Guns N’ Roses’ Original Manager Vicky Hamilton on GNR’s Reunion and Her Buzzy New Memoir ‘Appetite For Dysfunction’
For Vicky Hamilton, Guns N’ Roses original manager, seeing founding members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan playing together was a trip down memory lane — and mostly good memories.
“It was awesome,” Hamilton, who recently published Appetite For Dysfunction, a memoir about her days managing with Guns N’ Roses as well as Motley Crue, Poison, Faster Pussycat and others. Hamilton, who parted ways with GNR after helping the group sign its deal with Geffen Records in 1997 and went on to work as an A&R rep for the label, checked out one the group’s recent shows at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas “Obviously I wish that Steven [Adler] and Izzy [Stradlin] [were there]. To me it’s not quite a reunion without all of the five magical pieces. But I loved seeing it. They looked great,” she says. “I think they’re better musicians than they ever were. They’re older and really can’t make those moves anymore, and Axl was sitting and all that. I missed some of the rawness and the spontaneity they had back in the day, but it was great to see.”
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Hamilton isn’t weighing in on the genuineness of the GNR reunion; “I’m sure the money is genuine,” she notes. But she’s not entirely surprised by Rose’s side trip fronting AC/DC for upcoming European and North American dates, either. “He was always a fan even back in the day,” says Hamilton, adding that the group used to listen to AC/DC albums while they were living in her Hollywood apartment during the mid-’80s. “They definitely had a liking for AC/DC,” she says. “They covered some of their songs in the show. I’m a little surprised he’s doing it now, with all the [GNR] stuff going on, but more power to him.”
Hamilton acknowledges that GNR’s resurgence has put some wind in the sails of Appetite For Dysfunction, which she started working on in 2007. Reaction has been mostly positive, though some of the book’s subjects are clearly keeping a respectful distance. “I think they’re intimidated,” Hamilton says. But even though it’s frank, the book isn’t designed to be a smutty tell-all, either. “Most of the books written by women in the music business are love-affair tell-alls, and I tried to step away from that,” she explains. “I did tell some of my personal history because my editor kept on saying ‘There’s no sex in there! There’s got to be SEX and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll!’ So I included a few sex stories, mine and others. But that wasn’t what it was about to me. I was kind of a business person that really wanted to make it and had the blinders on to get to the finished line.”
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There may be more life for Appetite For Dysfunction now that the book is out, however. “I’ve already been approached by major film and TV companies and huge agents courting me. It’s kind of interesting and fun,” Hamilton reports. “It would be exciting to turn it into a TV series. It would be funny. It would not be Vinyl.” And Hamilton doesn’t hesitate when asked who she’d want to play her.
“Oh, I really want Amy Schumer, of course,” Hamilton says. “She’s kind of my girl, although everybody’s telling me not to get too attached and be open-minded. But she’s funny and she kinda looks like me at a younger age. She’d be perfect.”
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