Before Guns N’ Roses was signed, Axl Rose made a promise to Dizzy Reed—and he kept it.

Axl Rose made a promise to keyboardist Dizzy Reed before Guns N’ Roses was signed — and he ultimately kept it.

In 1990, Reed, who was struggling financially at the time, received a call from Rose offering him a spot in the band. The story, however, goes back further. Reed recently appeared on Let There Be Talk, where he shared how he was first approached to join the band years before they signed with Geffen Records.

“I met Del [James, Guns N’ Roses’ longtime friend and tour manager], Axl, and the whole band around 1985,” Reed recalled.

Shortly after, Rose heard Reed playing piano and was impressed by his style.

“The initial conversation about me joining GN’R happened before the band got signed, around 1985,” Reed said. “I was playing ‘Bad Company’ on my piano, and he said, ‘We’re going to add a keyboard player one day, and it’s going to be you.’ That was basically the conversation.”

Reed noted that promises like this are often made in Hollywood but rarely kept. He expressed gratitude for Rose following through and admitted he’s unsure where he would have ended up if the call hadn’t come.

“Over the years, I would see the guys coming through town, getting bigger, wearing nicer clothes, driving nicer cars, doing cooler things,” Reed remembered. “I thought, ‘Wow, they’re really huge now… He’s probably not going to call me.’”

Eventually, Rose tracked down Reed and called him: “We’re going to record ‘Civil War.’ We need you in the studio.”

After that, Reed contributed to Civil War, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, the Use Your Illusion albums, and some tracks from the 1993 covers album The Spaghetti Incident?.