༘⋆Izzy 𝄞

Izzy and Duff at Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, 1995

Guns N Roses at CBGB, 1987

Izzy, comatose by the bar, sways to the music and rises only to flip over the cassettes. By the wee hours, Slash, Steve and Duff have all disappeared. Izzy decides to walk back to the hotel, where an entire floor is blocked off for the band and their coterie. Mumbling and stumbling down the humidity-riddled streets, the somewhat lost guitarist insists, "It's here somewhere" Minutes later, settled in our separate rooms, there's a knock on my door.

"It's Izzy." ''It's four o'clock in the goddamn morning, Izzy!" "Can you help get me on a flight back to L.A.? I don't wanna spend the next two days on the bus." Feverishly dialing the various local airlines, I pray he doesn't pass out in my room. He doesn't. I usher him out of my room, unfortunately without getting him a flight for the next morning

Do you think you’ll go to your grave being referred to as ‘Izzy Stradlin out of Guns N’ Roses’?

“Either that or ‘That asshole from Indiana’... and it doesn’t bother me a bit. In Indiana all my friends know me as Jeff, the guy who took off after school and made a bunch of money before coming home to fuck it away on bikes, toys and the same stupid shit that they’d have done if they’d had the money. 99.9% of the time I don’t even get recognised, it’s like, ‘No really, I am him’... ‘Get to the back’.”

And finally, is Izzy’s ultimate intention to grow old gracefully or disgracefully?

“Just to grow old would be fine by me.”