Frank Ferrer Discusses Ashba Departure on Podcast

[Ginger King]

"I'm surprised, but not as surprised as I would have been once upon a time.

Perhaps its all the times their either he or someone in his camp pleads total ignorance to something that comes down, but my once firmly held belief Axl was a control freak with his hands in every piece of the GNR pie has gone by the wayside."

my only point to the parrots was that apparently Axl always let other people make decisions on who other band members were going to be. So, he is not a complete control freak. And for the record, my only issue with the parrots is the incessantly never ending speculation on what really happened. You guys speculate negative, I speculate neutral or independent, and others speculate always positive. Two sides to every coin.

My point is that Team Sunshine tends to exaggerate what we ?negative? folk say.  Case in point.  I?m talking about Frank, the drummer who replaced the drummer, who replaced the drummer, who replaced the drummer, who replaced the drummer.  You think it?s a positive (or neutral) that Axl had little to any interaction with him before he was hired to play in his band?  I think it tends to point to his indifference. 

I?m saying nothing about his ambition to work with prior people (Josh, Brain, Robin, etc.).  Again, it?s just the impression I got from hearing Frank?s story.  I would just expect the lead singer in a band to be involved in who the band is hiring.

[Ginger King]

Ginger....the whole thing is classic...

That's one thing about Axl, too. He knows his shit, dude. I'll never forget, we were working on a track... I forget the name of the track, I don't know if it even made to Chinese Democracy, but we were working on it for two weeks, maybe even longer.

We would work at Village, which is a studio in Santa Monica. Everything would be dropped off to him. At that point it was, like, giving him CD's. So, there'd be a runner ready to go right when we were done at midnight, to bring it to his house in Malibu, and we'd wait about 35-40 minutes until it got there and get the call. 'Yeah, this is cool', or, 'No, we gotta change something or whatever.'   

We'd been doing that for about 2,5 weeks on this song, let's say. Finally, he loved what we were doing, but we had to change something with the drums. So, I remember replaying the part, but, on the beginning of the second half of the intro, there's a kick drum that I had missed on the final take. We had already figured out all the parts and everything was going great, and producer Roy Thomas Baker was like, 'That was the take.'

But I had noticed that I'd missed one kick drum. One kick drum on the one, on the second half of the intro, OK? We send it there, and I'm not shitting you, he says, 'Everything sounds great, except I think Brain missed a kick drum on the one.' 

So, he's fuckin' listening. We thought we were sending this shit and he's literally sitting there like King Arthur with seven chicks on his pipe. He's listening, he's working. After that, I respected... I was like, 'Holy shit! He caught that?!' Yeah, he's listening to every little thing. It was my time on getting the drums right, so he was focusing on that... It's pretty amazing. You'd think someone like that, does he need to care? That one got me. I was like, 'Wow. He caught that.'     

I agree that the making of CD stories are classic.  I've read Chinese Whispers.  It's incredible stuff.

[D-GenerationX]

That Chinese Whispers site should be required reading for all GNR fans.

They are all direct quotes.  How much clearer can your picture be?

[mortismurphy]

There are quotes on that website by people like Moby who said when they arrived Axl didn't have a clue and had basically hundreds of vocal less tapes.

[Ginger King]

There are quotes on that website by people like Moby who said when they arrived Axl didn't have a clue and had basically hundreds of vocal less tapes.

Oh yeah...it shows the good, the bad, and the crazy.  It really should be required reading.

[RnT]

http://www.gnrevolution.com/viewtopic.php?id=13342&p=1

the whole interview shows you how insane the whole process has been. Note, Roy Thomas Baker....means tons of shit was done 13 years ago...you can't make this shit up....that is why I follow the saga....it is classic. Also, why I don't get pissed. It is what it is. That is a fairly recent interview...on Gnr time that is.

hahaha daaamn!! thanks for the link! Crazy shit! 

[D-GenerationX]

There are quotes on that website by people like Moby who said when they arrived Axl didn't have a clue and had basically hundreds of vocal less tapes.

There are so many that say how disjointed and off the rails it all was...and then they all finish up saying how awesome what they heard was.

[GNR2014]

I'm sure whoever they hire will be better than the old one. 

[D-GenerationX]

I'm sure whoever they hire will be better than the old one. 

Hahaha.  I guess she is going to need a new sign.

