By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
April 10, 1992
In the four years it took to go from being an anonymous L.A. club band to America’s reigning hard rock kings, members of Guns N’ Roses have created more controversy and publicity by being themselves than most musicians could conjure with an army of PR flacks thinking things up.
Their bouts with booze, rival bands and each other have been well documented in the press, an entity the group tried battling by ignoring, unless reporters signed agreements giving Guns N’ Roses final copy approval.
These days, Guns N’ Roses is talking to the press, minus the consent forms, but with reservations. The irony of trying to hamper the media’s First Amendment rights hasn’t been lost on the musicians. But bassist Duff McKagan said it was one of the few ways they knew of curtailing a situation that had snowballed.
Guns N’ Roses’ performance tonight will close the band’s two nights at the Rosemont Horizon. The band canceled its gig at the World Music Theatre in Tinley Park last Fourth of July as a result of an earlier riot at a Missouri concert.
It was a good-natured McKagan who rang for this interview last summer.
“I’ll be the first to admit we’re not angels,” McKagan said. “(But the attention) should be about our music, not that one (musician) has AIDS or is a junkie. That’s nobody’s business. I don’t see a whole lot of (integrity) going around these days, which is sad. There are stories told about us that didn’t even happen. There’s got to be a way these days to control some of this s—. (Making reporters sign the press agreement) got blown out of proportion – it was handled all wrong. It could have been handled more daintily.”
McKagan said their sets, averaging about three hours, have gotten longer than when they kicked off their world tour last Memorial Day weekend at Alpine Valley. That, coupled with vocalist Rose’s reputation for showing up late for oncerts, could make this show last until tomorrow morning.
They’ll be performing material from their first two LPs, “Appetite for Destruction” and “GN’R Lies,” which collectively sold 12 million copies worldwide, as well as tracks from their double compact disc releases “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II.” They are touring with a TelePrompter and without a set list, relying on Rose to serve as the band’s musical quarterback.
“I’m not saying we’re the best band in the world,” McKagan said. “I am saying we’re the best band we can be and we’re proud of that fact. We didn’t start the Iraq war. We didn’t break down the Berlin Wall. We’re not starting a civil war in Yugoslavia. We’re just a rock ‘n’ roll band, and I think people sensationalize that way too
much.”
