"Uh, it's not something, uh, that I want to get into at this point."

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I started. Had I had a momentary blackout from consciousness during which I'd impetuously grilled Izzy Stradlin as to the existence of a rap sheet?

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Gee, as I remember it, I merely inquired about band and member history pertaining to the guitarist's group Guns N' Roses which opens The Cult's convention centre show Wednesday.

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Nice try, kiddo. Go directly to the press kit. Do not cross interview subject, who's having trouble concentrating, what with all the people in his hotel room.

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Guns N' Roses is the newest and - according to its gleefully reproduced hype - most notoriously insolent hard rock band now available on factory-fresh vinyl.

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But with a bruising debut LP which admirably brandishes its blues roots and not-so-convincingly blathers on about sex and drinking, sex and rebellion, sex and sex, it seems there's little that's unique about Guns N' Roses. Nor is Stradlin about to convince me otherwise.

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Indeed, he revels in quintet's lack of flash.

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"People are fed up with a lot of things. This is a good release. It's refreshing to see something straightforward."

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With the exception of British-born lead guitarist, "Slash", they are urban Americans in their early '20s who met and practised on Sunset Strip in L.A. That's the experience that gives them the loud and raw musical muscle which hard rock afficionados from California to England are exalting.

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"You have to keep your wits living in L.A. It's why we are the way we are - survival tactics."

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Luckily for Stradlin and company, you don't have to be a good interview to make it in rock - an aggression-venting show is adequate raison d'etre. Apparently, they have that, to a degree that surprises even Stradlin.

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"The best show so far was ... in Montreal. The people were just great. To have that response from people who've never heard of us, the album has just come out, it's great."

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