Ex??White-Boy Poseur?

[russtcb]

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.

Pretty much everything I've heard from the Trunk show on has given me the same feeling that you said. But I don't think he could ever be too hard on himself. The guy does have an extremely negative persona in the rock world at times.

[KillKurtzKids]

Well, some members of the band (not including Axl) were in the studio and he wondered though and did a little improv. I'd be shocked if it ever sees the light of day! I'd always be up for some guest freestyling though (Shaq and the MTV cast of Hip-Hop Superstars excluded of course). But considering some fans can't handle something as shocking as a drum machine.. It wouldn't go down well! GN'R with Jurassic 5? Maybe.

[Eazy E]

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

He still does.   

I like that he used that to describe the long wait for the album.

[michaelvincent]

Try looking at this rationally....

GnR: living on the streets of L.A., shooting heroin, no money, taking advantage of girls to get a meal once in awhile, basically living like homeless people lol

NWA: living in the ghetto of Compton, selling drugs to make money, risking being shot just going outside to get the mail, living right in the middle of things like racism, gang violence, domestic violence, etc.

Yeah, being a junkie rock band on the streets of L.A. was sooooooo much more hardcore.

[Mikkamakka]

I guess the discussion is not about which 'lifestyle' is more hardcore, since 'the one where you get shot always wins'.

But these sentences:

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

suggest that they were only acting the AFD lifestyle, they didn't really live that, they were poseurs. So now the whole early GN'R image turns out to be fake? A marketing move? Gimme a break. 

[Bruno Poeys]

I guess the discussion is not about which 'lifestyle' is more hardcore, since 'the one where you get shot always wins'.

But these sentences:

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

suggest that they were only acting the AFD lifestyle, they didn't really live that, they were poseurs. So now the whole early GN'R image turns out to be fake? A marketing move? Gimme a break. 

I agree with you... i just think he was saying that in comparison  to those guys, they were posers. He didnt say nothing extraordinary.

[Scottyl333]

Thats a little disapointing that he would say this about his former life style.  I really thought he lived the life. Izzy was said to be adrug dealer and they acted the part of the street smart big city white boys.  Now that he says they were only acting it gives me a different view of AFD.  I thought it was the real deal.  For me you dont have to get shot at to live a street life.  Its not like NWA were not poseurers themselves.  Ice Cube grew up middle class and Dr. Dre is called a poseur all the time but I really thought the old GNR was authentic.

[thelostrose]

I guess the discussion is not about which 'lifestyle' is more hardcore, since 'the one where you get shot always wins'.

But these sentences:

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

suggest that they were only acting the AFD lifestyle, they didn't really live that, they were poseurs. So now the whole early GN'R image turns out to be fake? A marketing move? Gimme a break.?

I agree with you... i just think he was saying that in comparison? to those guys, they were posers. He didnt say nothing extraordinary.

i guess axl is looking at the past differently. as everyone does... that's just a part growing up/older.

[meanmachine73]

The word 'poseur' is the teaser here. You can be ultra hard-core, but still be a poseur.

With all the success comes superstar fame & money, this ultimately will lead to a total lifestyle change. When you get the money you can easily forget your roots.

One week you have absolutely no money= walking or scrounging a ride to Denny's for biscuits and gravy. Next week you get the record deal and have more money than you know what to do with = no more Denny's its a limo to a 5 star restaurant for dinner, not forgetting the gorgeous model on your arm. The week before you were willing to fuck anything with a pulse...

I think the whole poseur thing relates alot more to GNR 91 onwards then anything prior.

You can easily lose the edge, Afterall would you change your lifestyle if you won the lottery?

Do you think that once NWA sold a million records they still risked their ass in Compton? Not a chance, they were living it up in the Hills.

[Bandita]

If anyone has seen video footage of their old hangouts and apartments before they became famous you would see they did indeed live what they wrote about on AFD.  They wrote lyrics on napkins and scraps of paper thrown around Jack Daniels bottles and moved around like nomads staying from place to place.

But even when UYI came out, the songs were different, they were evolving.

