Bruno P.

Guthrie Govan.

They never utilized him anyway, as the only thing he's done is provide some minor last minute afterthoughts to one album. The Chinese stuff isn't that hard for an even remotely technical guitarist to handle

Personal preferences aside, I will provide you some info since you clearly have no knowledge whatsoever on the subject. First - the Chinese stuff is fkn hard, even for a technical guitarist. That's why you dont see many - if at all - YouTube D, C, B, A-grade shredders nailing those solos and licks. Most play their own made up bits when it comes to playing the hardest stuff. I'm not talking out of my ass, I've seen countless really technical guitarists that don't come even close to replicate Shackler's, TWAT or Riad. Chinese, Better, TWAT, Scraped, Prostitute, I.R.S.... just some songs that got some pretty insane stuff going on here and there - which YouTube shredders and real cover bands' guitarists avoid like plague. Buckethead and Ron got some insanely fast and technical tapping stuff, extemely fast and complex alternate picking runs, some fast and hard-to-replicate chicken picking stuff, ultra fast legato runs - I'm not gonna even bother to mention Ron's fretless playing and thimble stuff because it is alien to even most virtuosos. They are worldwide virtuosos for a reason, and when you've got the likes of Shawn Lane, Guthrie Govan, Axl, Ozzy, Dave Mustaine, Petrucci, Mattias IA Eklundh, Uli Jon Roth, Satriani, Petrucci, Malmsteen and many, many others true legends/guitar gods praising the ground you walk on, I'm pretty sure you did more than a D-grade YouTube shredder does on a daily basis. Even Slash himself acknowledged that Buckethead is an insane guitarist.

So yeah, whether you like it or not, they will not easily find someone that can play that stuff - they might dumb down or even drop songs, but play the Chinese stuff like Ron and Buckethead do? I doubt it. That's why they Axl to reach out to Satriani to find a guitarist that could handle Buckethead's extremely technical and fast playing.

I never said it was easy man, and maybe the parts are more complex than I'm giving credit for, but I'm just saying there are virtuosos aplenty out there. And quite a few of them can do the gig justice that are a little beyond YouTube wankery. When I said "d-list shredder", I meant in terms of relevancy, as he was pretty unknown before Axl. I'd hardly say they were "worshipping the ground he walked on". He's a technical beast no doubt, but he ain't a one and only. There's other fish in the sea.

How much does Ron's fretless playing really matter anyways? When is it that prominent in a song? Shacklers? A song they seldom play anyways? Big whoop .

Shackler's, Scraped, Chinese, Riad & the breakdown in Better. How was he irrelevant when most, if not all of those people that praised *both* of them did way before Axl's call? When I said you had little to no knowledge on the subject I wasn't being harsh, I did because both of them were quite relevant on the virtuoso/progressive scene and top musicians were well aware of them and their work before Axl's call. I did not drop those names out of nowhere, they showed admiration to Bucket, Ron or both before they got the GnR gig. If you meant pop culture, yes, both of them were irrelevant. But since we're talking about music, would you really care about some average joe that finds Bieber the best young musician on the planet or that voted One Direction the world's best band? Not really. They make songs and albums for those who matter, those who enjoy that style. I often mention Shawn Lane because he was never popular outside of guitar circles yet he's widely heralded as the greatest guitarist that walked on earth, a man that could hold a candle to the greatest musicians of the past.

Axl will find someone, yeah. I never said it was impossible, but took them quite a while to find someone able to replace Bucket, now they have to find one that can replicate Bucket's and Ron's bits.

Of course I believe Axl will go for the easy route - drop and dumb down the hardest Chinese songs, call someone that will be happy to get the gig and go on.

