Founding Guns N’ Roses guitarist Tracii Guns has responded to a new in-depth L.A. Weekly article on Izzy Stradlin written by Art Tavana.
Guns wrote on Facebook:
Let me sum up Izzy Stradlin for the the speculators. It’s simple. He stays true to himself. He stays to himself and it ain’t none of your business.
Tavana’s L.A. Weekly article explains some of the alleged reasons Stradlin refuses to reunite with Guns N’ Roses.
To those who know him — or knew him, since they haven’t seen him in years — Izzy’s rejection of the GNR reunion is a very public way for him to reclaim his legacy, while at the same time, maintaining an unscheduled life. Izzy was once the band’s Godfather, and he wants fans to remember him that way, not as the hired hand he became in later years. “Izzy was the mastermind. In the beginning, it was all him,” says Chris Weber. “Axl assumed that role later on.”
The article later states:
Izzy Stradlin, who’s tweeting as well, is almost unrecognizable without his darkly-tinted aviators. “Mr. Invisible,” as Axl once called him, now wants to be visible, without being there, or having to deal with all the shit that comes along with being there. The music he quietly releases, with little-to-no promotion, is how he remains relevant without having to remain present. It’s why there are still fans with “Where’s Izzy” signs, like Caroline Campos, because some of them are genuinely curious about the whereabouts of GNR’s simple man, or feel the band remains incomplete without him. Other just want to show-off their knowledge of GNR trivia.
But for now, Izzy is the face on the side of the milk carton inside Axl’s fridge, next to ex-guitarist Buckethead’s KFC bucket, right under Adler’s decomposed drug habit, hidden behind the bowl of stale spaghetti — the GNR reunion’s missing person and its most unanswerable question.
