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Hey everybody, it's Mark Patterson.
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I'm back again with another great episode of Finding Your Summit, all about people overcoming adversity and finding their way.
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Today, we're really going to isolate on that.
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I've got a wonderful guest, but before we get there, I want to talk about my book I wrote.
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I'm an author of Finding Your Summit, How to Build Resilience and Faith to Rise Above Life's Challenges.
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Duff, you know something about that.
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or two, I'm also out there on the speaking circuit on TEDx, been all over the world speaking, www.markpattersonnfl.com if you want me to come in and light up your organization.
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All right, I normally don't do this, but I'm gonna do this today.
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And this requires me to actually read something because my guest today is like a full blown rockstar.
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And many times when you say that, I metaphorically mean that, but today I actually mean that.
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We're going to get into that.
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All right, here we go.
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Today, I'm joined by someone who has lived an extraordinary number of lives.
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He's a musician, songwriter, author, entrepreneur, husband and father, and of course, who's a founding member of one of Rock's biggest brands in the history, Guns N' Roses.
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But Duff's story isn't about rock and roll success.
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It's a story about ambition, excess, addiction, survival, reinvention, family, business, and ultimately figuring out what really matters most.
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Duff has stood on some of the world's biggest stages, but also has had some of his darkest moments away from them.
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And perhaps most importantly, he didn't just survive those moments, but he built an entirely different life on the other side.
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Duff, welcome to Finding Your Summit.
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Thanks, Mark.
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That was a lot coming out of my mouth.
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Man, that's great.
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And your book.
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And I watched your...
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I watched the...
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Congratulations on Everest, dude.
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Yeah.
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That's insane.
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That's insane.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I mean, you know, I go to, I've been to like, I've been to some heights, I've climbed some, and I get to about 12, two, and I get that, the, the,
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Not the lung one.
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I get the, I start seeing things and like it's, so, you know, we all are different at altitude.
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You touched on that in the doc.
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Yeah.
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You know, I think Ed was talking, somebody, or your trainer was talking.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah, about mark, you know, altitude hits everybody different and it sure does.
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Yeah, yeah.
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But I mean, you're at like 28,000 feet.
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Yeah, 29,000 feet.
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And I did spend the night at Camp 4 at 26,000 feet with no O's, like out of my mind.
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No O's?
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No O's, yeah.
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But let me ask you this.
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I want to go back to the – we could go on about that.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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But, you know, I want to like broadcast out to everybody who doesn't know this because they wouldn't know this.
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But you and I grew up in the same neighborhood.
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Right.
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And like how unique this is to have a guy from the same neighborhood go on.
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And I'm taking it back to a 10 year old Duff and like 11 year old Mark.
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Right.
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And.
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for one guy, me making it all the way up to the NFL, right?
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It's almost impossible to do.
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They call it the 1%.
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And for you in terms of, you know, where your success, musical success, you've had it happen to you now a couple of times, twice with Guns N' Roses, one with Velvet Revolver.
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You've got your own projects and all this other stuff that you do.
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But before GNR back in Seattle, who was that kid?
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Okay, so wow, yeah.
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You know, I grew up in a big family, last to eight kids.
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We grew up in Bryant, Bryant neighborhood, which is, you know, just this.
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Back then, there was fire.
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My dad was a firefighter.
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There's firefighters and cops.
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And, you know, there was a Catholic school at the top, assumptions.
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Kind of like maybe when Seattle still had little neighborhoods like that, little Irish Catholic neighborhood.
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Yeah.
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Just, you know, I played sports, baseball, basketball, football.
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You know, those were the three you played.
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But also in my house and in the house next door, there was a drum kit.
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There was guitars.
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There was a bass.
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And so the older kids played it, and they would make me, you know, okay, keep time on the drums.
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So I wanted to be cool around the older kids, so I'd learn to keep time on the drums.
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Okay, play these three chords.
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They'd show me three chords on the guitar.
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Play these three chords.
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It was like some Beatles song or something, you know?
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But I was just kind of the supplemental player.
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But in that, I was like in fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade.
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In that, I got really turned on to...
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Oh, I can play, I think.
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I think I can play.
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And I was playing football, I was playing basketball, baseball, and at about 13, for me, punk rock hit Seattle.
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You remember seeing the Flyers up around town?
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Yeah.
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Remember seeing like mentors and the, and I was like, whoa, what is this?
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And having seven older siblings, you want something of your own, right?
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You gotta have something of your own.
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And you don't get it when there's eight kids in the family.
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Now, I'll be, two of my brothers went off to Vietnam.
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They were gone out of the house.
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But still, there's nothing of your own.
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So this punk rock dance, I was so kind of enamored.
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Like, what is it?
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Kind of scared, all of that stuff.
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And I met some kid, he was older.
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He was like 16.
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He was playing, and he was like, I'm forming a band.
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Do you want to be in my band?
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So I was 13.
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And we went down, and I met all these older punk rock people in Seattle.
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And it was just so open.
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Like, everything was fine.
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It was cool that I was 13.
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Didn't matter.
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Didn't matter if I had teen acne.
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Didn't matter.
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None of that mattered.
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And I was just kind of welcomed in, and just started playing, excelling at that.
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I was really into – like 13, I was really into football.
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I was playing with Eddie Hewlett and Brian McCarty and Todd Fleischman.
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We were on the same team, I believe, for one day.
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Well, I was a young guy on your teams, you and Hewlett's teams, because I was tall.
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So I would have to come up to your guys.
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But the good thing about – I sucked when I played against you guys because I was too young and too undeveloped.
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But the year you guys would go up to the next level, I had already played a year with –
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tough guys.
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And so now I was a tough guy.
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And the Fleischmanns were the coaches.
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So, you know, it's a tough team.
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So but at about 13 and 14, I was like, I'm just going to do music now.
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And
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And I just, man, that became my dream.
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Like, how do I write a song?
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How do I form the perfect band?
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And I had all this teamwork.
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The reason I bring up sports is because when you're on a baseball team, a football team, when you're a offensive tackle and a defensive linebacker on your LVR team, you learn to play, that's your part.
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You're the linebacker.
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That's your part.
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You become that, don't you?
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You know, you become that linebacker.
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I'm a linebacker.
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You take it to school.
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I'm the linebacker.
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But you also appreciate all the other parts of the team.
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And we had really good coaches with the Fleischmanns.
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And I had my baseball coach with Del Bernard.
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Really good leader of young men.
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Yeah, great.
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Right?
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Play your part, play your part.
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So in a band, it just kind of fit perfectly.
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Yeah.
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Don't be more than your part, be your part and do it great.
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And make sure you have the best of the other parts.
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And I played in a bunch of punk rock bands, some that had promise.
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I went on tour with Dead Kennedys and Black Flag and stuff, you know, at like 17, 18, 19.
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And the heroin came in and started hitting Seattle pretty hard in like 1983.
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everybody around me.
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And it wasn't, I guess it came over the mountains and it came, we were Port City, who knows why it came to Seattle first and so hard.
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And I kinda had a, 1984, I was working at a restaurant Eastlake, you know, Lake Union Cafe on Eastlake.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I'd been working there for a year and a half.
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I was a baker there.
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working my ass off, playing in bands, going on little tours, doing stuff.
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And somebody said to me, you better get out.
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You better get out.
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Because heroin just took over Seattle.
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There was nobody else to play with.
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My whole band was strung out.
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So I did that.
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I had a crappy drum kit.
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I sold that.
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I took a guitar.
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I took a bass.
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And some clothes, I had my piece of shit car, Maverick, 71 Maverick.
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Off to LA you went.
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And I went to LA.
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I knew the car, New York was too far for that car.
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It was a Slant 6, it would make it to LA.
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So that's what I did, I got a job.
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First moment I got to LA, got in the Valley.
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I thought I was in Northridge.
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I thought I'm in LA.
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I'd been to LA a few times.
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I just didn't know.
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But Northridge, if you know LA is way outside of Hollywood.
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That's where I wanted to go.
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So I ended my, I literally got the job as I was driving in.
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I had a resume from working in restaurants.
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I got, they had to hire me right away because they needed a cook.
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So I did that, got off work.
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I said, I've asked one of the older cooks, where's Hollywood?
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Can you give me directions?
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I was like, dude, that's 25 miles away.
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I'm like, shit.
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So I had my job out there.
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I lived, didn't have quite enough money to get an apartment right away.
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So I had to wait to get my first paycheck from the Black Angus where I worked.
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Yeah.
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And so kind of just lived in my car and watched at work for the first couple of weeks and got an apartment.
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Met Slash and Steven in an ad in a paper, from an ad in a paper.
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What, I mean, talk about the, like, the,
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like being in the right place at the right time under, even when you're financially completely upside down and you didn't have shit, right, to hardly like live.
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But, I mean, those guys would become part of this iconic success, which would later follow.
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You know, maybe it's about this time when you realize when music was going to become your life.
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Like there's this there's this like, can I can I make it?
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Can I financially how much longer I want to stick in there?
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You hear this all the time with actors.
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Right.
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How much longer can I make it?
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And for you, what was that moment of like, this is it and this is like the path I'm supposed to be on?
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I think it was much before that.
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I think it was 1979 when I saw The Clash at the Paramount.
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Wow.
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Before London Calling.
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Yeah.
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And something about The Clash.
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I saw Zeppelin in The Kingdom.
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And you want Zeppelin to be far away and fly in on a plane and be magical.
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Because they're magical, right?
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There was no, like...
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We weren't close to them.
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You know, they were, I don't even think there was Jumbotron screens back then.
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You just were looking at the back of it, and they were so far away.
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But that's Led Zeppelin, and Clash was a different thing.
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They were as big as Led Zeppelin to me, but there they were right in front
of us, and the Strummer.
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Something happened in front and kids were pogoing back then.
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They started pogoing and it was new.
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And the security guys in the yellow coats didn't know what that was.
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And one of the security guys punched a guy in the front row and broke his nose.
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And the guy was just jumping up and down.
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They thought it was like violence, you know?
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And Joe Stromer stopped the show.
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He said, we'll take down this barrier in front of us.
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There's no, you don't hurt our fans.
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You know, there's no difference between us and you.
