"The Garden" is one of the most underrated GnR songs. Critics had discarded it as irrelevant, filler or "obscurity", but it's a very good song imo. It would be great if they played it and a nice tribute to West Arkeen and Shannon Hoon. Even if Axl can't sing it the way he did in 1993, it would sound fine with his lower voice for the verses and his deeper low voice for the Alice Cooper parts. But I think his voice will be overall more powerful than in the April shows, considering that the more he sings, the better he sounds; he improved with AC/DC songs that require more singing than screaming, e.g. "Touch Too Much" and "Dirty Deeds" (in the last shows it was amazing).

12 hours ago, NorwegianGirl said:

12 hours ago, Nintari said:

How about the first performance of Get in the Ring? Axl could just leave out the epic rant in the middle if he felt it was too weird. I'd also like them to play Crash Diet as well. 

I would LOVE "get in the ring" as well! And been thinking about the lyrics and maybe he's not in -that- place today (at least, moved on from that...), but the song is great. And in general, they have to deal with a lot of crap from the media. And they're not the only band/artists to! So, like you said, maybe just remover or change that part. But I guess Axl would rather not perform it than changing it?

"Get in the ring" is badass, "bratty", fun song that could have been a live highlight had they not made it ephemeral with the rant and the names. They could have done a more generalized version of it for the album and put the version with the names on a b-side. They could definitely play it now leaving the rant part out (or replace it with a new one ) but it's not going to happen. For Axl this song is in the same status as "One in a million" ("it's done, it's said, it's over").

2 hours ago, rock4eva said:

@sanity_lost. I'm laughing after reading your script where you say he went to the Valley . I thought he said the ballet which I couldn't imagine him going to.  It's had me puzzled as it's not something I can see him at. The Valley of course makes more sense.  Glad  I  learnt something . Haha

I'd heard "ballet", too I found it odd at first, but then I thought he has a wide range of interests, so why not

14 hours ago, Lumikki said:

...

http://www.oocities.org/rattlesnake_suitcase/indy91.htm

Seems like Axl was one of these children who are bright and creative and things come easily to them, but who also have trouble sitting still and are quite immature and insecure. Quite a typical childhood for a lot of musicians and artistic types, really. Still, it's always fascinating to hear the impressions of people who knew him before he was famous.

Thanks for the article. I hadn't read it either. Yeah, I think this describes what he was like as a kid, although, as @stella said, it's quite possible the teachers glossed over the opinion they had of him at the time.

Phil Hurt, his eighth grade cross-country coach, said Rose talked constantly, often proclaiming that someday he would be a success. In response, his teammates once taped his mouth shut and, another time, stuffed him in a locker. )

This quote from the coach is an indication of what he'd been going through at school

Q: What happens when you go back [in Indiana] now as a celebrity instead of an outcast?
Axl: ...People I used to go to school with, people that used to hate my guts, want me to invest money in this and that. People say shit like "Axl thinks he's too cool to party with us." But those people never wanted to party with me before. The people who are offended by this comment are the ones who should be. (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-rolling-stone-interview-axl-rose-19890810?page=12)

13 hours ago, killuridols said:

He overcame any obstacle, even people who didn't give two bucks for him. He defied everyone and became what he wanted to be, not only that, he became the best at what he wanted to be.

12 hours ago, Lumikki said:

I thought it was impressive that even as a kid, he was telling everyone about how he was going to make it and be a big rock star, and then he actually went and really did it! How many people can say that they actually made their fanciful childhood dreams reality? Not many. (Granted, there's also a certain amount of luck involved, but still...)

He has talked about himself as an example of someone who, against all odds, achieved his goal and made his dream come true. In his speech/rant during the Indiana 1991 concert he said "if you have a dream and your teachers tell you to be reasonable, tell them to fuck off".

14 hours ago, Lumikki said:

Oh Slash   Do you remember when/where Slash said that? And yeah, Axl's behavior always seemed to be much harder to deal with for Izzy than for Slash. Probably because he's had to deal with Axl for a lot longer and was forced to be the "Axl whisperer" as somebody once called it. And Izzy seems to be a more serious type in general. I always laugh when I see pictures of him because his standard expression in more than 90% of his pictures is some variation of concerned, worried or resigned lol.

