How long can he go on?

[droezle]

Bruce Dickinson is older and sings, screams and runs all around the stage, so I think there's still some hope for Axl.

So does Iggy Pop and he is almost 63 years old.

[plonker88]

Axl isn't stupid, he knows his career and income is based on his voice so he will take care of it. 2002 was the exception because he was clearly dealing with a lot of emotional issues so I doubt he gave a shit about his vocal chords at the time.

[AbominableHoman]

if you take sufficient breaks between album cycles, he should be fine. 14 years sounds about right...

That certainly won't be a problem.

[gnr-dave]

Axl isn't stupid, he knows his career and income is based on his voice so he will take care of it. 2002 was the exception because he was clearly dealing with a lot of emotional issues so I doubt he gave a shit about his vocal chords at the time.

What are you talking about? Axl sang correctly in 2002, where as now he is back to abusing his voice/vocal chords and that is why his voice is shot again.

And resting for years your voice does not preserve it, its a muscle, you have to keep it in shape to make it sound good or you lose it. Yes its good to save it for a few days but if you are not keeping your vocal chords in shape you are not going to sound good.

[xxmexxycow]

I read that Axl doesn't smoke anymore actually.

Great for Axl!

Bruce Dickinson is older and sings, screams and runs all around the stage, so I think there's still some hope for Axl.

So does Iggy Pop and he is almost 63 years old.

Dickinson was the first example that came to my mind because he and Axl have a very similar style on the stage

[Yesterdays-Civil-War]

KISS too. They don't do much running in those shoes...lol But they do sing great, live, in their 50-60's.

Axl will only do it if he wants to, and it is iffy to see if he really wants to, but I can't imagine a world without Axl Rose performing on stage.

We might all want that new album, but that doesn't mean we'll get it. :/ We know he has a lot more songs that we haven't heard, but will he ever release 'em?!?

Hopefully we will see at least one album by 2012. I'd love to see some those new songs.

[Lose Your Illusions]

He is already done. Sure he can keep singing shows but he will have to use backing tracks more and more

lol

[JesusisSavior]

by the way Axl's been screaming, tearing his vocal chords to shreds on every track and what not- I doubt the longevity his voice will have live

it's only a matter of time

singers like Prince and Freddy Mercury would enjoy a life long set of vocal prowess. Just because they sing properly.

[koldie123]

funny you should mention Mr.Mercury there, Axl would far outlast a tour when it comes to Freddie Mercury, any tour over say 5-6 months and Freddie's voice really does suffer badly and he tends to lose a heck of a lot of his upper range due to noudles, which you only get through mis-use...Axl's style of singing actually is probably more sustainable then Freddie's belting voice was, as long as Axl doesn't try to overdo it and balances it out with falsetto. Thats always going to be the big risk for Axl IMO...

[moreblack]

Freddie Mercury, any tour over say 5-6 months and Freddie's voice really does suffer badly and he tends to lose a heck of a lot of his upper range due to noudles, which you only get through mis-use...

and we know this for a fact?

[sourdeezl]

hopefully he will be touring even when he is 70

[Lose Your Illusions]

if anyone has an excuse to lose their voice its Axl. no one sings like him.

[koldie123]

Freddie Mercury, any tour over say 5-6 months and Freddie's voice really does suffer badly and he tends to lose a heck of a lot of his upper range due to noudles, which you only get through mis-use...

and we know this for a fact?

I've got just about every single bootlegs/audience recording out there at the moment and the above is true for all but the 79-82 period, which is widely regarded as Freddie's live peak, after that his nodules really became a problem and he'd often lose the top 2-3 notes after the first 3-5 shows because of his nodules....but it is widely known he suffered from nodules, esp at the end of the Jazz tour (which was quite long to be fair) and the Works tour in 84.

[Nick83]

Axl will probably singing in top form for a very long time. I mean, the singer from Nazareth, who's got a very similar style to Axl, is still belting it out in good form.

Axl's voice has changed a lot over the years. Great, to damaged, to a different style of singing, back to an older style of singing/mixed with the new, and now finally back to how he sounded when he started. Plus, the break he took was no doubt very good for him. Plus I have the feeling he really takes care of himself, and he's also probably been going to a throat doctor for most of his career, and has been able to document the history of his voice, so they have a very good idea how things are progressing and what is or is not affecting his voice.

[karlossacanell]

if anyone has an excuse to lose their voice its Axl. no one sings like him.

