staunch ally jack welch. and new york city's domestic diva, martha stewart. >> you do not want to char your food. >> i like blackened food. keeping america's food great. ♪ >> welcome to the jungle. the legds dare slash from his wild days and nights at guns n roses. prime time exclusive. this is piers morgan tonight. good evening, our big story tonight, the bain up politics, look admit romney blasting president on private equity. >> it's no wonder so many of his own supporters are asking him to wage this war on job creators. make no mistake, you won't get up every day and wonder if the president is on your side. >> no surprise, but there was a big applause line for the business people in the audience. governor romney also spoke out to "time" magazine that his policies would bring the unemployment rate down to 6% in four years. the man who can tell us if that's achievable. all the raging stories in the world of business and politics right now, jack welsh. how are you? >> great, it's great to be here. >> i'm very excited you're here. from lots of people i would say are less qualified pontificating on all the issues. this started the bain capital furor, i think it's a really significant one, is the clear dividing line, it was never going to be about gay marriage, this election, it was always going to be about the economy. and now you have the dividing line. president obama says that mitt romn romney's record at bain was destructive, it cost jobs, it was profit profit'reing, and mi romney says no u i turned jobs around. i'm proud of it. your wife worked at bain, you're a romney supporter now, you said that on this show. but tell me about the argument over private equity. >> i have worked in private equity for the last 12 years also. let me just say this, if i were romney, i would say bring it on, mr. president, i got three things i want to talk to you about, regarding private equity. one is private equity companies don't buy jewels. they buy broken businesses, or often businesses that big companies don't want. so what do they have to do? they have to deal with the balance sheet, which is often a mess. and they have to deal with the strategy of the broken business. so that's number one. after going in and dealing with those tough problems, what has america got the problem with right now, a strategy and a balance sheet. great experience. he's done it with hundreds of companies. >> has he always done the right thing for those companies? >> maybe not, maybe 20% that they say haven't worked out. but you're taking broken companies, take the steel company that they like to advertise about now, that steel company would never have gone ten years in the 1990s without an investment to keep it going. this was a dead business. >> what about joe biden's claim that just because you can run a company like bain, it doesn't make you any more fit than a plumber to run the presidency. >> that's an outrageous comment, but he doesn't like plumbers, that's a different argument. let's make the second point along with strategy and balance sheet. >> it doesn't mean -- >> let's go tool lent. let's go to talent. when you take over a broken company, you've got to put talent in. what does the president have to do in office? he's got to put talent in. he won't have a secretary of energy like we have now that doesn't have any idea about business or how to drill and get things. all he wants to do is raise the price of gasoline. he'll put talent in these jobs. so you'll staff better. >> i hear what you say. >> i want you to hear what i say. >> i hear it loud and clear. but here's part of the problem that i think the republicans have, many people blame the policies that were conducted by republicans for eight years, or the financial crisis that engulfed america and the world. how does mitt romney distance himself from what happened before? because you can't blame obama for all that. >> he talks about his qualifications. i just gave you a strategy, balance sheet and talent. and what does a private equity company do when it buys these companies, it globalizes them. so he's been dealing with governments, he's been dealing with the nuts and bolts of running a company globalably. they ought to be talking about these great characteristics that will be a leader. >> what is the problem they are with perception, that wall street has fueled a lot of the greed and naked capitalism at its worst which brought america to its knees. >> he didn't have any association with that. that's just ridiculous. he ought to talk about his qualifications and private equity gives him incredible breadth of qualifications, along with being governor of a state and other things. i mean without questions, the idea of being embarrassed because you're in private equity, is the silliest argument in the world. >> be honest, jack. >> when am i not honest. >> on this particular question that i'm going to ask you, when people criticize mitt romney over the approach he takes, when he uses bain as job creation. that's not why any company buys a company. they don't buy it to create jobs, they biuy it to turn it around and make a profit. >> that's correct. i think the job creation was not the smartsest case to make. >> but creating jobs that last, durable jobs that's what he does. i have been involved with him over 12 years now, we have not had a busted company. we have taken broken companies and taken them forward and they're now flourishing. you don't create skads of jobs, but you create good paying jobs in a continuing industry. >> do you think this will be the key battleground, the ideological dispute we're now seeing over this? >> if it is, romney ought to wipe it out. when you look at those things i gave you for the qualifications, compare it to someone who was handing out leaf lets as a community organizer, then global experience of doing all this, piers, it's not even close. >> again, i come back to the problem with mitt romney and perception. for whatever reason, the public look at him in america and they see a very wealthy guy, they see him as kind of a corporate fat cat, for want of a better phrase. a lot of it -- some of his own gaffs and things that he had. they're like, well, okay, this is all very well, he's a very rich guy, who made himself very rich building