D..

On 5/8/2022 at 9:30 PM, GnR Chris said:

So much assumption here. lol

Axl has always changed his look. 

May be wrong. I have the deepest sympathy for Axl.

Beautiful soul.

17 hours ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

I’m sure he does to an extent, I don’t think he really cares though.

He cares, 100%. He's very sensitive. Look at his weight loss within a year, it's spectacular at his age. If he didn't care about his image/what people think/say of him, he wouldn't be in this shape.

He also changed his hairstyle several times because he saw people complaining (biggest example is between 2006 & 2009), and shaved the mustache. He also dresses differently and tries to stick to what he wore in the 90's, tries to wear less clothes.

It's not just physical, he has also gotten rid of the rants, of anything negative he had to say about whatever/whoever (except politics but then again, he's sticking to what the whole us showbiz is saying), he's become much more mellow. That way he doesn't get negative press like he used to.

He's not the same person he was in the 90's, or the 2000's, or the early 2010's. He's changed tremendously. Because he cares of what people think/say of him. You don't change that much if you don't care.

He used to influence a lot of people in the 80's/90's, but clearly it's the other way around now, he's influenced by the general consensus, and has been for a long time. I don't blame him, it's hard to keep your true nature, especially in this day & age.

That being said, even though I prefer the old Axl, I respect his sensitive side. He's clearly a very nice, generous & open-minded person.

On 5/1/2022 at 10:24 PM, We love Axl Rose said:

My comment has been deleted due to a problem with the forum, so I will write again.

 looks great !

Very good performance of SCOM. The PC sounded good, but the one from the last show of last year's tour is the best since 2016.

That last pic is amazing, he looks just like he did 30 years ago in the same stance & scream.

He looks amazing! Very happy for him! I may reconsider attending a show. I thought he had completely let himself go and didn't give a shit no more, but he proved me wrong. Legendary Axl is back!

We'll probably get the album in a year or so, 2 years tops I think. My only hope is that "The General" is on there, that's all that matters to me at this point. State of Grace HAS to be on the album too, I love this song. Everything seems to indicate the tracklist of the next album will be songs from the Chinese Democracy vault. I hope there'll be a deluxe edition with a second disc, with the original instrumental for the songs.

This current situation reminds me a lot of what happened with Bumblefoot & Ashba. They didn't get to create anything with Axl for years. Both Ashba & Bumblefoot made remixes of existing songs, just like Slash has reworked Hard School & Absurd. At least, they finally released those songs officially.

And now Slash is releasing, yet again, his own stuff, just like Ashba & Bumblefoot had their own stuff too. None of these artists can cope with Axl's timing, it's a mutual problem.

I feel Axl needs you to commit 100% to the project, otherwise everything takes forever.

Nobody's really at fault here, they are just different people, struggling to really meet each other & create. It happens.

It's an absolute disaster, as I knew it would be. One of Axl's worst performances ever, if not the worst. It sounds like this parody channel, like I wasn't sure if the youtube video I was watching was the real thing or a fake.

Kudos to Axl for trying, we'll see if he dares trying this and singing like this every night, if he'll improve, or if he'll stop trying.

It's not bad, come on... It could've been better, is all...

But I went running and listened with my headphones, it was better for some reason. Love the rythm and Slash's work.

32 minutes ago, betterman said:

I think the organ i Dizzy but its a nice addition, it not very audible anyway..

I doubt it's Dizzy, Melissa is the one constantly using organs for whatever... I remember noticing this when seeing Guns in 2018, on Sweet Child, Melissa butchers the song with unecessary organs.

My impressions on this new Hard Skool:

-I can't help but noticing Melissa's touch, she's using the synth (sounds like organ), I don't like it.

-Axl's vocals are buried way too much in the mix. That and the echo on his voice in some parts is plain weird. It's as if they're ashamed of the lead singer, I don't get it.

I dislike the way Axl's vocals were used, and it's disappointing Axl didn't feel confident to re-record this. I understand why I guess... it's a shame Axl didn't use his wonderful

voice more when he had it.

