denin

The Live Era vox were done in the summer of '99, I think. The AFD redux was put on tape a year earlier. Axl never confirmed or denied re-recording the lead vocals specifically for AFD redux. The BD SCOM was said to be a mashup of an old live and a redux version (w/ Live Era lead vox). The new WTTJ (which almost got on the Black Hawk Down OST) would've likely been similar.

So, Dave says Goldstein and co wanted to do the same thing as Azoff and co. Humor Axl with his glorified solo album and wait for him to call Slash back. That happened, only they overestimated Axl's drive to follow CD up with a "proper" Guns album.

That James Patterson book, probably. The radio has always been a big deal for him, too.

Axl will back Fernando, assuredly. This is because Fernando will tell him it's all lies, lies, horrible lies. And Axl will buy that, because he feels he can relate. They should livestream the trial, so we could hear how the management is shown to be piss-poor in a court of law. "Y'r honor. we shall present some forum posts as exhibits..."

The copy/paste, as people point out, comes with the territory. We're talking material that's been ongoing for 25+ years. CD was a bit like an internet restoration of a film that had crucial scenes existing only on low-quality VHS. Even with clean-up, the quality skips around. Insult to injury, Axl himself was the superfan leading the effort, which meant including a bit of everything. The lyrics are definitely lacking. Monsters is lyrically TWAT-lite. The usual complaints, the bridge ending with a defiant "I've got nothing else to do!" Man needs to have priorities. The General has a throughline and a purpose, but as OP said, it doesn't evolve to much. A bit surprised there's no Shackler's Revenge demon baritone to be heard. And neither CD nor Riad is anywhere near Civil War, even if they are similar thematically. Axl's tweets show more effort nowadays than many of his lyrics.

Guns is a mass market band. Forums represent a fraction of the consumers. Forums dig up things the band would rather keep a lid on, because of reasons. So TB would have an incentive to view active forum posters as meddlers. Their silence in the midst of all this speaks volumes.

That's just Izzy.

A decade ago, he looked like a mess, a bloated rock n' roll caricature of himself. Since then, he's been on a roll to shed more weight on tours and to keep it down in between. Haven't seen him this lean since before CD came out, TBH.

Maybe there's been a master plan since the Absurd release to curb expectations. If so, they've done a cracking job. Every successive song has come out sounding better than the last. Yet, when you start with terrible, it's an easy way up.

Well, kinda. But the joke seems to be that while everyone else is flipping the bird, Ax is raising all but his middle fingers.

Paul had tension with Slash and Matt, then at least with Tommy. "Attitude" is the word that kept cropping up. Tommy, I think, also said something to the effect of some people in the '98 band were doing their first real album (Paul, Robin?). So they were at sea initially and that contributed to the tension with the more experienced players.

Also, Robin got in via Matt Sorum (of all people!). According to Beta, Axl had a litter of wolf dog puppies at the time. And given this is Guns we're talking about... Yup. Beavan seemed to be liked by almost everyone in the band. Tommy and Bucket had issues with RTB. I can imagine Robin having some gripes too.

The one with the opening notes to Robin's Stevie Ray Vaughan-ish solo. Just what Baz said. Axl's the George Lucas of rock, only he never quite bothered to release the trilogy back in the day.

NITL lineup with CD-era vocal tracks is likeliest route. It's certainly the easiest for Axl, even if it means binning months and years of studio tinkering. They'd be wholly new instrumentals - and Axl may troll us further by renaming the songs. Then it becomes a game of matching the vocals to the locker leaks. The alternative is new vocal tracks. His voice is a lot different from the last confirmed studio sessions (2007ish). Discovering the current limitations of his studio voice is hardly a fun night out. So he may settle for playing the producer and pretending he did the vocals just the other day.

"She beats me all the time. It's an abusive relationship." - Axl on stage with Beta, Rock in Rio 2011.

Who do you think gave Axl the news that Tommy would sit that tour leg out? While we're at it, it begs the question whether Ax was told the whole story there and then.

Maybe the church is front for a new webshop, where he'll sell his used t-shirts. Never you've seen a sweatshop like Hell Rose Place!