Eddie Trunk and Don Jamieson Talk About Axl Rose

Eddie Trunk and Don Jamieson, 2/3 of That Metal Show stopped by the Sirius XM studios to talk with Ron Bennington about their new season of their show on VH1, and their recent interview with the reclusive Axl Rose.  Below are some brief excerpts from that interview.

Ron Bennington: Eddie Trunk and Don Jamieson in studio. This starts the newest season of That Metal Show.

Eddie Trunk: It’s season 9, but I hate calling it that because people think we’ve been on 9 years. But we’ve actually been on about 3 and a half years. This is our 9th cycle of shows.

Ron Bennington: And you couldn’t be opening any bigger. An interview with Axl Rose. Now Axl Rose doesn’t do interviews. It doesn’t happen. I think we’ve got to go back to the 80’s since the last time I remember seeing him sit down, talking on television. So this had to be a surprise when you got him.

Don Jamieson: Yea he’s been harder to find than Bin Laden all these years. So for us three idiots from New Jersey to score the first interview with him in twenty years, especially on tv, its amazing.

Eddie Trunk: They sent us down there…the show that people see tomorrow night, is actually not our traditional format. It’s just us at 5:30 in the morning in the Miami Heat locker room.

Ron Bennington: Now 5:30 in the morning, you start this. Did you have any idea where the interview was going to go, or was it free form?

Eddie Trunk: No, God. First of all none of us– to talk to Axl Rose, you don’t need to do a lot of research. If you’re a rock fan, you better know what you’re talking about with him. In a perfect world, if you’re going to do an interview of this magnitude, you’d prefer it not happen when you are coming up on 24 hours without sleep. I was literally wedged against one of the locker rooms, in the Miami Arena and I was dozing off. Of course I got a shot of energy when he walked in, and of course we did the best we could. But Ideally its 7:00 at night and you know what time you’re starting and you’re ready to go, but that’s not Axl time. That’s not how it works.

Ron Bennington: He’s in his own zone– its his world.

Eddie Trunk: Yeah, you’ve got to know that going in. To be honest, we didn’t even have a commitment that he was going to do it when we went down there. We went down there with them saying, well, if you guys are there, maybe he’ll do it.

Ron Bennington: So lets go through what people say about him. Paranoid? Would you say he’s paranoid?

Don Jamieson: I think he surrounds himself with a small group of people that he trusts and pretty much follows their advice. I don’t know if it’s paranoid but he has a few trusted people and he sticks by them.

Eddie Trunk: He is very media aware. Beyond belief. He knows a lot more about what’s going on then people would ever think for a guy that’s so reclusive. What Don said, for years now, he’s surrounded himself with this family, this woman who is almost like a mother to him, who is an advisor, and everything. And her son tour manages the band now. More so than any agent or manager, that is the core of how that situation works.

Ron Bennington: And what’s his connection with them? How did he meet them?

Eddie Trunk: I don’t really know. From what I had heard, she goes way back to a point when she was his housekeeper, in the early 90s. And just became a mother figure to him, and someone who through all the craziness, has been, I think without question, the most trusted person he has in his world.

Ron Bennington: The temper? Did you pick up on the temper at all?

Don Jamieson: No because, like Eddie said, he was on Axl time. So, at 5:45 in the morning, that’s his lunch hour. He’s fresh, he’s had his coffee, he’s ready to talk.

Ron Bennington: Was he aware of your tv show?

Eddie Trunk: I don’t even know. I think when he first walked in….he knows me, clearly. We spent four hours in my radio studio almost. He knew me, he didn’t know Don or Jim. He didn’t know the show, I don’t think. He probably knew about the show. And I think that he realized it was an important thing to reach his audience on what is a very important tour for him. But I think when he first came in, his guard was a little bit up. He seemed a little bit stiff and surveying the room and trying to get a read on how we were going to be. And then I think ten minutes in we had him laughing and I think he really got loose.

Ron Bennington: What happened? What was it that made the change?

Don Jamieson: Because he’s had this almost hate-hate relationship with the media, I think he realized there’s three fans sitting there asking him questions and not these critics who look to bash him around every corner. He’s sick and tired of talking to so called critics who give Radiohead and Yoko Ono five stars in every Rolling Stone but yet will bash him. I think he just felt like, he was talking with three guys who loved the band. Obviously we were nice to him, the show was phenomenal so I think he felt at ease.

Eddie Trunk: I think it was you Don who brought back the radio interview from five years ago. And we were joking a little with him about Sebastian Bach was there that night, and how it all happened and how Sebastian was screaming, “I’m getting texts from Axl dude!” and I remember he really started laughing, and I think that drew a parallel in his mind– oh yea these, guys, this thing, okay I can roll with this. Listen man, we were so crispy…tired, I thought, ok we’re going to get ten minutes and be done. We ended it not him. We ran out of tape. I’m not even kidding you, the cameras ran out of tape. We did like 90 minutes on camera with him. What people will see in the show tomorrow night is probably about 35-40 of what they pulled from it.

Ron Bennington: What surprised you? Anything come up that you were like, I did not expect this?

Don Jamieson: One thing I will say, that he’s really committed to this new band. Maybe the surprising thing was, we asked him about Chinese Democracy, and how he felt about the reception, and he actually said, “I think it’s still soaking in with people.” I think he’s hoping it still hasn’t run its course yet. So that was kind of the surprising thing to me, that he thinks there’s still more life to that album coming.

Eddie Trunk: This is just a sense I get– I don’t know if there’s anything to it. But I sense that he’s now a little bit more okay with the older version of the band. They did not want to talk about reunion; that was the only thing they did not want to talk about, he wants to promote this band, and I understand that. But I get the sense that there is almost a little bit more of a reflective, feel good feeling about the original band, from him now. This is what he’s about now– this is what he’s doing– he loves this band. But if you think about it, outside of Slash, everybody from the original band– he is now cool with. The only real rub is with Slash and that may have even cooled off slightly. There was a you tube clip a couple of weeks ago of him talking almost reflectively about back in the day with Slash– it wasn’t just venom. I’m not trying to say at all that there could be something more to that, just in the fact that time has passed and maybe healed some wounds.

Ron Bennington: Do you ever think the original lineup gets together? Cause you know they would sell out the state of Wisconsin. It would be the biggest fucking show that would ever happen.

Eddie Trunk: A year ago I would say no. Now, I think it will happen at some point. Tomorrow? Probably not. But maybe at some point.

That Metal Show’s interview with Axl Rose airs this Friday, November 11, 2011 at 11pm.

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This interview can be heard in its entirety exclusively on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.  Don’t have satellite radio yet?  Click here to get a free trial.

For more information on the guys check out his twitter account @EddieTrunk and @RealDonJamieson or visit the VH1 website to learn more about That Metal Show.