Welcome to My Jungle (22 page)

We all knew that Shannon was going to be okay.

How wrong we were.

Two years later, Shannon was found dead on his tour bus from a heart attack due to a drug overdose, just three months after his baby girl was born. He was only twenty-eight.

Very sad.

U2

And even more nudity …

One of my favorite bands of all time is U2. I’ve loved them since college and used to “cruise the Boulevard” with “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” blasting out of my dad’s Cortina. A Cortina is a car just in case you didn’t know.

One of Axl’s favorite bands at the time was also U2.

While touring Europe, Guns N’ Roses shared the
MGM Grand
airplane with Bruce Springsteen and U2. There must be some sort of system that booking agents follow for Europe because it seemed that we were all following each other on our respective tours. Guns N’ Roses would do a show, and a few days later, U2 would come into town and do a show at the same place we just left. Same thing with Bruce Springsteen.

This type of scheduling allowed us to see the other bands perform live, specifically U2.

In May 1992, Guns N’ Roses performed in Vienna, Austria, at a venue next to the famous Danube River to a sold-out crowd of 70,000 people. After the show Bono came backstage, and I hooked him up with Axl. For the next hour, Bono and Axl got into a discussion about
something
. It looked fun, animated, and it was great to watch. Every once in a while I listened in. But after a minute or two, I would walk away not knowing what the hell they were talking about.

Later that night—let me clarify, early the next morning—Bono invited us to a birthday party for U2’s accountant, Ossy Kilkenny, at a Viennese restaurant. When I heard that, I prayed that Axl wanted to go because I so wanted to go to a private party with Bono and the rest of U2.

Axl agreed to go. Awesome.

When Axl, Earl, and I pulled up in our limo, the outside of this Viennese restaurant looked more like the local pub. That was a plus. I loved going to small European pubs. The people are down to earth, and there are no egos at all.

When we entered, it was definitely a small pub, with large wooden picnic tables and long wooden benches for sitting. It was a perfect setting for a bunch of Irish guys who wanted to drink beer and have fun.

As we walked through the front door, we noticed that this party had been going on for a few hours, while Guns N’ Roses was onstage a few miles away.

We also noticed that it was time to bring out the birthday cake because Bono was making a speech about Ossy, more like a roasting, and he said something about the cake.

The lights dimmed.

And with that, out from the kitchen, holding over his head a large sheet cake with tons of lit candles, came the wild and crazy bass player of U2, Adam Clayton.

And he was naked.

He walked through the crowd of about a hundred people, with his penis out there for the world to see, and proudly presented Ossy with his cake.

Axl, Earl, and I looked at each other and I know we all thought,
Why couldn’t we have come just a few minutes later?

After the shock of seeing Adam naked, we settled in, had some food, drank some beer, and hung with U2 in a small pub somewhere in the outskirts Vienna.

If only the neighbors down the block knew who was in the modest little pub down the street.

The next night U2 had a show in Vienna at the same venue GNR played the night before, and we all went to see it. I think the entire band was there, and lots of members of the entourage. Halfway through the show Axl joined Bono and The Edge onstage and they played an acoustic version of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Guns N’ Roses covered that song on
Use Your Illusion II
, and they sang it every night at their show. They performed the song on a small circular stage at the end of a walkway about fifty yards from the main stage in the middle of the crowd.

The audience went nuts.

It was the epitome of rock n’ roll—an impromptu collaboration in front of 70,000 fans with no rehearsal.

About a month later, we finished the European leg of the tour. We had been in Europe for more than forty-five days, and we all really wanted to head back home for a small, much-needed break.

On the way to Los Angeles, Axl wanted to see U2 one more time, so we rented a Learjet, and Axl, Earl, and I headed to Verona, Italy. Verona is a smaller city and the hotel we stayed in seemed to be away from it all, so this was a great opportunity to hang with U2 without the huge crowds and all the distractions.

And that’s what we did. We hung by the pool with the band and their entourage, I played pool (billiards) for a few hours with The Edge, and Adam kept his clothes on the entire time.

