Former Guns N’ Roses bassist Tommy Stinson discussed his departure from the band in a new Observer interview.
“I’ll be honest with you, I am stoked about the Guns N’ Roses reunion. All those guys are my buddies, except I don’t really know Slash. I don’t think I’ve ever met him. But all those guys are my friends and I’m glad they’re out doing it but I’d be lying if I said I missed that gig.”
“I miss the people a whole lot and obviously you miss the fans and stuff like that. But where I’m at in life right now, that’s just a whole thing that…I’m not saying I’d never do it again but I’m kind of glad I moved on from that.
It really was a lot and it really required, sadly, because of my circumstances with my ex-wife, to have to put a whole lot of crazy shit into play just to be able to do those tours towards the end, because I had this young daughter.
I’m in a much better place. I’ve had some time to fuckin’ sort some shit out up here where my trajectory right now is way more manageable for the bandwidth that I have for it.”
He also discussed joining the band in the late 90’s.
“I was rehearsing in the same rehearsal hall as Josh Freese was and he had already joined the band and was playing with them. He just kinda joked at me, saying, “Hey, we need a bass player, you should come. Try it out, man! We’re just having fun with it.”
I kinda went out there on a lark. I learned a couple songs, just went out there for fun and to see what it was about and not a whole lot happened after that so I had the gig. I was like, ‘Sure. Why not?’
I mean the idea after I talked to Axl about it, you know, what he was trying to get done after everyone quit the band, I thought was pretty fuckin’ ballsy and cool. So I was kind of in for that reason.”
