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View Full Version : Easy Straddling #9: Izzy Stradlin


Dave de Sylvia
05-06-2006, 08:42 PM
#5: Poison (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=454724)
#6: Damien Dempsey (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=458168)
#7: Juniper/Bell X1/Damien Rice (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=455863)
#8: Bon Jovi (http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=459744)

Similar artists: Paul Westerberg, The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards, The Faces, The Ramones

Ladies and gentlemen, Izzy Stradlin…

Born in Lafayette, Indiana, on April 6, 1962, Jeffrey Isbell started out as a drummer before switching to guitar as "it was easier to write songs on." He drew his early influences from Led Zeppelin and Alice Cooper, but his main passion was the Ramones. In high school, Izzy started a band, a member of which was part-time classmate and full-time delinquent William Bailey, soon to be known as W. Axl Rose. Isbell himself adopted the moniker ‘Izzy Dead’ before settling on ‘Izzy Stradlin,’ a reference to his favoured sexual position, ‘easy straddling’.

After high school, the young Isbell packed up his drums and moved to LA, determined to make a name for himself on the exploding metal scene. Soon after, however, he made the shift to guitar and never looked back, joining the band London, which had been started by Nikki Sixx years earlier. Eventually, the Guns N' Roses line-up materialised, as Izzy again hooked up with Axl, adding bassist Duff McKagan, lead guitarist Slash and drummer Steven Adler.

The success of the band is well-noted, and Izzy's departure in 1991 caused huge shockwaves. Throughout the band's early years Izzy, along with Slash and Adler, had been nurturing a heroin problem. After a disastrous performance on the band's double-disc Use Your Illusion album pairing, he decided to quit. Part of his detox included distancing himself from drugs, which meant traveling separately from the band and grouping with them only on stage, eventually leading to his departure from the group.

Returning home after quitting in November 1991, Stradlin started putting together a solo project of his own, writing songs and assembling a band, the JuJu Hounds; this band included former Georgia Satellites guitarist Rick Richards, who has played on each of Izzy's solo efforts to date. 1992 saw the release of 'Izzy Stradlin & The Ju Ju Hounds, a rootsier, bluesy affair which nonetheless retained the rock n' roll spirit of the Guns; Rolling Stone Ron Wood made a guest appearance on the track 'Take A Look At The Guy,' while 'Shuffle It All' and rock/reggae cover 'Pressure Drop' were mild radio hits. It received fair reviews, and resulted in Izzy's first and only world tour.

After a short touring spot with Gn'R in place of an injured Gilby, Izzy took an extended break from music. Legend has it that while in the studio writing and recording their abortive second record, Izzy left the studio “to buy cigarettes” and took off home. It was later reported that his leaving was due to creative differences with bassist Jimmy Ashurst, the other dominant personality in the group. He returned in 1998 with 117 Degrees. The album saw Izzy mix up punk with the blues and early rock n' roll influences of Ju Ju Hounds. It was, however, to be his last record for Geffen Records, as he was dropped when the label merged with Dreamworks.

His subsequent records were to be independent affairs, with Izzy shopping the albums to labels. 1999's Ride On, his most hard-rocking album to date, and 2002's On Down The Road, a more laid-back Stones/Faces-type album were both Japan-only releases. River, released in 2001, was released worldwide by Sanctuary Records, and featured a more 'modern' sound, as well as some original reggae recordings, a style he’d been experimenting with since the ‘80s in mimicry of his idol Keith Richards.

When fellow ex-gunners Slash, Duff and Matt Sorum were putting together what would become Velvet Revolver, they invited Izzy to join them as a second guitarist. He recorded some music with the group before leaving due to his already legendary reluctance to work with a dominant lead singer. Nothing much was heard from Izzy until late 2005, aside from a couple of guest appearances with Velvet Revolver, when Izzy responded to an internet petition of over 1000 signatures and released the 975 pressed promo copies of his 2003 album 'Like A Dog' to the public, buyers receiving the CD straight from the artist. Another album is confirmed to have been recorded, and Izzy expects to find a label to release it sometime in 2006, as well as a disc of unreleased music possibly featuring the Velvet Revolver sessions.

I’ll upload anything from his solo collection on request, or I’ll just compile a sampler if there’s demand.

Discography:


Izzy Stradlin at Sputnikmusic.com ( http://sputnikmusic.com/bands.php?bandid=1335)

w/ Guns N’ Roses

Appetite For Destruction ( http://sputnikmusic.com/album.php?reviewid=3193) (1987)
GNR Lies ( http://sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=1239) (1988)
Use Your Illusion I ( http://sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=2131) (1991)
Use Your Illusion II ( http://sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=490) (1991)

Solo

Izzy Stradlin & The Ju Ju Hounds (1992)
117 ° ( http://sputnikmusic.com/album.php?reviewid=1280) (1998)
Ride On (1999)
River ( http://sputnikmusic.com/album.php?reviewid=1250) (2001)
On Down The Road ( http://sputnikmusic.com/album.php?reviewid=1909) (2002)
Like A Dog (2005)

Riva
05-06-2006, 08:44 PM
Nice. Never knew he had a solo career. I think it's great that he stood up and kicked his drug habit also.

guitrguy
05-06-2006, 08:48 PM
I never knew he had a solo career. I am interested in hearing this.
guitrguy @ gmail.com

Oh ya Splat my guitar quitartet is doing an arrangement of Sweet Child o' Mine for our upcoming commencement ceremony.