-Love Duff's little intro, it's simple, but imo it fits better than the leak's intro

-The new tempo is better

-I absolutely love Slash's solo on this, there's a little "Dream Theater's Octavarium" vibe.

Slash made the song catchier & more fun. Stiiiill... I miss Buckethead's part at the end of the song.

But overall, it feels weird. It doesn't feel sincere because of the way Axl's vocals are used in this & mixed. It definitely feels Frankenstein, more so than any track from Chinese Democracy (even the unfinished leaks). Doesn't feel organic. Slash's work makes up for it but it doesn't completely click. The mix should be cleaner and get rid of Melissa, really. And obviously use Axl's vocals properly.

I also feel the original melody in the leak fit Axl's voice better, but it may be because of the mix, or because I'm used to the leak more. However the leak felt like a song from the 2000's, and this feels like it's from the early 90's. I like both.

I just feel it should have been mixed way better than this, there's potential with this song.

Anyway, I'm still gonna enjoy it, since we won't get this live, or barely : p 

P.S. : I like the locker's design, but it should have been done better, it looks amateur.

On 9/4/2021 at 5:03 PM, D.. said:

Pretty confident they'll release Hard School soon, probably in October. October fits the vibe of the song.

They'll release it with the same vocals from 20 years ago, like Absurd.

And I doubt Axl will sing it much live,, it's clearly too hard to sing properly with his current level. It would be a terrible advertising to play this live & butcher it, it's not like trying deep cuts like Coma & Locomotive.

I can almost predict the future, kool.

Axl will barely try this live, I stand by what I said hehe. Nice the song was finally released, very... kool.

8 hours ago, tkarmy said:

Honestly at this point who cares

duff will redo Tommy’s bass and slash will wank out some licks he couldn’t give a shit about and we will have axls 99 vocals untouched

 

There is clearly no actual song writing ever going to happen in this line up.

ive already been listening to it for years 

and Axl will sound like a horse getting castrated live 

 

 

You had to play it kool

no hard skool 4 u

1 hour ago, Free Bird said:

Ι don't doubt she met him. I mean, we saw these pictures. Still, it's all but save that Axl talked to her about new music and Fernando or whoever even let her listen to the song.

You mentioned good points why it's easy to come up with these assumptions. It's not like it's something none of us have thought about it before. It's pretty much the most logical thing to happen actually. 

I don't say she's lying, but even if they release HS this week it's not the proof she told the truth.

 

Axl always has unreleased songs with him and if he enjoys your company, he may make you listen to some stuff. You don't have to be a woman necessarily. In some very rare cases, he can even give you some songs on mp3. I know it sounds crazy but it's true. He's a very generous man.

I don't doubt this girl's story one bit, typical Axl hehe

On 8/30/2021 at 2:10 AM, mystery said:

I really wonder how much of his current voice is irreparable damage and how much of it is due to lifestyle, training, and rehearsing. Rob Halford of Judas Priest is 10 years older than Axl and he came out in 2018/19 sounding the best he'd been since the early 2000s with Halford and since the Painkiller tour with Judas Priest.

Before that Rob sounded pretty bad at times on certain songs like Painkiller, the Sentinel, and Freewheel Burning to name a few.

The rasp might be gone but Axl can still try to sing with power even with his cleaner voice. It sounds recently like even that's failing him.

I'm not a Judas Priest expert, but I don't think we can compare Axl to any other singer. A lot of Guns songs are impossible to sing. Only Axl can sing them. But I too always think of Steven Tyler and wish Axl was still rocking Guns like Steven rocks Aerosmith. I guess it's just not the same exact style & voice (without trying to make excuses for Axl).

I had a band over 10 years ago, we had a lot of auditions. I'll always remember that guy who told me it was easy to imitate Axl's voice, that Axl wasn't a real singer and he was, that he just had to force his voice...

The audition with him was a complete disaster. He could sing a lot of stuff (from other bands, and did a great job at it), but not Nightrain for example. It was terrible. Needless to say we didn't hire him.

