I have a question for you guys. Do you feel like I do? These music award shows
just feel so scripted and predictable. There’s no rebels anymore who feel volatile on live TV.
That’s what made the late 80’s and 90’s rock n’ roll so exciting for me. In today’s episode we
go back to the 1990 American Music Awards when Guns N’ Roses won multiple awards and it soon
became one of the most controversial nights in award show history Stay tuned for the full story.
In January of 1990 the American Music Awards aired on ABC. That night Guns N’ Roses were nominated
for two awards, both of which they won. Even though their debut record Appetite for Destruction
was released in 1987, they were still nominated three years later in 1990. One nomination was
for Favourite Heavy metal/Hard Rock Album which saw them go up against Aerosmith and Skid Row,
two bands which they would tour with and the other nomination was for Favourite
Heavy metal Hard Rock Artist, which saw them go against Motley Crue and Skid Row.
In attendance that night to represent Guns N’ Roses was guitarist Slash and bassist
Duff McKagan. From the moment the pair hit the red carpet it was obvious they
were heavily under the influence. The show was being broadcasted live
so when Slash and Duff took to the stage heavily under the influence,
the top-hatted guitarist unleashed a bunch of profanities as you can see here.
Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction.
What do we say? Alright, Listen. God, we didn't even expect this it's like come down
hang out at the show and stuff so i thought we'd come down and hang out it'd be two hours and shit.
Have a drink on us. Thank you very much. Guns N' Roses. Alright.
What do we say? Alright. Listen I want to say a couple things i didn't get to say the last
time. Right I want to thank ooops oops Doug Goldstein, Alan Niven. Alright
Tom Zutaut for finding us, Alan Niven for getting us there. Um Doug Goldstein.
Of course things didn’t just end there. When Duff and Slash were whisked backstage to talk to the
press more hilarity ensued as you can see here. Your audience's perception of you. They think
we drink a lot they think that we slam a lot of drugs they think this they think that. It's this
big media thing. Right. It's all your guys fault. That's why he can't get a girlfriend. No. That's
very funny there's no bar here. Funny like peculiar or funny like.. We're drinking wine. It's
a very fine wine, but spetzer i think. Yeah man we hang out we go in we jam we hang out, it's like
and we listen to rap records and now were doing this stuff you know.Our
audience is the only thing that made us happen. Geffen's great and stuff and but You think
when you're 15 or 16 and stuff and what you're influenced by. Like when I was 15 it was Aerosmith
and stuff and blah blah blah so you think how's this song going to affect a kid.
So what was the reaction of ABC which broadcast the award show? Well they claimed they were hit
with numerous viewer complaints following the award ceremony. According to the Stephan
Davis book Watch You Bleed he would claim that Dick Clark whose production company was behind
the American Music Awards was furious and the profanity laden speech made the papers in new
york and los angeles. According to the book Watch You Bleed, teh band’s then manager Alan Niven was
summoned to their label Geffen Records office and told to get better control over his band or
they would be dropped from the label. Personally i don’t know how much truth there is to that story
since Guns N’ Roses made Geffen so much money and the publicity probably didn't hurt record sales.
In 1991 Slash would be interviewed by Rolling Stone Magazine who brought up that appearance
at the award show. The guitarist said the following about the incident
What happened was i got a call the day of the show asking if i wanted to go. Someone from
the band needed to accept if we won. So me, Duf and our girlfriends all got drunk and flipped
on down there after a stop at Carls Juniors. We had thrid row seats and the show was just really
cheezy and boring. We were smoking and drinking wine and all of a sudden we won this award.
We weren’t ready for it. I don’t know what i said on stage, but there weren’t too fany f’s in it.
Then we went backstage and i met lenny kravitz which was cool, but prince blew us off. He didn’t
think we were what he would call good company. " Years after the appearance Slash was interviewed
by Fuse Tv where he claimed because of his and Duff’s antics that night,
the seven second rule came into effect on live tv. Is that a true statement?
Well yes and no. On one hand the american music awards didn’t have a delay on their
live broadcasts up until that point in time. But because of slash and duff’s actions they
did institute a delay on future live broadcasts going forward, but the actual seven second delay
dated back to the 50’s and 60’s during the early days of radio. According to
Loudwire.com it was invented by an engineer who worked out of allentown, pennsylvania.
Television for it's part wouldn’t see the live delay being instituted until 1975 on the NBC’s
show Saturday night live when comedian Richard Pryor hosted the show. The network wanted to
be able to cut out profanity laden content, so they wouldn’t be fined by the federal government.
Guns N’ Roses for their part would end up making an appearance at the American Music Awards in 1992
to perform their single ‘yesterdays’. The band wasn’t in the venue that night,
instead broadcasting their performance from a live show in Vegas. The band also won an award
that night as well and a drunk Slash would cut a pre-taped segment acceepting the award without
any profanities. That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like
button and subscribe and we'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.