The musician who was “Yoko Ono” from Guns N’ Roses, according to Matt Sorum

It is up for debate whether the label is fair or not, but due to what happened with the Beatlesthe name of Yoko Ono came to be understood as a synonym for “someone who destroys bands”. And this curious title has already been given to a person who would have been responsible for bringing the Guns N’ Roses in the classical period, in the mid-1990s.

Just like in the case of Liverpool’s Fab Four, it’s not fair to blame just one individual for the GN’R musicians’ breakup. For a series of reasons, the group had been worn out for a long time and had lost two members — the drummer Steve Adlerin 1990, and the guitarist Izzy Stradlinthe following year — until the definitive implosion.

Months after the conclusion of the grueling publicity tour for Use Your Illusionin 1993, the group released an album of covers that had been recorded for three years: The Spaghetti Incident?. It was the first and only work recorded with the guitarist Gilby Clarkewho replaced Stradlin. His contract expired in 1995 and was not renewed. To his place, the vocalist Axl Rose brought a childhood friend, Paul “Huge” Tobias — who ended up credited as Yoko Ono from Guns N’ Roses.

But before that, in October 1994, Tobias was already involved with GN’R. While Clarke was away to promote his inaugural solo album — Pawnshop Guitars, on which all band members participated — the group was rounded out by Rose, the guitarist Slashthe bassist Duff McKaganthe drummer Matt Sorum and the keyboardist Dizzy Reed teamed up with “Huge” to record a cover of “Sympathy for the Devil”classic of Rolling Stones. The reinterpretation would be used in the film’s soundtrack. Interview with the Vampirereleased the following month.

Slash, in particular, was already in conflict with Rose not only because he disagreed with Clarke’s dismissal, but also because several of his compositions had been rejected by the singer. This material ended up being used by the guitarist in It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere (1995), the project’s first album Slash’s Snakepit.

However, the relationship soured once and for all during the “Sympathy for the Devil”. The iconic musician with the top hat did not get along with Paul Tobias. In his 2007 autobiography, Slash says the recording has “the sound of a band breaking up.”

In a 2002 interview with Classic Rock (via Far Out), Duff McKagan offers more details:

“The song was going in a direction that was completely permissive for Axl’s friend [Huge]. Also, Axl just brought him in and told us, ‘this is our new guitarist.’ There was no democracy there. That’s when Slash really started saying, ‘What the f#ck, is this his band now?’. It was ridiculous. I went to the studio to start rehearsals at 10 at night and Axl showed up at 4 or 5 in the morning. This kind of thing happened a few years ago.”

More directly, Matt Sorum defined his colleague as follows in a 2001 interview with Q Magazine:

“Ahh, I like to call him ‘Yoko Ono from Guns N’ Roses’ [risos]. The guy who broke up the band. You [entrevistador] He’s the first guy who made me say that. So I guess Axl’s lawyers will get back to you. [risos]”

The departures of Guns N’ Roses

Paul “Huge” Tobias had a strange bond in Guns N’ Roses. It was inside and outside at the same time. In 1995, the band even auditioned to have Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society etc) as second guitarist, but the musician himself says in later interviews that the situation cooled down, as nothing happened in the group.

In the end, Tobias stayed. This earned Slash an ultimatum to Axl Rose. In 1996, the guitarist told the vocalist: “either him, or me”. Incredible as it may seem, the musician with the top hat lost the arm wrestle. His departure was made official in October of the year mentioned, with his vacancy occupied by Robin Finck (Nine Inch Nails).

Who had recommended Finck? Interestingly, Matt Sorum — not to replace Slash but as a second guitarist. And it wasn’t long until the drummer came out; or better yet, be fired. The reason? A discussion with Rose about… Paul Tobias. In a 2001 interview with Lawrence Journal-WorldSorum said:

“In [abril de] 1997, I got into an argument with Axl about the state of the band. He brought in another guitarist, Paul Huge, and none of us really wanted to play with him. Axl really wanted him in the band, but we didn’t really want to play with the guy.”

Faced with such dismantling, Duff McKagan left his position as bassist for Guns N’ Roses in August 1997. The musician had become a father and was upset with the way the band operated at that time. In his autobiography he states:

“Guns had been paying studio rent for three years — from 1994 to 1997 — and still didn’t have a single song. The whole operation was so erratic that it didn’t seem to fit with my hopes for fatherhood and stability.”

Sorum’s post was immediately occupied by Josh Freesemultiband drummer who is now part of Foo Fighters. In turn, McKagan had his place taken over by Tommy Stinsonmember of The Replacements. Only Axl Rose and Dizzy Reed remained from the classic period — and until 2016, when Slash and Duff returned, the lineup went through several changes.

Axl Rose on Paul Tobias

To this day, we do not have Paul Tobias’s version of the events of the mid-1990s. The guitarist remained in the band only until 2002, a year after his re-debut on the big stages with a show at Rock in Rio. Whether during this period or later, he did not grant interviews. He disappeared from the music industry, although he received credits for compositions released by Guns N’ Roses — including the “recent” ones. “Hard Skool” and “Perhaps”dating from the turn of the century, but made available respectively in 2021 and 2023.

However, Axl Rose — another one who practically doesn’t give interviews — made a rare public statement in 2002 to talk about his childhood friend. The speech is present in the press release of a tour that year, already under the name of Chinese Democracyan album that would only be released in 2008.

In the statement, Rose explains that she brought Tobias to GN’R with the intention of helping the band in the studio. He says:

“The audience got a different story than the other guys — Slash, Duff, Matt — who have their own goals. The original intentions between Paul and I were that Paul would help me for as long as it took to resolve everything, in whatever capacity he could help me. So when he was first brought into it, he was brought in as a songwriter, to work with Slash. At the time, these guys never suggested a name. Never.”

Still in the text, Axl said he had looked for other guitarist options to work with Slash. However, none of them worked.

“Paul was one of the best people we knew who were available and able to complement Slash’s style. You could bring in a better guitarist than Paul. Could bring a monster. I tried putting Zakk Wylde with Slash and that didn’t work. This brought out some interesting things in Slash, but it was a different approach that ended up being overwhelming and didn’t bring out the best in Slash. It brought some interesting stuff and it would have worked to make some songs. But Paul was only interested in complementing Slash, laying down a foundation of a riff or something. This would accentuate or encourage Slash’s leadership.”

Finally, Rose pointed out that Tobias was not a member of Guns N’ Roses at that time. It was also unclear whether he would participate in other recordings.

“Now, whether Paul would officially be on the album or tour was really not a real consideration at the time. It was up in the air as a possibility, but Paul was a friend trying to help us and he had a great deal of respect for Slash. He is a good man and that is the reality behind things. This doesn’t change what happened with the old Guns. I feel like some of the recordings we made in that limited period of time had some of the best playing Slash has done, at least since the Illusion. I was there. I know what I heard and it was very moving.”

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