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Bach: Why Axl Acts the Way He Does


Orsys

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Everybody has all these theories as to why he acts the way he acts. And there's no big mystery. He tells me the source of all of the insanity — it's his voice. It's his job to sing like that, and sometimes that sound is hard for him. And a lot of singers, you know, to sing in that range is just not an easy thing to do. And he does what he can, and if it takes him forty-five more minutes to warm up his pipes so he can sing 'Sweet Child O' Mine'.

Why not start warming up earlier?

I can buy this.

Anyone ever Boogie Nights.

All Dirk has thought he had was his d**k. What if it didn't work anymore?

What would he be left with?

Boogie Nights, heh, I love that film.

..for another take on John Holmes, check out Wonderland

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Actually I think there is a lot of truth from both the comments, from Tracii Guns and Bach.

I believe it is hard to get his voice in order, more than anyone can understand. I can imagine it's extremely tight and restricted, and he has to loosen it, bit by bit, until it starts to open up. After loosening it, he needs to stretch his range, high and low, pushing notes on both ends slowly until it really starts to open up. Then he needs to warm the whole voice up in clean range until his range is fully accessible, and then he needs to start working on the grit/rasp, getting bits and pieces of it slowly applied to the clean voice, then the grit/rasp gets thickened up to the perfect level, so he can access that sound easily, and so he can sing the way everyone expects

No doubt it takes a lot of work to warm up and fine tune his voice for the show. I sing also, and there are times I can do everything with my voice with no warming up, but most times I have to really push it with the warm ups to get it operating properly. I can go from my voice being so closed up I can barely get any sound out of it, to having it completely opened up and elastic, but it takes time, patience, and being very careful. If you rush it, you'll close your voice down pretty quickly.

Axl's range is so wide which makes it harder. He's got a super deep speaking voice, which means he's got to really stretch out his voice in order to get that high range operable. Once it gets elastic, he then needs to warm up the grit and get it into a position where he can add it with his singing voice. The problem with the grit/rasp is that you can easily bring too much of it into the voice and go overboard. There's a very fine line here. If he just accents his voice with some elastic shred elements, and can keep it in that form, then he will maintain his voice. But if he isn't properly warmed up, or he gets too deep into the rasp, his range will start closing up. He won't be able to do the things he does, and he won't sound good. Going tom far into the rasp/shred too often it will break his voice down over time, which results in him sounding like he did in some of the Use Your Illusion tour parts, where he was forcing sound out of a restricted, battered voice, and it just didn't sound good.

And don't go comparing what Axl does to anyone else. It's very different. There's no one out there that sings in his range with that tone/rasp.

As far as the Tracii Guns comments go, they sounded pretty accurate. I think he knows "Axl" quite well as a person, even if he may currently have no contact with him. Axl does need a partner. Someone who understands his vision and can complement it, and really be an equal, without having en ego problem. Unfortunately, Axl's hasn't had a chance to find that. And that is not a knock on anyone in the new band. They are all great and capable.

Top post.

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Actually I think there is a lot of truth from both the comments, from Tracii Guns and Bach.

I believe it is hard to get his voice in order, more than anyone can understand. I can imagine it's extremely tight and restricted, and he has to loosen it, bit by bit, until it starts to open up. After loosening it, he needs to stretch his range, high and low, pushing notes on both ends slowly until it really starts to open up. Then he needs to warm the whole voice up in clean range until his range is fully accessible, and then he needs to start working on the grit/rasp, getting bits and pieces of it slowly applied to the clean voice, then the grit/rasp gets thickened up to the perfect level, so he can access that sound easily, and so he can sing the way everyone expects

No doubt it takes a lot of work to warm up and fine tune his voice for the show. I sing also, and there are times I can do everything with my voice with no warming up, but most times I have to really push it with the warm ups to get it operating properly. I can go from my voice being so closed up I can barely get any sound out of it, to having it completely opened up and elastic, but it takes time, patience, and being very careful. If you rush it, you'll close your voice down pretty quickly.

Axl's range is so wide which makes it harder. He's got a super deep speaking voice, which means he's got to really stretch out his voice in order to get that high range operable. Once it gets elastic, he then needs to warm up the grit and get it into a position where he can add it with his singing voice. The problem with the grit/rasp is that you can easily bring too much of it into the voice and go overboard. There's a very fine line here. If he just accents his voice with some elastic shred elements, and can keep it in that form, then he will maintain his voice. But if he isn't properly warmed up, or he gets too deep into the rasp, his range will start closing up. He won't be able to do the things he does, and he won't sound good. Going tom far into the rasp/shred too often it will break his voice down over time, which results in him sounding like he did in some of the Use Your Illusion tour parts, where he was forcing sound out of a restricted, battered voice, and it just didn't sound good.

