DJ Yella Recalls N.W.A. Mistakenly Turning Down Guns N’ Roses Tour

DJ Yella rarely speaks these days. The founding member of N.W.A. (who was also in World Class Wreckin’ Cru with Dr. Dre prior) has left music and found success in the XXX industry as a porn director. A comrade of Eazy-E’s till the tragic 1995 end of E’s life, Yella spoke recently with the Prezident Bejda on the Murder Master Music Show.

Yella was asked about Eazy’s partner Jerry Heller. The Compton DJ/producer had kind things to say about Ice Cube’s early ’90s nemesis, but revealed that N.W.A. mistakenly turned down a dream offer. The clique of Eazy, Dre, MC Ren and Yella (Ice Cube had already left in 1990-1991) were offered a heap of money to open for one of Rock’s biggest acts of the MTV generation.

“We were supposed to do shows with Guns N’ Roses and they were gonna give us $25,000 for five minutes of work. [Jerry Heller] turned them down and wanted too much—he wanted $50,000. If the tour would have happened, Dre might not have left. Stuff started getting funny and that is when everything started going haywire. It was crazy when he left at first but it was the best thing he done, Cube too! Guns N’ Roses wasn’t doing Rap shows in little sports arenas or amphitheaters they were doing coliseums with 100,000 people. That would have boosted N.W.A. up way bigger than what it already was! […] That was almost the nail in the coffin!”

In the end, Dre left. Yella stayed on to work closely with Ren and Eazy (as well as Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, H.W.A., and Yomo & Maulkie (who would both go on to assist Cube’s Da Lench Mob, and release the original “Fo’ Tha Love Of $.”)

Check out the full audio interview, which discusses Eazy’s death, conspiracies, and the state of Ruthless Records. All of Prez’s shows are strictly dope.

Anything to have kept N.W.A. together/at peace would have been dope.

Related: The Album Heard ‘Round the World: N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton Turns 25-years Old