themadcaplaughs

Would the questions be screened by Team Brazil?

Dizzy: Hard to say since he's been sucking off the GN'R teat for so long. If he had not gotten his big break with Guns N' Roses in 1990, probably back home in Colorado.

Chris: Probably still invovled with music, but probably much more behind the scenes type stuff. I think one of the biggest persks of him being in Guns N' Roses is the fact that he gets to play so many live shows.

Bumblefoot: "Bumblefoot would be in a guitar store talking about all the geeky technical aspects of the guitar and doing guitar classes." Previous poster summed it up well.

DJ Ashba: As others have said, he certainly had a viable career being in Sixx A.M. and his work with Crue. I would guess, had he not gotten the extra exposure of being in Guns N' Roses, he would have either worked more on studio work (didn't he produce some Neil Diamond album?) and his merchandise.

Richard: About the only member of the band who I cannot see having any real different career path had he been in GN'R or not. He'd still be playing and touring with big names in pop and rock.

Frank: Same as above. As others have said, this is mainly becuase of his connection to Richard.

Tommy Stinson: Probably continued with Soul Asylum...or dead.

A lot of repressed homoerotocism coming to the forefront in this thread.

I'm sure there were many reasons why he left, Ijust bet sharing lead duties was probably one of the big ones. And when Isay he just stood there, I mean he literally just stood there. He would stop playing and just stand there and look around. Not a lot but enough that if you watch that concert you notice it. It was mostly during some of the old songs.

Also Iremember reading somewhere that bucket and robin didn't really like each other much. Robin thought he was the lead guitar player and then buckethead shows up and i think it pissed robin off. I always find it interesting that when people talk about the 02 line up they act like bucket and robin were amazing together, when actually it was the opposite. It was two guys taking turns to play, it wasn't cohesive. But like I said before robin wasn't needed. Fortus and buckethead could have been all the band needed.

in the end, it was not the reason he left (that was the cancelled tour dates and lack of new music) but Buckethead was certainly not keen on sharing the stage with Robin. Buckethead felt like Robin was a deserter, and was pretty pissed that Robin even got back in the band, much less shared lead duties. Robin felt that he had taken an appropriate sabbatical from the band as nothing was getting done and it was perfectly reasonable for him to step back in when the band was playing shows, and it seemed, might actually be releasing music. Robin did not think it was right that in his absence, some random guy had just walked in and become the "it" member of the band.

From all accounts, Robin is an extremely nice guy, Around GN'R and Nine Inch Nails forums, I've heard nothing but good about the dude, but from all accounts (including what I've heard from people in Buckethead's camp) Robin was a real dick to Buckethead, and the two's relationship was pretty strained when they were not onstage together. I've always believed this is what accounted for the awkward Robin/Buckethead dynamic. You're right, Buckethead literally stands around on most songs until it is his turn to play some solo.

I am not as keen as on the DJ Ashba/Bumblefoot pairing as I was for Buckethead/Robin (or even Bumblefoot/Robin for that matter) but I will admit Bumblefoot seems to be a much better about integrating himself as part of a "band." The man always seems to be playing something on stage.

Possibly my favorite interview by an Guns N' Roses member past or present.

I've been a fan of Buckethead since 1999, and know a few people in his camp who can confirm it is true. Looking at it, it's obviously Buckethead, and his Wikipedia page confirms he played in this band.

In 1988 after leaving the band Class-X, Carroll entered a song called "Brazos" into a Guitar Player magazine contest. It was a runner-up, with editors raving:

Furthermore if you contact the gentleman who put up the video, he will tell you in detail about working with Brian. He's talking about real stuff, and is not just trying to make up shit to say he knew Buckethead.

I, personally, always thought Robin was great. In regards to those who used to flame him and now miss him, sometimes you don't know how good something is until it's gone. With DJ Ashba we have a guitarist that not only mangles solos, but has absolutely no character or his own. I haven't watched that video of Robin playing "Better" with the band in 2012 since the show came online last year, but the difference is literally night and day.

