themadcaplaughs

I'd agree it's closer to what NGOG said. It just seems to be his go to picture pose. There are numerous videos on the Internet of him walking in to a place smiling, making that face when a picture is taken, and then smiling again seconds later (often usually laughing with the person taking the picture). People read way too much into it. As for his "sad" looks when candid pictures are taken, have someone take a picture of you every hour for a day (and allow that person to take the pictures when you do not necessarily expect it). Chances are, you'll looked "bummed" in at least a few.

Whatever he wants seems pretty good to me

I remember Marc Canter mentioning that during the "lost years" of 1994-2000 Axl would often attend shows and just sit in the audience. Marc's opinion was most people probably thought it was Axl, but they felt the chances of him actually being in the pit were so small that they just didn't acknowledge him.

That picture never ceases to crack me up. Mother Goose at his finest.

The show I attended in Atlanta in 2011 at Philips Arena had such poor attendance that they closed off a good portion of the balcony and relocated many people to the seats near the stage.

As much as I love Buckethead, I'd have to say Robin only for the fact that he was there for so long, and as others have pointed out, was one of the few unifying sounds between each song. Brain would get a close second.

Absolutely zero.

The whole section of fans who whine about Dizzy are the same ones that go on and on about how the band should have ended when Steven Adler left and if he had stayed on, the Use Your Illusion albums would have been "raw" and "have a sense of swing." Hell, I'd even grant credence to the Steven argument since he was an original member. Point is, everyone hating Dizzy has been revisionist history. When Use Your Illusion I and II came out and Dizzy was in the credits, no one cared. When he got his moment on tour to play on "Estranged" and play bongos for almost every other song, no one gave a shit. Yet when Slash writes in his book that no one really wanted Dizzy, all of a sudden he was the second sign (after Steven leaving) of the end of GN'R.

I'll let you in on something, Dizzy Reed made ZERO impact on the course of Guns N Roses or the sound of the albums. If he hadn't have been there, those parts would have been recorded by something else.

I've always imagined "I.R.S." to be one of the songs that is most clearly about Axl's romantic relationships.

Have at least one friend who casually enjoyed "Welcome to the Jungle" and "You Could Be Mine," but was completely floored when he listened to it in my car out of curiosity. He was floored by the first three songs. I believe he ended up buying it on vinyl.

^^^ If there is one band I know more about than Guns N' Roses, it's Smashing Pumpkins. Fact is, even at the height of their fame, Billy Corgan did 95% of the songwriting and instruments (besides drums of course). That's not to say James Iha (the second guitarist from the original lineup) or D'arcy (the bass player) did not have a say in the music, but it was much less of a collaborative effort than a group like the GN'R that put out Appetite for Destruction. If you want to be more specific, the lineup of Smashing Pumpkins that recorded Oceania is more of a "group" in the word than specific lineup. Every member of the current lineup plays on the albums.

I still miss James and D'arcy though.

Saying, "no one gives a fuck about them" is mean-spirited. I agree that they might not have recorded a lot of output, and were not in the band a terribly long time, but their presence was vitally important to GN'R. Even if they just acted as a stepping stone for the AFD lineup to get together, they are just as important as everyone else.

If they want to be even remotely remembered as something other than Axl's backing band, they need to release albums and keep a stable lineup. Buckethead was the only member to ever get any attention by casual fans. When I see a GN'R show, about as many people ask me if Buckethead was playing as those who ask if Slash played.

Glad to see we're back to dick swinging about what the original lineup of Guns N' Roses was. The "nuGNR" label was something that only attained negative connotation here. Bumbelfoot and Axl have both said they see the "classic" Guns N' Roses and the new lineup as two different entities working towards a similar goal. I believed Bumbelfoot summed it up as the 1987-1993 period was Guns N' Roses and the 2001-present is GN'R.

Apparently Axl felt the same way. He mentioned numerous times during the early 1990s that he would want to work with Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails and obviously poached one of the band's most important guitarists.

My guess would be that these are titles that Robin mentioned over conversation. "Welcome Back to the Jungle" was probably just a working title of a riff.

Clearly it was Teddy Zig Zag

To me it's like when movies are re-released with new footage or director's cuts. I suppose it's, in a technical sense, "better," but it is overriding the fact that these albums were the artistic creations of the band from 1990-1991 Yes, the Use Your Illusion albums have some throw away tracks on them. Yes, the albums' sequencing is flawed. Yes, the drum sound is awful. Yes Izzy's guitar is barely audible on the majority of tracks. Yes the ridiculous synth sounds and weird vocal mannerisms sometimes stick out like sore thumbs. Yet, I still love these albums because of their imperfections. It is an interesting look at a band that had more or less shattered and was being held together by glue. A true testament to the time, and I'm glad we got it before the band completely imploded. There are some defining moments on there.

Also Gilby, did he leave on good terms with Axl? He seemed nice & is still busy in the music industry.

Gilby was the first "old Gunner" Axl talked to after the original band died in 1997. Axl played with Gilby (who was in the house band) at some club in L.A. Whether or not they have talked since then I have no idea.

"Think About You"

"Move to the City"

"Don't Damn Me"

We heard it here first. Thunderchucker himself is screwing it up for everyone

Any "merkiness" Axl discussed was just Merck dong typical manager things. Axl just creid fould becuase he did not like the idea that Merck was actually doing manager things that required him sometimes putting Axl in situations he did not back 100%. Merck was the only manager we've had for New Guns N' Roses that perfectly understood that business realities of working with a name like Guns N' Roses but still seemed to completely respect the new band.

On the other hand, it it was not for Azoff's connections, we probably still woult not have Chinese Democracy.

People are excited based on stuff members, friends and acquaintances of the band have said about 'em.

I'm not denying that the prospect of new music is exciting, and I'm as pumped about it as anyone, but people literally talk about these tracks like they know what they're going to sound like. It's different than Chinese Democracy where we'd hear about a third of the album either live or through leaks by 2006, and over half of it by 2008.

I mean, what do we know. Bumblefoot has described one song ("Goin' Down" I think) as "earthy" and mentioned that it was written by Tommy, and also mentioned that he had recorded a guitar solo for "The General." That's really about it...

Take a look at "Sorry," one of the few songs from Chinese Democracy we did not hear until the album was released. Sebastian Bach mentioned that sounded like "doom metal" and had a "grinding riff" and immediately the boards went nuts and everyone wanted to hear "Sorry." Now I frequently see it listed as many board members' least favorite tracks and most frequently pointed to as a track the band should abandon live.

It still makes me laugh that people are "excited" about specific songs and seem to know how they sound even though we know next to nothing about them.

Tied with "Scarped" for the worst song off the album.