this company. that's not what we want from the president. what we want from the president is to help us get jobs, not for him to get even richer. >> that's what private equity does, it creates jobs in companies that would have gone under. these companies, you don't get a great jewel and invest in it. you get a broken company, you invest in it and you make it alive. you take a dead carcass and put oxygen into it and keep it alive. that's what private equity does, is it a big job creator? no, but does it keep jobs, piers, yes? >> this is something i did with howard shulsz from starbucks. a very interesting concept he came in which i want to ask you. >> i don't believe you can sustain a singular enterprise just on profit. it's a shallow goal, i don't think you can endure, i don't think you can attract great, great people. i think the best part of business is frying to create the balance between profitability and a social conscience. >> i find that really fascinating. he called it moral capitalism. and to illustrate it, he's opening in georgia, we could source it out. there's no comparison when him and apple because he does coffee. he must produce more cups i would imagine than anybody in the world. so again, the argument applies equally to a lot of american companies, when he talks about moral capitalism, what is your instinctively reaction to that? >> i like what he says because guess who he stands with, he stands with starbucks, a highly successful, profitable company. you can't do the moral thing from a broken wagon. you can't do it so. the idea of not having successful highly profitable companies who can give back -- when i retired from ge, we had 50,000 of our employees measuring stushts in the inner city, all those things. we could do that. do you think general motors could have done that at that time? not that they weren't just as good a people as we were, they were broke. so you want your company to be profitable. so you can give back. you can't give back from an empty wagon. >> what about the concept which i have pushed a lot and some businessmen freak out when i say it, about companies like apple who outsource a lot of their work now to places like china, deliberately bringing it back at a financial cost to them short-term, but actually for the benefit of america as a country. >> you want apple to be as successful as they can be, then apple can take those resources it gets and pay it out as it sees fit. it can pay taxes, it can donate to great charities. when i ran united ways for years. when i went around to busted companies and knocked on their door for money, the ceo would say, i'm sorry, i can't help you out this year, come back next year. when i went to companies that were winning, that's why winning is good. >> okay, let's talk about winning, facebook has launched to huge hysteria and taken a huge fall. mark zuckerberg in a prearranged deal made a billion dollars charactering in some shares. there are issues about morgan stanley and their role in all this. what is your opinion of the whole ipo launch of facebook this week? >> ugly. it turned out that greed overtook rational behavior. and they had it priced right, it looks like, and they had the right amount of stock being put out, it los angeles like, the way the stock has leveled out today, it looks like that was right. and what happened was at the last minute, they jumped in and went for too much stock at too high a price. and because of that, there's a black eye all over it. >> which leads me to the situation at jpmorgan, massive losses there, we don't know quite how big. again, you talked about leadership, the leader of jpmorgan, what has gone wrong there, how after everything that we have been through in the last three years, could a company make that kind of loss without a pardony. >> how did the gsa guys go to hawaii and have themselves a party? why didn't barack obama stop that right away? barack obama dealt with it once he learned of it. >> how has jamie -- >> how now he's got to shift his emphasis from all the people trying to capitalize on regulation, to call him this week in reuters. his challenge now is to gal vennize the personal people. >> hasn't there got to be some federal regulation? >> of course there has to be some. >> he's been pretty vocal about the particular regulation which ironly would have probably stopped -- >> typically i would say no, that's not the regulations that would stop this. >> if you're an average american watching this and they're saying how can a company lose over $2 billion, maybe $3 billion. >> of its own money. >> and be put down as a mistake. >> of its own money. they're going to make several billion dollars this quarter. the stakes occur all over the world every day. >> does it help the american financial system, for jpmorgan to take a huge loss. >> a smaller bank, they could have gone under with a hit like that. they were lucky that their balance sheet was so level in profit. >> because they're a very strong company. >> but they still made this catastrophic mistake. >> catastrophic would be that they made a large mistake, they handled it well to now and they're getting people on board. >> the confidence that needs to be restored to the american financial system. >> to do everything perfectly. >> but not make such massive attempts through what appears to be a naked attempt to just make a fast buck. >> we don't know that. >> what do you suspect was going on? >> i don't actually know enough to comment on that. but i do know they came clean right away, they have been very forth right about it and they're going to make mistakes, the challenge for jamie dimon is, you're knocked off the horse, how do you get back on again? and get on -- >> is he right to do that? >> absolutely. >> finally what is the state of the american economy right now, should people be feeling generally more confident? >> it's good, it's not great, we're not going to grow in the 2% to 3% range over the next quarter. >> but a lot better than three years ago? >> a lot better than three years ago. >> so obama has done a good job? do you give him credit for that? >> it's the weakest recovery we have ever had. >> what do you give him credit for in terms of the economy? >> that's a tough one for me. that's a tough one. >> i tell