DJ ASHBA Says He Played 'All' Rhythm Guitars On MÖTLEY CRÜE's 'Saints Of Los Angeles' Album
January 7, 2022Former GUNS N' ROSES and current SIXX:A.M. guitarist DJ Ashba says that he played all the rhythm guitars on MÖTLEY CRÜE's "Saints Of Los Angeles" album.
The 49-year-old musician and producer, who is credited as a songwriter on all but two of "Saints Of Los Angeles"'s 13 tracks, discussed the extent of his involvement with the record during an appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" earlier this week.
When host Eddie Trunk asked Ashba about the session work he has done over the years, including recordings he might have done as a "ghost" musician on albums hard rock and heavy metal fans might be familiar with, DJ responded "MÖTLEY," referencing "Saints Of Los Angeles", before adding (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET),"I played all the rhythms on it. But Mick [Mars, MÖTLEY guitarist] was awesome. Mick was actually in the hospital at the time."
Mars spoke about the "Saints Of Los Angeles" songwriting and recording process in a 2008 interview with Ultimate Guitar. At the time, he said: "Mostly what we did was, I would come in with some riffs and things like that. We would record them, I would record them on Pro Tools because everybody was kind of doing their thing, you know? Like Tommy [Lee, drums] and Vince [Neil, vocals] already had their schedules already pre-planned so we had to kind of plan around that because they had already committed to doing that before. Doing what they needed to do, that is. And so what we did was, Nikki [Sixx, bass] and I would record some things, put them down on Pro Tools, cut 'em up, splice 'em together, put 'em together, however you want to call it. And had Tommy and Vince do their parts when they had time to do it. And it worked out pretty well.
Asked if the process felt a little disjointed, Mars said: "I like more like live-off-the-floor kind of thing. But we didn't really have the choice but to do it this way this time, and I think it turned out really, really well."
MÖTLEY CRÜE's first studio album since 2000's "New Tattoo", "Saints Of Los Angeles" sold 99,000 copies in the United States during its first week of release to debut at No. 4 on The Billboard 200 chart.
"Saints Of Los Angeles" was loosely based on the band's memoir "The Dirt", which was published in 2001.
In June 2008, CRÜE performed the "Saints of Los Angeles" title track on CBS's "The Late Show With David Letterman".
Over the years, Mars has publicly discussed his battle with ankylosing spondylitis, a painful form of chronic arthritis that causes vertebrae in the spine to fuse together, but has always said that the condition had never kept him from touring with CRÜE.
Thanks to @DjASHBA for dropping by my Vegas studio today to talk rock on #TrunkNation . Replays tonight 10-Mid ET @siriusxmvolume 106 or anytime @SIRIUSXM app. pic.twitter.com/n4S8ZnLzhG
— Eddie Trunk (@EddieTrunk) January 5, 2022
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