The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins discussed opening for Guns N’ Roses in a new NME interview. Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.
“I did actually go back to Appetite, the first Guns N’ Roses album, Big Appetite, I love it, it’s really powerful. It’s one of those records where you can really hear what the two guitar players are up to, because they’re properly separated like an AC/DC album, which I never realized before. One of the reasons why Slash really pops out is because of what the other guy is up to as well. It’s magical, I love listening to things and knowing who has done what. Everything in it’s place, Slash over there, the other bloke over there, Axl down the middle.”
He added, “The experience [opening for them] didn’t disappoint at all, it was exactly what we were hoping for. We didn’t get to hang out with them very much because of a few things that were said, presumably, I don’t know. People react to things in a really strange way sometimes. So anyways, we didn’t hang out. We watched the whole show in Zurich, it’s just brilliant to hear all of those songs, and then loads of other songs as well. It was a really long set, with lots of covers, and more guitar solos than I’ve ever heard at any gig.
About a different cowboy hat every song and a half (laughs). Beyond that, when you looked down, there was even a different t-shirt here and there. More costume changes, what happened was, I began to realize, when these long solos are going, and you’re just watching the fingers and are mesmerized, it’s a distraction technique, and Axl is running off there and putting a different hat on, and then he comes back and he’s also got a different t-shirt as well. God knows how many people are working behind the scenes to keep that thing ticking over, it’s really impressive. One of them was a t-shirt and it had a lady’s legs splayed invitingly, but in the middle where you would expect to see her lady part, there was a cat, an actual cat. It was brilliant.”
