In too deep

IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE WE LAST DID THIS - 12 YEARS, TO BE PRECISE - BUT suddenly here he is, larger than life: Izzy Stradlin. Ex-Guns N' Roses, ex-drug addict, but still, in his own way, as defiantly maverick as ever: sitting in a hotel room in London, looking tanned and healthy and sipping camomile tea. He has a plugged-in electric guitar balanced on his knees. Is he going to play us a song? Yes, he is. He picks it up and begins strumming. At first I don't recognise it, then it hits me: `Pretty Tied Up', one of his own from `Use Your Illusion II: He starts singing: "I knew this chick... lived down on Melrose..." Axl sang it on the album, of course. But that lazy Midwestern drawl belongs entirely to the guy who wrote it, the one with the low-slung 'tood and the cigarette dangling from his gob.

THESE DAYS, OF COURSE, AXL ISN'T AROUND TO sing it for Izzy. The cigarettes are gone, too: banished to the same dark place as the booze and drugs. He recently celebrated his 39th birthday and yet he looks younger, leaner, than he ever did back in the ba-ba-bad old days. Which throws the memory of our last meeting into even sharper relief. Back then, Izzy was wasted. But, hey, this was LA in 1989 and we all were. He had a cheque for 0,000 in his pocket, he said, but no bank account to put it in. "Give it to me," I joked. "I'll take care of it for you." He staggered to his feet, appeared to actually consider the possibility for a moment, then folded it up and put it back in his pocket. "Later, man," he said. And now here we are. Much later...

Born Jeff Isabelle on April 8, 1962, Izzy, as he became known at school, is from Lafayette: the same Indiana backwater as his erstwhile partner in crime, Axl Rose - or just plain Bill Bailey, as he was known back then. A small town with a courthouse, a college, a river, and some railroad tracks, Izzy recalls how: "We rode bikes, smoked pot, got into trouble - it was pretty much like Beavis And ButtHead, actually."

His grandmother played drums. She even had a band. "These old ladies who'd play swing and jazz at parties... [and] I'd watch The Partridge Family on TV and think, 'That looks good, I'll do that'."

He first met Axl at Jefferson High School, in the mid-70s. "I remember, the first day at school there was this big F**King commotion. I heard all these books hit the ground, yelling, and then he went running past. A bunch of F**King teachers chasing him down the hallway..."

The drummer in a school band, it was Izzy who persuaded the flame-haired youngster to have a go at singing. "I thought, well, here's a guy who's completely crazy, he'd be a F**King great singer. We had to coax him a bit [and] it didn't go so well in the early days. Sometimes he would just come over and stand around, like he was embarrassed. Or he'd start to sing and then he'd just leave. Walk out and I wouldn't see him again for like three days! Some things don't change, huh?" he adds with a rueful smile.

By the time Izzy left school at 17 (the only Gunner to actually receive a high school diploma) he was ready, he decided, for the big one: Los Angeles. His reasoning: "The weather was better and that's where everything was." Hitching down to Hollywood, he first became the drummer in punk band Naughty Women, then The Atoms. But when part of his drum kit was stolen, he sold the rest of it, bought a bass and joined Shire. Then changed his mind and left again to become a guitarist instead. Being the guitarist "seemed cooler" than being drummer and, most crucially, it was "easier to write songs on"

It was 1983 and Izzy was living in a small apartment in Huntington Beach, an LA suburb, where he was occasionally joined by his old Indy pal, Axl. "He came out like three times before he stayed. Then, probably at the end of '82, he came back out with this girl and rented an apartment, and that's when he finally stayed."

Forming a band together "just seemed the obvious thing to do" : The result: Hollywood Rose. But before the new band had more than a handful of gigs under their bullet-belts, Axl had split to join guitarist Tracii Guns in the prototype LA Guns (which also briefly featured a corkscrew-haired, Mulatto-coloured guitarist named Saul Hudson - or Slash, to his new friends). But when things didn't go Axl's way (LA Guns was very much Tracii's band), he persuaded Izzy to resurrect the Hollywood Rose band.

As we now know, a combination of coincidences and chance F**K-ups (details of which still depend on who's telling the story) then resulted in what became, in June 1985, the first permanent line-up of Guns N' Roses: Axl on vocals, Slash on lead guitar, Izzy on rhythm, displaced Seattle punk Michael 'Duff McKagen on bass and Slash's old pal Steven Adler on drums.

What happened next is now the stuff of legend. The crackling, diamond-hard, expletive-sprayed monster that was 'Appetite For Destruction', their first album in 1987, sold more than 40 million copies and wrote the band its own asterisk-heavy chapter in the rock'n'roll history book. At a time when rock had sold its balls to the butchers - when Bon Jovi and Def Leppard were still considered 'heavy' - Guns N' Roses came along and showed us how it should be done, putting booze and drugs back on the menu at a time when rock's glitterati were still babbling on inanely about gyms and mineral water. This was rock without the condom on and soon almost everybody was infected. "Man, once that shit started happening, it was like, forget it. Just hang on," Izzy says now with a slow, still incredulous shake of the head. "The rest was just one long ride..."

The fact that it was another three years before they would pull themselves together long enough to make a follow-up - the double 'Use Your Illusion I & II' sets, in 1991 - only added to the mystique. In reality, however, the period between the start of 1989 - when the first aborted attempts were made to begin a follow-up - to the end of 1990, when basic tracks were finally laid down - was a desperately dark time for Guns N' Roses. Not least Izzy, who found himself in the grip of heroin addiction.

"Oh, yeah. But I was addicted to everything," he says nonchalantly. "Whatever was going on. I didn't even know I was in trouble until someone pointed it out to me..."

That someone happened to be Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, whose own exploits in the field of "advanced chemistry" were, at that point, better known even than Izzy's. They had met when GN'R opened for Aerosmith on a US tour in the Autumn of 1988, and had stayed in contact ever since.

"I remember, we were talking on the phone and I said, 'Steven, I've got this hole that goes through the middle of my sinuses. I've got like one nostril now'. He goes, 'Oh, yeah - deviated septum'. He knew all the terminology. I was like, what? Let me write this down. Oh, F**K, yeah! That's me - wait, hang on..." Pretends to snort another fat line.

Izzy had been on the road with the band for over a year between the release of 'Appetite...' and the end of the Aerosmith tour. 14 months of sharing the road with the likes of Motley Crüe, Faster Pussycat, The Cult, Iron Maiden... The only way he knew how to handle it was to "make sure I was out of my skull for pretty much all of it. That's what we all did..."

Doing drugs was "just normal, something we'd all been into since we were kids. Then we toured with Aerosmith and it was like, thank God we got to meet some people that weren't F**Ked up! It influenced me big time. Oh, yeah. Cos Tyler and those guys, they were always like my rock idols. Growing up in Indiana, I loved F**King Aerosmith, man. Smoke a joint, listen to the first record...

"When we toured with them I'd go out to watch and they'd sound F**King amazing! I thought, we're gonna have to really pull this shit together to keep up. Cos they were tight, you know? And with us, even then, it was like the music was already taking a back seat to all the other shit..."

