DJ ASHBA: How I Landed GUNS N' ROSES Gig

Denver Westword blog recently conducted an interview with GUNS N' ROSES/SIXX: A.M. guitarist DJ Ashba. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Denver Westword: Your first concert was MÖTLEY CRÜE, and then you wrote music for Nikki Sixx's book, and then wrote music for their most recent album: What about seeing that band live was inspirational to you immediately, and how did you meet and come to work with Nikki?

Ashba: My dad took me when I was sixteen to the "Girls Girls Girls" concert, and I think that night changed my life. I knew I wanted to play music for a living, that's all I really knew since I was little. But up until then, it was kind of like a dream, and you'd see these people in magazines, and they just didn't seem real, kind of. Then, I guess being in the same room with them, watching them do it, something clicked that night. I was like, "Wow, it can be done. It's not a dream, they're up there doing it so there's no reason I can't." It made this thing in my head that was like a dream and turned it into a reality for me. After that, I was so determined. I was like, "I will be on that stage one day. I didn't realize I was going to be on stage with that guy on stage, but I met Nikki eight or nine years ago at Randy Castillo's funeral, and we talked a bit there. He didn't know me from Adam, I don't think, but it was cool, because I just kept plugging away in L.A. trying to make a name for myself. I guess word got around about me, and then eventually, I got a phone call from him. We had run into each other here and there. I got the call to join BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION, but at the time, I was working on my own thing, so I turned it down. Which he'll never let me live down. Everything happens for a reason, and a few years later, he called me again, and we started hanging out. He invited me up to his house, and I remember the first time we sat down at a piano with an acoustic guitar, we wrote four songs in like half an hour, and we were like, "Whoa, we've got something here." He wanted to know if I wanted to team up with him as a songwriter and producer out at Funny Farm. I was about ready to sign another deal with Atlantic Records, and I actually turned down the record deal to team up with him. Then, through that, we created SIXX: A.M. without realizing it.

Denver Westword: How is it that you know Neil Diamond enough for him to have encouraged you into joining of GUNS N' ROSES?

Ashba: Well, I've been a big fan of Neil for forever. But it was cool because we have the same manager. What was cool about it was that I got the opportunity to work with him, and I produced and wrote some stuff for him on his Christmas record, and we just became really good friends. He would send me birthday cards — like, he'd go out and pick a birthday gift and hand write the cards and send them to my house. He was just a really big believer in me and always has been since. I was in New York on tour, and he called me up... well back up the story a bit. When I got the call to join GUNS, I got a phone call from Neil. It was kind of a big career move, and he encouraged me and said, "You have to do this. This is going to be really big for your career, and it's going to open up a lot of doors. I personally think they couldn't have picked a better guy for this." So he gave me really good words of encouragement, kind of like my dad, you know? When I joined, he sent me over a ukulele signed to congratulate me. When I was in New York, he invited me over to his house for Thanksgiving dinner and stuff. I played his birthday party. Tons of fun. He's always been the most down-to-earth guy you'll ever meet.

Denver Westword: You went through an audition process before joining GN'R. Did Axl [Rose] ever tell you why he picked you, and what was that first practice with the band like for you?

Ashba: He didn't tell me why he picked me. What happened is that I got a call, basically saying — I got a call at SIXX: A.M., and we had a number one hit at the time, and it said: "Listen, GUNS has been auditioning guitar players for about a year and a half on the down low. They can't seem to find the right guy." Then they asked if I would be interested in coming down and checking it out. And I said, "Yeah, I'll definitely come down." I guess Axl got wind that I was going to come down, and he called management and said, "If he even shows up in the room, he has the gig." So it was kind of that easy. The first time I sat down with him after joining the band, he had known about my entire career. It blew my mind. He remembered meeting me ten years ago, probably even longer than that now, when Sharon Osborne introduced us, while I was making the BEAUTIFUL CREATURES album. He said, "If I knew you would have been up for this, I would've came after you years ago." I didn't even know I was on his radar, so it was pretty flattering.

Read the entire interview from Denver Westword .