[jarmo]

And for the record, my only issue with the parrots is the incessantly never ending speculation on what really happened. You guys speculate negative, I speculate neutral or independent, and others speculate always positive. Two sides to every coin.

Wow. How dare you? 
Just kidding.





/jarmo

[gnredwing]

"Forging ahead" What a bunch of shit. DJ was in the band for 6 years and they didn't produce 1 record. People may not like DJ, but he wanted to make music, he wanted "Guns n Roses" to be a band that makes records. It's a shame he left, but why stay in a band that is clearly dead and not doing anything. How can they be forging ahead when they don't have 2 guitarists. Oh thats right, Dizzy Reed is all ready to go

[jarmo]

How can they be forging ahead when they don't have 2 guitarists.

By replacing them with people who want to be there?


/jarmo

[gnredwing]

Yes because so many great guitarists are lining up to be part of this carnival act 

[Spirit]

Yes because so many great guitarists are lining up to be part of this carnival act 

Do you like new-GNR?

[mortismurphy]

Yes because so many great guitarists are lining up to be part of this carnival act 

Do you like new-GNR?

Legit point. Let's say you are a moderately successful guitarist who has written and recorded in the past and the Guns N' Roses offer comes up. You will look at the offer and think,

- the band do not appear to write together
- the band do not appear to record together and there is this big mess with a back log of material
- the band do not release albums or have very little desire to release albums
- the band do not seem to communicate or know what is happening
- There have been 8 former guitarists who have either quit or being sacked
- most of your time in this band will consist of going back and forth between South America and Las Vegas playing a setlist composed by former guitarists.

But the pays good.

It is not a good advertisement for an aspiring guitarist.

[gnredwing]

What really gets me is Chris Pitman. He was interviewed saying "Why release an album, who cares?" Case in point, exit Ashba, exit Ron. Why Axl wants Pitman around I will never understand, brings nothing to the band.

[jarmo]

Yes because so many great guitarists are lining up to be part of this carnival act 

Look at the guitar players who've been in the band. It's not like they're the last ones on earth.....

By the way, your jokes are lame.


/jarmo

[Spirit]

- the band do not appear to write together

Unless you follow a band as closely as we do, you would have no idea about that. I doubt professional musicians are paying that close attention to other band's activities. However, many band members have said they've written stuff post-Chinese. Tommy, Richard and Dizzy has said so publicly at least.

- the band do not appear to record together and there is this big mess with a back log of material
- the band do not release albums or have very little desire to release albums

They have not gone public with much, I'll give you that. If you are to join the band, I suppose you'll get to know what the plan ahead is. Even if we, the fans, never get to know anything, I would hope there's a plan in place, and if there is, you could make a decision based on that. I would say it's highly probable that there are things going on, however frustrating it is to be a fan starving for information on anything.

- the band do not seem to communicate or know what is happening

Sometimes it seems that way yes. Richard with the "up in the air" comment, but then you have Frank a week later saying there's a plan and he's in communication with Axl. What we get from interviews of the band members might not always tell the full story. For all we know, Richard's comment was said jokingly and misinterpreted by the interviewer.

- There have been 8 former guitarists who have either quit or being sacked

It's a bad statistic yes.

- most of your time in this band will consist of going back and forth between South America and Las Vegas playing a setlist composed by former guitarists.

You're basing this on the last couple of years, totally disregarding the rest of the tour...

The setlist... yes, you can't play a GNR show without the classic songs, there's no way getting around that, and fans wouldn't want to. Let's see what's in store for the next run though. If the new guitarist isn't Robin or Bucket, he would have to be cool with playing a full set of songs which he had no hand in composing, that's true.

But the pays good.

Probably better than most places.

It is not a good advertisement for an aspiring guitarist.

Let's see if anyone joins. Wanna bet?

[Spirit]

What really gets me is Chris Pitman. He was interviewed saying "Why release an album, who cares?" Case in point, exit Ashba, exit Ron. Why Axl wants Pitman around I will never understand, brings nothing to the band.

He did write songs on Chinese. His instrument provides a subtle layer of sounds to the songs that sort of "updates" the sound. Listen to You Could Be Mine live nowadays, I think he provides the little extra.

[Sosso]

Chris Pitman's sound had the most influance regarding the bands music during the 2001-2002 and 2006-2007 tours