Slash: I used to live there. I was born there.

Interviewer: Yeah, I know. Stoke-On-Trent

Slash: Stoke-On-Trent.

Interviewer: The only trouble is in American it's Stoke-In-Trent. "In" instead of "on".

Duff: Yeah, Stoke-In-Trent.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Duff: We call it…

Slash: I don't know what I call it.

Duff: Oh, it's…

Slash: Actually lucky enough to spell it right once... [inaudible] It's Stoke-En-Trent, right?

Interviewer: No, on. Stoke-On-Trent.

Slash: It's on?

Interviewer: Stoke-On Trent, yeah.

Slash: Wow.

Interviewer: So… what? You moved over there when you were little, or what?

Slash: No, I was born there. I was born in London.

Interviewer: Oh, I see. It's…

Slash: My dad was British. And so I lived… I was born in London. Lived there for eleven years and moved to LA.

Interviewer - Uhu.

Slash: So there's certain little things I remember and shit, you know.

Interviewer: So you're part British educated then?

Slash - Huh? Yeah, I went to school here, yeah.

Duff - We say "rather"…

Interviewer: It doesn't sound…

Duff: It's been… [inaudible]

Slash: [inaudible] Americanized.

Duff: We say "rather", he still says "rather". We say "aunt", he still says "aunt".

Slash: I got a couple of little things left in there. Otherwise it's basically all "yeah, yeah, yeah".

Duff: Do you still say "tomato"?

Slash: No, no.

Duff: Or "potato"?

Slash: No, I don't say any of that shit.

Interviewer: [inaudible]

Slash: That's Del.

Duff: This is our road crew.

Slash: And this is where we dwell. Ask us some provocative questions.

Interviewer: Tell me about the groupies.

Slash: About what?

Interviewer: Groupies.

Duff: Groupies?

Slash: Groupies?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Duff: Love 'em.

Interviewer: Are there a lot of around?

Duff: Yeah, yeah.

Slash: They're worth a treck around the block anytime.

Duff: In LA… I mean… There are a lot of groupies here in London too, but they're all ugly and fat.

Slash: We've been doing all right, though.

Duff: Yeah.

Slash: All in all.

Duff: All in all.

Slash: All in all, considering when we first got… [inaudible] and within three or four days time, we managed to screw in there. Find some…

Duff: LA is… LA is the Mecca.

Slash: LA is the Mecca when it comes to that.

Duff: We've all moved from different places to LA, you know.

Slash: Salute to American… [inaudible]

Duff: You get to LA, it's like… Have you been to LA?

Interviewer: No.

Duff: It's like… a Mecca, man. You fuckin' just drive down the street, drive down Sunset…

Slash: And they're eager…

Interviewer: I'm not going before I can afford to buy Excalibur and Crystal.

Duff: Yeah?

Interviewer: You know Excalibur?

Duff: Yeah.

Interviewer: I get to them. I'm gonna get enough money to…

Duff: Yeah.

Interviewer: [inaudible]… Oh, nothing.

Slash: Can I have it?

Interviewer: Umm?

Slash: Have some more mentos?

Interviewer: Oh, sure, yeah. Have you heard of Terence Trent D'Arby?

Slash: Who?

Interviewer: Terence Trent D'Arby. He's an American who was in the army in Germany. So, he's started to making a musical career here.

Slash: Yeah.

Interviewer: And he started his… [inaudible] and I sort of liked it so…

Slash: Is he a cool guy?

Interviewer: He's very much like Prince, so…

Duff: Oh, Prince canceled a week, huh?

Interviewer: No, he's playing… It's postponed for a week. So he's playing the small place.

Duff: Oh, he is?

Interviewer: Yes.

Duff - Next week or tomorrow?

Interviewer: No…

Slash: Indoors, right?

Interviewer: First, second, third and fourth of July.

Slash: He's doing indoors?

Interviewer: Yeah, indoors. Officially he was afraid of being electrocuted because of the weather.

Duff: No shit? That wasn't…

Slash: He would look great electrocuted, though.

