Ex-GUNS N' ROSES Guitarist GILBY CLARKE On His Career Longevity: 'You've Gotta Stay Authentic'

In a new interview with 2LaneLife, former GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Gilby Clarke was asked what he is most proud of as a musician. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Wow. Most proud of — that's an interesting question… When I first started… When GN'R was over, the band was gonna take a break for years, and at that point I had only been in the band for about three years and stuff. So those guys could have retired, not worked. I was, like, 'Oh, I've still gotta work a little bit.' So that's when I kind of started my solo career. I go, 'Well, I'm still in the band, but I have all these songs that I wanna do,' and stuff, and I started that. And one of my first tours I did was in South America. When GN'R played in South America, we played multiple nights of, like, 80,000 people a night. It's like Beatlemania — you can't walk out of the hotel. There's thousands of kids outside your hotel and stuff. So a year after that, I went down with my solo band and we opened for AEROSMITH. But. in all reality, the people were really there for me. Because just coming off the whole GN'R thing, we had a thousand kids outside the hotel that all had, like, 'Gilby' this and 'Gilby' that and stuff, and no AEROSMITH stuff at all. It was crazy. It was just one of those things that just doesn't happen. It was just a period in time that just happened. So, to me, that was a great moment. Like I said, playing with AEROSMITH and that was just as big as it gets… And still, to this day, when I go down there, even my shows, they're big shows and everything and the people still come out. And it's been 30 years, and they're still dedicated."

When one of the interviewers noted that Clarke must feel good about having the kind of career longevity that still allows him to tour South America and play in front of good-sized crowds, Gilby concurred. "In everybody's life, it's hills and valleys," he said. "You have some good years. I've had some bad years, but my wife's [business] was doing well. You've just gotta ride it out. And I think, to me, if you're authentic in what you do — people will buy hype and they will buy the new next big thing and stuff. But longevity — you've gotta stay authentic and you've gotta have that base of fans."

The now-63-year-old Clarke replaced Izzy Stradlin in the GUNS lineup in 1991, during the "Use Your Illusion" tour, and stayed with the band for three years. After exiting GUNS N' ROSES, Clarke continued as a producer and solo artist, while also playing in SLASH'S SNAKEPIT, ROCK STAR SUPERNOVA, HEART and other acts.

Clarke, along with fellow GUNS N' ROSES members Slash, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler and Matt Sorum, played three "Appetite For Destruction" songs with Myles Kennedy at the band's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in April 2012 in Cleveland, Ohio, although Gilby himself was not inducted as part of the group. Kennedy, who handles lead vocals in Slash's solo band and ALTER BRIDGE, sang "Mr. Brownstone", "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Paradise City", with "Use Your Illusion"-era member Sorum sitting behind the drum kit on "Brownstone" and the man he replaced in GN'R, Adler, pounding the skins for the other two songs.

In 2021, Clarke addressed his non-participation in GUNS N' ROSES' reunion tour, which features three-fifths of the group's classic lineup — singer Axl Rose, Slash and McKagan — during an interview with "The SDR Show". He said: "They didn't ask me to join the band; they asked me to come out and do [a guest appearance] with the band. And it just happened to be the day that I was in Chicago with my daughter. Her band was playing Lollapalooza [in July 2016]. And I'm actually her roadie. I don't think anybody would know how to tune the guitar if I wasn't there. Just kidding. But, yeah, it was just bad timing. I just said, 'Look, I think it's a great idea. I'm up for it. I just can't do it today.' And they literally asked me that day. And I never heard back from them after I said that."

Gilby also confirmed that he only had a week to learn the entire GUNS catalog when he first joined the band three decades ago. "That's true," he said. "They told me on a Monday, that 'You have the gig,' and the next week we were flying to Boston for our first show. And I literally had a week. And remember, this is before YouTube. I was glued to their records with the headphones on, trying to learn the catalog. And the last song I learned was a song called 'Estranged', which was a really long ballad piece. And if you listen to it, it's kind of one-dimensional guitar-wise — it really just features Slash. So I was listening to it, and I really couldn't figure out what I should do in that song. So I went to Dizzy [Reed, GUNS keyboardist]. I go, 'Hey, man, can you sit down with me, and let's work on 'Estranged'.' I go, 'I just wanna kind of figure it out.' And he goes, 'Oh, well, here's the music book.' And he handed me the music book. And I went, 'There's a music book? I just spent a week learning every note by ear when I could have just grabbed the freakin' music book…' I mean, I read charts — it would have taken me an hour. I was a little pissed off that I didn't ask. They could have offered it to me."

Clarke's latest solo album, "The Gospel Truth", was released in April 2021 via Golden Robot Records.

Gilby released his solo debut, "Pawnshop Guitars", in 1994.

In November 2023, Clarke underwent surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome, a repetitive stress condition that happens when a person does repeated movements with the hand and wrist.