"[Axl’s] always treated me really good. Even when I left and Frank [Ferrer, current GN’R drummer, pictured above] took over because I was having a kid, they were pretty accommodating. I think Axl was a little freaked out with another drummer coming in but I did it, he let me do it and it was kind of my decision not to come back because I was getting into other stuff like producing and film soundtracks.

"But I’m still doing stuff, I’ve done some remixes for him. He’s always been good with me. I know he’s got his reputation and I’ve seen it and that’s what makes him Axl Rose. He’s running the whole ship. He’s got a lot of pressure and there’s a lot of freaks trying to take s*** from him.

"He was trying at one point even on this last tour, he was calling saying, ‘Hey, would you want to do a double drumming type thing where you play all of the new songs, Chinese which are a little more technical and let Frank do more of the rock stuff from the older days’. I was considering it. I don’t know if Frank wanted to do that and I didn’t want to put him in that position. And I didn’t know if I wanted to do the Grateful Dead thing with two drummers.

"But he was talking about having this rotating drums thing where it’s, ‘Hey, ok we’re playing ‘I’m Sorry’ from Chinese, the drum thing twirls and Brain’s playing, ok we’re playing ‘Welcome To The Jungle’, it twirls back and Frank’s playing’. It never rolled, I’m not sure they had the budget and Frank might not have been 100% into that. He’s the drummer now and I felt weird about that."