[everybody laughs]

Interviewer: I suppose he would.

Slash: Real purple and everything.

Duff: Real purple!

Interviewer: So, ok guys. Tell me, how long…

Duff: The groupies are great. In LA… you know… it's pretty much…

Slash: Next to a show… pretty much the life and blood of to keep you going.

Duff: Yeah, next to playing live.

Slash: Yeah. After a show, if you don't have something to fuck, for the sake of sounding glid…

Interviewer: I mean, all that adrenaline running, you really have to get rid of it.

Duff: Yeah, you have to… you know, venture.

Slash: [laughs]

Duff: Venture… your tension.

Interviewer: Hasn't all this AIDS-talk make it more…

Duff: More of a challenge.

Slash: More of a challenge.

Duff: It's more like a sport.

Interviewer: No rain coats?

Duff: Huh?

Interviewer: No raincoats?

Slash: What does that mean?

Duff: Rubbers, you mean?

Slash: Oh, rubbers. That's a…

Interviewer: I heard it from somebody from New York.

Duff: Really?

Slash: No, really.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Slash: I guess it's 'cause it rains so much out there. [laughs]

Interviewer: Yeah, maybe.

Slash: No, I mean… I think….

Duff: Raincoats are… If you're drunk you can't get 'em on.

Slash: I used a rubber once, and my grandmother found it in the toilet.

Interviewer - [laughs]

Slash: It's true. She said: "What is this?" [in mock accent] I said: "Umm… fuck. Tin-foil."

Duff: Tin-foil.

Slash: No, no.

Duff: Saran wrap.

Slash: Saran wrap

Duff: Did you?

Slash: [laughs]

Duff: Spilled a little mayonnaise on it.

Interviewer: Anyway, can we get a bit serious? Tell me about the…

Slash: We've been serious.

Interviewer: I know, I know… How long have you been together?

Slash: Two years.

Duff: Two years.

Interviewer: Two years? Was it difficult to get a deal?

Slash: No…

Interviewer: Really?

Duff: We we're rehearsing in a little place about half the size this room. We built a loft that we slept on and we… all the equipment was underneath the loft. So we had about this much room… you know, between us and the wall. And we were just bashing out, playing gigs.

Slash: We used to write songs… so fuckin' loud in that room, it would blow your mind. And that's how we… that's how we…. We used to go in there…

Duff: We rent… There was no bath… There was a bath, there was a toilet. No shower or, you know, no stove or nothing. It was just a room. And there was a bathroom down the alley. We rent it for 400 bucks a month.

Slash: We were supported wholly by women.

Duff: And by… When we did gigs, you know…

Slash: No…

Duff: That's what pay our rent.

Slash: But that was like… It was like… We're in the there, we're rehearsing there. [inaudible] ….get somebody to loan us a car [laughs] Or something. And then we go and do gigs and come back and back and forth and back and forth. There was always like, 150 people there all the time, out in the parking lot. The cops busted a million times. It was a lot of fun.

Interviewer: What about the neighbors?

Slash: [inaudible]… any neighbors.

Duff: It was in a… There wasn't like, residential…

Slash: It was more like, business-type…

Duff: It was like, down the alley.

Slash: It was on the outskirts of the neighborhood.

Interviewer: Oh, I see.

Duff: There's a wood-shop and a… you know. Nothing, there was nothing. It's just like, you know, an alley that just ends where we were at. But it was pretty interesting time. We got a lot of songs out of that place. We used to drink this shit called Nightrain. They don't have it over here.

Interviewer: [inaudible]

Duff: Yeah, it's like… umm, just great wine. It comes in a little bottle for a dollar.

Slash: A dollar.

Duff: So, you could… You could round up a dollar somehow, you know. And we used to drink this shit. We fuckin' make the store run out of the stuff, you know. So, we got a song called "Nightrain", named after that stuff. It's called "Nightrain".

Interviewer: No problems with using the name?

Duff: Not yet.

Interviewer: Not yet?

