Legendador

"All thing considered we are just figuring out what to do next and what fits the best to all involved."

Summing up 24 years of Axl talking about GNR and 8 years of Slash talking about the band.

Let's not forget, it's almost 8 years since the band first reunited.

8 years!!! And 15 since I joined the board (I'm getting old, and tired, my back hurts, there's no future, aliens are coming).

I think we fight for no reason at all...

5 minutes ago, sofine11 said:

There’s a reason Slash keeps making the mistake of saying they’re rounding 3rd on releasing more music, and that reason is that’s what they’re (management) telling him. He’s likely getting strung along on same merry go round as the rest of us. Of course, he’s getting paid while the fans can only stare and wonder.

Slash is a 60 year old man! He's not that naive! He's putting some fire under Axl's ass.

On 2/11/2023 at 2:36 PM, Shacklermyrye said:

https://celestion.com/blog/guns-n-roses-guitarist-richard-fortus-reflects-on-his-storied-career-and-celestion-speakers/

Not as much to do with GN'R as I would like but still, relevant parts to do with band below... Not a Poison fan it seems.

 

How did you get the gig with Guns N’ Roses?

I got called to audition. I was scheduled to be in L.A. anyway working on an album. So that lined up, they sent me some music, we went back and forth, but then as I was departing for L.A., I couldn’t reach them. I get to the album session, and Tommy Stinson and Josh Freese, who were in Guns N’ Roses at the time, were on it, too! They said, “Oh, you’re the guy from New York!”

What had happened was, Axl Rose had found the guitarist Buckethead and called off all auditions. Nonetheless, Tommy and I became very good friends. Cut to a couple of years later. I was on tour in Europe with Enrique Iglesias. Tommy called me and said, “Would you audition for Guns? We need somebody.” I had a break of two days in my schedule. After three shows at Royal Albert Hall, I flew straight to L.A., auditioned, listened to new material with Axl in his car all night, flew back to Ireland, and finished the Enrique tour. Right after, I started rehearsals with Guns.

As a guitarist, what is it like working with Slash?

Slash and Duff and I all come from similar musical backgrounds and have a lot of the same influences. We get along very well, and the funny thing is, I wasn’t that into Guns N’ Roses as a kid because I lumped them in with all the other ’80s hair metal. I supposed I realized they were more legit than bands like Poison, but they weren’t on my radar then. Once I got into the band, I realized how much we have in common.

Uuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh somebody's gonna get the corn for the "I lumped them in with all the other ’80s hair metal".....

9 hours ago, Stay.Of.Execution said:

That's the big problem rock is facing. Once the real big bands are gone, the landscape will be pretty thin. Especially when you then look at who will be headlining the big festivals. There'll always be good bands on the smaller stages, but stadium rock as we know it will probably die some day. 

There will always be holographic and IA concerts! LOL

13 minutes ago, EvanG said:

Huh? I never said you said that punk or alt-rock killed hard rock. The other poster said it who I also quoted.

You're wrong. You seem to confuse image with genre here. A lot of rock bands from the 90's didn't want to be compared to the hard rock bands from the 80's because they couldn't relate to the big hair, make-up, spandex pants and cheesy videos on MTV. But they loved to be named in the same sentence as the hard rock acts from the late 60's and 70's, which they were influenced by. Again, I've heard Kurt refer to Nirvana's music as hard rock, as well as punk and several other sub-rock genres, many times. Unfortunately I can't post youtube videos here, but I'm sure you can find it yourself. So what you say is simply not true. They didn't like the antics of some of the 80's hard rock bands, but that doesn't mean they didn't consider their own music hard rock, among other sub-rock genres.

To specify the three songs I mentioned in previous post. They're not punk songs. They're not metal songs. They're not pop songs, although one could argue that the vocal melodies are poppy, especially Teen Spirit. They're not soft rock songs either, so yeah... what else to call them but hard rock songs? 

"I just disagreed with your previous comment that punk and alt-rock killed off hard rock because that's simply not true. "

2 minutes ago, Rovim said:

I think that some fans of old school 60'a 70's and 80's hard rock have this very rigid definition of what it's supposed to sound like. I say this cause I've stumbled upon comments like this specifically about Nirvana. Maybe the amount of punk in their music and the fact that there are more than 1 elements in their music taken from similar but different sub genres make Nirvana and other bands seem like it's not pure hard rock enough to be hard rock. 

like he can't even solo like Jimmy Page. One clue that maybe helps is that Dave Grohl was the drummer of that band. 

besides, punk shares some shit with metal which is similar to hard rock in some ways. Are Load and Reload by Metallica are trash metal records for example? I feel like Hard Rock and Metal are the umbrella definitions of many different genres.

