Welcome to My Jungle (16 page)

But about sixty minutes into Metallica’s set, something went horribly wrong.

Apparently the band members of Metallica were warned about some new pyrotechnic cues before they took the stage that night. Obviously there was some miscommunication, because during the song “Fade to Black,” James was caught in the middle of a stream of flames that left his left arm badly burned. Metallica had to stop their show.

Because Metallica’s set had ended about sixty to ninety minutes early, the crowd had to wait longer than normal for Guns N’ Roses to take the stage.

About two hours later Guns N’ Roses took the stage, and the crowd went nuts. It was a great beginning of the set.

But something was just “off” that night. Obviously everyone was concerned about James and his injury, but also Axl had been experiencing throat issues for a few weeks before this show.

In my opinion, Axl trashed his voice every night because he put everything into his shows. He screamed and hit some pretty high notes on a consistent basis. No matter how much he warmed up, his songs were very difficult to sing live a few nights a week. Now, as a professional speaker, especially during the three-to five-day events when I speak for ten to twelve hours a day, I expect to lose my voice for a few days. So I can sympathize with Axl. It takes a toll after a while.

That night in Montreal, I think Axl hit the wall. About fifty-five minutes into the set, Axl just walked off the stage. Unfortunately it happened the same night that something happened to James, but I was there, and I truly feel it was just a coincidence. One incident had nothing to do with the other.

Well, the crowd got pissed because they felt like they didn’t get an entire show, and about one or two thousand fans took their aggressions out on the stadium seats and the stores, and they smashed windows and set fires.

That night is now known as the Montreal Riot.

There was the previous St. Louis Riot, which I was not there for, but every music fan pretty much knows what happened there.

So this was now riot number two.

While we were backstage we were informed that a riot was starting in the concourse, and that we should leave the stadium immediately.

We did.

Within hours it was all over every news program. MTV had updates every hour on the hour. GNR was getting some really bad press. And to make matters worse, the next two weeks of the tour were canceled while we waited for James’s wounds to heal.

So the band went back to Los Angeles for a much-needed rest. Everyone except Axl, Earl, Robert, and me. Axl decided he wanted to fly to New York to visit his girlfriend, Victoria Secret model Stephanie Seymour. I was really happy because I would get to pay my family an unexpected visit.

Little did I know, this little jaunt to New York would literally change my life.

I booked the four of us in a hotel in New York City, and Axl was happy just hanging in the hotel with Stephanie, and since Earl was there, I was free to go visit friends and hang with family.

The first night, Robert and I went to the Hard Rock Café, and I met some other friends there. The next night, Air Supply happened to be playing the Westbury Music Fair in Long Island—the exact place where Air Supply took me away from my job nine years prior. I decided to go to the concert. I brought some family and friends and we had an awesome time.

After the show I headed backstage to say hi to my great friends Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell of Air Supply. There I saw another very dear friend of mine, Beth Thompson. We started talking and I asked her if she ever saw her friend Natasha anymore. A year before, on August 14, 1991, my sister, Pamela, who was on the “modeling circuit” with Beth and Natasha, had set me up on a blind date with Natasha.

Pamela had told Natasha, “You have to meet my brother.” Natasha’s “dork alert radar” must have gone up immediately. She probably thought,
Someone’s brother? Yuck
. Natasha lived in Los Angeles, but she frequently flew to New York to do shows, and she worked with Beth and Pamela consistently. They had all become very good friends. So because they were close, Natasha had agreed to go to lunch with me.

Our date was really awesome. Natasha was beautiful and really funny. But back then I was still kind of seeing someone, and she had told me about a guy living in a Dumpster outside her apartment, and that he was stalking her. I really didn’t want to “get involved.” And although I had really liked her, I was still going to be on tour for at least another eight months, so I thought it best to just become friends. Natasha had felt the same way.

So it was a year later at the Air Supply concert, and I asked Beth about Natasha, and she said, “That’s so weird, she’s staying with me in my apartment.”

I got Natasha’s new phone number.

