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

  VICKY HAMILTON The Troubadour gig was like a sea of A&R people. It was really funny because most of them were out in front of the Troubadour on the pavement, not inside while the band was still playing, because they said it was so loud. They could really not even hear if the band was good or not. During the show, I remember whipping out the demo and giving it to Tom Zutaut. It was a cassette tape. Tom said, "If they're as good as I think they are, I want to sign them." I gave him the tape and said, "trust me they are, and better." And the next day he was in pursuit of the band. But there were like 13 labels at that show.

  RON SCHNEIDER When all these labels were starting to come around, it was weird because there were all these smooth talking record people coming backstage saying, "Oh, you guys were great, we loved you." But we knew they weren't one of us. Every label was in courtship with the band and took them out to eat. That was brilliant when you consider all the times the band was starving to death and eating onions in fields and literally scrounging whatever we could to eat. When these industry guys wanted to meet with them, they'd set up the guidelines saying, "You wanna meet with us, you're gonna meet us at El Compadre and you're gonna buy us dinner." And they'd call me, "Come on Ronnie, we're goin' to eat man!" I'd just be like, "yeah!"

  SLASH We were wined and dined from that moment on by every record company in town. The tables completely turned in a way that the people we used to turn off and who wouldn't let us in anywhere were now trying to get into our gigs. We used it to our advantage, especially with all of these industry people who we didn't really give a shit about. The band was very opportunistic.

  STEVEN ADLER I loved being wined and dined. We were told that we're going to be the biggest thing and they were going to give us this and that. But, nobody was honest. Most of the record people wanted to turn us into something different than we really were. They wanted to change our image and our songs. We knew that wasn't going to happen.

  TOM ZUTAUT That next day I went straight to David Geffen and told him that I'd seen the future of rock n' roll and was going to sign the biggest band on his label, probably the biggest band since the Rolling Stones or Zeppelin, and even The Who. And he looked at me like I was crazy, but fortunately he asked, "You believe in that much?" And I said, "yeah."

  DUFF We knew right away that Geffen was a company we wanted to work with because it was small. We felt they got the band, but that didn't stop us from meeting with pretty much every other record company. The great thing about that was getting free dinners and free drinks. We milked that as long as we could. I think they got wise to us. It was pretty cool to be sought after by major league labels.

  RON SCHNEIDER Tom Zutaut had eventually started to come around. They were talking about signing with Geffen, but Tom was hanging out with us at the stripper's houses, drinking and passing the bottle of Jim Beam around with us. It was almost like an initiation. We thought, "this guy's one of us." I think that was one of the things that helped solidify the deal with Geffen. Tom Zutaut -- he signed Motley Crue, he signed Dokken, so in my book this guy was cool.

  SLASH Nobody wanted to work with us in the early days because we were as notorious as people thought we were. And we made no qualms about it and so we scared a lot of people off upon the first meeting. And there were a lot of people we didn't like who actually wanted to work with us, but we brushed them off pretty quickly. It was a matter of chemistry. That was the most important thing. We had a lot of people that wanted to produce Guns N' Roses who came in with their own ideas and their own agenda. That was an abrupt end to that conversation. We liked Tom a lot, just as a person. We liked what he was about. We knew we were going to sign with Geffen, but we stretched it out for a long time.

  STEVEN ADLER Tom Zutaut and Teresa Ensenat encouraged us to be ourselves and that we didn't have to change anything. So we went with Geffen because they let us do what we wanted.

  TOM ZUTAUT Axl called me and we had a meeting scheduled. The whole band was on time, but Axl wasn't. I was entertaining the rest of the band, waiting for him to show up, because I didn't really want to get into any serious conversation until the whole band was there. Finally he turned up. I looked at them and said, "look, you guys are the best rock n' roll band I've seen in my fucking life, and that was the fucking loudest concert I've been too. Forget stadium, arena, club -- it doesn't matter." They laughed about it being so loud and said, "yeah, we saw people putting cigarette butts in their ears and we saw a bunch of people leave after the first couple of songs." And I said, "yeah, I stuck through at least four songs, even though I only needed to see the first song," which was "Nightrain." It was a pretty ferocious opening and I saw how great the rest of the band was and Axl was every bit as good as I had imagined from seeing him backstage at the Roxy doing that one song with L.A. Guns.

