Speaking with the Appetite for Distortion podcast in a recent conversation, Navarro noted that while he’s never performed live with Axl Rose, but he played guitar on a GNR song from 1999 called “Oh My God.” He said that it was one of the most bizarre recording sessions of his career.
He disclosed that for the song, which was being recorded was for the Arnold Schwarzenegger film, End of Days, Rose personally called Navarro to invite him to the session, and the guitarist was eager to participate.
“I was given a location and a date and a time and I showed up with my gear, and there was 10 people in the studio,” he recalled. “I was like, ‘Where’s Axl?’ They were like, ‘He’s coming. He’s coming. But let’s get started anyway.'”
Navarro revealed working back on the track for a bit and recorded a few passes when suddenly he heard a voice coming through a small speaker, “Yeah, that sounds really good. Why don’t you keep that one?”
“It was Axl on speaker phone from his home listening in the whole time [laughs]!” Navarro said. “It was just Axl’s voice out of nowhere — out of a f—ing speaker. And he kind of gave me some direction. I was like, ‘Okay, cool.’ Then we were stoked, and that was that. It was very strange, and I love that it was strange. You know what I mean? Because it makes the story so much juicier and memorable and fun.”
Navarro and journeyman rocker Billy Morrisonare promoting the upcoming ‘Above Ground’ concert to benefit MusicCares on December 20 at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles.
