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DJ Ashba: Axl Rose Wanted Me To Be A Part Of Guns N' Roses Reunion


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1 hour ago, SWINGTRADER said:

The fact that Axl asked him to stay, shows that this thing is only temporary and that Slash will be gone from the band again. As far as Axl is concerned this is still NUGNR. It is great to see Slash and Duff on stage under the GNR name again, but this is still Axl's band. The guys have no input except for what was agreed to in the contract. That is why they will never record together again.

I thought it said he asked him to be a part of it which could mean many things. It could mean guest appearances, only a few songs from CD or anything. 

I try to look at it as Axl not being a douche and actually not firing those who have been with him for years. I think it shows Axls character and his respect for those who have been with him. Again he said a part in which is very choice words. 

Many may not agree and frankly that's fine but Axl does own the band name he has also carried this band for the last 25 years. Do I think some is his fault absolutely but it doesn't change the fact. 

This also proves that Axl didn't do this because he lost his band members. 

Some are taking it like DJ is acting high and mighty but I think he was respectful and even said he had no place there. As a fan he was happy Slash was back and threw some respect to Axl for not just firing him.

It's like a job you wouldn't want your boss to suddenly replace you after years of dedication through thick and thin. You'd hope they would find some position or to keep your position. I imagine it wasn't easy for Axl to tell these guys he was reuniting with some of the classic lineup. Irregardless of the fact I like Slash more I think it was honorable on both ends.

As far as new music I think it's gonna depend on how things go but I'm hoping we get to see some of Axls vault with the rest adding their parts.

I'm reminded that years ago there was a particular song that Axl had in mind for Slash and I think it was said he had offered Slash to work on it but it fell through somehow. Does anyone remember which song that was?

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5 hours ago, madison said:

Apparently, they ridiculously believe that when Ron and Tommy left, Axl went around wondering - 'Gee, who could I get to replace these two replacement members now. Hmmm, maybe Slash and Duff are available - I think I'll ask them."

But isn't that what happened with Duff? Tommy went and did his own thing with the Replacements and they needed someone to fill in an called Duff to see if he would do it?

(Apparently Duff then seized the advantage during that stretch of time and knock-knock joked his way back into Axl's heart, potentially leading us to this thing we have going on now. So thank you Tommy for splitting your attention to other things and not prioritizing GNR).

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9 hours ago, Free Bird said:

Axl: "DJ you can stay but you won't play any leads anymore"

DJ: "Axl c'mon, can't I just do the leads on Patience?"

Axl: :wow::question::wacko: "Get da fuck outta here!!!"

DJ:"Axl wanted me to be part of this reunion"

hahahaha I love this! yeah that's one way DJ could spin it :P

 

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7 hours ago, madison said:

Agreed. I find it amusing when some people claim that Slash and Duff were just "replacing" guys who left - nothing more.  Apparently, they ridiculously believe that when Ron and Tommy left, Axl went around wondering - 'Gee, who could I get to replace these two replacement members now. Hmmm, maybe Slash and Duff are available - I think I'll ask them."   This always makes me LOL. 

As Asia pointed out in this post, clearly it was a huge milestone when Axl mended fences with Slash and Duff. And once that happened, replacement members had to be booted out to make room for them. And since talks date back several years, I'm guessing Ron and Tommy knew this was in the works, which is why they respectfully left. I love Ron, btw, because he's always cared about the fans. 

As for DJ - he hung around as long as he could, but he too knew this was a reunion of the original lineup. I totally believe him though that Axl offered him a spot to stay. (Remember, Axl is the guy who brought in Paul back in the day).  But DJ knew the difference between the "real" GNR and the replacement one, and respected what the fans wanted.  I tip my hat to DJ. He's a class act. It's a shame other replacement members didn't do the same. 

 

They were since this band is GNR reforming not reuniting. Do some research sweetheart. It's literally what axl has always done, otherwise he would have cleaned house. Duff replaced tommy and due to axl making up with slash and needing another guitar player, knowing how much GNR would increase as a brand, slash came back. Dj clearly caught wind and did the classy thing by leaving. Axl would never have fired him. 