You nailed it!

5 hours ago, EvanG said:

They're not considered hard rock? They make music with guitars with a lot of distortion and loud drums. What should we call it instead? Reggae? They even considered themselves hard rock. I've seen enough interviews with Kurt where he described the music of Nirvana as hard rock. Most of those bands didn't like the word grunge because it was just a made up word by some British journalist. Of course a lot of those bands from that time had also metal and punk and pop influences, but a lot of their music also fell into the hard rock genre. Teen Spirit, Alive, Black Hole Sun, just to name a few of their biggest hits, are all hard rock songs. 

I just disagreed with your previous comment that punk and alt-rock killed off hard rock because that's simply not true. 

I never said punk or alt-rock killed hard rock, and you're wrong about Nirvana considering themselves Hard Rock, they despised everything that HR standed for at the time.

Now, telling me just because a band makes music with guitar with a lot of distortion and loun drums it's considered hard rock, sounds kind of naive, childish and almost that you don't understand shit about rock genres.

Are Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Ministry, The Prodigy, hard rock? Well they make music with guitars with a lot of distortion and loud drums. What a joke!

11 hours ago, Tom2112 said:

Mammoth WVH. New hardrock that is quite successful and not just playing retro rock... While also not quite reinventing the wheel.

Also, there's a lot of young people going to see kiss, motley, gnr, Metallica etc. They are clearly connecting with the music.

You mistake chart success and things like that for meaning there isn't good new music out there. The actual reality is that rock bands are not signed to major labels and that means they aren't pushed into Spotify playlists and they aren't able to reach you or other jaded rock fans. But whether we like it or not there are bands out there playing hard rock music and selling a lot of tickets, and naturally growing similar to how it was in the days before the internet. Dirty honey, Greta van fleet neither are the most original but they have big fan bases for relatively young bands 

 

You've named a one band, one single band that's not mainstream, and it will never be, there's no room for this type of music to go mainstream outside the music industry.

For the young people going to see kiss, motley, gnr is clearly what makes them go see Metallica (Stranger Things - Master of Puppets), it's just the 80s hype that Miley Cirus and ST brought back. It is not solid.

7 hours ago, Spaghetti4twenty said:

I never thought it sounded dated, then again I never really compared it to any Nu Metal. What an era in music…“Chocolate starfish and the hot dog flavored water” 🤣
 

as far as the mixing goes, I think it might be as high as GNR will ever reach. CD still sounds ahead of its time, especially when comparing it to Hard Skool 

I really don't know, listening to better, or madagascar, it should be left in the end of the 90s.

13 hours ago, ©GnrPersia said:

Which one should win the award? Hard School or Absurd?

And then these two flimsy singles gonna compete with new albums by Dream Theater's, Metallica's 72 Season, Rammstein's Zeit? lol

I'm not talking about those, but at least Use Your Illusion back in the 90s? Chinese Democracy maybe?

12 hours ago, Bitchisback said:

Not sure I agree it won't ever come back. Look at the success Måneskin is having as a new glam rock band. Which certainly came out of nowhere. You never know what is around the corner and what's going to shape what is mainstream.  Machine Gun Kelly left rap and found success as a pop punk artist.  Post Malone could certainly wake up one day and decide to do a rock album.  Hardy has recently found success as a country/rock crossover artist.  

 

Not saying hard rock is going to be the number one gerne or music any time soon but I also wouldn't rule it out of the right artist comes along 

But Maneskin is generic pop and it's a Label forcing it to the mainstream. They don't have solid, classic songs and I can't see thgem lasting Ten Years with all this success. This band is so fabricated.

MGK and PM are great, but they never be hard rock.

6 minutes ago, mystery said:

To show how dire current mainstream rock is, they gave Ozzy Osbourne the Grammy for best rock album and with the exception of Greta Van Fleet none of the winners of that award since 2010 started in that decade. They even had Led Zeppelin win that award in 2014.

If Guns had released anything, would they be fit to run for a Grammy? Why do you think they were never considered for the award! I think it's so odd they don't have a Grammy!

