Ex-Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford says he rejected Guns N’ Roses because “I would have gotten bored”
“If I had joined Guns N’ Roses that would have basically been me filling the role of someone having to back up Slash.”
Image: Scott Dudelson / Steve Jennings / Getty Images
Former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford has claimed that he turned down Guns N’ Roses’ offer to join the band because he “would have gotten bored”.
Speaking to Guitar World, Ford explains that he said no to Axl Rose and gang about replacing Izzy Stradlin because “the music of the Crowes spoke to me a bit more.”
Adding that even Slash understood his decision at the time, he says, “But also — and even Slash agreed with me on this — the Crowes were a better fit for me over Guns N’ Roses because, with the Crowes, I could have more of a voice.”
“If I had joined Guns N’ Roses that would have basically been me filling the role of someone having to back up Slash. I don’t think it would have been all that fulfilling or satisfying to do that. I would have gotten bored, and that would have been dangerous…”
The musician would go on to form a wonderful working relationship with Black Crowes founder Rich Robinson. As Ford explains, “There wasn’t much discussion. Rich wrote the songs, so his parts were pretty much there and in place.”
“And as far as the call-and-response stuff – that really developed when we were out on the road. So by the time we got into the studio, there were a lot of things we’d already been doing live that we wanted to adapt. From there, we felt it out, and again, the biggest part of that was listening to each other very carefully.”
Meanwhile, Gilby Clarke ended up replacing Stradlin as Guns N’ Roses’ guitarist in 1991, a role he would stay in for the next three years.
In other news, Guns N’ Roses recently released a new single, Perhaps, after it was leaked via digital jukeboxes across the United States. Shortly after, they debuted the song live, which Axl Rose introduced as “like the immaculate conception”.