Axl, Earl, Robert, and I stayed in New York one more day and then we headed back to Los Angeles.

When we stayed in Los Angeles for a while, Axl stayed at his home in Malibu and the band put me up at a hotel in Los Angeles. This particular time I was staying at Le Parc Suite Hotel in Hollywood, an awesome boutique hotel that housed numerous rock stars over the years.

I got settled in, and while lying out in the sun at the rooftop pool I decided to call Natasha and see what she was doing. For some reason I was nervous to make the call, but I did. She wasn’t home, so I left a message.

That night she called me back. I told her that I was unexpectedly in town and asked her if she wanted to go to dinner. She agreed.

The next night, August 14, 1992, exactly one year after our blind date, we went on our second date at Tommy Tang’s Restaurant on Melrose Boulevard.

We sat outside on the back patio and had a very romantic dinner. To lighten the mood, I talked about a guy I had met in Las Vegas (see the UFO Nick story later in this book), and I told her how he was able to move alien spaceships by pointing to them in space and moving his finger. Natasha thought I was giving her the “dumb blonde” test, and she almost climbed out of the bathroom window to get away from me.

Almost.

But she didn’t leave, because besides the awful UFO Nick part of the dinner, we fell in love that night.

Six weeks later we got engaged, and less than a year later, Natasha became my wife, and still is to this day, and will be forever. We are truly soul mates.

But here’s the really cool and amazing part of this entire adventure. I wasn’t supposed to be in New York that night, and I wasn’t supposed to go to the Air Supply concert and see Beth. I was supposed to be on tour with Guns N’ Roses traveling through Canada, doing more shows with GNR and Metallica.

Natasha was modeling in New York. But she was booked to fly from New York to Chicago to model another line of bathing suits for another manufacturer. But unlike every other time in the past, Natasha decided to cancel going to Chicago, and decided to fly home to Los Angeles instead.

She had no reason for it, except that she felt compelled to come home.

Natasha has always had amazing instincts. There was an incident where she sat in a restaurant at a table next to a full-length window, and after about five minutes decided to move her seat because she “felt something.” Two minutes later a car smashed through the window and destroyed the table she was just sitting at moments earlier. So when her instinct told her not to fly to Chicago, she canceled her gig, and flew home.

Neither of us was supposed to be in Los Angeles on August 14, 1992. But we were, and we had dinner. And we fell in love.

Oh, and one more thing. The night I was at the Hard Rock Café in New York City, I was at the downstairs bar. That same night, that same time, Natasha was also at the same Hard Rock Café, sitting at a table upstairs.

So, we owe everything to James Hetfield’s unfortunate incident and Axl Rose’s desire to go to New York that night.

Sometimes, things are just meant to be.

FANS

5

WHERE DO I APPLY?

One of the most interesting questions I got asked on the road was, “How do I get a job like yours?”

I didn’t really get to “hang” with fans on the road because all of my time was spent with Axl, so if I heard the question it was usually yelled to me from a sea of fans as Axl and I were getting into a limo or going into a restaurant.

Most of the time I would just ignore the question because we were always in a hurry.

But one night, I think it was in Vancouver, Canada, I was walking out of a hotel by myself, and this guy, maybe twenty-eight years old, came up to me and said, “Hey, dude, I want to do what you do. Can you get me an application?”

I started laughing. “An application? Are you serious?”

The guy said, “Yeah, I could do what you do.”

He was right. He probably could. It wasn’t rocket science. But one thing I knew for sure—he wasn’t getting my job.

So I decided to have a little fun.

I called him aside, and I told him not to share this info with anyone—made it sound very secret. I told him to nonchalantly walk over to the elevator and to go to Room 907. I added that there would be a lady there, and for him to ask her for an application, and that Craig Duswalt sent you.

He beamed.

I reiterated, “Do not tell anyone else. We only do this for special people.”

He said thanks and ran to the hotel elevator.

I jumped into the waiting limo and told the driver to go quickly. I did not want to be around when he came back downstairs.

