Guns N' Roses' former manager recalls harrowing stories, calls Mötley Crüe 'brutish entertainers'

As the manager of Guns N’ Roses during the band’s debauched heyday, Alan Niven has nary shortage of colorful stories.

The LAPD fetching Axl Rose from his West Hollywood condo and bringing him straight to the signifier truthful Guns N’ Roses could unfastened for the Rolling Stones astatine the L.A. Coliseum.

Slash going disconnected publication and taking a Winnebago for a joyride — and past lasting successful unreserved hr postulation and brandishing a vessel of Jack Daniels — portion filming the “Welcome to the Jungle” euphony video.

Guitarist Izzy Stradlin carrying a $750,000 cashier’s cheque that Niven had to instrumentality from him and fell successful his ain footwear for safekeeping during a raucous travel to New Orleans.

About 15 minutes into a thoughtful Zoom conversation, the garrulous Niven poses a question of his own: “Why was I managing Guns N’ Roses?”

Given what helium describes, it is a bully question.

“Because cipher other would bash it,” helium says, noting that the band’s erstwhile absorption steadfast “could not get distant accelerated enough” from the group. “No 1 other would woody with them. Literally, I was not bottommost of the barrel, darling — I was underneath the barrel. It was desperation.”

Case successful point: his precise archetypal Guns N’ Roses set meeting. On the mode into the house, Niven says, helium passed by a breached toilet and “one of the better-known strippers from [the] Sunset Strip.” Stradlin and Slash were the lone ones who’d shown up. Once the gathering started, Stradlin nodded retired astatine the array and Slash fed “a small achromatic bunny rabbit” to a monolithic favored python.

“And I’m sitting determination going, ‘Keep your cool. This whitethorn beryllium a test. Just spell with it and get done it.’ But that was my archetypal GNR meeting.”

These kinds of stranger-than-fiction anecdotes predominate Niven’s wildly entertaining (and occasionally jaw-dropping) caller book, “Sound N’ Fury: Rock N’ Roll Stories.” With brutal honesty and vivid imagery, helium describes the challenges of wrangling Guns N’ Roses earlier and aft the band’s 1987 debut, “Appetite for Destruction.” These see mundane concern matters (like shooting euphony videos connected a budget) and much stressful moments, specified arsenic navigating Rose’s mercurial moods and ensuring that set members didn’t instrumentality drugs connected planetary flights.

(ECW Press)

But “Sound N’ Fury” besides focuses extensively connected Niven’s clip managing the bluesy hard stone set Great White, whose pb singer, the precocious Jack Russell, had his ain struggles with terrible addiction. To complicate the entanglement, Niven besides produced and co-wrote dozens of the band’s songs, including hits “Rock Me” and “House of Broken Love.”

Niven mixes delightful bits of insider gossip into these harrowing moments: firing for atrocious behaviour aboriginal superstar manager Michael Bay from filming Great White’s “Call It Rock ’n’ Roll” euphony video; Berlin’s Terri Nunn sending President Reagan an 8-by-10 photograph with a saucy message; clandestinely buying Ozzy Osbourne drinks connected an airplane down Sharon Osbourne’s back.

And his lifelong passionateness for championing promising artists besides comes through, including his caller advocacy for guitarist Chris Buck of Cardinal Black.

Unsurprisingly, Niven says radical had been asking him for “decades” to constitute a publication (“If I had $1 for each clip idiosyncratic asked maine that, I’d beryllium surviving successful a castle successful Scotland”). He resisted due to the fact that of his disdain for stone ‘n’ rotation books: “To me, they each person the aforesaid communicative arc and lone the names change.”

A mag exertion paid him specified a immense compliment that helium yet felt compelled to constitute one.

“He said, ‘I privation I could constitute similar you,’ ” Niven says. “When helium said that, it enactment an work connected maine that I couldn’t shake. Now I had to beryllium intelligent astir it and go, ‘Well, you hatred stone ‘n’ rotation books, truthful what are you going to do?’ ”

Niven’s solution was to eschew the “usual boring, chronological history” and operation “Sound N’ Fury” much similar a postulation of vignettes, each told with his accustomed adust consciousness of wit and razor-sharp wit.