And don't go comparing what Axl does to anyone else. It's very different. There's no one out there that sings in his range with that tone/rasp.

As far as the Tracii Guns comments go, they sounded pretty accurate. I think he knows "Axl" quite well as a person, even if he may currently have no contact with him. Axl does need a partner. Someone who understands his vision and can complement it, and really be an equal, without having en ego problem. Unfortunately, Axl's hasn't had a chance to find that. And that is not a knock on anyone in the new band. They are all great and capable.

You forgot mentioning Axl has a powerful voice. Not just the range and tone, but the power he puts out with his voice is remarkable.

There's a lot of singers in the rock genre that tried to find ways of developing a rasp to their voice. Robert Palmer had said he intentionally smoked a lot of cigarettes to develop one, Tom Waits had a nasally singing voice in '74, and a year later sounded straight like he woke up behind Gil Turners and locked himself in a truck full of Camels unfiltered. David Lee Roth's singing voice was created with In N Out Burgers and a bunch of weed when he recorded the first Van Halen album. Henley's known for a raspy voice and prob. the only one who should be left to sing "Hotel California", and he's mentioned how blown away he was by Axl in the studio.

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Actually I think there is a lot of truth from both the comments, from Tracii Guns and Bach.

I believe it is hard to get his voice in order, more than anyone can understand. I can imagine it's extremely tight and restricted, and he has to loosen it, bit by bit, until it starts to open up. After loosening it, he needs to stretch his range, high and low, pushing notes on both ends slowly until it really starts to open up. Then he needs to warm the whole voice up in clean range until his range is fully accessible, and then he needs to start working on the grit/rasp, getting bits and pieces of it slowly applied to the clean voice, then the grit/rasp gets thickened up to the perfect level, so he can access that sound easily, and so he can sing the way everyone expects

No doubt it takes a lot of work to warm up and fine tune his voice for the show. I sing also, and there are times I can do everything with my voice with no warming up, but most times I have to really push it with the warm ups to get it operating properly. I can go from my voice being so closed up I can barely get any sound out of it, to having it completely opened up and elastic, but it takes time, patience, and being very careful. If you rush it, you'll close your voice down pretty quickly.

Axl's range is so wide which makes it harder. He's got a super deep speaking voice, which means he's got to really stretch out his voice in order to get that high range operable. Once it gets elastic, he then needs to warm up the grit and get it into a position where he can add it with his singing voice. The problem with the grit/rasp is that you can easily bring too much of it into the voice and go overboard. There's a very fine line here. If he just accents his voice with some elastic shred elements, and can keep it in that form, then he will maintain his voice. But if he isn't properly warmed up, or he gets too deep into the rasp, his range will start closing up. He won't be able to do the things he does, and he won't sound good. Going tom far into the rasp/shred too often it will break his voice down over time, which results in him sounding like he did in some of the Use Your Illusion tour parts, where he was forcing sound out of a restricted, battered voice, and it just didn't sound good.

And don't go comparing what Axl does to anyone else. It's very different. There's no one out there that sings in his range with that tone/rasp.

As far as the Tracii Guns comments go, they sounded pretty accurate. I think he knows "Axl" quite well as a person, even if he may currently have no contact with him. Axl does need a partner. Someone who understands his vision and can complement it, and really be an equal, without having en ego problem. Unfortunately, Axl's hasn't had a chance to find that. And that is not a knock on anyone in the new band. They are all great and capable.

You forgot mentioning Axl has a powerful voice. Not just the range and tone, but the power he puts out with his voice is remarkable.

There's a lot of singers in the rock genre that tried to find ways of developing a rasp to their voice. Robert Palmer had said he intentionally smoked a lot of cigarettes to develop one, Tom Waits had a nasally singing voice in '74, and a year later sounded straight like he woke up behind Gil Turners and locked himself in a truck full of Camels unfiltered. David Lee Roth's singing voice was created with In N Out Burgers and a bunch of weed when he recorded the first Van Halen album. Henley's known for a raspy voice and prob. the only one who should be left to sing "Hotel California", and he's mentioned how blown away he was by Axl in the studio.

He also mentioned what a prima donna Axl acted like too.

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Actually I think there is a lot of truth from both the comments, from Tracii Guns and Bach.

