West Arkeen
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Aaron West Arkeen (June 18, 1960 - May 30, 1997), better known as West Arkeen, was an American musician best-known for co-writing several Guns N' Roses songs, and was known unofficially as GN'R #6. He died on May 30, 1997 in Los Angeles of a drug overdose.
[edit] Biography
Arkeen was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France and grew up in San Diego, and started playing guitar at the age of 14. He was self-taught after having only a single guitar lesson. He spent hundreds of hours practicing with a metronome and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 21 to pursue a career in the music industry.
After several years of struggling, he had befriended a group of fellow musicians, later to be known as Guns N' Roses. Arkeen co-wrote "It's So Easy," "Crash Diet[[1]]," "Bad Obsession," "The Garden" and "Yesterdays" for Guns N' Roses and also penned "Make Your Play" and "Pressure" for Brother Cane.
After working on other songs with the band for their double set 'Use Your Illusion I & II', Arkeen started his own project in 1995, The Outpatience, with vocalist Mike Shotton, bassist James Hunting, guitarist Joey Hunting, drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. and keyboardist Gregg Buchwalter. The band released their debut album, Anxious Disease (1996), in Japan and were shopping the record to labels in the States. The album boast strong GN'R connections: Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan appear as guests (Rose sings backup on the title track), and former GN'R member Izzy Stradlin co-wrote one of the songs.
Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan are most closely associated with Arkeen. The trio played in the The Drunkfuxs side project together; and Arkeen co-wrote two of the songs on McKagan's solo record, Believe In Me as well as playing bass on Stradlin's Ju Ju Hounds CD, Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds.
[edit] Death
On May 30, 1997, West was found dead in his Los Angeles home. His management company said that Arkeen had been at home recovering from severe burns, and that his death was the result of an "accidental opiate overdose." West had returned to his home from a hospital intensive care unit where he was being treated for burns over much of his body after his indoor barbecue exploded 11 days before his death.
The Guns N' Roses record Live Era: '87-'93 was dedicated, in part, to his memory.
