Breaking News: Jerry Cantrell almost threw a Guns .N. Roses album out the window while the acid is…

 

 

 

Jerry Cantrell almost threw a Guns N’ Roses album out the window while high.

When asked on the Broken Record Podcast about his first conversation with Duff McKagan regarding Guns N’ Roses, Cantrell recalled, “Boy, I think I probably told him like… When I finally connected with this band, I mean I was aware of the band and a lot of my favorite bands I don’t like instantly.” He explained that while he liked their rock and roll sound, he didn’t initially connect with the record.

Cantrell continued, “I love Aerosmith, good funky, R&B, f*cking nasty rock and roll. So overtly I liked it and it was blowing up but I didn’t connect with the record. I think I listened to it for about a week and I don’t know, I think I told him a story.”

He then shared a moment from his past: “I was living in an apartment downtown behind Seattle Center and I still hadn’t connected to the record. So I decided to drop acid and listen to the whole thing one more time. I decided on that trip and I listened to the record. If I still didn’t like it I was going to throw it out the window.”

Eventually, a specific song changed his perspective. “And by the time ‘Rocket Queen’ came on, that bass, the drums in the bass got me. That’s when it all came into focus and I was just coming on to an acid trip and I think I told him that story. It was a good one and I got it. The doors of perception were open and I connected.”

In a 2021 interview with BBC Radio, Cantrell talked about his longtime friendship with McKagan. When asked about their history, he joked, “Yeah, yes, we’re old. It’s all right, you can be a leathery old dog and still rock ‘n’ roll.”

He also reflected on how they met: “Probably late-’80s, we’ve been friends ever since. He and Slash, I made a real close connection with both those guys. They were a very important band to us and inspired us. They were part of a bigger change in the music of the late-’80s where it was making a turn, bands like Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction, and Guns N’ Roses… There was a change on the horizon.”