2002.11.15 - Fargo, ND Radio - Interview with Axl

Transcript:
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Axl: What’s happening?

Interviewer: Welcome to Fargo!

Axl: Yeah, what’s going on?

Interviewer: How long have you been here?

Axl: We got in last night.

Interviewer: We’ve been hearing all kinds of reports that you’ve been downtown, looking around.

Axl: Oh, just walking around, yeah.

Interviewer: So if you’re cruising around the area and you’re doing stuff, what are the kinds of things Axl likes to do when he’s not on stage?

Axl: We just like to go looking around for different things to do. And it’s like, you know, I like watching people a lot, so... I get, like, the rap about the recluse and all that kind of crap, but the reality is that I just don’t really seek out any kind of media until I had something that I felt like, you know, then we’d want to go promote it or something. I’m not really into promoting myself for stardom’s sake or any of that. So it’s funny, because there’s areas in L.A. that I’ve gone to for the last nine years, and suddenly now there’s paparazzi taking my pictures. And it’s like, “Axl’s out!” and it’s like, “Well, I was here last weekend.” But now that we did the MTV thing it’s starting to turn into something again – you know, more like the old days.

Interviewer: Looked that you were having fun at the MTV Awards.

Axl: Yeah. It was really strenuous. I mean, MTV wanted us to do it, but we were in negotiations about what it is we were going to actually do, because I felt like, if we just do an old song, that’s not really the right way to go about this; if we just do a new song... So there was... There wasn’t complications, like, they weren’t being any problem or anything. I was just trying to figure out, “Well, how we do this so that it’s right.” And we were actually working on a medley in sound check that day of the show. And then everything, of course, goes wrong. For sound check, the police won’t let me down the street to the venue.

Interviewer: Wow.

Axl: And then, the day of the show the police won’t let me down the street to the venue, and I had to go running down the street past the cops. The best part was, I was running down the street to the venue and in front of, like, all the people lined up for MTV to go in, and somebody’s like, “That was Kid Rock!” I thought that was pretty good.

Interviewer: (Laughs) Things don’t always work that smooth for you, do they?

Axl: Um, no. It’s usually just a nightmare to get on stage. I don’t know why. It’s like, anything, the weirdest little things that can go wrong, go wrong. And then you have to go out there and act like everything’s fine.

Interviewer: Right.

Axl: So that’s what we do, and get out there and try to do the best thing we can. So far, the shows that we played – all the shows that we played, and especially (?), have gone really well and been really exciting. And it’s fun with the new stage and all the different lighting things.

Interviewer: And now, after years of GN’R not on tour, tonight we can finally see a back in concert.

Axl: Well, you know, it took a long time finding all the right people and... I mean, and these people have stuck with this project that they are in this. I mean, there’s people here, you know, besides Dizzy, that have been in this project for like five years, in the development of... you know, behind the scenes and everything. So all of these people put on – they have a certain pride in their own performance when they go out there and [in] what they like to do. I don’t tell anybody how to move, what to do... I mean, there might be a part where I go, “Okay, I want people to move around more” or something. But, other than that, I was looking for the right performers that really get into their performances. It gets me off watching these people perform and then I figure, “Well, if it’s working for me, it might work for somebody else.”

Interviewer: Well, it’s been many years. We’ve been waiting Guns N’ Roses again on stage, and tonight we can do it at the Fargodome. Thanks so much for coming to Fargo.

Axl: Oh, no problem. And we hope to come around again, man.

Interviewer: We’re looking forward to it. Thanks, Axl!

Axl: Have a good one!