Amanda Carlson met Duff McKagan when she was 17. She fell in love with the tall blonde bassist from Guns N Roses at a concert GNR performed at the Troubadour. She felt that she found true love in Duff. He was not like any guy she had ever dated befo...
The band was not doing well. It was unbelievable how everything changed in just a few months after the American Music Awards. It's like the band ended up in some alternate universe. I guess I'll start with the first sign of when things started to go wrong for the band.
The first sign was that Steven wasn't showing up for rehearsals. This pissed off the band, but more particularly it pissed off Axl the most. He wanted the band to get the the lyrics done at least for one half of the album. His plan was that the band would release a double album. He had even come up with a title for it. It was called Use Your Illusion. He had even drew a picture for how he visualized the album cover would look and he showed it to all of us one night at the Troubadour. It was a unique cover.
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I have to admit he may be a jerk sometimes, but when it comes to music he's very talented. Who comes up with an album cover when the songs have not even been written yet? He was also telling the band about one particular song he was working on. The other members were not too involved with it at the moment. He said this song would be his masterpiece. This song would be at the level where Stairway to Heaven is. It's going to be a song that no one would forget. He said that when the band got to recording this particular song, he wants to add a symphony orchestra. The band thought it was ridiculous. I asked him what would be the name of the song. He said it would be called November Rain. He said that he had the idea for this song way back in 1986. Now he thinks that he's finally happy with his vision for November Rain. I guess that was sign number two. Axl started getting very controlling when it came to the band. Sometimes, it looked like he was the entire band. It's like the other members didn't count. Speaking of being controlling, he fired Steven. He said to the band that he had no other choice. Apparently, there was a contract that Steven signed that if he used drugs, then he would be kicked out of the band. He wasn't aware of the fine print. The fine print was pretty much a trap for Steven: he was fined $2,000 for every time he used heroin, but the reality was that the band were paying him $2,000 to leave. They were taking his royalties and all of his writing credits. Steven was pissed because the other guys use drugs too and they weren't fired. It was ridiculous, if you ask me. Axl justified his reason by saying that he had to fire Steven, because Steven couldn't choose between the drugs or the band. He chose the drugs, so basically he brought this on himself. I miss Steven. He did have his flaws, but he was a nice guy with a smile on his face all the time.
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Duff and I were sleeping in our bed when the phone rang. I woke up. I looked at the clock. It was 2:20 am. I picked up the phone. "Hello?" I murmured.
"Amanda?" Cheryl said. She sounded frightened and she was crying.
"Who is it, babe?" Duff asked me.
"Cheryl." I turned to face him. "What is it Cheryl? Why are you calling this late? Did something bad happen?"
Cheryl whimpered. "Yeah, something very bad happened. I'm at the UCLA Medical Center. Steven overdosed. He took a speedball." Cheryl couldn't stop ranting.
