Ex??White-Boy Poseur?

[slashisvr]

GN'R lived it moreso than most of the metal bands back then. They climbed out of the gutter. I mean c'mon, they wrote their songs on empty pizza boxes, lived off of gravy and biscuits for weeks at a time, etc. They were as real as you can get for metal. But compared to folks coming out of Compton, etc., I can see what he means. It really doesn't compare that much.

hard rock, never metal

[madagas]

I think Axl was talking about Slash being a poseur. 

[KillKurtzKids]

I believe he is referring to what the band were all about. NWA themselves were not exactly from the streets and half of them lived in much nicer houses than a pre-success GN'R member. But N.W.A raised real issues about what was happening in LA that needed to be raised. Gun's were very honest about life on the streets for fucked up drunk sleezeballs and they oozed a rare rock n' roll credibility. Ultimately though, Axl Rose and Izzy Stardlin were writing about the lives they traveled all the way across America to live. Yes, the police did not get on with drug taking, unemployed rock n' roll kids in Hollywood, but that issue is nothing short of petty in comparison to what was going on in South Central. End of the day, if the streets were all that bad and Guns N' Roses never made it, they could have all got jobs and stopped sticking needles in their arms. Don't get me wrong, Appetite For Destruction is the most credible hard rock album until that date and the only 'hair metal' album of any significance. They were not making it up, that was their lives, the lives they chose to live. But the significantly more theatrical and easily dismissible N.W.A were ultimately addressing more pressing issues.

And as far as Chinese Democracy goes, this is can only be good news. Lyrically we can expect to avoid many of the cliches of past rock n' roll comebacks and look forward to Axl doing what made him special. You can't write songs about living a hard life on the streets when your a millionaire and in UYI we heard glimpses of Axl as a far more sophisticated lyricist not afraid to abandon the heavy expectations from a brainless army of leather clad fans. From what we heard with Better, Madagascar, TWAT and IRS we can expect the same.

[estrangedpaul]

It was just so clear what stupid little white-boy poseurs we were.

What a stupid thing to say. Maybe behind the scene they weren't so hardcore as they made out to be, but to say they were all just "poseurs" is just trying to kill whatever reputation they had left.

Stuff like this kind of gets to me too. It's like he hates their legacy here. If they were so full of shit he should stop playing the old songs entirely, if this is what he believes.

And this is not a case of "studio gangster" stuff. His words not mine. If this is what he really believes...

So true. Playin' AFD and making this kind of statments is stupid. (It was more hardcore or genuine to sing a dozen love songs and make epic piano ballads? ) The NR video isn't about posing, is it?

 I really don't even understand why he said this (if not the journalist made up the whole thing). ?

Maybe he said it coz its true! And he's not saying they didn't live the life suggested in AFD, so there is nothing wrong with singing those songs. He just said they weren't as hardcore or dangerous as NWA. It was a very casual comment made in casual conversation. You guys read way too much into it. Obviously he doesn't live the life of AFD anymore but he still sings those songs because he's an entertainer and those songs are entertaining.

[Scabbie]

Rose promises the album will be released by the end of the year.

Source: http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/intelligencer/20338/index.html

Thats the bit I like.

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Rose promises the album will be released by the end of the year.

Source: http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/intelligencer/20338/index.html

Thats the bit I like.

Amen bro, if Axl wants to be black, let him be black, but that's not gonna stop me from enjoying the record.  Thank you Axl for trying to give us the best product you can.  As fans, we certainly will appreciate it when we pop in the record in our stereos.  And hopefully you'll be like Reggie Miller at the line. 

[dodger girl]

I get his point and why he said that and I don't think it's a stupid comment, he's being very honest about it.. but I think he's being a bit too hard on himself.. of course he would sing and have the attitude they had as a band cuz that's the lifestyle they were living, they weren't faking it, they experienced the things they talk about in their lyrics and they took the attitude from that environment, they didn't pose to be badass, they were.

Of course there's always life experiences that will always be worse and diminish whatever their lifestyle was and make it look frivolous in other eyes.. but that doesn't make it any less real for them that lived it.. and their attitude was also real, cuz it came from those places and that setting teached them to behave like that in some extent.

I don't know, there's a lot of worse escenarios you can grow up in.. but they lived the drug, street, sex, rock n' roll life and they were as real as you can get at that. And the attitude of badass comes with it, they weren't posing it.

[Alina]

maybe now when he look back in the years its seems to him that they where poseurs , couse it was so long ago 

[makane]

They were "white poseurs" 'cause hes trying to market a different band nowdays.

[ShotgunBlues1978]

It's not that big of a deal and I think a lot of people are missing the gist of the comment.  He's pretty much saying that at that time they were ignorant to what was going on and thought they were a bunch of badasses.  Then he realized that maybe they weren't as big of badasses as they thought and maybe they didn't have it as bad as they thought.  It's not a big deal and he's not dissing anyone in the old band, he's just saying they were young and ignorant and thought they were a lot tougher and badder than they really were

[ppbebe]

looking back on the days of being pretty vacant?

I ought to say I come to have even higher opinion of his intelligence.

I haven't read all the posts so prolly I'm repeating what is already said but I think he's obviously referring to the "attitude" shit and not the music. There's always someone badder. And there's no point in trying to be more dangerous as there's nothing wrong with being less unfortunate.
the word "poseur" used in self deprecation just shows both his modesty and his self esteem at the same time.

Does that mean aerosmith are posers too Axl? Or the Crue? comon!

about the latter,  yes, I imagine.