By the start of 1989, Izzy and the band were off the road at last but now a new reality began to dawn. "We'd stopped hanging out together - me, Duff, Slash, all of us. Isolated in small apartments somewhere. The drugs and drinking and stuff was a big part of the isolation. It was like self-imposed and it became worse. It all just got worse..."

Through it all, however, he kept up a dialogue with Steven Tyler. "I had a lot of conversations with Steven. Mainly, he would tell me really F**King scary drug stories - shit like locking himself in a bathroom and filling in all the tile cracks with toothpaste. And seeing worms... I thought, whoah, I'll never get that bad!

"Then another half-a-year went by and I found myself driving down the 101 freeway in LA and I'm seeing snow, cos I've been up for like days, doing coke. Oh, man... And then that F**Kin' worm thing came up! I was staying with this coke dealer, I'd been up for five F**King days, and I was out in his garage, for what reason I'll never know. And I pulled open this drawer of nuts and screws, and sure enough, man, they were turning into maggots! I thought, I gotta get the F**K out of here..."

But if Tyler had been influential in getting Izzy to at least think about getting straight, it was one, now infamous incident, that really forced the issue: when he was arrested on a domestic US flight from LA to Phoenix for urinating in the aisle of the First Class section. "Ah, I was drunk, man. Then waking up in jail... Not cool, man," he says with an embarrassed grin.

Because it happened in `federal airspace', the US authorities were rather less amused. Taking into consideration a prior arrest for marijuana possession, Izzy was put on probation for a year and - irony of ironies - subjected to random urine tests. Now he really had to stop: the law demanded it. "Suddenly, I can't use drugs anymore or I'm going to jail. Wow..." It was 1990 and suddenly the band's enforced lay-off had an unforeseen positive side. With the time and the motive to clean up his act properly, Izzy went into rehab and began receiving professional counselling.

What really made him stop, though, he thinks now, "was I wanted to. Cos I figured, at some point your heart's just gonna pop, or your mind's gonna snap, right? Eventually, that shit will kill ya, and it does. It kills people all the time. Once I got maybe like a week of sobriety, like actually going a whole week without a drink, I thought, oh god, if I can just keep this up..."

The biggest test for the newly sober guitarist was returning to the band. "I'd come in for rehearsals for `Use Your Illusion' and there's one of the guys on the road case with a big line of coke. 'Hey, Iz - you want some coke?' Ah, no thanks, I just got back from my probation officer, you know? To get sober is really [tough] but to do it like that, in a situation where everybody's still using..."

Nevertheless, he persisted for almost a year. Recording wasn't so bad - remarkably, basic tracks for both `Use Your Illusion' albums took less than two weeks, he says. It was going back out on the road that did for him in the end. "The shows were completely erratic. I never knew whether we'd be able to finish the show from day-to-day, Cos [Axl] would walk off..."

They say that in the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king, but for Izzy, returning to the road with Guns N' Roses, in 1991, was "a nightmare." Axl's 'mood swings' had become so regular, "I said to Duff and Slash, we gotta learn a cover song or something, for when [Axl] leaves the stage. They were like, 'Ah, let's have another beer...' They didn't care."

The lowest point was the notorious riot that ensued halfway through a show in St. Louis in 1991, after Axl first dived into the crowd and then refused to continue the show because someone in the audience had taken a picture. Possibly the most unsavoury incident in the band's crazed, incident driven career, as Izzy says now: "When something like that happens, you can't help but think back to Donington [in 1988, when two fans were trampled to death in the rush for the stage at the start of GN'R's set]. What's to stop us from having some more people trampled - because the singer doesn't like something? Like, what's the point? What are we getting at here?"

Travelling in his own trailer-truck from gig to gig while the others flew - no longer able merely to lose himself in the illusion - Izzy knew it was only a matter of time before he bailed out completely. Steven had already gone - hypocritically bumped out of the band for failing to deal with his own drug problems. Things just weren't the same anymore. "The music had taken a back seat, there was nothing new coming from us. We didn't sit around and play acoustic guitars anymore. It was like, oh, time to go on - where's the singer? The singer walked off? Now what do we do?

"We'd started out as a garage band and it became like a huge band, which was fine. But everything was so magnified... Drug addictions, personalities... It just became... too much. Plus, my friends, these guys... I'm basically watching them kill themselves. Not so much Axl, but Slash and Duff, man - these guys were on my top ten list of guys that might die this week. And I'm thinking, you know what, I just don't want to be part of it. It didn't feel like it was good."

Izzy's decision to leave Guns N' Roses was announced officially in November 1991. Looking back at the cuttings, it seems like nobody made much fuss about it. The downsizing of GN'R to the Axl & Slash Show had begun long before that.

UNLIKE STEVEN ADLER, WHOSE CAREER nose-dived after leaving the band, Izzy's first impulse was to start up his own band - the Ju Ju Hounds. An album of the same name quickly followed and within a year Izzy was back on tour, only this time it was clubs and theatres (including a warmly-received appearance at London's Town & Country club). "No more hockey stadiums," he shudders.

A more low-key recording than the inflamed GN'R catalogue he had helped produce, 'Ju Ju Hounds' perfectly mirrored its creator's new outlook: funky, free-flowing, unworried. Not a bit like the band - or the man - he left behind. "When I got out of Guns N' Roses, I started riding bikes again. Cos I rode 'em as a kid. And then I stopped for a few years in LA cos I didn't have a bike." Which was probably just as well, giving his, uh, state of mind then. "F**King A!" he laughs. "Damn straight, or I probably wouldn't be sitting here now. But I did a lot of things I hadn't done for a long time. I just started..." His hands fiddle with the guitar again as he searches for the right words. "I just started living again..."

Musically, at first he found it hard not having the rest of the band to bounce off of. "In Guns N' Roses I'd write a bunch of songs and I'd play them for Axl and he'd go `Oh, that sounds like Thin Lizzy's `Jailbreak'. Or `That sounds like Queen!' He would always pick this shit apart and sometimes it was annoying. But suddenly I'm in this new thing and I don't have somebody [like that]."

On the plus side, unlike Slash, who would eventually have to find a new frontman for his songs, singing was not a problem for Izzy. "It felt pretty natural. Axl was never usually there for rehearsals, so I'd be the guy singing a F**Ked-up version of `Paradise City' or whatever. It became a matter of, well, now I always have to sing them."

Had he been tempted to get a frontman, though? He nearly chokes on his camomile. "No. By that point, I said I'd rather sit around and play acoustic guitar in my bedroom than try that."

Nevertheless, Izzy did return briefly to the Gunners, in 1993, after Gilby Clarke, his short-lived replacement, busted his hand in a dirt bike accident. For the fans, it was a welcome return for one of the original members. For Izzy, "it was weird. We toured Greece, Istanbul, London - I liked that side of it, seeing some places I'd never seen."

But that was the only thing he did like about it. After he'd left the band, he had "a big shitload of money sitting somewhere [for me] and they weren't paying me [it]. I don't know the deal was, some kind of legal bullshit." Funds, he claims, which were only released after he agreed to come back temporarily. "Money was a big sore point. I did the dates just for salary. I mean, I helped start this band..." Up comes the guitar again. A flurry of angry notes ensue.

These were his final shows with Guns N' Roses. He left without saying goodbye. "I didn't actually say `see you' cos they were all F**Ked up. They didn't even recognise me. It was really bizarre. It was like playing with zombies. Ah, man, it was just horrible. Nobody was laughing anymore..."

He says his last face-to-face contact with Axl was six years ago. "I'd moved back out to LA. I bought this old Norton Commando 850, and was riding around one day and I thought, F**K it, I'll go by his house. Bastard, he lives up in the hills, in this big house, I'll go and see what he's up to, what he's doing, you know?

"And I go up and he's got security gates, cameras, walls, all this shit, you know. So I'm ringing the buzzer, and eventually somebody comes and takes me up and there he is. He's like, 'Hey, man! Glad to see you!' Gives me a big hug and shows me round his house. It was great.

"Then, I don't know, probably a month later, one night he calls me [and] we got into the issue of me leaving Guns N' Roses. I told him how it was on my side. Told him exactly how I felt about it and why I left. And man, that's the last time I've talked to the guy!

"But, I mean, he had a F**King notepad. I could hear him [turning the pages] going, `Well, ah, you said in 1982... blah blah blah...' And I'm like, what the F**K - 1982? He was bringing up a lot of really weird old shit. I'm like, whatever, man. But that's the last time I talked to him.

"Every two or three years I'll put a call in to the office and say, `Hey, tell Axl gimme a call if he wants to'. But I mean... the weirdness of his life. To me, I live pretty normal. I can go anywhere. In 2001, I don't think people really give a shit. But for Axl, I know for the longest time, because his face was all over the television and stuff, I don't think he could really go anywhere or do anything.

"And I think because of that he kind of put himself in a little hole up there in the hills. He kind of dug in deeper and deeper and now I think he's gone so F**King deep he's just... I mean, I could be completely wrong. But I know he doesn't drive [unheard of in LA] and he doesn't... he doesn't do anything. I've never, never seen him in town. Isolation can be a bad thing, but Axl's been at it for a long time now. You know, he always stays up at night..." He drifts off, not even trying to find the words this time.

The key to Axl's personality, reckons Izzy, still lies back in Lafayette. "In high school, you know, Axl, he had long, red hair, he was a little guy and he got a lot of shit [because of it]. I think he never got laid, too, in school. I hate to bring this up cos this is getting nasty," he laughs. "But he never got no pussy at school, Axl. So now the guy's a big F**King rock star, he's got the chicks lined up, he's got money and he's got people... and the power went to this guy's head. I mean, he was a F**King monster! Nuts! Crazy!

"And I never saw it coming. I mean, this is my side of it, he'd probably say I'm completely F**King crazy, but I think he went power mad. Suddenly he was trying to control everything. Did you ever see those F**Ked up contracts for the journalists to sign?" he asks, referring to the notorious `consent forms' that Axl foolishly tried to foist on the media in 1991.

"The control issues just became worse and worse and eventually it filtered down to the band. He was trying to draw up contracts for everybody! And this guy, he's not a Harvard graduate, Axl. He's just a guy, just a little guy, who sings, is maniac. And I did, too, but it was a different kind of maniac. I was paranoid about the business aspect - I was the one freaking out going `Where's all the money?"'

He tells a hair-raising story of a "missing" million-dollar advance from a merchandising company. "I'm out of my F**King gourd, right? I'm at the fax machine and I've got like a hundred faxes strung across this room. And I've got a pistol on the desk cos I kept hearing people walking on my roof, right?. So I'm snorting coke, faxes keep coming, snorting more coke... And I'm reading through this stuff, trying to just grasp what had happened to us.

"The call that really sent me off my rocker was [from] one of the attorneys. I said, `There was a million-dollar advance, where is it?' And he goes, `Well, Izzy, I don't really know right now'. I was just like `Aaarrrgggghhhhhh!!' It was just the last thing and I snapped completely.

"For [Axl] the money wasn't as big a deal. But he had this power thing where he wanted complete control. And you can say, well, it goes back to your F**Ked up childhood where his dad used to smack him around, you know, and he had no control, so now he's getting it back. But it's like, it's still kooky, you know? You don't have to have everybody signing stuff."

When Axl finally gave his old school friend a contract to sign, it was the final straw. "This is right before I left - demoting me to some lower position. They were gonna cut my percentage of royalties down. I was like `F**K you! I've been there from day one, why should I do that? F**K you, I'll go play the Whiskey' That's what happened. It was utterly insane."

AXL STILL HAS HIS CONTRACTS, AND STILL owns the band's name. But in achieving these hard-fought goals he has sacrificed the one thing worth fighting for: the band themselves. That's a strange way to conduct business no matter how you look at it.

"I recognise it as something that's not normal," Izzy agrees. "Maybe it was just the stress and pressure of being him. I mean, he had people threatening to kill him constantly. So that's got to be hard to deal with. Then you've got these F**King morons in the KKK thinking we're behind them because of one song [`One In A Million']."

The decision to put 'One In Million' on 'GN'R Lies', their 1988 mini-album - with its denigrating lines about 'Immigrants and faggots' coming to 'our country' to 'spread some F**Kin' disease' - was typical of the skewed thinking that now pilots the GN'R flagship alone.

"That's a song that the whole band says: 'Don't put that on there. You're white, you've got red hair, don't use it'. You know? 'F**K you! I'm gonna do it cos I'm Axl!' OK, go ahead, it's you're F**King head. Of course, you're guilty by association. [But] what are you gonna do? He's out of control and I'm just the F**King guitar player..."

Interestingly, when I remark that it must feel like strange timing, to be here promoting his own album just as Axl is powering up for the next GN'R opus, he disagrees. "No, it's perfect timing."

How so? Has he heard it? "Not a note. I'd like to hear it, actually."

How does he feel though knowing it's being sold as a Guns N' Roses album?

"Well, it's obviously not Guns N' Roses, I think all the fans [know that]. It's not even right that he uses the name, because he's the only guy [left]. I think ultimately it's gonna work against him, because people are gonna say F**K you, wanker - that's what they'll call him here, right? 'You F**King wanker, that's not Guns N' Roses!' Hopefully, the music's good, cos if the music isn't good then he's gonna get the double-whammy..."

A hypothetical question then: Axl's [solo] album flops, and he offers you all the chance to get back together - just like Aerosmith and Sabbath - would you do it? I mean, assuming Axl would be... "broke?" he cuts in, laughing. "I could hear the call." Goes into gruff Axl impersonation: "'You know, I've been, ah, thinking' He talks really slow when he gets an idea like that. 'Aahhh, I've been thinking...' 'And I'd be thinking, 'He must be broke'," he chuckles. "That's how I imagine the call would go."

He says the band still get hopeful promoters trying to tempt them back together with promises of enormous wedge. "Oh, yeah. Around the big millennium hype, for sure." Is he ever tempted? "Yeah, why not?" he chuckles. "A [one-off] gig would be easy, I'd think."