I believe it is hard to get his voice in order, more than anyone can understand. I can imagine it's extremely tight and restricted, and he has to loosen it, bit by bit, until it starts to open up. After loosening it, he needs to stretch his range, high and low, pushing notes on both ends slowly until it really starts to open up. Then he needs to warm the whole voice up in clean range until his range is fully accessible, and then he needs to start working on the grit/rasp, getting bits and pieces of it slowly applied to the clean voice, then the grit/rasp gets thickened up to the perfect level, so he can access that sound easily, and so he can sing the way everyone expects

No doubt it takes a lot of work to warm up and fine tune his voice for the show. I sing also, and there are times I can do everything with my voice with no warming up, but most times I have to really push it with the warm ups to get it operating properly. I can go from my voice being so closed up I can barely get any sound out of it, to having it completely opened up and elastic, but it takes time, patience, and being very careful. If you rush it, you'll close your voice down pretty quickly.

Axl's range is so wide which makes it harder. He's got a super deep speaking voice, which means he's got to really stretch out his voice in order to get that high range operable. Once it gets elastic, he then needs to warm up the grit and get it into a position where he can add it with his singing voice. The problem with the grit/rasp is that you can easily bring too much of it into the voice and go overboard. There's a very fine line here. If he just accents his voice with some elastic shred elements, and can keep it in that form, then he will maintain his voice. But if he isn't properly warmed up, or he gets too deep into the rasp, his range will start closing up. He won't be able to do the things he does, and he won't sound good. Going tom far into the rasp/shred too often it will break his voice down over time, which results in him sounding like he did in some of the Use Your Illusion tour parts, where he was forcing sound out of a restricted, battered voice, and it just didn't sound good.

And don't go comparing what Axl does to anyone else. It's very different. There's no one out there that sings in his range with that tone/rasp.

As far as the Tracii Guns comments go, they sounded pretty accurate. I think he knows "Axl" quite well as a person, even if he may currently have no contact with him. Axl does need a partner. Someone who understands his vision and can complement it, and really be an equal, without having en ego problem. Unfortunately, Axl's hasn't had a chance to find that. And that is not a knock on anyone in the new band. They are all great and capable.

You forgot mentioning Axl has a powerful voice. Not just the range and tone, but the power he puts out with his voice is remarkable.

There's a lot of singers in the rock genre that tried to find ways of developing a rasp to their voice. Robert Palmer had said he intentionally smoked a lot of cigarettes to develop one, Tom Waits had a nasally singing voice in '74, and a year later sounded straight like he woke up behind Gil Turners and locked himself in a truck full of Camels unfiltered. David Lee Roth's singing voice was created with In N Out Burgers and a bunch of weed when he recorded the first Van Halen album. Henley's known for a raspy voice and prob. the only one who should be left to sing "Hotel California", and he's mentioned how blown away he was by Axl in the studio.

I'll wait what ever it takes to see a Guns show, Axl is the only man i ever consider waiting 3 hours for Why? I'm a fan the time i'll wait in my view is well spent. I'm sick that every hater in Guns forums as they have nothing else to complain about the tour is how late they go on stage n every other show there comes the complains mostly by people that didn't go to show in question or any other. The ones with much to loose with the late start is GNR (bad press, fines etc...etc..) why would it bother me like it's capital crime to go next day to work without 8 hours sleep? I don't think that is lack of respect by the fans either but why the lame excuses like it's rock n roll and rebellios spirit or this...come on opera singers don't start their shows late because they have big vocal ranges or need to do raspy voices. Axl said it he just have a heird internal cloock and until he's ready to deliver n the technical issues are in order he won't ou can't go on stage n feel that he can give his best and he chooses not to go on stage like it's just n obligation. I for one respect that it does takes balls to go on stage when theirs booings going on or things being thrown n it takes extra tallent to win back a crowd on that collective frame of mind n it has happen in this last shows even with all the bias press n all that crap. Most of the reviews n the youtube vid's from fans show that, so if even the casual fan feels like the performance is worth the extra time till it start's their's no need to come up with excuses or justifications the shows n the music do that just fine. We all know that if the day comes GNR start's doing their shows on time the haters will star post's like It's not GNR anymore they start shows on time bla bla it's a bunch of hired gun no real RnR like in 1991 bla bla Axl is just in it for the money bla bla he doesn't respect his fans with that lame right on schedule shows bla bla

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Actually I think there is a lot of truth from both the comments, from Tracii Guns and Bach.