They never utilized him anyway, as the only thing he's done is provide some minor last minute afterthoughts to one album. The Chinese stuff isn't that hard for an even remotely technical guitarist to handle

Personal preferences aside, I will provide you some info since you clearly have no knowledge whatsoever on the subject. First - the Chinese stuff is fkn hard, even for a technical guitarist. That's why you dont see many - if at all - YouTube D, C, B, A-grade shredders nailing those solos and licks. Most play their own made up bits when it comes to playing the hardest stuff. I'm not talking out of my ass, I've seen countless really technical guitarists that don't come even close to replicate Shackler's, TWAT or Riad. Chinese, Better, TWAT, Scraped, Prostitute, I.R.S.... just some songs that got some pretty insane stuff going on here and there - which YouTube shredders and real cover bands' guitarists avoid like plague. Buckethead and Ron got some insanely fast and technical tapping stuff, extemely fast and complex alternate picking runs, some fast and hard-to-replicate chicken picking stuff, ultra fast legato runs - I'm not gonna even bother to mention Ron's fretless playing and thimble stuff because it is alien to even most virtuosos. They are worldwide virtuosos for a reason, and when you've got the likes of Shawn Lane, Guthrie Govan, Axl, Ozzy, Dave Mustaine, Petrucci, Mattias IA Eklundh, Uli Jon Roth, Satriani, Petrucci, Malmsteen and many, many others true legends/guitar gods praising the ground you walk on, I'm pretty sure you did more than a D-grade YouTube shredder does on a daily basis. Even Slash himself acknowledged that Buckethead is an insane guitarist.

So yeah, whether you like it or not, they will not easily find someone that can play that stuff - they might dumb down or even drop songs, but play the Chinese stuff like Ron and Buckethead do? I doubt it. That's why they Axl to reach out to Satriani to find a guitarist that could handle Buckethead's extremely technical and fast playing.

People will talk about it regardless of the thread existing or not. It's a major event. If it hurts Ron, he should make things clear maybe? Censorship is not the way to go. People are being respectful, even those who don't really like him, me included.

Make things clear? How, if he probably can not talk about that? It is his personal life, his job, it doesn't have anything to do with us or mods or whoever is talking about that. I get what you're saying, but truth be told, and let's assume he's indeed leaving - he would have talked about that months ago if he was allowed, I'm pretty sure. If he's allowed to but does not want, he's doing that out of respect to the band and its management. He's always been brutally honest with his fans, followers and friends, even if his answer is not what we want to hear. He's transparent, he's not a liar by any means. I've got to talk to, know and meet people that had known him for several years, even decades, and believe me, he will always be honest with us.

So let the man talk about it if he feels like doing it. Meanwhile, out of respect I will not especulate whether he is leaving or not.

Don't take this personally, I'm talking to all forum members, not only to you.

If he is indeed leaving, and if he did not want to talk about it publicly, he has his own reasons. It'll probably hurt him and the band's image because people are talking about it and spreading rumors while Vegas is happening. So yes, I find this thread disrespectful and it should be closed, unless he is OK witht this - which I believe he isn't. That's all.

AFD line-up. They were all together back then. There were no limos, no private jets, no 5-star hotels, anything.

Not really. Axl was a prima donna already back in the get in the ring/illusions tours.

I said AFD line-up.

Oh, absolutely but that's because they did not have money and fame, otherwise Axl would do the same

Get ready to buy his new album, then. I'm pretty sure he'll leave the day after the residency.

You being his biggest supporter should ask him about it.

I would definitely support his solo career as soon as he leaves Axl's band. The man deserves it, just please, no more shit talkin'.

Heeeey, I'm not his biggest supporter one of his biggest, yes, of course. In a few weeks I believe he'll talk about it. I don't think he's shit talking - he's got the balls to talk about stuff the others - Excluding Tommy - don't and hide from us. According to Ashba, he's living a dream and nothing bad will ever happen, they're writing several albums, each show is a surprise etc.

Maybe we'll hear that rumoured Queen cover?

Time Your Mother Down. Or Somebody to love. You heard it here first, guys.

small clip of the band rehearsing WTTJ

YES!!! WTTJ!!! Where's Axl?

