Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Interview: Tommy Stinson
 
Jan 21, 2016
 
When asked about the Guns N' Roses reunion:

Tommy Stinson: I think everyone kinda knows where I stand with it all. I left it in a good way. I had to start turning down tours because I was unable to tour and I got into a position personally where my personal life was going to prevent me from doing, I don't know, it must have been about five tours that they called me to do and I just said I can't do them. 
 
At that point, they, I think Axl got to the position, ok so what am I going to do now, cause I don't have a band.  Blah blah blah so. 
 
I think it worked out. And I think they'll have fun. It will be a healing thing for them if it works out good. It will be good for them.
 
I know that it's Duff and it's Slash and it's Axl and that's all I know right now.

http://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2016/01/21/interview-tommy-stinson

Hopefully, THAT is clear enough language for the folks who had some doubts.

I wonder what he meant by he had to sit out 'five tours'? He only missed 6 concerts in 2014....And that was due to the Replacements reunion....

Thanks for posting. It's great to hear a former member answer the difficult question. I'm happy that they left on good terms, Tommy was an extremely important part of GNR history.

I think he means that they had tours lined up that he couldn't commit to so the plans for those tours never materialized.

I'm going to miss Tommy, had a chance to chat with him at the last residency.  Cool dude.

Sounds like he simply chose his family over GNR. Can't blame a guy for that.

Interesting when he says:  I think Axl got to the position where he was, like, 'Okay, so what am I going to do now? 'Cause I don't have a band. Blah blah blah.'
Indicates to me that Axl was going to continue with the current lineup and just went to Slash and Duff reunion, semi-reunion or whatever this is because his options were limited maybe not necessarily because he wanted to...

Pretty much what all thought, right?

Faced with starting over, yet again, Axl figured...why not?

I thought Tommy was always excellent, I am sort of sorry he's not with the band anymore, but I'm glad he left on good terms. Hopefully his personal stuff works out

Tommy was one of the main reasons why I became a GNR fan. His contributions to ChiDem are great.

Tommy really was the lynchpin holding the 1998-2016 iterations of GNR together musically.  The perfect playing and persona for the post-Slash & Duff era.  Also, in my experience a super cool guy.  In my one experience with him personally, he saw that he was doing a solo show at a club a few miles from my house and went out of his way to invite me and hook me up with tickets.  Super cool of him to do that and I really appreciated it.

I would to read some posts from people.  

Saying well I don't really know if this means Tommy is done with the band

It was as clear as this months ago when Tommy made some comments

And

This place had a bunch of people questioning then.  Is he in or out?!?  Hahahahaha.  

I have a really good feeling he is out

Gee Pilferk do you think he is really out now? :D

I found that confusing...

Yeah I couldn't deal with an 3rd round of guitarists... that would be pretty silly.

Very happy the original guys are getting back together. best thing to happen in years

Will always appreciate Tommy's place in the history of the band.  And really hope to hear the rest of his contributions (sooner than later!!)

I sincerely thank Axl for giving this a try.  At another time in his life he may have said fuck it and called it a day.  Shows great maturity and forgiveness for him to get back with Slash on terms that he can live with.  Not sure what their relationship is yet, but I certainly hope it grows during the tour.  They're both such different people now than they were 20+ years ago. 

The best is yet to come!   :beer:

Hey Cherry, how about a little shout-out to where you got this:

http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?/topic/213654-tommy-stinson-explains-his-departure-from-guns-n-roses/

11,000+ posts here.... 156 posts there, i would have posted it here first and taken cherry out of the loop. BUT do you think you were the first person in the wold to link to the original article??

True.  Which tells me a lot will stay the same, and he may not be aborting Chinese and possibly other things they have worked on over the past 10 years.  Some people on here seem to think that because Slash and Duff are back, that Axl will scrap what he's been doing and go back to only old songs and maybe create new things with Slash and Duff.  My guess is that it's a pretty similar track, with just two new members being back in the fold.  And I would argue that Slash and Duff had to agree to being on board with playing Chinese and possible other new material or else they wouldn't have been invited back.  

I'm thinking Slash and Duff will put their own spin on playing Chinese songs live and also have input on anything in the future.  But in terms of Axl not playing this material....I don't buy that.  I also don't buy equal partnership like some have alluded to.  No way in hell Axl would agree to that after all these years.

I took the time to transcribe that part of the interview, he copied and pasted it here.

I'm signing this.

Thanks for your transcription work.

There's a very simple way to avoid things like this from happening.
Unless you have some kind of petty grudge and you only show up here to point out how you posted something somewhere else first...  :)




/jarmo

izovah4me

Petty grudge? Typical.  I just asked for a little shout-out to where he got what he posted, what I transcribed.  Not that it was posted first.

Im glad that Tommy left on good terms.

I really like his new ep, so the album should be great.

