Blackstar

I think it had nothing to do with Axl or his voice at all, but with Malcolm's (and George's) death and how it affected Angus, in combination with what AC/DC fans wanted. That's why Phil Rudd was also called back for Power Up.

The announcement of the b-side didn't make another news cycle as it was attached to the release of Perhaps. If Axl doesn't want to do press, Slash and Duff can do it. They in fact did a couple of promo interviews for the Australian tour last year.

Does it make sense though to release a song towards the end of the tour? How does this serve the purpose of promotion if there are only two or three shows left? And The General wasn't even scheduled to be released during the tour - the tour would originally end on Oct. 16 and the initial release date was Oct. 27.

I think the distorted vocals don't have to do with the mix anyway, it's an artistic choice made at the production stage.

In this type of discussions of "what it sounds like/what it's influenced by" everyone hears influences they're mostly familiar with or fond of, and most diehard fans are more familiar with the musical trends from the 90s and beyond. As these songs are originally a product of the early 00s, they're naturally a bit reminiscent of that era (to a large extent due to the production), but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're mainly industrial or nu metal influenced. I think The General is more in that area, but in Monsters I hear mostly a combination of Bowie, Sabbath, Beatlesque pop/Britpop (the poppy chorus and the outro), and trip hop.

You're probably right this time. I'm not an expert, but it doesn't make sense for Monsters to be Japan exclusive bonus track instead of a live track, for example. But considering that the other time you insisted that the original leaks of The General and Monsters were demos from the early 2000's, I want to hear more opinions.

Duff solo show in Seattle on Dec. 8

https://www.instagram.com/p/C0JOIiTremA/

Brain wasn't listed as a performer in the HS credits. There were basically no credits regarding the performers - the writing credits have been published and Freese has 1% of the publishing for co-writing it. The information that Brain plays on HS is from Melissa's website.

Del wrote most of the lyrics to them. See the link in my signature.

I think a couple of songs from Duff's last two albums could have worked, e.g. Longfeather could be really good with Axl and Slash. I thought Del's "Without You" story (that's the only stuff I've read from him) was pretty poor - I hardly made it through it - but his lyrics to The Garden and Yesterdays were good. The lyrics he has written for Testament are not great, but if Axl has a lyrical concept, he could help him complete a verse or a chorus etc. * Back to The General, I have tried to listen to the Japanese radio station with NordVPN, but for some reason it doesn't connect to Japan correctly.

Yeah, these are not terrible and I know they were hits, but they're uninteresting to me and I wouldn't be interested in GN'R doing that (I don't care about them having a hit). Well, if Axl wanted to do that, he could have done a great solo album with collaborations. It could be much simpler, really. Duff says he has written 60 songs, so they could pick two of them. Then two or three Slash songs - if Axl has a difficulty to write lyrics, Del James could help him with some lines etc. They could even use a couple of songs from the CD era, fully re-recorded (including the vocals). Add a couple of covers, and that's it.

I think the reason was not money per se, but Izzy being aware that the "loot" would be very big and so he thought that he deserved a bigger cut off of it than what was offered to him. So, as far as Izzy is concerned, it would mostly depend on whether he would be in the mood to write with them. No one knows what he's doing these days or if he still writes (although he apparently recorded some new solo material a while ago, but it's unknown what has happened to it). Izzy in 1998: Stradlin' also revealed that two years ago he sent Axl about 18 songs, which Axl wanted to use on the new GN'R album. "Then his lawyers sent me a letter, they wanted me to give Axl the rights to these songs. Fuck you! Use the songs if you want, but leave the lawyers out of this", Izzy says. These songs were probably in addition to the 1995 Izzy/Duff demos. Then Axl called Izzy again and asked him to send the demos (presumably the ones from 1995 or all of them). I suppose the royalties wouldn't be a problem (even Brain's friends will get royalties for The General), but maybe the rights (ownership and copyright) would be.

https://tinypic.host/?lang=en But which photo do you mean? If it's the one of Axl with a woman in the Look Away video that's probably just a random picture with a fan

There hasn't been any photo of her and Axl.

She wasn't starstruck though, according to her. She was just attracted to him a lot. She said she didn't even know who he was (and his rockstar status) And she wasn't someone who would have been easily starstruck since, according to her book, she had dated or slept with a few famous people (Paul Stanley, Michael Jay Fox, Tom Jones among others) before that night with Axl.

It would be a bad thing for me. I wouldn't like them to hire Desmond Child type writers to write generic radio friendly songs for them just to have new music. I'd really take more Absurd's over that I'm not so sure he wouldn't call Izzy if he got seriously into the process of making new music.

I like it a lot for what it is (a rough song idea). I think it's a pretty cool idea. Has a D'yer Mak'er vibe and I love the voice Axl uses on it, especially in the end.

I'm not saying that whoever had them was the one who directly leaked them. It probably sounds far-fetched (and of course it's speculation), but there may be fans, not "insiders", but just people who casually talk to various people associated/working with the band currently or previously. So it could be through this kind of contact.

Was the second screenshot an updated version of the same post where she added the stuff about the subpoena? I've read that she and Axl talked on the phone around that time, but I haven't heard about them meeting in person. This is all so bizarre. I wonder what happened there. It's highly unlikely that Erin (or Stephanie) will get involved in this.

I think the full narrative of this claim was that The General and Monsters were one long song, but then GN'R decided to make it two songs so they could have two b-sides (which, of course, is not correct). I guess someone gave them wrong information, lol.

I don't know if that's a rumour or just a theory (because we all know how easily a random theory someone posts on a forum can turn into a "rumour" and then the rumour can turn into a "fact", lol). But that's a theory that has crossed my mind, too, though it applies only if the leaks are not final mixes. If they are rough or older mixes, they could be more than a year old, maybe two years. And the source could be someone who worked with the band then. If the leaks are the final mixes, they're definitely not a year old, since Axl and Slash went to that studio to listen to them this past summer. In this case, it could be, for example, from someone who recorded them from the studio soundboard for themselves (with no intention to trade or leak), but when the delay was announced they decided to leak them.

I don't think TB leaked them or that the GN'R camp wanted them to leak. There are other possibilities apart from being either the hoarders or TB.

Yeah, but then how did the songs leak with their correct titles? Whoever had them and whoever leaked them knew what was what. Yes, I believe because they had talked to the person who spoke to and bought the songs from Bird before Rick did

Maybe. But I believe that there are people who know the hoarders and talk to them, and at least they would know (like they knew what was in the Village discs before they leaked and before Rick got them). But this time, nobody knew about the song that was really on the phone recording.