Righter

Just another quick note -

As for breakups and bitterness - well, it's natural to feel some when a project dear to your heart is, in effect, betrayed by somebody you've counted on. And yes, the whole 'truth is in the middle' thing - only really works for people who'd rather not have to decide who they believe. A few years ago, me and some friends put together a partnership, and the fact of the matter is, that I was the most qualified and I was the one teaching them most of what they knew regarding the business we were in - and then - trouble started and things got worse, and we broke it up.

I remember common friends would come in, not wanting to 'entirely' believe either side regarding events - and it's just a bit of a cop-out. Some stories do have a bad guy in them, and believing otherwise means you're trying to be fair to the 'bad' guy at the explicit expense of the 'good' guy in the story. It's not quite fair.

As for Duff, I don't think Axl is quite saying that Slash & Duff both lied their asses off - as somebody here put it, more that Slash was doing some serious manipulating, and Duff couldn't quite keep up and landed on the wrong side of the issue, so to speak.

Anyway, I think it's better for future dialogue to keep discussions about the old members to a minimum - otherwise, we're bound to get dragged into long-winded fan wars. With this final statement from Axl regarding what happened and how - it's probably time to give this particular issue a break.

Axl,

Thanks, and I have to say you're being way cool with all this. We all (well, almost all) really appreciate you taking the time to settle some of these issues directly - I think it's fair to say that for a lot of us - Gn'R has always been something that's really mattered and touched us on a very personal level. That you understand that well enough to take the time to answer our questions when really, I'm quite sure you could be doing much more entertaining things that don't involve you getting scrutinized is actually quite generous of you. Much appreciated.

I hope you weren't bugged too much by me asking about the whole 'Axl refusing to get on stage' incident - but I really thought it should be addressed since, as I mentioned, it's by far the worst story that was going around.

Unfortunately, as you say - when one party chooses to be silent while the other one goes around pushing their own views and agenda - well, it's very easy for people to side with the person who's side of the story they're hearing. I've been in similar circumstances myself, where I get portrayed as the bad guy simply because the other side is that much more willing to talk, talk, push. Personally, despite lacking any communication from you for a long time, after hearing things like the Velvet Revolver material (not trying to start a dissing thing) I felt that if anybody was responsible for the feel I got from Gn'R - it was mainly due to your vision of what the music should be. I believed that more and more the more I heard the productions that the others made, and this was confirmed to me when I started hearing some of the leaks from Chinese Democracy.

Yes, I heard the leaks You've asked elsewhere how we think the leaks might've affected the record sales - and honestly - taking myself as an example - I downloaded everything I could find because I was really curious - but on Nov. 23rd - I immediately ordered two cd copies (an extra one to make up for having downloaded the leaks)!

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us - looking forward to seeing what topic you're up for tackling next

The worst story I think I've heard regarding the ownership 'battle' was that you got some of the other members to sign off on it by refusing to get on stage to perform during a concert - and 'forced' them to sign off right then and there. Is there any truth to this story? And could you clarify the circumstances?

Trying to be more concise so it doesn't get deleted!

Which came first? You trying to keep the name to protect the 'direction' as you saw the band disintegrate? Or do you feel that trying to keep the name might've been partly the cause of the tensions that led to the breakup of the original lineup?

My only question about the ownership of the name is this:

I've always assumed that your main drive for wanting to own the name is that you felt more personally responsible for the overall direction of the music than the others, and that the name stood for that direction more than anything else. However, disentangling the name must've been a legal mess, with a lot of financial issues. I'm wondering whether this was something you did AS the old line-up disintegrated so as to maintain control over direction or whether that desire to protect the direction came first, and might have actually created extra tensions?

Otherwise, I'm honestly fine with you keeping the name, since to my mind - your work more than any of the others - carries the 'feel' I expect from Gn'R (if not, thankfully, the old sound - as much as I loved and still love it - I'm glad it's evolved and expected no less).