We went for a girl, because only women can somehow do an "okay" rendition of some Guns songs. It's not genius, I hate that we had to lower our exceptations and hire a girl, but that's the only way really.

I've heard some guys cover Guns on YouTube, it's never amazing. Girls do a better job at it, but even then, I don't like it.

I think Axl's voice is mostly shot, or he would have at least redone the vocals for Silkworms/Absurd. And judging from the recent shows... he clearly can't sing the higher parts. He still does a great job on Chinese Democracy (the song) and It's so easy, songs that only require a lower register. So he can still sing and have power in his voice, just not on the higher parts.

I don't know if it's the lifestyle/training/rehearsing. Axl wasn't very fit in 2010 but he was much better than in 2006 where he was fitter. I guess it's just his vocal chords & aging and you can't do much about it.

I would prefer Axl to be very fit, but I think it's pretty clear he doesn't train throughout the year :') He must train like a month or two before the beginning of a tour, then trains during the tour, but as soon as it's over he's enjoying life. That's his way of living, that's what works for him, and who knows, he may live for another 30 years and perform in a wheelchair with the worst performance ever of his career. And you'll look back at 2021 and realize it was great! Hahaha

On 9/5/2021 at 12:32 AM, StrangerInThisTown said:

That's ridiculous. You really believe Axl will deliberately choose a song as a single that he can't sing? Why? Why would he fuck himself over like this?

Even when that ridiculous train of thought would come true, in any case they can always tune down live, that's very common. If they were smart they would just change the key of the song to one that Axl is good with, the song is unreleased anyway, maybe they did that now in the studio and that's why Absurd dropped first, who knows?

It's just my own speculation, could be complete BS.

Axl has a history of being a perfectionist, and not promoting things properly hehe. TWAT was on Chinese Democracy, and it was arguably the best song from the album (and the hardest one to sing). I've seen Guns 4 times in 2010 in hopes of hearing TWAT live. Well guess what: they didn't play it. Why? Because Axl could barely handle it even then and didn't want to blow it up. He sung TWAT when he felt like it, and it was extremely rare. And back then, he was on FIRE. Sure, TWAT wasn't a single, but what's a single with Guns in the past 20 years really? The promotion has been a disaster. I've never heard a CD track ONCE on the radio in 13 years.

Just because Guns releases a song or a full album with loads of songs doesn't guarantee every song will be played live. I don't know if Hard Skool will be considered as a single. Maybe Axl/Fernando will view this as another release to build-up the hype for the next album.

I don't know if a full album is fully recorded & mixed already, but it looks like some songs are done & ready for release, including Absurd & Hard Skool. Probably Atlas too.

Since Absurd has the exact same vocals as Silkworms, recorded 20 or over 20 years ago, I think it's safe to assume that all of the CDII songs will just be reworked by Slash (and maybe Duff) and re-use Axl's vocals from 20/over 20 years ago. This alone is a sign that Axl can't do better in a studio as of 2021. He can't beat his younger self, and doesn't look like he's willing to sing differently on the studio version. But he can still sing Absurd/Silkworms, in his own new way of doing it, it works, because this song isn't complicated/too demanding for him.

I think he can still sing Atlas Shrugged as well. As for Hard Skool, I don't see Axl singing this now. It's extremely complicated to sing, like a lot of Guns songs. The thing is, it's not the same to promote a "new" song live, and singing a deep cut. When you sing a deep cut, the audience is just happy the song is back in the setlist and knows the song already and sings along with you. But if it's something they've never heard, you better not butcher your new material because no one else will sing along (except for die hard fans). That's why I think we haven't heard Hard Skool live yet.

This song has been on the setlist for a while, the band rehearsed it several times so it's ready to be performed anytime, but Axl doesn't try it. Because he knows he can't do it justice. Maybe he'll try it at some point but get ready for a disaster & never hear it again live. I'm being pessimistic I know, but objectively, Axl's voice is shot. He can still perform great on some songs in low key, using his deeper voice, but whenever he has to sing higher & fast, it's very bad.