Thanks for the gif by the way, hadn't seen that one before.

It's in Slash's book. He says he'd thought it was cool Axl jumped in St. Louis but he'd expected that when he came back up they'd continue playing.

Yeah, Izzy is the "no bullshit" type. I don't remember ever seeing Axl putting his arms around Izzy or teasing him on stage like he used to do with Slash and Duff; I guess Izzy wouldn't like this kind of interaction. And even though he knew Axl well, he couldn't deal with his unpredictability; he had that "wtf now" St. Louis expression in a few other occasions, e.g. in Indiana when Axl had a crew member bring a girl on stage and then ordered her to dance during Rocket Queen. Izzy was no saint, of course. I think Kevin Lawrence from Rapidfire said he didn't like Izzy and thought he was a bad influence on Axl.

Btw that incident in Indiana is a minor yet characteristic example of how Axl could treat women. I'm not saying the girl did anything against her will, it's just Axl's tone... And the rest of the band didn't seem to mind about it; on the contrary, Duff enjoyed it and one other (Dizzy?) "encouraged" her to show her breasts.

The gif is from this 1988 concert after You're Crazy (amazing performance) at about 01:17:40: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVnRWjuUcV4

13 hours ago, stella said:

I agree about Slash and Duff, too. Duff seemed to have a special relationship and understanding of Axl - but he had a lot of his own demons to fight and by the time he got clean and sober, the band had already pretty much splintered away.

12 hours ago, Lumikki said:

That part in That Metal Show always made me sad. He really was convinced everyone else in the band hated him and didn't give a shit about him. If you have one person in a band feeling so alienated from everyone else, then that band is probably automatically doomed. It's even more sad because I don't think they ever truly didn't care about him or hated him (at least with Duff I just can't imagine him not caring about Axl at all). They were just too involved with themselves and too tired of dealing with Axl and so let random other people do the job... and it had pretty awful consequences.

Yeah, it seems they had come to a point when Axl thought the others didn't care about him and Slash and Duff thought he didn't care about them; it was kind of a vicious circle. I agree about Duff. I think Slash cared too, even though he gives the impression that he isn't so much the sensitive and empathetic type; maybe it's because he is too "cool".

12 hours ago, Lumikki said:

I have high hopes for sober and mature Duff nowadays. He could really have a positive influence on Axl.

Maybe he already has. I think the fact that Axl seems more self-confident, open and strong nowadays has something to do with Duff's influence and that Axl admires Duff for what he has accomplished, although he probably won't admit it (and I don't believe he hasn't read Duff's book).

3:23

4 hours ago, Lumikki said:

Hah, yes, I enjoy that topic as well

And speaking of Slaxl, the radio show with Duff actually reminded me off something when they played Thin Lizzy's "Thunder and Lightening"- Slash once said that this song always made him think of Axl! Chorus goes like this:

"Like thunder and lightning,

God damn it's so exciting

It hits you like a hammer

God damn."

Yes, yes, gotta agree with Slash there Axl's indeed very exciting. And because Slash said that, I now associate the song with Axl and Slash as well every time I hear it ("I hit him again and I couldn't hit him anymore, My head was all black and blue and my jaw was sore, Sweeter than the heavens and like a frightening stumble, It was saturday night when heavy rock was born...")

Oh yes, he is

Slash said he enjoyed it when Axl was getting into fights with random people for petty reasons. In Saint Louis his first thought was "He jumped! Cool!" Izzy's expression, on the other hand, was "what is the mf doing now?" "

A sweet moment from the early days:

1 hour ago, Slash787 said:

So the conclusion is that this whole thing was lame, this dude gets to Interview Duff and all he asks is stupid stuff, it would be better if they let a GNR fan interview them.

Thanks @oaka and others for listening to this and writing about it on here.

It wasn't really an interview, mostly friends chatting about music and other stuff. I like listening to Duff talking about music. His account of the Seattle and LA music scenes in the early 80s from his punk rooted point of view was for me one of the most interesting parts in his book.

Thanks, @Lumikki I've been reading this thread for a while. I really enjoy your discussions here, particularly the Slaxl topic

1 hour ago, killuridols said:

No. In this SPECIAL GIG that takes place in ST. LOUIS, they play a special setlist they never did before and it consists of only HATER songs, specifically those that were written during the breakup years by both factions: Axl and his CD songs, Slash and his Snakepit songs, Duff/Slash/Matt and their VR songs.

