THE CULT Guitarist Explains "Capsule' Concept, Discusses GUNS N' ROSES In New Interview

Nicole Powers of SuicideGirls.com recently conducted an interview with THE CULT guitarist Billy Duffy. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

SuicideGirls.com: You have this capsule release coming out. Explain a little bit about that. It's kind of confusing, but kind of cool at the same time.

Duffy: It's not really confusing. Tell me what confuses you about it and maybe I can respond to that.

SuicideGirls.com: Well, once I went on the website it all made sense, but, before that, I was like, a capsule? Are you selling some kind of time capsule that you have to bury in the ground?

Duffy: It's the word, see. You're very attached to the word. It's just a word. Break it down. I mean, why is a table called a table? Why isn't a table called a chair? I mean, we all just decided a table was called a table, and we all agree in every language in the world a table is a table. The capsule could be anything. But it's just simply a collection of different songs. But, it's funny if you break it down. I'm getting a little philosophical because I've been in a tour bus for about two days.

SuicideGirls.com: Have you been answering the big questions about life, the universe, and everything on the tour bus then?

Duffy: No. No, that's Ian's [Astbury, vocals] job.

SuicideGirls.com: Has he come up with any answers?

Duffy: Ian, he's still looking. I think he's actually out looking right now.

SuicideGirls.com: Which is why you're on the phone doing the interview.

Duffy: No, he's doing some. He does many more interviews than us. We just decided to embrace doing interviews. Last time we went out on the road we did that "Love Tour". The general consensus was that we didn't want to do any interviews because it was sort of a nostalgic thing. It was good nostalgia. I used to say nostalgia with a lower-case "n." It's something that we wanted to do, it's not something we had to do. But, by the same token, we didn't want to overtly publicize it. We didn't do any interviews. We had no photographers at the gates. We wanted to keep it kind of for the fans.

SuicideGirls.com: Right.

Duffy: It was a fan-driven thing, and it was really successful. We did great attendances with no record company, no nothing. We weren't really selling anything. It was just kind of a really great celebration of a band. But this time around, with some new music out there, we thought we'd spread the good word.

SuicideGirls.com: I was driving around town three days ago and I was listening to Jack FM, and they played "She Sells Sanctuary" back to back with "Sweet Child O' Mine". I'm like, fuck, those songs sound so similar, and I was reading your bio and I realized why; because a relatively unknown GUNS N' ROSES actually toured with you guys. But only in retrospect do you get a sense of the progression of music.

Duffy: Except that they'd probably written it before they toured with us. But I'm sure they heard "She Sells Sanctuary". They were all pretty turned on guys. But when they toured with us, they'd already released "Appetite for Destruction", and it had only sold 50,000 copies. It subsequently went on to sell a hundred and something million. But at the time they toured with us, it was in '87, we were promoting "Electric". I mean, there's an element of truth and there's an element of cross-pollination there, which is natural and organic between musicians and has always happened. You're obviously bright and have read rock history; Rock and roll, R&B, country, bluegrass — it all blends, and ideas get borrowed, stolen, developed and moved on. And similarly, we came to make what for us was quite a departure from "She Sells Sanctuary". We were promoting the "Electric" album, which was a completely different sound. We were produced by Rick Rubin. It was really stripped down, kind of AC/DC-ish. It was a complete departure. And those guys had arrived where they were at doing "Appetite for Destruction". I mean that album was done, "Welcome to the Jungle" was released.

SuicideGirls.com: But I think "She Sells Sanctuary" came out in '85 and "Appetite for Destruction" was released in '87.

Duffy: Yeah. But it was recorded in '86. We'd never met them. They had a buzz on them. Ian tried to get me to go see them in London. They did two nights at the Marquee club. They were sold out and I actually couldn't get in. They just wouldn't let me in, the typical London thing. I remember, it was like a real buzz on them, and that was before they toured with us. Ian was the guy that found them. Ian uses the phrase cultural savant. We could sense a return to blues/organic rock. Suddenly people were whispering JIMI HENDRIX and LED ZEPPELIN, and finally the vacuum created by punk, enough time had passed that people were daring to mention the unmentionable, and that kind of blew up a little bit. Rock got massive again for about five or six years until grunge really. I mean, GUNS N' ROSES got bigger than THE [ROLLING] STONES almost.

Read the entire interview from SuicideGirls.com.