[shasta]

W. Axl Rose started out wailing about ?smoking a cigarette with styyyyyle,? but I can tell you honey, in the thirteen years he?s been working on the oft-delayed album Chinese Democracy (at a price that?s exceeded $13 million, he may need you to make his money toniiiight..), he?s had time to reflect on heavy-metal posturing. ?We thought we were so hardcore?Slash?with his hat and snakeskin [expletive] boots?limp, unlit cigarette dangling from his [expletive] mouth?me with my tight girly? sweatshorts and Raiders jersey,? he said in the blueroom at the CMAs. ?Then one day a couple years back I was at a Raiders game with Aubrey Huff and Ice Cube as his guest, and I saw Junior Seau just [expletive] level Jerry [expletive] Rice, one of my favorites.? It was just so clear what a stupid little white-boy poseur I was.? ?He [Ice Cube] was like, ?All right, we can give up the act.? You don?t deserve to wear Rice?s jersey?.? If you?re talking about which lifestyle is more hard-core, the one where you get leveled to the ground by a 250 pound [expletive] beast of an island man, and then minutes later catch the winning TD?well, that one always wins.? So what?s the holdup with Chinese Democracy, Axl? ?It?s not about being a control freak. It?s about being maybe smart enough to go, ?No, that?s a bad [expletive] idea.? I want to make a good record. I don?t want to throw a CMU block out their for the public to consume. I?m no mason, I don?t get paid and get laid to throw bricks around.? I?m a [expletive] artist, man.? It?s about telling a story through art.? Not building a house or some [expletive].? Rose promises the album will be released by the end of some year.

[TOPGUNner]

it sounds to me like Axl has taken a step back and looked at himself and said, "I'm not going to be Axl, I'm going to be William."

Nice to see he addressed his stigma as a control freak. I found this small interview/article to be rather promising. i just wish someone would ask him, since we keep hearing about the album coming out this year, about when he's going to release a single or a video or something that involves making the album known. Granted, this is Chinese Democracy, and people know about it, but still

[Origen]

W. Axl Rose started out wailing about ?smoking a cigarette with styyyyyle,? but I can tell you honey, in the thirteen years he?s been working on the oft-delayed album Chinese Democracy (at a price that?s exceeded $13 million, he may need you to make his money toniiiight..), he?s had time to reflect on heavy-metal posturing. ?We thought we were so hardcore?Slash?with his hat and snakeskin [expletive] boots?limp, unlit cigarette dangling from his [expletive] mouth?me with my tight girly  sweatshorts and Raiders jersey,? he said in the blueroom at the CMAs. ?Then one day a couple years back I was at a Raiders game with Aubrey Huff and Ice Cube as his guest, and I saw Junior Seau just [expletive] level Jerry [expletive] Rice, one of my favorites.  It was just so clear what a stupid little white-boy poseur I was.   He [Ice Cube] was like, ?All right, we can give up the act.  You don?t deserve to wear Rice?s jersey?.  If you?re talking about which lifestyle is more hard-core, the one where you get leveled to the ground by a 250 pound [expletive] beast of an island man, and then minutes later catch the winning TD?well, that one always wins.? So what?s the holdup with Chinese Democracy, Axl? ?It?s not about being a control freak. It?s about being maybe smart enough to go, ?No, that?s a bad [expletive] idea.? I want to make a good record. I don?t want to throw a CMU block out their for the public to consume. I?m no mason, I don?t get paid and get laid to throw bricks around.  I?m a [expletive] artist, man.  It?s about telling a story through art.  Not building a house or some [expletive].? Rose promises the album will be released by the end of some year.

Where is this from  How is it like an extended piece from the first post.

And why are the words wrong, blueroom instead of greenroom, CMA instead VMA, has this just been typed up?

[PrettyTiedUp763]

It sounds to me in this little interview that he is coming into his age and knows he can't make music about living on the street and doing drugs now since that isn't his lifestyle at this point. ?I wouldn't read that deep into it really.

He is doing something new and he wants it to work and is saying that it will be different.

Fans like myself who are a little bit older can relate to this I guess.

That's what I got out of this. This is just proof to how much he has matured over the years. But I think he is being just a little too hard on himself.

[WARose]

he ranted about being tired of playing the rock n`roll dude in chicago 92...


 they thought they were badass and the most dangerous band in the late 80`s until they realised they were really lucky bastards in some way and that there were people less blessed out there for sure...

he doesn`t say they weren`t badass or how you call it, he just says people living in the ghetto had to go through MUCH more crap than they had to...   basically they all chose to live the way they did.. contrary to the people living "the lifestyle where you get shot"

[phi_kai_phi]

It was just so clear what stupid little white-boy poseurs we were. It was like, ?All right, we can give up the act.?

Ummm I don't like how much he puts himself down.  but I get the point.  If you were Guns in '94 and tried to write a hardcore song during that period...  what would you write about?

(although calling themselves white-boy poseurs seems like a bad statement.  Maybe they would seem that way if they tried to release a new hardcore album, now that they would be compared to NWA)

[Satapher]

This cannot be Shaq at the free-throw line

What does that mean?

rofl  that's bc shaq used to miss all the free-throw shots   

[KillKurtzKids]

No it's a secret message that Shaq freestyles over an insaine Buckethead solo during 'This I Love'. Idiot. 


Seriously, I find modesty in 45 year old rock stars a little too rare. That's why most of them suck.

[the dirt]

No it's a secret message that Shaq freestyles over an insaine Buckethead solo during 'This I Love'. Idiot.?

You know that he really did rap on a track once, eh?