BLABBERMOUTH.NET
Marc Canter, who grew up best friends with
GUNS N' ROSES members
Slash and
Axl Rose, will
launch a video podcast called
"The First 50 Gigs: Guns N' Roses And The Making Of Appetite For Destruction" on
Patreon on August 19 at 12 a.m. EST. To coincide with the podcast launch, a week-long
"First 50 Gigs" gallery exhibit will open at the Rosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, hosted and created by
Lethal Amounts.
"The First 50 Gigs" had two goals in mind: to recapture one of the greatest origin stories in L.A. rock history — the emergence and breakthrough of
GUNS N' ROSES and their debut album — and give the fans, access to
Canter's one-of-a-kind archive.
The podcast creators said: "We have enough content to keep you entertained until the end of 2021. Season One will take you from the earliest moments when
Slash first picked up a guitar in high school in 1981, to the newly formed
'Appetite' line up of
GN'R when they first return from
'Hell Tour' in June of 1985.
"We chose
Patreon as the distribution platform for this series as we need support from fans of this project to tell the entire story over five seasons. We've bootstrapped Season 1, but we can only produce Season 2 when we hit our first goal of 5,000 subscribers. At 10,000 subscribers, we'll produce the entire series, so we need your help to get there and bring this entire story to life.
"We have three
Patreon subscribers tiers with different benefits. They are:
"General Admission (GA) gives you access to audio only episodes of 'The First 50 Gigs' twice a month on
Patreon. This includes show transcripts in English, Spanish and Portuguese. GA is $5 a month.
"Reserved Seating (RS) gives you access to all
'The First 50 Gigs' visual content, including episode videos with Spanish and Portuguese subtitles, episode show posts with additional photo galleries, videos and audio clips. You'll also get two bonus episodes a month that can include interviews, audio clips and behind-the-scenes with the show creators. RS is $15 a month.
"Front Row (FR) gets you everything in the previous tiers, plus you'll receive one piece of merchandise once every three months valued at $25 or more. This includes autographed books, prints, t-shirts and other collectables from
'The First 50 Gigs' podcast, Canter's Deli and
'Reckless Road'. Additionally, you'll join us once a month for a 60-90 minute call with
Marc Canter and
Jason Porath to ask them anything about the show, go even deeper into
GN'R origin story and get advanced notice on upcoming content and merch. Special guests from the show may also join for these live sessions. FR is $25 a month.
"The Reserved Seating and Front Row Tiers include private RSS feeds that will allow you stream the show on your favorite podcast player (e.g.
Apple Podcast,
Stitcher, etc.)".
The first four episodes for Season One are as follows:
Series Introduction: Hosts
Marc and
Jason introduce you to the series and discuss
Marc's role.
Episode 1:
Adam Greenberg, drummer for
TIDUS SLOAN/
ROADCREW talks about
Slash's early bands.
Episode 2: Author
Laurie Jacobson takes us back with a history of the Sunset Strip from 1900 to 1965
Episode 3: Author
Domenic Priore continues the history of the Sunset Strip from 1965 to 1990
Episode 4:
Chris Weber, founding member of
AXL,
ROSE +
HOLLYWOOD ROSE talks about those bands.
Reserved Seating and Front Row subscribers will get 14 bonus episodes that include cutting-room floor interviews, behind-the-scenes footage from
"The First 50 Gigs" and
"Reckless Road" and more.
Canter photographed the band's entire journey on the Sunset Strip, starting with
Slash's garage bands in 1981 and ending when the band releases
"Appetite" and leaves on their first international tour with
THE CULT in 1987.
Jason Porath, who was his right-hand man in co-writing
Marc's book
"Reckless Road", will be hosting this series and along with providing a unique outlook on their first 50 gigs, will be sharing content only available through
Marc's immense archive.
When teenager and amateur photographer
Marc Canter set out to document his best friend
Saul Hudson's rise as a rock guitarist in 1982, he never imagined he was documenting the genesis of the next great rock 'n' roll band. His friend became the legendary guitarist
Slash, and
Canter found himself witnessing the creation of
GUNS N' ROSES front and center. The candid shots contained in his
GUNS N' ROSES biography
"Reckless Road: Guns N' Roses And The Making Of Appetite For Destruction", taken as the band toured in 1985-1987 and made the legendary album
"Appetite For Destruction", capture their raw, blood-sweat-and-tears performances as well as their intimate moments. Containing original gig memorabilia including show flyers, ticket stubs, set lists, press clippings, and handwritten lyrics as well as in-depth interviews with band members and the people closest to them,
"Reckless Road" offers an explicit, first-person perspective readers won't find anywhere else.
Originally published in America in 2008,
"Reckless Road" contains interviews with
Slash,
Duff McKagan and
Steven Adler, as well as groupies, failed producers, and former managers and bandmates.
Back in 2016,
Canter told the
Daily Mail that the
GUNS N' ROSES reunion finally fell into place thanks to
McKagan brokering a peace settlement between
Slash and
Axl — but only after
Slash left his wife of 13 years,
Perla Ferrar.
Canter explained: "
Duff was a big part in getting them back together. He was working with
Axl again and is a good middle man. There was no one else who communicated with
Slash and
Axl. When
Axl was venting about
Slash,
Duff was able to help him see things through
Slash's eyes."
McKagan had been instrumental in getting both ex-bandmates, who had not been speaking since 1996, to sign off on a series of music licensing deals that required both their signatures.
Yet one thing stood in the way of a full-fledged reunion:
Perla, who had managed
Slash's solo career and was an executive in his various companies.
Canter also claimed that the band originally broke up because
Slash and
Duff wrote a dozen new songs around 1995 and
Axl refused to sing on all but three or four of them — leading
Slash to pursue a solo venture.