Axl is 4 hours late and as soon as he sees people pulling up their cellphones, he spends an entire hour going into the audience and personally taking care of each cellphone. Climbs back on stage with 3 bags full of technology.

Slash plays all CD songs solos distorted and change them to make them unrecognizable. Summons Scott Weiland back from death and both dance the dance of the black crow to the rhythm of 'Slither'. Axl screams on the mic calling Yoda to come save him from the dark spirits that just took the stage. Yells that Slash and Scott have been replaced by a different soul. Then Beta jumps on stage, lights some incense and dances a Brazilian ritual of air purification.

Duff face palms, opens his book and starts reading his columns to the crowd, in an attempt to make things normal again but Axl goes back on stage wearing devil horns and starts singing Highway To Hell. Then Grandpa Angus duck walks with his guitar and plays an 18 minute long solo. People in the audience fall asleep and become oblivious to the crazy shit that's going on.

Slash wakes up from his temporary death and jumps over Axl, pulls his hair and throws him on the floor, while Duff is in the background singing Beggars & Hangers on. The 'Freak Show', who are all happy and high on drugs, think this is an invitation for them to go onstage, so they all climb up and dance some kind of Spice Girls choreography. Sasha, only covered in white sheet, make ballerina moves, grabs the mic and sings 'Material Girl'. Some nut girl in the audience gets furious and pulls the white sheet from her, leaving her totally naked. Sasha runs backstage and the whole Freak Show follows.

Axl and Slash are still on the floor  over Slash's book. Axl screams he's gonna burn that shit down, so he lights a match and sets the book on fire, then throws it in the middle of the stage. Slash and Duff then go backstage and come back pulling a Walmart cart full of Chinese Democracy CDs, dump it next to Slash burning book and start playing frisbee with them, smash them on the floor and jump on them. 

Axl grabs the mic and says: "this is it! GET IN THE RING MOTHERFUCKERS!" Changes the lyrics and insults all former members, blame them for everything and when he's done, he smashes mic to the ground and screams "Thanks to the lame ass reunion shows I want no more! Take me home, Angus!". A helicopter descends into the stage, Stevie Young is the pilot. Cliff Williams, who's sitting inside, extends his arm to Axl and Axl jumps in. Helicopter flies away to Australia. Never to return.

A riot ensues. The crowd destroys the venue. Evil horns flash in the dark. All hell breaks loose. Satan gets ya. Hell's bells.

Guns N Roses break up for the second time.

China gets a democracy in 2050.

Still no follow up to the "Chinese Democracy" album.

I'm still laughing

25 minutes ago, stella said:

I would be interested to know that too! And I agree, I don't think it was nearly as popular or known in the USA as it was in the UK. Bands like Joy Division were actually totally unknown to me until way after they were popular. I was admittedly a wee one in the 80s but I don't remember hearing about most of those bands. Even The Cure didn't seem to really do well here until Disintegration and by then they'd been big in Europe for like a decade.

 

And The Cure is interesting, aren't they? Total chameleons depending on what year one is looking at. Wish was a total 180 from Disintegration...I did think Bloodflowers and some of 4:13 were back to goth-land, though.

Yeah, they are great. They've changed styles without losing their identity and distinctive sound; few bands/musicians can do it. You're right about Bloodflowers. To be honest I haven't been following them much since the 90s. I do this with bands that last a long time or reunite after many years; at some point I feel they've given what they had and I stick to their old stuff. Given this, I'm surprised with myself for being so excited about the GnR semi-reunion

1 hour ago, stella said:

I didn't know that Peter Murphy had reached out to Axl! That would be amazing, I bet. I would love, love to see what they could do if they were collaborating on something. It's a good point that Axl might like the music but not enough to let it influence him, though. This is Axl in the Bauhaus shirt - he wore it to the CBGB Record Canteen gig, which was taped, and he seemed to very deliberately choose the shirts he wanted to show off, so I thought it was kind of cool that he wanted to show off Bauhaus.