  So they are sitting in my office and we had a great meeting. Axl looked at me and said, "Ok, here's the deal, we'll sign with you but we need $75,000 in cash by Friday," and this on a Tuesday or Wednesday. I was working under the big Warner Brothers corporate umbrella and there really wasn't any way to get cash that quickly. These corporations don't move that fast. So I went to David Geffen and I said, "look, whatever you have to do, I need $75,000 in cash by Friday at 6:00pm and we'll have the band signed." Geffen said, "This is the band that you think is going to be the biggest rock n' roll band in the world?" and I said, "Absolutely. You gotta find the money."

  I called the head of business affairs at Warner and he said there was no way to get a deal memo done and that it wasn't going to happen. I called David Geffen back and I said, "look, I'm really serious. These Warner Brothers people are telling me its going to take at least two weeks to do some kind of a deal memo draft and I need $75,000 for these guys in two days." And David said, "what's the rush?" I said, "by the time they play their next show and meet with five other record companies, it's going to cost us ten times as much money and the more people they meet, the more their heads will get twisted into pretzels and they might not sign with us." And David said, "Ok I'll sort it out." So Warner Brothers assigned a guy just to get this deal done and they got it done in two days. They couldn't give me a briefcase full of cash, so they got a cashier's check. I called Axl just to make sure that he would take a certified cashier's check, which I explained can be taken to the Bank of America where it was drawn and cashed, money put into a briefcase right on the spot. He said, "yeah, that's fine as long as it's the same as cash and when I go to the bank it actually turns into money." And I said, "it will, for sure."

  Axl calls me back later that day and he says, "Tom, I'm really sorry, but we may have to sign to Chrysalis." I said, "What?" And he said, "We had this meeting at Chrysalis and there was this really cool British chick and she liked us, but her boss was an idiot." And I said, "well, why would you want to sign there?" And he said, "we thought this chick was really cool and it was really funny that her boss didn't know who Steven Tyler was. After the meeting we told her that her boss was an idiot, but if she walked naked from her office, down to Tower Records on Sunset, we'd sign with her." So here I am, all day Friday, with my shades open watching this office down the street to see if this woman walks by naked because that was going to cost me the band. And, of course, she never had the courage to do it, but can you imagine if she had done it; what it would have meant to her career. Her name was Susan Collins and her brother was the famous British record producer Peter Collins. I'm sure when she looks back on that she might wish that she had walked naked from her office to Tower even if she got arrested, because what she would have done for her career by having Guns N' Roses would've been extraordinary.

  VICKY HAMILTON We were at the apartment and we were supposed to meet everyone at Geffen at 6:00pm. Axl couldn't find his contact lenses. So he got very upset, and he says "I am not going down there until I find my contacts," and he went storming out of the house. So Slash and I were standing there thinking, "Ok, what do we now? We're supposed to be down there right now." So we started going through Axl's clothes a
nd we found the contact lenses inside a pair of pants that he'd had on a couple days prior. By then, we couldn't find Axl. Meanwhile, time is elapsing. we're supposed to be there and I think it was Steven that grabbed me and was said, "Oh my God, come look." And I went outside and looked and there was Axl sitting yogic on top of the Whisky A-Go-Go.

  TOM ZUTAUT It's Friday at 6:00pm and this attorney from Warner Brothers is there and he's got the certified check and once the band puts their signatures on this deal memo they get the check and they're signed. Now, it's like 8:00pm and he still hasn't shown up. The rest of the band were there and they're starting to get drunk, and we're waiting. The guy from Warner Brothers is like, "Dude, I got a life, this guys not even going to turn up." And I said, "no, he's always late but he'll get here. We've got to wait." So now I'm trying to keep the band entertained and they're getting more and more drunk as time's wearing on and this guy from Warner Brothers wants to get home for his weekend.

