Episodes

  • Episode 0: Series Introduction

    Episode 0: Series Introduction
    Jul 31 2021
    Welcome to the series introduction of The First 50 Gigs: Guns N' Roses and the Making of Appetite for Destruction where you'll get a front-row seat to experience the play-by-play living history of one of the most iconic bands to launch out of Los Angeles in the mid-1980s. In this episode, you'll: Meet Slash's best friend, Marc Canter who photographed every single gig Slash played in since high school, including the two years he played with Guns N' Roses on the Sunset Strip. Find out what this show is all about and why we're making this for the fans now. Preview content we're releasing in Season 1 and talk about what we have in store for all five seasons. Links: Watch this full episode on YouTube Subscribe to our Patreon Site to access all videos, bonus episodes, image galleries, live streams, merch and more: https://www.patreon.com/first50gigs_gnr Reckless Road: https://www.amazon.com/Reckless-Road-Making-Appetite-Destruction/dp/0979341876 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    27 mins
  • Episode #1: Slash‘s Garage Bands Ft:Adam Greenberg

    Episode #1: Slash‘s Garage Bands Ft:Adam Greenberg
    Aug 15 2021
    In this first episode, we’re going back to the beginning when Marc and Slash become friends in elementary school and bond over their love of Aerosmith and dirt bikes. Slash invited Marc to a rehearsal of his new band Tidus Sloan in 1981 and with Marc’s camera in hand, the journey of the First 50 Gigs began. Also on the episode, we have Adam Greenberg, one of the founding members of Tidus Sloan and Roadcrew. In this episode you’ll: • Hear the first-ever live recordings of Slash playing guitar • Find out what drove Marc Canter to document his friend • Hear how Adam Greenberg formed Tidus Sloan and Roadcrew, but then was replaced by a future member of the Appetite lineup of GNR. Links: Preview this episode on YouTube Subscribe to our Patreon site to access the video version of this podcast and a gallery of Marc’s photographs from Slash's first performances at Fairfax High School: https://www.patreon.com/first50gigs_gnr Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    33 mins
  • Episode #2: Welcome to the Jungle (Part 1), Ft. Laurie Jacobson

    Episode #2: Welcome to the Jungle (Part 1), Ft. Laurie Jacobson
    Aug 31 2021
    “Do you know where you are? You’re in the Jungle baby!” In Episode 2 of the First 50 Gigs, we’re taking you back…all the way back to the origin of the Sunset Strip and answer Axl’s eternal question with Hollywood historian Laurie Jacobson, author of Dishing Hollywood: The Real Scope on Tinseltown’s Most Notorious Scandals In this episode you’ll: • Relive the scandalous history that gave rise to the Sunset Strip and how it became a throughway for Hollywood elite to commute from Beverly Hills to Hollywood. • See the rise of legendary nightclubs on the Strip that showcased the biggest stars of the 20s, 30s, 40’s and 50’s. • Witness the eventual decline of the Sunset Strip when a new “strip” took its place, Las Vegas, and learn how a new generation of clubs rose from the ashes of Hollywood to birth a new movement in music with the electrification of rock n’ roll. Links: Preview this episode on YouTube Subscribe to our Patreon Site to see the video version of this episode and access the deep archive of historical photographs we used to illustrate this story: https://www.patreon.com/first50gigs_gnr Dishing Hollywood: The Real Scope on Tinseltown’s Most Notorious Scandals: https://www.amazon.com/Dishing-Hollywood-Tinseltowns-Notorious-Scandals/dp/1581823703 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    30 mins
  • Episode #3: Welcome to the Jungle (Part 2) Ft. Domenic Priore

    Episode #3: Welcome to the Jungle (Part 2) Ft. Domenic Priore
    Sep 14 2021
    Domenic Priore, author of Riot on the Sunset Strip, picks up where we left off in 1966 on the Sunset Strip during the counterculture riots and takes us on a rock n’ roll historical journey in L.A. from the 60s to the 90s that includes bands like The Byrds, The Doors, Van Halen and Guns N’ Roses. This was the era that shifted the center of gravity of rock n’ roll from New York to Los Angeles. In this episode, you’ll: • Hear how the City of Los Angeles, in an attempt to shut down the clubs on the strip, instituted a curfew and sparked a counterculture revolution. • See how the former Hollywood showcase clubs reinvented themselves with the electrification of rock n’ roll and spawned a new generation of legendary clubs like the Troubadour, The Whisky a Go-Go and The Roxy. • Learn how bands like Van Halen and Guns N’ Roses capitalized on the increasing separation of music into genres on radio stations. To see the incredible historical archive of photographs we draw upon to illustrate this story, become a subscriber on our Patreon site where you’ll get all the visual content, bonus episodes, galleries and more. Links: Preview this episode on YouTube Subscribe to our Patreon Site to see the video version of this episode and access the deep archive of historical photographs we used to illustrate this story: https://www.patreon.com/first50gigs_gnr Riot on the Sunset Strip: https://www.amazon.com/Riot-Sunset-Strip-Hollywood-Revised/dp/1908279907 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    37 mins
  • Episode #4: Chris Weber Discusses A.X.L, Rose and Hollywood Rose