Edited by Billsfan
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6 hours ago, Original said:

Wonder if DJ is full of shit?   Maybe some revisionist history going on in Ashba's head.   That or Axl asked him to stay with him n Duff etc....before Slash was back in picture.  That or maybe all the drugs have fried DJ's brain.   

I can't see him saying anything untrue, as Axl will take him down publicly. Maybe Axl's idea was Slash comes back for Ron to play old GNR songs and Dj play Chi dem and TIL solo. But Slash would never let it happen. Dj is right once Slash is back there's no need for him and Slash is more likely to do the record. 

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6 hours ago, BOSSY78 said:

I thought it said he asked him to be a part of it which could mean many things. It could mean guest appearances, only a few songs from CD or anything. 

I try to look at it as Axl not being a douche and actually not firing those who have been with him for years. I think it shows Axls character and his respect for those who have been with him. Again he said a part in which is very choice words. 

Many may not agree and frankly that's fine but Axl does own the band name he has also carried this band for the last 25 years. Do I think some is his fault absolutely but it doesn't change the fact. 

This also proves that Axl didn't do this because he lost his band members. 

Some are taking it like DJ is acting high and mighty but I think he was respectful and even said he had no place there. As a fan he was happy Slash was back and threw some respect to Axl for not just firing him.

It's like a job you wouldn't want your boss to suddenly replace you after years of dedication through thick and thin. You'd hope they would find some position or to keep your position. I imagine it wasn't easy for Axl to tell these guys he was reuniting with some of the classic lineup. Irregardless of the fact I like Slash more I think it was honorable on both ends.

As far as new music I think it's gonna depend on how things go but I'm hoping we get to see some of Axls vault with the rest adding their parts.

I'm reminded that years ago there was a particular song that Axl had in mind for Slash and I think it was said he had offered Slash to work on it but it fell through somehow. Does anyone remember which song that was?

Yes, he's done a brilliant job managing the band. 1 album in 23 years and squandering the band's entire prime by hiding out in his mansion with Beta and Yoda. Not to mention hiring third rate clowns to tour AFD for the past 10 years to half empty arenas. Amazing job. The irony is that he burned so many bridges trying to get the gnr brand name and then ended up doing absolutely nothing with it. Insane.

Only thing I can say is that he atleast "appears" to be on the right track these days...but we'll see. I bought a ticket to see them live this year only because there is a very good possibility that this could be the final tour for this band. With GnR, you never know wtf is going to happen next.

 

Edited by RONIN
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On 4/30/2016 at 8:10 AM, madison said:

Agreed. I find it amusing when some people claim that Slash and Duff were just "replacing" guys who left - nothing more.  Apparently, they ridiculously believe that when Ron and Tommy left, Axl went around wondering - 'Gee, who could I get to replace these two replacement members now. Hmmm, maybe Slash and Duff are available - I think I'll ask them."   This always makes me LOL. 

As Asia pointed out in this post, clearly it was a huge milestone when Axl mended fences with Slash and Duff. And once that happened, replacement members had to be booted out to make room for them. And since talks date back several years, I'm guessing Ron and Tommy knew this was in the works, which is why they respectfully left. I love Ron, btw, because he's always cared about the fans. 

As for DJ - he hung around as long as he could, but he too knew this was a reunion of the original lineup. I totally believe him though that Axl offered him a spot to stay. (Remember, Axl is the guy who brought in Paul back in the day).  But DJ knew the difference between the "real" GNR and the replacement one, and respected what the fans wanted.  I tip my hat to DJ. He's a class act. It's a shame other replacement members didn't do the same. 

 

Nice to see you're still around Madison. It's ironic to see how much you've changed your tune once King Dick cut you loose. You've banned so many people here in the past (including me) for defending the original lineup -- and here you are talking about replacements and championing the return of Izzy and Steven. Gotta say -- I didn't see that coming.

