Axl Rose has claimed that his former bandmate and guitarist Slash tried to damage his health by forcing him to tour against his will.

Rose has often said that part of Guns N' Roses' demise was due to them having to undergo tour commitments against his will for their 'Use Your Illusion' jaunt in 1991 and, in an interview with Adelaide Now, the controversial frontman has claimed that both Slash and the band's old manager Alan Niven had forced him to play the dates for their own motives.

What was wrong with him at the time?

^^I'm guessing the same thing that's wrong with him at the moment.

yanowha said:

^^I'm guessing the same thing that's wrong with him at the moment.

He makes it sound like somethin specific was happening. Mental health wise or otherwise. He never states what it was. I do remember an interview back then where he mentioned being in therapy and discovering some repressed memories and some physical ailments regarding being molested.

He just seemed like such a bundle of nerves at the time I'm not surprised he didn't feel like going on the road. That's what seems to have driven Cobain over the edge - everyone insisting he stay on the road when he didn't think he could take it.

Touring is hard. People tend to say "what spoiled babies they only have to work 2 hours a day how can you complain? Just don't take drugs all day long and you'll be fine."

But if you've never been away from home for like three months at a time, away from your friends and family, in a controlled environment with the same people around you day in and day out with almost no choice about what you might want to do during the day, it's hard to make judgements about somebody else. It's a trippy life, and some people can be comfortable with it and not drive themselves nuts. But most people find it hard.

For that matter if you've never had a drug problem it's real easy to say "well they should stop doing dope when they're on the road." If you're inclined to do dope, that's when you REALLY want to be on dope, when you're that tired and miserable and lonely.

Whether it's because of drugs or trauma or health problems, it's gotta be awful being in charge of an empire and feeling physically unable to do the work needed to keep the empire afloat. You're going to let everyone down and kill off the best thing you ever did. Everyone's yelling "Get to Work" and you just want to go to bed. That's kind of what I think happened to Michael Jackson, trying to clean up and get to work, then relapsing and going over the edge. Ian Curtis killed himself rather than go on tour, seemingly couldn't bring himself to bow out or go through with it.

Depression and drug addiction are both a bitch.

That said, it sounds awful paranoid to think that Slash wanted to "get the better of" Axl. He probably just wanted to get on the road. Do some gigs. Party hardy.

[Edited 3/9/13 13:03pm]

CRY CRY CRY

He said this shit years ago, brought it up in the interview with That Metal Show and now again?

Right Axl didn't want to start a fight with the band members when in the late 80's he was threatning to break up the band if they didn't sign the rights to the GNR name to him

Or what about him throwing shade at Slash when they played The Rolling Stones tribute? throwing shade at Slash and his drug use like he was not doing drugs either

Why is this even news? this is the same ole banter Asshole Rose been crying for years.

I went to those shows in the early 90s. He was a BITCH with zero regard for his fans. Showing up 2 hours late and throwing tantrums if his mic was perfect and all the other bullshit. Axl is responsible for fucking up a great Rock and Roll band.

Then there's what he did when Hetfeild caught on fire, he is not a man or a frontman, he's a BITCH!

Slave2daGroove said:

I went to those shows in the early 90s. He was a BITCH with zero regard for his fans. Showing up 2 hours late and throwing tantrums if his mic was perfect and all the other bullshit. Axl is responsible for fucking up a great Rock and Roll band.

Then there's what he did when Hetfeild caught on fire, he is not a man or a frontman, he's a BITCH!

bobzilla77 said:

That said, it sounds awful paranoid to think that Slash wanted to "get the better of" Axl. He probably just wanted to get on the road. Do some gigs. Party hardy.

But Slash has his own health issues to worry about, right? Can't think of what talk show he was on, but he said that drugs almost destroyed his heart.

I genuinely think Axl is very misunderstood.

You watch him in any of his recent TV interviews and he comes across very intelligent, articulate, easy going and quite funny. Granted, he's displayed some rather questionnable behaviour in the past, but his tendency for self-sabotage points more towards a genuine mental or behavioural condition as opposed to just being an asshole.

It's very easy to just look at the things he does and think "he's a batshit egomaniac", but I genuinely believe there's more to it than that. I also think Slash has deliberately swayed and manipulated public opinion for many, many years. For a long time Axl never spoke an ill word about Slash, despite many years of subtle digs and public put-downs on Slash's part.

I never understood why Slash gets a free pass and Axl is solely blamed for the demise of the original band. It is widely known that back in the mid-nineties Slash threw his toys out of the pram when the band refused to record the sub-par material that ended up on his Snakepit album. Axl even agreed to compramise and work on the material with Slash, but Slash was indignant that the songs remain exactly as he had written them, with no contribution from the rest of the band. This story was first told by Axl and later verified in Duff's recent memoirs (and Duff is even a friend of Slash's).

Now Slash is a great lead guitarist and has written some wonderful licks, but the majority of the songwriting from the original lineup comes from Izzy and Axl. Sounds to me like Slash had as much of an ego, if not more so than Axl, but he puts on a butter-wouldn't-melt act to the public and conveniently uses Axl's eccentricities and reclusive nature to his advantage to gain public sympathy.

I've heard Howard Stern interview Slash about this many times. Slash's version of this claim of trying to make Axl tour against his will seems to mean that he actually expected Axl to show up to the dates that were booked and that Axl had agreed to, and go onstage at a decent time instead of laying down for a 3 hour nap at the designated time the show was about to begin.

bobzilla77 said:

But if you've never been away from home for like three months at a time, away from your friends and family, in a controlled environment with the same people around you day in and day out with almost no choice about what you might want to do during the day, it's hard to make judgements about somebody else. It's a trippy life, and some people can be comfortable with it and not drive themselves nuts. But most people find it hard.

[Edited 3/9/13 13:03pm]

I've done that. Many, many times. And while it may take a toll on relationships and the daily routine, I lived through it. Granted, I was working in Hawaii in my circumstances and not setting up shop in a shit hole like Cleveland or Indianapolis or what have you every 3 days, but still....

Again? Well, cry me a river.

What can one say, life can sometimes be hard? Every profession has its trial and tribulations but you find a way to get through it and press on. Most people aren't fortunate enough to be able to take a hiatus... either work or you starve. If someone purchases a ticket and the concert starts at 7:00pm, than dammit the show would start at 7:00pm; its called being a professional. Habitual tardiness is a sign of arrogance by the way. I went to see Guns and Roses in the 90's and they were 2 hours late starting their show... I left after an hour of waiting for them to come on stage.

As far as Rose, I get the impression this is a guy however you tried to appease him, he'd find something to bitch about. Somethings run their course and for various reasons relationship and bands end. Rose needs to keep it moving and let it go. Rose should consider writing his memoirs, it could be cathartic because the only one who seems to be stressing is him.

http://governorsballmusicfestival.com/

I wonder if Kanye will get to chat with Axl at all backstage?