themadcaplaughs

I just dont get why everone thinks this is bad....

I never fully understand the whole hate on ashba. Robin butchered slash on november rain and loads of songs. He had all the hate on this forum in 06. Funny how he gets some sort of nostalgia fandom a few years later.

DJ is a bit of a sellout but his ability is nothing to get worked up about. Especially in a band with 3 guitarists.

A least the song is melodic and not pointless shredding like every other metal band out there.

I am a big Robin fan, but I will be the first to admit that at times some of Slash's guitar solos seemed a little too difficult too him ("November Rain" being the obvious offender). That being said, Robin was a good enough guitarist and musician that when he attempted these solos, he at least sounded like he was getting through them and able to add his own unique spin on them. They may not have sounded like Slash, but they were fluid. Also, as others have pointed out, Robin's work on Chinese Democracy was top notch and really defined the album.

When you hear DJ play something out of his league (either by Slash or Robin) he resorts to gimmickry like pick slides and dumbed down versions of solos to cover up the fact that he really cannot play them well. It just sounds choppy and unfitting.

What the hell is with all the dumb giraffe tweets??

(and YES, I know the giraffe story)

It's a lesson in be careful what you wish for. For years people have been asking for Axl to be more open with his fans via social media...even if it was just shooting the shit. Now, he seems to be doing that and has spoken on two different subjects. What's the downside? We're getting pure unfiltered Axl without any third party like Beta filtering it. Problem is, Axl unfiltered has a tendency to be a little incoherent and frightening.

Axl's statement are almost as cringe worthy as Scott Weiland's statements about Axl back in 2005. They really feel like something an adolescent would find funny.

My guess as to why there was no more official explanations was because it all went into litigation fairly quickly. Axl said in 2012 that is why he never discussed it until just recently. Music business is a numbers game. If these shows had been bringing in, say, even half of what the shows on the Use Your Illusion tours were bringing in, they would have gladly kept things going. Instead, the majority of shows were half (if that) full with the notable exception of Madison Square Garden.

Ultimately, I think it's a testament to Axl/GNR's staying power that his career moved on after this. Just about any other musician's career would be sunk frp, aborting a U.S. tour after two cancellations for extremely vague reasons. Yet, in 2006 the band more or less came out the door swinging.

Buckethead quit in early to mid 2003. It just was not made public until 2004.

He didn't mention anything about the mental institution to the fan in 2006, just that he felt really bummed out after the aborted tour and often felt so depressed he'd stay in bed for days. Apparently Axl can be very open when you talk to him in person; the fan in question even mentioned being surprised by how candid Axl was.

I don't really know, Axl didn't talk about it to me and I didn't see him for a while after that.

And nobody else told you anything, not even rumors nor theories about it? I had tickets for this cancelled tour. And we never had any kind of explanation.

From the little we've heard from people about that era (2003-2005) Axl more or less fell off the face of the Earth so to speak. I remember a big rumor at the time was that he checked himself into a mental health facility to deal with exhaustion. I don't know how true that is however. That guy here who ran EatMySilkworms mentioned that when he met Axl in 2006, Axl specifically mentioned this being an extremely depressing time of his life as he felt he'd been abandoned by the fan base.

Axl's official explanation (from the Philly show in 2012) was that he told his manager to only cancel the first show, but the manager felt he could convince Axl to play the show regardless and never told the venue until the last possible minute (i.e. after the opening band had played). Why the shutdown of the whole tour? It was well known that the 2002 North American arena tour had not been an astounding success (with the notable exception of Madison Square Garden) and Clear Channel (the promoter) was probably anxious to pull the plug on the whole thing.

Lapse

So do I, but already Bumblefoot seems to be setting us up for disappointment and DJ did not exactly sound convincing in that podcast. If we do get three "new" songs, I'm guessing "Going Down" and two other songs from Use Your Illusion that have not been played before.

I will admit that I know relatively little about drums, but from what I've just heard, I feel like Frank's playing has more "feel" to it. Listening to Matt on the records he played on and live performances, it just felt robotic to me. It didn't help that his drum sound on Use Your Illusion I and II is just awful (not his fault though). It was a little better on The Spaghetti Incident but not much. I will say, however, that I'd be most interested in an alternate history Guns N' Roses where Matt stayed on board for Chinese Democracy. Most of his playing on Use Your Illusion I and II was him playing to songs that Adler had already written parts for, so I'd really have loved to see how Matt brought his own stamp to newer material.

I'd put Sorum as my least favorite. He's a very able and competent drummer, but his playing with Guns N' Roses just lacked any kind of groove that Adler, Freese, Brain, or even Frank brought to the table.

Also, as Amir said, I have not problem with his playing in other projects. I just feel like it was an ill fit with Guns N' Roses, but I have nothing for respect for the guy. He learned a LOT of songs and played them without error on the Use Your Illusion tour

This topic has probably been exhausted repeatedly but I haven't been around the forum long enough to see this come up.

So yeah, Axl worked with roughly 20 billion producers on CD, including Mike Clink and the guy from Queen. He finally settled on Caram Costanzo, who quite frankly is no slouch (He's got a lot of credits with Pearl Jam and STP and I can't complain there).