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We're all in this thing together.
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And that was a, watching Stromer watch this thing go down, that changed everything.
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I'm like, I can, we are in this thing together.
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I can, and I still think of that when I go on stage every night.
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that moment.
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That moment changed a lot of stuff, and I was really...
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I put my head down, pinned ears back, just like in football, you know?
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00:13:12.423 --> 00:13:14.424
I'm going to do this.
239
00:13:15.085 --> 00:13:19.928
So, yeah, getting to Hollywood, and...
240
00:13:20.308 --> 00:13:22.929
I'd been on punk rock tours where you're living off of nothing.
241
00:13:23.190 --> 00:13:27.452
You're sleeping on people's floors.
242
00:13:28.253 --> 00:13:29.934
I was used to that.
243
00:13:30.474 --> 00:13:31.635
That wouldn't freak me out.
244
00:13:33.087 --> 00:13:33.907
Whatever it took.
245
00:13:34.127 --> 00:13:36.248
So that was the deal here, whatever it took.
246
00:13:36.548 --> 00:13:39.169
And I met Slash and Steven.
247
00:13:41.450 --> 00:13:45.631
Izzy moved, when I got the apartment, Izzy moved across the street from me.
248
00:13:45.771 --> 00:13:50.593
So there was this guy who looked like Johnny Thunders, which is like something I'm super into.
249
00:13:50.653 --> 00:13:53.713
I'm like, okay, here's another guy like me.
250
00:13:54.094 --> 00:13:56.654
It's 1984, we're 20 years old.
251
00:13:57.335 --> 00:13:58.375
Whatever's in music,
252
00:13:59.595 --> 00:14:03.158
Next in rock and roll is probably on our shoulders.
253
00:14:03.779 --> 00:14:07.402
Whatever it's going to be, the new thing, it's going to be on our shoulders.
254
00:14:07.462 --> 00:14:12.968
So Axl then moved up around the corner.
255
00:14:13.008 --> 00:14:14.789
So there was the band.
256
00:14:15.450 --> 00:14:17.492
We didn't know we were the band until...
257
00:14:19.949 --> 00:14:26.451
About six months later, we all got
in the same room, Steven Adler slash myself, Izzy and Axel.
258
00:14:27.311 --> 00:14:30.732
We got in this little room and played our first three chords together.
259
00:14:30.752 --> 00:14:32.533
And there was the band I was looking for.
260
00:14:33.193 --> 00:14:33.773
I could tell.
261
00:14:34.694 --> 00:14:36.214
It was like lightning hit.
262
00:14:37.494 --> 00:14:39.075
And I think we all realized that.
263
00:14:39.335 --> 00:14:47.057
And then together as five guys, we realized nothing's going to stop us.
264
00:14:47.097 --> 00:14:48.698
We're going to move forward.
265
00:14:49.905 --> 00:15:13.019
nothing getting away and and the rest is kind of history well uh let's talk about that history really quickly so i recall so first for everybody's listening you and i went to the same high school right again no other possibilities there's another guy named hugh millen another quarterback played 10 years in the nfl and so now i'm playing for the new orleans saints i got traded by the raiders i'm down in new orleans i'm in a bar with a bunch of my
266
00:15:13.599 --> 00:15:14.679
you know, Saint Buddies.
267
00:15:15.319 --> 00:15:18.400
And all of a sudden, this is when MTV starts to explode.
268
00:15:18.980 --> 00:15:23.582
And all of a sudden, the biggest band in the world is is your band, Guns N' Roses.
269
00:15:24.022 --> 00:15:28.563
And I'm sitting there with my I had no clue like this has all gone down as you just described it.
270
00:15:28.643 --> 00:15:28.843
Right.
271
00:15:29.303 --> 00:15:30.623
And then I'm seeing you up on stage.
272
00:15:30.663 --> 00:15:32.644
I go, what the F like?
273
00:15:33.684 --> 00:15:33.925
What?
274
00:15:34.205 --> 00:15:38.431
Like, I'm trying to like, how does this all like it was almost an impossibility.
275
00:15:38.992 --> 00:15:46.744
But I got to ask you this, like after GNR exploded, what was it about fame that you didn't anticipate?
276
00:15:48.883 --> 00:15:49.123
Right.
277
00:15:49.143 --> 00:15:50.565
There's no guidebook for that.
278
00:15:51.886 --> 00:15:54.368
Fame wasn't part of the equation what I was looking for.
279
00:15:54.948 --> 00:15:56.650
Neither was drug addiction, by the way.
280
00:15:56.750 --> 00:15:59.993
So we'll talk about that in a second.
281
00:16:00.133 --> 00:16:02.195
I wanted to be in the perfect band.
282
00:16:02.955 --> 00:16:05.077
As I said, it was all about the music for me.
283
00:16:05.097 --> 00:16:09.341
It wasn't about fame or getting chicks or whatever you hear about.
284
00:16:09.361 --> 00:16:10.082
It was none of that.
285
00:16:10.102 --> 00:16:11.223
It was like pure music.
286
00:16:11.763 --> 00:16:12.183
I...
287
00:16:13.444 --> 00:16:16.206
I grew up in pure music with my family.
288
00:16:16.626 --> 00:16:24.810
It was, you know, for me, finding the perfect band and how that feeling and achieving something together.
289
00:16:24.850 --> 00:16:31.954
And the first time somebody recognized me, we got on the cover of the Rolling Stone.
290
00:16:31.994 --> 00:16:33.355
We weren't supposed to be on the cover.
291
00:16:34.242 --> 00:16:40.125
They were going to do an inside feature on us because the appetite for destruction was breaking.
292
00:16:40.806 --> 00:16:42.847
And so we did a photo shoot for Rolling Stone.
293
00:16:43.507 --> 00:16:49.111
By the time the issue was to come out, I guess we had kind of broke through a bit more, so they put us on a cover.
294
00:16:50.452 --> 00:16:54.414
That's the thing, especially in the 80s, you know, like the cover of the Rolling Stone.
295
00:16:54.674 --> 00:16:55.294
Yeah, huge.
296
00:16:55.314 --> 00:16:56.955
There's a song about it, right?
297
00:16:57.015 --> 00:16:57.396
Huge.
298
00:16:57.476 --> 00:16:57.856
Huge.
299
00:16:58.136 --> 00:16:59.337
Yeah.
300
00:16:59.357 --> 00:17:01.238
So those are in, I'm in L.A.,
301
00:17:02.693 --> 00:17:04.635
Those are in every grocery store, every.
302
00:17:04.715 --> 00:17:12.421
So I went to my Ralph's grocery store and there they were on every kind of front rack of checkout.
303
00:17:12.541 --> 00:17:18.786
And people were looking at that and looking at, it's the first time somebody, are you the guy?
304
00:17:19.187 --> 00:17:23.590
And you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's my band, you know.
305
00:17:24.611 --> 00:17:27.033
Then walking down the street and people, you know, and
306
00:17:29.794 --> 00:17:40.058
I went up to Universal Studios, go to a movie with somebody, and our video was up on a big screen there, and people were looking at that, and I was walking.
307
00:17:40.198 --> 00:17:41.839
I looked the same as in the video.
308
00:17:41.879 --> 00:17:45.040
I don't dress differently, you know.
309
00:17:45.340 --> 00:17:49.002
I had one probably set of clothes, you know, those pants and that shirt.
310
00:17:51.343 --> 00:17:59.406
So it was kind of gradual at first, and then it kind of, when Sweet Child of Mine came out the video for that, that was our third video.
311
00:18:00.242 --> 00:18:00.983
off that record.
312
00:18:01.403 --> 00:18:02.665
That's when things really broke.
313
00:18:02.685 --> 00:18:05.167
And the recognition...
314
00:18:05.568 --> 00:18:13.756
So I think for the first six months, I kind of curled up in a little ball and didn't dig it.
315
00:18:13.897 --> 00:18:16.379
I didn't know maybe who I could trust.
316
00:18:16.920 --> 00:18:17.961
And people...
317
00:18:20.040 --> 00:18:21.521
were really nice to me.
318
00:18:21.961 --> 00:18:26.623
My humor was suddenly really funny, you know, and it wasn't any different, right?
319
00:18:26.683 --> 00:18:28.224
Like I was the guy, you're the guy.
320
00:18:29.025 --> 00:18:31.286
And I'm like, I'm not the, you know, come on, man.
321
00:18:31.646 --> 00:18:34.728
And, but I had the same best friends I grew up with.
322
00:18:35.528 --> 00:18:40.871
So I just kind of went to that and they're still my best friends and I'm 62, you know.
323
00:18:41.531 --> 00:18:42.752
So I just
kind of went to,
324
00:18:45.203 --> 00:18:51.445
the guys who kept it real, I had my older siblings too, and they'd give me shit all the time.
325
00:18:51.525 --> 00:18:56.427
So it kind of kept me straight.
326
00:18:56.547 --> 00:19:02.229
And then later on, like on Illusions Tour, we weren't doing stadiums and doing all that stuff.
327
00:19:03.209 --> 00:19:12.773
I, that's when I, I also, at 16, I'll say, I had my first panic attack and it was this thing, Mark,
328
00:19:13.899 --> 00:19:17.060
I was still in my mom's, I got in the shower to go to school.
329
00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:21.701
I thought there was an earthquake because the shower dropped three feet.
330
00:19:22.481 --> 00:19:25.402
And I crawled out of the shower and to check my mom was okay.
331
00:19:25.862 --> 00:19:28.042
And I was on the ground and I'm, mom, are you okay?
332
00:19:28.502 --> 00:19:29.743
She's like, yeah, I'm okay.
333
00:19:29.923 --> 00:19:31.783
And she came in, what's going on?
334
00:19:33.304 --> 00:19:36.424
And I realized there wasn't an earthquake in the shower.
335
00:19:36.504 --> 00:19:38.905
I looked back at the shower, nothing dropped three feet.
336
00:19:39.775 --> 00:19:41.217
And I couldn't breathe and I couldn't.
337
00:19:41.718 --> 00:19:48.869
My vision started to go in and I thought, well, I've done mushrooms when I was 14 and 15.
338
00:19:48.950 --> 00:19:50.893
Is this like what you hear about?