I remember before There Was A Time in Hammerstein 2006, Axl was trully touched about Tommy saying he was having a good time playing.. Seems he had some hard time about something in the rehearsals?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pf1pg3zVTI

Without him, GN'R couldn't have been what it is.　Thank you so much Tommy... :'(

And I said that it's easy to avoid that kind of stuff if you want.

Some people would rather just not do that and then complain afterward because of whatever petty grudges they might have.
Is that the case here? You tell me. :)

So let me put it this way, if you just had posted it here as well, everybody would've known you did the work. No need for all this discussion. Easy. :)


But yeah, not cool to not credit whoever transcribed it....
So thanks for doing that.

Edited to add: Did you see these?
http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/ex-guns-n-roses-bassist-tommy-stinson-classic-gnr-reunion-will-be-a-healing-thing-for-them/
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/tommy-stinson-guns-n-roses-reunion/


/jarmo

I always had the feeling Tommy was cool with Duff coming back, replacing himself. But it's good to know there's no hard feelings, I always liked Tommy.

I think he actually said in an interview a couple of years ago that he wouldn't stand in the way if GNR at one time decided to reunite, he would welcome it.

I would disagree the last part of this.

The notion that Slash or Duff would just be waiting by the phone ready to enlist as one of Axl's musicians to keep the current version of Gn'r going is far off..in my opinion. These guys were at peace and performing the music they wanted. Obviously $$$ plays a big part..but I think this is going to be more of a collaborative effort than some people are painting.

That's not to indicate that they were waiting by the phone. To me it's an indication that that opened Axl up to talking to Slash with the possibility if it goes well then talking to him if he's open to playing together. Axl's not stupid. For him to bring in 2 new guitarists and a bassist at this point would really be a joke to the vast majority.

Yes I did Jarmo.  That ran after I posted it and he did his own transcription.  Again with the petty grudges.

You failed to answer my question. :)




/jarmo

I have always just posted interviews articles etc. one time, on one website.

Ok. Got it.

Well, speaking as someone who's also had his "work" occasionally go uncredited in the last twenty years, maybe being pro-active would help....
Just something to consider.  :)




/jarmo

Tommy or Funky...your choice?  ;D

Robin is gone, Paul is gone, Buckethead is gone, Bryan Mantia is gone, and now Tommy is gone. That sucks! Really. I love the line-ups from 2001/2002.

But I'll see what happens in 2016. Slash N' Duff are back and I wanna see what they could contribute to the band now.

We saw one album from all of those guys and lineups, yet the live aspect of the band was terrific..I see the return as best of both worlds, because Slash is killer live and Duff has his head on straight and is the consumate professional. My hope is that the creative juices will flow again as well.

Tommy's a "true Gunner" in my book. Brought a lot of instant credibility to the revamped lineup in the late 90s and had an impressive tenure with the band thereafter (including Chinese Democracy). Thanks for the memories- good luck with your own music- and rock on man. 8) 

I disagree.  They can say that they were happy all they want....but, if and when Axl reached out saying he was interested in working together again....both Duff and Slash would drop everything they had (unless Axl was a dick about it and didn't offer much incentive).  My point is, it wouldn't take much to get them back.  They were apart of something huge, successful, and something that gave them many memories.  Who wouldn't want that back?  Even if it only lasts a couple shows.....it's worth it. 

Don't forget what brought about the seperation in the first place. Yes, I'd agree they'd pick up Axl's call in the first second..however - where we may differ is in my feeling (Just a hunch, my friend) that in order for this whole thing to happen..they HAD to have come to an understanding and an agreement about what could NOT happen if they got back together....

Tommy is the man and always has been the man. really can't blame him for anything, he did the best, the best he could. the best he could under given circumstances. THANK YOU!

5 tours? Axl wanted to tour forever and ever?

 :-\

Why not Duff as second or third guitarist and Tommy as bassist? It could have worked!

Duff was not going to rejoin Guns N Roses (the band he helped make famous) and play 2nd or 3rd guitar while another guy played bass (I know he did it for a song or two here and there but those were guest spots, he's not a guest anymore). I'm sure at some point we'll hear the specifics about how this all happened and what the agreements are, but unless this is a quick one time tour, I don't see them coming back on as 'hired hands'.

Also I get that this guy (Tommy) was around for longer than any member not named Axl or Dizzy... he was a huge part of keeping this band together and came with an amazing pedigree... but Duff is the better bass player IMO.

I think they're quite comparable "talent-wise" (part of the reason Tommy was such a suitable substitution for Duff back in the day IMHO). To me it's just more a case of- all things being equal- the average rock fan would prefer to see Duff playing bass in Guns and Tommy playing bass in the 'mats (and/or pursuing his other projects)...

yep....

wait. there could have been 5 more "chinese democracy starts now" tours?

edit: on a serious note... this does not explain certain past interviews with Tommy.

4 example... there was that interview where he said "I dont know whats going on... there's a few people I considered friends that I reach out to occasionally..."

basically as usual with the band... its hard to get the facts clear and unambiguous.

