Reckless Road Guns 'n Roses and the Making of Appetite for Destruction Read online

  Reckless Road

  Table of Contents

  List of Videos

  Act I Introduction

  Foreword

  1. Chapter 1: Anything Goes

  2a. Chapter 2a: Laws of Attraction

  2b. Chapter 2b: Slash in Transition

  Act II 3. Chapter 3: Welcome to the Jungle

  4. Chapter 4: Reckless

  5. Chapter 5: Rocket Queen

  6. Chapter 6: You're Crazy

  7. Chapter 7: Songwriting

  8. Chapter 8: It's So Easy

  Act III 9. Chapter 9: Paradise City

  10a. Chapter 10a: Out Ta' Get Me

  10b. Chapter 10b: Origins of Sweet Child O' Mine

  11. Chapter 11: Appetite for Destruction

  12. Chapter 12: The Rest is History

  13. Chapter 13: Cast of Characters

  Videos List

  I Want to Share It with the World (1:29)

  The Sixth Guy in the Band (1:32)

  The Dream (1:26)

  Alright! Let's Do It! (2:54)

  Like Lightening Hit the Place (2:02)

  Hell Tour (3:10)

  Hollywood Hustlin' (1:31)

  The Art and the Music Came First (1:31)

  God Bless the Strippers (1:30)

  The Music Industry Needed a Kick in the Ass (2:53)

  A Song, Out of Nowhere (2:17)

  We Were Wined and Dined (2:22)

  Time Off Meant Trouble (2:25)

  They Didn't Know Who They Were Dealing With (3:06)

  We Rolled When They Were Ready to Roll (2:04)

  MTV Will Never Play This Band (4:55)

  A Work that Stands the Test of Time (1:40)

  Act I

  Act I

  Introduction

  "There is video content at this location that is not currently supported for your Kindle device. The caption for this content is below."

  I Want to Share It with the World (1:29).

  I actually said it out loud to Slash that I was starting a project.

  1981 is when I first realized that I wanted to document this project, or at least with Slash at that time. I said, "Wouldn't that be neat if we could start documenting this right now, and every time there's an event just capture it. I mean what does it cost to put a TDK tape into, what is it a dollar? And a roll of film, it's not that much." I never knew it would grow into something like this.

  I first met Slash in 1976 when we were in the fifth grade and we became good friends. At that time, I noticed that he had a great talent for sketching on school projects.

  Slash, third row, second from left. Marc Canter, first row on end.

  By 1978 we were riding bicycle motocross. The tricks that he performed were ahead of the time. Slash was a star. Camera flashes would go off when he took his jumps. He approached bicycle motocross with the same style and flash as he did everything else, including the guitar, which he took up in 1980.

  By 1981, he was flying again, but with guitar, and I would always push him to learn tough solos. He understood how to get the right tone.

  In trying to contribute to his success, I always helped out in any way I could. I would help him buy guitar strings, I'd help him with the effects that he might be interested in. He worked a lot, like twelve-hour days at a clock company and he got by on very little wages, but he did buy his own guitars. The twelve-hour days at a clock company supported his guitar habit.

  Slash wanted to play the bass, but when his teacher, Robert Wolin, pointed out that the bass had four strings, whereas the guitar had an alluring six, Slash characteristically went for the more challenging instrument. A quick study, he didn't need many lessons to master the basics and achieve his own expressive style. He had a lot of respect and admiration for Wolin's playing and credits him with inspiring his own ambitious approach to the instrument.

  When Slash hooked up with Axl, because of the chemistry they had, I knew that if they could stay together they would go places. In June of 1985, when Guns N' Roses were together with the Appetite for Destruction line up, songs started to pile up quickly. They were the perfect team of songwriters and they were all living together at that time. Slash knew what to do with whatever Izzy and Duff came up with and Axl knew what to do with whatever Slash came up with. At that point, I helped the band with some money for flyers, advertising, food and other odds and ends. Later that year, as the band became a better draw in the Hollywood scene, better backing soon arrived.

  I took the photographs, audio and video taped the shows, and collected the memorabilia including ticket stubs, newspaper ads, press clippings, set lists, show fliers, and just about everything else from every performance that Guns N' Roses did from their very first gig until the recording of Appetite for Destruction.

  My goal here is to let everybody that likes this band -- or even if you don't like the band -- see the making of one of the greatest records ever made. It shows how the band came together and how their style emerged. I want to share that with the world; let you see what I was lucky enough to witness. I was there and witnessed the making of Guns N' Roses.

  It took me fifteen months and over three thousand hours to complete this book. It covers over fifty performances, thirty of them prior to their being signed by Geffen Records. Between Jack Lue and myself, we somehow managed to shoot just about every performance. Through this book you will see how it all came together. The goal was to use as many photos as I could, so the reader could feel the flow of the live shows. And when the reader is finished reading this book I want them to feel that they were there, right next to me. That's my goal.

