Welcome to My Jungle

by Craig Duswalt

Guns N’ Roses fans know the Use Your Illusion tour went on nonstop from 1991 to 1993. They know that concerts sold out in minutes all over the world so fans could hear chart-topping singles Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child of Mine, Paradise City, and November Rain live. They know the Use Your Illusion tour was the last for the band with Slash and Duff. But they’ve only heard rumors of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans.

Fortunately for fans, Craig Duswalt hasn’t just heard rumors—he knows what went on backstage on one of the longest and most popular music events because he lived it.

As Axl Rose’s personal manager during the ridiculously long world tour, Duswalt experienced things that would make most people run the other way and never look back. And in Welcome to My Jungle, he shares the sometimes hilarious, sometimes just plain reckless, and always insane actual happenings on the tour.

A true must-read for Guns N’ Roses fans, Welcome to My Jungle delights readers with hilarious and entertaining exclusive firsthand stories like:

•The day Axl Rose, Kurt Cobain, and Courtney Love got into a “huge war” backstage at the MTV Awards
•Why Guns N’ Roses are forever linked to Charles Manson
•The night Liz Taylor walked in on a very nude Slash—and stayed a while

Featuring little-known facts for the ultimate GN’R fan, Welcome To My Jungle gives an inside look at what it’s really like to live and work with a hugely popular band, from the middle of a rock and roll hurricane.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Memoir, Rock N Roll

218 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2014

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Have your children ever asked you about GNR but you were worried there wasn't a family-friendly book out there to share with them? Do you like the idea of reading awesome rock star stories without the need to actually read any? Are you interested in Craig Duswalt's seminars on how to be a Rockstar in your own industry? These are the only three reasons I can come up with to read this book.

There are many promises of great stories and never any follow through, or they are told in a truncated lame way. I started to wonder if this guy actually got invited to any of the real parties, or if the band just ditched his nerdy ass before the real fun started and never told him how rock stars actually party. He seems like the kind of guy that had two Mich Lites, told everyone "I'm so drunk, guys", imagined what it would be like to touch a boob, and then passed out at 10:30.

This was a shameless promotion for his personal enterprise. He can't fool me twice, though, because I don't need any advice on how to be a rock star at church camp.

[Leon del Muerte · Rating 1 out of 5]

Craig Duswalt comes off as a nice guy. Seriously, he seems to be a pretty mild, boring sort of guy that happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Unfortunately, that doesn't make for very entertaining reading. Every story starts with a central conceit of how "crazy" the story will get, but the pay off NEVER happens in any of the stories. Every time you think there's about to be some hilarious thing or insane revelation, Craig pulls it back and says that he can't talk about it or refers specifics to other books written by band members to avoid giving any detail. Every story peters out and none of the gritty details are ever accounted for aside from when they make the author look better. He also never fails to mention how many famous people he's friends with, much to the chagrin of anyone suffering through this book.

There's also more than a few stories that go off in a complete irrelevant tangent. These are usually inserted into other stories with no rhyme or reason. The writing is bad enough that when this happens it's confusing and the reader will have to go back and re-read the last paragraph to make sense of what is happening.

The author also makes the fatal mistake of thinking that he and his current situation is of any interest to the reader. We get it, you met your wife on tour and you guys do public speaking and you're both very proud of your brand. This is BORING INFORMATION that has no relevance to the rest of the stories here. Frankly, if I were James Hetfield and I read that it was totally cool for me to get blown up onstage so you could meet your wife, I'd kick your face in.

Lastly, the author is an Axl apologist of the most heinous sort. He always make an excuse to give Axl the benefit of the doubt and inserts his own inane theories as to why Axl does the things he does. I admit that I don't know the guy at all, but if you talk like an jerk and act like an jerk and treat other people like jerks, you're probably an jerk.

Disappointing.

[Judy Schriener · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fun read and I recommend it, whether you are a Guns N' Roses fan or not. I personally prefer country, especially over hard rock. So, the band was never my cup of tea, and I heard some pretty outrageous stories about them over the years, which didn't enhance my opinion of them. But after reading Craig Duswalt's book, I have to say that it softened my attitude toward them, even as outrageous and crazy as some of their stunts were. Craig gives a great insidery view of what life on the road with this group was like, and I laughed a lot -- and rolled my eyes some -- while reading it. Plus, I think I read most of it on the first day I got it. (I got an advance copy, plus I bought 2 more for musician friends, paid full price for them!) Highly recommended!