He does not need to rehearse, baby. DJ does. So the whole band is there to help DJ get the SCOM intro right.

SPOILER (I don't know how to hide "spoiler" content )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv04X_PX97A

In case it hasn't been posted

http://vegasseven.com/2014/05/20/dj-ashba-guns-n-roses/

“I didn’t join this [band] just to play guitar”

Ouch...

I didn’t join this [band] just to play guitar. I joined because I believe I can bring something to the table as a songwriter, producer. We have a lot of stuff written. I’ve written 13 or 14 songs. Whatever ends up on the record, no one knows at this point. I know everybody’s main focus is to get together as a band and put together what we feel collectively is the best Guns N’ Roses record.

What I’ve heard that Axl has is insane stuff. I’ll be sitting in his hotel room, and he’ll just be playing his piano and singing, and I’ll be like ‘Dude, what is that?’ ‘Oh, just some shit I’m playing around with.’ And it’ll be like ‘November Rain’ shit. Like, ‘Holy shit, the world has to hear this tomorrow.’ I pray to God the world gets a chance to hear the stuff that he has up his sleeve. He has some amazing songs sitting there.”

Fuck, Axl finally nailed something
Brilliant November Rain performance, strong Nightrain performance. Except he fucked up Ron's solo and DJ played a really shitty solo. I don't know why but that dude keeps getting worse and worse.

AFD line-up. They were all together back then. There were no limos, no private jets, no 5-star hotels, anything.

Not really. Axl was a prima donna already back in the get in the ring/illusions tours.

I've already known this forever though. And sorry, but Mercury doesn't hold a candle to Axl IMO.

What's next? Hendrix doesnt hold a candle to Slash? Please share more opinions with us.

I mean it's pretty undebatable as far as vocal range Axl has one of the greatest of all time. What's really surprising, and where he beats most rock singers, is how low he can sing. Might be the sole reason Axl's range is larger than Mercury's.

It's nice to see the support for bbf here.

But let's take off the rose-colored glasses for a moment.

Ron was never a well known or successful musician, and with the money he's making by playing Slash's songs, he'll never leave GNR of his own accord.

Also, Axl clearly isn't inspired by anything that bbf or any of his other cover musicians write. Axl hired them to play songs written by slash, izzy, and duff, primarily. To Axl, bbf isn't an option for songwriting.

Maybe, just maybe, bbf isn't the next Mozart like how this forum seems to think.

Wasn't a successful musician... well, he was discovered by GnR for a reason ya'know! such BS. Ron wasn't on MTV or selling a million records but he was doing just fine on his own, touring and making a stable living teaching and recording. Your definition of success is obviously very different from mine. If my career amounted to what Ron had before joining GnR I would be quite happy and comfortable.

What does anyone hear know about Ron or what it would take for him to quit...? he could easily quit the band once his contract ends and still have a pretty successful music career, probably a much less stressful life ta-boot! less money but who cares.

Now, his demos were just that... demos, some of that was composed there and then other parts were written elsewhere... it wasn't the most inspired piece but using a bit of imagination I could well see it becoming a song that I'd like to listen to. I watched the video twice when it first came on Youtube, months later I found myself humming it and playing on guitar... I can't say that about a lot of new music and I certainly can't say that about most artists rough demos... When we get the next record and Djs material is all over the place you will all say "I wish Argentina was on the album..."

I don't believe for a sec he'll stick around after the residency. Well, we'll find out in a few weeks. It is a shame because we know that Axl and the band could have been much better and bigger, but Axl had to fuck everything up. Truth be told - I don't think he wants to go forward with Guns, not anymore, which is a shame.

He will record those songs as solo songs so we'll get to hear them sooner than later.

Freddie Mercury.

No matter what anybody says.