Duff: They could… I mean, shit, it's a cheap little wine company. I'm sure they'll…

Interviewer: They could do with all the publicity they can get, huh?

Duff: Yeah.

Interviewer: So, how did you get a deal?

Duff: Just…

Slash: Well, what happened was… Umm, we were out there just gigging and gigging and gigging and gigging, and we managed to get a pretty big following. And so all the record companies at one time all of a sudden decided to see who this band was. And we had pretty much every major record company down there, and Geffen was the only one that had Tom Zutaut in it, which is the guy that actually signed us, who was cool enough for us to actually relate to. Everyone else was like, signing the band because we had a crowd, and people were interested.

Duff: [inaudible]… you know.

Slash: Yeah, and Tom was cool. There's a perfect example of like, the record business nowadays, where Tom went up and saw us at the Troubadour in LA. And then came back to the front of the club after the show was over, and all the other record company guys said: "What'd u think?" you know. And he said: "Oh, they're terrible".

Duff: He said we sucked.

Slash: But he calls us the next day and said we're great. I mean, that's how this business works. "Are they good?" "Oh, really?". And everybody… Otherwise they wouldn't know the difference between shit and shy.

Duff: Yeah. We got… fuckin'… There was like, a two week period when all this was going down. Three weeks. Just brown-nosed by, you know, record companies. Being taken to lunch…

Slash: We ate well.

Duff: We ate well. It was lunch, drinks… you know. But we… you know, we never really tried to get a deal. We never sent out, you know, promo pack…

Interviewer: Why?

Slash: We were more interested in going out and gigging. We're not that old of a band. So you considering… for a band like us, which is pretty much comprised of just rocking out, you know. Your first priority isn't to get a record deal. It is to be a band. So you go out and do gigs, and the more gigs you do, the more of a band you feel.

Duff: Yeah.

Slash: So, before we'd finished really coming into our own as a band, we already had that happening, more or less.

Duff: Yeah, you'd figure… I mean, if… if you believe in yourself as a band, you think… you know, you're… fuckin' doing a job rocking, you know. Doing what you wanna do. Then a deal or something like that is gonna come along, you know.

Interviewer: … a long time ago when you got together, did any of you have any previous musical experience? Have you played with any bands?

Duff: Yeah.

Slash: We all had. I played piano… [inaudible]

Duff: Yeah, I mean… Yeah, we've all played in probably ten, 15, 20, 30…

Slash: Countless bands.

Duff: … bands before GN'R.

Interviewer: So when you started playing together, or rehearsing or whatever, did you start playing covers or…

Slash: No.

Duff: Our own songs.

Interviewer: Immediately?

Duff: Yeah.

Slash: That's… that's, you know… I mean, it's different… In LA it's like, you can go out there and do your own songs and take a chance with that if you want. In most places bands are just so desperate to get it together, to get some… that, you know, like, you play Magic Mountain and do covers. You know what I mean? Just to get some sort of acceptance to start from there. We never went for that. We just… you know.

Duff: We do play a couple of covers.

Slash: Yeah.

Duff: Have you seen any of the shows?

Interviewer: No, I couldn't come.

Duff: We played… umm, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door".

Slash: And "Nice Boys… Don't Play Rock N' Roll".

Duff: And "Nice Boys" by Rose Tattoo. But, I mean, those were just extras.

Interviewer: Somebody said you reminded him of Grand Funk Railroad.

Duff: Yeah?

Slash: I've never seen 'em.

Duff: Really? That's a compliment.

Slash: … as far as live shows go. [inaudible] We used to play a Grand Funk song.

Duff: That's right, we used to do "American Band".

Slash: Yeah.

Duff: Long time ago. We did it like, one gig.

Slash: Until we found out Mötley Crue was… [inaudible]

Interviewer: So if the purpose of this band is live work, how did you find working in the studio?

Slash: It was all right. We did the set… We went in the studio with the same attitude that we have when we go on stage. It was really not that… It's not that involved. The whole thing, the show, is basically simple, that all this like, picking and this and that, and trying to read everything out is useless, because it really was just like, the five of us got together…

Duff: Go play.