    Episode #4: Chris Weber Discusses A.X.L, Rose and Hollywood Rose
    Sep 28 2021
    In Episode 4 we pick up the narrative thread of the origin of the Appetite lineup of Guns N’ Roses. In 1983, bass player Chris Weber, singer Bill Bailey and guitarist Izzy Stradlin formed the trio known as A.X.L. They later changed the name to Rose and then Hollywood Rose. Today we talk to Chris about forming the band and his legacy as it relates to Appetite for Destruction. In this episode, you’ll: • Hear the origin story of Rose and Hollywood Rose and how it set the revolving door in motion that ultimately led to the formation of Guns N’ Roses. • Listen to the demos that Hollywood Rose cut in order to book clubs and was later packaged and released as The Roots of Guns N’ Roses by Cleopatra Records • Discover how Chris felt about the end of Hollywood Rose and what it means to him to have been a part of this history. Links Preview this episode on YouTube Subscribe to our Patreon Site to see the video version of this episode and access the deep archive of historical photographs we used to illustrate this story: https://www.patreon.com/first50gigs_gnr The Roots of Guns N’ Roses: https://www.amazon.com/Roots-Guns-N-Roses/dp/B004HZL8HS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    30 mins
  • Episode #5: Bassist Steve Darrow talks about his time in the New Hollywood Rose

    Episode #5: Bassist Steve Darrow talks about his time in the New Hollywood Rose
    Oct 12 2021
    We continue the origin story of the Appetite lineup by following what Slash called “the incestuous revolving door of band and musicians.” Our guest Steve Darrow was the bass player for the New Hollywood Rose after Chris Weber and the Hollywood Rose broke up. Izzy and Axl started the New Hollywood Rose by recruiting Steve Darrow in 1984, as well as another guitar player and a drummer (can you guess who?). Izzy preferred only one guitar player in the band and left the New Hollywood Rose, joining London with Nadir D’ Priest. In this episode, you’ll: • Hear how Steve Darrow met Axl and Izzy and how their love of Hanoi Rocks, Aerosmith and mash up of metal bands shaped their sound. • Watch the first time Axl, Slash and Steven Adler and Steve Darrow play together and how Steven Adler managed to get through his first live performance. • Understand how the New Hollywood Rose look and sound evolved from metal to glam. Links: Preview this episode on YouTube Subscribe to our Patreon Site to see the video version of this episode and the photographs Marc captured during the time this version of Hollywood Rose played: https://www.patreon.com/first50gigs_gnr Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    35 mins
  • Episode #6: First 50 Gigs Mid-Season Recap

    Episode #6: First 50 Gigs Mid-Season Recap
    Dec 18 2021
    We got The First 50 Gigs team together to recap the first five episodes of the First 50 Gigs and the Appetite lineup origin story. In this episode, Marc Canter, Jason Porath, and host Mina McNair fill in the gaps as we spin our way through the incestuous revolving doors of bands and musicians that ultimately led to Guns N' Roses. From Slash's garage bands Tidus Sloan and Roadcrew to Rose and the New Hollywood Rose, we talk about what we learned from our guests, take you behind the scenes of our production, share new stories and preview what's to come for the rest of Season One. In this episode, you'll: Learn about Slash's audition for KISS. Understand why the New Hollywood Rose was only one step away from the Appetite lineup of Guns N' Roses. Hear about what's coming up for the rest of Season One. Links: Subscribe to our Patreon to see the video version of this episode, access bonus episodes, merch, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    51 mins
  • Episode #7: Rob Gardner Original Drummer for L.A. Guns and Guns N' Roses

    Episode #7: Rob Gardner Original Drummer for L.A. Guns and Guns N' Roses
    Jun 1 2022
    During the Fall of 1984, The New Hollywood Rose had called it quits, Izzy had joined London, and at that time, Rob Gardner was playing drums in a band with Tracii Guns called L.A. Guns. Eventually Raz Cue would get involved with L.A. Guns and encourage not only a member lineup but also a name change which would result in the creation of Guns N’ Roses. As the original drummer for Guns N’ Roses, Rob helped create and influence the band’s sound and although his involvement with the band ended early, the blood, sweat, tears and grooves that Rob poured into Pyrrhus, L.A. Guns and Guns N’ Roses can still be heard today as it is forever pressed into the vinyl of Appetite for Destruction. Rob shares with us his first-hand account of everything that led to the creation of the original lineup of Guns N’ Roses. In this episode you’ll: Hear about Rob moving to L.A. in high school and meeting Izzy, Tracii and Mike Jagosz. Hear about Rob’s former bands Pyrrhus and L.A. Guns and how L.A. Guns eventually became Guns N’ Roses. Listen to an excerpt from the recording of the first Guns N’ Roses radio appearance. Hear about the various lineup changes of the bands Rob played in, including Guns N’ Roses. Learn from Rob why he and Tracii left Guns N’ Roses. Hear how he felt when he left the band then and how he feels about it all now looking back on everything that happened. Links: Preview this episode on Youtube Subscribe to our Patreon Site to access all videos, bonus episodes, image galleries, live streams, merch and more: https://www.patreon.com/first50gigs_gnr Learn more at https://www.first50gigs.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    48 mins