Ex-Guns N’ Roses manager says the band was never the same without Izzy Stradlin

Alan Niven was the Guns N’ Roses manager from 1986 until 1991, the era the band released their most successful albums. After that the group only put out the covers record “The Spaghetti Incident?” (1993) and the long awaited “Chinese Democracy” (2008), the only one without Slash and Duff McKagan.

Besides Axl Rose, Slash and Duff, who are reunited again for almost a decade, the band’s classic line-up also had the drummer Steven Adler (Fired in 1990 due to drug abuse) and the guitarist Izzy Stradlin, who decided to leave the band in 1991. In an interview with “Appetite for Distortion” podcast, Alan Niven said that the band was never the same after Stradlin left because he was the most important element of their songwriting in his opinion.

Ex-Guns N’ Roses manager says the band was never the same without Izzy Stradlin

“I mean, it’s wonderful that bands manage to have long careers. And I could be accused of going, ‘Well, you see it that way, because that’s what it was when you were there.’ But for me, the first crack in GN’R was losing Stevie (Adler), because nobody played with his feel. To this day, Axl has not employed a drummer who can swing. They’re all thumpers. Stevie could swing.”

“Now, is Steve the best technical drummer in the world? Not even close. He’s not a great technical drummer, but he had such a spirited enthusiasm for being in the band that informed his feel, and he could swing. So, losing Stevie was the first crack.”

“Losing Izzy, you’ve lost the band, because Izzy was the main writer with the absolutely unimpeachable rock ‘n’ roll feel, and rock ‘n’ roll consciousness. He was the best writer. Okay, losing Izzy was Doug (Goldstein – Guns N’ Roses manager)’s first — well, not his first, but his major, major, major mistake that was stupid.”

He continued:

“In terms of relying on a band member to quote-unquote, talk about the business and do the business, the one person I could rely on consistently was Izzy. Duff was a drunk and not connected to the business side, Slash was being Slash, and especially when he was younger, he really was Slash. You can imagine the shit he got up to.”

“Stevie had nothing to contribute in terms of business, and Axl was usually locked away in one of his homes, pissing and moaning about something. The one person I could rely on to talk to was Izzy,” Alan Niven said (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar).

Since Slash and Duff McKagan rejoined the band the group released a few singles but they were reworked versions of songs which were recording the long making of Chinese Democracy. The bassist and the guitarist said many times over the years the group was working on a possible new album.