  If you ask me, I guess I'm still documenting. Anytime something comes around with Guns N' Roses on the cover, I'm buying it no matter what. So, I guess I never stopped. Enjoy the show,

  Marc Canter, Los Angeles, CA

  Photo shoot for Appetite for Destruction, 1987.

  Marc Canter, second from left, with the band. Album credits: “Marc Canter - without you?”

  Act I

  Foreword

  "There is video content at this location that is not currently supported for your Kindle device. The caption for this content is below."

  The Sixth Guy in the Band (1:32).

  Marc and I became friends when I was stealing his mini-bike. I probably came up with some stupid excuse and managed to soften the blow a little bit and then we managed to get into a normal conversation. We started to hang out. We did fifth grade, sixth grade, then seventh grade and junior high school together and we were just really good friends -- all the way up until now.

  He's my best friend; one of the only good friends that is consistent. I can't nail it down in a word what makes Marc the person that he is -- he is just a character unto himself. He is a really good, loyal friend and we had a lot of common interests: I was into bikes and he was into bikes. A lot of the same stuff that I got into, he was already into.

  Marc was always good at taking pictures. He always kept a lot of pictures. As we got older, Marc turned into a big fan of the band Aerosmith, and he got into collecting their magazine interviews and photos and any kind of rarities he could find. So I guess at one point he started to put a scrapbook together of stuff that I was doing when I started putting bands together. He always had a camera around. Marc has been working on the peripheral forever and I just never really paid much attention to it because he just always kept shots and kept scrapbooks of everything. It's Marc's nature and it's great. I wish I were like that. I would have a clearer memory of my past.

  SLASH There isn't
a better person to actually release any material having to do with the coming together and history of Guns N' Roses and where it went and what was going on behind the scenes.

  DUFF McKAGAN I met Slash and Steven [Adler] at Canter's restaurant. It was the first time I had ever been to Canter's. I'm sure I met Marc that night or within a very short period of time. When Guns N' Roses formed, Marc became like a sixth guy in the band. He was always around and he had unlimited access to the band, especially in the early days. He was really the only guy who cared about the band outside of the guys in the band. I think he believed in us from the beginning and had a much broader view of what the band was about than we had from the early stages. He documented the whole thing, tirelessly. He was a guy, to all of us, who meant stability. He had a life in L.A.; a legitimate life, with a family and a business that had been around forever. Living the nomadic lifestyle, that was our life for a couple years, Marc would always come around and you'd get a little piece of stability from him.

  When the band did break and we got a deal and a record, Marc was a guy that was always there. He was there from the beginning. A lot of people jumped onto our bandwagon later on, and Marc, of course, wasn't one of those guys. He was a guy who would shoot straight with you and that meant a lot to us because later on we didn't have a lot of people, maybe no one, that would shoot straight with us. Marc saw through all the bullshit and he was there.

  STEVEN ADLER We had no money, but we had good friends like Marc. Nobody has been there long enough, cared for us, believed in us, or got pretty deep with us. The dude was always there. Look at this book he put together. It's beautiful. It's amazing. The tickets, the posters, the flyers; he was there and got it all. Marc was always supportive and really the only one who believed in us. If we were hungry, if we needed anything like stings or sticks, Marc would get them. The first Guns N' Roses banner we had, Marc put together and bought for us. I remember going to Canter's and getting knishes and gravy. He is just a great person and a great friend. He was the most responsible out of all of us and he cared. And his wife used to cut my hair. He was our stability. He was there for us. And he kept the pictures. No one could do this better than Marc. Nobody!

  Act I

  Chapter 1: Anything Goes

  "There is video content at this location that is not currently supported for your Kindle device. The caption for this content is below."

  The Dream (1:26).

  They were trying out bands like they were trying on clothes.

  -- VICKY HAMILTON

  Launching a successful rock group in the early eighties required three ingredients: a dream, some talent, and die-hard ambition. The origins of Guns N' Roses can be traced to a handful of friends with similar taste in music, clothing, girls and drugs, and a collective fantasy to be the next Aerosmith, Zeppelin or Stones. Bands made their initial mark by clearing a garage, jamming cover tunes and playing underage parties. The real dream, however, required talent and skill that matched ambition, and players not up to par had to go. It wasn't personal; it was business.

  For those who remained, a front-man and a few original songs were required to break out of high school keg parties and climb the Hollywood club food chain. Promiscuity ruled, as members of one band played sessions with others; everyone trying to find the right combination that could take over the Sunset Strip and land the coveted record deal. Band loyalty was achieved by growing a fan base or through the impenetrable bonds that formed while living subsistence lives together in L.A.

  All we wanted to do was play music, jam, have fun and be in a band. That's what we lived for.

