GILBY CLARKE Says 'Rock Star' TV Show Turned Out Differently Than Originally Presented

antiMUSIC's Morley Seaver recently conducted an interview with ROCK STAR SUPERNOVA/ex-GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Gilby Clarke. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

antiMUSIC: You've always struck me as a guy who is just interested in putting our records and making music and not really too concerned with how many units you're selling or what magazines you're appearing in. Have you ever had a blue print for your career at any point?

Gilby: (laughs) No actually, I'm not that organized. I mean the first part is true. I mean, I've always looked at myself as a musician, you know. And musicians have to do certain things to make a living. And sometimes I'll take a guitar job. Sometimes I'll go play guitar with a band like HEART or something for a tour. Gotta earn a living that summer, you know? And other times I'll go play guitar with the MC5. So sometimes, you know, I'll take guitar gigs. But I try to, for me, what's important is I play guitar a certain way and I'm not the kind of guy that can adapt to certain styles. The music has pretty much be based around the way I play. And that's why I never really fit in with a lot of the current metal bands, back in the Eighties and Nineties. I was more of a bluesier, rock player. So it was just kinda hard finding the right gigs. And you know, when I'm writing and performing my own music, it's right up my style, you know. That's what I like to play. I always had that: if there wasn't a guitar gig out there, I could always go out and do some dates on my own. I always had some pretty decent audiences out there, and could always make a record that I thought was good.

antiMUSIC: Did the TV show end up being different once it got going from what you were presented?

Gilby: Oh, it was definitely different from what I was presented. When I sat down in those meetings I was under the understanding that it really was, you know, a new band between myself, Tommy [Lee] and Jason [Newsted]. And it certainly was represented more like Tommy Lee's new band. I definitely didn't sign up for that. You know, I respect Tommy, as a guy in the band, of course, but I was kinda disappointed with the way they were advertising that. But we got the right winner in the end. There's definitely a lot of things I don't agree about with television, you know. Television is editing and all kinds of things. I think most people who went to the tapings of show but then saw the show actually on TV, saw two different shows, but look this is my first shot at doing something on television. And I definitely learned a little bit from doing it.

antiMUSIC: There was a good marriage between the performers and you guys. It seemed like there was more from the band as the show went on. Were the producers surprised at how things progressed and did they encourage you to talk more?

Gilby: Well they didn't really encourage us. I think we really didn't have a choice. Because we, the show definitely developed as it went along. And that's one thing that the producers did warn us about going in. Shows like this take on a life of their own. And you know, whatever works, they roll with. So as the shows go on, we did. And we were going to have all these guests on and it ends up the guests, we didn't have them. Because like you were just saying, we ended up being able to cover everything ourselves. Dave [Navarro] was such a big part of the show last year, and this year, he was part of our band basically, you know. So we all know each other, and we all kinda have the same opinion on stuff. So we definitely rolled with the punches this year. I don't know if it was a conscious decision or as much as you know just keep working, and they just kept going. But they didn't really encourage or discourage us in any way. We pretty much did what we wanted to do. And they edited what they wanted to edit. (laughs)

Read the entire interview at this location.