15 Things You Never Knew About Guns N’ Roses

Duff McKagan, bassist of Guns N’ Roses, has released an autobiography called It’s So Easy (And Other Lies). Here are some fascinating facts you probably didn’t know.

1. The members in the band would cure their STDs by visiting the local pet store. ″You could get dirt-cheap antibiotics – intended for use in aquariums – at pet stores. Turned out tetracycline wasn’t just good for tail rot and gill disease. It also did great with syphilis″

2. The first proper gig for the band supporting the Fastbacks would see all five members hitchhike over 1,000 miles to get to The Gorilla Garden Venue in Portland.
″With no money left, our only hope now was to straight-up hitch hike on the side of the freeway. From a less determined perspective, it would have seemed a hopeless long shot that anyone would pick up five fucked-up-looking guys with their guitars – if anyone even had enough room space. But we didn’t see it that way at all then. We just had no alternative.″

3. To this day Slash still considers ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ the worst Guns N’ Roses song. Ironically it’s been their biggest selling hit all over the world.

No Addiction for Guns N’ Roses Tour

Guns N’ Roses have shot down last week’s rumor about playing with Jane’s Addiction on their upcoming South American tour. They denied that Jane’s Addition will be playing the tour, but the rumor stated they would be playing with them on a specific date.

The rumor was “According to Isabel Guerra from Livinginperu.com, Guns N’ Roses and Jane’s Addiction will perform in Lima on March 25, 2010, in the Monumental Stadium Esplanade.”

Axl Rose Releases Statement Denying Earlier Airport Attack Statement

The right hand doesn’t seem to know what the left hand is doing in Guns N’ Roses land. After Axl Rose’s scuffle last week with a stalkerazzi photographer, a press rep for the band put out a statement about it. They posted it on the band’s Myspace page, but today Axl Rose denies having anything to do with the statement. At least that is what a new posting on the Guns N’ Roses Myspace page says. Who know? That could be denied tomorrow.

But here is what Axl Rose reportedly had to say today: Axl Rose denies releasing press statement regarding rumored LAX incident. “I did not release any statement or authorize either any statement or anyone to release a statement regarding anything at any airport anywhere.

IZZY STRADLIN – New Album Available Via iTunes This Month, Two Audio Samples Online

According to Chinese-Democracy.Blogspot.com, former GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist Izzy Stradlin will release his new solo album, Smoke, via iTunes later this month. Audio samples of two tracks, ‘Breathing’ and ‘Nothing On Me’, are available below.

Smoke features Stradlin, guitarist Rick Richards (JU JU HOUNDS), bassist J.T. Longoria, guitarist Timo Kaltio and drummer Taz Bentley (ex-REVEREND HORTON HEAT). More details will be revealed soon.

Slash Finishes Recording His Solo CD

The solo album from former Guns N’ Roses and current Velvet Revolver guitar legend Slash is almost complete, with the final songs being mixed as Slash gears up for a benefit show later this month.

He updated his Myspace with the following: We’re a little more than 2 weeks away from the LAYN “Slash & friends” fundraiser, Nov 22nd at the Avalon Theater in Hollywood Ca. George Lopez is hosting an indulgent night of Rock & Roll with special guests, Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol, Perry Farrell, Chester Bennington, Andrew Stockdale, Franky Perez, Dave Navarro, Travis Barker, Chris Chaney & myself. The set is going to be killer & the whole event is supporting an awesome cause. Remaining tickets are available at: Its going to be one for the books for sure.

The tracking for my record is completely done & we only have 3 songs left to mix. I’m extremely happy about how the whole thing turned out, I think you’re going to dig it. Also, there is a single dropping in Japan this month that I did recorded with Koshi Inaba from the B’z. The song is called “Sahara” & is only available for sale in Japan & won’t be on the domestic release of the cd. There is a surprise B-Side you gotta check out.

Guns N’ Roses Support Acts Announced

It seems like just last week that Danko Jones were hit with very bad news that their upcoming tour with punk legends The Damned was called off for logistical reasons. Wait it was just last week, but on Wednesday they had good news: They are supporting another legendary group… Guns N’ Roses.

Guns N’ Roses recently announced that they will hit the road in Canada in January and February of next year. But support acts for the outing were not mentioned at the time. Now we know Danko Jones will join them for the 13 date outing. But they won’t be alone.

Axl Rose knows what works for him, so he calling upon his old friend Sebastian Bach to play the tour as well. The former Skid Row frontman toured with GNR on their last tour and even jumped up on stage with Axl during the trek.

