The Cult guitarist Billy Duffy recalled being told he had to see Guns N’ Roses just before the release of their debut album Appetite For Destruction – but he wasn’t allowed into the show.
Axl Rose and company were playing at the iconic Marquee club in London, U.K., a few weeks before the LP was launched in July 1987.
Duffy’s bandmate Ian Astbury attended one of the three shows, and couldn’t wait to share his discovery.
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“Ian was the guy who found them,” he told Music Radar in a recent interview. “He called me up in London when we were living there… and said, ‘There’s this band from America called Guns N’ Roses. They’re really good. You should go check them out. I think we should take them out on tour with us.’”
Duffy – whose own band was turning heads at the time with third album Electric – continued: “Ian is like that. He’s always looking for new bands and finding them. He’s very passionate and [he] has great ears for that kind of thing. I’m nowhere near as good as Ian at that.
“But I remember going to the Marquee club, [where] Guns N’ Roses were doing three nights, and they sold them out. “I couldn’t get in. The guy at the door was like, ‘I don’t care who you are, you ain’t getting in!’” He observed: “But that was very typical of London.”
Billy Duffy Recalls ‘Shenanigans’ on Cult Tour with Guns N’ Roses
Nevertheless, within weeks, The Cult hit the road across North America with Guns as opening act – and as might have been expected, the bands hit it off very quickly.
“Oh, we very much hung out,” Duffy confirmed. “We became very enmeshed. There were lots of shenanigans. … Whatever you can imagine, it was pretty much like that!”
Emphasizing that he wouldn’t behave the same way four decades later, he insisted “nothing evil” went down. “Just a lot of high jinks,” he explained. “I mean, if you put two bands like that together who get along, let’s just say you’re always trying to outdo each other’s stupidity.”
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Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso and Michael Gallucci