This interview really says nothing more than that, that they are still evolving and Axl is not the same person he was in 1987.  He wants his music to be appreciated even though it is and will be different than what was done way back when.

You are all taking his words too literally.  He isn't saying anything that negative.  He is older and reflecting.  When Axl speaks honestly he generally causes controversy because he doesn't say what press or public may want to hear.  He says what he thinks. 

[Mr Bootlegs]

Yea i think this is about the illusion days, when they were multi millionaires living the high life, and still strutting around on stage performing 'i'm on the nightrain' when they werent exaclty on the nightrain anymore. They were on the expensive champainge.

Wonder what the rest of the original guys thinks of this comment.

[loretian]

Yeah, they were basically living like homeless, but they were doing it by choice.

Slash came from a moderately wealthy family, the rest of them *could* have gotten regular jobs, and lived normal lives.? It's not so easy when you grow up in the ghetto, for many young men, drug dealing and gang violence is the de facto standard.

Guns N' Roses was "living the life", but it was a life they chose, they could have stepped out whenever they wanted.

edit:  More to the point, the life they chose was the life of partying.. not violence.  And yeah, okay, it's hardcore in a sense, but it's not the same thing.

[Buddha_Master]

It's a good thing he replaced all band members with people who never liked GNR to begin with.

Just read this and stopped reading the rest of the posts. Is this true? Not saying I have a problem with this, but that is a trip.

[ppbebe]

If so, so what?

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...

good call mate, damn good call.
People, Remember this thread? 

GN'R vs. NWA: Who was the REAL most dangerous group in the world?

I doubt that he just came up to the idea like yesterday as he matured.

I read somewhere in a very early interview, an episode to the effect that once they stole lumber (to renovate hellhouse?) and worried that they might be looked down by brutal jailbirds if arrested on that silly charge.

I reckon he's/ they've been aware that in the real world they were not the baddest but young pretty and stupid (yeah!) little white-boy "poseurs" from the very beggining.

not everyone knows it but everyone poses after a sort. even NWA.
Nothing wrong with it and again nothing wrong with being less unblessed.

[the dirt]

It's a good thing he replaced all band members with people who never liked GNR to begin with.

Just read this and stopped reading the rest of the posts. Is this true? Not saying I have a problem with this, but that is a trip.

Yes, it's true.

[russtcb]

Thats a little disapointing that he would say this about his former life style.  I really thought he lived the life. Izzy was said to be adrug dealer and they acted the part of the street smart big city white boys.  Now that he says they were only acting it gives me a different view of AFD.  I thought it was the real deal.  For me you dont have to get shot at to live a street life.  Its not like NWA were not poseurers themselves.  Ice Cube grew up middle class and Dr. Dre is called a poseur all the time but I really thought the old GNR was authentic.

He wasn't saying that anything they lived/talked about wasn't real. He was saying that they thought they had it hard until they heard how hard some people really had it.

[Mr Bootlegs]

Sowhat if they could have goten real jobs, mohammed ali didnt have to be a boxer, and he's not a poser.

The way i see it the only way they were posers was if they said they were doing something they were not doing. But that never happened with guns n' roses.

And so what if NWA could get shot walkin outa the house, i live in a place were theoretically you could get shot for wearing the wrong kind of football shirt in the wrong place, at the wrong time. (northern ireland).

But im not gonna say im from 'the ghetto', and rap about it like an idiot.
NWA glamourised violence. period.

[Dr. Blutarsky]

GNR and NWA both came from the streets of LA. GNR made millions and got out of the streets. NWA made millions & stayed in the streets. Who is the smarter band? If you have the means, move to where they dont shoot guns at you!

Axl is a little too hard on himself, I think.

[Steel_Angel]

NWA made millions & stayed in the streets.

Ice cube was in NWA, he's now making rated g movies.. definetley didnt stay in the streets..

[Dr. Blutarsky]

NWA made millions & stayed in the streets.

Ice cube was in NWA, he's now making rated g movies.. definetley didnt stay in the streets..

my bad, can't say I have been following his career as of late......