Slash: Some of us play guitars, one guy plays drums, and one guy sings. And we just do this and then, you know…

Duff: I mean, if you look at recording in a very simple way… I mean, that's the only way to look at it, you're getting the band on a tape. On a tape and put it on a record, you know.

Slash: Yeah, it's like, it's not that complex.

Duff: We just go play and the record what you're playing.

Slash: We're not… [inaudible] through our fucking… [inaudible] Electric Light Orchestra, or anything. [inaudible] I mean, I have respect for people who go in and take a lot of time to get the shit right. But we… [inaudible] It's a rock n' roll band.

Duff: Yeah.

Interviewer: You must have a lot of songs to choose from for the album?

Slash: Umm, well… Yeah, we write a lot. We got a lot of songs next time too. But we write all the time, so everything we… We try… I don't know, stuff get stale, you know. If you don't do something in music right away then it's like… It's really sort of like, a step downward to go back to it, you know.

Interviewer: Because… [inaudible]

Slash: That really and there's songs that we used to play that didn't make the album, simply because we were just bored with playing them…

Duff: Yeah.

Slash: … regardless of how good song it was, you know.

Duff: We just played a song, we were in rehearsals before we came over here, played a song for the first time like, a year. "Ain't Going Down".

Slash: Yeah.

Duff: It was like: "Wow, this a fuckin' good song", you know. We just got sick of it. So we never played it anymore, you know.

Slash: And so, we might do it and we might not do it.

Interviewer: It's not so pressuring either.

Slash: Huh?

Interviewer: Some people are, you know, sort of…

Slash: No, I mean… No, because we're not filling anybody's shoes, so to speak. We're not trying to get live radio play, we're not trying to… to… We're not trying to be like Poison, you know. We're not trying to sacrifice ourselves to the media or anything. We're just a band. We're lucky where we're at, and tomorrow we could be somewhere else. It's like, it doesn't really matter. You just go day-to-day. Whatever happens, happens. So, right now we're just sort of riding on a day-to-day railroad. Actually, we're actually fortunate, you know. We could be misfortunate next week, you know.

Interviewer: But you take it as it comes?

Slash: Yeah.

Duff: Yeah.

Slash: If you do it any other way, it's not any fun.

Duff: Yeah… you know, like I said, we never… We never tried to go out… or tried to make a… you know, any type of image, or anything, you know.

Slash: People love to put that shit on us too. They love to…

Duff: Call us this and that and…

Slash: Fuckin'… [inaudible] and all kinds of fuckin' bullshit. And we just laugh at it, 'cause they put more thought into it… They're doing about us then we do ourselves.

Duff: Yeah, exactly.

Interviewer: You have to understand that too. You explain the music to somebody, or the way you look…

Slash: Yeah.

Interviewer: … you have to make a comparisons and…

Slash: Yeah, but the way I see it, it's very, very, very, very pointing in the press 'cause really… I wish… It sucks because, you know, you're forcing your opinion down somebody else's throat. In print.

Duff: They can't figure… get it through… A lot of people can't get it through their head that it's really a simple thing. And they're trying, you know, to make us seem like we're trying to…

Slash: Do something.

Duff: Do something. Which we're not.

Slash: Like we're trying to make some big statement. Or like, we're trying to break something new on everybody. You know, like we're trying to reinvent the rock industry, or something. It's just like, all that's so like, out there. You know, compared to what we're really doing, you know.

Duff: Which is what we're doing. It's just, you know, that's all. That's all it is, the music. That what we're doing, you know.

Slash: And tennis of course.

