The best parts of being in a band is the volatility that flares up every now and again. The tension within any band usually results in some of the greatest songs, but even though Guns N’ Roses had that magic for a while, it was like playing with fire, and Slash could see how someone could get burned a little bit too much.
Looking at the final years of the band’s glory days, it didn’t feel like anyone was happy anymore. It was impossible to get through to what Axl Rose wanted on every single show date, and in the moments where he refused to show up at all, it was getting more tiresome for the band to drink the night away before entertaining the idea of going up onstage while their singer was doing God knows what behind the scenes.
Although Slash was more than happy to play his guitar and bow his head every time he turned up for a show, it wasn’t only about being unable to make some of the gigs. The streetgang mentality had really gone out of it by then, and while there were moments of levity every so often, that rough-and-tumble spirit that they all had in their early days had been replaced with handlers and everyone campaigning for Team Axl rather than what the band wanted.
Even when making Use Your Illusion, that side of the band came out when they were forced to fire Steven Adler. It was clear that the drummer was already starting to falter a little bit, but when you remove one piece of the puzzle, it’s never going to be perfect again when bringing in a hired gun, even if Matt Sorum played great and ingrained himself as a fully-fledged member of the group during that tour.
But when Izzy Stradlin called it a day, that’s when most people knew they were in trouble. Besides being a solid rhythm guitar player, Stradlin had been responsible for a handful of Guns N’ Roses classics, and even if he faded into the background, he was just as important as every other member of the group.
And given how he eventually strayed away from the spotlight, Slash was convinced that Stradlin never fully recovered from Rose’s antics, saying, “lzzy’s always been the guy who’s sort of there and sort of not there. Duff and I have seen Izzy periodically; I’ve played on his records a couple of times, and Duff has done the same thing. [But] He’s so fucking shattered from his experience [with Axl] that he refuses to ever do anything involving a singer again!”
Which is a shame, considering the kind of music he could have written had he joined Velvet Revolver. Dave Kushner is a worthy substitute and fits right in with the other members of the band, but with Stradlin’s Rolling Stones-style touch to everything, it could have a musical fireworks show half the time and might have been able to outdo their biggest singles like ‘Slither’.
The real problem, though, is the fact that Stradlin lost his friends rather than losing his gig. He knew to treat every member of the group like they were part of one musical collective, so when the rest of them started to become too big and Rose disappeared after gigs, it was no surprise for him to think that the initial magic they all shared had officially dried up.
