Former Guns N’ Roses bassist Tommy Stinson discussed how he gave Axl Rose a break during concerts in a new Illinois Entertainer interview, which allowed him to go to his change booth and get oxygen.
“How that whole thing came about was, I’m not one to do bass solos or anything like that. So, it’s like (imitating Rose), ‘Yeah, how about you do a song in the middle of the set so I can get a breather kind of thing.’ Everyone did one . . . and I just decided after awhile, let’s do ‘Motivation.’ I know it. Frank knew it. Richard knew it. And Dizzy knew it.”
He added, “He wouldn’t actually leave the stage. He would go into his, like, quick-change booth and get oxygen or change his coat or just sit for a second. You know, he’s always running around, so you gotta have a place at some point in the set [for him] to go and catch his breath, so to speak, you know?”
He also discussed his 2004 solo album Village Gorilla Head that he recorded with Dizzy Reed, Richard Fortus, and Josh Freese.
“The Chinese Democracy thing was like five, six guys in a room hacking stuff out over a long period of time. The Village Gorilla Head record: I did the basic drum tracks and that in a studio in Hollywood. It was actually an office space above another studio. And I used that because Frank Black was making a Catholics record, and he had finished that and let me use all his gear and studio setup, and then I pieced the rest of it together in my studio at home.”