Edit: god damn that was full of typoes

Jacaranda
05-06-2006, 08:50 PM
Good write up. Izzy is my favorite GnR member. Mostly because he is the classiest member.
I thought for sure he was in VR, meh I was wrong.

blue3
05-06-2006, 08:52 PM
That would be awesome if he was in VR. He played some shows with them though.

Nice write up. I really like the Ju Ju Hounds CD.

Apocalyptic Raids
05-06-2006, 08:52 PM
hahaha, nice thread name.

Dave de Sylvia
05-06-2006, 08:54 PM
Nice. Never knew he had a solo career. I think it's great that he stood up and kicked his drug habit also.
Yeah, but like all self-respecting rockstars he made sure it screwed him up first. Either that or he was already screwed up. Axl was on some radio show last night and was relating some stories. Apparently way back when Izzy had this big elaborate swing structure set up between some trees at his house, so he'd propell himself 20 feet in the air with this thing and start shooting things with his uzi and regularly smashing into the tree. Nutcase.

Oh ya Splat my guita quitartet is doing a arrangement fo Sweet Child o' Mine for the our upcoming commencement ceremony.
Awesome. Record it. :cool:

I thought for sure he was in VR, meh I was wrong.
You were very right to say you were wrong.

EightMilesHigh
05-06-2006, 09:10 PM
Izzy's a cool guy. I think he gets overlooked in favor of Slash, when they were both equally important members of the original GN'R lineup. Good stuff :)

periculosus
05-06-2006, 09:26 PM
i admire him much, i do think he was a really important part of the band. i have always been looking for some of his music as a solo artist but never got luck, so if you can send me the sample it will be greatly apreciated :thumb: pasguato@gmail.com

Riva
05-07-2006, 04:47 AM
Hey, Dave, can you add me to the list. I think you have my gmail.

Dave de Sylvia
06-29-2006, 11:32 PM
Oh man, I forgot all about this. Does anyone else want me to send some music out before I do? I'll send out a live show from 1992 which, while not containing all his best tracks, is a fantastic performances with great quality audio.

Jacaranda
06-30-2006, 12:39 AM
i'll take it although i know nothing about his solo career.

I'm Charming
06-30-2006, 02:31 AM
I'll take it too plz! roguewarheart at teh gmail

I've only heard G&R's Appitete album outta his work.

@ Jac, who's your avatar and is it male or female?

TojesDolan
06-30-2006, 03:03 AM
I'm not a particular fanatic of the drumming in GnR, but this triggered my interest in his solo carreer. Good times.

Dave de Sylvia
06-30-2006, 03:34 AM
He was the guitarist :-/

TojesDolan
06-30-2006, 03:49 AM
Oh crap.

Oh crap.

Oh well. That talks a lot about how much attention I put to GnR.

EDIT: No but really, interesting stuff.

<_<
>_>

*hides*

blue3
06-30-2006, 12:00 PM
Oh crap.

Oh crap.

Oh well. That talks a lot about how much attention I put to GnR.

EDIT: No but really, interesting stuff.

<_<
>_>

*hides*hahah..

I'd like to hear that live show too. mastrofpuppets1@hotmail.com

Kyle
06-30-2006, 04:20 PM
Nice write up, and here's me thinking his name was just Izzy Stradlin...

Izzy was always the coolest member of Guns N' Roses, he seems to have aged the most though.

blue3
06-30-2006, 09:27 PM
He aged much better than Axl.

Kyle
07-01-2006, 01:56 PM
Axl is looking great now, but a few years back I would have agreed with you.

blue3
07-02-2006, 03:13 AM
Not as great as Duff!

Riva
07-02-2006, 05:30 AM
I wonder how much surgery and makeup it took to get Axl looking good again though. :-/

Kyle
07-02-2006, 05:40 AM
Haha, even in his own thread, Izzy is becoming overshadowed by bigger personalities.

Dave de Sylvia
07-02-2006, 04:26 PM
I wonder how much surgery and makeup it took to get Axl looking good again though. :-/
I think he just had the botox, or to use the GNR community lingo: "he didn't have botox".

OK, this is going out in like half an hour, whenever the file finishes uploading. This is ****ing killer, it's all the bluesy stuff from his debut album and a few covers, from the Maytals to Bo Diddley and the Surfaris.

Kyle
07-02-2006, 04:52 PM
Kyle_libertine@hotmail.com

I never actually listened to his solo stuff. But you didn't hear that SOP!

Dave de Sylvia
07-02-2006, 04:56 PM
:eek:

1:36 to go!

Kyle
07-02-2006, 05:03 PM
Awesome, I'm going to bed now, so I'll pick it up in a few days. After Red hot Chili Peppers and Alice in Chains that is, I'm so f'in cool :cool:.

Dave de Sylvia
07-02-2006, 05:18 PM
I wanna see Alice In Chains :(

K, the album is sent. Enjoy it, for it rocks.

Riva
07-02-2006, 07:51 PM
I am downloading now, Dave.

blue3
07-03-2006, 03:08 AM
says 'download limit exceeded'.. I'll try again tomorrow.

Dave de Sylvia
07-06-2006, 02:48 AM
Has anyone had a chance to listen yet?