  VICKY HAMILTON So we got Axl to come down and then we went down to Geffen to sign the contracts. We were like two hours late and all the executives were just sitting there waiting.

  TOM ZUTAUT Finally, at 8:45pm, Axl rolls in, he says, "you got the money?" And I said, "yeah I got it." And he's like, "ok." The band signs the contract, done deal.

  DANNY BIRAL They negotiated a stellar deal. It was crazy. They got a big advance plus six albums, plus tour support. I remember when Geffen himself came into the office and wasn't really specific. He was like, "Hi. How are you? Looking forward to working with you." It was that kind of mush. I do remember when Tom Zutaut sort of stated the deal they wanted. Geffen frowned, he thought for a little bit and said something. To me, that was the pivotal point, when I knew that Geffen was going to go for it. I knew it even if the guys didn't know. He saw something and he was going to go for it one way or another. It was a negotiation, but Axl perceived it kind of like a war and in the end he was right. His inexperience and his "I want the world and I'm not taking no for an answer" approach to those negotiations worked. It's kind of amazing how that happened because he was playing without a real strong poker hand.

  SLASH We finally signed with Geffen, which was ironic for me because David Geffen was friends with my parents when I was a kid and he had no idea that I was the same little boy that was sitting in front of him in an office at Geffen Records where he was offering us $75,000 for a record deal. That was pretty funny, I figured that was definitely fate.

  VICKY HAMILTON I remember when they got their advance check from Geffen Records, Axl went to get a bank account and they wouldn't let him open a bank account under Axl Rose. So he took all his money in cash and kept it in a sock underneath the couch that he slept on in the front room of my apartment. One day, I was trying to straighten up -- my place was a complete disaster at all times, McDonalds cartons all over the place and French fries, and amps and just crap everywhere -- and I found that sock under the couch just full of money. Axl was like, "Are you trying to steal my money?" I said, "You should probably open up a bank account with this kind of money in a sock," but he wasn't going to open one until he could get a bank account under Axl Rose.

  RON SCHNEIDER When the band got signed and they got an advance, everybody got about $7,500 for the first installment. Axl had his share stuck in his boots. He was walking around with $7,500 in his boots!

  VICKY HAMILTON After that, they had the world by the balls. And they spent a lot of money on new tattoos.

  Act III

  Act III

  Chapter 9: Paradise City

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

  Time Off Meant Trouble (2:25).

  These doors were opening up to the band and we had to figure out what was through them.

  DUFF

  Now that GN'R bagged a $75,000 advance and a six record contract with Geffen, it was time to record an album. Tom Zutaut had the task of corralling the band at a time when they had Hollywood at their feet and money in their boots. Penning them in would be no easy task.

  Tom had two objectives: record an album and make Guns N' Roses the next greatest rock band of the era. Ambitious as that may have seemed, Tom knew the music would catch larger audiences and he was confident the band could channel their attitude and presence into arena-sized concerts. They were already a great act, even on the Sunset Strip.

  He decided to implement a simple strategy to accomplish both: limit the band's exposure locally and rent them an all-expenses-paid pad where they could write a few new songs to round out the album. Tom directed the band to only play one or two gigs a month, which, according to his theory, would make them more desirable when they did play. He got them out of their transient lifestyle and into a clean, air-conditioned apartment so that they could write in peace.

  What Tom didn't consider was the inherent nature of Guns N' Roses. They were animals on the hunt, not creatures of comfort and he took away the only two things that kept the band sane: performing on stage and hard living. Tom's strategy was disastrous.

