Guns N’ Roses would release their debut LP Appetite for Destruction in July of 1987.
The album was a slow burn taking nearly a year to break big.
It was almost a year after the album came out that the band members slash, duff and
izzy made an appearance on the radio program Rockline.
They were about to go out on tour with Aerosmith and the single that would break the band Sweet
Child of Mine was already out and Appetite for Destruction was climbing up the rock charts.
The band’s appearance on Rockline was so bad that Los Angeles radio station KLOS which
syndicates the program pulled the single off the air.
I’m going to play you clips of that interview so stay tuned for the full story.
On July 24, 1988 the Los Angeles Times would publish an article detailining the fallout
from the interview called ‘no bed of roses.’
The article would report that shortly after the interview LA’s top album rock station
KLOS was pulling sweet child of mine off the air.
The station’s program director t told the paper “our testing found it had a highly
negative reaction with anyone over 25, they just don’t like the song.
Those listeners are really important to us so it isn’t worth the risk of playing it.
A spokesperson for the band’s label Geffen Records claimed the move likely stemmed from
their interview Funny enough the LA times kept referring to guitarist Slash as ‘Flash”
in their write up.
The program director for the station did address the interview saying the band acted and i
quote “disgraceful’ going on to say “they couldn’t straighten up long enough to do
the show.
The guitarist Slash vomited all over the studio and Bob said they ripped a girl’s blouse
and were pretty out of control.
But that had nothing to do with my decision to pull the record.
The spokesperson for Geffen would answer back these comments telling the LA Times
“Slash did vomit, he’d eaten a bad artichoke.
But he didn’t attack a girls or anything.
And jeez he did vomit in a paper bag, it’s not like he threw up on the program director.
The incident even resulted in readers of the LA Times commenting on the story.
One reader sent in a letter that read and i quote “ I think the real reason KLOS is
depriving it listeners of hearing Guns ‘N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” is the
incident involving the band’s behavior during the “Rockline” program.
Speaking of obnoxiousness, has program director Charlie West ever listened to the KLOS morning
deejays?
I guess obnoxious behavior is OK if it makes his station money.”
Interviewing the band at that time was longtime rockline host bob coburn.
Here’s some clips of the interview from 1988 something else but i'm on the radio so
i have to say stuff thanks what's your question dan.
Okay my question is about the song my michelle.
is that about a real person.
yeah a chick, a blowhead girl.
Yeah she does a lot of blow.
Nice chick though.
except for that.
i guess that's it Dan . thanks for the call.
what do you want.
That it he just wants to know if it's bout a real girl and yes it is yes it's real.
We have a real girl on the line.
It's Renee in Arlington, Texas, she's listening on 99x in brownsville.
His Slash and everybody else.
what am i? hi.
my question is for slash who are your main influences and then i have a question afer
this.
Ok my main influences are Duff, izzy, steven and axl because if you knew these guys it
would be one of those situations you couldn't be influenced by anyone else because you wouldn't
have enough time.
I'll give you that five bucks later.
Any other questions Renee?
Ok, my other question is how did the band come about.
We just met in hollywood and that was it and we were the only five guys who could tolerate
each other for an extended period of time.
We all came together, once literally we all came together once and we said ok that's good.
oh my Renee thanks for the call.
We got a timeout coming and then we'll welcome you to the jungle and we'll have more with
Guns N' Roses.
Welcome to the jungle, Guns N' Roses on the rockline global satellite network.
We're gonna talk with Kim calm down boys calm down.We have kim in davenport, iowa she's
listening to 97X in the quad cities.
Hi Kim, hi.
Hi hi.
So yeah they flew us up to san francisco a couple of times and did the movie.
do you have a barf bag here So yeah it just came about we really don't know about but
we're in it.
There you go kemp thanks for the call.
We're gonnna talk now to Tracy in Reno, Nevada listening to 105.7 kozz you're on with Guns
N' Roses.
Hi, hey um i'd like ot know in your own words how you'd describe your own music because
a lot of people get the wrong impression what do you mean the wrong impression?
I don't know there's a lot of people out there , which then.
Then three years after the interview frontman Axl Rose appeared on Rockline to promote the
use your illusion records and hadn’t forgotten about the feud referencing it here.
So i didn't know what to expect coming into this show i mean rockline and GN'R have a
history i had never met you before.
i was almost ready for anything.
i was just hoping it would be an arguement man i was all psyched up.
I was ready for that, like ok let's go after each other.
you know.
But i gotta tell you, the last thing i was expecting was for you to be so nice and calm
and answer the calls the way you have.
It seems like you've really gotten control of your life here.
Well, maybe a little bit you know but like we've been like this a lot when we're actually
doing an interview and you know sometimes that isn't shown when the thing comes out.
That's the thing about rockline you're live and unedited yeah it's been a good experience
for me too.
I gotta say i'm lucky i like a lot of different kinds of music these two CD's are right up
there with Physical Graffitti, Exile on Mainstream and the beatles white cd.
Thanks you didn't have to say that on the air.
Iknow
Bob Coburn would list the incident as one of his most memorable interviews in his career
telling allaccess Izzy, Duff and Slash from GNR came on the show absolutely smashed and
a ridiculous feud broke out between the band, the label, KLOS and anyone else within earshot,
including the L.A. Times.
That led to a show where halfway through, Axl Rose confessed to me he came to Rockline
listening to NWA on 11, parked in a median on Cahuenga Blvd. and was going to kick my
ass for messing with his "Boys."
He didn't, he said, because I was too nice and "a lot bigger" than he is.
The dust on that fiasco settled long ago
Sadly in late 2016 Coburn would pass away at the age of 68 from lung cancer.
Shortly after his passing Slash gave an interview where he talked about the feud and his memories
of Coburn.
Here’s what he said.
Bob Coburn was one of the handful of DJ's that i grew up listening to on FM radio in
los angeles and always liked bob coburn he had this great dry delivery and he was always
interviewing you know as an aspiring musician he was always interviewing all the artists
that i really liked and i was able to hear anecdotes from some of these great rockstars
great musicians i was into.
Anyways in the 80's Guns N' Roses finally got to the place where we were getting some
radio play and bob coburn and i started out on the wrong foot.
We met for the first time and Guns was down in his little studio in studio city doing
an interview and i was drinking and doing all kidns of stuff and i had eaten next door
at some little restaurant prior to the interview and up on air i got really sick and threw
up into a paper bag and you know at the time i didn't think it was a big deal.And Bob thought,
i don't know the story spread that we were out of control.
and i was prety for a lack of better word dispicable and so so there was a big negative
thing between myself and bob for a long time and then we got reacquanted years later and
years later and did a lot of stuff together with a lot of my solo stuff and he was such
a good guy and so eloquant and so knowledgable and such an open minded and you know just
just very generous kind of a person to work with in the studio and what not i really liked
him a lot and we established a really good repor and i talked to him when he was when
i first found out he was really sick and we spoke on the phone and i you know i was hoping
he was going to pull through this.
But i also know how how severe the situation was for him health wise having had experience
in my family with it so anyway at this point its just really sad to lose Bob he was such
a great guy and such a unique guy such a one of a kind and there's no replacing him so
you know this generation coming up of rock fans will only be able to hear reruns of some
of the great stuff he did over the time leading up to this there not going to have anything
new from him, but he's left such a great body of work that i'm sure people are going to
enjoy it for eons to come.
anyways i just really love bob a lot and really sad to see him go.
Rest in peace.That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching.
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stories.
Take care.