Alan Niven had zero desire to look after Guns N’ Roses, a rock band discovered “from the gutters of Los Angeles.”
“I thought they were a disaster from everything I heard on the street,” the group’s former manager told Fox New Digital. “Their reputation was dreadful. There were arrest warrants. There was drug abuse. There was just unbridled chaos.”
Niven has written a new book out on Aug. 5, “Sound N’ Fury: Rock N’ Roll Stories.” It details what it was like managing GNR, as well as Great White.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the members of Guns N’ Roses for comment.
Niven claimed that Tom Zutaut, the A&R man who signed GNR and Mötley Crüe in the ‘80s, asked him to manage the group on three separate occasions. With gritted teeth, Niven eventually agreed.
“I was not particularly interested in being part of a cattle call of management,” Niven explained. “I had another band that I had just brought out of the ashes of a disastrous relationship with EMI, and we were getting that into proper shape.”
“The second time he asked, I did some research on the band, and I thought Tom had lost his mind,” Niven admitted. “I thought the band was going to be a disaster for him. And the third time he asked me, he said it was a disaster, and he couldn’t get Eddie Rosenblatt, president of Geffen Records, to allow him to start recording until they had a manager.”
“He said, ‘Would you please pretend to manage them?’” Niven recalled. “I said, ‘Pretend I’m out of my mind? OK, I will go take a meeting and see what happens.'”
Niven claimed on the day of the meeting, only guitarist Slash showed up. He was impressed.
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“He was very English-eloquent,” said the New Zealand-born Niven. “He was very charming and intelligent… I looked at him and went, ‘There’s more here than appears on the surface. I’m interested now.’ That’s how it started… But why did I end up managing Guns N’ Roses? Because no one else would do it. They could not get anybody to work with them at all. I was their last chance at them getting a manager.”
The group’s debut album, 1987’s “Appetite for Destruction,” is one of the best-selling albums of all time. But before its release, Niven said he was worried about going into debt. Between drugs, mood swings, and other salacious indulgences, Niven was in charge of wrangling the bandmates into the studio and getting them to record on time.
“In those days, a band might only get an advance of $50-$70,000 to make their debut record,” said Niven. “It was extraordinary that Geffen would’ve spent $365,000 on a debut record for a band. And it’s not just the cost of the record. You also have the cost of the videos, the tour support. God knows what debt you would build before you even sold record No. 1.”
“That’s when I learned how to get insomnia,” he said. “I would lay in bed and go, ‘We’re going to be half a million dollars in debt on this record. God knows if we’re ever going to dig out of that hole.’ And we got no airplay for the first six months of the record’s release. MTV ignored us as well. It was a slog.”
But Niven’s lack of sleep eventually paid off.
“One afternoon, Slash and I were in a town car being driven to Electric Ladyland studios in New York,” said Niven. “We were about to turn left, and I noticed there were a group of kids in leather jackets running after the car. At that moment, I thought, ‘Things are a little different.’ That’s when it all changed.”
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GNR earned the nickname “the most dangerous band in the world” due to their antics on and off the stage. And managing them came with more responsibilities than Niven bargained for. In his book, Niven recalled how he once put Slash in his spare bedroom to “make him go cold turkey” because “he was not one for rehab.”
“My wife and I took turns watching over him, wiping the vomit from his mouth and counting out the Valium,” Niven wrote.
It didn’t get easier with drummer Steven Adler.
“Stevie had to be forced into rehab,” Niven wrote. “Exodus. Hazelden. Sierra Tucson. [We] came to know the rehab centers of America as well as we knew the concert venues. You have to fight the battles of addiction alongside the addicted, even if only they can win the war.”
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In the book, Niven also remembers the group preparing to leave for their tour of Japan. On that day, frontman Axl Rose was late. Guitarist Izzy Stradlin held up a “small boom box” and said, “I don’t care. I’m set. I’ve got my stash.” Niven was hoping Stradlin was referring to “his stash of preferred tunes.”
Under the battery compartment was “a lump of crumpled foil.” Niven ordered him to flush it.
“Well, that’s a f—-n’ waste of good smack,” Stradlin replied.
Reluctantly, he gave in.
“Izz had indeed gotten rid of his stash — he’d swallowed it,” Niven wrote. “He should’ve been excited to be going to Japan for the first time. He was, however, waiting on Axl. Again. Dope helps deal with that stress.”
Niven told Fox News Digital he made sure the band followed “the absolute rule of the road.”
“I don’t know how people are today, but back in the day, we had a rule while traveling on tour: Don’t carry. Don’t buy, and don’t stick it under your hair and think it won’t be found,” he said. “I think we did a pretty good job at catching them when they tried to break the rule.”
Niven said one music executive later remarked, “They might do well if they stayed alive.”
“I tried to keep that out of my head because my responsibility was to make sure they did stay alive,” said Niven. “It’s one of the things I’m proud of — nobody expired under my watch.”
It was in 1990 when Niven was “nursing feelings of dread about Guns and Axl,” the book claims. He claimed that Rose increasingly complained about his bandmates, but “his worst vitriol was reserved for Slash.”
“In terms of the strain and stress between Axl and Slash, I might suggest that it’s between Axl and the world,” said Niven.
“[Axl] had a tough childhood… And I think he’s still dealing with the consequences of that even now. People ask me, ‘Did Axl change with success?’ My response is always the same: No, success didn’t change him at all. It just amplified him. He’s always been that way. And with Axl, he has control issues. It’s not a matter of trust issues. He wants it his way, or he’ll invite you to take the highway.”
“[There was] a power play,” Niven continued. “The [2008 album] ‘Chinese Democracy’ is an Axl solo record. I think he did himself an incredible disservice by claiming it as a Guns N’ Roses album instead of claiming it as his album. I think people would’ve been far more inclined to respond better [if it were] a solo record and presented as such. I think people were disappointed…”
In 1991, Niven received a phone call from Rose. The singer told him, “I can’t work with you anymore.”
“That’s why I parted ways with the band… control,” Niven claimed. “I signed a contract with five individuals… I didn’t have a contract with Axl.”
Decades later, Niven still wonders about the rockers.
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“I wonder how [Axl] feels running across a stage in his 60s yelling, ‘They’re out ta get me!’ and then going home in his limousine to his mansion in the hills of Malibu. I wonder what that means to him because the world has not been out to get Axl. He has been favored with incredible privilege… I don’t know what he’s going to look forward to except maybe writing a book saying how everybody’s messed things up for him.”
“When you’re in your 20s, you’re in the back of a tour bus, living the free life,” he reflected. “We escaped. The whole point of being in rock ‘n’ roll was not to have a miserable stiff job… It was going out and playing. Now you’re in your 50s and 60s. You’re not out there at the back of the bus anymore.”