  With the keys to the city and cash to burn, the $75,000 advance that was meant to sustain them through the recording of an album was gone within weeks. They developed an insatiable appetite for drugs, tattoos and new clothing until their funds dried out and their creative discipline diminished. No new songs had been written.

  Geffen was concerned. Where was their money? Where was their record? Tom Zutaut created another plan while the band got back on stage, sometimes billed as Guns N' Roses and other times under the alias "Fargin Bastydges." They simply could not stop performing. Tom found more money and pushed them to compose new material. The band stalled -- they didn't like being told what to do -- and the growing tension almost derailed the deal. Tom knew he couldn't baby sit the band forever and something had to change.

  TOM ZUTAUT I said, "Ok, it's time to stop playing." I felt like they needed to let the mystery build. There was this big buzz on the band and I've always subscribed to the theory that less is more. If you think back to Led Zeppelin, when I was a teenager, they never did interviews. If Jimmy Page or Robert Plant did an interview, I was at the newsstand waiting for it to come out because it meant something. And it was going to tell me something important. The one quality I had seen with Motley Crue was that they were readily available, twenty-four seven and it eliminated the mystique. When you have a charismatic draw, it's better to have a little more mystique about you. To me, what's the point of thrashing out the same old songs a dozen or a hundred more times? On one hand, I felt that it was good to build up the mystique, but on the other it was, "guys, we need to write new songs and get enough material to make a debut album that just blows everybody away. Let's kill two birds with one stone here. People are going to get hungrier for you than if you hit the Troubadour once a month instead of once a week. If you're not there all the time, then people are going to turn up and create pandemonium when you do play." So it was a combination of building mystique and getting them to focus on writing new material. The idea was that when they did play, each performance was more special and they can debut new material before a crowd. That was my reasoning at the time.

  SLASH After we were signed, our label didn't want us playing locally. They said, "We want you to lay low, we're going to get you a manager." Time off meant trouble. I had $7,500 and that was exciting. Unfortunately, that was eaten up by a drug habit that I had at the time. That's what we did -- not everyone -- but a couple of us just spent the rest of that time in and out of trouble.

  DANNY BIRAL My addiction became so severe that it became a point of issue when they got signed with Geffen. Their new manager essentially said that whatever they do, it would have to be without me because from his point of view, I was an extremely bad influence on them.

  DESI CRAFT The thing that sucked was when they got signed, Geffen Records warned Izzy that I wasn't of age and that it wouldn't be profitable for him to continue seeing me. They wa
rned against him that my mother could press charges. We worked really, really hard to get the band in this position, but it was his time, so I had to accept it and let it go.

  TOM ZUTAUT They were getting bored and restless and it seemed like they didn't have all the songs they needed to really go in and record. They just weren't quite ready and even though there was this ferocious live show that could pack out the clubs in L.A., they weren't quite ready for the big stage yet. I was trying to encourage them to rehearse and write songs and come up with twelve phenomenal songs to make a debut album that would set the world on fire. Of course, the band and I would have differing opinions about when that time was. Every time I would go to a rehearsal and they would play through their songs, I would say, "You know, you're still two-thirds songs short." They would rebel and make trouble. At one point, they tried to fire me as their A&R guy because I wouldn't let them record, but we patched it up.

  ROBERT JOHN I was hanging out with those guys during pre-production and they were getting pretty pissed off. Tom Zutaut had them in pre-production for a long time to tighten up the band before they went in to record "Appetite," and I know they were gettin' a little sick of that. In the end, it was probably the best thing.

  SLASH The record company was freaking out because it didn't look like anything was going to happen and, unbeknownst to us, we were looking at being dropped from the label if we didn't get something happening. I remember one or two meetings with Tom where he sat us all down and said, "look, man, you guys look like shit. I keep hearing stories about what you are doing out there, and you really need to get your shit together. We have a record to do." A couple of us were in really bad shape. We'd come walking in to a meeting at the office and you'd think they just pulled us out of the gutter on Hollywood Boulevard. It was hard living.