What about an album, though? Now he really does laugh.

"Well, you know what? It's funny, cos like me, Duff and Slash - we could go in and make a Guns N' Roses record in a week. Basic tracks. {But] vocals and leads [instrumentation] could take God knows how long..."

AFTER THE 'JU JU HOUNDS' WORLD TOUR IN 1993, Izzy and his Swedish wife Aneka took to travelling before they eventually settled back in Indiana in 1994, where they continue to partially reside, in between extended working visits to LA.

Although 'River' will be his fourth solo album, the chief features of his post-GN'R career have been extended bouts of motorbike riding and "just hanging out". He says he's happy sacrificing big time superstardom for doing his own thing. "I just warm make cool records... I'm having a great time and there's a lot of satisfaction in making it all fit together."

Though generally good value, his albums usually receive only mixed reactions from the critics. The main stumbling block, what gives them their strength: that they don't sound remotely like Guns N' Roses albums.

"I was in that band so I know it's what everyone wants to talk about," he says. "But when I first did press, it was like, 'I didn't hear your record but I heard you did heroin'. I'm like, yeah, I did heroin. Next guy, same thing. It was the Jerry Springer Show. I said, let's take a break..."

When he plays live now, he shies away from playing Guns N' Roses songs.

"In the 80s, the band just struck a nerve. But since I left, I've never played any Guns N' Roses songs. I played in Japan one time with Duff and we tried 'Paradise City but we couldn't do it and keep a straight face."

What if Ax turned up an wanted to sing something? '

"If Axl was in town and wanted to do 'Paradise City', we'd say FUCK, yeah! We'll play it if he'll come up and sing it."



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译文:


In too deep (Izzy Stradlin)

Classic Rock magazine, June 2001

Izzy Stradlin是这个世界上最危险的乐队里最堕落的那一个. 是他把Axl带到LA,又在Axl把他搞得身无一物之后,离开了他.在这篇有史以来最为坦诚的访谈中,这位前枪炮玫瑰的吉他手,对Mick Wall袒露了自己的心迹.   (我他妈的有时真是讨厌杂志上这些自卖自夸的废话....)


离我们上次采访他已经有好多年过去了---准确来说,已经有12年.可现在,他忽然就出现在了这里,再真实不过: Izzy Stradlin,曾经的枪炮成员,曾经的瘾君子,还保持着自己的行事风格,还是那么特立独行,与众不同.他坐在伦敦一家旅馆里,棕褐肤色,无比健康,正品着甘菊茶,一把插好电的吉他平放在膝上.他这是要为我们弹上一曲么?是的.他扶起他的吉他,漫不经心地拨起了弦.(哦,这样的场景真美... 泪...)一开始我没反应过来,但很快,这旋律攫住了我,是`Pretty Tied Up', "运用你的幻觉"中他自己的一首歌,他开始唱:  "I knew this chick... lived down on Melrose...", 当然,在专辑里,唱这首歌的人是Axl. 可那种美国中西部的慵懒声调,却完全只属于眼前这个人.他嘴边一支香烟,看起来沉静而睿智.(这句我完全蒙的....-_-b)

显而易见,如今的这些日子里, Axl再也不会出现在IZZY身边，为他唱这样一首歌了.香烟已燃烧待尽. 随之而去的还有狂喝滥饮与滥用药物的昏暗日子.他不久前刚庆祝完自己的39岁生日,现在看上去,他比那段颇糟糕的旧日时光那会儿,要更年轻,更瘦削. 看到他不再是我们上一次见面时的那样子,这使我宽慰不少, 那好,我们来做个假设, 现在正是1989年, 我们都在LA呢, IZZY说他口袋里有一张价值0,000圆的支票,不过他没个活期帐户好把这些钱往里存. "你可以把它拜托给我",我开玩笑说,:"我帮你保管好了." IZZY晃荡着步子,看上去是真的在考虑这个建议,然后他把支票折起来,放回自己口袋里."再说好了."他这么说道.  (这是跟我良人开玩笑....说我良人刚到LA那会儿身无分文p都不是的意思)   现在,我们回到了现实.在刚刚这番交谈的很久以后.......

1962年4月8日,Jeff Isabelle,也就是我们的Izzy,出生于印地安那州的小镇拉菲尔特,同样在那里出生长大的还有他的小伙伴Axl Rose,那会儿他还是个叫做Bill Bailey的平凡的孩子.那座小镇子只有一所法院,一所学院,一条河,跟一些沿线铁路.IZZY回忆起儿时的时光,"我们骑着脚踏车,抽着大麻,到处找麻烦.事实上,跟Beavis And ButtHead里的这两个人物很相象."(记得我良人在另外的访谈里也有说过,自己年少时跟这俩卡通人物挺相似的....)

IZZY的外祖母会玩鼓,那会儿她甚至还有自己的一支乐队."这些年长的女士们会在开party时演奏swing和jazz乐,而我呢,就守在电视机前看The Partridge Family,我想,'这看上去不错,我也想玩玩'."

他第一次遇见Axl是在Jefferson高中里.那是70年代中期的事了."我还记得,开学第一天就出了不小的乱子,我听见有人把书全往地下砸的声音,还有尖叫声,接着就看见他跑过去了,一大群该死的老师跑过走廊要逮他......."

IZZY在学校里的一支乐队里做鼓手,是他劝说那个有着火红头发的年轻人去唱歌的."我那时想,这小子可真是疯狂啊,他一定会他妈的成为一个伟大的歌手.我们大家都得好好哄着他,虽然一开始这还不怎么管用.有时候他会过来,就在旁边站着,看上去很害羞.有时候他唱上几句,然后就跑掉了.而等他跑走以后,我就可能三天都找不着他的影!  有些事情,到后来都不曾改变过,是吧?" (指我小家伙的行事风格)  IZZY说这话时,露出了略带悲伤的微笑.

IZZY17岁高中毕业 (他也是枪炮里唯一一个拿到了高中文凭的), 他已下定决心,为他的目标——洛杉矶做好了准备.他的理由是"那里的天气要更舒服点,那里什么都不缺."他搭了个顺风车一路到了Hollywood,在那儿他加入了第一支名叫Naughty Women的punk乐队做鼓手.接着又换了个乐队,叫The Atoms.不过有回他的鼓给人偷去了一部分,所以他就把剩下的都卖掉然后买来一把贝司加入了Shire乐队.后来他又改了主意,再次离开了乐队,转而做了吉他手."当吉他手看上去要比当鼓手更酷,最关键的是,这样写起歌来更得心应手."

1983年,IZZY住在Huntington海边的一间小公寓里,那是在LA的城郊.在那里,他偶然遇上了他的童年伙伴, Axl. "他跑到我这儿来过大概三回的样子,然后就住下了.大概82年年底吧,他带回来个姑娘,租下一间公寓住了下来.我们就都住在那儿了."

