In a recent chat with Appetite for Distortion, drummer Josh Freese reflected on leaving Guns N’ Roses and Axl Rose’s unexpected reaction.
Freese said, “I will say that Axl Rose being as intriguing and controversial as he’s been in the past as an entity and a rock star. Everyone always wants to, ‘Tell me some crazy Axl Rose stories,’ and I’ve said it a trillion times before but it’s just the truth. The time I spent with him, he was generous he was cool he was likable. I’ve never had any problem and I don’t have any funny story to tell you other than I got along great with him.”
He shared his sadness about leaving the band, noting that most people take it personally when someone quits. “I was kind of sad to leave because most people take it personally if you quit their band or if you leave the situation. I don’t know how personally who took it or not but I was hoping that he wouldn’t because I like the guy and I’ve only seen him once since then. I ran into him during Coachella about four or five years ago maybe and he was super cool he was great. We had a laugh and it was really nice to see him.”
Freese also shared insights about Axl’s character in other interviews. He shared that he isn’t the ego-driven rock star many believe him to be. “Another thing I really liked about him was that he was open-minded about collaborating, and about about music,” he said in a chat with Rick Beato.
“There were lots of situations [in other bands], especially on that level, where I would come in, and they’d say, ‘You’re the drummer, here’s the song, play the drums.’ But [Axl] was like, ‘I love that. Let’s work on that.’ There’s not a lot of guys I’ve been in bands with [who have that attitude],” he added.
Freese was with Guns N’ Roses from 1997 to 1999. He recorded ‘Oh My God’ for the ‘End of Days’ soundtrack and contributed to writing ‘Chinese Democracy’ with Axl Rose. He also played drums on many tracks for Chinese Democracy, but his recordings were later reworked by Bryan Mantia.
