I had read the previous four books already for #GnRWeek and then I only discovered Reckless Road: Guns N’ Roses and the Making of Appetite for Destruction by Marc Canter last week. So I managed to squeeze this book in just in time. I got the Kindle version as it has video clips and pictures included. I’m only going to include three low res pictures from the book in this post, because you should buy it yourself if you want to see more. There are so many incredible photos from the band’s early days, plus flyers and tickets and even pictures like Slash riding a BMX as a kid etc. All credit to Marc for keeping these.
Marc Canter is the guy who has been called the sixth member of Guns N’ Roses by several of the band. He had unlimited access to the band back in the days of them living together in squalor on Sunset Strip. He was good friends with Slash and he often helped them out with financial help for things like printing flyers or hiring equipment etc. His family also owned a local restaurant and the band often went there for free food. Here he is posing with them during the Appetite shoot.
And this is a famous picture of the band in his family’s restaurant, Canter’s.
And here’s an early flyer he kept.
Marc was also incredibly insightful and organised in terms of keeping and archiving all the band’s gig tickets, flyers and posters. He also took lots of photos of them in the early days. Seriously, this guy is a godsend. Many big bands would not have the archive or historical record that this guy managed to keep. The book is focussed on the pre-Appetite days and early Appetite success and mainly consists of interviews with some band members but also lots of people who were also hanging around in the periphery at the time, even including some of the strippers they hung out with in the early days. Like I said, Marc had unlimited access at the time.
Interestingly, as I will be mentioning again in a post tomorrow, this is the book that James Franco has optioned to hopefully make it into a movie. Fingers crossed. The fact that he’s doing it through Marc’s book, and Marc will hopefully be a producer I believe, should mean that they get some good access to the band themselves during the writing phase.
Here’s a link about Marc – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3548557/The-real-story-Guns-N-Roses-reunion-Duff-McKagan-brokered-multi-million-dollar-deal-Axl-Slash-split-controlling-wife.html
And here’s a link about the potential movie – https://themusicuniverse.com/guns-n-roses-movie-in-the-works-with-howie-hubberman-and-james-franco/
Other books
Now, there are a couple of other books that I nearly read. Both by Mick Wall.
Last of the Giants: The True Story of Guns N’ Roses – Mick Wall
W. Axl Rose: The Unauthorised Biography – Mick Wall
I chose not to read these yet for two reasons. I’m just not sure how much you should believe from an unofficial biography of Axl. He’s such an enigma that you wonder if anyone can write an accurate book about him. But then I also don’t think I would totally trust a book written by Axl himself, as he’s a bit of an egoist after all. There’s also controversy about Mick Wall as he pissed off Axl back in the day and Axl mentions him in the Get In The Ring tirade. I reckon I’ll still give them a go one day. I just didn’t rush to read them for GnRWeek. If anyone has read either of those books please let me know what you thought in the comments.