I don't find the thought of Axl being the greatest vocalist crazy as I do think he is , but this list is full of shit. Fact that Cobain has a higher octave than Aretha is indeed crazy, also how is Buckley, Cornell, Layne Staley, George Jones, Patsy Cline, Reba not on this list? Crap list end of story.

In fact I've seen people claim that he had a vocal range of 12 octaves (!) so this list is obviously fake. Double that amount of octaves on the list and we're getting close to Axl's actual range.

Come on Ron, leave this band already! If you do, I'll buy a copy of your new album to show my support.

Get ready to buy his new album, then. I'm pretty sure he'll leave the day after the residency.

I got a funny feeling that something is wrong today...

I got a funny feeling that Ron will go away.

Lame, I know, but still funnier than Ashba's jokes.

A few years ago I'd be sad if he was about to leave. Now I'll give him all my support in fact most people that know or follow him will.

DJ's answer to what's the best unreleased song from the CD sessions "None, or we would have released them". I......hate him so fucking much. He's got some balls talking like that about songs he had nothing to do with, thank God. For that reason alone, I want to hear the rest of the CD sessions more than any generic cock-rock sounding music he's been crapping out and sending to Axl.

Personally, I think it's cute how DJ says "or we would have..." as if he has a shred of control over when and if GNR releases new music. Pathetic, really. Albeit, par for the course lately.

That dude has to be one of the worst things that happened to music. He's a disgrace to the music world. He's not funny, he's retarded, he's #demented, he can't play, can't write (Oh, no, Nikki Sixx stuff do not count), doesn't consider himself primarily a guitarist or musician, is a fkn poser, asshole (Hotel lady & fan beating comes to mind), and looks like someone who my 13 years old emo niece would hysterically laugh at.

His falsetto/head/mixed voice was never strong tbh. Why he doesnt use chest voice I will never understand. Maybe he is not confident enough?

wasn't this about the time paul made it known he wanted to produce AFD and was talking about how he would record it if given the chance and some of the changes he thought GnR should make?

"we're gonna have to re-write it to make it a pop hit". Yeah, ok Paul.

However not much people cared about Jungle until SCOM came out, so I guess he wasn't too far off...

That is an amazing thing that still boggles the mind.

If the label didn't have faith in GnR and hadn't released SCOM as a single, what would have happened to the band?

How can a song that has turned into one of the most iconic songs in the history of rock music almost have been missed by the rock world?

Dunno, maybe they would have tried to reach other labels and they would be successful, but it's a wild guess...

ER are you confusing inland show with rio? That was the first full length pro shot. Although it was the sound that wasnt mixed which made the show poor.

my bad, i forgot about rio.

but no, i very much recall watching the live stream of KROQ and everybody being really underwhelmed. that, and Rio IV, were both disappointing, especially considering how strong Axl was at other shows that year. i think a lot of it had to do with the sound setup not being ideal, at least for the streaming, and the sound mix ended up being shit.

I dont think so. Both shows were weak vocally because they were one of the first shows of the tours. By the 5th, 6th or 7th shows of both tours he sounded great again...

wasn't this about the time paul made it known he wanted to produce AFD and was talking about how he would record it if given the chance and some of the changes he thought GnR should make?

"we're gonna have to re-write it to make it a pop hit". Yeah, ok Paul.

However not much people cared about Jungle until SCOM came out, so I guess he wasn't too far off...

Great to have this thread in the main section, where it belongs. Can't wait to hear the new songs. I know exactly what to expect but would love to be surprised by something more experimental.

I will watch this soon but my point is still the same - he's kind of a touring guitarist and that's a waste.

Not many guitar virtuosos like Ron or Bucket though

Sadly I heard that Ben didn't take his guitar playing ahead (or should I say further?) due to conflicts with his job or something like that. He is great...

Neither has BBF for that matter.

You clearly didn't understand what I meant, I guess? Ben is not a professional musician, unlike Ron. Or Bucket. Or DJ (sic).

Did Axl do that? Really?