Meet Geffen A&R Dude Tom Zutaut!

He’s the guy who signed Guns N’ Roses way back when. Our friend Joe Pisapia posted this video on Facebook along with a nostalgic story about the first time he heard the band, which is a nice story. For my part, I learned about the band through MTV too, and while I liked the hits and was happy to hear them, I was older than Joe and to me they represented an image-conscious commercialism that was a turn off. In this segment of what is a larger video, Zutaut tells the story about signing the band and the problems with breaking them as stars, a segment notable for not having any GNR music, and for Zutaut’s voice, which expresses something about the rock life in its tone that goes far beyond the actual words.

As for his final question, I have two words: Hans Condor.

9 thoughts on “Meet Geffen A&R Dude Tom Zutaut!

  1. I’m pretty sure my copy of “Appetite” was in those first 200,000. It and The Cult’s “Electric” had come out at roughly the same time, as odd throwbacks to the ’70s hard rock sound that no one had done for quite a while. (They’re probably two of my first 10 CDs, when CDs were a new and exciting medium, sold in those giant cardboard boxes, and digital was all the rage.)

    I liked the G’n’R but much preferred “Electric.” The Cult was more straight-forward (this was Rick Rubin’s prime), contained no ballads and, honestly, Axl Rose’s cat vocals got on my nerves after a while. As well, G’n’R still contained elements of hair metal, my all-time nemesis.

    I don’t know when this video is from, but Zutaut is so up his ass when he says there’s been no good hard rock since. He reminds me of that idiot metal/hard rock “expert” Eddie Trunk and his crew of like-minded dopes, who’ve ignored so much great hard rock over the years in favor of flat-out shit.

    Tell him to come talk to me. I can point him in the right direction.

  2. Appetite had three good songs on it, the hits, and of those only Paradise City really gets me going. To me it is telling that GnR’s best album no contest was their album of covers. They have their place, workaday hard rock is nothing to be ashamed of and at least early on they sound like they’re trying. Beyond that they were just in the right place at the right time. They’re a better version of Aerosmith; a poor man’s Humble Pie. Next up: the sociological implications of Nazareth.

  3. Fuck you guys, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. Dedicated to Johnny Menna, almost fully recovered from his broken kneecap. Johnny’s fave is the baddest singing motherfucker who ever lived:

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