline riff?

Steve Downs - Who did write that? Forget who wrote that. Um… Dana Strum from… from… I'm sorry… from Slaughter wrote that riff. Many, many years ago.

Slash - Yeah.

Steve Downs - So, there you go. [laughs]

Axl - Just wondering. That says it all.

Steve Downs - Colorado Springs is where we're headed. Where was I? Kilo, that's where I was. Nick, you're on with…

Axl - Kilo?

Steve Downs - How appropriate.

Slash - [laughs]

Steve Downs - Nick, you're on buddy.

Slash - Kilo, Colorado. No way! [laughs]

Nick - Hey, how's it going guys?

Axl - Kilo, Colorado. I like that.

Nick - Yeah, it works, it works.

Axl - What's happening?

Steve Downs - What's your question Nick?

Nick - Yeah, I was wondering, since Duff did his solo album and Slash, you worked on that Jimi tribute album, is anyone else gonna do any solos or work on any other albums?

Slash - Um… Tell you truth, Duff's solo album… Gilby's doing one, it's pretty much finished. That's basically it. I don't have any plans to do… I don't think Axl… You do have one.

Axl - I'm hoping to… I'm trying to put a project together that is kind of a top-secret weapon right now.

Steve Downs - Oh, really?

Axl - Yeah.

Steve Downs - Cool. We'll look forward to that. Gilby Clarke, of course the second guitarist from Guns N' Roses. Thank you Nick for the call. Jeff is in St. Louis, listening to KC 95. Jeff, you're on Rockline.

Jeff - Hey Axl, Slash. What's up?

Slash - Hey.

Axl - What's happening?

Jeff - First I would like to say the that you did in St. Louis, the last show was the best show I've ever been to and my question is…

Slash - [laughs]

Axl - Wow!

Jeff - I've heard some rumors that…

Slash - Where were you when we needed you?

Jeff - … maybe Izzy would be brought back in to help record things. Is there any truth to that?

Slash - Nothing, no.

Axl - None at all!

Slash - Especially not to help record things.

Axl - 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.

Slash - In all honesty, it was cool to get him back. When the idea came…

Axl - And it was cool when he went away! [laughs]

Slash - 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 - It was nice while it lasted.

Steve Downs - Nice to be back in St. Louis, by the way?

Axl - Um… Yeah. I was back there recently and actually it was… It wasn't bad. It was… It worked out real nice and there was a whole different vibe about things once people got a different side of the story.

Slash - Yeah, I wanna go play there. [laughs]

Steve Downs - Jeff, thanks for the call. Mike is in New York City, listening to 92.3 KROC. Mike, you're on with Axl and Slash.

Mike - Hey Axl and Slash. How you doing, guys?

Slash - Hey, how are you?

Axl - What's up?

Mike - Pretty good. I just like to tell you, man, you're music is fantastic. You're the greatest rock n' roll band in the world to me. Just like to let you guys know that.

Axl - Thanks.

Slash - Thank you.

Axl - We're embarrassed. [laughs]

Slash - Yeah. [laughs]

Mike - … in England. And I was wondering why you didn't put Queen songs on "The Spaghetti Incident?"?

Axl - One, I don't know of a Queen song I can really do the caliber of Queen, you know. That's part of it for me and it just didn't really fit into the project that we were doing at this time. And to pick a Queen song is rough one.

Slash - Yeah. One thing about "The Spaghetti Incident?" is that all the songs are like, pretty spontaneously picked. It was about two or three minutes decision on any of the songs. It just didn't come up. That would have taken thought and planning. [laughs]

Axl - We may work with Brian May on a project upcoming… We don't know… And we're hoping to pull that one off. We get along with Brian really well.

Steve Downs - He opened for some of the Guns N' Roses shows last year.

Axl - Yeah. And Slash and Brian did a pretty amazing job on… When we did "Heaven's Door" live somewhere in Europe. And I've never seen two guitarists get along like that, the way they played together, complementing each other, in my life. It was pretty magical. But the rest… The whole band, we were all kinda waiting: "When is the solo gonna end."

Slash - [laughs]

Axl - After five minutes we're all running around and we're getting tired and these guys are still soloing.

Steve Downs - [laughs]

Axl - It was pretty wild. It was great.

Slash - He's one of the most unpretentious rock stars of his caliber that I've ever met and… You put the two of us together onstage playing guitar, and it basically free rain. [laughs]

Axl - "Dead On Time" would have been a good song to put on this album. "Dead On Time" would've been great.

Steve Downs - Yeah, that'd be good.

Slash - Metallica did a Queen song.

Steve Downs - Yeah.

Axl - "Stone Cold Crazy".

Steve Downs - "Stone Cold Crazy", yeah. Going back to "The Spaghetti Incident?" You did a Dead Boys tune, the band out of Cleveland originally, with Stiv Bators, called "Ain't It Fun", which is a real kicker on this record.

Slash - Yeah. We were talking about it earlier, that the lyrics to that song pretty much sum up where we come from as a band. Like, you know… Especially on the surface.

Axl - Or things that we've been through, stupid mistakes we've made.

Slash - And when I hear it, I just go: "Yeah, ok, check, check". [laughs]

Steve Downs - That's right.

Axl - It was also a tribute to Stiv. And Mike Monroe, who guest sings on the song, from the band Hanoi Rocks, was a really good friend of Stiv's and… He turned me onto a bunch of Dead Boys stuff. I already knew the song, and it was a song I liked and he got me all these tapes and things. And then I was like: "Why don't we just play it?". And it was kinda like a tribute for him, 'cause it was really hard on Mike and… And other people in his life when Stiv did pass away.

Steve Downs - "Ain't It Fun". Guns N' Roses.

Axl - For Cheetah.

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"Ain't It Fun" is played.

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Read part 2