5 hours ago, mystery said:

Those were all with the exception of STP decidedly nu-metal sounding or in RATM's case rap rock. Guns N' Roses and a lot of rock bands that started in the 80's-early 90's were not getting that kind of play by the late 90's. Guns N' Roses were already seen as kind of a throwback. Even Axl knew this around 1994-95 which is why he didn't want to continue in the same vein as their previous albums and Chinese Democracy wound up sounding much more like the music that was coming out around 1997-2001. 

This is interesting, Never tought about that! Maybe if Chinese Democracy was released back in 1997 - 2001 it could become a classic. Now that you've pointed that out, the album actually sounds dated and sounded dated on 2008.

1 hour ago, Tom2112 said:

Yeah, all the way through the early 00s right up until the 2010s guitar music was pretty big on radio. Killers, Kings of leon, RHCP and many others were also constantly played in any college setting I was at, the rap stuff was not as dominant. I think it's hitting a bit of balance again now, although rock music in general is considered underground... but with that will be it's resurgence. 

I don't think Rock or Hard Rock will never be mainstream again, the torch is carried by those legacy bands such Kiss, Guns, Motley Crue, good or band, after these 80's nostalgia acts quit touring or releasing music, Hard Rock will be just history and nothing way too relevant will come out of it. There's a role new (Actually two) generation(s) that don't connect with this type of music anymore. And music connects with the behaviour and ideals of generations.

Also, bands that are trying to create that classic hard rock style are failing miserably. Name one new hard rock band that's relevant. There's no classical albums anymore. To me, the last classical HARD ROCK album was UYI. RHCP is funk Rock and made classical albuns after the 90s, Ozzy is classic after classic, but is way more Heavy Metal and now just classic Rock than Hard Rock.

There's nothing new / relevant in hard rock anymore.

32 minutes ago, EvanG said:

Grunge isn’t a music genre. Bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam are also considered hard rock. But it was called ‘grunge’ because that word became popular at the time.

Wait, what? Nirvana and Pearl Jam where never considered Hard Rock, if you don't want to call it "Grunge" ok, at least "Aternative Rock" or "Punk-ish Rock" but to those bands, to be put in the Hard Rock category was a major offense and they were far far away from it.

There are still 47 tuesdays up to the end of the year, One just can hope.

2023 is THE year, and couting.

Any plans for a TSI boxset or deluxe version?

10 minutes ago, dontdamnmeuyi2015 said:

Does he talk shit about Axl because I know they hated each other.  Everyone has their version of stuff. I never liked Matt so won't read his book.

I think Matt's ego got a hold of him!

I can't see Matt lasting a month with Axl and Slash without bringing a wave of negativity, equal demands and ego trips. He's in a weird place.

On 1/28/2023 at 10:07 PM, Dacroix said:

I read the original version and I remember copying some parts in a notepad

AFTER TOURING FOR SIXTEEN MONTHS STRAIGHT, I developed a kind of 
constant anxiety. It felt like I never got any peace, and by the time we 
played the Astrodome in Houston on September 4, 1992, I’d suddenly had 
enough. 
The whole band had taken a bow, like usual, to thank the crowd from 
the stage when Axl, Duff, and Slash went back out for a second go. 
I realized I was furious, but I didn’t say anything until that evening, 
after we’d flown to Dallas and started the after-party with cocktails and 
blow in Duff’s room at the Four Seasons. 
“What the hell was that?” I said. 
“What?” said Duff, pretending not to know what I meant. 
“The three of you going out there alone.” 
Slash shrugged. “We started the band, so we get to take an extra bow.” 
“Fuck you guys,” I said. “I’m your drummer now, since your last one 
took too much heroin.” 
“Yeah, but we started the band,” Slash repeated. 
“Fuck you,” I shouted, storming out of the room.

 

-----

When he found out that the name of the band with Slash is going to be called "Slash's Snakepit" and not simply "Snakepit" as they talked, Slash told him it was Geffen idea to sell more: "I guess this was the moment when I stopped really trusting Slash. But  at the same time, I also came to accept that side of him; I now know exactly who he is".

