So Germany has been awesome. It was funny when Slash came up with the title for that. I think it was more of a tongue-and-cheek comment on what was going on. When we made the record in Los Angeles, where we recorded it, we spent a lot of time watching CNN and it might have been poisoning our brains. It is a blessing to play music. To have a band that everyone gets along and we enjoy the lifestyle is fantastic. That sounds like living the dream. When I moved to Los Angeles, that opened up some opportunities to play with those people.
But at least I got to work. How did I start working with Slash? He called me. That was the honest truth and it was probably because I worked with Alice Cooper and some other artists.
To get a phone call from someone who you respect is quite a cool thing. Both of those records came off a tour and go in the studio, then make the record, then go tour again. Slash, for instance, Steven, Duff, have always been really nice people, before and after the band had success. Jack was always around taking pictures back in the day, Marc was too.
Vicky was around a lot in the early days. I always loved Vicky, she was such a smart and talented person. Michelle Young in front of W.
Michelle: We went to school together, he was a grade ahead of me. There was a group of probably like, ten of us, who were just inseparable. That was how I got to know Slash and Steven, just in school. Michelle: Yeah, I knew Tracii from school too. LRI: Backpedal a bit…when you were hanging out with that group and partying with them before the band got serious was there a point where you started noticing that Slash and Steven were really serious about their music or at least really talented?
Michelle: It was always apparent that Slash was very serious, he would never go anywhere without his guitar. He really did always have his guitar, his cigarettes and a bottle of Jack. He was soooo into his guitar. I think I went to a couple of shows that they played which were really just like parties around Hollywood. Careful what you wish for but is that fairly accurate, is that how you remember that going down?
LRI: Axl had written an earlier version of the song and it was felt that it most of it was too sappy and sweet so it was scrapped and the lyrics we all know were written and the song was re-arranged. As everyone knows, there is still that whole sweet and gentle part at the end that remains. Michelle: No, no, no, I was never given the opportunity to see that version of the song whatsoever.
I was in my bedroom. I remember it was the daytime and the phone rang and the first call was from Slash. Then I remember, Axl called. He would always call me and sing me new songs.
He would play this drumbeat on his knee and sing and snap to me on the phone whenever he had a new song, he would call me and sing a little and ask my opinion of it.
I hate saying this around my son, just a moment…. Michelle: Exactly. As much as I love watching people love the song when I would go see them in concert, it was a strange thing to have influence my life. LRI: On Wikipedia, which we know is always accurate laughs it states that a source said that at the time it was written you were pleased with the honesty of the new lyrics and how it came across, is that accurate? Michelle: laughs I might have been laughs. LRI: I was just talking to my wife Michelle about how brutal that first verse lyric is.
It might be one of the most unflinching lyrics ever, Mr. Michelle: Uhh, yeah. LRI: People can talk smack but I can totally understand how it could be a bad influence or easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy for just about anyone, particularly because of just how big that album became. Was it just the way the song portrayed you or was it also how people treated you as a result?
Michelle: It was both. It suddenly became that everyone wanted to be my friend because they wanted to get closer or get to know the band. I never did my drugs for free; nobody really does anything for free.
What did you attribute that particular line to? Michelle: Uh yeah, yeah, I know exactly why he wrote that line. LRI: They used an SG guitar to create an ominous tone in that song and that intro kind of sets the tone. Were you and he or any of the other guys in the band involved at that point or at any point romantically? Michelle: Yeah, we had a ummm…. It was on and off for many years and it was a tumultuous relationship for sure.
Michelle: At least four or five years, possibly six or seven years yeah. It was mostly because we really were such good friends but when I would see him it would be once or twice a year and we would have laughs sexual relations laughs.
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