339
00:19:52.824 --> 00:19:53.905
And it was none of that.
340
00:19:53.965 --> 00:19:55.065
It was a panic attack.
341
00:19:55.125 --> 00:20:02.088
And she took me up to group health emergency, and then they got me into a psychiatrist.
342
00:20:02.108 --> 00:20:07.871
You know, emergency people were like, okay, there's nothing physically, we're gonna send them over here.
343
00:20:08.631 --> 00:20:12.953
And this guy got this whiteboard out and kind of started explaining to me what was going on.
344
00:20:12.973 --> 00:20:15.254
You had a panic attack, and I'm like, what is that?
345
00:20:16.195 --> 00:20:19.076
And my mom kind of knew because some of the older siblings had gotten those.
346
00:20:21.188 --> 00:20:24.651
And so I think they gave me Valium or something and sent me home.
347
00:20:24.671 --> 00:20:27.354
And I thought I was just alone in the world with these panic attacks.
348
00:20:27.394 --> 00:20:28.075
And I would get them.
349
00:20:28.115 --> 00:20:28.976
Now you got one.
350
00:20:29.276 --> 00:20:32.739
They start to really unveil and pick up speed.
351
00:20:32.759 --> 00:20:36.122
And you think you're alone and you can't breathe.
352
00:20:36.242 --> 00:20:37.243
It's terrifying.
353
00:20:37.343 --> 00:20:41.027
So I did find if I had a couple shots of something.
354
00:20:43.080 --> 00:20:46.083
that would, instead of a Valium, that would...
355
00:20:46.103 --> 00:20:46.703
Calm you down.
356
00:20:47.103 --> 00:20:47.704
Calm it down.
357
00:20:47.924 --> 00:20:48.144
Yeah.
358
00:20:48.705 --> 00:20:51.247
So I kind of had that going along.
359
00:20:51.707 --> 00:20:58.252
And I think the bigger we got... You know, when you're on stage, you're trapped.
360
00:20:58.592 --> 00:20:59.433
You can't come off.
361
00:21:00.033 --> 00:21:01.774
So it's a perfect place for a panic attack.
362
00:21:02.595 --> 00:21:02.955
You know?
363
00:21:04.697 --> 00:21:05.657
It's like an elevator.
364
00:21:05.898 --> 00:21:06.198
You know?
365
00:21:06.458 --> 00:21:06.998
You can't get up.
366
00:21:07.539 --> 00:21:08.960
Yeah, so you start to medicate.
367
00:21:09.985 --> 00:21:10.866
I start to medicate.
368
00:21:11.266 --> 00:21:14.948
So the fame was getting bigger, back to your fame thing.
369
00:21:14.968 --> 00:21:16.629
It was getting a lot bigger.
370
00:21:16.749 --> 00:21:18.170
People recognized me everywhere.
371
00:21:20.071 --> 00:21:23.493
Wasn't my, not really my bag, you know?
372
00:21:24.074 --> 00:21:26.615
But I understood, I got it, you know?
373
00:21:28.656 --> 00:21:37.122
The concept of we're in this band and we're successful beyond what we could imagine, what I could imagine.
374
00:21:39.495 --> 00:21:41.660
So there's no, you know, I kept thinking there's no manual.
375
00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:44.305
There's no how-to video for this shit.
376
00:21:44.345 --> 00:21:45.788
We're doing this on our own.
377
00:21:45.928 --> 00:21:47.551
And I was medicating.
378
00:21:49.123 --> 00:21:51.845
Everybody tell me, I think this is what happened.
379
00:21:52.206 --> 00:21:53.106
It wasn't just you.
380
00:21:53.927 --> 00:21:55.268
It was the whole flipping band.
381
00:21:55.288 --> 00:21:57.329
You guys were one big party, right?
382
00:21:57.409 --> 00:22:04.974
You had everything at your access and ready to go, I'm sure, before the band even went out, right?
383
00:22:05.114 --> 00:22:06.695
I mean, it was fun as hell.
384
00:22:08.576 --> 00:22:11.678
There was a period when it was super fun.
385
00:22:13.491 --> 00:22:15.233
The wheels could come off and it was fun.
386
00:22:15.253 --> 00:22:20.036
We still stayed upright and we were untouchable.
387
00:22:22.297 --> 00:22:25.299
So I'm not trying to paint like a darkened picture.
388
00:22:25.319 --> 00:22:33.284
I was just, and I was always self-medicating these panic attacks, which is a thing which is classic for people with panic attacks.
389
00:22:34.505 --> 00:22:38.488
I started doing something I didn't think, because I left, remember, I left drugs.
390
00:22:38.568 --> 00:22:39.268
Yeah.
391
00:22:39.328 --> 00:22:40.689
I left to leave.
392
00:22:41.430 --> 00:22:45.853
You can't pull a geographical and go somewhere else, and heroin or drugs are not going to be there.
393
00:22:45.873 --> 00:22:51.076
Because I moved to LA, hoping to get away from drugs.
394
00:22:51.216 --> 00:22:51.757
Come on.
395
00:22:51.877 --> 00:23:00.582
But, so I started drinking so much that cocaine seemed like a great idea, so I could drink more.
396
00:23:01.463 --> 00:23:03.104
And so the cocaine came into the,
397
00:23:03.672 --> 00:23:04.253
equation.
398
00:23:05.134 --> 00:23:09.058
I wasn't like a cocaine guy necessarily, like get a bunch of coke and just do coke.
399
00:23:09.298 --> 00:23:15.144
It was only like when I had too much to drink, I'd do some blow and I could drink more.
400
00:23:15.524 --> 00:23:17.506
And that was, I wasn't alone.
401
00:23:17.526 --> 00:23:18.667
I was around a bunch of people.
402
00:23:19.363 --> 00:23:40.739
that that was the way of life you know and uh my because i was doing coke panic attacks of course became worse yeah you know and so i was doing this like this mad mary gore yeah yeah sleep like every three days and and um uh we were doing this huge tour for use your illusions we went around the
403
00:23:44.116 --> 00:23:45.196
I just lost track.
404
00:23:45.456 --> 00:23:46.377
I lost track.
405
00:23:46.477 --> 00:23:48.937
Things were maybe too big with the band.
406
00:23:48.977 --> 00:23:53.458
Things were going sideways here and there, sometimes really sideways.
407
00:23:54.138 --> 00:23:56.279
It's hard to, I'm sure, to hold those relationships.
408
00:23:56.299 --> 00:24:11.262
You know, you're not only are you guys all fragile because you're out of your mind and you're traveling all over the world and you're in different time zones, but you guys have five or six different personalities and not to mention all the management people that are around you and trying to like anchor
409
00:24:13.032 --> 00:24:25.998
relationships and making sure this precious product that is so hard to even do, even a one hit song, let alone this rack of tunes that you guys have created to stay with, keep the band together.
410
00:24:27.914 --> 00:24:34.459
And yeah, and there was different, you know, everybody had to, you know, suddenly you start to, everybody has their little camps.
411
00:24:35.199 --> 00:24:37.401
And everybody's camps telling, you're the guy.
412
00:24:37.621 --> 00:24:38.501
You're the guy.
413
00:24:38.581 --> 00:24:46.307
That's why this band's, you know, you don't believe it, but you know that everybody has these camps telling the same thing.
414
00:24:46.647 --> 00:24:47.688
And that's, that's.
415
00:24:49.144 --> 00:24:50.504
Wasn't us.
416
00:24:51.325 --> 00:24:53.325
We formed when this band was like a gang.
417
00:24:53.885 --> 00:24:56.286
And it started to get separated.
418
00:24:56.326 --> 00:25:00.046
And we just didn't know how to deal with it, probably.
419
00:25:00.166 --> 00:25:01.167
I didn't know how to deal with it.
420
00:25:01.247 --> 00:25:02.447
I'll just talk by myself.
421
00:25:02.527 --> 00:25:03.647
I won't talk to the other guys.
422
00:25:04.627 --> 00:25:11.229
But we got done with that User Illusions tour.
423
00:25:13.944 --> 00:25:16.566
I had made a record near the end of that.
424
00:25:16.586 --> 00:25:21.490
I was going in studios around the world because I could play drums and I could play guitar and play bass.
425
00:25:21.530 --> 00:25:24.413
I was making demos and stuff, really.
426
00:25:25.033 --> 00:25:29.617
But it became this record, and I put it out, and I went out on tour right after the Illusions tour.
427
00:25:30.118 --> 00:25:30.778
Bad move.
428
00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:32.280
I was a wreck.
429
00:25:33.685 --> 00:25:38.854
I went and opened for the Scorpions through Europe, you know, doing arenas.
430
00:25:39.015 --> 00:25:40.798
And I did shows in the US.
431
00:25:40.878 --> 00:25:44.665
And I got back, bought this house in Seattle, the one I'm in right now.
432
00:25:47.818 --> 00:25:55.925
I used to play pickleball there You're right The gal that was there before The smoking hot girl back in Julie Cleaver Was it?
433
00:25:55.965 --> 00:26:12.720
This was Julie Cleaver's house Oh yeah, yeah, yeah You're like, oh yeah I know exactly I've also been in with you there But I brought back some fond memories Right It's a swimming pool now It's gotten warmer and warmer Yeah, I love it
434
00:26:14.382 --> 00:26:16.905
Now pickleball is huge too.
435
00:26:20.368 --> 00:26:25.254
So I got into this house in Seattle.
436
00:26:25.374 --> 00:26:29.458
My manager got me a big screen TV back when they were those huge big screen.
437
00:26:29.558 --> 00:26:30.199
They're thick.
438
00:26:30.719 --> 00:26:33.682
So the box of that was my couch.
439
00:26:33.702 --> 00:26:34.263
Yeah.
440
00:26:34.652 --> 00:26:37.993
the box that it came in was my couch for the first couple months.
441
00:26:38.053 --> 00:26:40.254
I didn't know how to buy furniture for a house.
442
00:26:40.274 --> 00:26:52.358
I had a bed upstairs and I had my car and I woke up one morning and I was supposed to go to Australia, New Zealand with my band when I'd just gone to Europe and done some United States gigs.
