Jackets, Jaguars, and Jam: Rock 'n' Roll Ridiculousness

In this episode of the 'It's 1 Louder' podcast, PJ Pat brings you crazy stories from rock legends. He kicks off with a wild tale about Axl Rose causing a riot in 1991 because he couldn't find his favorite jacket before a show. Then, he dives into Slash's hilarious decision to keep a mountain lion named Curtis as a pet, which predictably ended in household chaos. Lastly, he shares Pearl Jam's epic struggle against Ticketmaster in the mid-90s, which saw them playing in fields and testifying before Congress. It's a rock and roll rollercoaster full of laughs and nostalgic headbanging moments!

Transcript

[00:00:00] Well, hello, rock fans. Thank you once again for joining. My name is PJ Pat and welcome to the It's One Louder podcast. For those of you who don't know, I have a YouTube channel and it's called Rock with PJ Pat. Feel free to go check it out. I would really appreciate it. And I put a ton of videos on there.

[00:00:26] More than what you hear on this podcast. There's a bunch of rockstar highlights, rock history, rock news stuff. I have shorts on there, but I also have long form videos. And I'm going to share on this episode three hilariously crazy stories by two amazing heroes from one of my favorite bands, Guns N Roses.

[00:00:47] We got one from Axl. We got a story from Slash. And just to cap it all off, a little short one, About Pearl Jam and these three stories are the audio grab from the three videos that I posted on YouTube So let's roll. Hopefully you'll find this entertaining rock on Okay So here's an insane story about Axl Rose a front man of GNR on the time He delayed a show just because of his freaking jacket.

[00:01:12] You got that right now. Let me paint the picture for you It's 1991 and you know, this is true because back then he definitely had a case of the crazy All right. So it's 1991 GNR is the biggest rock band and the baddest rock band on the planet. Obviously they were so amazing. One of my, definitely one of my favorite bands.

[00:01:29] They're playing sold out arenas across the globe on the use your illusions tour and Axl. Well, he's being Axl. It's kind of a king of unpredictability. I should know. I went to see them in Montreal when Faith No More opened up for them and he toured with Metallica co headliner tour and where a riot broke out in Montreal.

[00:01:44] But again, that's a different story. I actually did a video on that. So if you want to go check that out, I'll put the link below, but back to this. So one night the band sets off to go to St. Louis, the crowd is pumped. The lights are dimmed, Slash is tuning his guitar backstage and the energy is electric, but there's one problem.

[00:02:03] Axel is nowhere to be found. Everyone's freaking out the crew scrambling, the band's nervously waiting and the audience is starting to chant guns and roses. Guns and roses pretty much the same thing happened in Montreal. They showed up late, but the crowd in anticipation, we were all screaming their heads, our heads off guns and roses louder and louder.

[00:02:23] Finally, someone finds Axel pacing backstage, visibly annoyed when they ask him what's wrong, he says. I can't go on without my jacket. I remember that stupid freaking jacket. He used to have like this white jacket, leather jacket is your black or white. He used to always come out with that. So obviously this isn't just any regular jacket.

[00:02:40] This means a lot to Axl. It's a full on rock and roll jacket with fringes, studs. And it's missing. Nobody knows where it is, and Axl refuses to go on stage until this stupid jacket is found. So what happens? The entire crew, security guards, roadies, and even the band members are now running around the arena like a Scooby Doo episode, looking for this one freaking jacket.

[00:03:04] Slash is probably thinking, Are you serious, man? I mean, sorry. Are you serious man? It's just a jacket! But this is Axl Rose we're talking about back then. And he's made up his mind. He's not going on until they find it. So meanwhile, the crowd's been waiting for over an hour. And I know this. Same thing happened in Montreal.

[00:03:22] He was super late. People are booing, throwing drinks, and getting restless. It's getting ugly. But finally, after what feels like an eternity, someone finds that damn jacket. It had been tossed into a random dressing room. Axl slips it on like it's a superhero cape, looks in the mirror, and struts out to the stage like nothing happened.

[00:03:41] When he finally grabs the mic, the crowd goes wild and he opens the set with Welcome to the Jungle. Like he didn't just hold up thousands of people because of a stupid fashion drama thing. It's, again, it's all in his head. But here's the crazy part, that night the show still ended in chaos. Axl got mad at a fan who was filming a concert and jumped into the crowd to grab the camera.

[00:04:00] It started a full blown riot and the band had to flee the arena. So yeah, only Axl Rose could delay a show over a freaking jacket, then kick it up a notch by literally diving into the audience and causing chaos. And that's why the band was called the baddest band in rock and roll back then, mainly because of Axl.