It's

Thanks! Axl surely doesn't wear other bands' t-shirts by chance. He gets so enthusiastic with bands he likes, particularly newly discovered ones, that he feels like promoting them. It's one of the things I appreciate about him. My guess is Duff got him into Bauhaus. He says in his book that he had known them through a sophisticated friend of his back in Seattle.

17 minutes ago, AxlsFavoriteRose said:

22 minutes ago, nonok said:

Forget Think About You, we should make them do Locomotive and Bad Obsession and Perfect Crime etc.

NEVER! they can play those too but they HAVE to do Think About You!!!

And Reckless Life!

18 hours ago, stella said:

The Gothic/S&M look was an interesting choice for him, IMHO. It wouldn't have worked within the style of the band or their music, but it might have been intriguing to see what he could have done if he'd done some goth stuff on his own. I'd love to see what he could do with, say, Bauhaus or Sisters of Mercy songs. He sounds great when he's down on that end of his register and I could see him really rocking the '92 version of "Temple of Love" or "When You Don't See Me."

Very interesting remark! This style would certainly fit his voice. I'm not sure though if the symbolic/mystic themes associated with it appeal to him; he may like some of this stuff but not to the extent of being influenced by it. It'd be interesting to know how familiar he is with the broader post-punk/dark wave movement and what he thinks of e.g Joy Division (one of my top favorite bands); I think this genre wasn't so popular in the U.S. in the 80s at it was in UK/Europe.

17 hours ago, stella said:

I just thought it was an interesting and not unpleasant style choice for him and I would have loved to see him explore more of that genre or do some of those songs (it's still not too late for the latter). There are some photos of him back in the day with a Bauhaus shirt and in an interview he said he was listening to The Cure, so he likes or is at least appreciative of some goth stuff.

Yeah, I remember him saying he was exploring The Cure at that time. The Cure have been gone through different phases/musical styles though; they started as post punk, they were goth in the early 80s (they returned to it with Disintegration), then they were more pop-orientated.

I didn't know about the Bauhaus shirt (I learn something new every day ). Impressive! I googled it to find a picture or video, and look what I discovered:

Quote

Pete Murphy to work with Axl Rose?

Written by johnrobb2 October, 2011

God Knows if this will ever happen but it’s an intriguing idea.

Former Bauhaus vocalist Pete Murphy has written to Axl Rose asking if he wants to work with him because Murphy is ‘interested in reaching out to that audience’ accruing to an interview with the Drowned In Sound website.

Quote

DiS: What are you up to at this present moment in time?

Peter Murphy: I'm getting ready for an American tour at the moment. It's a double headliner with a band called She Wants Revenge. I've also recently sent a letter to Axl Rose asking him if he wants to work with me. In the 1980s he wore one of my t-shirts during an interview, plus I'd like to reach that audience. In a couple of days I'm heading off to Istanbul to mix some live tracks that will form an EP that's coming out soon. The EP's called The Secret Bees Of Ninth. They're not so much outtakes, but songs that were more epic than the majority of Ninth, in a similar vein to 'Creme De La Creme', which is the last song on the album. I decided not to put them on the album as it would have sent the record out of kilter in a way. I'm also talking to some film producers both here in L.A. and back home in Turkey for possible acting parts.

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4143586-i-m-relevant-but-bauhaus-aren-t---dis-meets-peter-murphy

I had no idea about this. It would be amazing. I wonder what happened. Wasn't Axl interested?

1 hour ago, Babooshka said:

I didn't realise so many GNR fans hated Duff's vocals! I love his voice. It may not be right for Slither, but he's not bad. So Fine is one of GNR's best songs, and his voice fits with Axl's. I like that Guns had three singers with different and distinct, yet complimentary styles.

I agree with your post. I like Duff's vocals, too. I hope they'll play Raw Power in Iggy's hometown; it would be great if Axl sings it along with Duff, as in SI.

1. Aarhus (top performance and Touch too much in the setlist)

2. Manchester

3. London

4. Marseille (If You Want Blood added to the setlist)

5. Leipzig

14 hours ago, killuridols said:

I don't know man.... I've learned to love Angus through Axl because Angus brought us an Axl we haven't seen in a long long time. So we are thankful for that. At least, I am thankful to Angus for helping Axl shine in ways he didn't even know. Axl singing this true basic rock n roll brought back all that 70's vibe to my heart. It may sound too crazy but I'll say it anyway, when I hear Axl singing "Hell ain't a bad place to be" or "High Voltage" I can't help but hear him channeling Janis through his voice and body. You know, I'm a huge Janis Joplin fan, a psycho one, lol, and I'm convinced she lives in Axl's throat.