443
00:26:54.438 --> 00:26:56.519
And I woke up one morning and, uh,
444
00:26:57.377 --> 00:26:59.059
I rolled over and there was some burning.
445
00:26:59.139 --> 00:27:07.426
It felt like really bad, like gas panes, and like sharp, you know, but they were all, they were just kind of everywhere.
446
00:27:07.446 --> 00:27:09.528
I'm like, Jesus, well, let me roll over again.
447
00:27:10.628 --> 00:27:13.110
And when I rolled over again, I couldn't move.
448
00:27:13.430 --> 00:27:16.834
I couldn't reach the phone to call anybody.
449
00:27:17.054 --> 00:27:18.295
The pain was that bad.
450
00:27:19.096 --> 00:27:20.797
And it turned out my pancreas had burst.
451
00:27:21.017 --> 00:27:32.147
And so all that, you know, the bile that digests your food had kind of spilled out over on top of everything, over my stomach and your intestines and down to my quads.
452
00:27:33.268 --> 00:27:35.350
And it's third degree burns, you know?
453
00:27:35.370 --> 00:27:37.272
So I'm just sitting there burning.
454
00:27:38.416 --> 00:27:43.797
And my friend Andy, who was a real estate agent, he sold me the house.
455
00:27:44.137 --> 00:27:44.718
He came over.
456
00:27:44.758 -->
00:27:45.698
He was just walking in the door.
457
00:27:45.718 --> 00:27:46.998
He saw my car in the garage.
458
00:27:47.338 --> 00:27:48.138
So he knew I was home.
459
00:27:48.158 --> 00:27:50.199
My keys were sitting on the counter.
460
00:27:50.399 --> 00:27:52.719
And I could hear him downstairs going, hey, where are you?
461
00:27:53.920 --> 00:27:54.740
Where are you, man?
462
00:27:56.120 --> 00:27:57.281
And he came upstairs.
463
00:27:57.401 --> 00:27:58.201
And he saw me.
464
00:27:58.241 --> 00:27:59.081
He's like, fuck.
465
00:28:00.203 --> 00:28:03.005
And he tried to get me off the bed and take me.
466
00:28:03.105 --> 00:28:04.506
He got down the stairs.
467
00:28:04.987 --> 00:28:06.288
But dude, the pain was.
468
00:28:06.768 --> 00:28:10.731
And he took me to Dr. Thomas's, which was right over here, three blocks away.
469
00:28:16.493 --> 00:28:20.615
And they got me in there, and his partner gave me two shots of Demerol.
470
00:28:21.115 --> 00:28:23.596
And he was asking Andy all these questions.
471
00:28:24.096 --> 00:28:24.997
He drinks a lot.
472
00:28:25.417 --> 00:28:27.478
OK. And Demerol didn't do anything.
473
00:28:28.418 --> 00:28:30.599
So they took me to Northwest Hospital.
474
00:28:30.719 --> 00:28:31.800
And I was on the ground.
475
00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:33.701
I could not stand.
476
00:28:34.521 --> 00:28:36.262
And they took me in and put morphine.
477
00:28:37.262 --> 00:28:40.844
And by this time, I started to get the shakes from alcohol withdrawal.
478
00:28:40.864 --> 00:28:43.325
So they put Librium in the other arm.
479
00:28:43.685 --> 00:28:45.165
And they did an ultrasound.
480
00:28:45.205 --> 00:28:47.546
They said, we're going to have to cut out your pancreas.
481
00:28:47.566 --> 00:28:48.727
It's the size of a football.
482
00:28:49.947 --> 00:28:50.868
And it's spilt.
483
00:28:51.268 --> 00:28:53.249
And I'm in so much pain.
484
00:28:53.289 --> 00:28:56.170
I'm like, I told the surgeon, I said, just kill me.
485
00:28:56.610 --> 00:28:58.371
It was like, I can't take this pain.
486
00:28:58.471 --> 00:29:00.452
And morphine didn't work.
487
00:29:00.572 --> 00:29:01.332
Nothing worked.
488
00:29:02.313 --> 00:29:02.893
So yeah.
489
00:29:04.305 --> 00:29:07.567
They said, we're going to do surgery tomorrow.
490
00:29:07.607 --> 00:29:15.671
So I had to sit in this hotel, this hospital room all night with the gimme ice cubes and the pain was incredible.
491
00:29:15.731 --> 00:29:18.212
The Librium was helpful.
492
00:29:19.312 --> 00:29:22.894
And I had buttons on both of these things, the Librium and the morphine.
493
00:29:24.035 --> 00:29:28.497
And next morning they took another ultrasound and my pancreas had come down.
494
00:29:29.873 --> 00:29:30.373
quite a bit.
495
00:29:30.453 --> 00:29:31.834
And they said, we're going to wait a few hours.
496
00:29:31.874 --> 00:29:32.994
We're not going to do surgery.
497
00:29:33.074 --> 00:29:34.054
And it came down more.
498
00:29:34.295 --> 00:29:37.696
And my doctor, by this time my mom had Parkinson's.
499
00:29:37.916 --> 00:29:39.376
Sorry, I'm getting detailed here.
500
00:29:39.656 --> 00:29:39.916
Yeah.
501
00:29:40.617 --> 00:29:44.898
She, my mom had Parkinson's, you know, had eight kids.
502
00:29:45.618 --> 00:29:46.239
I'm the youngest.
503
00:29:46.599 --> 00:29:51.500
She came in and she was in a wheelchair and she sees her son in, on, you know, tubes.
504
00:29:53.061 --> 00:29:54.981
And she's, she's crying.
505
00:29:56.382 --> 00:29:59.383
And I just realized right then I kind of like
506
00:30:00.112 --> 00:30:22.733
levitated and like the order of things is wrong here mark yeah of course i'd be taking care of her not the other way around you know she has parkinson's she she gave birth to all of us kids my mom's a saint you know and i'm on tubes i fucked up i fucked up so that's my turnaround point and um
507
00:30:24.600 --> 00:30:32.351
He did another ultrasound, and he said, my doctor said, and my doctor, his dad birthed me and all of his kids.
508
00:30:32.451 --> 00:30:34.914
So there was like this really heavy connection.
509
00:30:35.756 --> 00:30:37.378
And he said, you've been given another chance.
510
00:30:38.800 --> 00:30:39.461
Don't fuck it up.
511
00:30:41.320 --> 00:30:47.627
And so I was in the Northwest for about eight days, and they took the buttons away, finally.
512
00:30:48.107 --> 00:30:52.792
And, you know, I started coming off the morphine and the Librium.
513
00:30:52.812 --> 00:30:54.994
They gave me Librium to go home with.
514
00:30:55.795 --> 00:30:57.717
You know my house, right?
515
00:30:59.398 --> 00:31:00.219
I had my car.
516
00:31:00.239 --> 00:31:02.962
I had this old mountain bike that I brought up from L.A.,
517
00:31:05.072 --> 00:31:07.993
Tried to drive my car and all you could smell was brakes.
518
00:31:08.153 --> 00:31:09.353
I was like I was on acid.
519
00:31:09.373 --> 00:31:12.394
I was sober for the first time ever, you know, in a long time.
520
00:31:13.334 --> 00:31:21.957
And so I rode my mountain bike down to Safeway and like the noises over the, you know, being up on aisle five was like so shocking to me.
521
00:31:22.317 --> 00:31:23.877
Like, they can all see me, you know?
522
00:31:24.418 --> 00:31:28.239
And I went in and bought like a barbecue sauce.
523
00:31:28.699 --> 00:31:29.459
I didn't know what I was doing.
524
00:31:29.879 --> 00:31:32.400
And a pack six and money crumpled up in my shorts.
525
00:31:33.773 --> 00:31:36.774
And I gave her the money and I'm like, this is what I'm supposed to do, right?
526
00:31:36.855 --> 00:31:39.016
And she gave me that, you know, probably thought I was.
527
00:31:39.876 --> 00:31:43.178
If it was nowadays, they probably just think I was some guy off the street, you know.
528
00:31:44.958 --> 00:31:48.280
But they were nice to me, I guess.
529
00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:52.282
And I just started riding that mountain bike.
530
00:31:52.562 --> 00:31:54.583
Because I was sober.
531
00:31:54.623 --> 00:31:55.123
What do I do?
532
00:31:55.143 --> 00:31:57.605
I didn't know anybody who was in AA or anything.
533
00:31:57.825 --> 00:32:00.206
So had the band broken up at that point?
534
00:32:00.885 --> 00:32:01.785
No, no.
535
00:32:01.805 --> 00:32:03.686
We had gotten done with, nope, nope.
536
00:32:04.266 --> 00:32:08.908
So we were still a, but everybody was kind of fucked up and stuff.
537
00:32:09.108 --> 00:32:11.329
And I couldn't even think about that at that point.
538
00:32:11.709 --> 00:32:13.890
I just thought about riding my mountain bike.
539
00:32:15.171 --> 00:32:19.352
And I think the first day I rode it for like eight hours because I was just shaking.
540
00:32:19.532 --> 00:32:20.913
And they gave me Liberman pills.
541
00:32:21.313 --> 00:32:24.134
So there's 10 a day for the first two days, nine.
542
00:32:24.434 --> 00:32:25.815
So I was followed like,
543
00:32:26.960 --> 00:32:30.345
prescription, which is the first, like, that was my first test.
544
00:32:30.365 --> 00:32:32.288
Can I follow this thing?
545
00:32:32.648 --> 00:32:33.209
And I did.
546
00:32:33.229 --> 00:32:38.997
And I got all the way to off the Libriums and that Librium is for alcohol withdrawals.
547
00:32:39.878 --> 00:32:40.078
Right.
548
00:32:41.080 --> 00:32:41.220
Um,
549
00:32:41.998 --> 00:32:46.540
I remember when you were getting into this mountain, you know, like you're cleaning your act up.
550
00:32:46.560 --> 00:32:48.720
You're like, I'm going to like pledge to get healthy.
551
00:32:48.840 --> 00:32:50.161
You know, I've always been that way.
552
00:32:50.201 --> 00:32:50.921
That's been my life.
553
00:32:51.261 --> 00:32:51.942
Yeah.