Video of Buckethead playing in a band from the 1980s before he adopted the "Buckethead" persona. This is real and I can confirm it. The man who posted the video was in the band and is very kind about answering Buckethead related questions.

Whether you like what he has to say or not...his delivery is funny. That being said, notice that even though the crowd is "booing" Guns N' Roses/Axl, when he asks the name of the other song Axl plays piano on, almost everyone in the audience seems to know it's "Estranged."

I guess my point is everyone is just caught up in the moment. He was telling a funny story with lots of exaggerated details (as almost everyone does when retelling a story for laughs) and the crowd is getting caught up in it. And, as others have said, it's not like Axl hasn't had some negative things to say about other bands/artists (Kurt Cobain, Metallica rant in 1993, and the incident with The Eagles of Death Metal in 2006).

So is this guy actually playing a show or what?

^^^

This. I sincerely doubt it was the sole reason for hiring DJ, but I'm sure the appeal was not overlooked by Axl and managers.

Marc a copuple questions:

1. You said you thought Gilby fit the band better live than Izzy did. Just wondering why you thought so? I do not necessarily disagree, but I rarely say people say Gilby did anything better than Izzy.

2. What did you mean when you said you could understand why Axl would want to write with Paul?

I had not idea that any real recordings of Zakk working with Axl existed (outside of maybe some rehearsal tapes of him playing with Slash). From what you said Marc, it sounds like there were some actual working songs going on. That must have been exciting!

From what I've heard before (and pretty much reaffirmed in Duff's book) even thought Duff was technically still a member of the band, his prsence in the studio was close to noneixstent. As Marc said, he had a lot going on in his life at the time (I think this was right around when his first child was born).

I mean Bumblefoot has gone on record saying that he's a huge fan of Slash's work. I think it has more to do with in someone in the current band collborated with Slash.

I'm sure all of the classic lineup still reels from how it went down. Despite attempting to appear aloof: I'm sure Slash and Duff both still have bad days thinking about how shitty things got and would reunite the classic lineup in a second. Adler, (as much as I love the dude) is a major fuck up and I'm sure feels ill will and hurt about GN'R 24/7. I feel even Izzy, who seems the most removed from the whole deterioration of the old band, often wonders how it went from being the world's most dangerous rock band to the state is was in when he left in 1991.

No

Recurring dreams huh.

Thats the thing though, the album wasn't just 'around the corner'. Had you been told in 2006 of what you'd prefer - The album being out for a few years and constant touring or a fairly strong 8 month tour and then Axl going into obscurity again and not hearing from him until 2009, I'm sure you'd be happy with the current situation.

THIS! Remember mid-2009, when the band was rehearsing with DJ Ashba, and then suddenly packed up all their shit and did not tour until the tail end of the year. There were rumours that Axl was completely off his rocker, and would never tour again just to spite Irving Azoff. There were literally fans during this time who claimed that if they never heard new music they'd be fine, so long as the band toured again and we got to hear Chinese Democracy songs live. Grass is always greener.

They had the opportunity to make all these decisions in 1990-1991. The albums have been out for over twenty years. For better or worse, their imperfections are part of their identity.

No.

The unreleased Chinese era stuff with FInck/Buckethead. Not only am I curious to hear the music, but I feel it would be a good way to FINALLY close that era of the band.

Bumblefoot, fortus, and the fact that the band isn't going into long reclusive years like 94-99 and 03-05

This. It seems like people have fogotten the days where we'd go YEARS without hearing a single word about anything. If someone had told me in say, mid 2009, that there would be a time when people were actually complaining about the band touring too much I would have laughed.

Favorite 3:

1. Shackler's Revenge

2. This I Love

3. Chinese Democracy

Least Favorite 3:

1. Scraped (only song on the album I truly do not like)

2. Riad n' the Bedouins

3. Sorry

Mix of being the last song from Use Your Illusions out and people being "balladed out" by "November Rain" and "Don't cry."