Former GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist GILBY CLARKE has announced that shows previously scheduled in Bolivia and Paraguay for his upcoming South American tour, have been canceled. Clarke’s South American tour itinerary is now as follows:

December
7 - El Teatro - Buenos Aires, Argentina
8 - Peteco's - Buenos Aires, Argentina
9 - Teatro Willie Dixon - Rosario, Argentina
10 - Manifesto Rock Bar - Sau Paulo, Brazil
11 - Rock Y Guitarras - Saniago, Chile
12 - Club El Huevo - Valparaiso, Chile
13 - Whisky Bar - Concepcion, Chile

“I’m just happy to be standing upright. It was a hard, hard experience,” says former GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist GILBY CLARKE when asked about his motorcycle accident that occurred earlier this year in January. As Clarke was riding through an intersection in Los Angeles, CA, a pick up truck made an illegal left turn and collided with the six-stringer, leaving him with three broken bones in his left foot/ankle and a broken bone in his right foot. “In the back of my mind, I’ve always known that’s a possibility. I go into every intersection thinking oh, watch it. But what actually happens, you don’t really know if you’re going to live or die? Not to get too deep but man, when I hit that friggin’ truck, I seriously thought I was going to die! It was that hard. When I was on the ground, I was happy that I only had a broken leg. But I’m getting around, I’m getting my life back together as far as being able to do what I was doing before.”

In a cowardly act, the driver of the pick up truck failed to remain and fled the scene. According to Gilby, “They haven’t caught him. We actually know who did it though, strangely enough. A friend of mine was at a party and he overheard a guy tell a friend of his about the accident – ‘Yeah, I hit some guy. My driver’s licence is suspended. I don’t have insurance. I was with an underage girl - blah, blah, blah.’ So my friend goes, ‘Dude! I know who you fucking hit! That’s not cool; apologize.’ He says, ‘Fuck him!’ With all the shit that went down, he’s actually in jail right now on a robbery charge – he’s a bad guy.”

After a pair of operations and months of recovery, Gilby is back on the road, having recently played three shows in Ontario, Canada. Up next is a trek through Argentina, Brazil and Chile. “I’m going to do a South American run in December. I did some shows in Texas and the Mid-West in June. This is more or less trying to get my sea legs back basically, there’s no real purpose to it right now.”

The aforementioned Canadian shows marked the premiere of Gilby’s new band, consisting of Sean Kelly – who plays guitar for CRASH KELLY and NELLY FURTADO – on bass, and Dave Langguth, also of Nelly Furtado, on drums. Gilby’s association with Sean goes back several years as he’s produced, recorded and mixed the last two Crash Kelly albums, One More Heart Attack and Electric Satisfaction. “Yes, that’s very exciting. When these dates came up, I actually thought I’d have my regular band, but they’re not available because I’m not working that much; they’ve got other gigs and stuff. So I called Sean and even before I could ask him if he would consider playing bass, he says, ‘You know I play bass.’ So it worked out. He told me about Dave and I went on YouTube – he’s a great drummer. You know what’s nice about it – and this is a perfect word for it – it’s inspiring. It’s a total different feel to what my normal band does, but it’s a different feel in a good way. It re-energizes me. They both get such a great groove on. Sean’s such a great musician. The way he plays bass is like a guitar player, there’s no doubt about it. But he’s not going crazy, he’s doing what he should be doing.”

With four solo albums under his belt, the most recent being 2002’s Swag, will Gilby release a new album next year? “You know you ask me that question every year and I say yeah, next year. I really hope so. It’s not a matter of being lazy; it’s just a matter of doing something good. Every time I’ve gone to work on some songs, it’s just not there. I don’t want to do something that’s shitty. I really do need to do one, I honestly do. As a musician, we need to mark our periods of time.”