554
00:32:52.222 --> 00:33:02.885
But you're on your you're back in L.A. and you hooked up with some insane mountain bike downhill champion that every bot brought.
555
00:33:02.965 --> 00:33:07.327
And that's when we laid, you know, after after this period now, somehow or another, we had hooked up.
556
00:33:07.823 --> 00:33:08.323
Right.
557
00:33:08.483 --> 00:33:12.685
And so we went out writing a couple of times with you and this crazy man.
558
00:33:12.725 --> 00:33:14.966
And at the time, too, you were like you.
559
00:33:15.526 --> 00:33:19.748
I'm sure you're trying to just like which of these things I just need to check off one by one.
560
00:33:20.048 --> 00:33:21.208
You're still smoking a lot.
561
00:33:21.228 --> 00:33:22.449
I don't think you do that anymore.
562
00:33:22.489 --> 00:33:24.429
But, you know, like whatever.
563
00:33:24.489 --> 00:33:28.211
But that's just like it was, you know, you had to gradually wind your way down.
564
00:33:28.231 --> 00:33:33.293
But this was like the step, the start of something towards a much cleaner and healthier lifestyle.
565
00:33:33.713 --> 00:33:44.817
Yeah, I, Dave Coleman, I met him, I signed up for this one of the things I did I signed up for a mountain bike race was a Norba cross country race up
at Big Bear.
566
00:33:45.998 --> 00:33:50.840
And I was just riding my bike up in Mulholland up all those hills just riding hills just like
567
00:33:52.220 --> 00:33:56.683
You know, whipping my back, you know, like the torture you deserve.
568
00:33:56.903 --> 00:34:03.228
And I was just riding hills, hills, hills, hills, doing pushups on top of the hills, go back down, ride the hill, do pushups.
569
00:34:04.309 --> 00:34:08.592
And I'm like, I signed up for this at the bike shop, you know, down the hill.
570
00:34:09.172 --> 00:34:10.433
I signed up for this race.
571
00:34:10.773 --> 00:34:12.595
And if I can make this race, it's eight weeks.
572
00:34:13.235 --> 00:34:15.377
That'll be eight weeks more sober.
573
00:34:16.546 --> 00:34:18.712
So I made the race and it was up in Big Bear.
574
00:34:19.514 --> 00:34:23.625
And everybody's wearing clip-in shoes and they got the gear and I got like
575
00:34:24.781 --> 00:34:26.882
gym shorts on and high tops.
576
00:34:28.122 --> 00:34:31.223
And I did well in the race.
577
00:34:31.584 --> 00:34:33.344
I didn't have any front shocks.
578
00:34:33.424 --> 00:34:34.545
I had nothing.
579
00:34:35.105 --> 00:34:37.246
And I just did the race.
580
00:34:37.486 --> 00:34:39.386
And at the bottom, I met Coley.
581
00:34:39.426 --> 00:34:42.488
He was like, dude, what are you doing here?
582
00:34:42.508 --> 00:34:44.728
I'm like, well, I just did the race.
583
00:34:45.549 --> 00:34:46.609
Yeah, I realize you did.
584
00:34:46.669 --> 00:34:48.190
Like, what's going on?
585
00:34:48.210 --> 00:34:54.172
Like, I loved your band and got to know who he was, the world champion.
586
00:34:55.055 --> 00:34:57.377
And he had just blew up his heart.
587
00:34:58.298 --> 00:35:02.483
So he had a titanium valve in.
588
00:35:02.523 --> 00:35:03.644
Yeah, I remember that.
589
00:35:04.445 --> 00:35:06.767
And he was making his comeback.
590
00:35:07.908 --> 00:35:10.591
And it was really cool to be with him on his comeback.
591
00:35:10.611 --> 00:35:11.412
But I would go...
592
00:35:11.970 --> 00:35:19.075
chase these dudes up hills, you know, these guys were all, him and the guys he rode, they're all pros.
593
00:35:19.695 --> 00:35:23.838
So when you ride with pros, they show you how to ride and really suffer.
594
00:35:24.218 --> 00:35:25.039
It's about suffering.
595
00:35:25.179 --> 00:35:26.560
Yeah, I know, I love it.
596
00:35:27.921 --> 00:35:33.105
By the way, I've ridden those hills above Santa Monica and all those mountains.
597
00:35:33.165 --> 00:35:35.407
I've been up hundreds and hundreds of times.
598
00:35:35.427 --> 00:35:36.828
Sullivan and all that stuff.
599
00:35:36.848 --> 00:35:39.530
Yeah, Sullivan Canyon many, many times.
600
00:35:39.790 --> 00:35:44.094
Like you said, you've got to suffer for an hour or two, and then ultimately you'll come back down.
601
00:35:44.694 --> 00:35:46.456
Yeah, but I love the suffering.
602
00:35:46.496 --> 00:35:52.921
At the same time, I got into
a dojo with Sensei Benny Okides.
603
00:35:53.021 --> 00:35:53.201
Yeah.
604
00:35:54.640 --> 00:36:02.085
And that became my, like, this, just the look in his eyes, I wanted the calm and cool and the kind of knowing.
605
00:36:02.185 --> 00:36:04.787
And I didn't have to tell him what happened to me.
606
00:36:04.807 --> 00:36:06.688
He kind of could read it all.
607
00:36:07.729 --> 00:36:11.191
And he's like, if you're willing to work, I can accept you as a student.
608
00:36:12.392 --> 00:36:16.475
And by working, like, the conditioning was insane, you know.
609
00:36:16.875 --> 00:36:19.117
And I loved the suffering was insane.
610
00:36:19.777 --> 00:36:23.820
And that, the suffering, being in that,
611
00:36:25.512 --> 00:36:29.494
I wouldn't have panic attacks and I could figure out what was going on.
612
00:36:29.514 --> 00:36:34.115
And suffering became a really close partner to me, you know, a safe space.
613
00:36:35.096 --> 00:36:45.500
And learned how to kick box, learned how to jab, right cross, you know, learned how to defend, learned how to front kick, ball kick, round kick, you know.
614
00:36:46.540 --> 00:36:50.282
Got started getting in the ring with guys.
615
00:36:50.322 --> 00:36:52.723
My first time in the ring was heavy, you know, like.
616
00:36:54.114 --> 00:37:02.561
mouthpiece, cup, headgear, and there was a guy getting ready for the, there was a middleweight getting ready for the world championships, Petey Cunningham.
617
00:37:04.122 --> 00:37:04.943
One of the world's best.
618
00:37:05.603 --> 00:37:07.445
Okay, you're gonna be a sparring partner for him.
619
00:37:08.325 --> 00:37:08.606
Ha!
620
00:37:09.586 --> 00:37:13.369
So he ax kicked my left shoulder, so I had no jab.
621
00:37:13.890 --> 00:37:16.212
He ax kicked my right shoulder, I had no right cross.
622
00:37:16.232 --> 00:37:22.697
I was just like flailing, trying to kick, but I went three rounds and he said, you know, you can tell your friends who went three rounds
623
00:37:24.020 --> 00:37:24.660
world champion.
624
00:37:24.880 --> 00:37:25.220
Yeah.
625
00:37:25.601 --> 00:37:26.441
She was okay.
626
00:37:26.621 --> 00:37:36.444
But I sucked, you know, like I but I started being sparring partners for four guys and started to sparring other guys in the dojo.
627
00:37:37.544 --> 00:37:48.028
And then I, you know, is there a long time I started sparring newer guys and teaching them, you know, you know, about the ring and how you, you know,
628
00:37:48.873 --> 00:37:50.194
You can see everything in your eyes.
629
00:37:50.254 --> 00:37:51.034
I can see fear.
630
00:37:51.094 --> 00:37:52.635
I can see everything.
631
00:37:53.135 --> 00:37:54.535
So don't give it away, man.
632
00:37:54.675 --> 00:37:55.396
Don't give it away.
633
00:37:55.796 --> 00:37:57.016
Just get in and be confident.
634
00:37:57.056 --> 00:37:58.657
Do your thing.
635
00:37:58.697 --> 00:37:59.477
Do your training.
636
00:37:59.878 --> 00:38:01.258
You know how to defend.
637
00:38:01.298 --> 00:38:02.439
You know how to move.
638
00:38:02.719 --> 00:38:03.219
Just move.
639
00:38:03.779 --> 00:38:09.121
So I really, martial arts and mountain biking really kind of turned me around.
640
00:38:09.141 --> 00:38:15.824
The band, we started to try to do fits and starts of making a record doing something.
641
00:38:19.201 --> 00:38:20.402
Sober, sober, sober.
642
00:38:22.323 --> 00:38:24.464
I met Susan on a blind date.
643
00:38:25.564 --> 00:38:26.905
I wasn't dating girls.
644
00:38:27.646 --> 00:38:28.606
I didn't know how to.
645
00:38:30.107 --> 00:38:32.568
I had to figure out myself first.
646
00:38:32.688 --> 00:38:35.330
I knew that I was taking enough responsibility in my life.
647
00:38:36.364 --> 00:38:37.264
It was a sea change.
648
00:38:37.905 --> 00:38:43.246
You can't bring somebody else into your life until you know who you are.
649
00:38:43.907 --> 00:38:46.207
I was Duff from Guns N' Roses.
650
00:38:46.227 --> 00:38:48.628
That was my identity, like the linebacker.
651
00:38:49.989 --> 00:38:51.089
I'm the linebacker.
652
00:38:51.529 --> 00:38:54.170
I'm just, no, you're more than that, man.
653
00:38:54.890 --> 00:38:56.011
You've got a family.
654
00:38:56.831 --> 00:38:58.272
You've made friendships.
655
00:38:59.877 --> 00:39:02.626
moved to LA, you formed this band.
656
00:39:02.646 --> 00:39:03.609
It's great.
657
00:39:03.710 --> 00:39:05.074
It's not your identity.
658
00:39:05.094 --> 00:39:06.298
Your identity is something else.
659
00:39:06.399 --> 00:39:06.960
What is it?
660
00:39:07.822 --> 00:39:09.563
You know, it can be more than that.
661
00:39:09.783 --> 00:39:10.904
Well, I think you did go on.
