Blind Melon guitarist Christopher Thorn discussed touring with Guns N’ Roses in a new Appetite for Distortion interview. Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.
“We toured forever with those guys. We did all of Europe, we did all of America, the very first tour we did was all of Mexico. They rented an MGM Grand plane, and we got on the plane with them, and did a whole tour of Mexico.”
“It was awesome, if you were in Guns N’ Roses. You walked on the plane and there would be lobster and shrimp, and a bar right when you walked in. They were like, ‘Yeah yeah yeah, that’s not where you guys are sitting.’ They’re like, ‘You guys are in the fuckin’ back of the plane with the crew!’ So it’s like a 70 seater, and we’re in the back of the plane.”
“It was so funny, because Shannon would wind up sitting in first class with Slash and Duff getting fucked up every night eating lobster. We were in the back like a bunch of shlocks in the smoking section. I just remember everybody would smoke on the plane, it was like a giant cigarette.
It was a good tour, it was a really fun tour, but there were many nights where Shannon [Hoon] got taken off that plane with some bodyguards just because he was so wasted with Slash and Duff. We’d see them coming down the tarmac, coming down the steps, just out of their minds wasted. Two bodyguards picking up grown men down the steps, it was a crazy time. We’d get off the plane and there’d be six limos and little van for us.”