Ex-GUNS N' ROSES Guitarist GILBY CLARKE Says His Daughter Is 'Carving Her Own Path' As A Punk Rock Singer

July 6, 2021

In a new interview with U.K.'s TotalRock, former GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Gilby Clarke spoke about his daughter Frankie Clarke who is following in his footsteps with her band FRANKIE AND THE STUDS.

"She's more on the punk rock side — she likes bands like GREEN DAY and PARAMORE and RANCID and the DISTILLERS; that's kind of where she's going," Gilby said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "So it's more on the pop-punk rock side.

"I helped her record in the very beginning, but she's carving her own path now, which I encourage," he continued. "I tell her, 'This is the good stuff. You have to get out there and meet people.' It's nice that you can talk to a few people and say, 'Oh, my Dad is this guy,' but this is her life. I think it's important that she gets out there.

"I always tell her, 'All those great stories myself and your mother tell you is all from when we were your age and we were out there doing our thing. We had no money, playing in bands, playing for no money and touring in vans. This is the stuff you're gonna look back on and you're gonna enjoy.' So that's what she has.

"She has a deal, and they released their first single called 'Victim'," Gilby added. "They're just about to drop another single, I think, fairly quickly. But it's a single deal, so she's kind of doing song by song right now."

Last year, Frankie told Guitar Girl Magazine about how she first got into music: "I took an interest in playing music when I was four years old, but I didn't start playing guitar until I was ten. I was always drawn to guitar, but my parents thought piano would be a good introduction for me. Then I saw the movie 'School Of Rock' when I was ten and thought, 'If those kids can play in a rock band, then so can I.' I started my first band with my fifth-grade classmates, which was an all-girl band called SWEET GONE SOUR. We had a couple of original songs, one of them being titled 'School Sucks', but we also played covers like 'American Idiot' by GREEN DAY and 'Cherry Bomb' by THE RUNAWAYS."

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 Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and former GN'R drummers Steven Adler and Sorum, performed three "Appetite For Destruction" songs with Myles Kennedy at the GUNSRock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in April 2012 in Cleveland, Ohio. 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.

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

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