Interviewer: [laughs] Yeah, you said… A&R guys didn't know what you were all about. These people most probably don't know what… [likely displaying a paper]

Slash: It's the same… Every aspect of the business at this point in time. Things gotten so stodgy and stale, that, you know, you have to look at the corner of your eye, just watch what the people in your own record company are doing. Because, you know, the whole spirit of how it all started… It's completely different now. It's like, we're now a product, you know what I mean? We're now a product. You know, no matter how hard between the five of us we try to keep away from being a product, we're still a product. When somebody in the record company comes up to me and goes: "Yeah, that was great. Bla, blablabla, blabla". I know if I got really, really sick, you know, the next day he'd be trying to fill my shoes. So we keep the product away. Which is in a way ok, but at the same time there's none of that taking chances-type-of-thing.. You know, I think Zutaut actually took a lot of chances to sign us. He takes chances with everybody he signs. Dokken was a big chance. [laughs]

Duff: [laughs]

Interviewer: Was it such a situation in the music industry, you know, that you are replaceable and disposable. Does it keep you on your toes, or…

Duff: We're already… I mean, we're on our toes as it is, you know.

Slash: We've always been.

Duff: We don't think about: "Oh, shit. There's a band behind us that, you know…"

Interviewer: There's always bands behind.

Duff: Yeah, exactly. So, you know, we don't think about that shit at all.

Interviewer: [inaudible] … what the band is all about, what do you see as being the prime function of the band?

Slash: Now see, that's a stupid question.

Duff: There is no…

Slash: Compared to everything we just said, the function of the band obviously is just be a band and play. It's really, really fuckin' simple.

Interviewer: Is it?

Slash: Yeah, it's really simple. You make a record… If you're lucky enough to make a record that is, is more… it makes you more accessible to more people, you know. But at the same time, it's still just a band. It's really just the songs, the band and… you know, our day-to-day life, you know, outside of doing gigs, is completely irrelevant. People don't like to think that. They like to find out all kinds of shit. I guess people… [inaudible] that shit up. Really, but it's irrelevant. You know… and so…

Duff: What we do, you know, in fuckin' clubs and shit. Why should anybody else give a shit, you know?

Slash: What Guns N' Roses is, is nothing else than just five guys that play. I mean, if we… Ok, if we weren't… if we weren't… If we had no record out and we weren't doing gigs, we'd be irrelevant. You know, at any point in time. No.

Duff: But it's not to the press.

Slash: Or to anybody, 'cause, you know… Angeline is actually the most relevant nobody I've ever seen. Somebody from LA, you know. The biggest nobody I've ever seen. You know, she's one of the only who can get away with being noticed and not doing jack shit.

Interviewer: [inaudible]

Duff: [laughs]

Slash: I didn't knew that song.

Interviewer: The name. Guns N' Roses.

Slash: It's a combination of two bands.

Duff: One was LA Guns and one was Hollywood Rose.

Slash: Everyone in this band was in those two bands.

Duff: Except for me.

Slash: LA Guns is still out there.

Duff: They're still… they're still LA Guns with none of the original members in it. Oh, actually Tracii is in.

Slash: Tracii is the only guy. Tracii and Nicky. Oh, not even Nicky, no.

Interviewer: No. Because it… [inaudible] 'cause there was a problem on television here, recently. Guns N' Roses.

Slash: On television?

Interviewer: No, no, no. What happened is… It has a certain, you know… [inaudible] for me.

Duff: Yeah?

Interviewer: Doing the… the Vietnam demonstrations, the demonstrators, they're protected of, you know… [inaudible] off by the militaries. You know, the army. And holding… [inaudible] and all these hippies were going round and putting the flowers…

Duff: Oh yeah, right, right. It has nothing to do with that.

Interviewer: That's my mental picture.

Slash: The band is very extreme in one way and extreme in the other. Yeah, that's cool. It's not very significant, but it's cool.

Duff: [laughs]

Interviewer: A friend of mine who interviewed you yesterday said that you're very good friends of LAPD.

Slash: Yeah. Damn, I got family there. I love those guys. [laughs] Yeah…

Duff: We used to…

Slash: LAPD are really fucked up. I mean, everywhere else you go, the cops are really, really, really relaxed and cool. In LA, especially in the area that we're in…

Duff: West Hollywood.

Slash: West Hollywood, yeah.

