On July 8, Alan Niven – who managed Guns N’ Roses from 1986 to 1991 – will publish his new book, Sound N’ Fury: Rock N’ Roll Stories, via ECW Press.
Los Angeles Times is reporting that as the manager of Guns N’ Roses during the band’s debauched heyday, Alan Niven has no shortage of colorful stories.
The LAPD fetching Axl Rose from his West Hollywood condo and bringing him directly to the stage so Guns N’ Roses could open for the Rolling Stones at the L.A. Coliseum.
Slash going off script and taking a Winnebago for a joyride — and then standing in rush hour traffic and brandishing a bottle of Jack Daniels — while filming the “Welcome to the Jungle” music video.
Guitarist Izzy Stradlin carrying a $750,000 cashier’s check that Niven had to take from him and hide in his own shoe for safekeeping during a raucous trip to New Orleans.
About 15 minutes into a thoughtful Zoom conversation, the garrulous Niven poses a question of his own: “Why was I managing Guns N’ Roses?”
Given what he describes, it is a good question. “Because nobody else would do it,” he says, noting that the band’s former management firm “could not get away fast enough” from the group. “No one else would deal with them. Literally, I was not bottom of the barrel, darling — I was underneath the barrel. It was desperation.”
Case in point: his very first Guns N’ Roses band meeting. On the way into the house, Niven says, he passed by a broken toilet and “one of the better-known strippers from [the] Sunset Strip.” Stradlin and Slash were the only ones who’d shown up. Once the meeting started, Stradlin nodded out at the table and Slash fed “a little white bunny rabbit” to a massive pet python.
“And I’m sitting there going, ‘Keep your cool. This may be a test. Just go with it and get through it.’ But that was my first GNR meeting.”
Read more at Los Angeles Times.
Sound N’ Fury: Rock N’ Roll Stories can be pre-ordered here.
The official description of this 240-page paperback reads as follows:
Most rock ’n’ roll books are a bore. They all have the same narrative arc and are aimed at the dwindling following that now follows an artist that has long passed their AARP date.
Sound N’ Fury does not have a story arc. It is a collection of anecdotes, like a record comprised of various tracks — each one has its point and purpose. Alan Niven, who guided Guns N’ Roses from the gutter of Los Angeles to Wembley Stadium, shares stories from his remarkable life as a manager with an immediacy delivered by an extraordinary recall of dialogue. Readers will encounter not just Guns N’ Roses (who have sold almost 10 million tickets to their shows) but The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Clarence Clemons, Whitesnake, Elton John, and others who came from humble origins and experienced fame known only to few. Small-town minds collided with worldwide adulation, expectations, and demands. The results are amusing, affirming, and, predictably, disastrous. Keep in mind that rock ’n’ roll is God’s occupation for the unemployable.
Written with a crisp and fluid style, the magnificence and idiocy of the music world will dance off the pages and engross even those who are not rock fans.
Do you have a rock, hard rock, heavy metal website, blog, podcast, radio show, YouTube channel, Spotify playlist? BraveWords Records wants to send you music!
Submit your info: https://forms.gle/j8wygtJjnv429GzJ6
The post Former GUNS N’ ROSES Manager ALAN NIVEN Recalls His First Band Meeting, Says SLASH Fed “A Little White Bunny Rabbit” To A Massive Pet Python appeared first on BraveWords - Where Music Lives.
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Los Angeles Times is reporting that as the manager of Guns N’ Roses during the band’s debauched heyday, Alan Niven has no shortage of colorful stories.
The LAPD fetching Axl Rose from his West Hollywood condo and bringing him directly to the stage so Guns N’ Roses could open for the Rolling Stones at the L.A. Coliseum.
Slash going off script and taking a Winnebago for a joyride — and then standing in rush hour traffic and brandishing a bottle of Jack Daniels — while filming the “Welcome to the Jungle” music video.
Guitarist Izzy Stradlin carrying a $750,000 cashier’s check that Niven had to take from him and hide in his own shoe for safekeeping during a raucous trip to New Orleans.
About 15 minutes into a thoughtful Zoom conversation, the garrulous Niven poses a question of his own: “Why was I managing Guns N’ Roses?”
Given what he describes, it is a good question. “Because nobody else would do it,” he says, noting that the band’s former management firm “could not get away fast enough” from the group. “No one else would deal with them. Literally, I was not bottom of the barrel, darling — I was underneath the barrel. It was desperation.”
Case in point: his very first Guns N’ Roses band meeting. On the way into the house, Niven says, he passed by a broken toilet and “one of the better-known strippers from [the] Sunset Strip.” Stradlin and Slash were the only ones who’d shown up. Once the meeting started, Stradlin nodded out at the table and Slash fed “a little white bunny rabbit” to a massive pet python.
“And I’m sitting there going, ‘Keep your cool. This may be a test. Just go with it and get through it.’ But that was my first GNR meeting.”
Read more at Los Angeles Times.
Sound N’ Fury: Rock N’ Roll Stories can be pre-ordered here.
The official description of this 240-page paperback reads as follows:
Most rock ’n’ roll books are a bore. They all have the same narrative arc and are aimed at the dwindling following that now follows an artist that has long passed their AARP date.
Sound N’ Fury does not have a story arc. It is a collection of anecdotes, like a record comprised of various tracks — each one has its point and purpose. Alan Niven, who guided Guns N’ Roses from the gutter of Los Angeles to Wembley Stadium, shares stories from his remarkable life as a manager with an immediacy delivered by an extraordinary recall of dialogue. Readers will encounter not just Guns N’ Roses (who have sold almost 10 million tickets to their shows) but The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Clarence Clemons, Whitesnake, Elton John, and others who came from humble origins and experienced fame known only to few. Small-town minds collided with worldwide adulation, expectations, and demands. The results are amusing, affirming, and, predictably, disastrous. Keep in mind that rock ’n’ roll is God’s occupation for the unemployable.
Written with a crisp and fluid style, the magnificence and idiocy of the music world will dance off the pages and engross even those who are not rock fans.
Do you have a rock, hard rock, heavy metal website, blog, podcast, radio show, YouTube channel, Spotify playlist? BraveWords Records wants to send you music!
Submit your info: https://forms.gle/j8wygtJjnv429GzJ6
The post Former GUNS N’ ROSES Manager ALAN NIVEN Recalls His First Band Meeting, Says SLASH Fed “A Little White Bunny Rabbit” To A Massive Pet Python appeared first on BraveWords - Where Music Lives.
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