14 hours ago, killuridols said:

About Janis, I started checking her out when Axl mentioned her as one of the 70s singers he admired. And soon I made the connection of her singing style to Axl's. I didn't live when she was alive or when she died. I only know her through photos, videos and of course, the little discography she left, all of which is gold for me.

4 hours ago, killuridols said:

And yeah, Axl IS Janis, even the way he dressed for this tour, the hat with feathers and the sunglasses and the jewelry, it screams Janis all over...

I've always heard a male incarnation of Janis Joplin in one of Axl's "voices" (the bluesiest one) and in parts of GnR's blues rock/southern rock influenced songs; Breakdown (which I hear as a Janis influenced song with piano),  Sweet Child, the Lies' version of You're Crazy... Janis is in other songs too, in a unique blend with Robert Plant/Bon Scott/Dan McCafferty...

5 hours ago, killuridols said:

The problem is Axl not wanting to sing that kind of music anymore. He wants to do movie soundtracks and I dont know what BS... I hope he changes his mind, I hope someone makes him listen to himself how awesome he sounds but I don't know. He's stubborn and he's been obsessed with this CD thing for a long time now.

I hope so too, but I'd like to have both from him. I want a rock n roll record, preferably a GnR album (or at least a couple of songs) with Slash-Duff (and Izzy); if it's not possible, an AXL/DC album would be good, surely better than nothing. But I'm also very interested to hear what he can do with film music. An acoustic album is another thing I would like, a Johnny Cash-American Recordings type record, with just his voice and a guitar (or piano), not much edited, not overproduced; but, obviously, and unfortunately, he's not at all interested in doing something like this.

15 hours ago, MillionsOfSpiders said:

I can't believe the way Axl sings If You Want Blood. Ive been listening to some old GNR live from 80s and 90s, and for me there's nowhere, even then, where he sings better than If You Want Blood. 

If You Want Blood was Axl's best of the whole AC/DC set imho. I'd dare say that his performance beats Bon Scott's; Axl adds more meanness in it.

It's strange that while AC/DC fans think Axl does better on Bon's songs, most GnR fans here say that he is better on Brian's songs.

I agree with AC/DC fans, except for TNT which is a bit weaker; I don't know, maybe it's because the Brian Johnson era (BiB included) is not my cup of tea.

4 hours ago, Strange Broue said:

The recent Axl Q & A, Axl said that it would be cool if Slash (and Duff) want to play on some of the material, they are more than welcome to do so, but his wording was showed that he would release an album with the past CD members work on it (Finck/Bucket/Tobias/Dizzy stuff, BBF is doubtful because one of the reasons he fucked off is that Axl doesn't want his songs since the release of CD, DJ is... lol, Pitman is sacked, Brain was worked with them on some capacity in the studio)

He said "if Slash wants to write or play"

Dirty Deeds is much much better in the last 2-4 shows; not that it was bad before, but now is amazing.

17 minutes ago, AlexC said:

It's pretty much ripped off from Rock N' Roll by Zeppelin. Both songs are awesome though in their own right.

Not directly I think. Both songs as well as "Whole lotta Rosie" and loads of others are based on archetype rock n roll songs, Chuck Berry mostly.

1 hour ago, Lumikki said:

He did what?! Anyone got a link to that interview? I thought I had heard most of these douchey Niven interviews, but apparently not. And way to insult his girlfriend by comparing her to Axl, considering how much he hates Axl and seems to think he is the devil personified.

Also, I personally don't think Axl has any kind of autism spectrum disorder, but even if he had, so what? Insulting people with Asperger's? What the hell?

Seriously, every time he opens his mouth he pisses me off even more.

 

Yeah, it was his most recent interview before this Axl-will-go-to-hell nonsense. It was just after the reunion tour was announced. In comparison, though, and despite the Asperger's "diagnosis", he was less negative than in previous interviews.

2 hours ago, night prowler said:

Some drunk danish guy shouted "squealer" at the beginning of if you want blood...    that a cool song..

 

Yeah, this a good one