We went to the U2 show that night, again experiencing the full red-carpet treatment, and just sat on the side of the stage, enjoying the show.

Sometimes when you meet a celebrity you are disappointed because you have this idea of what they’re supposed to be and how they’re supposed to act, and they don’t meet those expectations. It happened to me numerous times on the road with Guns N’ Roses, because part of my job was to meet and interact with tons of celebrities who wanted to meet Axl Rose. To be honest, some were complete assholes.

But U2 was class all the way. From the band members to the crew, they treated us like family whenever we were around. That was rare, and very much appreciated.

KURT, COURTNEY, FRANCES BEAN, & ANDREW DICE CLAY

There are so many versions of the Axl Rose / Kurt Cobain story and since I was there, I will share exactly what happened on September 9, 1992, at the MTV Video Music Awards at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.

Guns N’ Roses was going to be presented with the Video Vanguard Award, also known as the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to musicians who have made a profound effect on the MTV culture. They were also going to play “November Rain” with Elton John. Axl was very excited to play with Elton John, and I was very excited to meet him.

Nirvana was scheduled to play their song “Lithium.” I heard that MTV wouldn’t allow Nirvana to play their song “Rape Me” for obvious reasons, but Kurt played a few bars live before they played “Lithium.” A bit of a slap in the face, but pretty harmless.

Outside Pauley Pavilion were a plethora of trailers, used as dressing rooms for all the bands and stars appearing at the awards show that night.

Nirvana had a trailer, and in the next row over, Guns N’ Roses had a trailer.

At this point in their careers it had been documented that Axl and Kurt did not get along. Kurt said things about Axl. Axl said things about Kurt. They definitely had a past, so it was weird that the promoters of the event put the two bands’ trailers that close to each other.

Stephanie Seymour and Axl wanted to take a walk around the backstage area to just relax, and maybe visit some industry friends. As always, Earl and I tagged along.

The four of us arrived at the hospitality tent, and as we walked by we saw Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, sitting at a table, eating, with their new baby, Frances Bean.

This is where the story starts to vary. And this is where the media and/or secondhand accounts have blown this “meeting of the minds” way out of proportion.

No matter what was said, it never really escalated into anything.

As we walked by, Courtney sarcastically asked Axl, “Do you want to be godfather to our daughter?”

Stephanie said something about being a model. Courtney said something about being a brain surgeon. Silly fun.

Axl then told Courtney to shut up … blah, blah, blah …

And that was it. It was quick; it was said in passing; it was really nothing. Yet, there are so many different accounts on what was said, and how it was said, that it makes us all laugh, because it was nothing.

It was so nothing that Earl and I did nothing, except smile. And the four of us went on our merry way.

That’s it. When I saw it in the papers the next day I was amazed that this was a “story.”

Now, what was really interesting was what happened next. As we continued our leisurely walk backstage we saw comedian Andrew Dice Clay talking to a man dressed in a suit. As we got closer we heard Dice Clay begging this man (we come to find out), an MTV executive, to let him appear on the awards show that night.

It wasn’t going well for Mr. Dice Clay.

In 1989, Andrew Dice Clay was banned from MTV because he veered way off a prepared script when he was supposed to introduce Cher. And when he veered off, apparently he said some pretty crude things on live television. MTV did not like that.

Well this trying-to-mend-the-past thing was not working. Not even close. I actually felt bad for Dice Clay—it was really sad. No matter what Dice Clay said to this guy, he kept getting turned down. It was really weird watching a guy who was over-the-top onstage be very vulnerable when confronted with a real-life situation.

We finally got back to the GNR trailer, and we could immediately see that something was brewing. A potential fistfight between Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana. Earl and I looked at each other and I said, “Damn, news travels fast.” I assumed that this potential fight was because of the “discussion” Axl and Kurt had minutes prior in the hospitality tent. But it wasn’t. This was a whole new fight.

Since I wasn’t there I won’t pretend I know exactly what happened, but when we got back Duff was pissed and he kept trying to get all of us to go over to Nirvana’s trailer to kick some ass. He even tried to get the Nirvana guys to come out of their trailer by yelling obscenities at the closed trailer.