  -- STEVEN ADLER

  SLASH The first thing I did as soon as I could put three chords together was start a band. At a really young age, I was going around trying to find people to form a group and I was probably a little more ambitious and focused then most of my peers. It was difficult, but eventually I started meeting people that were into playing music. I was in and out of different, thrown together groups -- I guess you could call them garage bands.

  CHRIS WEBER When we were in high school, bands were mainly formed by friends. There was always a drummer, because there were no lack of parents who were stupid enough to buy drum sets for their kids. The garage would end up being the rehearsal room for many budding young bands. Then there was the singer; the charismatic, cool kid. Mostly they couldn't sing for shit, but sometimes a great singer actually emerged. Then there was me, and what seemed like a million guitar players, all practicing their Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen or Jimi Hendrix solos. Two or three guitar players would hook up and the least talented one would be urged by the others to play bass. The band was formed, except for the name. Bands broke up before playing one gig because no one could agree on the name.

  ADAM GREENBERG I was initially approached at Fairfax High School in the courtyard by two guys. I'll never forget it. They were both wearing long black, trench coats and they both had hair in their eyes and one of the guys was Slash. They said, "We understand you are a drummer, do you want to get together and play?" I said, "Sure." There were so many many musicians at that school and it was just amazing. It was almost like going to rock n' roll school. And across the street from Fairfax High was a Chinese restaurant called Helen's, where you could get fried rice and a coke for two bucks. And a lot of musicians would hang out on that corner and decide whose house we were going to go play at. At any given time, we'd get in a car, a truck or a bus and we would go to someone's house and jam there because their parents were at work. I got to play with all different types of people and styles: jazz, rock and punk. There were so many drummers, bass players and guitar players. It was incredible.

  MARC CANTER You might have your guitar at school, playing it at lunch on the schoolyard. Or you hang out with a certain crowd that likes the same music you like, or dresses the same way you do and you find out who plays what. Maybe it's a t-shirt someone is wearing. And you get together and start to jam in what you would call garage bands. You don't book a rehearsal, you just find a garage and you play. There is no singer; you just jam cover songs. The band picks a few songs they are into and they jam on it. It was a matter of searching and finding the right people that were not only into the same things, but that were serious about it.

  RON SCHNEIDER I got hooked up with Slash at Fairfax High School around 1981. Musically, we clicked right away. We played cover songs -- Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, and some blues -- as we didn't have any originals yet. At fifteen or sixteen years old, we were just getting into playing music, just learning our craft, but we clicked. The first incarnation of our band was called Tidus Sloan. I remember jamming on "Heaven and Hell" for a half an hour and Slash was all over the place. It was really, really cool. We rehearsed three or four times a week in this garage and had no singer. We played a handful of parties in people's living rooms, backyard keg parties and built a little following. We played at our high school, at lunchtime on the quad. It was a big stage and kids would come. It was all about being in a band, having fun, partying, trying to be cool, fit in and do our thing.

  MARC CANTER The only way to start playing the clubs and stop playing parties was to get a professional singer and somebody that had some stage presence. You needed people who were just going to do it; who would quit their day job and just play music. Once you've made the decision, you just stayed on track and sought out the people around that were in the same frame of mind. Slash made that decision early on. He knew he was going to be a musician one way or another. He choose guitar playing as a career. He was the only one that was one hundred percent diving in, not knowing what would happen. He practiced twelve hours a day, living, eating breathing guitar music.

  RON SCHNEIDER In putting a band together, if you've got a visionary, a songwriter, that's great. You're always going to have that one person who's going to be the driving force. Look at Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page was the driving force of Led Zeppelin. He produced everything, he wrote all the music and he knew what he wanted. If you have two vis
ionaries and you've got input coming from two different angles, you're going to have a clash of the Titans. You're going to get a lot of head-butting because one guy wants to be the leader more than the other guy. You're always going to have to deal with one weak link, or that something that isn't working right. It was discouraging to have to get auditions going to find another drummer or guitar player, especially when you go through thirty guys and they all suck. But then, out of nowhere, somebody walks in and it's like, "Wow, this totally melds together."

  MARC CANTER Los Angeles in the mid '80s seemed to be a place where anybody across the country could just drop themselves off on a Greyhound bus and go through the channels to see what they could become. There was a destiny factor to it. You are in the middle of the Sunset Strip and between the Troubadour, the Roxy and the Rainbow, you meet people who are there to get a band together and play, especially at the Rainbow. The Rainbow was the biggest turning point for all the bands. That's where they ate, hung out and where most of the connections were made. There was a lot of band hopping going on at the Rainbow. It was like a meat market for musicians.

  DUFF There was nothing in Seattle. There was a huge recession, no jobs, no money and newspapers blowing down the street in downtown. I was too young to get really bummed out about any of that. It was just a time to go. It was a perfect time for guys our age to move. We were like nineteen years old and didn't really care if we had a pillow, or anything to eat. It was all about the music and trying to make something happen.