Slash Admitted To ‘Cashing In’ On Guns N’ Roses

Former Guns N’ Roses manager Alan Niven recently recalled the moment he realized the extent of Axl Rose’s “control” of the band and noted how he tried his best to keep things as equal as possible.

The story of how Guns N’ Roses rose to fame, faced challenges, and eventually rebounded is well-known. Axl Rose played a crucial role in this journey. However, another important figure in the band’s original rise to rock superstardom was Alan Niven. According to his recollections, Niven began managing the band at a time when no one else would step up.

During Niven’s tenure, the band experienced significant success during the “Appetite for Destruction” era. However, he eventually became one of the first casualties of the strained relationship with Axl Rose. Reports indicate that Rose refused to complete work on “Use Your Illusion” until Niven was let go.

Asked in a recent interview on the “Talk Louder” podcast about how Axl Rose came to wield “so much control” over the band, Niven said:

“Well, I didn’t think he had that much control, until one night I went out with Slash. We went out on a Friday night… [chuckles] I got home Sunday.”

“And during the conversation of that weekend, he brought up that he found it difficult to connect to certain material on ‘Use Your Illusions’. And I put it to him that he, and Izzy [Stradlin], and Duff [McKagan] should express their reservations to Axl.”

“What I got from Slash was — and there are certain things that people say to you that sear themselves into your consciousness and you never, ever forget what they said — and he looked at me, and he said, ‘My dad has got a cupboard full of gold and platinum records, and he doesn’t have a pot to piss in. I’m going to make the compromises that I have to make to keep the checks coming.'”

“And at that moment, I knew we were developing ‘Axl democracy.’ I did my best to keep things even. My contract was signed with five individual people, collectively known as Guns N’ Roses. I did not sign a contract with any one of those five individually; my responsibility was to the whole, to make the best decisions for the whole.”

Niven’s description of that turning point is telling, because it captures the exact moment when Guns N’ Roses shifted from being a gang of equals to a band revolving almost entirely around Axl Rose. While the Appetite era thrived on the push-and-pull between five distinct personalities, the Use Your Illusion sessions revealed the cracks. Izzy Stradlin, who had been a central songwriter, grew increasingly detached as the material became more grandiose. Duff McKagan, battling his own personal issues, often found himself caught in the middle. And Slash, as Niven’s anecdote shows, was willing to compromise in order to preserve stability and keep the machine moving forward.

From that point onward, Rose’s dominance defined the group. The marathon-length Illusion albums, the elaborate videos, and the massive tours all reflected his vision. For Niven, who believed his role was to protect the collective, it was a breaking point. Within a few years, he was out — another casualty of the band’s internal power struggles.

Looking back now, that era explains much of what followed: Stradlin’s departure in 1991, the long delays between albums, and the eventual splintering of the classic lineup. As Niven noted, “Axl democracy” came to rule the day, for better and for worse.