662
00:39:10.924 --> 00:39:28.217
I mean, outside of writing a book and going to CLU and doing a business degree, you know, that's the thing that, I mean, look, it's super cool that, you know, you and I are friends at sort of a distance level, but, you know, like you don't forget the people who you grew up with and we've always been good.
663
00:39:28.757 --> 00:39:36.983
But what I'm most proud of you is this constant reinvention of when there was space between these different things, you were filling it with,
664
00:39:37.303 --> 00:39:42.687
your own projects, your own band, you were feeling it by going to Seattle U to get your business degree.
665
00:39:42.707 --> 00:39:52.054
And I think from my outside point of view, I think and I see you as being the main glue to that band, which is Guns N' Roses.
666
00:39:52.134 --> 00:40:03.483
And I know you and Slash have been tight for a long time, but really the anchor to like think about in a very smart, intelligent way, how you guys can like come back together, you know, on the right terms.
667
00:40:03.943 --> 00:40:05.225
and then go out and explode.
668
00:40:05.245 --> 00:40:06.186
Let me ask you this, though.
669
00:40:06.447 --> 00:40:06.647
Yeah.
670
00:40:07.028 --> 00:40:14.658
You start this other band, Velvet Revolver, which is kind of taken here yourself slash, I think, Matt, the drummer from Guns, right?
671
00:40:14.739 --> 00:40:18.524
And then you bring in Scott Weiland, right?
672
00:40:18.604 --> 00:40:18.844
Yeah.
673
00:40:19.505 --> 00:40:27.267
who, and that was the last time I saw you, which was at the whatever small spot down on First Avenue in Seattle.
674
00:40:27.287 --> 00:40:27.828
I can't remember.
675
00:40:27.848 --> 00:40:28.508
Oh, the Showbox.
676
00:40:28.768 --> 00:40:29.688
The Showbox.
677
00:40:30.088 --> 00:40:31.389
Yeah, I saw you at the Showbox.
678
00:40:31.409 --> 00:40:34.810
It was your first, actually, it was the Velarovarva's first show at,
679
00:40:35.790 --> 00:40:36.591
you know, that you're doing.
680
00:40:36.611 --> 00:40:37.712
It happened to be a showbox.
681
00:40:38.032 --> 00:40:38.292
Probably.
682
00:40:38.312 --> 00:40:40.194
I'm sure you're the one who anchored that.
683
00:40:40.675 --> 00:40:49.823
But was that hard for you to do after all the shit that you've gone through and and the rehab and just kind of finally seeing the light?
684
00:40:49.943 --> 00:40:55.107
And now you're seeing this insanely talented guy, front man.
685
00:40:55.888 --> 00:41:02.589
go out there and just like be a train wreck in terms of all the drugs he was taking, which would ultimately lead to his death.
686
00:41:03.049 --> 00:41:07.590
I mean, it just must've been a hard situation to be in.
687
00:41:08.291 --> 00:41:11.351
Well, you know, I'd grown up a bunch by then.
688
00:41:11.371 --> 00:41:15.912
Now we're, now we're 10 years away from me getting sober.
689
00:41:15.972 --> 00:41:16.932
I'd met Susan.
690
00:41:17.212 --> 00:41:17.452
Yeah.
691
00:41:17.712 --> 00:41:20.353
We had two daughters by this time.
692
00:41:20.633 --> 00:41:21.613
Great kids, by the way.
693
00:41:21.773 --> 00:41:24.234
Great, great girls, you know, like yours.
694
00:41:24.334 --> 00:41:24.614
Yeah.
695
00:41:25.334 --> 00:41:25.534
Um,
696
00:41:26.368 --> 00:41:31.810
And I think I was ready for that.
697
00:41:31.870 --> 00:41:33.751
We got Scott.
698
00:41:34.772 --> 00:41:35.892
We tried out a bunch of singers.
699
00:41:35.912 --> 00:41:42.075
And when Scott came in the room and did it, and obviously he was, oh, this is the guy.
700
00:41:43.015 --> 00:41:45.376
And we talked about drugs and stuff.
701
00:41:45.696 --> 00:41:47.917
And he and I went to Lake Chelan.
702
00:41:49.843 --> 00:42:14.263
um for about two months and got him off of everything did martial arts and there's a sifu uh guy up there that i knew because i had the place in wenatchee and we went up and stayed on his hilltop house it's not even house it's in the ground it's like built in the ground he's off the grid but it's like a bruce lee camp up there it's amazing um and
703
00:42:15.053 --> 00:42:19.337
got Scott off the heroin, did this stuff called Bupren X or whatever.
704
00:42:19.997 --> 00:42:21.378
And he wanted to get sober.
705
00:42:21.478 --> 00:42:24.441
And I said, well, I got to, because I want to get sober like you got sober.
706
00:42:24.961 --> 00:42:25.542
Martial arts.
707
00:42:25.562 --> 00:42:27.023
I'm like, well, it's okay.
708
00:42:27.543 --> 00:42:32.207
But it's, you know, it's going to be a lot of suffering.
709
00:42:32.507 --> 00:42:33.228
Yeah.
710
00:42:33.448 --> 00:42:34.509
And he did it.
711
00:42:35.170 --> 00:42:36.591
And so that first record...
712
00:42:37.629 --> 00:42:59.406
was made he was sober and the first tour and it was it was it was great but you could see it teetering and the second record when the wheels came off was tough um we had a lot of success with that first record you know band grew it was a big rock band you know suddenly we're a big rock band and um
713
00:43:01.842 --> 00:43:07.884
You know, seeing Scott, the demise and losing his wife.
714
00:43:07.964 --> 00:43:09.124
And he had two kids.
715
00:43:09.224 --> 00:43:11.305
And they just kind of took off.
716
00:43:11.345 --> 00:43:12.985
Scott, you're going to lose your family, dude.
717
00:43:13.025 --> 00:43:14.466
That's what this is all about.
718
00:43:14.706 --> 00:43:17.747
And it was quite sad.
719
00:43:20.148 --> 00:43:20.808
I know him.
720
00:43:20.828 --> 00:43:22.268
I know him.
721
00:43:23.609 --> 00:43:25.349
Him, not the drug, Scott.
722
00:43:25.569 --> 00:43:26.630
And what a good guy.
723
00:43:26.770 --> 00:43:27.550
What an athlete.
724
00:43:28.530 --> 00:43:42.937
Everything, you know, super into football, super into Notre Dame, knew all the X's and O's and all this, you know, there's a lot of other stuff about Scott that, that was really cool to be around, really fun, you know, college football Saturdays were great.
725
00:43:43.077 --> 00:43:48.220
That was just like holiday, you know?
726
00:43:48.240 --> 00:43:52.502
So yeah, seeing that happen was, was, was gnarly.
727
00:43:52.562 --> 00:43:54.823
And that was the end of that, you know, really.
728
00:43:55.710 --> 00:44:00.712
But then we came off tour for that second record and the wheels were coming off through that whole tour.
729
00:44:00.772 --> 00:44:02.573
It was it was it was hard to watch.
730
00:44:02.753 --> 00:44:03.473
Yeah.
731
00:44:03.573 --> 00:44:06.654
After after that, you know, obviously he passes away.
732
00:44:06.674 --> 00:44:07.374
It was tragic.
733
00:44:07.774 --> 00:44:13.236
And now you've had not just one gigantic success, but two gigantic successes.
734
00:44:13.857 --> 00:44:15.797
Did you think there would be life after football?
735
00:44:15.877 --> 00:44:17.458
What did you envision at that time?
736
00:44:17.818 --> 00:44:20.539
that could ever happen for you again.
737
00:44:20.639 --> 00:44:26.380
Did you ever imagine this reincarnation of guns could explode again on the planet?
738
00:44:27.700 --> 00:44:28.600
No, not really.
739
00:44:28.620 --> 00:44:30.481
It was completely out of my head.
740
00:44:34.802 --> 00:44:43.604
And what was missing in my life, there was a fracture with myself and Axel that just didn't need to be there.
741
00:44:45.369 --> 00:44:54.576
there was that, you know, being sober guy like me and doing martial arts, you want to take care of all of those things, those heavinesses in your life.
742
00:44:54.656 --> 00:45:11.667
You want to try to at least try to take care of, you know, um, that is facing, um, having honest conversations, doing stuff without hurting the other person, of course, you know, uh, and I'd done that in, in the rest of my life.
743
00:45:11.687 --> 00:45:13.248
And there was that one thing hanging there.
744
00:45:13.308 --> 00:45:14.029
And, and, um,
745
00:45:14.893 --> 00:45:20.455
I got a call in like, I don't know what year it was, Mark, 2013 or so.
746
00:45:20.475 --> 00:45:23.336
I'd played, I'd done something.
747
00:45:23.356 --> 00:45:24.496
I did Jane's Addiction.
748
00:45:24.516 --> 00:45:27.677
I did help them make a record and went and did some gigs with them.
749
00:45:28.858 --> 00:45:29.778
I had Loaded.
750
00:45:29.798 --> 00:45:32.399
I did a bunch of other things.
751
00:45:33.599 --> 00:45:40.902
And I got a call that Axl had Guns N' Roses going, totally different guys.
752
00:45:41.282 --> 00:45:43.823
And I'd met a couple of guys, very nice guys, you know.
753
00:45:44.684 --> 00:45:49.970
And he needed me to come down to South America and play some shows.
754
00:45:51.132 --> 00:45:53.535
And I thought, here's the opportunity.
755
00:45:54.436 --> 00:45:57.059
The funny thing about that is Susan and I went to –
756
00:46:00.340 --> 00:46:03.481
starting a business with a guy in the UK.
757
00:46:03.501 --> 00:46:07.442
And Susan and I went to London to have these business meetings.
758
00:46:07.482 --> 00:46:12.203
And we stayed in the hotel we always stay in, the Metropolitan, and the meetings were there.
759
00:46:12.283 --> 00:46:15.764
And the manager had got me the room with the meeting room in it.
760
00:46:16.844 --> 00:46:19.005
So we could just have the meetings there.
761
00:46:19.025 --> 00:46:24.906
And he was taking me, Susan and I arrived in London, she came with me, taking the elevator up with the manager.
762
00:46:24.986 --> 00:46:27.627
He's coming with us, okay, you're gonna show us the room, huh?
