'I've Never Met A More Loyal Person Than AXL ROSE,' Says Longtime Associate

Fatally Yours recently conducted an interview with longtime GUNS N' ROSES co-writer and Axl Rose associate, video director/author/journalist Del James. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Fatally Yours: What are you doing on Dizzy Reed's (keyboardist from GUNS N' ROSES) record?

Del: Dizzy is in the process of recording his solo album. Dizzy is a great songwriter but not very many people know this. I've known Dizzy has a record in him for a real long time. I co-wrote some of those songs but they were already great ideas before I ever got involved. He's fucking good. And the list of people who have jumped on board to help Dizzy, to play on his solo record, 'cause it's not a case of five guys in a band who have rehearsed these songs inside out…. So some of the GN'R guys, like Frank Ferrer on drums, Richard Fortus on guitar, Tommy Stinson on bass, they've all come down. Frankie Banali from QUIET RIOT played some drums. Adrian from NO DOUBT played drums on a song. Mike Dupke from W.A.S.P., Mike Duda from W.A.S.P. played some bass, Greg Coates from THE BANGKOK 5 played bass, Chuck Wright, guitarists include Todd Youth from DANZIG, MURPHY'S LAW and D-GENERATION. Alex Grossi. Whitey Kryst from IGGY POP. Ricky Warwick from THE ALMIGHTY…Bobby fucking Hambel. Oh man, Bobby from BIOHAZARD comes down to the studio, says hello to me, right? I ain't seen this guy in like eight years. We hug and going on tour the next day. I'm like, "Hey, Bobby, so what are you doing right now?" and I'm holding the guitar. He knows that I can't play the fucking guitar so Bobby wound up playing a killer solo on a song called "Cheers To Oblivion". And that's how it's been. There's been a bunch of talented friends getting involved because every one is supportive and believes in Dizzy Reed the musician, the songwriter with a phenomenal voice. His voice is the secret weapon to the whole project. Dizzy and I are producing it.

Fatally Yours: Axl seems to get a bad rap. Any misconceptions you'd like to set straight about Axl?

Del: Almost everybody knows that Axl Rose and I have been gang tight for over twenty years. Earlier you asked me about loyalty. I've never met a more loyal person than Axl. He's loyal to a fucking fault. That guy always shares the credit, always gives opportunities, and hell, is willing to take less of a cut in terms of money just to make sure that his band and crew are well taken care of. It's unheard of. Every tour we've even done, members from other bands' crews are begging to jump on our crew. Treat people that way you want to be treated, right? From a personal perspective, it fucking bothers me to no end when people with their own personal agendas or who don't know what the fuck they're talking about write books or give interviews about Axl. And let's not forget that a lot of these journalists writing about him don't necessarily like Axl. You could make a case that personally they hate him so you really think they're going to go out of their way to present a fair story? I mean really, how can you objectively write about someone you have no contact with? How accurate can a biography be when all of your information comes from second-hand sources or is hearsay? One of these days, Axl is going to set straight a lot of the misconceptions about himself and the history of GUNS N' ROSES and people ain't gonna know what hit ‘em.

Read the entire interview from Fatally Yours.