NOISE: He’s a Made Man

Former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke is still locked and loaded

Josh Bell

Gilby Clarke has released four solo albums since 1994. He's been the front man and principal songwriter for three different bands on major labels at various times. He's an accomplished session guitarist and producer who just worked with hot, young buzz band, the Bronx. Yet he's still best known for the three years he spent as rhythm guitarist in Guns N' Roses. Clarke replaced original GNR member Izzy Stradlin in 1991, toured the world with the band, and played on the 1993 covers album, The Spaghetti Incident?, before being booted by Axl Rose in 1994 at the beginning of the singer's purge of the band.


To most, Clarke is a footnote in the torrid history of one of rock's greatest bands. He wasn't an original member, he's not part of the new lineup, and he's not involved in Velvet Revolver, the supergroup that teams former Gunners Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum with former Stone Temple Pilots lead singer Scott Weiland. So why should anyone care that he's playing in the Palapa Lounge at the Palms with his pickup band the Blues Mafia, featuring former supporting players for Kiss, Alice Cooper and, yes, Guns N' Roses.


Because Clarke is perhaps the most underrated talent in pure rock 'n' roll, and he's an unabashed working musician with a real love for what he does. He plays with whomever's available, mixing in covers with his bluesy, rocking solo material, just enjoying the thrill of getting out on stage in front of an audience. "We'll start playing, like, Robert Johnson songs and John Lee Hooker, a lot of B.B. King," Clarke says. "We do Tom Waits; we do everything. But, at the end of the night, we'll be playing Ramones songs."


He describes the Blues Mafia as "a rock 'n' roll Rat Pack," a casual gathering of friends playing some of their favorite songs, sharing a few cocktails, and having a couple of laughs. At gigs in Los Angeles, they've had guests ranging from Ace Frehley to Bruce Willis—even Axl Rose himself jumped on stage with an earlier incarnation of the band in 2000.


Clarke's a busy man—working on material for a new solo record, touring last summer as a guitarist for Heart, producing the debut from LA punks, the Bronx—but what he really wants to do is bring the Rat Pack image of the Blues Mafia to fruition, getting them a regular Vegas gig at a place like the Palms.


"We've been trying to get in Vegas forever," he says. He'd like a venue to "let us play every Friday and Saturday night. Then we don't have to go out on tour in the summer." And he'd be a decidedly old-school Vegas type, spending the nights after each gig at the craps table. "I still come to Vegas thinking that it's bigger than life and you have to gamble, you've got to make your deposit," he says. "I don't know how you live there and don't play craps every day."


Until the regular Sin City booking comes his way, though, Clarke will continue playing at places like Pink E's and the Palms, where he's part of a series featuring '80s hair-metal refugees like Kip Winger, Don Dokken and Warrant's Jani Lane. He shrugs off the association, though. "I'm just looking for a rock 'n' roll stage to play the music that I enjoy," he says. "And it seems like the only people that really let you play rock 'n' roll is more the '80s rock bands."


But to lump Clarke in with hair bands would be a mistake: He's got a more timeless style, rooted as much in the blues greats, the Rolling Stones and punk rock as in his old Guns N' Roses cohorts.


And what of the band that put him on the map? Clarke still sees Slash, McKagan and Sorum from time to time, but he's as clueless as anyone when it comes to Rose. Like all fans, he's just waiting on the new music. "We've all been waiting years to hear and see this product that he's been talking about, you know, the thing that broke up one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands of all time," Clarke says. While Rose cancels tours, throws fits and delays his album yet again, Clarke will be out on stage, night after night, just doing what he's always done: Playing rock 'n' roll, and having a hell of a good time.

  • Get More Stories from Thu, Jan 22, 2004
Top of Story