[00:04:19] I mean, you gotta love them. But you also got to hate him for these type of things. Thank God that he's clean up his act. He's probably gone through years of therapy and there, I think they've been on tour for years now, but I went to see him twice and they sound awesome. They look awesome. Okay. Maybe not look.

[00:04:36] I mean, I think father time wasn't so kind to Axel, to be honest, everyone else is pretty good, but. But anyways, the sound was awesome. It's glad to see them back again and rocking out and it looks like they're not stopping their tour anytime soon, but Axl, this story just brought me back to the Montreal concert I went to and you were late and you caused chaos, you know it.

[00:04:57] But for another reason that's freaking riot. I'll never forget it. But anyways, all is forgiven You are an amazing front man one of the best front mans to ever front a rock and roll band kudos to you axl rock on

[00:05:14] Let me tell this classic wild story That's just as wild as this man's guitar solos and i'm talking about Slash right here one of two guitar heroes of this classic guitar world vintage. I should say guitar world magazine right here You But let's talk about Slash for a moment. So picture this, it's back in the early 90s, and during Guns N Roses Use Your Illusion Tour, a time where rock stars were basically living it up like it was the last party on Earth, Slash decides, all of a sudden, he wants a pet.

[00:05:43] But not just any pet. He's Slash, so it has to be something totally, completely freaking insane. So he ends up getting a mountain lion. Yup, an actual mountain lion, which he names Curtis. So, picture this, Slash, wearing his signature top hat and sunglasses, casually walking around his house with a freaking mountain lion, like it's a tabby cat.

[00:06:04] Curtis was just chillin roaming the house, lounging on the couch, and probably listening to Slash shredding on his guitar. Now obviously, having a giant wild animal as a pet isn't exactly legal or safe, especially in the U. S. I guess, maybe in certain states, who knows. So things got kinda complicated. One day, Curtis decides to let his wild side out and totally trashes Slash's house.

[00:06:27] I'm talking broken furniture, claw marks on the walls, the works. Now imagine Slash coming home to his rockstar mansion looking like a jungle, just got dropped in the middle of it. But Slash, you know what he does? Well guess what? I guess typical Slash, like we're kind of expecting. He just laughs it off because of course, he's Slash.

[00:06:47] This is the same guy who once passed out with a freaking bow constrictor wrapped around his neck and called it just another Tuesday. Curtis eventually had to be sent to Wildlife Sanctuary. Where he could live the rest of his life in peace. But Slash loved that mountain lion like a family member apparently.

[00:07:03] And the best part, he casually told this story in an interview like it was no big deal. Like, yeah, I had a mountain lion once. So, uh, that's Slash for you. Moral of the story, I mean Slash doesn't just live rock and roll. He freaking is rock and roll. His life is as unpredictable and untamed as his riffs.

[00:07:20] I'm not sure if you ever read his biography. Written with Anthony Boza, but go check it out some crazy wild stories if you think this was wild go check his book out I mean it really is a rock and roll lifestyle back then with him And what an entertaining man an entertaining book and what a freaking legend.

[00:07:38] Thank God. He's still around

[00:07:43] Alright, so here's a crazy story about my favorite band, Pearl Jam, right here on the cover of the Rolling Stone magazine, Collector's Edition. So back in the mid 1990s, they actually tried to take the giants, Ticketmaster, down. They were so fed up with Ticketmaster's ridiculous fees that they were like, You know what?

[00:07:59] F you. We're going to do this without you. So they did. They tried to book their tours at places that didn't use Ticketmaster. Sounds cool, right? Well, not really. Because most venues, or most decent venues, were tied to Ticketmaster. So they ended up playing in some random places like fairgrounds and fields.

[00:08:18] And it was less Rock Gods and more like Battle of the Bands at your local county fair type thing. And then Pearl Jam got even more hardcore. They filed a complaint with the government. And Eddie Vedder testified in front of Congress. That's right. Imagine, like, Eddie Vedder in front of Congress saying, Yeah man, these tickets suck, you better do something about it.

[00:08:38] How cool is that? That was actually one of the reasons why I dug this band. But here's the kicker, Ticketmaster was just too big to beat, and the whole thing left the band totally wiped out. Still, they went down swinging, and honestly, Like I said, that's why I love them. Pearl Jam. You're in my heart forever for that.

[00:08:55] Well, there you go, rocker. Hopefully that was as good for you as it was for me. Hopefully you were entertained. Got a couple of chuckles out of those stories, but definitely check me out on YouTube. If you haven't already, my channel is called rock with PJ Pat, and there's a bunch of it's one louder full podcast episodes on there with Video obviously and and the visuals that come along with it, but there's also some shorts on there There's some podcast highlights on there So hopefully you'll be entertained as well visually on top of audio audio Lee really audible audibly audibly I should say But yeah, thanks so much for listening and we'll see on the next one.

[00:09:34] Ciao