Gerry Gittelson at Metal Sludge recently caught up with former GUNS N' ROSES manager Alan Niven for an exclusive behind-the-scenes interview. An excerpt is available below:

Metal Sludge: OK, so you’re walking through the front door to meet Guns N’ Roses for the first time. Take it from there, Alan.

Niven: "It was actually a really nice house, but it wasn’t being treated well. But first of all, for my first meeting, I had scheduled a meeting with the whole band, and all of two of them were there."

Metal Sludge: Which two? Was Axl there?

Niven: "No, Izzy and Slash. Izzy proceeded to nod out, and Slash spent the afternoon trying to entertain me by feeding little white rabbits to this big snake. I think he sensed I have a pathological fear of snakes. Slash was fucking with me."

Metal Sludge: So you really are scared of snakes?

Niven: "I am. Anyway, we all ended up spending a little time together right away because they were in the studio working on demos, so I went over there and ended up helping them mix them. These were the tracks for the Live Like a Suicide record. They were signed to Geffen, but it hadn’t come out yet."

Metal Sludge: So how did all the success eventually start. What was the course you took?

Niven: "Well, obviously we were doing preproduction on the material for “Appetite For Destruction”. But you’ve got remember, doing an indy release first, that creates a platform for the major-label release. Once the band got signed, they could have just made an LP, but that way, the label has to spend time trying to market you from a standing start. I always liked to do as much as possible before relying on the good graces of a major label, so hence the strategy of “Live Like a Suicide.”

I sold the entire pressing of that record. I took the check, it was $42,000, and went back to Geffen Records, and I put the check in the hand of Eddie Rosenblatt. I said: 'Here, I’m giving you this check. Let’s use every penny to go to the UK.' I wanted to start generating a relationship with the press and an audience in England."

Go to this location for the complete interview.