763
00:46:28.844 --> 00:46:30.645
He goes, so you're going to go to the gig tonight?
764
00:46:31.365 --> 00:46:32.265
So this is like 2012.
765
00:46:32.345 --> 00:46:34.706
What gig?
766
00:46:35.986 --> 00:46:38.567
You're not going to Axel's gig tonight?
767
00:46:40.268 --> 00:46:41.828
I said, I don't know anything about it.
768
00:46:42.709 --> 00:46:43.989
He goes, I put you in the room.
769
00:46:44.009 --> 00:46:47.590
I put his room next to your room, because I thought you guys would sit down low.
770
00:46:48.371 --> 00:46:49.971
And I'm like, well, this is meant to be.
771
00:46:51.032 --> 00:46:54.893
So we got up to the floor, and I just went over to his room and knocked on the door.
772
00:46:56.502 -->
00:46:58.063
I said, I heard you're staying in this room.
773
00:46:58.103 --> 00:46:59.044
I'm staying next door.
774
00:46:59.064 --> 00:47:00.085
How you doing, man?
775
00:47:00.305 --> 00:47:06.489
And that was kind of the beginning of us hanging out again.
776
00:47:06.730 --> 00:47:07.310
It was cool.
777
00:47:07.390 --> 00:47:11.693
It was super killer, and it was meant to happen at that time, whatever.
778
00:47:11.753 --> 00:47:18.638
And then he needed me to come down and play some gigs with those guys in South America.
779
00:47:18.878 --> 00:47:23.722
So I said, okay, I need to rehearse with your band and see what, you know,
780
00:47:25.307 --> 00:47:25.867
see how it's going.
781
00:47:25.887 --> 00:47:29.868
So we went and rehearsed, we got together, and I told Slash, I said, I'm going to go do this.
782
00:47:30.628 --> 00:47:36.029
He needs, our friend needs me, and I'll go do these shows.
783
00:47:37.070 --> 00:47:41.811
And we had a really good time hanging out, and that was kind of that.
784
00:47:42.711 --> 00:47:44.991
And that was 2013.
785
00:47:45.831 --> 00:47:53.173
So, but it, now we were texting, talking, things were, okay.
786
00:47:54.219 --> 00:47:57.842
And one thing led to another, really.
787
00:47:57.862 --> 00:48:03.787
And without telling anybody, the three of us talked.
788
00:48:04.508 --> 00:48:05.909
I didn't tell my manager.
789
00:48:05.929 --> 00:48:07.411
I didn't tell Susan.
790
00:48:08.572 --> 00:48:10.754
We wanted to keep it super private.
791
00:48:11.575 --> 00:48:13.797
And we wanted to get out there.
792
00:48:14.037 --> 00:48:18.441
Because if it got out, it was so fragile at that point.
793
00:48:19.722 --> 00:48:21.325
I trust Susan completely.
794
00:48:21.585 --> 00:48:23.028
You know, I trust my manager.
795
00:48:23.409 --> 00:48:27.055
But just people didn't need to know that we were talking at the very beginning.
796
00:48:27.236 --> 00:48:27.476
Yeah.
797
00:48:28.358 --> 00:48:29.780
So it was nice.
798
00:48:29.800 --> 00:48:31.804
And we figured out the same way, you know.
799
00:48:33.263 --> 00:48:34.564
what would this look like?
800
00:48:34.845 --> 00:48:41.112
And us playing again and who would be in the band?
801
00:48:42.213 --> 00:48:45.797
Well, as you know, you can't fly high if you have weight on your back, right?
802
00:48:45.837 --> 00:48:46.798
Yeah, that's it.
803
00:48:46.958 --> 00:48:52.103
And I think, you know, like we're all in this group, you know, the older you get.
804
00:48:52.204 --> 00:48:55.367
I love that saying, by the way, you can't fly high if there's weight on your back.
805
00:48:55.565 --> 00:48:56.325
You can't, man.
806
00:48:57.146 --> 00:49:03.250
And like anything that you have that's unresolved with people, life is short and off you go.
807
00:49:03.290 --> 00:49:09.393
And so I'd ask you, like now that you guys are completely on fire, right?
808
00:49:09.413 --> 00:49:10.334
You just got off this.
809
00:49:10.514 --> 00:49:11.175
Well, you're.
810
00:49:13.116 --> 00:49:19.999
You're in the midst because I know you're going to Australia, New Zealand, which, by the way, awesome country has been down there a couple of times in Asia.
811
00:49:20.119 --> 00:49:21.379
So this thing continues.
812
00:49:21.439 --> 00:49:23.940
But what does success look for you today at 62?
813
00:49:24.040 --> 00:49:25.241
I think 63 that it didn't.
814
00:49:27.925 --> 00:49:33.427
Like you could imagine, you know, it may, and maybe it was just when you were young, it was just be rich and famous.
815
00:49:33.467 --> 00:49:34.167
I'm making this up.
816
00:49:34.767 --> 00:49:35.767
And yeah, yeah.
817
00:49:35.807 --> 00:49:36.087
Right.
818
00:49:36.187 --> 00:49:39.468
So what does that, and, and, and also this is a double loaded question.
819
00:49:39.488 --> 00:49:51.492
Um, sort of like your band loaded, which is like, what is that like when you go on stage and you've got a hundred thousand people, which you do every night singing your songs and you have that power.
820
00:49:51.572 --> 00:49:52.672
I can't imagine that power.
821
00:49:53.012 --> 00:50:16.008
of everybody right in the palm of your hand like when i was playing football i have a helmet on i'm one of you know 11 on this side 11 on that side stadium nobody can it's a completely different animal right and being a rock star where you just you know there's only five or six or seven whatever people on stage like so what is success like and what is that power like um okay so so so
822
00:50:17.723 --> 00:50:21.067
You said Richard, I never had dreams of being rich and famous.
823
00:50:21.447 --> 00:50:23.330
That wasn't part of my musical dream.
824
00:50:23.670 --> 00:50:27.134
Neither was becoming addicted to alcohol and drugs.
825
00:50:27.234 --> 00:50:29.957
That wasn't part of the, so a couple of things weren't part of the dream.
826
00:50:32.120 --> 00:50:34.683
Success meant that we wrote the right songs.
827
00:50:34.763 --> 00:50:37.446
That was something I felt amazing about.
828
00:50:39.579 --> 00:50:42.043
So now, let's flash forward to now.
829
00:50:42.984 --> 00:50:45.048
These songs, I've realized what it is.
830
00:50:45.068 --> 00:50:47.511
They've been in people's lives for a long time.
831
00:50:48.458 --> 00:50:53.761
and now they've played them for their kids, at some point in the 90s or 2000s.
832
00:50:54.342 --> 00:50:58.904
So their kids are there and they're there, and sometimes their grandkids are there.
833
00:50:59.605 --> 00:51:03.847
So the crowd kind of starts getting bigger because it's generational.
834
00:51:04.208 --> 00:51:07.610
And it's too much to really think about.
835
00:51:08.070 --> 00:51:11.492
You see it when, like we come out and sound check,
836
00:51:11.772 --> 00:51:13.613
and we see this big place we're going to play.
837
00:51:13.633 --> 00:51:16.415
I'm like, Oh, I hope people show up.
838
00:51:16.455 --> 00:51:20.217
Cause this place is huge, you know, and you come
out on stage.
839
00:51:20.357 --> 00:51:39.887
I do a, uh, a meditation before we go on stage every night and kind of just ground myself and try to bring, you know, joy into my heart and, uh, you know, kind of be, be the man, be the man, be the, be the one that everybody else can count on.
840
00:51:39.947 --> 00:51:40.848
And, and, uh,
841
00:51:43.443 --> 00:51:49.787
coming out and seeing people freak out and it's wonderful.
842
00:51:50.848 --> 00:51:53.390
But we are all in this thing together.
843
00:51:53.550 --> 00:52:05.458
I take that Joe Strummer thing and I push that forward to this is us uniting in this music that's affected us and affected you and let's do it.
844
00:52:06.159 --> 00:52:11.162
We end up playing our gigs were three hours 3.15pm
845
00:52:13.062 --> 00:52:15.064
So you're going to the desert a bit, too.
846
00:52:15.184 --> 00:52:17.906
You know, it's a physical.
847
00:52:17.946 --> 00:52:18.607
We're in the gym.
848
00:52:18.687 --> 00:52:19.767
I'm in the gym every day.
849
00:52:20.428 --> 00:52:27.294
You know, it's a physical feat, you know, these gigs we do.
850
00:52:28.655 --> 00:52:30.896
So it keeps you at 62.
851
00:52:31.097 --> 00:52:32.438
I can't think about that.
852
00:52:33.038 --> 00:52:36.461
You know, I'm whatever age because I got to be in the gym.
853
00:52:38.078 --> 00:52:50.551
in 20 minutes, you know, and I got to do this and keep myself fit and do these gigs and be good and be rehearsed and know your shit and go.
854
00:52:50.671 --> 00:52:54.976
So success, what does that mean to me today?
855
00:52:55.116 --> 00:52:55.737
Really means
856
00:52:57.957 --> 00:53:04.819
I can do this thing that we've created and have a great relationship with the guys in my band.
857
00:53:04.999 --> 00:53:05.580
And it's great.
858
00:53:06.340 --> 00:53:07.500
It's really great.
859
00:53:07.880 --> 00:53:09.021
It's heavy and it's cool.
860
00:53:09.121 --> 00:53:16.023
And sometimes I'll look over at Slasher or Axel and like, probably the three of us shouldn't be here.
861
00:53:16.844 --> 00:53:19.264
We all probably died at about 29.
862
00:53:20.825 --> 00:53:21.465
So we're here.
863
00:53:21.845 --> 00:53:22.285
We're here.
864
00:53:22.325 --> 00:53:25.607
I mean, that's heavy alone, thinking about that.
865
00:53:29.924 --> 00:53:38.311
But success, you know, is my wife being happy and content and into me, you know.
866
00:53:39.052 --> 00:53:39.712
I'm into her.
867
00:53:42.074 --> 00:53:44.576
And my girls, you know, every night we come off stage.