Not only did I not know anyone in 907, I’m pretty sure there wasn’t even a Room 907, considering the hotel was only about five or six stories high. I know, I know—I’m awful. But on the road, you’ll do anything to keep yourself amused.

If the person I did that to is reading this book, I guess I’m sorry. But that’s what you get for asking a STUPID QUESTION
.

As we all know, there is no application for that kind of job. It’s the ultimate “who you know” gig. Or, you have to be extremely lucky. I was in the right place at the right time with Air Supply. But, as I say at all my seminars: Always do your best, always be positive, and never whine, because you never know who’s watching.

That
is how I got the gig with GNR.

AUTOGRAPHS

As I mentioned earlier, I was an actor for a while and my “big break” came when I landed a small role as a waiter on the soap opera
General Hospital
on and off for about a year. Never said much, basically just walked around in Duke’s Club carrying a tray with drinks. Once in a while I would say, “Here you go,” and I would get extra money for that. In the industry when you say a line or two you get more money because you’re then considered an “Under 5” (a soap opera actor who has under five lines of dialogue in an episode).

When I was on tour with GNR I knew no one would recognize me from
General Hospital
, so I knew I’d never sign autographs.

How wrong I was.

I found myself signing autographs. Not a ton, but a few here and there. However I wasn’t signing my own name. I signed emergency autographs with Axl’s name. Bottom line: Axl was very busy on the tour and he didn’t have a lot of extra time to sign an autograph at a moment’s notice. He had tons of other things on his mind. So, if I needed something quick, or if I had to get someone out of trouble, I would say, can I get you an autographed picture of Axl? Would that make you happy?

Of course they would always agree. If Axl was available, I would walk in my room, grab an 8 × 10 of Axl and a black Sharpie, walk into Axl’s room, ask him to sign an autograph, and give it to the person. But if, say, Axl was in the shower, I felt that might be inappropriate, so I would grab the 8 × 10, grab the black Sharpie, sign Axl’s name, and give it to the person. It looked exactly the same. In fact, I think my autograph looked better than his.

But just to make it clear, here’s my disclaimer: Axl did sign tons of autographs himself as well. And he
always
signed autographs himself if it was for a sick child, a loyal fan, and/or a very special occasion.

BACKSTAGE

We’ve all heard the stories about what goes on backstage after a rock concert. Many stories have been documented in books written by people way more famous than me. So, I am here to share some of the things that went on backstage after a Guns N’ Roses concert.

First of all there was not only one backstage room. With Guns N’ Roses, we sometimes had three rooms, or three backstage areas. One room for the radio show winners, one room for family and friends, and one room for the “talent.”

Apart from that, Axl had his own dressing room, and the rest of the band shared a really large dressing room.

There were other rooms for the crew as well.

The room with the radio show winners was for exactly that. Local radio shows worked with promoters and gave away free tickets in exchange for ads promoting the concert and/or some free on-air press. The free tickets to the show usually included backstage passes. As part of the contract one, sometimes two, of the band members were required to go into this room after the concert and take pictures with the winners and sign autographs. In all my time with Guns N’ Roses, I don’t remember Axl ever stepping foot in that room. I don’t know why, but I have my theories. I think the main reason Axl didn’t go into that room was probably because after a show he rested for a few minutes, and then jumped into the shower to warm down his voice with vocal exercises. If he had to speak to a room full of people after singing his butt off for two hours, he would lose his voice more often.

The second backstage room was for family and friends. When there are more than 150 people in the band, entourage, and crew, chances are that someone is going to have family or a bunch of friends living in the city the band is playing.

We were all allotted a certain amount of comp tickets and a few backstage passes to give away to family and friends. The bigger cities, like New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Miami, and San Francisco, were all tough to get comp tickets and backstage passes. And me, being from New York, it was tough to get tickets for
all
my friends and family. I always said, if I lived in Iowa, I could have gotten tickets for all my friends and my entire extended family. But New York was tough, especially because the record company also had their people who needed tickets and backstage passes.