Rick Deckard

I'm leaning towards no. I think the rumors are true that he's planning on it, but I think (and hope) he'll come to an agreement with Axl/management to stick around.

This.

I think he won't deny the rumors because he's playing a game of chicken with Axl/TB to get a better deal or maybe a firm commitment to having GN'R be more than a nostalgia act. It can go either way, really. 50/50. But I lean to him staying because I get the feeling Axl isn't going to want to have to go through the trouble of replacing yet another guitarist.

What are your opinions of TSI?

Right now, it's actually my favorite GN'R album. It's a blast! It's a fun, energetic record, you can tell the band was having a lot of fun making it, Axl sounds at his best on TSI IMO, and TSI? has the best production values of ALL the GN'R albums. It literally has perfect production. It isn't dated in the way AFD is, it isn't polished like the UYI, it isn't hit and miss production wise like Lies...It's aged very well and sounds production wise like an Aerosmith album.

Best songs:

Black Leather

Since I Don't Have You

Human Being

Hair of the Dog

You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory

Look at Your Game, Girl

Attitude

Ain't it Fun?

Buick Makane

I could do without:

New Rose

Down on the Forum

I Don't Care About You

Raw Power

I'd say it's an 8.5/10 album.

Nah. Axl's heart wouldn't have been in it. Slash and Duff were doomed to eventually leave GN'R, that's just the way it is, and when they did, this album would have become the "One Hot Minute" of GN'R's discography. But who knows? Maybe if Axl had agreed to do it that way, Slash would have realized it wasn't a fit and said "Actually, sing it the way you want." But I don't know. I'd have to see which songs Slash actually showed Axl before I could say "Oh yeah, would've been a much better improvement if Axl sang this!"

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those three unrecorded/performed songs the ones Duff and Izzy wrote, one of which is "Down by the Ocean"? I have no idea where I read Duff and Izzy worked on three demos exactly, but I'm pretty sure I read it. God, the "What Could Have Beens" of this band are insane.

Izzy co-wrote one song on Snakepit and Duff co-wrote another.

The "Down By The Ocean" sessions were AFTER Snakepit was released, in April 1995.

Izzy came back twice to GN'R--Sporadically throughout 1995, (including the full week where he and Duff wrote a dozen songs in April '95) and then, for several weeks with the whole band in the summer of 1996 (according to Marc Canter).

Nah. Axl's heart wouldn't have been in it. Slash and Duff were doomed to eventually leave GN'R, that's just the way it is, and when they did, this album would have become the "One Hot Minute" of GN'R's discography. But who knows? Maybe if Axl had agreed to do it that way, Slash would have realized it wasn't a fit and said "Actually, sing it the way you want." But I don't know. I'd have to see which songs Slash actually showed Axl before I could say "Oh yeah, would've been a much better improvement if Axl sang this!"

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those three unrecorded/performed songs the ones Duff and Izzy wrote, one of which is "Down by the Ocean"? I have no idea where I read Duff and Izzy worked on three demos exactly, but I'm pretty sure I read it. God, the "What Could Have Beens" of this band are insane.

One Hot Minute is the only RHCP album I like. What is wrong with Navarro?

Also, can somebody please tell me what the 1996 album was? Like, was that just a few songs they toyed with or wrote, or did they really record an entire album only to scrap it later on?

1996 album was a half finished album that was blues based in sound yet mostly Axl's material. It was described as having a sound in between AFD and UYI, but with a groove, and Duff said there was to be 12 4-minute long rock songs (no ballads). Axl described it's sound as basically a modern day Aerosmith Rocks. According to Matt, the band had 7 songs done as of summer 1996 and were going to write 7 others. The album was set to be released in 1997 but Slash's exit led to the project being shelved. There was a ton of stuff written but who knows how far they got? Slash said in an August '96 interview to MTV that between himself, Duff, and Axl, the band had written around 80 new songs.

Fun fact: Dave Navarro was the first choice to replace Izzy, before Gilby. Axl desperately wanted him in GN'R, and he was asked to join, but never showed up to audition (he had a terrible heroin habit at the time), and so Gilby was a last minute compromise given his history with and similarity to Izzy.

As is well known,

After the end of the UYI tour, Slash, Gilby and Matt (with limited help from Duff and Izzy) began working on riffs and songs for the next GN'R album. By the LA Earthquake in late January 1994, the whole of Snakepit had been recorded as demos, and 14 fully fleshed out demos were presented to Axl and the rest of the band. While Duff had helped co-write one song, he and Axl both denied it, saying it was "too Southern Rock" for GN'R.

Slash went ahead and assembled a band consisting of himself, Eric Dover, Gilby, Mike Inez of Alice in Chains, Matt, Dizzy and Teddy ZigZag, and formally recorded the material in under a month in 1994. At this point, the story gets murky. Axl apparently changed his mind and decided he would be willing to work on three songs and develop them as GN'R songs; Slash at this point said, no, sorry, it's already recorded, too late. Axl got enraged and apparently a bit of a lengthy behind the scenes battle took place.

Slash claims Axl and his lawyers threatened a lawsuit against Slash, claiming that anything he wrote as a member of Guns N' Roses was a Guns N' Roses song and thus belonged to the band. Axl claims he had multi-hour conversations haggling over the material for months with Slash, and Slash told him he could use the material only if there were no alterations to it at all and to sing what he was told. Axl balked at this, and the Snakepit project went ahead, with the album finally being released in February 1995. It got mixed reviews, but went platinum.

Looking back, had Axl agreed to Slash's conditions, and the Snakepit material was released as is, with simply Axl singing the songs, do you think it would've been a worthy GN'R record?

Same question as OP. I was born in 1990, so outside of fond memories of video stories and corded phones, I don't really have any real memories of the pre-Internet era. We got our first computer in 1995, but I don't think I used Internet on it. But I was on by around 98 or so.

What are your memories of the pre-Internet era?

What were summers like before Iphones, Ipads, DVDs, the Internet, cell phones etc?

When did you start to feel the presence of the Internet and high technology in your daily life?

Ron is not leaving.

How much money are you willing to put in escrow to back your words?

(I hope you realize I'm kidding--sick in bed, trying to be funny)

Slash said once in a 1995 interview:

"The Use Your Illusion albums are [us] about conquering what Kurt Cobain couldn't."

I think that sums them up really well.

I would say no. While drinking I feel makes me see things more clearly...It's just not a good habit. And I had my first hangover yesterday and it sucked balls.

If you're a puss, or a softie, or whatever, weak....How does one go from there to become a badass, similar to say a real life version of The Man With No Name? What sort of experiences would that person have to endure to gain that hard edge and badassery? You aren't born toting a gun or knowing how to survive, really.

Terminator 1 is superior to 2. Terminator 1 is an atmosphere, well written, taut, lean horror-thriller with a really neat concept. It's very well executed, lean, perfect pacing, with some really amazing action scenes and a lot of suspense. It's one of the greatest science fiction films of all time. T2, while a great sequel, and a great action movie, is just that: It's a summer action flick.

What are they?

Mine:

1) The Ocean

2) Ten Years Gone

3) Achilles' Last Stand

4) What is and What Should Never Be

5) Battle of Evermore

6) The Rover

7) Candy Store Rock

8) Nobody's Fault But Mine

9) Carouselambra

10) Dy'er Mak'er

There is a major stylistic difference between AFD, Lies and the UYIs.

Mainly speaking, there is a distinct lack of groove on the Use Your Illusion records. Whereas AFD and Lies are basically Aerosmith and the Stones meet The Sex Pistols, the UYIs are heavy metal records in large measure. Consider songs like Garden of Eden, Perfect Crime, Right Next Door to Hell, Coma, etc--These are metal songs.

Even on the more hard rock tracks, there is a lack of groove. On AFD and Lies, songs like Brownstone, Nighttrain, Rocket Queen, (the live version of) Used to Love Her, etc all have a bouncy sort of groove.

People blame the absence of Steven Adler, the introduction of Matt Sorum and the presence of Dizzy Reed for the UYIs not being AFD II. Some, even including Izzy, claim Matt Sorum changed GN'R from a hard rock band to a heavy metal band; Others say the reason there's no groove is because Slash dominates the sound and he lacks the Stonesy groovy edge that Izzy had; Still others blame Dizzy Reed and say he watered down the songs.

I think the real reason is much more simple than that.

In 1985-1986, when the bulk of AFD was written, the guys were very close; they were even living together all under one roof. When you have a bunch of highly creative guys in close proximity, it's easy for ideas to gel and come together in a very free, organic fashion. Izzy and Slash could be sitting around on the floor with their guitars, and Izzy might strum a rhythm part or riff, and Slash might get something out of it and play off that little riff with a riff of his own, and from there, a song could be written based on these two guys playing off and complimenting each other.

Add to this the fact that in 1985-87, Slash and Izzy didn't much like each other: Slash has stated for the first few years, he wanted to be the only guitarist in GN'R, and Izzy felt it was his band--You had a kind of dynamic tension that fueled the two guys to sort of compete and outdo the other. Thus you get the twin guitar assault of AFD, where a groove is created by the two guitars playing off, complimenting and weaving against and with each other, in a sort of dance similar to the sound of the Stones.

From 1985-1988 approximately, all these guys were truly a band, all in tune with each other, all the guys on the same page living very close, very similar lives: Mostly poor, hungry guys who wanted to get out of the slums.

Flash forward to 1990-1991. Guns N' Roses are all now millionaires living very separate lives. Slash is battling a growing alcohol and heroin addiction, and beginning to slowly become a star and icon in his own right. Izzy has come to the apex of his own heroin addiction in 1990 and has become addicted to sobriety, to the point that he isolates himself from the band and rarely contributes in the studio. Axl has a big house with a pool and is battling various inner demons and has his relationship with Erin Everly fall apart throughout 1990. Duff is becoming to sink deep into alcoholism, which will almost kill him, and gets married.

No longer did you have five guys sitting around a floor tossing ideas and riffs back and forth. Now, the music is created by phone, with Slash sending tapes of guitar playing to Axl, who writes lyrics to the music he's getting. Izzy works very separate from everyone else and sends in his own bare bones riffs. It's very likely that Izzy and Slash never sat down together and wrote during the UYI sessions. Izzy refuses to attend any of the recording sessions outside of the basic tracking sessions and as such much of his parts are not usuable and Slash has to dub over him in the final recording and mixing.

There is nothing organic about the recording process for the UYIs--a band should not create music by telephone. How can we expect a natural flow and groove when the 'band' barely even plays together outside of concerts? Even if they had brought in the grooviest, loosest drummer who ever lived and Dizzy Reed was never born, I do not think the UYIs would've sounded much different then they ended up sounding.

Where you once had two guitars playing in tandem and off each other, now you have three or four guitars, most double tracked and overdubbed. Where once was an Izzy rhythm, an Izzy lead, and a Slash lead and Slash rhythm, now is a Slash rhythm, Slash rhythm, Slash lead, Izzy rhythm. And Slash is a much different, less subtle rhythm player than Izzy.

It isn't Matt or Dizzy's fault that the UYI's sound different. It's that, in essence, by 1991, Guns N' Roses was a one guitar band, where before it had been a two guitar act.

I addressed the rumors point blank about him leaving in my words to him-in case he was not aware.

if you noticed, he didn't address them at all, whether to confirm or deny. he totally ignored that point and only addressed my point about axl being hard to deal with.

My take: He is probably very close to leaving, very fed up, or just bored--probably holds no ill will toward Axl himself, probably feels regret/exhaustion/doneness. Right now, there are probably negotiations behind the scenes between his camp/Axl/Team Brazil trying to coax him to stay. He might be considering it pending better terms or whatever terms he wants--perhaps a firm commitment to a new album coming out? Perhaps calling Axl's bluff? But I would say that there is a 90% chance that we will get an amicable letter/release regarding his resignation from the band before this year is out, and the same sort of amicable parting letter will be issued by the band too.

You certainly have a fair point.

I'm not dismissing it. It would just seems odd to me, jamming with a singer until the wee hours you won't be working with in a matter of days.

Then there's this comment he made during the Q&A before his solo show at Vinyl two weeks ago:

http://screamermagazine.com/reviews/done-intimate-evening-bumblefoot-w-special-guests/

One of the more serious questions of the night was asking if Axl would really retire. The reply was No, dont you check Facebook? Ha! No, I have not heard the word retire come out of Axls mouth and hes not ending the band; no matter how much I torture him.

...........

Why make a comment like that if you know you're leaving in a couple of weeks? It just strikes me as odd to say Axl isn't ending the band no matter how much I torture him. What, no matter how much you torture him in the next two weeks?

Ali

"We actually jammed last night until the wee hours, til my fingers were blue and both me & my tech were falling over, was a great time & wish we had done that more often - Axl's great to jam with"

I may be looking too hard into this but when he says "was a great time and wish we had done that more often" it gives me the idea that he truly is leaving.. Why would he wish they had done it more often if he is still gona be touring with gnr and has plenty of opportunities to jam with the band at a later point.. Hmm

Indeed, past tense.

Sort of like if you're breaking up and you have one nice last conversation with your soon to be ex-- "Wish we'd talked like this more often". Sort of a tone of wistful/regretful resignation in the way it's worded.

-I know Axl can be a tough person to deal with (I myself am a very tough person to deal with and drive people away myself),

We actually jammed last night until the wee hours, til my fingers were blue and both me & my tech were falling over, was a great time & wish we had done that more often - Axl's great to jam with (And I'm sure I've been tougher to deal with in GNR than anyone, circumstances have not made it an easy ride for me personally & it hasn't made me the best version of myself most of the time...)

Thing is dude, you're real, you tell it like it is, and people need that kind of person in their life. I mean, you're from Brooklyn (as am i), we don't fuck around.

Your best friend in the world IMO is also you're harshest critic because at least they're trying to set you straight.

I'm glad to hear you and Axl had a good time--you, Axl, and all the rest make a great band and you guys better come to NYC again soon haha!

God bless ya Bumble, and thank you for representing Brooklyn in GN'R

Hey all, long time no argue. Lol... I knew going into this Kickstarter how it could be perceived, and that haters are gonna hate no matter what, but just so you know where I'm coming from.....

Gary & I (& our bandmates/crew) are sharing a vehicle together, it's $60,000 just for the vehicle expenses, then getting tour insurance for the band members & all... we get a flat fee for performing as openers for Yngwie, the original agreement for our expenses got hijacked, and we want to take care of our band members the best we can. Gary's done a Kickstarter campaign before and suggested we do this for the tour, he's my buddy, he'll always have my support. I know on my end it comes off to some as a 'millionaire begging' and apologize for rubbing any of you the wrong way - but simply, I'm helping the people involved in this tour & having fun offering what I can in return. That's it. Nobody's forcing anyone to participate, it's not like you get nothing in return, it's out there for those who choose to take part in it.

Most of the solo gigs I've done have been for charitable causes [Red Cross, Navy Seals, juvenile diabetes, Operation Smile, men's & women's health issues, burn victims, The Grammy Foundation, Rays Of Sunshine, Music Rising “Icons of Music” for victims of Hurricane Katrina, Oxfam's Tsunami Relief & Global Emergency Fund, Earthquake Relief Fund, Humanitarian Water & Food Award, Foundation Fighting Blindness, Little Kids Rock and Rock Asylum for children's education, Dubai Autism Centre, NGO Wildlife Trust of India, a board member of the MS Research Foundation, spokesperson for Knockout For A Cause Foundation to fun school programs, a member of “Musicians On Call”, visiting orphanages and children's hospitals all over the world - to name a few], just so you know I'm not one who doesn't give.

OK, back to the regularly scheduled program here... for whoever's going to be at the Vegas GNR show tonight I'll be by the box office before doors open around 7:30 saying hi (as I do every night), please come say hello

Thanks,

Ron

Hey, Bumble---

Love your music and love your guitar playing. I hope the rumors that you might leave GN'R after Vegas aren't true--I know Axl can be a tough person to deal with (I myself am a very tough person to deal with and drive people away myself), and I know touring, being away from home etc is a pain in the ass I am sure...But you're very much appreciated in GN'R, and speaking for myself and many others, I hope you remain in the band.

I think I'm in the very beginning stages of a drinking problem.

What should I do?

Arnold is a nice guy. Be nice to him.

For all the nonsense that goes on and has since 1987, something keeps us coming back to this band--in whatever incarnation you call your favorite.

The question is, why? Why don't a lot of us just move on to another band? What keeps us coming back?

What do you love about Guns N' Roses, old or new?

I love:

-Axl's lyrics (especially on the UYIs), his attitude, his way of thinking. He was truly an iconic figure ala Tupac or Cobain in the '90s.

Slash-- His amazing skills, his attitude, his own iconic presence and image.

The music -- the way GN'R in just one double album (the UYIs) spanned from folk through country through heavy metal through psychedelia through Stonesy honky tonk, Thrash Metal, and even to Industrial. Not many bands can claim that level of variety or experimentation on just one double record.

To me, GN'R were like the hybrid spawn of Aerosmith, The Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin and the Stones. The raw intensity and American bluesy edge of Aerosmith, along with the groove; The don't give a fuck attitude of the Pistols, the grandiosity, epic scope and awesome riffage of Zeppelin, and the sleazy, seedy demonic blues of the Stones with that honky tonk piano.

They were/are just one of a kind--no band from their era sounds much like them.

My best friend in the whole world, who I've been friends with for 8 years, and who has never left me or given up on me, who sets me straight when I go wrong (or at least tries to set me straight), who has been there through it all, is a girl. There's no real sexual tension between us or anything, just an unspoken understanding that years from now, when I have my life together, we'll probably be together, but not until I'm ready. But it's unspoken. I met her when she was 13 and I was 15 turning 16, now she's going to be 21.

I would really like to repay her in some way for all the kindness she's shown me. I'm a very tough person to deal with and she could've dropped me for good many times over. For whatever reason, she puts up with me, even when I've basically cut contact with her to appease the new flavor of the month girlfriend. Yet she forgave and still remains my friend.

We're like Mick and Keith. Her being the more grounded, more realistic, no bullshit Keith. She gets very harsh and bluntly honest with me if she feels I need to hear it, even if what she says is a verbal punch to the gut, she's usually right.

Last night, I was very very depressed about the end of my most recent relationship and I got a little drunk, she came, got me and took me out to eat and we hung out and talked.

She's a God send and I hope all of you here are luckty enough to have a friend like her. I knew the day I met her that I was meeting someone who'd be a big part of the rest of my life. Somehow I just knew.