It’s not easy for us as human beings to address unfavorable behaviors in others. What can we learn from Guns N’ Roses when it comes to this people dynamic?
Duff McKagan, bass player of Guns N’ Roses recently released a spectacular memoir detailing his tumultuous time with the band.
One thing that stood out as a pain point was singer Axel Rose’s constant tardiness to gigs. I mean, hours late to gigs. The rest of the band absolutely hated it. They went off the rails trying to avoid thinking about and deadening the feelings around it.
Guns had no internal process to hold Axel accountable, so any real discussion of the problem never happened. Duff talks about all the times they had worked themselves up to address Axel and it just fizzled out before it started. They had no tools to work with.
At the core, this is a simple accountability issue. There are controls and measures a team or “band” can put in place to prevent the trepidation and neurosis that go along with having an accountability conversation.
At Banding People Together we’ve developed what we call a “Mix Move” for that. It’s pretty simple. It’s why it works. If you don’t love having those conversations and/or wind up punting them down the road to avoid them, we can help.
There was an element to Duff’s story that I hadn’t thought of until he described it, the heartbreaking letdown of their clients, the fans.
Duff relates story after story of how the band would be backstage waiting for Axel to arrive, while on the other side of the stage, thousands of fans began to boo and throw things at the crew. There were many nights that fans rioted and destroyed arenas, with fans and security injured, all because one guy couldn’t show up on time. It’s not a romantic notion of Rock and Roll, it’s a tragedy.
In YOUR world that lack of accountability is making the good and great band members not want to be in the band for all kinds of reasons. The feeling is a lack of fairness that doesn’t feel good.
Don’t let this happen in your band. Your fans internally and externally deserve better.
Rock on!
-Alan
