NINE INCH NAILS Guitarist Robin Finck Talks Working On GUNS N' ROSES' Chinese Democracy Album - "We Were A Close Knit Bunch Of Guys"
January 25, 2014, 10 years ago
In a recent interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com, NINE INCH NAILS guitarist Robin Finck discusses his time working with singer Axl Rose on GUNS N' ROSES Chinese Democracy album. An excerpt is available below:
UG: How did you get involved with Guns N' Roses and the Chinese Democracy album?
Robin: "I didn't know Axl. I was no longer playing with NIN at the time and I had jumped on a tour with a touring show from Cirque du Soleil, which at the time was not everywhere in Las Vegas like it is now. It was a North American tour under a blue and yellow big top (tent). What I'm telling you now is after this all happened. Axl had come to simply see the circus (laughs) and he and I had never met and he didn't know I was there. One of the guys Axl was with in the grandstands pointed and said (in hushed excited voice), 'Axl, you see that guitar player down there? That's Robin from Nine Inch Nails.'"
"We ended up talking that day and he invited me to play with he and the rest of the Guns N' Roses guys at the studio space they were kind of housed in. It was a welcomed opportunity just to play that one day. I was doing this circus thing for a year or more by then and that was a blast and I really enjoyed my time there. But I would have been over the moon if even an usher from the circus show told me, 'Hey, I got a drumkit in my garage. You wanna go play some AC/DC?' I would have jumped at the opportunity. So the fact it was Axl and Guns N' Roses, I wasn't mad at that."UG: What are your overall thoughts about working with Axl on the Chinese Democracy album?
Robin: "It's hard for me to summarize. It's happened over such a long period of time it's summarizing high school into college. Some of my favorite moments as a guitar player were some nights that didn't even make it to that record. I was tight with the recording team and tight with the band. We were a close knit bunch of guys and we just really had a blast. We didn't have a blast every night for nine or ten years but in hindsight those are the times I remember most."
Go to this location for the complete interview.
