Welcome to My Jungle: An Unauthorized Account of How a Regular Guy Like Me Survived Years of Touring with Guns N' Roses, Pet Wallabies, Crazed Groupies, Axl Rose's Moth Exterminatio

by Craig Duswalt

Overview

Guns N' Roses fans know the Use Your Illusion tour went on nonstop from 1991 to 1993. They know that concerts sold out in minutes all over the world so fans could hear chart-topping singles Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child of Mine, Paradise City, and November Rain live. They know the Use Your Illusion tour was the last for the band with Slash and Duff. But they've only heard rumors of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans.

Fortunately for fans, Craig Duswalt hasn't just heard rumors—he knows what went on backstage on one of the longest and most popular music events because he lived it.

As Axl Rose's personal assistant during the ridiculously long world tour, Duswalt experienced things that would make most people run the other way and never look back. And in Welcome to My Jungle, he shares the sometimes hilarious, sometimes just plain reckless, and always insane actual happenings on the tour.

A true must-read for Guns N' Roses fans, Welcome to My Jungle delights readers with hilarious and entertaining exclusive firsthand stories like:

•The day Axl Rose, Kurt Cobain, and Courtney Love got into a “huge war" backstage at the MTV Awards
•Why Guns N' Roses are forever linked to Charles Manson
•The night Liz Taylor walked in on a very nude Slash—and stayed a while

Featuring little-known facts for the ultimate GN'R fan, Welcome To My Jungle gives an inside look at what it's really like to live and work with a hugely popular band, from the middle of a rock and roll hurricane.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781939529817
Publisher:	BenBella Books, Inc.
Publication date:	05/13/2014
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Craig Duswalt is a speaker, author, radio host and the creator of the "RockStar System for Success—How to Achieve RockStar Status in Your Industry."

Duswalt's background includes touring with Guns N' Roses, as Axl Rose's personal assistant, and Air Supply as the band's personal assistant. Craig is also an award-winning copywriter and worked as a creative director for a Los Angeles-based ad agency until he opened his own ad agency, Green Room Design & Advertising.

Duswalt combined his backgrounds in both music and marketing, and is now a professional speaker and author, promoting his "RockStar System for Success" all over the country, teaching entrepreneurs, speakers, authors, coaches and info-marketers how to promote themselves and their businesses.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Who is Craig Duswalt? xv

Author's Note xix

How this all Started 1

How I Got into the "Business" 1

W 6

Should I Stay Or Should I Go? 9

My First Day with Guns N' Roses 10

Alone in Germany 13

Cash 18

Travel 19

How We Traveled 19

Decoys 23

Bath Salts 25

Autographs at Customs 27

Limo Accidents 29

Shots Fired: Bogotá, Colombia 32

The Shot Heard around the Hotel 34

Almost Missed My Flight 39

Hotels 45

Life Magazine Article 45

Paparazzi-Germany 51

Tower Records 54

Waiter Wants Axl's Autograph 57

The $5,000 Phone Call 61

Chili & Cheese 62

What Would You Do for $1,000? 67

My Towel 74

Drug Searches & Close Calls 77

Slash "Dies" 87

Shows 91

A Typical Show Day 91

A Not-So-Typical Show Day 94

Different Show Schedules 94

The Dreaded Teleprompter 97

"You're Fired" 103

The Banana Split Thing 107

Pretty Tied Up 109

The Domino's Pizza Guy 114

James on Fire 116

Fans 125

Where Do I Apply? 125

Autographs 126

Backstage 127

The Buenos Aires McDonald's 130

Your Gun for a Hat? 135

The Photo Shoot 139

Red Lion Restaurant & Bar, New York City 141

Strip Clubs 148

Axl Kills a Moth 152

Stars 159

Freddie Mercury Tribute 159

Gianni Versace & Victoria Secret Models 165

Shannon Hoon 169

U2 171

Kurt, Courtney, Frances Bean, & Andrew Dice Clay 174

Steven Tyler 177

UFO Nick 180

Quick Stories, States, & Facts 189

Last Concert 203

The Use Your Illusion World Tour 203

Band Together Foundation 213

Acknowledgments 214

About the Author 218