于是组个乐队看上去也就成了顺理成章的事情.于是,Hollywood Rose就这样诞生了.可还没等这支乐队真正演出几回, Axl就跑去跟吉他手Tracii Guns一起加入了LA Guns(在那儿,他第一次结交了他的新朋友,吉他手Saul Hudson也就是slash,这家伙头发卷得像螺栓儿, 是个黑白混血.) 可等到事情发展得不顺Axl的意时(LA Guns在很大程度上是Tracii一人独断的乐队),他又跑回去找IZZY, 劝他把Hollywood Rose重新做下去. (人家不顺你意你就知道跑回来找IZZY啦? 你个小家伙真是的......心里清楚着谁真疼你呢!~~)

就如我们现在所知的,一系列的机缘巧合都碰到了一起(具体的细节还要靠为我们讲故事的这位慢慢道来),结果就是,在1985年6月,枪炮玫瑰的第一批成员固定了下来: 主唱Axl,主音吉他手Slash,节奏吉他手IZZY,'Duff McKagen贝司手,以及slash的旧时伙伴Steven Adler做为鼓手.

接下来发生的一切可以称之为一个传奇.他们在1987年创作了第一张专辑'Appetite For Destruction'(毁灭的欲望),共卖出4000万张,如平地惊雷,掀起了巨浪狂潮.在摇滚历史上书写下浓墨重彩的一笔. 在那个时代,当Bon Jovi和Def Leppard仍然苦苦思索着究竟金属怎样才叫"重"时,枪炮玫瑰已经为所有人展现了出来,真正的重金属究竟是什么样子. 而那会儿各位摇滚名流们呢, 每回他们唧唧歪歪满口胡扯着乱七八糟的东西,.就要顺手把酒精跟药物写进他们的菜单, ( 意思就是其他人做的东西都没枪炮的来的正宗,来的原味 ) 枪炮的摇滚,才是真正的摇滚,不沾半点虚情假意 ,很快的, 每个人都被感染了."我说,现在我们期盼的结果发生了, 而我们接下来要做的,就是继续下去不要放弃."直到今天,IZZY说起这个来,仍然摇了摇头,好象这一切都是那么不可置信.  "接下去的道路,可就很漫长了........"

之后他们又花了三年时间,在一起于1991年创做出了第二张专辑----也就是双专辑'Use Your Illusion I & II'(运用你的幻觉I & II).这张专辑更加重了他们的传奇色彩.而事实上,在1989年初他们尝试第二张专辑的制作一直到1990年底创作差不多完成,对于枪炮玫瑰来说,这段时期相当灰暗.不仅仅对于IZZY而言是如此,他那时发现自己陷入了对海洛因的深深依赖中.


"哦,是的.我是那种对什么东西都能上瘾的人."他冷漠地说,"不管发生了什么事,我都不知道自己有麻烦了,直到有人给我指明了."

那个人恰巧就是Aerosmith的主唱Steven Tyler. 这家伙对"advanced chemistry" (应该是指的毒品) 这玩意儿知之甚多,甚至比IZZY还通. 他们是1988年秋天枪炮为Aerosmith的美国巡演做开场演出的时候认识的,从那以后就一直保持着联系.

"我还记得,我们通电话时我跟他说,' Steven,我静脉窦中间那儿有个洞,现在它大得像鼻孔.' 他说,' 哦,是嘛.deviated septum ( 隔膜偏离 虾米东东呢这是)' 他知道很多这方面的术语.( 确实如此...汗 ) 我就说,那是什么玩意儿?等等,我把它记下来先,哦,该死的! 是我....你等等,别挂电话...." 然后装着吸口白粉的样子. ( 汗.....这乱七八糟的 )

从发行了毁欲到Aerosmith巡演结束有一年多的时间,IZZY都跟乐队一起马不停蹄地赶场演出.14个月的时间,他们都与Motley Crüe, Faster Pussycat, The Cult, Iron Maiden他们一起在路上度过.他所知道的能解决这个问题 ( 大约指药瘾 ) 的唯一办法就是"保证自己不去想它,一点也不要想.( 这句话我也是蒙的 )我们大家都是这么干的...."

"磕药这事儿其实挺平常,我们还是小孩子的时候就干过了.我们跟Aerosmith一起巡演,感谢上帝我遇到的人不都是他妈的的瘾君子!( 我继续蒙.... )这确实影响了我很长一段时间.因为Tyler跟其他人,他们都是我的摇滚偶像.我是在印地安那长大的,我他妈的当然喜欢Aerosmith.我会在听唱片的时候抽上一支大麻烟......."

"我们跟他们一块儿巡演的时候我会去看他们的演出.他们唱得真他妈的精彩!我想,我们应该好好把握住现在的一切继续我们的道路.因为我们是一个相当紧密的团体,你知道么?那时候,音乐之于我们, 就是全部的全部......."

到了1989年年初,IZZY和乐队终于可以停止他们的旅途了.而在这个时候,另一个现实问题又浮出水面."我们不在一起住了----我、duff、slash,大家都分开住了,在某处的小公寓里将自己完全隔离.大部分时候我们用药物酒精海洛因把自己隔离开来.这听上去像强迫症似的,这样下去情况只会越来越糟,而实际上,确实如此....."

尽管把自己隔离了起来,但他还是跟Steven Tyler保持着联系."我跟Steven谈过很多次话.大部分时间里他都会给我讲相当吓人的有关磕药的事----比如他妈的把自己锁在浴室里,把牙膏挤出来填补地板缝儿,再看着蛆爬来爬去....我想,天啊,我不要自己也变成那个鬼样子!

"然后,又一个半年过去了,有一天我正在LA的101高速公路上开着车,眼前浮现的全是白粉,因为一段时期以来我整天都在吸毒.哦,天哪....接着最恶心的事情发生了! 我跟贩毒的那些家伙们待在一起,整整五天我都没睡过觉,我跑到他们的车库那儿去,干吗去的我自己也不知道,我拉开装着螺丝和螺母的抽屉,是的,我可以确定,我看见它们全都变成了蛆!( 我良人吸多了产生幻觉...真可怕 )我想,我他妈的一定要马上离开这里......."

如果Tyler对IZZY产生了些许影响,好让他考虑把毒给戒掉, 那么后来发生的一件事-----现在这事算得上是声名狼藉了-----真正让IZZY面对了这个问题. 他在搭乘一趟从LA飞往菲尼克斯的国内航班时,因为在一等舱的走道上当众小便而被逮捕. "啊,我那会儿喝醉了,清醒过来之后才发现自己被关进了拘留所.......这事儿可不怎么cool啊."他边说边不好意思地露齿一笑.

因为发生在"国内航空领域",美国政府对待这件事的态度很严肃.考虑到IZZY之前有因为非法持有毒品而被逮捕过,所以他被判处一年缓期徒刑----更具讽刺以为的是,他还必须接受尿样检测.现在他真的必须停手了:法律要求他必须这么做."一下子我不能再吸了否则我就要去蹲监狱.wow......"那是1990年,因此乐队所遭遇的法律事务起到了不曾预见的积极作用.抱着要清除恶习的目的,IZZY花时间去了康复中心开始接受专业的治疗建议.

而现在他认为,真正促使他戒掉毒瘾的,是因为"我想要这么做.因为我想通了.有时候一个决定就是这样冷不防地蹦出来的不是么?事实上这玩意儿会要了我的命的,它确实会要我的命.它在任何时候都能要了任何人的命.等到我大概有一个星期都很节制,好象整整一个星期都没碰过一滴酒,我想,OMG,也许我可以继续保持下去......."

对于这位新近戒瘾成功的吉他手来说,最大的考验就是要回到乐队当中去."我得回去排练毁欲, 有回我又碰上了原来在一起混过的人他手头上有不少可卡因 'IZZY你想要来点儿吗?''哦,不用了谢谢.我刚从缓刑执行官那里回来,你知道么?要戒除我的瘾真的是太难了特别是你周围人人都还在吸的时候....."

不过,他却坚持了差不多一年时间.专辑的录制情况不错----成就显著.IZZY说双专辑里所有的基本录制工作只花了不到两周时间就搞定了.接下来他们又回归到奔波的旅途中去. "演出从来都是飘忽不定,我从来都不能确定我们是不是能一场一场的把每天的演出顺利做下去,因为[Axl]随时都可能跑掉,消失得毫无影踪......."

俗话说"在瞎子的王国里独眼龙就能当国王",可对于IZZY来说,在1991年随枪炮玫瑰重返巡演路程,是个彻头彻尾的"噩梦". Axl "阴晴不定的脾气"发作得越来越频繁, " 我跟duff还有slash说,我们得准备首歌以防Axl摔东西不干了我们还能应付下场面.可他们呢,却说' 喂,IZZY我们再来喝杯啤酒吧...' 他们对此根本不在乎. "( 瞧瞧瞧瞧,这帮家伙里谁最像家长一样事事操心事事要防备的?......可怜我的IZZY )

影响最坏的一件事是1991年发生在圣.路易的一场演出中途的骚乱,起因是Axl跳进人群里殴打歌迷而后又拒绝继续演出因为那个歌迷不守规矩在底下私自拍照.也许这是他们乐队生涯中众多疯狂行径里最臭名昭著的一个事件.就像IZZY现在所说的,"每次发生这样的事,就会使我不由自主地回想起在Donington发生的那一切[1988年枪炮在那里演出时曾发生因歌迷狂热地向舞台拥挤而造成两名歌迷被踩踏致死的惨剧]我们为什么不去阻止更多的人受到这样的伤害-----就因为主唱有自己的好恶?从这样的事里我们究竟能明白些什么?"

别人都选择乘坐飞机而IZZY只爱开着自己的房车在巡演途中一路旅行------不过他自己再也不会迷失在幻象中 ( 针对上面谈到的吸毒最严重的那会儿他开车时满脑子全是白粉而言 ) ----IZZY知道他完全脱离这种困境不过只是时间问题了. Steven已经离开了乐队----因为他严重的毒瘾而被一脚踢出了乐队.从前的一切都再也回不去了."音乐那时对我们而言非常重要,可我们却做不出什么新东西.我们不再围坐在一起演奏吉他了.呃...就好象,一起排练的时间到了----可我们的主唱跑到那里去啦?他妈的主唱都跑没影儿了,那叫我们现在还能怎么办?"

"我们刚出道那会儿就跟一支车库乐队没两样,后来我们成了有名的乐队,这很好.可我们的一切全被放大了,对药物的依赖,以及暴戾的性格........这一切都变得.......很严重.另外,我的朋友,这帮家伙们-------我正眼睁睁地看着他们自取毁灭.不只是Axl一个人,还有slash,还有duff.天啊....这些家伙都上了我的死亡名单我感觉就好象这个星期他们就要死掉了一样.而我呢,你知道,我不想成为其中的一个,我感觉很不好."

IZZY正式离队的官方声明于1991年11月发表.现在再回头看这件事,似乎没有谁对此反应过激.从那以后不久,枪炮就变成了Axl 和Slash两个人的演出.

跟离开了枪炮就一落千丈的Steven不同,离队后IZZY的第一个念头就是组建他自己的乐队--------the Ju Ju Hounds.同名专辑很快就制作出来发行,一年不到IZZY就重新回来开始自己的巡演.只不过这次的巡演只在俱乐部和剧场开展(其中包括反应热烈的伦敦Town & Country 俱乐部) "我是再也不会在大型体育馆做现场了." IZZY耸耸肩.

他自己的专辑要比枪炮玫瑰的来得低调很多.'Ju Ju Hounds' 恰当反映出了这支乐队的发起人的新面貌:不拘一格,自由自在,无忧无虑.跟他离开的那支乐队,或者说,那些人,完全不同了."离开枪炮以后,我又开始骑我的脚踏车了.就像我还是个孩子时所做的那样.  来到LA的好些年我都不曾再骑过,因为我在这儿没有脚踏车."而这也着实放松了他的心绪.(这句我蒙~~~~) 他笑着说:"这是正确的选择,否则我现在也不会坐在这里了.我确实尝试了很多那些时候不曾做过的事.我只是开始....."他胡乱摆弄了一下他手中的吉他好象在思索着恰当的词句,"我重新开始了自己想要的生活....."(I just started living again.... 原句更有味道一点....)

从音乐这点上说,IZZY首先发现他完全收不到这支乐队的人对于音乐的敏感反应. "在枪炮的时候我写很多很多歌然后我弹唱给Axl听.而Axl就会说'哦这歌听上去不就是Thin Lizzy'的 `Jailbreak' 嘛要么他又说"你这就是Queen的玩意儿.' 他就爱挑挑捡捡的有时候可真叫人生气.可等到我置身于这样一个新的团体里我却突然发现我再也找不到想他那样这么一个懂行的人了." ( 笑,IZZY你以为像我小家伙这样的人好找么~~ )

另一方面, 跟Slash不一样的是,Slash没了Axl就得另外找个主唱,可对于IZZY来说唱歌不是问题 ."我感觉很自然的, Axl经常玩失踪不来排练,每每这时候我就不得不他妈的来替他唱个另外版本的`Paradise City' 或其他什么.后来就渐渐变成了,我不得不经常替他唱."( 瞧,小家伙一任性到处跑了就得我IZZY跟在后边给他收拾烂摊子.......)

虽然如此那他是不是有试过也去找个主唱呢?他差点就给柑橘茶呛到了, "不.我宁愿待在自家卧室里弹吉他我也不那么干."

不过,IZZY却仍然在1993年回到过枪炮,虽然时间很短暂.那是因为他在枪炮的短暂替代者Gilby Clarke (  这里有点好玩,用了个short-lived,除了短暂的还有短命的意思,笑~~~其实Gilby你真的没什么不好,不过唯一悲惨的是,你站在一个永远无法被替代的人的位置上. 有点残酷,不是么? )  他在骑自行车的时候出了点小事故把手给摔断了.歌迷们热烈欢迎乐队原来的这个成员的回归.可对IZZY自己来说,"这很不可思议.我们一起巡演去了希腊、伊斯坦布尔、伦敦，我一方面有些喜欢这样的巡演,因为我可以去到一些我从未去过见过的地方,"

然而,这也是巡演让IZZY唯一喜欢的一点.随后他离开乐队,本应该拿到报酬乐队却没有支付给他."我自己不知道,这他妈的是该死的法律问题,"他说在同意临时性地回到乐队帮忙后,他只好放弃了自己的报酬. "钱这玩意儿是个很叫人恼火的问题.我回去帮忙其实就是为了钱.我的意思是,我好歹是这支乐队的发起人啊.........."他又拨动了琴弦,带着些许气愤和激动的情绪. ( 其实IZZY你生气哪里是因为到底有多少数目的钱该给你而没给啊, 你是气这样的做法根本辱灭了你对这支乐队的贡献和地位.......... )

这是他最后与枪炮一起演出.他又一次离开了他们,甚至没有道别."我没跟他们说再见因为他们太混蛋了,他们甚至都不认可我.我感觉很怪,就好象自己是在跟僵尸 ( 指那帮家伙很木讷的意思....米有啥交流也米有啥表示 ) 一起演出似的. 天哪....那真是太可怕了,都没有谁会笑了...."

他说他上一次跟Axl面对面的交流已经是六年前的事了."我搬回到LA,买了辆旧的Norton Commando 850,有天就开着车乱转悠,忽然就想,妈的,我得去他住的那里看看他去.真混蛋,他住在山上,在那所大房子里.我要去看看他过得好不好,他在干什么.

"于是我就去了那儿.那儿全是安全门,摄像头,高墙,这些该死的玩意儿,你知道的.我掀了门铃,过一会儿有人来了,领我进去,他就在那儿.他说"嘿,你这家伙.见到你真高兴!'他张开双臂拥抱我,然后领着我参观他住的那所房子.我感觉很不错.

接着,我记不太清楚了,大约一个月以后,一天晚上他忽然打电话给我,谈到我离开枪炮的事.我告诉他我为什么这样做.告诉他我的真实感受和我离开的原因.是啊,那是我最后一次跟这家伙说话!

可是,这家伙有个该死的记事本,我在电话那头听见他翻页的声音接着他对我说' 啊,是的,你曾经对我说过什么什么,就在1982年...' 我的反应是, 你他妈的说什么?!1982年?? 他可是把什么些乱七八糟的旧事都记下来了! 不管怎么样,我想,随他去吧.可那是我最后一次跟他说话.  ( 我没什么好说的......只想流泪... )

"每隔个两三年我就打电话到他唱片公司的办公室去跟他们说,' 嘿,告诉Axl要是他愿意就打电话给我' 可是...我的意思是,他的生活方式整个很怪诞.对于我,我生活得很正常,我想去什么地方就去什么地方.2001年的时候我不认为谁还他妈的在乎这事儿.可对于Axl,我总是能很清楚地知道他的情况,因为我总是能在电视上看见他.我不认为他真的可以随心所欲的去什么地方或者做什么事.

"我想那是因为他总是把自己关在山上的那所房子里,他现在把自己埋得越来越深了,他把自己埋得他妈的太深了,他只是......我的意思是,我可能完全错了.可我知道他从不自己开车出去.[起码在LA从不],他也不...也不做任何事.我在市里从来不曾见过他.自我封闭是很坏的事情.可Axl已经这样很多年了.你知道,他晚上总是整夜整夜地睡不着觉......"他思绪逐渐地飘远了,甚至都不再思索可说的词句. ( 我还是要流泪..........其实你比谁都知道他的是不是? 你心里总惦记他... )

在IZZY看来,造成Axl如此性格的原因,还要追溯到在家乡拉菲特的日子."在高中的时候,你知道, Axl有一头长长的红发, 他还是那么一个小家伙,他遭遇了很多事情.在学校他就从没平服过.我讨厌再提起这些事情因为这有点难受." 他笑了起来,"可在学校那会儿他就从没缺过姑娘.现在Axl是他妈的摇滚明星了,追逐他的女人排成长队,他不缺钱也不缺人....这些东西影响了他的头脑. 我的意思是,他变成了他妈的一个怪物!一个混蛋!一个疯子!

我从没见过,我的意思是,就我而言,他也许会说我完全疯了,可是我认为,他被权力欲搞疯了.突然之间他就想要控制所有事.你见过他的那些要记者签的该死的合同吗?"他这样问我,他说的是臭命昭著的 'consent forms' 事件,那是在1991年Axl愚蠢地想要把合同强加给媒体. 

这种充斥着控制欲的事件变得越来越严重了事实上这逐渐也渗透到了乐队里.他想要给每个人都拟一份合同! 这个家伙,我说他又不是哈佛毕业的, Axl他这个家伙,他不过就是那么个小家伙, 一个歌手,狂热的歌手.我其实也是,可跟他不一样,跟他的那种狂热不一样.我对经济方面的事总是特别偏执,我总是不停产生那样一个念头我总是要问 ' 我们的钱都跑到哪里去啦? '

IZZY给我讲了一个故事,整整一百万美元从经济公司不翼而飞." 我知道我大概是失去理智了对么?我站在传真机那儿收了上百份的传真都能把整间屋子挂满.我还在桌子上放了把手枪因为我总是听见人们不停在我头顶上走来走去,然后我不停地吸着可卡因,传真接二连三的来,我呢,接着吸更多的可卡因........我只是想知道,我们究竟发生了什么事. ( 难道说你这又是毒又是枪的就能知道究竟发生什么事啦？）

律师后来给我打了个电话可真没把我给搞疯. 我说"我们有笔一百万的进帐,这些钱在哪儿呢?'他怎么回答我的,' 跟你说实话IZZY我现在也不知道. ' 我就真地抓狂了! 这是最叫我崩溃的事情了.

对于Axl来说钱根本就不是什么大问题.问题是他想要自己操控一切事情.我可能会说,想想他的童年吧,那时候他爸爸总是打他,你知道,他什么都无法控制,所以现在他全要补回来.可是这看起来还是那么愚蠢不是么?他本不必那样做,叫每个人都签个该死的合同.

当Axl最终也要求他这位儿时伙伴签合同的时候,一切就都结束了."在我离开之前,他们把我降到了一个更低的位置.他们想要削减我的分成.我想,去你妈的! 我可是从第一天起就在这个乐队里了，凭什么要这样对我? 操你妈的,我不干了.' 就是那样,这事完全显得那么疯狂.

Axl仍然拥有那些合同,他手里仍然握着乐队名的所有权.可是为了得到这些他进行了艰苦的争斗,从而失去了真正值得他为之奋斗的东西:乐队本身. 不管你怎么看,他的这种行为方式都是很奇怪的.

"我察觉得到有什么事情不正常." IZZY肯定地说,"也许他那样做是因为处在他那样的位子上压力很大.我的意思是,经常有人会向他发出死亡威胁.所以对于他来说,应付这种事太艰难了.就像因为那首歌 [`One In A Million']，有人认为我们是三K党的信徒!!