you what, come back another time when you have thought of an answer. >> i will. >> jack, as always, great to have you you. jash welsh from the management understand tuts. next a man with an appetite for destruction. my prime time interview with the immortal slash music mayhem axl rose. let's ring you up. mary? what are you doing here? it's megan. i'm getting new insurance. marjorie, you've had a policy with us for three years. it's been five years. five years. well, progressive gives megan discounts that you guys didn't. paperless, safe driver, and i get great service. meredith, what's shakin', bacon? they'll figure it out. getting you the discounts you deserve. now, that's progressive. call or click today. why you fell in love with her in the first place. and why you still feel the same. but your erectile dysfunction -- that could be a question of blood flow. cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial. superstar slash in downtown new york last night. the guitarist from guns n roses. he's battled addiction and even axl rose. he now joins me for prime exclusive. welcome, slash. >> hi. >> people don't know this, copenhagen, early '90s, guns n roses at the height of their power. we had an interview together. and you said would you like a jack daniels. i tasted the jack daniels and 12 hours later, you and i were in some god foresaken hell hole hotel still drinking jack daniels. and you walked into the sunset wearing my favorite jacket, which i never got back. i thought it was a price worth paying. >> it was blue, it fitted me, it was everything that i wanted in a jacket. but you just took it. you probably have 1,000 jackets. it was -- i have said this many times on this show. it was the single greatest rock performance i have ever seen. by anybody. it was just incredible. secondly, it was one of the most outrageous spectacles, the whole 24 hours i have ever been party to. fighting at press conferences, drunk rampaging, everything i thought rock music could be about. thirdly the interview, when i played it back, was one of the most lucid, smart, intelligent interviews that i have ever done. >> as much partying that went on in those days, i always tried to be somewhat intelligent when it came to having a discussion with somebody or an interview or whatever. i did my best, i had my moments, but there were times i was really out to lunch. >> when i reinterviewed you for "gq" magazine a couple of years ago, you had come through the whole process, the whole rock 'n roll destruct tiff process. and you come out the other end, apparently with no damage. do you feel lucky? >> i was very fortunate. because the kind of addiction that i had was something that -- it was a long-term kind of a thing and getting out of that is really a struggle for a lot of people. and some people don't make it out of it. so i was very fortunate that i could finally get it together and prioritize and come out the other end in one piece, so to speak. >> we're going to discuss the new album, the new slash album. but i can't not discuss guns n and roses. i know that you sort of hailed, although it was fantastic and you sold millions of records and it was so iconic, because of the way it ended, you don't want to sit here banging on about axl rose for the rest of your life, do you? >> no. yeah, it's a lot of attention put on a lot of negative stuff and granted the negative stuff existed and might still exist or whatever. but dwelling on that stuff, all things considered, i left the band in 1996, so we're talking a pretty long amount of time that i have -- >> when was the last time you spoke to him? >> 1996. >> do you remember the last words? can you repeat them? >> it wasn't like that. the last word, basically it was just that "i'm done". >> who said that, "i'm done"? >> and wasn't necessarily me leaving the band, it was not continuing on with the new band that axle pctio axl put togethe was now at the helm of. i was given a contract to basically join his new band and it took about 24 hours before i decided, i think this is the end of the line. >> what is the single biggest offer you have had to put it all behind you and get back on a stage with each other? >> i have never been handed a specific offer. but, you know, it's -- >> seven figures, eight figures? >> i would say it starts off with seven figures, and then sometimes, it starts to get even more grandiose than that. >> is there any check that would tempt you? >> i don't think it's a matter of that, it really isn't. i think you have got a situation where nobody involved wants to revisit -- it's not just me, it's the whole, you know, the whole band. and so i don't think there's a price tag that anybody's going to put in front of us that's going to make that work, you know? >> i want to come back and i want to talk to you about what has been the greatest moment for you on a stage. you once hinted that it was a night in argentina. with 250,000 people, thunderstorm, i wonder if that's still the moment. after the break. dude you don't understand, this is my dad's car. look at the car! my dad's gonna kill me dude... [ male announcer ] the security of a 2012 iihs top safety pick. the volkswagen passat. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 passat for $209 a month. (female announcer) most life insurance companies look at you and just see a policy. at aviva, we do things differently. we're bringing humanity back to life insurance. that's why only aviva rewards you with savings for getting a check-up. it's our wellness for life program, with online access to mayo clinic. see the difference at avivausa.com. is important to any successful business. which is why at wells fargo, we work with you to get to know the unique aspects of your business. we can recommend financial solutions that can work for you that have helped millions of business owners save time, reduce expenses, and maximize cash flow. as the number one small business lender for nine years running... we're with you when you need us. so you can be there for your customers. wells fargo. together we'll go far. you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wanted a firm bed you can lie on one of those. if you want a soft bed you can lie on one of those." we provide the exact individualization th