Sure.

[Powerage5]

Ronnie James Dio is 67. Enough said. Dio was touring with Black Sabbath up to his diagnosis with cancer (and if he recovers still will be as they have dates booked) and is still one of the best frontmen of all time; running around and singing brilliantly.

So Axl's got another 20 odd years yet.

Dio is an odd case though; his voice is literally no different than 30 years ago on his first Sabbath album. That's virtually impossible, and I can't think of anyone who's maintained their voice so well over the years. Remember also, Dio has never smoked and is only a light drinker (Won't be any more). This was a huge factor in why he still sounds so good.

I'd say Axl has another solid 6 years or so.

[Jordan Rose]

I've been stressing about this since the last decade began slipping away with no album and promotion etc. Besides the tours which have served harcore and casual fans, Axl basically lost nearly 17 years of his prime since 1993 and only now is starting to properly rebuild his legacy by touring new music in his late 40s.

Bach says The General has high, piercing, screaming vocals, higher than anything Axl's done before including the scream on Stuck Inside. Is he really going to be able to perform something like that in his 50s when he wouldn't even attempt the IRS scream in 2006?

Most of the comparisons people are making are absolutely pointless. It doesn't really matter that Dickinson has lost a lot of range and power or that most of the guys in their 50s and 60s sing in much lower keys and avoid the screams etc these days. They can get away with it because the screaming high parts generally aren't integral to the songs and performance. Dickinson can still sing a very strained Hallowed Be Thy Name and nobody expects it to end with a piercing 12 second scream like it's 1984. Ozzy sings pretty low and dull now but he was never about vocal acrobatics and epic screams all the time anyway.

But it's very different for Axl. Many of the songs are built around a payoff of some kind of emotional release in the form of a scream or really high part: Twat, I.R.S, Prostitute, Madagascar, SoD, Rocket Queen, Don't Cry, Heaven's Door. Many of them are just insanely demanding because of the sheer vocal range and range of styles expected in one song: Scraped, TIL, Shacklers, If The World.

We can probably expect equally or more demanding vocals on the next albums and I just don't see how he can keep the range and power, falsetto or not, into his mid 50s.

And the problem with that is that Axl's whole stage persona and performance is of a screaming banshee fireball. He can't stay behind a microphone stand and sing Jungle an octave lower. He can't miss out the high parts of Twat.

If you want to know what happens to a rock singer who completely loses their voice then compare a 2010 Bon Jovi show to a 1996 Bon Jovi show. Jon has had no choice but to try and reinvent his stage-showinto a singer-songwriter Springsteen-esque performance where the songs take centre stage; he spends most of the night stood behind a mic stand; there are no theatrics and no running about and virtually no 'rock show' elements. The most telling thing was when they recently started playing some songs from their first two albums for the first time in 25 years. Watching a middle-aged Jon with absolutely no range, stood behind a mic stand with his eyes closed, trying to sing 'The Hardest Part Is The Night' and 'Only Lonely' was a really sad sight. If Axl loses a good chunk of his range and power in the next 5 years he is not going to tone the show down, stop performing all the hard stuff and sit on a stool singing Brownstone and So Easy.

My hope is that he continues to prove to be an absolute vocal freak and is able to perform at close to the level he is now for 2-3 more new albums into his mid-late 50s.

He already said that he hopes 'we (Guns) continue to make music for many years to come'. He knows his voice and his limitations and he's seen the endless discussions about his voice on the boards. I'm sure he already has an idea himself of how much longer he can go.

I also think it's likely that when the time comes he'll do other things. He's already said that a solo album would probably be an instrumental film-score-esque affair. I can imagine him doing something like Robert Plant's amazing album Raising Sands with Alison Krauss where he uses everything but his rock voice.

[Nick83]

I think Axl's voice is going to last forever to be honest. If he hasn't killed it by now, it's not going anywhere. Seriously. Yeah, his style of singing is hard and abrasive...............to the listeners. To him, it's just something he's able to naturally do.

I mean, he toured for like 3 years straight during the Illusion era, and at times he sounded like he had seriously messed up his voice. He was grinding it a lot harder than he is now. And if he didn't destroy his voice permanently back then, then why would it happen now?

I used to be worried about his voice, and then he came back in 2001, and it was different, and everyone thought the worst (wouldn't be able to sing like he used to) including myself, but his voice was still great, just different.

But now, I'm a believer.