I don't blame him, he's almost 60, he's been the most legendary frontman ever in my eyes, he has done absolutely amazing shows, and Guns material is incredibly hard to sing. He was already complaining of You could be mine back in the day :') Imagine what he's thinking now.

I don't know whether Absurd & Hard Skool will be the biggest guns for the new album (if there's a new album). I think those songs are chosen because the vocals from 20 years ago exist, and it's probably faster to do things this way. Maybe Axl doesn't feel like doing new vocals right now, or maybe he just doesn't want to butcher his own work (from the CD vault).

I just find it very tricky to bring those CD songs back because some of those songs will be impossible to sing live. I'd love to see State of Grace on the next album, but that song too has some very hard parts to sing.

The easiest road would be to make whole new songs with this line-up, old school hard rock, easier to sing... And release a CDII boxset with all of the vault (including THE GENERAL, I want this), remixed properly, with the original players (Buckethead & so on). That way, it would be easier live for Axl, and we wouldn't be waiting for Axl to perform some CDII songs.

At this point, I don't care much what happens. I don't care if Hard Skool is played live ever since I won't attend a new Guns show given Axl's voice, I prefer my memories to what's happening now (unless a miracle happens and Axl gets back to 2010 level, but I'm dreaming). I just hope the next song releases will be nice. And I wish the best to Axl, all the band, and the marketing department.

Pretty confident they'll release Hard School soon, probably in October. October fits the vibe of the song.

They'll release it with the same vocals from 20 years ago, like Absurd.

And I doubt Axl will sing it much live,, it's clearly too hard to sing properly with his current level. It would be a terrible advertising to play this live & butcher it, it's not like trying deep cuts like Coma & Locomotive.

Absurd is a very fitting title. Is there any other example of a song being officially released 20 years after it's been performed live?

Of all songs they could've picked, they choose Silkworms to start the (maybe?) next album promotion.

Almost everything is reworked, save Axl vocals that were done 20 years ago.

It's absurd indeed, but what surprises me the most is Axl may still believe in this material.

My only interest at this point is hearing The General.

I have zero faith in this line-up doing justice to the vault, they just can't cover anything from Chinese properly (even Axl apparently since he doesn't even

re-works his vocals for this studio version and I doubt Hard School will have a different treatment, I guess it's an admission he knows he lost part of his voice),

but at least we may hear something "new" that we don't already have.

I'm semi-curious of hearing the studio version of Hard School with Slash & Duff, but I already know it won't be as good as the original version.

I think part of the problem is that Slash & Duff rework stuff, but Axl doesn't, and it's a very, very weird mix of old Guns & nuGuns. Axl's CD voice fitted the sound of the CD line-up,

but with Slash & Duff, I expected Axl to rework his vocals and go for a more raspy approach (like the 2010 This I Love remix).

Anyway, I don't care about Absurd, but it's encouraging in the sense a new album could be released soon. I just hope The General will be in there, with State of Grace, Zodiac

and Soul Monster.

And I hope we will get an alternate album with the original versions of those songs, I'd be much more interested in this than the cover version.

Ashba did a fine job and was the exact person Axl needed at that time. I don't care what anyone says. He played his part perfectly, had to learn so many parts from so many songs from all albums (with very different styles) in an extremely short time because Robin had left. I saw him 5 times live with Guns, he played perfectly and really impressed me, he's very talented. People remember the times he fd up, which also happened to Slash, but when it's Slash, he gets a pass because he's Slash, same old story.

He did have a great chemistry with Axl, and he must be the only guy from a former line-up who always had nice things to say about Axl. I don't recall him ever dissing Axl, unlike some other people (Pittman, Bumblefoot, Slash, Duff, Matt, Izzy, Steven...). He is a class act. 

Yeah I really have respect for this guy, along with Robin Finck, and Richard Fortus. When you have men like this who have a sense of respect, honor, do hard work without making dramas in a band if they have to leave or if it becomes too difficult or if you don't communicate everyday, it's extremely helpful. I totally understand Axl's pick.

Now, of course Slash plays & sounds better on his own tracks, no question. But it's not like DJ sucks. 