Nonetheless, all of the producers do not alleviate the fact that Chinese Democracy isn't really that good of an album. It's a thick mess of music that, for the most part, is either inaccessible or just not very good. This all makes me wonder if the producer has anything to do with this problem. If the producer is at fault though, then they can easily be the solution. That being said, I can only wonder what would happen if Rick Rubin, arguably the greatest producer of the past three decades, decided to produce the next GNR album.

I mean, he's obviously got a versatile track record; a slew of critically acclaimed albums spanning a variety of genres. From Slayer to the Avett Brothers to Eminem, he's proven he can make a good record regardless of the artist. He's also proven that he can revive a dying career (Johnny Cash, Iggy Pop, Black Sabbath).

I think he's exactly what GNR needs; someone who can tell Axl no and push the band in a cohesive direction. I would imagine that he'd be able to do an excellent job in returning the band to its hard rock roots. Aside from that, he could easily use the technical proficiency of the new lineup to his advantage and I could even see him working with the unique sound that defined CD so much. It's not a long-shot to say he could make an album full of songs that were of "Better" quality (In both sound and acclaim) at the very least.

I know some audiophiles will complain of how he compresses the music to make it louder. Granted, this is a viable complaint because it's not very easy on the ears, but I don't let it detract from the fact that the man's work is fucking impeccable.

So, what do you think?

Maybe "producer who's managed to get his name on the most things" but not "best producer." For every story you hear of someone who really enjoyed working with him, there are two or three who spoke very disparagingly of him. Right off the bat, I remember Corey Taylor spoke VERY poorly of him in an interview fairly recently, and while Slash's description of him is not nearly as hostile, he seemed to agree Rubin's style is very "hands off."

The common complaint seems to be that Rubin works only in very broad ideas / themes for albums, and does very little actual, in-studio work, with bands leaving that mainly up to his engineers and affiliates. When discussing him, it seems like his plan for Black Sabbath was "sound more like old Black Sabbath" and his plan for Metallica was "sound like old Metallica."

The fact is, I just do not see this approach working with Axl. The obvious problem would be that Rick's biggest piece of advice for a Guns N' Roses album ("try to sound like AFD or UYI era GN'R) would probably not be met very well by Axl. Second, the idea Guns N' Roses album you describe, which matches Axl's grandeur with the more "rock n' roll" production of earlier albums, would take a LOT of time to perfect, and I just doubt Rubin would be the type of producer to put in the time.

You know there'd be a video cuz Rubin wants his mug in that shit.

Was he like that before Berzerk? I remember thinking it was really weird that he was suddenly showing his face.

He was in those awful commercials for Jay-Z's album. I don't know anything else off hand. But his stupid bouncing head to Jay-Z's terrible song in that commercial plus his Berzerk appearance plus deciding it was necessary to join Em in live performances of the song, just irked me so much that I imagine he's been ubiquitous. I find him visually annoying, if that makes sense.

Jay-Z ad was even more annoying considering Rubin had no part in the making of that album.

Some more recap...

-"Stuff" prevents Axl from being on time for Guns N' Roses shows

-The rant in "Get in the Ring" was entirely Duff and Slash's idea and they completely abandoned him when the shit hit the fan

In all seriousness though, it would be dumb to expect Trunk to actually throw out hard questions. As Estranged Reality pointed out, it was the same vibe as the 2006 interview. More, "let's chat" with a few serious questions thrown in every now and again (or when Axl decided to drop something). Actually, if you really compare the 2006 and 2011 interviews, they got a lot more out of Axl than the first time.

Appetite for Destruction: It's So Easy

GN"R Lies: Reckless Life

Use Your Illusion I: Don't Damn Me

Use Your Illusion II: Estranged

The Spaghetti Incident: You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory (one of my least favorite songs on the album, but great title).

Universal did not want to release Chinese Democracy due to the high expectations of the Guns N' Roses album. Former Guns N' Roses Manager Azoff convinced them to release the album with tracks that have already been leaked with some weaker songs. Azoff also promised that for the release of the next album, that he would have Slash and Duff back in the band. Slash would rework all of Robin Fincks parts and Duff would add some filler parts in. The following album was to have a new name instead of Chinese Democracy II. Several names had been tossed around: "Guns N' Roses", "Reloaded", "Black-Out". Universal felt that the tracks for the follow up album would make a very strong rock record.

In the USA, both Wal-Mart and Best Buy were competing for having exclusive rights to sell the album because of it's novelty. When Wal-Mart representatives heard the tracks, they knew it was not going to sell because it was an average album and pulled out. Best Buy had been used as leverage multiple times against Wal-Mart for exclusive album deals. Best Buy was so hungry to get an big exclusive deal that they jumped at the chance even though it broke them for their Holiday advertising and had nothing to promote the album with. Universal and Azoff won big on the deal.

