I mentioned "in another space" that I was reading Lonn Friend's book Life On Planet Rock. This resulted in another excellent Lock 'N Loll war story from Umlaut's old friend John Marshall Stack.My Lonn Friend story:
When we were recording Metal Church's "The Human Factor", Metallica was literally a mile up the road in Burbank recording the Black album. It was cool because we got to hang with them, shoot pool, etc. One day Kirk and I went to Lonn Friend's office in L.A. to see him. When we got into his office Lonn was deep in phone conversation with Axl Rose, and I was looking for a place to sit down. The only chair available had 3 or 4 gold record plaques in it-- not the small ones, but the full size ones. I think they were in the chair because his walls were already covered top to bottom with other gold, silver and platinum records. Anyway, there was enough space to sit on the front edge of the chair, (so long as I didn't lean back too far), so I did.
As we were sitting there, Axl starts playing Lonn some of the new Gn'R music over the phone (I think the song may have been "November Rain"). Without telling Axl, he puts it on speakerphone so we can hear it. As I'm getting comfortable, I lean back slightly in the chair.... until I hear a loud CRACK! from behind me. I quickly look up and realize that neither Kirk nor Lonn have heard the sound, so I calmly lean forward again. For the next few minutes, I'm sweating bullets...... how bad is the damage? As we finally get up to leave, I take a quick look at the plaque I had leaned on, and didn't see any cracks....WHEW! I snuck away, afraid of what might have happened to the plaques underneath.
Once we got out of the office, I told Kirk, and he just about laughed himself to death.
My Lonn Friend story.
===
Last week Umlaut noticed these pics of John with Metallica (from the 1992 U.S. Stadium Tour with Guns 'N Poses) on photographer Ross Halfin's web site:
Enter night, exit light... Click HERE for more Marshall Stack war stories.
