Welcome to My Jungle by Craig Duswalt Page A

cold.
    About a month prior, a writer from Life came out and toured with Guns N’ Roses for a week to see and write about what really goes on during a world tour with a hugely successful rock n’ roll band. The article shared what “they thought” really went on behind the scenes in a very long and very detailed article along with a few “interesting” pictures. The article was pretty revealing: backstage parties, sex, drugs (not really), and rock n’ roll. You know, the typical article about “bad boys” on the road. But here’s the deal—we were all on our best behavior that week, at least most of us were, so it was not really an accurate account. Thank goodness the writer never saw what really happened on the road.
    But unfortunately, Natasha did.
    Prior to that article, I had told Natasha that although touring with Guns N’ Roses was an incredible experience, and that there were some wild things that happened, it still was a business first, and the band and the management took their responsibilities very seriously. And for the most part that was true. But there were some nights that were wilder than a fraternity party on the most raging campuses across America. But I didn’t want to lose Natasha, and I personally was done with all that “other stuff” because I was truly in love.
    “Oh you read that, huh?” I said.
    “Oh yeah, I read it.”
    And Elaine, her best friend, had read it, too. Elaine had tried to persuade Natasha not to come to meet me, and to seriously reconsider marrying me, because who would want to be married to a guy who toured with Guns N’ Roses?
    Ouch.

    Elaine is also married to Ray Parker Jr., of “Ghostbusters” fame. Ray and Elaine are great friends of ours to this day. But I had to dispel Elaine’s and Life magazine’s theory of touring in one limousine ride, otherwise this was going to be a very uncomfortable three weeks.
    And to make matters worse, Elaine had “experience” in the field of backstage parties because Ray Parker Jr. toured for a living.
    This was not going to be easy.
    “Honey, you know not to believe everything you read. The story was embellished.”
    “Well, we’ll see. I have three weeks out here, so I will see for myself,” she reminded me.
    So there I was, praying that the next three weeks would be the calmest weeks Guns N’ Roses ever spent on the road. No naked women, no raging parties, nothing but good old rock music.
    Yeah, that was going to happen.
    We arrived at the hotel and I introduced everyone to Natasha, and everyone got along beautifully. All the band members are truly respectful to wives, girlfriends, and family. The first time my mom met Slash was in New York City. Slash was in the hotel lobby, and I walked in with my mom. Without any prompting, Slash walked over to my mom with open arms, and said, “Mom.” Then, he gave her a big hug.
    She fell in love with Slash from that moment on.
    And Natasha did as well—with everyone in the band and the crew. They were very welcoming. Especially Axl. Axl loved when Natasha would come out to visit to get a woman’s perspective on life, probably because he was sick of my perspective all the time.
    That night there was no show, so Natasha and I just hung in the room, ordered room service, and just chilled. She was feeling much better after having met the guys.
    Only wish that would have lasted at least one night.

    When you tour with a band like Guns N’ Roses, you must be on your toes 24/7. We had tons of security everywhere we went, and no one could come onto our hotel floor. We would book every room on a hotel floor, and most floors needed a special key to get to.
    Another tool for our high security was our walkie-talkies. We all had to bring our walkie-talkies wherever we went, and they had to be on at all times—no exceptions. If you were with a woman, in the middle of “it,” and someone needed you and called on the walkie-talkie, you were expected to stop what you were doing and