Lies They Tell

I tend to compare Axl's singing to other singers out there. There is almost nobody who can sing like Axl did in his prime. So I'm not gonna call Axl a bad singer just cause his voice isn't the same as it was in his prime. Otherwise I would have to call 99% of all singers terrible. I don't personally think that Axl sounds too great on Hard Skool live, but then again almost nobody could sing that song properly live. His performance is fine considering his age. But Axl does still sound great on many songs. Especially on songs that require normal singing voice, like Witchita Lineman and The Seeker. 95% of all singers only use their normal singing voice ever. But I do think that Axl sounds amazing on many trickier songs as well, like Nightrain, Chinese Democracy and even Shadow of Your Love for example. What Axl did in his prime was inhuman. What he's doing now is either ok, good or amazing depending on the song he's singing.

I wasn't really looking for a big argument either. I was mainly just talking about my own experiences as well. Especially now that Slash and Duff are back in the band, my experience has been that GNR has become like any other classic rock band. You rarely see anyone mocking the band, which was more or less the norm in the early 2000's. So in that sense it's way easier to be a GNR fan these days. You kinda misunderstood what I meant with the comparison to The Rolling Stones and AC/DC as well. I was talking about casuals and especially the younger generations. These people know barely anything about Axl's reputation. All they know is that GNR is a legendary classic rock band. In that sense it's very much comparable to The Rolling Stones or AC/DC. The young people of today know perhaps three songs from The Rolling Stones, They know perhaps three songs from AC/DC and the know perhaps three songs from GNR. In fact GNR beats The Rolling Stones in streaming numbers and that's not a passionate fanboy comment. It's just a fact. But that's besides the point. My point is that the band's reputation isn't what it was in the nineties anymore. Now it's just a legendary old rock band. I mean some of them clearly are stuck in the nineties. They have the exact same arguments as back in the day. I swear I've heard someone say just recently that there will be a democracy in China before Axl releases Chinese Democracy. 😂 Obviously some of them just don't like the music. But my point is that it's not as bad as it used to be, which you agree with so yeah.

Are you sure about that? My experience is that it's way easier being a GNR fan these days. In the nineties there was this weird alternative vs classic rock thing going on. And after GNR broke up GNR became pretty much a joke. I don't sense that kind of mentality anywhere these days. The only people who really mock GNR these days are some people who still think they're living in the nineties and still think there's some kind of a Axl vs Kurt Cobain war going on. 😂 But for everyone else GNR is like The Rolling Stones or AC/DC. Just a legendary band. Even people who don't listen to rock music respect the band.

Yes, I'm talking about a real "normal" song. Just like all the officially released GNR songs have been so far. Not a cover song or a live song either, but a real studio track with vocals from Axl that we haven't heard before. Great that we're doing this! I'm going to take a closer look at that BetOpenly site soon and I'll shoot a message in your inbox afterwards, so we can talk about the details.

Why are you making this so difficult? You don't believe that Axl has any songs with finished unheard post 1999 vocals in the vault except for The General maybe. So let's make a bet that if GNR releases within the next 10 years a song other than The General, with full vocals that we've never heard before, that is not a cover song, then I win. If he doesn't release a song like that then you win. Obviously that excludes songs with Blood in the Water vocals cause we have already heard those vocals. We can even make a rule that the song must have at least 50 words that are not copy pasted from any song that we've heard before. How does that sound like? I'm genuinely trying to adjust this bet so that you'd be fine with it. You just need to tell me what you're unhappy with. I believe that we've never even heard the titles of most unreleased GNR songs, so I'm not gonna bet what songs exactly will be released within the next 10 years. But I bet that we will hear an original GNR song, other than The General that has at least 50 words of vocals that we've never heard before. So, do we have a bet?

I mean ANY bet could get cancelled with the other party dying unexpectedly or something. If you fear losing on a bet you can always come up with excuses not to make the bet. But like I said this forum has existed for decades and it is the most popular GNR forum. MYGNR has tons of users who have been here forever and have no reason to go elsewhere to talk about GNR, so most likely MYGNR will be here ten years from now. If you win the bet, all you have to do is to come here and tag me in your post to remind me of the bet. Then you'll get your money. What do you have to lose? If you actually believe all the bullshit that you're spreading here, this should be easy money for you. So are we going to make the bet or not? It's up to you.

AC/DC songs and Guns n' Roses songs are very different. That's why singing AC/DC was easier for Axl in 2016. Brian Johnsson songs are full of screaming and in 2016 Axl sounded raspy always when he was screaming. Even on GNR songs. But in general Guns n' Roses songs are more melodic and melodic songs are more difficult to sing with a raspy voice. That being said, I don't think he can sing like that anymore, but he didn't lose that raspy screaming voice immediately after the AC/DC gigs either. Shadow of Your Love is the closest thing to a Brian Johnsson type song on the GNR setlist, because that song is pure screaming from start to finish. Axl used to sound pretty raspy on that song in 2018, which means that he would have sounded pretty raspy on AC/DC songs in 2018 as well. Over the years even Shadow of Your Love has become less raspy and the way he sings it now is the closest indication of what Axl would sound like today if he sang AC/DC. So if you want to know what Axl would sound like today singing AC/DC, just watch a recent Shadow Of Your Love performance. It's not bad, but it's not really the same as before either.

Honestly I'd be pretty thrilled about that! 😄 They haven't played that song in decades.

Why would this forum be down after 10 years? It's been around for decades and it's the biggest GNR forum. There's been people like you on this forum since forever. Before CD was released there were people who were sure that the songs Axl had played live were the only songs he had written and no Chinese Democracy would ever be released. When rumours about a reunion started to stack up there were people here who acted like they're the only rational ones and everyone who believed in a reunion was a delusional idiot. What you're doing is nothing new, but it's annoying. You're not rational just cause you believe the absolute worst about Axl. That's not rationality and throughout the history of this forum people like you have always been wrong. It's of course good to be a little sceptical when it comes to Axl. When you're a GNR fan you should keep your expectations low. Axl releases music in an extremely slow pace and if you're expecting GNR to work like a normal band you will be disappointed a lot. So if you just want to keep your expectations low, I get that. But you have to admit that you're irrationally sceptical. People like you claimed that there's no unreleased music in the vault, until the leaks happened. If the song Seven leaks tomorrow and it has full vocals by Axl, you will say that it's the only unreleased GNR song on which Axl has recorded full vocals since 1999. I don't understand why it's so diffucult to accept that there's music in the vault with full vocals that we haven't heard yet? I understand if you want to keep your expectations low, but it's mostly your attitude that people have a problem with it. For example you tell people to grow up cause they don't agree with your silly statements. You are exactly like the people who told others to grow up cause they saw the signs that a reunion was very likely happening. So why did I suggest this bet? Cause I don't think you're even half as confident with your statements as you pretend to be. You're probably trolling. But I wanted to make a bet with you cause I am actually confident that GNR will release music within the next ten years that will prove that Axl has recorded a lot more vocals since 1999 than you think. You act like your argument is the rational one and people who disagree with you should grow up, so I want you to prove that you actually believe in your claims yourself and you're not just trolling. Are you as confident in your claims as you claim to be? Are you as confident in your claims as I am in my claims? Are you willing to make the bet cause I am. Are we going to make the bet or not? It's up to you.

You might be right about that, but I wouldn't be the one who chickens out of it. If you think we should lower the bet or something, I'm fine with that. I see what you're saying and we can refine the bet for sure. Blood in the Water was a weird remix of the song Prostitute. We can agree that new versions of previously released songs don't count and cover songs don't count either. So how does this bet sound: If GNR releases a song other than Atlas Shrugged, Perhaps, The General, Soulmonster/Monstrosity or Tonto that has full vocals by Axl recorded after 1999 and is not a cover or a new version of a previously released song, then you will to pay me 5000$. If no such song will be released within the next ten years, I'll pay you 5000$. How does that bet sound like?

Cool! I will remind you of that when it happens. So did I get this right, if GNR releases a song other than Atlas Shrugged, Perhaps, The General, Soulmonster/Monstrosity or Tonto that has full vocals by Axl recorded after 1999, you're ready to pay me 5000$? If no such song will be released within the next ten years I'll pay you 5000$. Is it a deal?

What? I want to see how far he's willing to go with his bullshit. 😄

Here's a question for @Pele Since you always state so confidently that Axl hasn't recorded vocals since 1999, are you willing to bet on it? I bet 5000$ that within the next ten years GNR will release a brand new or a CD-era song, (other than Perhaps and Atlas Shrugged) that have full vocals by Axl. If no such songs will be released within the next 10 years, I'll pay you 5000$. But if they release a song with full vocals by Axl recorded after 1999, you'll pay me 5000$. What do you say? Do you believe in your claims enough to make that bet or are you just talking bullshit confidently?

I've entertained the idea that the song could be about Axl, but in that case who would be the person who didn't spare efforts in saving what they had? Slash? I doubt that Axl would have written a song about a heroic Slash back in the day. 😂 I'd say that it's pretty certain that at least initially Axl wrote the song from his own point of view. Slash was the one who threw it all away and Axl was the one who didn't spare efforts to save what they had. But it's possible that these days he might view it more like a song about the break up in general and it's not really relevant who is who in the song. To a certain degree they all tried to play it cool and threw it all away. To a certain degree they all tried to save what they had. It depends on the point of view. I think that the song could be seen as a song about the breakup in general.

To be fair, we don't actually know if it's a recent decision by Axl to include the Eye On You vocals on Hard Skool. It's possible that he made that decision already 15 years ago or so. The Hey's and the scream might have been a part of Hard Skool most of the songs existence. At the end of the day we were never supposed to hear Eye On You. If it wasn't for the leaks we would have never known that he used vocals from another song on Hard skool. Who knows if some vocals in the old classic songs were originally recorded for one song, but used on another song instead. We don't know cause we don't have all the unfinished songs that Axl recorded during the UYI days for example. But it's possible that he cut and pasted vocals already back then.