I think he got more s**** for his style & Tim Burton's character look rather than anything else really.

Also happened to play alongside Fortus & Bumblefoot who are insane guitar geniuses, doesn't compliment anyone who's not a guitar genius. But he does have great skills of his own.

I couldn't even finish this Locomotive pro-shot, it's... wtf is this... Some people dare defending this? Oh! Am in the fucking Twilight Zone?

 The worst thing is that Fernando or whoever edited this added some weird asf effect on Axl's voice in order to mask the atrocity, and even then it's absolutely terrible.

Sure we knew Axl's performance was very bad on this, but so what? Are we just going to say "oh thank you for this garbage, we haven't had anything new for a while"? Damn...

The most painful thing is that Slash plays great, and Axl completely butchers everything. At least if the whole band sucked, I could tell myself "okay never mind, it's over". But no, the band is tight, the only weak element is Axl here.

It's mindblowing that they're still milking this last tour when they could fire some old pro-shots from better eras when Axl was on fire. Any pro-shot from the 80's, 90's, 2000's & 2010 we haven't had before would be hugely appreciated.

They are cheapening Guns N' Roses by doing this "select NITL fine gourmet" horror BS. It becomes more & more laughable. We've almost reached Vince Neil's level.

I don't understand why they don't choose to put the best thing they have in the vault out on the market & whatever social media.

Where is the f**** new album? Where is the excitement?

Fernando & the management are clearly amateurs, I'm not even really mad at them, I just find this whole situation is too bad. The guys are not getting any younger, I'm not getting any younger, 2020 is the f worst year ever, we're all losing on this one. 

There are still LOTS of stuff to put out from the f***** vault. I don't give a rat's ass about that NITL tour!

Thank you for showing us how much it sucked with each new treat of carefully selected butchered songs BUT PLEASE STOP IT NOW! WE GOT IT!

On 10/07/2020 at 5:36 PM, CAFC Nick said:

I guess this is the most disappointing bit for me.

Axl/DC was without a doubt the single greatest vocal performance I have ever witnessed in my life. Axl was in a moon-boot and only a few weeks after Vegas so not a huge change physically, but he KNEW he had to bring his A-game or get slaughtered and his performance was truly mind-blowing.

True, Axl/DC was great, really surprising and Axl gave 100%, but I'm still to this day more amazed by any show from 2010. He was on another level back then, I loved it. 

But whether we're talking 2010 or 2016, Axl was in better shape than 2019/2020. I mean really, first show from last year, it made me sad to see him like this. Genuinely sad.

I just don't get it. I even wonder how he dares showing up like that. Disney should hire him to play a character in a Marvel movie and they will put him on their magical diet, like they did to Mark Hamill. That's why I'm certain it's still possible for him to get back on top, it's just a matter of will.

Or he could do a podcast with Joe Rogan and ask him to train him.

I don't accept Axl letting go so much. Maybe it's completely stupid that I still care, but he's one of a kind. I've been more entertained by Axl than any other artist, so it's just painful to see him not caring. The new generation is not up to my standards & mystery & whatever else, it's all so fucking boring.

We need Chinese Democracy 2 (as it was, with Bucket & everyone else from that era), a new album, a 4 hour podcast with Joe Rogan & Axl, and a properly trained Axl who looks ace. 

Instead as of now, we got ZERO & fat Axl giving zero fuck. We're definitely in the wrong timeline.

I have less complaints about this new "Select" video. At least it's way more honest than the previous one: proper pro-shot & Axl is shown as he is, physically & vocally with harder songs to perform.

It's beyond mediocre and I see a lot of people in the comments think the same. Maybe this will wake Axl up a bit.

And I couldn't agree more with the Steven Tyler comparison.

It's all in Axl's hands really. If he trains hard, I'm sure he can get back on top. Best way to get motivated is to face reality and hit it HARD!