 

----

 

Duff and I talked a lot about how we could find a replacement for Paul 
Tobias. Neither of us really believed that Slash had quit for good, but we 
couldn’t think of anyone to replace Paul. At least I couldn’t until I went 
down to Cirque du Soleil in Santa Monica and saw a band with a great 
guitarist. His name was Robin Finck. 
I called Axl right away. “Hey, Axl. I just saw this fucking cool guitar 
player.” 
For once, Axl sounded happy, and he said, “OK, I’m gonna go check 
him out.” 
A couple days later, Axl went to see Robin play. He called me back 
afterward. “Yeah, he’s gonna be great to replace Slash.” 
“No, no, no,” I said. “I meant for him to replace Paul Tobias. . . . Let’s 
get rid of Paul. Slash will come back.” 
But Axl had already made up his mind, and he repeated, “Nah, he’s 
gonna replace Slash.”

 

-----

 

About 2016 reunion:

Duff can’t even look me in the eye and tell the truth, and that’s what breaks my heart.

 

(...)

I continued to call Duff, but he was constantly evading me, and I realized he wasn’t telling the truth. “Duff, what’s going on?” I said.  “Well, Axl wants to use his drummer,” he said. “But the guy can’t even play the drums. I’ve gotta talk to Axl and say I really can’t play with this guy.”  “Wait! Back up!” I said. “What do you mean you don’t think he’s very  good? And you can’t fucking tell Axl? That would be the first thing I’d say  if I was the bass player and you were the drummer. Why do you think Iasked you to play in the Vampires? Because you’re my favorite bass  player.” 
“Come on, man.” 
“No. . . . Go to Axl and tell him you want me on drums. Period. Now’s  the time.” 
“Oh, man,” Duff said, his voice kind of shrinking. “I already signed the deal.” 
“What deal?” 
But he didn’t want to say any more. 

A week or so later, I was due to play in my own all-star band, Kings of  Chaos, in Cabo San Lucas. Duff was booked to play the gig, and he flew down on the day with his wife. As we were sitting in the van on the way to  the show, I asked him again, “So what’s going on?”  “We’re just rehearsing with these guys. We’re trying to wait till Axl makes his decision.”

(...)

Got a text message from Axl’s  manager, Fernando, who I had first met (along with his mother, Beta)  when he was a young kid from Brazil that Axl decided to take under his  wing. 
“Hey there bud,” he wrote. “How are you? Just reaching out to see how  your schedule is looking. Wondering if you’re interested in joining the  band on a few shows and a few songs. Let me know.”  I stared at my phone; I could hardly believe my eyes. I replied a little  later, copying my manager, saying I would check my calendar. Johnny and I hadn’t even left the island before my manager called to 
say that Fernando had offered to pay all my travel expenses and hotel costs if I agreed to join the band. That was the only form of payment I would  get. I asked my manager to get back to them with a polite no thanks.

 

(...)

“I don’t know why you didn’t come play with us when we called to  ask.”  “We?” I said. “Why didn’t you call me yourself instead of getting your  manager to do it?”  “Well, I thought that management could handle it.”  “That ten-year-old kid?”  “He’s not ten anymore,” Duff said, “he’s thirty-five.” We sat in silence for a few minutes. Duff looked down at the table the  way he always had when he felt uncomfortable or cornered. “There  would’ve been money,” he eventually said. 
I stared at him, at a loss for what to say. After a while, I said, “One good thing about all this is that Izzy and I started hanging out again.”  As the words left my mouth, Duff got a dark look in his eye. “Fuck Izzy!” he snapped. I knew his reaction was because of Izzy turning them down, so I calmly said, “Well . . . Izzy says fuck you too.”  Duff didn’t reply. Instead, he just poked at his food—he didn’t really seem hungry—and then checked his watch and said, “I’ve gotta go.” 
“Where?” I asked. 
“Rehearsal.” 
“Rehearsal? Didn’t you guys just get off a three-month tour? Why are you rehearsing?” 
“Because we don’t have you on drums,” Duff said. 
We got up. As we were leaving the restaurant, two guys came over to 
us, wanting to take photos. 
Duff froze and explained that it wasn’t the right moment. I immediately knew why: he was afraid Axl would find out he had been to 
see me.

What I do know for sure is that our friendship wasn’t the only thing  that had ended—our twenty-eight-year musical partnership was over too. I wouldn’t be able to call him or Slash and ask if they wanted to play with 
me. The GNR machine had taken them back. I knew I wouldn’t be able to 
rely on those guys any longer. For the first time, I felt completely on my 
own.