868
00:53:44.677 --> 00:53:47.279
I can be in Mumbai, India.
869
00:53:48.305 --> 00:53:52.507
I go to my Find My on my phone and I look and see where every girl is.
870
00:53:52.947 --> 00:53:54.908
That's the first thing I do when we come off stage.
871
00:53:55.068 --> 00:53:57.709
They're safe, they're cool.
872
00:53:58.129 --> 00:53:59.170
I text them every night.
873
00:53:59.230 --> 00:54:00.090
I'm going on now.
874
00:54:00.890 --> 00:54:01.671
I'm off now.
875
00:54:02.671 --> 00:54:04.052
I'm going back to the hotel.
876
00:54:04.332 --> 00:54:05.632
Your priorities are in the right spot.
877
00:54:05.692 --> 00:54:08.414
I talk to my girls three times a day each.
878
00:54:08.834 --> 00:54:09.674
Nice.
879
00:54:09.794 --> 00:54:12.515
Yeah, they're both in New York City and Manhattan.
880
00:54:12.535 --> 00:54:13.916
Okay, Mays in Manhattan.
881
00:54:14.232 --> 00:54:14.712
Is that right?
882
00:54:15.033 --> 00:54:15.273
Yeah.
883
00:54:15.433 --> 00:54:16.433
Yeah, we should connect.
884
00:54:16.453 --> 00:54:17.434
We'll talk about that after.
885
00:54:17.494 --> 00:54:19.495
But, you know, it's just so important.
886
00:54:19.515 --> 00:54:26.599
Like that's my at the end of the day, somebody had me on their podcast of the day and they go, what is your greatest accomplishment of all these things I've done as well?
887
00:54:27.300 --> 00:54:28.901
And I said, I'll tell you exactly.
888
00:54:28.921 --> 00:54:29.881
It's super easy for me.
889
00:54:30.362 --> 00:54:35.665
And that is that at the end of the day, when they throw dirt on me, that my daughters are proud that I was their dad.
890
00:54:35.925 --> 00:54:37.146
That's the only thing that matters to me.
891
00:54:37.706 --> 00:54:38.967
I mean, that's the thing, isn't it?
892
00:54:40.504 --> 00:54:42.605
Let me ask you this one last question because I know you've got to go.
893
00:54:44.105 --> 00:54:45.945
So I watched the video the other day.
894
00:54:45.985 --> 00:54:51.406
It's one of my favorite songs, one of my favorite songs, period, but November Rain.
895
00:54:51.526 --> 00:54:53.447
I think it's one of the most beautiful songs.
896
00:54:53.487 --> 00:54:56.267
And when you guys were playing at the Grammys or something with Elton John.
897
00:54:57.347 --> 00:55:03.829
And as I was thinking about this interview, I'm like, you have been able to be in the presence of so many people
898
00:55:05.589 --> 00:55:15.575
You know, I can't I didn't know half the people you've been in the presence with or play with or whatever, you know, from the Stones to I'm sure Nancy and Ann Wilson.
899
00:55:15.635 --> 00:55:17.036
You know, I could go on and on.
900
00:55:17.076 --> 00:55:19.237
The guys we grew up with, the people we grew up with.
901
00:55:19.357 --> 00:55:20.138
I've gotten to.
902
00:55:20.298 --> 00:55:22.559
Yeah, no, I mean, Eddie Vedder.
903
00:55:22.980 --> 00:55:26.382
But is there anybody out there that like.
904
00:55:27.162 --> 00:55:30.708
Because you guys are all peers right now, and I totally get that.
905
00:55:30.988 --> 00:55:35.976
But is there anybody out there that makes you a little bit starstruck when you've got in their presence?
906
00:55:36.559 --> 00:55:37.279
There's a couple.
907
00:55:37.399 --> 00:55:39.180
I mean, Prince was one of them.
908
00:55:39.220 --> 00:55:40.001
And I got to meet him.
909
00:55:40.201 --> 00:55:45.043
And unfortunately when I did, I was,
Prince would like to meet.
910
00:55:45.083 --> 00:55:45.863
I was in Germany.
911
00:55:45.923 --> 00:55:50.125
I went into this backstage room and of course it was all candle lit and dark.
912
00:55:50.185 --> 00:55:51.546
And like you would imagine.
913
00:55:51.586 --> 00:55:51.886
Yeah.
914
00:55:52.126 --> 00:55:52.326
Yeah.
915
00:55:52.546 --> 00:55:55.207
And I realized at that very moment I was too drunk.
916
00:55:55.687 --> 00:55:55.947
Yeah.
917
00:55:56.228 --> 00:55:57.648
So I didn't really say much.
918
00:55:57.728 --> 00:55:58.669
I'm like, Oh fuck.
919
00:55:58.969 --> 00:55:59.649
Yeah.
920
00:55:59.929 --> 00:56:02.410
He's, he's one of my favorites all time.
921
00:56:02.430 --> 00:56:02.530
Yeah.
922
00:56:05.526 --> 00:56:06.747
Iggy Pop is one.
923
00:56:06.787 --> 00:56:11.849
Now, I've gotten to play on two of his records and do some gigs with him, but he's still a deity to me.
924
00:56:12.609 --> 00:56:14.470
He's the greatest.
925
00:56:14.490 --> 00:56:23.093
And Lemmy from Motorhead was a legend when I met him, and that was 1987.
926
00:56:23.273 --> 00:56:24.854
He remained a legend.
927
00:56:24.914 --> 00:56:25.874
He is a legend.
928
00:56:26.515 --> 00:56:29.396
So those three are probably the three.
929
00:56:29.456 --> 00:56:31.797
I've met plenty of other people.
930
00:56:31.837 --> 00:56:34.538
What I realized is that if you last this long in music,
931
00:56:34.999 --> 00:56:36.680
Some of the older ones than us.
932
00:56:37.560 --> 00:56:39.841
You really can't be a dick.
933
00:56:39.981 --> 00:56:42.041
So it was a really nice realization.
934
00:56:42.982 --> 00:56:48.364
You've got to be good at what you do, and you've got to be imaginative at your songwriting and write great songs.
935
00:56:48.804 --> 00:56:55.786
But you can't really be a dick and make it a long time in a band or in this thing.
936
00:56:55.826 --> 00:56:59.808
So most people I've met have just been really cool people.
937
00:57:01.554 --> 00:57:02.794
including Anne and Nancy.
938
00:57:02.834 --> 00:57:05.755
They're the raddest, you know, they're amazing.
939
00:57:06.135 --> 00:57:13.798
First concert I ever saw was in Metro, or you know that old stadium down in the universe by the Space Needle?
940
00:57:14.358 --> 00:57:17.259
Oh, the Memorial Stadium.
941
00:57:17.279 --> 00:57:18.099
Memorial Stadium.
942
00:57:18.119 --> 00:57:19.480
That's where we used to play football, right?
943
00:57:20.684 --> 00:57:20.924
Right.
944
00:57:21.125 --> 00:57:25.329
And first Foreigner, first first concert out.
945
00:57:25.530 --> 00:57:30.055
And Nancy, that was their big album, their their launch album, whatever that was called back in the day.
946
00:57:30.075 --> 00:57:33.379
Greenboat Annie or Greenboat Annie, you know, Tower of Power.
947
00:57:34.637 --> 00:57:35.737
Tower of power.
948
00:57:35.897 --> 00:57:36.217
Yeah.
949
00:57:36.277 --> 00:57:40.058
I mean, there was like five, everyone was just boom, boom, boom.
950
00:57:40.118 --> 00:57:41.898
And I, you know, I was like in eighth grade.
951
00:57:41.958 --> 00:57:43.479
I was just like, Oh my God.
952
00:57:44.299 --> 00:57:45.699
What are these voices up there?
953
00:57:45.799 --> 00:57:46.139
Yeah.
954
00:57:46.179 --> 00:57:46.339
Yeah.
955
00:57:46.379 --> 00:57:46.999
How do they do?
956
00:57:47.059 --> 00:57:48.420
What's this magic they're doing?
957
00:57:48.480 --> 00:57:48.700
Yeah.
958
00:57:48.720 --> 00:57:50.300
That's, that was me in the eighth grade.
959
00:57:50.320 --> 00:57:52.140
Like how did they do this magic?
960
00:57:52.300 --> 00:57:52.740
Yeah.
961
00:57:52.960 --> 00:57:53.360
Yeah.
962
00:57:53.480 --> 00:57:54.341
No, it was amazing.
963
00:57:54.821 --> 00:58:01.942
Well, listen, buddy, I'm going to, I know you've got to go and you've been a superstar and I so appreciate your friendship over the years and you know,
964
00:58:02.565 --> 00:58:05.466
If you're ever in some valley, you and Susan, you always got a place here.
965
00:58:05.947 --> 00:58:06.367
Nice.
966
00:58:06.447 --> 00:58:06.767
Thanks.
967
00:58:07.027 --> 00:58:08.007
Good, good.
968
00:58:08.087 --> 00:58:13.030
And I can promise you that I will punish you when you come here by running up the hill with me.
969
00:58:13.710 --> 00:58:14.110
Okay.
970
00:58:14.350 --> 00:58:14.650
Yeah.
971
00:58:14.690 --> 00:58:15.951
So if you want to suffer.
972
00:58:16.031 --> 00:58:16.631
I like hills.
973
00:58:17.071 --> 00:58:17.612
I know you do.
974
00:58:17.672 --> 00:58:19.713
So that's why I'm offering to come over and suffer with me.
975
00:58:20.153 --> 00:58:20.413
Okay.
976
00:58:20.433 --> 00:58:21.954
I like to suffer, too, like hills.
977
00:58:22.154 --> 00:58:22.734
I know you do.
978
00:58:22.754 --> 00:58:23.634
I'll follow you up.
979
00:58:23.674 --> 00:58:25.615
You know, we'll see how that goes.
980
00:58:25.995 --> 00:58:26.696
All right, everybody.
981
00:58:26.716 --> 00:58:27.316
There he is.
982
00:58:27.616 --> 00:58:30.077
The one, the only, Duff McKagan.
983
00:58:30.097 --> 00:58:30.738
Thank you so much.
984
00:58:31.118 --> 00:58:31.598
Thanks, bud.