How is India treating you?
I was here with GNR last year too.
I love the enthusiasm of the audience. This time in Mumbai, we
got down from the stage and a swarm of people collapsed on us.
So much love!
Heard you fainted before the Delhi gig?
It's been hectic. Flying,
soundcheck, performing, two hours of sleep... My body and mind
simply shut down. I didn't faint, but it was a near collapse.
How is it being a part of Guns N' Roses?
GNR
is a big runaway roller coaster of chaos and destruction.
Aren't you worried this statement might be misconstrued?
Trust me, I mean it the way it
sounds. It causes destruction in its path wherever it goes, and
I am not only a part of it but also the reason
for it. So I take full responsibility.
Share some anecdotes.
Okay, so the weirdest story I can
remember is this one time in Prague, we had just finished
performing. It was six in the morning. The hotel opened up the
bar downstairs for us. So it was just us, except for this one
kid, probably in his 20s, sloshed. We heard him telling the
manager of the band, 'I am the manager of this band.' And we
were like, 'Really!' and the kid refused to leave. So there was
a full-fledged bar fight going on downstairs, while I was
talking to these two Slovakian models who were teaching me the
language. Beside me, there was another touring member of the
band, absolutely zonked out, trying to teach music to these
women. So he shouted, 'Do you like show tunes?' and these two
were like, 'What the hell is he talking about?'
Picture all this going on at the same time! And then upstairs,
we found the guy, blurred, along with his parents, and a camera.
So, I went to him. And he said, 'I am really sorry, I am so
drunk! Can my parents take a picture of me with you guys?'. We
clicked a picture with this kid, who we had just beaten up. How
weird is that! Then we went to the room of Axl (Rose), the
frontman of our band, and talked for about 20 hours. The only
reason I had to leave was because I had to get on the plane to
get to the next country for a gig. Then Axl arrived, he was
miffed and said, 'I thought we had two days off between the
gigs', and I was like, 'You did man, you talked through both
days! The shades were down, so you didn't see the sun rise or
set!' With him, you are in the AXL time zone, an odd vortex
where time and space defy the laws of physics. I have been
living in that zone for seven years now!