45 minutes ago, Draguns said:

Your post reminds me of a couple of friends of mine. One guy that I know was dating his now wife back in college. He cheated on her left and right in those days. We would all cover for him stating that he was with us when he was with another woman. He told us at the time he wanted to get it out of his system before they were married and have kids. They are married and have three kids today. She never knew he cheated on her to this very day back in college. 

 Another friend of mine cheated on his wife who was a former Calvin Klein model.  The woman who he cheated with got pregnant.  The reason why he cheated was because he felt pressured by his wife to get married. He wasn't ready for marriage.  They have since divorced. 

Very sad but happens all over the world, anywhere, anytime. Some people prefer to think we're all living in Disneyworld. I gave up on that idea a while ago.

8 minutes ago, DurhamGirl said:

Totally agree with you (god this seems shallow) I dont find Matt at all attractive and really cannot imagine these ladies wanting to go further than a polite hello...

From my experience, anything can happen. Absolutely anything. It's true for men and women. Whether they come from a wealthy or poor background, there's no rule. People cheat all over the globe, in whatever culture, whatever the looks. Look at Schwarzenegger sleeping with his ugly maid while his wife was much hotter. Just look at who Stephanie Seymour married, compared to Axl.

Looks don't guarantee 100% that your bf or gf won't cheat on you. Most people who cheat on their partners do it because they're either insecure with themselves (and in most of the cases want to prove themselves they can attract somebody else, no matter what they look like) or not satisfied with the relationship or lack having confidence in their partner or jealous of their partner for whatever reason. There could be other reasons, but those are the main reasons. You'd be surprised by how many women who are with good looking guys cheat on them with ugly guys, same for men with women, etc. It drives you crazy for a moment when you become aware of how fucked up some individuals are. 

Add to that cocaïne & whatever drugs Stephanie was doing at the time, it's totally possible she cheated on Axl back then, and that Matt is telling the truth. There are rumours Axl was cheating too, but somehow I don't believe it (not while being with Stephanie I mean). 

I would add that I know or have known a lot of men & women who have been cheated on by their partners and won't ever know it. Saddest thing is that in some cases, they have had kids since then, and they've been cheated all over and absolutely don't know it and you see photographs of the parents & kids looking all happy with the mother all smile when she's fucked some ugly dude before getting pregnant. Unbelievable.

Very recently, I have a friend (guy) who is good looking, self-accomplished, no evident vice, faithful, and I know his wife (who is also a friend though now I despise her) has cheated on him times & again (wasn't me doing the cheating btw), but now they have a baby girl, just learned that weeks ago. I haven't told him and will never tell him, I'm afraid it might destroy him. I'm amazed she went on having a baby with him, this is so wrong, and it's not like it's the first time I've witnessed a story like that. The guy she cheated on with was some random ugly dude at her work and she needed to feel she could be strongly desired by a man again (her words). It's crazy.

Best advice I could give to anyone would be always be on your guard and don't take anything too seriously, very few people have real honor, and having two partners as much in love with each other & 100% faithful for at least 5 years is extremely rare. You'd be stunned if you knew all the dark little secrets of most people and who did what with who. I mean if it was Brad Pitt we were talking about, anyone could understand how a woman would have slipped, but in most cases, the guy doesn't look like anything. Same thing for some men with some ugly women. So I'm not that surprised by Matt's story, though I don't 100% buy it, it could be real. 

28 minutes ago, GnR Chris said:

Or the opposite. There’s a lot of bullshit in it and they knew the book wouldn’t stand up against a lawsuit. 

Bullshit or not, it would be hard to prove a lot of things in the book, like the Stephanie Seymour story, how do you back that up in a lawsuit? It's just word against word.

That said, no lawsuit was filed against Slash when he released his book, right? Why would they do so with Sorum, I don't get it.

Maybe it's not about a lawsuit but rather Matt being offered money to cancel the publication.

@GnR Chris We (I mean people on the boards) know a shitton of things about Gn'R, so it's not really that surprising that some things we theorized may actually be true and confirmed in his book (like how Slash & Duff could possibly appreciate Frank's drumming). And a book targets an audience far broader than just messageboards. We don't really influence much in the Gn'R world, we're just a few thousands.