他们决定将 'One In Million' 收入到他们1988年'GN'R Lies'这张专辑里,这首歌被认为是诋毁了"移民"和"同性恋者"认为他们来到"我们的国家"是来"传播那些该死的疾病的".这是典型地对枪炮的歪曲,而这却促成了枪炮的独特出众的地位.

对于那首歌我们都说"不要把它收到专辑里去,你是个白人,你有一头红发,你不要把那歌搞到专辑里去.' 你知道他说什么吗,"去你妈的,我就要!因为我是他妈的Axl!' 好吧,你爱放就放吧,这是你的决定.当然了,你要为此承担后果.可是你能怎么办呢?他是完全失去自控能力了而我不过就是他妈的一个吉他手罢了.........."

有趣的是,当我想要他宣传下自己的新专辑时又忽然想到这也许不太好因为Axl此时也在为他的枪炮的下张专辑准备呢,不过他不这么认为,"没什么,时间安排得很好."

Axl的专辑怎么样?IZZY听过吗?  "没听过,不过事实上我倒很想听听."

那你怎么看这张专辑被冠以枪炮玫瑰的名字?

"很显然那不是真正的枪炮玫瑰.我想,所有的歌迷[都认识到了这一点],他使用这个名字根本就是个错误,因为他是唯一离开的那一个.我想,这最终会对他起反作用,因为人们会说'去你妈的,你个笨蛋---他们都是这么称呼他的不是么?你是个该死的笨蛋,那根本就不是枪炮玫瑰!!不过,但愿他的音乐会很棒,如果他的音乐不被认可的话,这对他来说就是双重的致命打击......"( 小家伙现在面临的问题IZZY其实内心里清楚得很....... )

接着我抛给了IZZY一个假设的问题,如果说Axl这张[solo]专辑失败了,于是他给你机会回到他那里去----就像Aerosmith和Sabbath那样----你会怎么做?我的意思是,假设Axl他......" "破产了?" 他打断我,接下去大笑起来,"要是那样我会接到电话通知的,"他开始模仿Axl的语气,"IZZY你知道的,我一直有在想,' 他说那种话的时候语速都是很慢的,' 啊...我一直在想.....' 我会这么想,' 哦,他要哪天这么跟我说话也许是代表他真的破产了,' "IZZY咯咯笑起来,"我想他给我打这个电话时一定就是这个样子."

IZZY说现在还有一些满怀希望的经纪人希望乐队成员能重新回到一起来," 哦,是的,就像千禧年那会儿传的那样.' 那你会试试吗? ''当然了为什么不呢?'他轻声笑起来,"一块儿做一次演出还是很容易的我觉得."

那再一起出一张专辑呢?这次他是真的大声笑起来了.

"你知道么?很有趣的是,要我跟duff还有slash一块儿,我们一个星期的时间就能做出一张枪炮玫瑰的专辑来.基本上都可以完成.可是要把主唱也算进来,那我们要什么时候才能搞得成一张专辑,可就只有上帝才知道了........"  ( 笑表示你释然.....我这么认为 )

在1993年'JU JU HOUNDS'完成了他们的世界巡演后,IZZY和他的瑞典妻子Aneka先做了一番旅行,接着在1994年时搬回到印地安那州定居下来. 有时候也要两地奔忙,还有一些工作需要到LA完成.

虽然IZZY已经发行了自己的第四张专辑'River' ,但他曾经的枪炮特色却不是表现在专辑里而是越来越多的表现在他热衷于摩托车比赛和安静的生活上.他说让他最快乐的事就是把大把大把的时间都耗在做自己喜欢的事上面."我只是很喜欢做专辑而已.我很享受这些,做出一张好专辑能极大地满足我自己."

虽然专辑里饱含着自己的心血,但他的专辑从评论家那里收到的反应却各异.使他们不满意的主要原因是:这些东西听上去不像是枪炮玫瑰的东西.

"我是那支乐队的一员,我知道人们想要说什么,"IZZY说道,"可真的让我感觉难受的是,有人这么说'我没听过你的专辑可我知道你是个吸毒的你吸海洛因.'我呢,我会说,是啊,我以前是吸毒的.然后我遇见另一个人,说的一样是这些话.就跟Jerry Springer Show ( 听说是暴力低级片段大集合??汗..... ) 没两样.我说,让这一切都停下来吧我只想好好休息一下........."

IZZY现在进行现场演出时,他避免再演奏以前枪炮的歌.

"八十年代那时,我们会演奏很多歌,可自从我离开枪炮以后我就再也没弹过枪炮玫瑰的歌.有回在日本我跟Duff一起演出,我们试着一起做'Paradise City'但是做不来,搞得我们两个人不愉快."

那要是Axl来了想要唱点什么呢?

"要是Axl到市里来他想要唱'Paradise City', 我会说,操! 当然了! 他要是肯来唱,我也一定会来弹吉他的,为了他." ( 原句: "If Axl was in town and wanted to do 'Paradise City', we'd say FUCK, yeah! We'll play it if he'll come up and sing it.")



______________________________________
______________________________________



花了不少力气,翻这篇文, 因为我太珍惜IZZY说的这些话.

他是那个在风暴席卷而来之前就逃离暴风中心的人, 虽然自己内心的风暴也曾席卷得他疼痛不已.

有时候我是真的很珍惜,很宝贝他这种态度.

释然的, 疼惜的,

对Axl.

就跟Slash一样, 怨过了气过了骂过了痛过了, 又会一低头一叹气, 语气骤然就变得温柔的不像话.

他们总是摊手无奈, 可他们还是在心里把Axl当成那个叫人不知如何是好的倔拗孩子. 虽然口口声声抱怨着, 其实还是很疼惜他. 只是有时候他们自己不承认.

Slash说他喜欢往前看,喜欢生活得快乐一些,

其实,这是真实的合适的态度,

贴图.

我就想这么看着他们,什么其他的都不做,





从去年被告知IZZY生日那天有歌迷看见小家伙陪着他吃庆生饭,到看到他终于回到小家伙身边再为他上台为他弹琴, 心里很温暖.

重新站在台上,为小家伙演奏枪炮的歌, IZZY还是那个样子, 他的那顶帽子还是那样像小猫米一样乖乖趴在他头上, 只是他戴墨镜了, 我看不见他的眼.

歌迷说, 十多年了, 这孩子拿琴的姿势始终就没变过.

是啊,你始终都是外表优雅心地温柔的孩子.


IZZY始终是IZZY.

一低头,温柔如水. 一抬头, 云淡风清.







Patience的MV, 这孩子笑得恬美无比.



他喜欢望着你笑,喜欢这首歌. 你写的歌.

这首歌他唱了20多年.




我总是有点固执地认为,那孩子自从失了你, 脾气愈加坏得铺天盖地.




偏你有那样的本领,安抚他,柔顺他. 哪怕经过了那么多事那么多年, 你还能叫他开口在成千上万的歌迷面前,承认他仍然爱你.

这样的一个倔强的孩子啊, 咬紧了腮帮子叫他掏句心里话出来总是那么难, 

可你真的叫他开口说了.

那么我们一起向前看吧.

不乞求什么.

我只说我相信你.

相信你什么, 你心里知道.