I've got nothing against you btw -- I thought what Axl said to you was utterly pathetic and shameful. 

Edited by RONIN
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12 hours ago, Billsfan said:

They were since this band is GNR reforming not reuniting. Do some research sweetheart. It's literally what axl has always done, otherwise he would have cleaned house. Duff replaced tommy and due to axl making up with slash and needing another guitar player, knowing how much GNR would increase as a brand, slash came back. Dj clearly caught wind and did the classy thing by leaving. Axl would never have fired him. 

It's obviously a three guy thing. They don't call it reunion because Izzy and Steven aren't there so basically it's not a reunion but a regrouping. This replacement thing makes me lol as well everytime I read it.

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DJ announced he was leaving Guns N' Roses within a few weeks of Slash announcing he had talked to Axl. I forget which came first, but both of those things happened in close proximity to the other. There were rumblings of things happening for quite some time before that. As far back as the last Vegas residency there was apparently buzz that NuGnR was either done or on hiatus, and then everyone got those 'thanks and good luck' signed albums. This was in process for a long time, IMHO.

I agree with those who said that perhaps Axl was being loyal to those who had stuck with him. The only one who seems to have actually been let go was Pittman. And someone else said, being part of it doesn't necessarily equate to being onstage with them every night. It could have been guest spots, or helping with writing or recording an album, or designing some 'swag' for GnR merchandising, or whatever.

Edited by stella
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I call bullshit on this. Axl may have told DJ that he "wanted" him in but gave another reason for letting Ashba go (that may be true as well) something like: "Slash doesn't want you in the band".
I think (hope) that Axl finally came to the conclusion that DJ Ashba is a poor songwriter, sloppy guitar player and a copy cat-performer. I bet that he's a really nice guy, though. I think that's a reason he's come pretty far in showbiz: Nice guy with a brown tongue ;-)

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2 hours ago, Karri said:

Pretty sure Axl didn't want to get rid of anybody. Bumble walked, things started to fall apart and this allowed for originals to enter. 

Though I do agree Tommy's explanation for leaving was the weakest. Seemed like he was almost pushed away. Or left out of courtesy to Duff. Which is likely of course, since they're friends. Official explanation is that suddenly under the reunion rumors Tommy just feels like, after 18 years of service, that yeah, Guns get too much on the way of my own tourings and creativity. Sure. Whatever. Sounds unlikely as hell. But what do I know, I'm only a bitch boy.' Get off board or fuck off' ? : (

I thought Tommy's explanation was the most simple. For whatever reason he's ended up as a single parent to his young daughter. You can't be on call for short notice tour dates with that sort of responsibility, and I'm guessing he wasn't happy to leave her for weeks or months on end. It does sound from GNR's side like no official line was drawn but from what I've read Tommy doesn't seem overly bothered - the last interview I read suggested he has a lot on his plate currently.

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On 4/29/2016 at 10:45 PM, SWINGTRADER said:

Axl is one crazy son of a bitch. He might as well have just asked bumble, buckethead, Finck, Stinson,etc, to all be part of this. It would have been the rock n roll circus world tour.

 

Axl doesn't understand the concept of a reunion.

 

p.s thank you, Ashba. At least he understood the importance of this.

 

 

Axl x Slash is way more of a bigger picture here than any "reunion" could ever be.

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I would like to assume Duff and Slash had some input in this regrouping.  Axl may have wanted Ashba in, but I don't think its something Slash would have wanted, and it's definitely not something the band would have needed.   Whatever the story is, DJ not being there is only a positive. 

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5 hours ago, Free Bird said:

It's obviously a three guy thing. They don't call it reunion because Izzy and Steven aren't there so basically it's not a reunion but a regrouping. This replacement thing makes me lol as well everytime I read it.

It's realistically how axl sees it though. They're still playing Chinese material. Slash is covering GNR material

Edited by Billsfan
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Ashba was always a big GNR fan and he respected everyone. He had a lot of respect for Slash. 