[Elizabeth Kulpa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess it's mildly interesting to find out what roadies do all day to entertain themselves, or to read of minute, mundane details of who Axl Rose will sign an autograph for, and why. What's not so diverting is temperamental, drug-addled rockstars getting their images whitewashed by hangers-on like Duswalt because he's such a classy guy he doesn't want to gossip (which he tells you repeatedly). Unfortunately Craig, those are the only reasons anyone would want to read your book. The author comes off as another brainwashed Axl-enabler in need of a good Al-Anon meeting.

[Jonas Paro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trea i betyg för att i stort sett vad som helst är intressant att läsa om Use Your Illusion-turnén, där författaren var Axls personliga manager. Tyvärr är författaren lite väl feg, det allra mesta man hör om bandet är de positiva sakerna. ”Vad som hände sen tar jag med mig ner i graven” är inte en inställning att ha när man skriver en bok om Guns N’ Roses. MEN, trots det, är man väldigt intresserad av bandet ska man absolut läsa den.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. A little boring...was really conservative with details.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a huge Guns N' Roses fan pretty much my entire adult life, I was really looking forward to reading this book. Although I was entertained by the stories that Mr. Duswalt shares with the reader, I couldn't help but feel like something was missing here.
For those of you who are not previously familiar with this book, the author was the road manager/personal assistant to Axl Rose for several years during the peak of Guns N' Roses' popularity. He traveled around the world on tour with the band and was responsible for taking care of all of Axl's needs as well as scheduling travel and making sure Axl got to each show. It seems like although the job had many perks, it was also very stressful as well.
As I said earlier, the stories in this book are entertaining but unfortunately you can tell that the author has kept the real juicy details to himself. He claims to still be friends with the band so out of respect for his friends, you can tell he has chosen to keep the stories light. Obviously he has witnessed much crazier things than what he is willing to share here but his stories still managed to keep me entertained.
If you are a fan of Guns N' Roses, you will probably enjoy this book. If you're just looking to read some crazy stores about backstage sex and wild partying, you may be disappointed here.

[Jonathan Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Goodreads says one star stands for "I didn't like it", which is not my scale. I'm giving this book one star because I can't do halves, and that half would only be because there are remarkably few copy errors in this book. I swear, that's the only virtue of this particular tome.

If you're like me and looking for stories about Axl Rose that you may not have heard, you're out of luck. You'll hear a lot about Craig Duswalt, as well as be subjected to an obnoxious amount of ads for his seminars about how to be a rockstar in your own industry (Greg Behrendt should consider suing, because that's flat out his idea). That's about it. Duswalt's insider perspective is apparently so inside it's been buried up his own ass. This is a man who at one point credits the fact that he's with his wife to James Hetfield infamously standing on a flashpot and nearly dying (the Montreal Riot, if you know the band you know that story, my father knows that story). You will not hear much about Axl, but you will hear a lot about going to Denny's. That's your big scandalous revelation, Axl Rose is apparently a big Denny's fan. There, now I saved you twenty bucks.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. Absolutely terrible! Not only is Craig a shit writer, but the stories are boring, and everything written about Australia is false. I thought the 'interesting facts' chapter might have redeemed it some, but it only dug a deeper grave. Axl smokes his cigarettes with a filter - that's supposed to be an interesting fact?! Give me a break. I was just about ready to give this up halfway through when the author started plugging his own business in the book; and attempting to loosely tie it to his stories about the band... I honestly regret the wasted time I spent reading this.

I guess if you're a big GnR fan that you might find this somewhat interesting - but if you're just looking for something well-written and entertaining, you won't find it here. Craig should have worked with a ghostwriter... It's pretty obvious he only got a publishing deal because of who he worked for - surely not on the merits of his writing, because I definitely can't see any merit in it. Don't waste your time OR money!

[Tara Harrold · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very little backstage goss. The stories often are anticlimactic. The few times he starts telling stories of famous/infamous events, he glosses over them, the Kurt & Courtney incident being a prime example. His writing style is quite frustrating to read too. Disappointing.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really cool stories from an insider. Easy, quick read for fans of guns 'n roses or anyone who dreams of living like a rock star.

