So, since we've been away from this thread, let me post this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGHGpbVfngUAnd this:
So, I guess a lot of you like him more now. There's an interview, a few months old, and he mentioned how hard was for him to play when he joined the band since he barely could rehearse with them, as well as their not-too-receptive way of welcoming new band members.
So, here we go...
WI: Are there plans already in the works for the next Guns N' Roses album?
RT: Right now the only thing we've got going on is looking at touring. There's nothing to be said yet about anything beyond that. I know it sounds cryptic and like I'm holding back or something. It's no secret that there's other music from the Chinese Democracy days, it's just a question of what's going to happen with them. I guess that's up to Axl and what he wants to do with them.
WI: Is the plan currently to tour through 2011?
RT: Hopefully, hopefully we'll keep it going. At this point, shit man, I want to make some fucking music. I'm itchin'. I need to make something that comes from this band, in this decade. I've been telling them for a long time that before every leg of the tour I would love to just go into the studio for a week together and just bust out a song and give it to radio stations, make it available for downloads, and play it live. After a couple of legs we'd have a good batch of music of our own.
WI: Is that something that has happened at all as far as you guys working on your own music, or is it still all from the Chinese Democracy days?
RT: We all can write, but we haven't done that yet.
WI: What was your initial thought when you were asked to join Guns N' Roses?
RT: It was about 6 years ago; I got an e-mail from Joe Satriani saying he recommended me. At the time I had no idea what GN'R was doing. So I was like, "Ahh, they're probably just playing some nice big bars or something." I had no idea so I was like, "Yeah, no problem. Cool, we could do some playing as long as everyone is cool." And it was a year and a half later when we finally got together and started jamming that I saw how big everything was. I was like "damn, that's a lot more than I had thought." That was fine, and at the same time, I was wondering if I was going to feel different on a stage in front of 100,000 people compared to the last gig I did in front of 100. And you know what, it feels the same, because you're still doing what you do. It's still coming from the same part of you. So it didn't really feel that different from anything else I was doing. So when they first offered it to me, I was just like "Yeah, sure, I guess we could do it." We spoke for two months and then we didn't speak for about a year and a half and then they had a tour coming up, so we got together and started jamming for a couple weeks and hit the road.
WI: And your first time playing was right before Hammerstein?
RT: Yeah, Hammerstein that was my first stuff with them. And we just jammed and we'd play about 3 songs a night at a soundstage in New York and that was it. We just went through the stuff, a quick bust-out of it. For the Chinese stuff, I didn't have a copy of it. They wouldn't give me a copy of it, because at that point the leaks were an issue. Stuff had just leaked, so the only way I could learn the stuff was I had a half hour and a piece of paper and a pen. I had to pretty much learn the album in that half hour just by listening.
WI: Luckily you're known for being able to hear music and instantly be able to play it, right?
RT: (laughs) I tried my best. Eventually it was nice to be able to record my own parts on there so at least I have my own idea of what I can play and what I should play. So now I just take on all the tough stuff, I do the Buckethead parts, I do my own parts
WI: I know a lot of people at Hammerstein, myself included, we were a little bit familiar with you from previous rumors, and I think, you can tell me if I'm wrong, it seemed like they were really welcoming to you as far as you joining the band.
RT: I guess, it's hard to say. It's a change, it's like suddenly someone brings home to the fans, "Hey here's your new baby brother" and they're like, "What, I didn't even know you were pregnant, what the hell is this? Who's that?" So there's going to be a lot of skepticism, no matter who it was, there would be skepticism, there would be resistance and resentment. It's like "Hey, this wasn't my choice, and this is my band, I'm a fan. Where's my say in this?" So I think that some people were just happy, "Oh good, they got a new guitarist and they're going to be active again." Other people would be like "No, we don't want any more change. Go back to whatever time period I deem I like the most." So there's a lot of "You need to die, Slash needs to come back,", or "Bring back Bucket."
Fighting the past is a big waste of time. There's nothing you can do to change the past, it's not possible. It's just a waste of energy. It's like, ok, I'm here now and I have a show to do, so here we go. And that's it you know, no crime, I'm just trying to fucking keep shit going. That's it.
WI: Of course, DJ Ashba just replaced Robin Finck recently, do you think the fans have been more receptive with that? Or do you think he's kind of going through the same thing?
RT: At first he got a lot of that until we started playing shows and they saw how much we had prepared and made sure he was ready to be out there. And he put on a great show and the band was tight and people couldn't deny that he was doing a great job. So at that point I think that his period of people fighting it wasn't as long as mine. We got to rehearse with him for a good year and work out gear and work out parts. I had two weeks, and they wouldn't even give me a fucking microphone. They said there was no room in the mixing board to include me. So that was my fucking experience coming into this.
He wants to make music. Why is it so hard to let these people make new music together?