From what I know Tommy dint have a young daughter. His daughter seemed more than 20 to me. But well he never liked GNR in the first place and was there just for the money. When Duffs relationship started to get better with Axl. Then Tommy thought its better to other things and props to him that he respects Duff. 

I still don't get why bumblefoot dint have the balls to say that he left. lolbumblefoot

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2 hours ago, Slash787 said:

Ashba was always a big GNR fan and he respected everyone. He had a lot of respect for Slash. 

From what I know Tommy dint have a young daughter. His daughter seemed more than 20 to me. But well he never liked GNR in the first place and was there just for the money. When Duffs relationship started to get better with Axl. Then Tommy thought its better to other things and props to him that he respects Duff. 

I still don't get why bumblefoot dint have the balls to say that he left. lolbumblefoot

SB: You have two daughters. Are they both musical?

TS: Yeah, they are. My oldest daughter has a CD out, and makes videos, and does her own thing.

SB: Did you give her lessons?

TS: When she turned sixteen, she asked me if I’d try to write a song for a birthday present. I said sure, so I sat down and wrote a song, and after that, she was hooked on it. We wrote a bunch of stuff early on that she would never put out, but she found this guy, Benny, a few years back. That’s more where she wants to go with things, so that worked out good. The little one, she sings, she likes to play instruments, she likes playing the drums. I have a feeling she’ll be another musical prodigy of some sort. You can’t help it if you have kids and you’re a musician, they all kinda do that, I guess. It’s hard to say “don’t do that, don’t follow me.” It sucks. [laughs]

http://theberkshireedge.com/interview-tommy-stinson-guns-n-roses-club-helsinki-jan-3/

 

This was less then 2 years ago. He called her the little one.

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I didn't mind Ashba when he first joined, but after the 09/10 tour I started to go off him - it seemed like all the 'acting like a rock star' stuff went into overload (anyone remember the potted plant incident?) and it seemed that his playing really went downhill, the case in point being his infamous Patience solo. I'm personally astounded that Axl wanted him to be part of the reunion. I always thought that Axl hired him for songwriting given the success of Saints of Los Angeles and Sixx:AM, I figured that the guy could write a catchy but forgettable song for GN'R that could create some buzz. I mean, no disrespect to him, but I can't believe it was all for his guitar playing - he struggled to play the solos (he had to change TiL for example) and guitarists who can play the material note for note are a dime a dozen out there. Plus, all his rock star posing would still have been embarrassing for a guy in their 20s and he was pushing 40 when he joined GN'R. 

Plus, the reunion shows have shown that there really wasn't the need for three guitarists in the band. It's also annoying that he played a lot of the leads when Richard was stuck on rhythm considering that Richard is a far better guitar player. I saw him with Thin Lizzy in 2011 and he really got the opportunity to show off his skills with them and I was amazed by his playing.

 

Edited by BassistSeb
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On May 1, 2016 at 7:58 AM, Karri said:

Pretty sure Axl didn't want to get rid of anybody. Bumble walked, things started to fall apart and this allowed for originals to enter. 

Though I do agree Tommy's explanation for leaving was the weakest. Seemed like he was almost pushed away. Or left out of courtesy to Duff. Which is likely of course, since they're friends. Official explanation is that suddenly under the reunion rumors Tommy just feels like, after 18 years of service, that yeah, Guns get too much on the way of my own tourings and creativity. Sure. Whatever. Sounds unlikely as hell. But what do I know, I'm only a bitch boy.' Get off board or fuck off' ? : (

Agreed on the first part. The Tommy thing I was going to agree with but completely forgot about the single parent thing. So @alfierose made a great point there.

Idk just figured I'd share for kicks but I was off from work today and had some time to kill so I went to the main discussion page, went all the way back 134 pages and started skimming through up to about 100 or so. Did that for the archives in 2013 as well. The point is, sometimes we forget or we wonder what signs we should have seen coming before something happens. But the evidence on what these guys did ironically is right on this forum. Nearly every other page had bumblefoot topics like "is Ron leaving?" Or "when will Ron leave?" Etc.  The point is wow, was anyone really surprised when Bumblefoot quit? Ashba sure cuz that was kind of out of left field but Nostradamus much anyone?!?! The amount of rumors apparently created for a very significant percentage of discussion around here..