 

 

 

 

 

And with that Matt burned three important bridges!

1 minute ago, Rovim said:

according to Zutaut, Axl was furious cause he thought it was going to be a private screening, but when he got there, there were other people there iirc.

Got it! What about Goldstein?

On 1/28/2023 at 5:14 AM, Shacklermyrye said:

Thanks

The movie was Blackhawk down. Zutaut was actually fired at a private screening of the film. 

Story back in the day was a re-recording of WTTJ was supposed to play over s scene where helicopters were flying into a warzone. 

I thought they used a hendrix tune but may have been faith no more like Mystery said 

Why was Zutaut fired? Never heard the real reasons for that, same as for Goldstein.

On 1/22/2023 at 12:43 PM, Caught_in_a_Coma said:

Reflecting on a new album, I was talking to my family about how writing new material seemed to be somewhat of a hurdle after Appetite For Destruction/Lies.  A good chunk of the UYI songs were pre AFD material finalized.  Some were entirely new, I acknowledge that.  I feel like too much success CAN (but doesn't always) make it hard for bands to create new material.  After the success and exhaustion of the historic UYI tour (on top of tensions and issues reaching a point that would lead to the band breaking up), I get the impression GN'R was facing difficulty writing new music but once GN'R essentially ended, Axl wrote an insane amount of songs.  You've got 14 songs on ChiDem and I know a lot of unreleased ChiDem material are song concepts and not really songs, but you've still got potentially another 12ish songs good enough for an album sitting in the vault.

 

That is TWO ALBUMS worth of material Axl wrote following UYI.  I think that's impressive for someone who has (rightfully?) been described as lazy and someone who reached the top and realized somewhere that he and his band would never reach anything close to their glory days height again.

Well, 26 songs in 25 years (since 1997) is not an insane amount of songs. It's a song per year. For a professional musician, that's bad!

On 1/17/2023 at 4:43 AM, Live Like a Suicide said:

Absurd is a good live song, but is absolutely shit as a record.

 

I really think the opposite!

2015 - 2018

1. Perfect Crime

2. It's So Easy

3. Raw Power

4. Don't Damn Me

5. Move To The City

6. Prostitute

7. Civil War

8. Estranged

9. Rocket Queen

10. Atlas

11. Out Ta Get Me

12. The Garden

13. Nice Boys

14. Shotgun Blues or Get In The Ring

15. Locomotive

16. Since I Don't Have You

17. Right Next Door To Hell

18. Mr. Browstone

19. Garden of Eden

20. As It Began

20. Coma or Breakdown

21. Absurd

22. Human Being

23. Hardskool

24. Welcome to The Jungle

25. Paradise City

At least it is not like "...And Justice For All".

27 minutes ago, Twinaleblood said:

Oh yes, that was a fake that spread out around the Napster era. The song is actually called Demon Bell and it's by texan band Dangerous Toys, taken from the Shocker movie soundtrack. Their singer Jason McMaster has a raspy voice, so they tried to pass it out as Axl's, but clearly not.

Wow! You Reminded me of downloading Rocket Queen by John Corabi and taking like 5 hours to do it for just one song!

1 hour ago, Blackstar said:

No, I don't know of any mention of Machine Gun in articles or interviews. Maybe @Legendadormeans the Jackie Chan song?

I vividly remember reading in an old magazine here in Brazil, not on the internet, which was maybe between 96 to 98.

Also I do remember coming here at the beggining of the MYGNR, where they had the midi section, snippets of concerts in Real Video, Demon Bell.

Cool times!

1 hour ago, Twinaleblood said:

Really? Here in Italy there were a lot of rumors about GNR on the magazines back then (including the rehearsals with Zakk in 95), but no one ever mentioned 'Machine Gun' here as far as I remember. The first time I read that title was when the pictures of the Duff/Izzy demos from 95 came out, with Toothpuller as well (which had been mentioned by Dizzy in an interview in the 00's).

@Blackstar @SoulMonster do you have in the archives any mentions for 'Machine Gun' before the tape pictures surfaced a few years ago? I'm really curious about this kind of stuff.

I forgot about "toothpuller"! What a great name for a song! "Machine Gun" cool as hell.

At least, here in Brazil, I remember reading in magazines about some possible song names.

They even started to say that there was the Beer and Cigarettes and the Stooges song recorded (but only a couple years ago I understood they where TSI leftovers).