GnR Ashba won’t be remembered for music

Mission: DJ Ashba

Guns n’Roses guitarist DJ Ashba believes he was born to achieve greatness – but not as a musician.

He’s currently playing a Las Vegas residency with Axl Rose’s band. But he says that’s not why he’s here, even though he hasn’t yet worked out his true purpose.

Ashba tells Glide Magazine: “People ask who were my influences. It was never guitar players, never musicians. I’ve always looked up to certain people, but my true influences were people like Walt Disney, Steve Jobs – people who changed the world in a much bigger way than just a dream.

“I always felt I was put here to do something great, beyond music. I still don’t think I’ve found the real reason. People are like, ‘But you’re in the biggest band in the world.’ I go, ‘Yeah, but there’s something inside I keep searching for.’

“I think before I go, there is going to be something. And I don’t think it’s going to be music related, which is weird.”

Ashba had artistic tendencies from an early age, and recounts a moment where it almost got him fired from a job at a local newspaper as he entered his teenage years.

“I worked folding the papers that came out of the press,” he says. “Our boss was this old, scary guy that everyone was afraid of. I remember knocking on the big boss’s door and walking in. He looked at me, like, ‘What balls do you have?’

“I tried to tell him, ‘I know how to make your paper better.’ I go, ‘Your paper doesn’t have a cartoon. Everybody loves cartoons.’ He kicked me out his office.

“About a week later he came down and goes, ‘I need to see you in my office.’ I was like, ‘Crap, he’s going to fire me.’ It went from that to him going, ‘I thought about what you were saying – bring me some ideas.’

“I stayed up all night drawing and drawing – and he gave me my own office.”

Meanwhile, industry magazine Billboard have revealed the first sales results of GnR’s Appetite For Democracy residency. On October 31, November 2 and 3 combined they grossed $775,119, selling 8387 tickets out of a capacity of 9839. On November 7, 9 and 10 they took $828,220, selling 9082 of a total 9908 tickets available.