Azoff told Finck that he was fired, leaving Axl short a guitarist. Axl had no clue that this happened. Azoff tried to convince Axl that it made good business sense to bring in Slash. It would have helped album sales. Then Azoff told Axl that he was working on a Mega Tour with Van Halen and to make things work They wanted Slash in Guns N' Roses. Axl said he might be open to it, if the tour can be worked out. The tour never materialized, Axl went on a search for another guitarist. Azoff and Universal were not happy with it. Axl along with other management brought in Ashba and set new tour dates with the intention of releasing Chinese Democracy II in the near future.

That's cool that a nobody like you knows all this information.

One of the best interviews I've seen around here in a while.

I would rather see new songs, but if it were to happen I certainly would not be opposed. Although, I'd be very wary of what kind of guitar wanks Bumblefoot would pull out for "Locomotive."

- Watching him play that springing keyboard drunk off his ass

- His towel action at Bridge School Benefit

- Singing with Neil Young at Bridge School

- His semi-molestation of that woman who was interviewing him a few months back

In all seriousness though, I think his musical contributions to the album are undeniable. He pretty much makes "If the World." That being said, I can understand the opinion that he is relatively unnecessary playing live, especially when we only get three of four Chinese Democracy songs at a typical concert now. I just like blowing peoples' minds that this is a rock band that has three guitarists and two keyboard/synthesizers guys. If Brain had gone along with Axl's idea to have two drummers, it would have been even more hysterical.

Ok, I'm not trying to put it all on Izzy because I know why he left and I guess in a way it would fall back on some of the things that were happening at that time which was what really cased Izzy to leave.

However I still say if Izzy didn't leave, the band would have been able to make more records with that lineup.

I see your point. But keep in mind that Axl wanted to go in another direction musically. I don´t see Izzy being a big fan of industrial/electronic/overproduced music. The problems Axl had with Slash and Duff he would´ve had them with Izzy as well. Besides Izzy didn´t belong in the partnership anymore just like Slash and Duff. Izzy had a lot more good reasons to stay out than to stay in.

Izzy was back in 1993 because of Gilby´s accident. Izzy was willing to give it a second chance. He clearly didn´t like what he saw.

I do not think Izzy's intention was ever to "give it a second chance." I think he was just helping out the band in a time of need. From all accounts, he was pretty relieved to be done with playing with the band after those shows in 1993.

A lot of people here who know what they're talking about say that Izzy leaving was the beginning of the end. It's almost universally accepted amongst fans of the old band, I think.

Definitely agree, although I'd have to say that off all the things that have happened to GN'R, opinions on Izzy have changed the most since he left the band in 1991. At the time, once the word finally came out that he was gone (it was a more or less hush hush deal when it first happened) a lot of people saw it as him abandoning ship and being too much of a "pussy" to be able playing in a band as big as Guns N' Roses. Years later, seeing how quickly the band fell apart after he left and how quickly the relationships between everyone went to shit, it's obvious Izzy probably jumped ship before it sank.

I've never understood how it became considered fact that Axl planned on releasing this. From the few times he's mentioned it, he's made Axl made it sound like it was for rehearsal/learning purposes.

It is the most ridiculous excuse you've ever heard until you've read what he's said previously:

As for "Axl Time," Rose's infamously late appearances onstage, which, according to Slash's autobiography, "Slash", were one of the main reasons key "Appetite For Destruction" songwriter and former GN'R rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin left the band, Ashba claims that they have nothing to do with the enigmatic singer — they are the fault of the room-service staff at the band's hotels. "It isn't even Axl that's late, it's always our room service that's late. We're waiting to eat before we go on," Ashba joked.

Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/d-j-ashba-it-will-be-a-cold-day-in-hell-before-axl-and-slash-play-together-again/#qlKgczToi0IHk4vA.99

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/d-j-ashba-it-will-be-a-cold-day-in-hell-before-axl-and-slash-play-together-again/

Yes you read right. He says the room service is always late at the hotels which is why they always go on late.

This guy is ridiculous. Everyday he remains in GNR it loses more credibility (if that's even possible at this point).

I really hate to defend any of the garbage that falls out of Ashba's mouth, but I really think this is him joking around / avoiding giving a real answer to the question.

Missed the classic lineup or any variation of it...

First show was 01/01/2001 at House of Blues.

Ten years later saw them in Philips Arena in Atlanta.

Great show. It's even more of a cuiro considering the fact that this was really one of the last times a show like this could be held with no fan recorded footage and only a handful of photographs circulating.

My gut says 3 new songs means 3 NEW songs i.e. Bucket era. Which is the best news I could hope for, personally.

They wouldn't make a big deal of announcing cryptically, via MYGNR, that they were merely going to add unplayed classic era songs to the set.

We're going to hear Atlas, or The General or Thyme. That is the best thing ever.

That would be what I would hope, and what would make most sense, but this is Team Brazil era Guns N' Roses we're going with...

My personal, trying to avoid disappointment, guess would be that we'll get...

"Going Down" (Counting as the "brand new" song)

New cover

New UYI era song... (my guess would be "Yesterdays." I just don't think he has the drive required to do "Perfect Crime" justice)

Willing to bet a good bit of money that this was 40 minutes after the show and not before.

Also, many have pointed out, but pretty awesome that the only time Axl seems genuinely happy in the video is when he's talking about a cowboy hat.