Former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke has revealed the “only thing [he] wasn’t happy about” when he joined the band.
During an appearance on ’80s Recycle Bin (via Ultimate Guitar), Clarke revealed that he was made to be a rhythm guitar player for the first time in his career.
“At that time – we’re talking the late ’80s – rock was definitely taking over everywhere. [Clarke’s pre-GN’R band] Kill for Thrills, we had put out a record, we had put it out EP, we had done some touring, but that was when the climate was changing a little bit,” he began.
“So, while I was in Kill for Thrills, I got the call from Slash to join Guns N’ Roses, and obviously, that was like a dream come true.”
“But the only thing I wasn’t happy about was I was joining the band as a rhythm guitar player. My whole career, I had been a lead guitar player, so it was kind of a way of…”
“I really didn’t have to do a lot, I just had to learn Izzy’s [Stradlin, guitar] parts and find my place within the band.”
Gilby Clarke went on to further detail the way the style of music was “really starting to change” during his time in Guns N’ Roses over the early 1990s.
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He began: “But that’s when the music scene really started changing. This was about ’91, and we had Blind Melon opening for us – it was an alternative band. We had Faith No More, which wasn’t an alternative band.”
“We had Soundgarden, which was a rock band. I wouldn’t really classify them as an alternative. So at that time, music was definitely making this change from the long hair – I don’t even wanna say ‘glam’ because glam was really just a few bands at that point,” he continued.
“But you can tell the style of music was really starting to change. Within us, Guns N’ Roses, we were a little slower to adapt because in our world, everything was great – we were selling out stadiums and we were selling 20 million records.”
“It didn’t really affect us until we really came off the road in ’94 where we started really noticing the climate change.”
Check out ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns N’ Roses:
