Hypno Magazine, Volume No. 5, Issue No. 4

One thing the Sex Pistols, Guns n Poses and Duran Duran all have in com­mon is that they were each the most important band in the world for their respective time period. But what else could a world-renowned punk, new wave and hard rock band have in common? Today, they have in common a new band called the Neurotic Outsiders. Band members Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), John Taylor (Duran Duran), Duff McKagan and Matt Sorurn (Guns n Poses) originally came together for a ben­efit concert at the Viper Room for a friend who had cancer. The show was so successful that Neurotic Outsiders found themselves playing the Viper Room every Monday Night with guest appearances from the likes of Simon LeBon, Billy Idol and Iggy Pop. And now there’s the Neurotic Outsiders album and a possible national tour in the fall when the Sex Pistols get off the road. The circumstan­tial origins of the band are only as remarkable as the band members them­selves, evidenced here in the Neurotic Outsiders’ first ever full band interview.

Whose idea was it to record an album?

Someone at Maverick was coming to the shows and told us he wanted to make a record,” says Taylor. “It wasn’t really anything that we had talked about as a group.”

"We’ve only really rehearsed once, ever,” adds Sorum. Our first soundcheck was our only real rehearsal. Then we’d add another song, mostly covers, and then a couple of songs from John and Steve’s solo records.”

Solo records?

“I started doing one because had I never done one before,” says Taylor, "and Steve played on it. Steve kind of started doing one, too. We ended up pooling a lot of the songs because it seemed like we were writing in the same direction.”

It’s ironic that the vocals are split between Duff, Steve and John because none of you have ever been responsible for lead vocals before. What was it like?

“It was as comfortable as it could have been given the fact that it was something that I had not done before,” says Taylor. “We had such a relaxed approach.”

“We wouldn’t have been playing together every Monday if there wasn’t this instant kind of chemistry,” says McKagan.

“Plus, it’s a nice way to get out of the house and play a little,” says Sorum. “Duff and I have been waiting around to do a record with that other band of ours, but they weren’t doing much so it was nice to get out and play. We’re musi­cians. The original idea was to do it for fun, arid it lust evolved into other things.”

Besides the Viper Room, there was a short west coast tour. How did it go?

“After doing the Viper Room a dozen times, the first place we went was Vegas,” says Jones. “It was nothing like anything we had been doing, but it was the sum total of everything that we had learned up to this point. I can’t wait to do it again,”

“I thought that we should only play places that had lots of sun and beaches,” says Sorum, “so we went to Cabo.”

You didn’t play Van Halen’s club, did you?

“Well,” laughs Sorum, “whatever.”

“We played this one gig in Santa Cruz that wasn’t even advertised,” says McKagan, “and people didn’t know we were coming. There were literally forty people there.”

“We call it character building,” laughs Taylor.

“We got a review of the show that week,” adds Jones, “and the guy said that ‘The one hundred people there are going to look back on this as one of the great shows in history.’ Like our Woodstock. Like the Beatles playing at the Cavern Club.” Everyone laughs.

So what about guest appearances on the record?

“No, we are a self-contained unit,” says McKagan.

“Most of the special appearances at shows were based around the cover songs we did,” adds Jones. “Billy idol came up for a Generation X song, and then we would do sonic Stooges songs, and Iggy got up, but we really wanted to make the album about our own songs.”

I hear you did a punk rock cover of Duran Duran’s ‘Planet Earth”?

“We did record some cover songs,” says Taylor, “but we only put one cover on the album, the Clash’s ‘Janie Jones.”

So what’s happening with the other bands you’re in? What’s happening with Duran Duran?

“I’ll put it this way,” answers Taylor, “we’ve been working on an album since fall of 94.” Guns ‘n’ Roses?

“I’ve been going to see Axl a little bit to try and get things rolling again,” says McKagan.

“Matt’s gonna start coming down, arid we’ll see how it works out. It’s always kind of like that, trying to start.” Note: an insider source says that Axl Rose has apparently done a few practices since this interview.

Sex Pistols?

“It’s great to be touring arid doing that shit again,” says Jones, “because we never really played any of those songs for very lonq. Twenty years later and the songs still stand up and Sound like they could have been written yesterday. The same personalities are there; arid the same buttons are pushed as they were twenty years ago. Nothing has changed.”

What were the worst jobs you had before your bands became successful?

“I worked at a gas station,” recalls Sorum, “but I gave so much free gas to all the cute girls that I got fired. That was the only lob I ever had. I did a little bit of landscaping, but I quit after two weeks. Then I did the couch tour for a while.”

“I had a lot of really different jobs,” says McKagan. “Ditch digger, drywall,"

"I was a grave robber for a cou­ple of months,” laughs Taylor. “I collect­ed shopping trolleys in the snow for about six months.”

Steve?

“Sucking dicks on Santa Monica Blvd.," laughs Jones. “I was paid well.”

“The worst lob ever had was play­ing in a top forty cover band,” adds Sorum. “I had to play shitty songs like ‘Rio’ and ‘Rebel Yell’.”

“I was kidding, by the way,” remarks Jones.

What was it like being in a band that was on top of the world?

“We were out of our fucking minds,” says McKagan about Guns n Roses. “For me, it was pretty surreal. We’d play in front of 100,000 people. A small crowd was 55,000.”

“Doing arenas was like doing a club gig,” adds Sorum.

“It’s really surreal to go back and look at things,” continues McKagan. “There is no training for it. You just go in and do it. There are big gaps in my memories because we were raging so hard that I forgot. With something that big, there was a lot of anxiety and pressure. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to handle it correctly. This hand is a lot smarter, I’m sober now and you can see thinqs coming before they happen. It’s nice not to just talk about the band."

“We put out a greatest hits record in like 1989 or some­thing,” says Taylor about Duran Duran, “and I remember being asked that question by CNN. The gentleman said, ‘Tell me some of the high points of the last ten years?’ and I just couldn’t think of one damn thing. It was all about getting laid, really. I lost my sense of music. I got carried off on this wave. It’s not like trying to put your war experiences into a few sentences, but it’s such an emotional barrage that it’s hard to say, ‘Well, it was like this.’ I’m just really glad that I’m here today, and I feel better than I’ve ever felt. I’m sober, too.”

“I’m in my thirties, and I’ve got a child,” continues Taylor. “Back then I was totally out of control, and I could act like a total brat and get away with murder. I got away with it because I was a part of this million dollar consortium. I can’t do that anymore. Today it’s a little deeper. I don’t just have to have my photograph taken today, I’ve got to be a parent and a few other things.”

“I wasn’t happy about any­thing hack then,” says Jones about the Sex Pistols. “I wasn’t a happy camper. Now I feel better than I’ve ever felt with myself so that makes ever else better. I’m sober everything fell into place when I got sober. That’s the key for me. I doubt I’d be here if I was still doing what I was doing. I wasn’t comfortable with myself. How about another question? This one’s boring.”

Matt, are you sober as well?

“Hell no!” Sorum laughs.

What has been the craziest live experience so far for the band?

“We killed a chicken on stage!” replies Sorum. “John bit its head off.”

Do any of you ever read your bad album reviews?

“I’ve never had one,” smirks Jones. “You can’t please everyone. Criticism comes with the territory, and of course you read it. You shouldn’t take it personally or too seriously.”

“If someone is writing shit about you and you’re selling thirty million records,” remarks Sorum, well, somebody’s going to write it.”

Bad reviews are more about the writer,” adds Jones, “it’s about him and his own ego to make him look good while he’s writing it, especially with the English press.”

Originally you were called Neurotic Boy Outsiders. Why the change to Neurotic Outsiders?

“I don’t know,” answers McKagan. ‘‘I mean, none of us are boys. It didn’t need to be there. My original thought for the name of the band was Kings of Chaos, plus people couldn’t remember Neurotic Boy Outsiders. Something about three words. Now they remember the name of the band. It’s not that ‘boy’ is gay or anything.”

“I didn’t care,” says Taylor, “I actually wanted to keep the ‘boy’.”

Today, what things are most important to you?

“Getting a good night’s sleep,” says Taylor.

“This is the first record that I’ve ever made where I’ve really been happy with it, says Sorum. “I guess making a good record is the most important thing to me. “Or at least it has been lately.”

“Getting a girl to give a great blowjob while working my balls at the same time!!” laughs Jones.

What has been the reactions from your fans?

Jones remarks, “All I know is that after what happened to Lennon, just sign everything!"