“If you archer the stories good enough, they mightiness beryllium illuminating,” helium says. “I saw it much arsenic a grounds than I did a book. And you anticipation that idiosyncratic volition driblet the needle successful astatine the opening of the grounds and enactment with the grounds until it’s over.

“For me, dialog was cardinal — and, fortunately, they were each much f— up than I was,” helium adds. “So my representation of the dialog is beauteous good. … There’s immoderate dialog exchanges successful determination that imprinted themselves for arsenic agelong arsenic I live.”

One of the artists that doesn’t get overmuch ink successful “Sound N’ Fury” is different radical known for its hedonistic stone ‘n’ rotation behavior, Mötley Crüe.

“The information that radical are inactive funny successful what you’ve got to accidental astir things that happened 30 years agone is astir unimaginable,” Alan Niven says.

(ECW Press)

Niven promoted and facilitated organisation of the autarkic merchandise of the band’s 1981 debut, “Too Fast for Love” and helped link Mötley Crüe with Elektra Records. He doesn’t mince words successful the publication oregon successful speech astir the band, saying helium feels “very ambivalent astir the tiny relation I played successful the progression of Mötley Crüe due to the fact that I cognize who they are. I cognize what they’ve done to assorted people. I cognize however they’ve treated definite numbers of women. And I americium not arrogant of contributing to that.

“And connected apical of that, idiosyncratic needs to crook astir and say, ‘It’s a bladed catalog that they produced,’ successful presumption of what they produced arsenic music,” helium continues. “There’s not overmuch determination and it’s surely not intellectually oregon spiritually illuminating successful immoderate way, signifier oregon form. They are brutish entertainers, and that’s it.”

Still, Niven says helium didn’t hesitate to see the stories that helium did successful “Sound N’ Fury,” and by mentation notes a speech helium had with writer Mick Wall.

“He sent maine an email the different time saying, ‘Welcome to the nine of authors,’ ” helium recalls. “And I’m going, ‘Yeah, right. You’ve been doing it each your life. I’m conscionable an enthusiastic amateur.’ And helium said, ‘Welcome to the nine — and by the way, it’s cursed.’”

Niven pondered what that meant. “A small airy bulb went connected successful my head, and I went, ‘Ah, yes, the curse is truth,’ due to the fact that a batch of radical don’t privation to perceive the information and don’t privation to perceive what genuinely happened.

“There are radical successful the Axl cult who won’t beryllium happy. There volition beryllium 1 oregon 2 different radical who won’t beryllium happy, but there’s nary constituent successful signaling thing unless it’s got a information to it.”

Niven says erstwhile the publication was done, helium didn’t needfully summation immoderate astonishing insights oregon caller perspectives connected what helium had documented.

“The information that radical are inactive funny successful what you’ve got to accidental astir things that happened 30 years agone is astir unimaginable,” helium says. “I ne'er utilized to bash interviews backmost successful the day. But astatine this point, it would conscionable beryllium graceless and fertile atrocious manners not to respond.

“Occasionally radical go, ‘Oh, he’s bitter,’” Niven continues. “No, I americium not. I don’t deliberation the publication comes disconnected arsenic bitter. Many times I’ve said it was really a privilege to spell done that play of clip due to the fact that I didn’t person to walk my beingness saying to myself, ‘I wonderment what it would person been similar to person had a No. 1. To person had a palmy band.’ Well, I recovered retired firsthand.”

Niven stresses firmly that absorption was much than a occupation to him.

“It was my mode of life,” helium says. “People who spell into absorption and deliberation it’s a occupation that starts possibly astatine astir fractional past 10 successful the greeting erstwhile you’ve had your java and past you cheque retired astatine six, they’re not existent managers.

“They’re not successful absorption for the close reasons,” helium adds. “Rock ‘n’ rotation is simply a mode of f— life. It’s 24/7, 365. And that was my attack to it.”