Post by Gilby Admirer on Sept 15, 2002 1:52:44 GMT -5
Nonetheless, he has done. Along with the Loaded record and the short tour that will accompany it, he's been jamming with Slash and Matt Sorum for most of the year. It has slowly become a priority for all of them. They've gone so far as to retain Pete Angelus as their manager. Angelus, a man who embodies the epithet 'a character', has managed David Lee Roth and the Black Crowes.
"We've written a bunch of songs," McKagan explains. "That's why I have an apartment down here [in LA]. We've auditioned a couple of singers, names you'd know [one was Joshua Todd of Buck Cherry]. They didn't quite work out. We know that whoever comes in is going to have to be the master of what he does. He's going to have to be able to ride out the comparisons, he'll have to make it his own. We don't know him yet, but we will. We're going to spend the summer finding someone. I'm coming over to play the Loaded record in Europe in the first two weeks in september. Slash's wife is having a baby then, so it's a good time to do that. Then we'll get back to what we're doing."
What does yours and Slash's thing sound like?
"I don't know what anybody would expect from me anymore. It's hard and fast. We know that we can't de-tune and do that stuff. We have to be who we are, and what we were in GN'R. It doesn't sound like GN'R, but we're not going to pretend that we werent there."
In imparting this information, McKagan remains so relaxed as to be almost horizontal. He doesn't flinch at all, even when the inevitable question arrives: what about this GN'R-reunion, then? After all, you're two-thirds of the way there.
"Slash is having a baby. It's changed him so much already. I have two daughters, a beautiful wife, and a house. So any kind of reunion would have to be a real relaxed, family-type affair, like it was in the beginning. I talk to Izzy all the time, see him around. So does Slash. We're friends. It's not worth screwing that up. You know, Izzy had to leave last time to save his life. He got clean of heroin, and he had to get out..."
So the story that some big-name manager or other has got the five of you in therapy to get you back together...
"Hey, I heard that!" He allows himself a long chuckle. "If it's happened, nobody told Slash. I asked Izzy, and nobody had told him. I think it's just some big manager saying: 'I can get them back together. I'll get them in therapy and go from there.' There have been a couple of offers tabled for the reunion tour. We're not talking about it right now. I'm not saying in two years time or three years time I won't be talking to you about the reunion tour, but not right now."
Could you stand it?
"We went through so much," he concludes. "I mean, not like war or anything, but a lot. There are things that I can only talk to them about. Things that not even my wife, who I sleep with every night, knows, because she wouldn't understand that stuff. It was pretty heavy stuff. The Loaded album deals with that. It's a little snapshot of a guy's life. A guy who's talking about life after seeing some pretty heavy stuff. I mean, in my 20s they were pretty fucking intense."
"We've written a bunch of songs," McKagan explains. "That's why I have an apartment down here [in LA]. We've auditioned a couple of singers, names you'd know [one was Joshua Todd of Buck Cherry]. They didn't quite work out. We know that whoever comes in is going to have to be the master of what he does. He's going to have to be able to ride out the comparisons, he'll have to make it his own. We don't know him yet, but we will. We're going to spend the summer finding someone. I'm coming over to play the Loaded record in Europe in the first two weeks in september. Slash's wife is having a baby then, so it's a good time to do that. Then we'll get back to what we're doing."
What does yours and Slash's thing sound like?
"I don't know what anybody would expect from me anymore. It's hard and fast. We know that we can't de-tune and do that stuff. We have to be who we are, and what we were in GN'R. It doesn't sound like GN'R, but we're not going to pretend that we werent there."
In imparting this information, McKagan remains so relaxed as to be almost horizontal. He doesn't flinch at all, even when the inevitable question arrives: what about this GN'R-reunion, then? After all, you're two-thirds of the way there.
"Slash is having a baby. It's changed him so much already. I have two daughters, a beautiful wife, and a house. So any kind of reunion would have to be a real relaxed, family-type affair, like it was in the beginning. I talk to Izzy all the time, see him around. So does Slash. We're friends. It's not worth screwing that up. You know, Izzy had to leave last time to save his life. He got clean of heroin, and he had to get out..."
So the story that some big-name manager or other has got the five of you in therapy to get you back together...
"Hey, I heard that!" He allows himself a long chuckle. "If it's happened, nobody told Slash. I asked Izzy, and nobody had told him. I think it's just some big manager saying: 'I can get them back together. I'll get them in therapy and go from there.' There have been a couple of offers tabled for the reunion tour. We're not talking about it right now. I'm not saying in two years time or three years time I won't be talking to you about the reunion tour, but not right now."
Could you stand it?
"We went through so much," he concludes. "I mean, not like war or anything, but a lot. There are things that I can only talk to them about. Things that not even my wife, who I sleep with every night, knows, because she wouldn't understand that stuff. It was pretty heavy stuff. The Loaded album deals with that. It's a little snapshot of a guy's life. A guy who's talking about life after seeing some pretty heavy stuff. I mean, in my 20s they were pretty fucking intense."