[Walt Grassl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an entertaining book, I can't put it down. Craig is a great storyteller and boy, does he have some stories to tell. Well done, Craig.

[Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Only for the die-hards.

[Tony Farinella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was torn between giving this book 3 stars or 4 stars, but I ended up giving it 3 stars, as the book is entertaining, quick to read, and relatively harmless. However, the book is really lacking in depth and a cohesive story. Craig was Axl’s personal assistant during the Use Your Illusion tour, which was over two years long.

Craig is a nice enough guy, but he starts off by saying he’s still friends with the band and doesn’t want to tell tales out of school, which is completely fine, but the book seems to promise something it can’t deliver, which is a behind-the-scenes look at touring with one of the biggest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time.

If you are going to include all of the positives that come with that experience, you also have to include some of the negatives. I’m not looking for crazy stories about drugs and sex, although those can be entertaining, but I’m looking for an unvarnished look at all that it entails.

He pulls back the curtain a little bit, and I enjoyed getting to know more about Axl Rose as a person and some of his idiosyncrasies and quirks, like owning a wallaby, killing a moth with a gun, and his love of bath salts.

I did like the book and I finished it in one day, but it was like junk food. It didn’t have a lot of nutritional value, but it filled me up.

[rocket queen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found a lot of the anecdotes amusing, especially him landing on Axl’s lap, the bandana bit, the stress of the prompter, etcetera. For me, those stories were a nice change from all the hardcore partying stuff. But he’s clearly not as “in” as he wants us to believe if he has to tiptoe around a lot of the subjects to remain in their good books.

I feel like this biography should have been compiled in a more cohesive manner and should’ve been advertised differently as a more light-hearted read because it promises wildness which never comes; I didn’t get making Slash dying a whole headline when all he says about it is that it’s detailed in Slash’s book. Like he didn’t provide any new insights other than to say that he could have made money off that story but didn’t.

I know he comes across as an Axl Rose apologist, but I believe him when he says things such as when Axl cancelled shows it was for legit reasons because it’s now widely known that Axl was going through a lot mentally (and physically, given the toll it had on his voice in the long-run), and was made to do the UYI tours against his will. He was feeling suicidal, as was revealed years later, when he came in hours late to the show where Skid Row opened for them, just as an example.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Welcome to my Jungle by Craig Duswalt is a collection of the personal experiences of the author while he toured as the personal assistant to the lead singer of Guns & Roses. It is not a narrative; it is just a collection of random anecdotes. They are not funny, informative or entertaining. They are not much of anything. The best I can say is that a few of them strive to be mildly interesting.

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Holy smokes this was bad. I expected Guns N’ Roses debauchery, instead I got McDonald’s orders and the insane story of throwing chili and cheese against a wall. Author got his start working for Air Supply. A book about them would have been more exciting. Lost all credibility when stated “Live and Let Die” was a Beatles song…c’mon man

[John Turiano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever wonder what it would be like to follow one of the most popular rock stars around the world on tour? Craig Duswalt did and he has so many fascinating stories to share. I really enjoyed his book and gained some insight into the personal life of a rock star.

[Beverly Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it. Interesting tales from the view of the crew

[#moluminary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just read, if not for anything but at least to find out how Axl kills spiders (or Moths, it's been a while since I read it)! :D

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Author using his GnR connection to flog his new business. Nothing really new here to most long term fans and not worth paying for in my opinion

[Eric Thompson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terribly written and boring unless you're really into GNR, and even then...

[Georgette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun little book. Compared to the one I read before it, hell yeah. I think Craig has an unvarnished view of the world that was Guns N' Roses. He doesn't bring the dirt to the table, and I'm sure that's a lot of the reason he is still on good terms with Axl and members of what used to be the classic GNR lineup. There are a LOT of funny anecdotes in here about Axl...mostly the killer moth elimination system... but overall, not a lot about the rest of the band. Given that he was basically assigned to Axl, that's not much of a surprise, but for those of us who are reading about touring with the entire band, you expect some bon mots about the other members, but they are lacking in number. That said, though, Craig is a nice guy who got to be Axl's personal manager for years of touring with the Use Your Illusion tour, when the wheels started to come off. I expected a little bit more on when and how and what and instead a lot is told about how the behind the scenes with GNR during those crazy years when. Not saying I don't enjoy the insider's view, for I do..but it isn't the DIRT. And it isn't The Dirt.