Here are the dates:
Jan. 13 – Winnipeg, MB – MTS Centre
Jan. 16 – Calgary, AB – Pengrowth Saddledome
Jan. 17 – Edmonton, AB – Rexall Place
Jan. 19 – Saskatoon, SK – Credit Union Centre
Jan. 20 – Regina, SK – Brandt Centre
Jan. 24 – Hamilton, ON – Copps Coliseum
Jan. 25 – London, ON – John Labatt Centre
Jan. 27 – Montreal, PQ – Bell Centre
Jan. 28 – Toronto, ON – Air Canada Centre
Jan. 31 – Ottawa, ON – Scotiabank Place
Feb. 01 – Quebec City, PQ – Colisee Pepsi
Feb. 03 – Moncton, NB – Moncton Coliseum
Feb. 04 – Halifax, NS – Metro Centre

Duff Talks Chinese Democracy

Duff McKagan is currently supporting his solo band Loaded and took some time to speak with AskMen.com about their latest album, “Sick,” his bandmates and their influences and he answered the obligatory Guns N’ Roses question as well. A couple of the questions and answers are below: AskMen.com: Sick sounds amazing and I think reflective of some of your earlier influences, but it’s a departure from your days with Guns and Velvet Revolver. What would you say to fans of your more well-known work who are interested in picking this album up? Duff: I think Loaded is its own standalone band and I think a really good band, from my experience, is the greatest sum of all of its parts. Every guy brought something to the table and we took the best of those parts and made it a whole.

Same thing with Velvet Revolver; you still had Slash and I, you had those elements, but you got Scott Weiland in there and Matt [Sorum] as a songwriter and even Dave Kushner — you take the best parts of them. With Loaded, we’ve always been sort of left of center; we’re not a straight-up commercial rock band. People are saying it’s [Sick] more punk rock, but punk rock to me was something that I experienced and I played in a lot of punk rock bands, but that was a long, long time ago. I’m certainly not going back; I’m not harkening back to those times. AskMen.com: What do you think of Chinese Democracy? Duff: It’s funny; so many people have asked me that question and I gotta figure out why people think my opinion matters.[And then, our call dropped.] Sorry about that. I didn’t want you to think I hung up because of the question (laughs). Perfect timing. I think Axl did a great job on that record and other than that, the songs and the band are a completely different thing, so for me to really comment on the band, I might as well be commenting on the new Slipknot record.

It’s that far removed from me. We [Guns] made our last record in ’92 or ’93 or something — that was 16 years ago. That was a lifetime ago for me. I was still using and stuff back then. So, that’s how long ago it was for me. It’s great [Chinese Democracy]. There are songs on it that I like and there are songs on it that I don’t like, just like any other record.

Check out the full interview on:

http://www.askmen.com/celebs/interview_300/356_duff-mckagan-interview.html

Guns N’ Roses Announce Tour

As expected Guns N’ Roses announced a Canadian tour on Monday. Could this be a warm up to world tour? We will have to wait and see but for now here is the PR info on the confirmed tour:

Guns N’ Roses will bring their Chinese Democracy World Tour to Canada in January 2010. The Winnipeg, Manitoba concert at the MTS Centre on January 13th is the first of thirteen Canadian concerts on the GN’R world tour, which begins in Asia on December 11th, with tour updates and announcements planned throughout 2010.

Guns N’ Roses – Axl Rose, Frank Ferrer, Tommy Stinson, Richard Fortus, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Dizzy Reed, and Chris Pitman – welcomed guitarist Dj Ashba into the band earlier this year and are scheduled to begin rehearsals in Los Angeles shortly.

The upcoming worldwide tour promotes the band’s latest album, Chinese Democracy, which debuted at #1 on the charts in thirteen countries including Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, as well as the European Top 100 Albums survey.

Chinese Democracy was released on Black Frog/Geffen Records in November 2008 and reached three times Platinum in Canada. In the U.S., the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Feb. 3, 2009.

Guns N’ Roses last toured the world in 2006 – 2007, performing 60 concerts in 26 countries playing to more than a million fans.

Canadian Chinese Democracy World Tour concert dates are:
January
13 – Winnipeg, MB – MTS Centre
16 – Calgary, AB – Pengrowth Saddledome
17 – Edmonton, AB – Rexall Place
19 – Saskatoon, SK – Credit Union Centre
20 – Regina, SK – Brandt Centre
24 – Hamilton, ON – Copps Coliseum
25 – London, ON – John Labatt Centre
27 – Montreal, PQ – Bell Centre
28 – Toronto, ON – Air Canada Centre
31 – Ottawa, ON – Scotiabank Place
February
1 – Quebec City, PQ – Colisee Pepsi
3 – Moncton, NB – Moncton Coliseum
4 – Halifax, NS – Metro Centre