"half of the excitement"??

[Kuroneko]

Hi,
please help me understanding the meaning below:

"Guns was a band that might break apart at any second; that was half of the exciement."

This was written by Slash, the former guitarist of Guns n Roses.
"Guns" above means the band "Guns n Roses."

I understand the first part, but I'm coufused about "that was half of the excitement" part.
I'm sure that breaking the band apart was not an exciting thing for the author, so...

Does this mean,
1) Since the band could break up at any moment, I couldn't fully enjoy our success. That state of the band decreased the joy of our success.

2) Even though the band could break up at any moment, there were lots more things going on, so the fact that the band could break up at any moment was only a half of the probrem.

Or does this mean in any other way?


Thank you in advance...:roll:

 

[emsr2d2]

I think he means that it was an exciting time because neither the band members nor the fans knew what might happen next. You could say that it's perhaps a slightly sarcastic use of the word "excitement", but I understand what he means.
If it was possible that the band might have broken up at any time then that gave everything they did an extra edge of excitement. Would this be the last ever song? The last ever album? Who knows? It was impossible to tell, and not knowing makes life more exciting! The other half of the excitement, no doubt, simply came from being in a very successful band!

If you're walking on the side of an active volcano, someone might say "Do you realise that this volcano could erupt at any moment?" If you're a thrill-seeker and you like being a little frightened, you might say "Yes, I know. That's half the excitement!"