GUNS N' ROSES Bassist On AXL ROSE: 'We Get Along Great, We Really Do'

Thomas Conner of the Chicago Sun-Times recently conducted an interview with GUNS N' ROSES bassist Tommy Stinson. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On joining GUNS N' ROSES:

"By the time I joined, I walked in going, 'This sounds kinda punk rock what he's trying to do and thinking of doing.' You know, everyone quit, and [Axl Rose] was like, 'I wanna work. I didn't spend 10 years on this to let it go now. Fuck you guys! I'm going to keep it going.' I thought that was pretty fucking ballsy. I said, 'I'm down.' I still think it was a good idea."

On the current lineup of GUNS N' ROSES:

"Do I think we're better than the old band? Not necessarily. Do we have more fun? Definitely we probably do. It doesn't sound like they had any fun."

On his relationship with Axl Rose:

It's not like 'The Partridge Family'.

"Axl is a great producer. He doesn't give himself credit for it. Sadly, of course, it took forever to finish the fucking record ['Chinese Democracy'], but the reason why is because of what he expects out of the band. He likes to actually collaborate with the people he's playing with. He doesn't bring them a song and say, 'Here's my song. Sing it.' It's kind of a strange, old-school, songwriter-producer thing. I don't think he realizes that. He's really good at getting people to write something that inspires him.

"We get along great, we really do. It ain't perfect, it's not great every day. We're all cantankerous in our own right. But the reason I've played with him so long is that we do get along."

Read the entire interview at Chicago Sun-Times.