Duff: Really tense. And…

Slash: They're like the fuckin' nazis.

Duff: Yeah.

Slash: Or like the Gestapo. You know, they're really bad. And they know…

Duff: Oh, the guy me and Stevie did the interview with. Yeah, I was telling about… We jaywalked, it was me and him, and Todd. It was you too, right? And a couple of guys. We didn't even jaywalk. It was a thing… The cops were standing across the street, they could see the fuckin' thing. It's red, we walked. We're not gonna jaywalk in front of cops. You just don't do that in West Hollywood. You don't do it anywhere. And we get across the street and they fuckin'… come up to us. We're going: "What the fuck?" We're up against the wall, got our hands behind our back. And it hurts. This is a nice little trick they got. They lace your fingers behind your back and they grab… Here, just feel it. Lace your fingers, I won't do this. And you know, they do this. Really hard, you know.

Interviewer: I can imagine.

Slash: And then they do this too. Put behind your back and then they close your… your… the handcuffs. When they close your wrist together, you know, so they get way the fuck back.

Duff: They check your eye, check your… you know, everything. Take your boots off, check your arms. We were fucking just going to a club.

Slash: I got hassled on my way just walking down the street. I was only like, say a hundred… not even a hundred yards from the apartment where I'm staying. I was walking by a club called the Whiskey. I was walking down the street and there was cops down at the end of the street, and the only thing that was wrong with me, I wasn't wearing any fuckin' shirt. And I got thrown over the top over the top of the car and whole bit. And, you know, it's just like that. You can't walk out of a fuckin' club without seeing a cop and wondering if you're gonna get… [inaudible]

Duff: Yeah, for no reason.

Slash: It's really fucked up there.

Duff: I just got a ticket the other day, or about three weeks ago, for conversing with a female motorist. I was walking to my apartment, a friend of mine came up, I was on the sidewalk, said: "Hi, how's it going? Blablablablabla". She took off, cop pulls in the alley in front of me, up against the car, the whole fuckin' thing again, you know. Got a ticket for conversing… It says right on the ticket, "conversing with a female motorist".

Slash: We got a song dedicated to the cops in LA, called "Out Ta Get Me". It's like the second song in the set.

Duff: Are you guys coming down Sunday? Are you gonna be in town still?

Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. We live here.

Duff: Oh, you live here?

Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. I'm sure that you would really like British police. They address you with "sir".

Duff: Oh, yeah, these guys are great, man! The Bobbies.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Slash: Yeah, they're cool

Duff: Yeah, they're great. You know, it's like: "guys, got a beer in your hand…" You can't drink on the street in LA.

Slash: In New York too.

Interviewer: [inaudible]… in a brown bag.

Duff: No.

Slash: In LA, no.

Interviewer: Not even?

Slash: That's the reason why they put it in a brown bag. So it doesn't look like booze.

Duff: No, you can't drink on the street.

Slash: Yeah, I mean… I've… so far… We haven't been all over, you know, but so far, LA is probably the most tense… you know.

Duff: But it's a great place for music, you know. We all moved there for that purpose, you know.

Interviewer: Yeah, I get it.

Duff: A lot of clubs and lot of girls. Lot of musicians.

Interviewer: [inaudible]… your up to continue, to Paris for example.

Duff: Yeah?

Interviewer: Yeah, because I mean, you can booze 24 hours a day nonstop, and nobody is bothering you.

Duff: Yeah.

Interviewer: So, what's in store for you? You're playing here. Are you going through Europe?

[A phone rings and Duff answers, therefore it's sometimes hard to hear what the others are saying]

Slash: We're coming back here with Aerosmith in September. So, we're gonna do a European tour with Aerosmith. And in between now and then, it's just gonna be… We gotta do some shows in the States. Do some festival-type of things. And then we go on the…

Duff: What magazine is this for?

Interviewer: It's for Finland and Norway.

Duff: Finland and Norway. Japan.

Interviewer: And Italy. And France as well.

Duff: And France. Finland, Norway, Japan, Italy, France.