[Topher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a great book - very very fun to read!

I saw this, thought about seeing guns-n-roses 2x in high school, and decided I needed to read it. Then, when I got home with it, I started feeling regret. GnR has a certain reputation for wildness, and tell-all type books have a reputation for focusing on the juicy exploitative details. I almost returned it unread.

However, Craig Duswalt does a great job of telling a very entertaining story of his time with GnR without focusing on the negatives. Instead, I'd say the characters are portrayed anywhere between positively or sympathetically, frequently both.

Slash has some substance abuse issues? Mr Duswalt covers that by mentioning they enjoyed going out and having a good time together.

Axl always running late for concerts? Mr Duswalt explains, in his opinion, what happened and why that was true. And, you're left with an understanding, not anger over it.

This is how more tell-alls ought to be.

[Over · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do not want to discount the relationship of Craig Duswalt and the members of GNR in any way, but here's what my impression from the book was: Duswalt thinks he is one of the Guns n' Roses, but he is not. And his stories are like that. E.g. the chapter "Slash Dies" which sounds very dramatic and makes the reader dive into it with their breath held a little says that Duswalt cannot go deeper into that particular story for legal reasons, that he was not actually there but only heard of the incident and that we should read about what actually happened in Slash's book "Slash". I read the recommended book earlier, so I know how Slash described the course of events of that part of his life, but I was still disappointed by Duswalt's attitude (why would he even include the story in his book in such a form?). And each part of the book made me feel this way. Something like this may have been mitigated by good writing, but it was not.

[Lisa Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written by Axl Rose's personal assistant, Craig, during the Use Your Illusion Tour. I found the book to be quite entertaining. However, if you're looking for personal or juicy stories about the band on the road or anything about the band falling apart, you'd be better off reading the band members books. Craig clearly wants to stay on good terms with the band and avoids anything too juicy.

What this book does have is stories of the GNR entourage; pranks, being decoys so the band members could go places, traveling with the band (carrying little bags of Axl's bath salts, which look like cocaine, through the airport), crazy fans, the famous people you meet along the way, and some stories about Axl, like how he uses a shotgun to kill moths.

Another thing that was interesting about this book is that it was written by someone that thinks very highly of Axl Rose, which makes this book different from material written by so many others.

[Sandra Champlain · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've seen Craig Duswalt deliver motivating, energetic and fun performances at seminars, so it was natural to buy his book to get more of him. His ability to put a smile on my face in "Welcome to My Jungle" is equal to what he does in person.

Most of us can only assume what happens behind the scenes at rock concerts and can imagine the weird and wacky personalities behind the musicians. Craig Duswalt gives such descriptions that go FAR past my imagination. "Welcome to My Jungle" is mind-blowing...hard to believe these experiences he's had as Axl Rose's personal manager. But they are real. WOW.

I don't think I'll be able to hear the song "Sweet Child of Mine" without picturing the great Elizabeth Taylor looking at Slash naked!! GREAT book. Much recommended!

[Jim Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Craig Duswalt is a brilliant marketer, great storyteller, and business rock star in his own right. Yet he's one of the most down to earth and truly genuine people you could ever know. If you're looking for a book on dirt, this isn't it. Instead, all of Craig's attributes are brought together in the funny, inspiring, and insane stories as he lived them. If you don't know about Gun N' Roses before reading WELCOME TO MY JUNGLE, or even if you've been a loyal fan, you're in for a real rock star tour as Craig Duswalt, a regular guy, lived it.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable

Pretty tame compared to most rockstar stories, but I kinda liked that about it. I've read lots of these types of books; debauchery and mayhem get tiring after a while. I want to believe that Axl isn't really the jerk the media often says he is and this author speaks well of his relationship with Axl. My favorite part affirms what I truly believe about Steven Tyler: he's a nice guy. The only thing I didn't like is a few too many author's plugs for his new business, but hey, a guy has to make a living.

[Christopher Rausch · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word- KICKASS!!

Let me start off by saying how refreshing it is to see a book that isn't all trash, smash, and bash! Secondly, I think the author showed REAL class in telling us that it isn't a "Tell ALL" book!

Anyone who's a fan MUST read this! It's loaded full of crazy stories that will have you laughing your a** off!

Plus, it's a great way to really know the people behind the sex, drugs, and booze!