Season 3 #2 Tracii Guns

This episode is something of a departure - how often do you hear a happiness researcher in conversation with a heavy metal icon? Not often enough, we decided. So today’s guest is the man who put the gun in Guns ‘n Roses and LA Guns. He’s had 10 studio albums with LA Guns, two with Brides of Destruction, he’s worked with them all – oh, and he used to play golf with Eddie Van Halen. His music has been described as sounding like ‘the score to some pagan ceremony, or maybe the music they play on the elevator that takes you down to hell’ and he has, he says, always been ‘attracted to the darkness’.
 
Here, we talk about:
how Guns ‘n Roses came about
the joys of sex, pizza, rock and roll
being an 80s glam metal survivor
experiencing the ‘Hollow Ghost’
agoraphobia and expectations
living Danishly
what a good life looks like, now

Follow Tracii on Twitter and Instagram @traciiguns
Follow Helen on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook @MsHelenRussell
Read more about Helen’s new book, How To Be Sad (Waterstones , Amazon UK or anywhere you like to buy books)
Get in touch with the show at howtobesadpodcast@gmail.com
And as ever, BIG thanks to Joel Grove for production and to Matt Clacher at HarperCollins for making this podcast happen.