Interviewer: We're freelances.

Slash: So, it's gonna be a trip… [inaudible] three or four times. By the time we gets to the end of the line, it's gonna be… [inaudible]

Duff: It's Axl, our singer. We gotta split a couple of seconds just to take a couple of pictures, all right?

Interviewer: Sure, yeah.

Duff: Ok, see you in a second.

[Now Duff's telephone conversation is over]

Duff: We got two apartments… [inaudible] What's it look like?

Interviewer: It's like a kidney pie.

Slash: It's gray.

Interviewer: [inaudible]

Slash: I'm not hungry.

Interviewer: … open up in a minute, or find out… You was saying, you're coming back to play European tour.

Duff: September. So, we're playing all… yeah, we're playing, you know, like, Sweden and… all these places with Aerosmith.

Slash: This is like, actually the time that we're starting to like, jet off.

Duff: Yeah. We start to… We're playing the Midwest with Striper.

Interviewer: Yeah?

Duff: Yeah, in August. And Oklahoma and Texas.

Slash: And the bible belt.

Duff: Yeah. It's funny 'cause these guys are like, the nice-boy band image-wise, and our image is like, the shit-head band, you know. So, it's gonna be quite interesting.

Slash: It's gonna be hilari…

Duff: They pass out the bibles, so we're gonna pass out…

Slash: The story…

Duff: The story of hell.

[everybody laughs]

Duff: See how that goes. We'll be doing the east coast with, I think, Warrant or something. And then back here, to Sweden and all those places. Germany.

Interviewer: How many tour have you done in America?

Duff: None.

Interviewer: None?

Slash: I tell you, the band is…

Duff: Real young.

Interviewer: So you played only around LA?

Duff: Yeah.

Slash: We play in LA, we've done some good shows, but we haven't toured. Touring to me is something that's, you know, success of shows back to back… [inaudible]

[Duff starts talking in the phone for the second time]

Interviewer: [inaudible]… on a bus?

Slash: We got a bus in the contract. We got… [inaudible]

Interviewer: Like what?

Slash: A tour bus… [inaudible] to do three… [inaudible] two videos. No matter what the record sells. Umm, a certain percentage rates, you know, all that stuff. And how many albums we're gonna do, how… the term. Stuff like that. You know… [inaudible] we got our advance that way, our record budget. And we got a good lawyer, and we just sat there and… [inaudible]

Interviewer: So are you satisfied with the reception in Britain?

Slash: Yeah, it's been great. They respected us before we got here. That's why we're here. You know, we put out a single here… [inaudible] there was such a buzz happening, and we hadn't really released anything. You know, and the shows have been a really good example. The shows have been really… [inaudible] as far as the crowd response and attendance.

[Duff's telephone conversation is over]

Duff: Here? Fuck yeah, man! It's been great. Both shows sold out and the fuckin', you know, crowd was insane, you know.

Interviewer: You must be very… [inaudible] when you know that the record's are not out but people still know about you.

Duff: Fuck yeah! It's great, man.

Interviewer: What about that EP you had before?

Slash: Yeah, that came out well.

Duff: Yeah, it did real well.

Interviewer: No, no. I mean was that for indie label, or what?

Slash: What we did was… we… in between the time the record came out, the time we got signed, we had to fuckin' fill space. We got really impatient, really uneasy real quick.

Duff: So, we made our own record label.

Interviewer: Oh, I see.

Slash: And put out an EP. Just to have something out there. And we did gigs to support it.

Duff: So it turned out real good, it really got… it got us a real good back-bone on, you know, audience. 'Cause it's real raw, so all of our hardcore audience is like, real fuckin' sleaze-bags and shit.

Interviewer: Who financed it?

Slash: Umm, we did.

Duff: Yeah.

Slash: We financed it off… pretty much the bulk of money that we had, you know, accumulated there and there.

Duff: Which was really not that much.

Interviewer: [inaudible]

Duff: Enough to do that, yeah.

Slash: We did it in one day.