So based on that and the few but more recent interviews, I'm lead to believe that Bumblefoot really just wanted out for too many reasons. Saying "if it comes down to my solo career or GNR then it'll be solo" in December of 2013 pretty much confirms that. Stinsons record of missing several dates on the last few legs pretty much showed he was slowly moving towards a permanent break from GNR like brain did in 2006, Deja Vu. I think Dj saw the line in the sand and just knew the right thing to do was step aside. Axl didn't want to fire him (probably partly out of loyalty) and Dj really loved being in this band since he loved GNR so much. But considering where he would fit with slash artistically, the lack of new material he was able to write or record combined with the fact sixx am was becoming a full time thing made the decision easy to make. 

So in conclusion.. Ron and Tommy wanted to do different things I believe. I would bet dj caught wind of slash coming back and knew there was realistically no good way this would look if he continued.

Edited by Billsfan
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Most venues have a cap on how many performing artists can wear top hats due to fire safety and laws inplemented by homeland security after 9/11. They went with the guy whose hat was the least stupid, thus the reunion of Guns N' Roses sans Ashba.

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From an interview with James Michael:

You mentioned that this disc came out fairly soon after “Modern Vintage,” and then also, so soon after the end of Motley Crue. Talk about it – was it in the works, or did you guys just sort of go full blast as soon as those projects ended? How did it come …  

James Michael: “That’s a good question. It was not in the works. So we got off the road at the end of April last year and it as right around the time that Nikki had … he was starting to wrap his head around the idea that he was going to be winding Motley Crue down. Um, and DJ decided at that point that he was going to leave Guns N’ Roses. And I decided, you know, if Sixx:A.M. really is going to have a future – and it’s really important to the three of us – that I was going to have to put some of the production stuff on the back burner and really focus a hundred percent on Sixx:A.M.

As an aside: Has DJ expressed any feelings about the Guns N’ Roses tour? Has he said how he feels about that at all?  

James Michael: “Yeah, you know, I think he’s excited … Look, what an incredible opportunity that was for him and he was phenomenal in GNR, and I think that he is nothing but happy for them and especially happy for the fans. DJ has so much respect for the fans. And obviously this reunion is something that the fans have been wanting for a long, long time. And yeah, I have only heard positive things from him. Just his excitement and his enthusiasm for what fans will get to experience.  “So it’s just a great thing. I’m a fan of Guns N’ Roses, so I’m excited for them, too. It’s all about the songs. Those songs are too special and too great not to be celebrated.”

http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/lehigh-valley-music/mc-interviewing-sixx-a-m-singer-james-michael-says-band-coming-to-sands-has-reawakening-20160505-column.html

 

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1 hour ago, Funky.Monkey said:

As an aside: Has DJ expressed any feelings about the Guns N’ Roses tour? Has he said how he feels about that at all?  

James Michael: “Yeah, you know, I think he’s excited … Look, what an incredible opportunity that was for him and he was phenomenal in GNR, and I think that he is nothing but happy for them and especially happy for the fans. DJ has so much respect for the fans. And obviously this reunion is something that the fans have been wanting for a long, long time. And yeah, I have only heard positive things from him. Just his excitement and his enthusiasm for what fans will get to experience.  “So it’s just a great thing. I’m a fan of Guns N’ Roses, so I’m excited for them, too. It’s all about the songs. Those songs are too special and too great not to be celebrated.”

http://www.mcall.com/entertainment/lehigh-valley-music/mc-interviewing-sixx-a-m-singer-james-michael-says-band-coming-to-sands-has-reawakening-20160505-column.html

Just wanted to read this question but stopped at "...and he was phenomenal in GNR."

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