This is why I haven't really said anything yet in this thread. Something isn't right. How can you go from  that quote to 5 tours?  I wish Tommy well. I think he was good to hold GNR together, but I do have my doubts about the 5 tours.

Lots of speculation. So I'll add some.

GNR have been, publically at least, a part time band for the past 20 years. We don't know what we don't know. And in that light, things change a lot over time. My lfie in 1997-98 when Tommy joined is very different in many ways from my life now. Things happen : parents get sick, kids get born, and grow old, and when GNR aren't working, some people pick up other parts and other bands in their life. So, for some reason, for example, Tommy may have committed to Mats tours before GNR decided to tour. Or perhaps he couldn't tour in 2008 because his mother was dying (for example). It seems like there were 5 occasions when this happened. It doesn't mean he wasn't committed to the band, but more that life became complicated and touring became difficult to commit to. It happens.

Also, as we have seen with Robin, Bucket, Ashba, etc band members often have Non Disclosure Agreements after they leave and don't do interviews. I remember reading a Richard interveiw where he was very articulate about everything except GNR. Band members business (leaving, and post leaving interviews) are often very vague arund exact details. Maybe the deal was that Bumble and Tommy were bound to say very little until any announcement was made about the current lineup. And now it is. Certainly I've left bands and jobs where I've agreed to say nothing publically in return for dollars : it'll be the same thing here.

Tommy is awesome and I loved him in Guns.

However, I got the sense in 2014 that once Duff started filling in for him, and seeing how happy Axl was playing with Duff again, that it was just a matter of time before Duff would re-join the band.

With Tommy saying he had to turn down tours, I don't think there was much question on who would replace him.\

But I could be wrong.

anyways... I'm sorry I didnt get to meet him, and I cant wait to hear his future music, and hopefully some more of his stuff in GNR. He was one of my favorite members. And to brag a bit... when his first site got overloaded, it was hosted on my server space for a month :)

P.S. cant wait to see if going down will be played live. it kinda makes a sad good bye to him.... or his goodbye to the band.

Anyone who listened to Village Gorilla Head or Going Down will have known what Tommy could have brought to Guns. A terrific songwriter. But yeah, same as DJ. It wasn't happening. Time to move on.

Bash and Pop had a bunch of good songs...so did Perfect and both his solo albums...very good songwriter. Honestly, a much better songwriter than Duff. I am not saying he is better for Guns than Duff, but I do think he is more talented as an "artist/songwriter".

I have a question. Do you think maybe Axl was/is in debt ? and had to pay up?

Either for the lawsuit with with Irvin Assoff, or for something else?

 5 more tours seems like a lot, considering he had toured so much before that..

If he had invested that time and effort he had for touring, into .. I don't know? releasing an album, maybe it would've been released by now..

 ???

I doubt the reference to '5 tours' meant 5 more tours.  Rather, I think that there were 5 times they tried to schedule maybe just one or two more tours and couldn't because Tommy was unavailable each of the 5 times they tried.  For all we know, if he was around for just 1 they would have only done that one.  I mean, 5 tours, wouldn't that be a block of years?  Are so many tours for that long ever scheduled so far in advance?

So, when Tommy says that...I don't think it was like...5 distinctive tours.  I think it was iterative proposals for a tour or two.  In other words, he was pitched one set of dates, refused, was pitched another, refused, etc.

I also think that maybe, possibly, those refusals (and BBFs departure) moved Axl from "seriously considering what to do in that regards" for a new album to "I gotta put a band back together before I can even think about releasing new stuff". None of that's in the interview, obviously...no indication of it from any sort of official source..but that's my working theory.

Also look at the number of times they've been on the road and done additional shows whilst on the road, rather than planned from the beginning.  Would probably be financial lucrative as on route to the next set of shows or in the case of large shows playing an extra date at the same venue.....

So starting with x amount of shows turning into significantly more might be difficult to deal with

At the end of the day I just think Tommy's timing was bad (if he really did want to continue being a part of GNR)

Tommy played the wrong instrument... If he was one of the guitar players or the drummer... there would probably still be an open invitation for his return in some way.

I like and appreciate that you designate your theories as such and don't attempt to pass them off as fact, or invent imaginary conversations to support your favorite fantasy narrative.  : ok:

The different tour offers and dates seem like a plausible situation as well.

This Is Simply:

TOMMY STINSON RULEZ !!! THANK YOU

 :beer:

I don't think it was ever lost on them just how much money they were all leaving on the table because of this foolishness.

Eventually, everyone smartens up.

Now we are going to imagine we know Axl's current financial situation.....gets better every day.

Which is Tommy Disease ?

Yes, this reunion is the most horrible event in rock history. I was looking forward to hearing a remix album of 10 year old songs so bad too ;/

Not Believe, The Shows Very Good And Big, Comming Soon Is The Word

 :hihi: