GoodOlJohnnyK

All I know is if read any posts criticizing Merck Mercuriadis, my Greek ass is rioting.

What? Are you arguing in good faith now or are you just being contrarian? The discussion started because Voodoochild said that he wondered if criticism of Beta and Fernando would be the same if they were an American family. I said I don’t believe there’s a racial component to the criticism of them. They replied “I do because I am Brazilian and I notice the small nudges and heal shots. I remember how people behave when Merck or whoever was in charge. Sure there are lots of criticism still, but it’s different. It feels different.” I was debating that and you weighed in with your take. That’s not a red herring. It’s quite literally how the conversation started. I understand disagreeing with someone’s viewpoint, but don’t just completely ignore the previous posts in the thread to try and discredit what I’m saying.

Again, did they? Someone a few posts back called them grifters. They didn’t say Brazilian grifters.

I was fortunate enough to go to an empty bar late at night on Sunday and get a pretty good listen to a “clear” version on TouchTunes before it was taken down. Still, even at the bar I was reliant on their sound system and I was sat closer to the left channel speaker, so I may have missed whatever Slash was doing during the verses and choruses. but the vocals, bass, rhythm guitar, and solo were loud and clear to me, if you have any questions.

Right, and the discussion is about her and her son’s merits as managers of a rock band. In the same article that she recounts her time as Stephanie Seymour’s nanny, she calls herself Axl’s personal assistant. That’s relevant because the underlying theme of the discussion is “these people aren’t doing their jobs properly, and that’s probably because they should have never gotten them in the first place - they’re unqualified.” Is that my opinion? Not necessarily. Their client seems satisfied with their work and, ultimately, I believe the buck has to stop with him. I’m just saying that I don’t believe the criticisms leveled at Beta and Fernando around here, justified or not, are racially motivated.

I think he’s referring to her actual stint at Stephanie Seymour’s nanny. Those are Beta’s own words, not just his.

Understood. I used “your” instead of “you’re” anyway, so my point is null and void.

Well I can’t speak for what happened years ago on another forum. But I haven’t seen any Brazilian racism here. There was mention of a Latino maid meme, which would obviously be racist. But I haven’t seen that here in the time I’ve been visiting, since 2016 or so. You’re right - racism is pervasive in the human condition. I’ve noticed a lot of criticism of Slash’s guitar playing lately that I disagree with. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s because Slash is half black while Robin Finck is white. It just seems like the conversation is moving towards “you can’t criticize Beta and Fernando or you are promoting anti-Brazilian sentiment” which is just absolutely ridiculous. I don’t even really criticize them. Check my post history, I’m the first to point out that they’re just doing what their boss, Axl, tells them to. But I have to call it like I see it, and it seems like resorting to accusations of racism is just a way for our more optimistic forum members to shut down any criticism of the band and management.

I’ve never detected any racism in the criticisms of Beta and Fernando. Have you? Or is this a situation where I’m not Brazilian, so I must be wrong because I can’t possibly comprehend?

Except these exact same complaints are common whenever anyone is managed by someone close to them who doesn’t have traditional experience in their line of work. For a case in point, Lamar Jackson of the NFL team the Baltimore Ravens has no agent. His mother was handling all negotiations for him, and it was messy. As a result, people were knocking him for using his mother as an agent. Same thing happens whenever someone’s wife or husband is their manager and things don’t go well. It has nothing to do with ethnicity and everything to do with the fact that it seems like the manager doesn’t know what they’re doing.

I respect your perspective but, respectfully, I think that you’re maybe a bit sensitive on this topic because you too are Brazilian. I myself am a first generation American, child to Greek immigrants. I get it. But that’s not what’s going on here. It might feel different to you, but Axl and the Guns management team have been laughable since long before Beta was running things.

I’d imagine Dizzy would handle it live. Especially if Axl’s gotta try and tackle the chorus.

Absurd and Perhaps for sure. Hard Skool, I believe, has two different verses though, no? At least some sort of variation in the Absurd verses (other than the timing shift) would have brought a little more to it. I think one of the issues with Perhaps is it just takes *so long* to get to that chorus. Those verses go on forever. I don't know that another would fix that - though some different lyrics might make it feel different, of course. I also think it's a mistake to 'stop' the song before restarting for the final verse and chorus. There needs to be a better transition there.

I'm not saying this to be snarky - I'm legitimately happy that people like the song. I wish I did. I'd rather have a new song to listen to than hate on it. It's just not for me. My best case scenario is that this band goes nuts and releases 3 singles this tour - Perhaps, State of Grace, and Atlas Shrugged - so that we can just get them out of the way and I can look forward to hearing something newish in 2025 or whenever they reconvene for another NA tour.

I don't think there's any racial component to it. People are just frustrated by wishing their favorite band would just function like everyone else's favorite band seems to be able to function. The (rapidly shrinking) diehard U2 fanbase does the same thing. First it was "Paul McGuine$$" they took issue with, and now it's Guy O'Seary who catches their ire. And they've been way more prolific than Guns N' Roses have.

The song itself, for one.

@SoulMonster gave me the idea to re-read the transcript of the China Exchange interview and I stumbled upon this line that I don't remember from listening to it. I guess I'd just never paid attention to this line of questioning, as I deemed it unimportant at the time of the interview, but now it says so much to me: I think that says it all. This guy is not interested in writing new rock music anymore. He's going to push out what he's got in the vault and then it's over.

'Negativity' is a perspective. I don't think I'm being negative. I think I'm being realistic. I'd be surprised if many people take this personally outside of this sub. I write long posts about the band on here while I'm on a break, or laying in bed before I go to sleep, or half-watching something on TV with my girlfriend. Then I put my phone down and don't think about it again. Music is my passion, the band is one of my favorites, so of course rhetoric gets a little heated at times. Don't take it so hard. --- Now, back to the conversation about management: Why would they leave voluntarily? You think they'd just give up their careers because the fans think they're not doing a good job? This band is currently grossing massive amounts of money! If you're Axl, and looking at it from a financial perspective, this current management set up has accomplished more than any of your previous managers since GNR split up. Also, again: Axl is Team Brazil! He's not a puppet being controlled by a mastermind named Fernando. He's the boss. He's the client. They do what he tells them to do. If a release gets delayed, it's not because Fernando said so: it's because Axl said so. Your complaint is with Axl Rose, not the people he's hired to do what he tells them to. I would speculate that the simplest answer is likely the right one here: she's 68 years old. That's normal retirement age. I'm sure she's been well taken care of by Axl and would probably like to live the rest of her life enjoying her grandchildren and only being tangentially related to the day to day business operations of a rock band. 'Some delays to be expected' on a lyric video is kinda iffy. That's pretty standard practice these days. It doesn't matter anyway. I don't care if they staged a full on press blitz for these singles: it wouldn't have moved the needle. They're just not relevant anymore outside of being a nostalgia touring act and these songs simply aren't good enough to make them relevant. No one outside of the fandom is going to care about Perhaps. They had one shot on a 'comeback single' and it came about 3-4 years too late and they picked the wrong song. Probably because they don't have the right song, because a ChiDem leftover isn't going to be the one to spark the public's attention. Guns N' Roses already has an uphill battle as it is, being the age that they are and having been dormant for so long. If they wanted to be 'big' again, it would require an actual new song written with Slash and Duff and it would probably have to sound like something that could have been on the Illusions. There's no Beautiful Day here. There's no The Rising. All they have to offer is a pussy full of maggots, a school bell, and a "heeeeEEEEEEEAAAAAHHH" in between verses that sounds like Axl's getting a rectal exam.

Don’t say that here. They’re about to give you the corn.

Any unhappy fans should hold ears of corn into the air instead of your cell phones at the New Jersey show. They give us the corn, we give them the corn right back!

How could he not be? Rolling Stone wrote an article about it. It’s his management’s job for him be aware. He knows about this. Didn’t they play Absurd 5 days or so before it hit streaming services? Maybe it gets debuted tomorrow night, hence the week’s delay.

Axl’s gotta make some sort of joke about this on stage tomorrow night, right?

I’m out of likes, but this one made me chuckle.

Didn't mean to sound snappy - I've checked this site out before. The work you've done is exhaustive and comprehensive and whenever I want to jump down a GnR rabbit hole, I visit it. Good work! Still down in the US.

Is this your site or something? I checked it out and, as I suspected, there was no mention from Axl in the China Exchange interview of having CDII done and ready to go. Could've saved myself some time.