Luckily Doug stepped in, and the rest of our entourage calmed the band members down, so nothing happened.

Great day of music. No fights. Made for a very enjoyable day.

STEVEN TYLER

On June 5, 1992, Guns N’ Roses got together at a rehearsal and sound check with Lenny Kravitz, Jeff Beck, and Steven Tyler and Joe Perry from Aerosmith, for a Live Pay-Per-View show the next day in Paris.

Lenny Kravitz, who would play his hit “Always on the Run” (Slash played guitar on the single), and Jeff Beck were scheduled to join Guns N’ Roses for a couple of songs during the set, followed by an incredible encore with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, playing their cover version of the Yardbirds song “Train Kept A-Rollin’.”

The day of the huge show got off to a rocky start when Jeff Beck woke up with a nasty pain in his right ear, a recurrence of tinnitus. Both Slash and Jeff discussed the options, and they decided that Jeff shouldn’t risk his hearing for one show. Slash said that he was honored just rehearsing and hanging with the famed guitarist.

But as they say, the show must go on, and that’s exactly what happened. Guns N’ Roses and the guest artists all headed over to the Vincennes Hippodrome, where 58,000 fans awaited their arrival onstage.

The show featured Axl (wearing a shirt that said, “I’m a Lesbian”) dedicating the song “Double Talkin’ Jive” to movie actor Warren Beatty.

The show ended, and as usual, the band returned for encores, this time joined by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. They played the classic Aerosmith hit “Mama Kin” and “Train Kept A-Rollin’,” before Guns N’ Roses closed the two-and-a-half-hour show themselves with “Don’t Cry” and “Paradise City.”

But before all this happened, before this amazing show took place, I had the pleasure of meeting Steven Tyler the day before in a very unique situation.

As mentioned before, I ran Axl’s teleprompter when I first started with the band, and Robert took over those duties from me. We had the words to every song in the Guns N’ Roses repertoire, but when the band sang a song by another band, we had to enter the words into the computer so they would appear on the monitors and Axl could sing the song.

These days, that’s easy. You Google the name of the song, and voila, you have the words. A simple copy and paste, and you’re done.

Not so in the dark ages of the early 1990s.

So Axl asked me to, “Go to Steven’s room and get the words to ‘Train Kept A-Rollin’.”

“Steven?” I said.

“Steven Tyler?” he said, obviously.

Okay, that was a stupid question. Steven Tyler was staying in the hotel so I guess I should have put two and two together.

So I grabbed a pen and a pad of paper and headed down to Steven Tyler’s room, thinking to myself as I get into the elevator that this will probably be the coolest thing I will do on tour with Guns N’ Roses. In my mind this was going to be great. Awesome, in fact. But what happened was way better than I could have ever imagined.

The elevator arrived on Steven’s floor, and I walked down the hallway to his room. I started to get nervous because I thought he might be insulted that I didn’t know the words to a famous song they covered.

Oh, crap. This was going to be weird, uncomfortable. What was I going to say?

I’ve always been a believer in winging it, so I knocked on his door, and I figured I’ll just say whatever comes to mind and pray that I don’t make an ass of myself.

Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith, opened the door, dressed in only a towel.

“Hey, Steven, my name is Craig and I work with Axl, and we need the words to ‘Train Kept A-Rollin’ for tonight’s show, so just in case you and Axl are having too much fun onstage, I’ll have them for both of you on our stage monitors.”

Immediately, I thought to myself,
Did I just imply that Steven Tyler might, himself, forget the words to his song?

But without missing a beat Steven says, “Sure, dude, come on in.”

I walked in. No one else was in the room, just Steven, his towel, and me.

Awkward.

Getting right to the job at hand, Steven said, “You ready?”

“Uh, yes. How do you want to do this? Do you have the words somewhere? I can just make a copy.”

“I’ll sing it to you. You ready?”

I thought I said I was ready, but I must have just said nothing, because he repeated himself.

“You ready?”

“I’m ready.”