I believe it is hard to get his voice in order, more than anyone can understand. I can imagine it's extremely tight and restricted, and he has to loosen it, bit by bit, until it starts to open up. After loosening it, he needs to stretch his range, high and low, pushing notes on both ends slowly until it really starts to open up. Then he needs to warm the whole voice up in clean range until his range is fully accessible, and then he needs to start working on the grit/rasp, getting bits and pieces of it slowly applied to the clean voice, then the grit/rasp gets thickened up to the perfect level, so he can access that sound easily, and so he can sing the way everyone expects

No doubt it takes a lot of work to warm up and fine tune his voice for the show. I sing also, and there are times I can do everything with my voice with no warming up, but most times I have to really push it with the warm ups to get it operating properly. I can go from my voice being so closed up I can barely get any sound out of it, to having it completely opened up and elastic, but it takes time, patience, and being very careful. If you rush it, you'll close your voice down pretty quickly.

Axl's range is so wide which makes it harder. He's got a super deep speaking voice, which means he's got to really stretch out his voice in order to get that high range operable. Once it gets elastic, he then needs to warm up the grit and get it into a position where he can add it with his singing voice. The problem with the grit/rasp is that you can easily bring too much of it into the voice and go overboard. There's a very fine line here. If he just accents his voice with some elastic shred elements, and can keep it in that form, then he will maintain his voice. But if he isn't properly warmed up, or he gets too deep into the rasp, his range will start closing up. He won't be able to do the things he does, and he won't sound good. Going tom far into the rasp/shred too often it will break his voice down over time, which results in him sounding like he did in some of the Use Your Illusion tour parts, where he was forcing sound out of a restricted, battered voice, and it just didn't sound good.

And don't go comparing what Axl does to anyone else. It's very different. There's no one out there that sings in his range with that tone/rasp.

As far as the Tracii Guns comments go, they sounded pretty accurate. I think he knows "Axl" quite well as a person, even if he may currently have no contact with him. Axl does need a partner. Someone who understands his vision and can complement it, and really be an equal, without having en ego problem. Unfortunately, Axl's hasn't had a chance to find that. And that is not a knock on anyone in the new band. They are all great and capable.

You forgot mentioning Axl has a powerful voice. Not just the range and tone, but the power he puts out with his voice is remarkable.

There's a lot of singers in the rock genre that tried to find ways of developing a rasp to their voice. Robert Palmer had said he intentionally smoked a lot of cigarettes to develop one, Tom Waits had a nasally singing voice in '74, and a year later sounded straight like he woke up behind Gil Turners and locked himself in a truck full of Camels unfiltered. David Lee Roth's singing voice was created with In N Out Burgers and a bunch of weed when he recorded the first Van Halen album. Henley's known for a raspy voice and prob. the only one who should be left to sing "Hotel California", and he's mentioned how blown away he was by Axl in the studio.

He also mentioned what a prima donna Axl acted like too.

PRIMA DONNA??!! lol you really are gonna take ANY credibility from tracii guns?? The guys still jealous and pissy cuz guns took off after he left and he's still jealous of slash...and axl. Who cares what he has to say he just wants attention and still feels robbed of guns n roses success.

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WHY?!?! It's his longtime friend...you have no clue exactly what's went on between them over the years. Baz has a right to his opinion and if he wants to defend his buddy axl he has that right whether people buy it or not. The only person here who should shut up is you. You should also leave your bitterness and bias for axl out of these discussions..

I mean seriously relax...the guy shows up late for shows. Stop treating it like he started an anthrax epidemic across the world.

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I can diggit, and get it. I used to sing long live sets and warm ups can be tricky, especially if you want to eat first (breakfast in Axl's case) as you can't warm up soon after eating. You also have to look at did he cool down enough if he had a show the prior night, or did he go backstage and talk up a storm? All this affects you, and even more at 48 ish, and it's easy to have nothing the next day and all you can do is sing softly in falsetto for an hour until it's back.

As to warming up earlier again it may be something as simple as choosing between going on stage starving, or eating instead , waiting, then going off to warm up.

The guy didn't do a single show for a great majority of his career. His voice should NOT be a concern and people seriously have to stop making excuses for him. He does what he does because his 'thing' is to be the anti-establishment rock star. If he behaved and played a show on time he wouldn't be Axl Rose anymore. If he respected the fans and surfaced more than every 4 years he wouldn't be Axl Rose anymore. That's why at 48 years old he's still throwing punches at people.

When's he going to mellow out and drop all the hostility? Maybe never but that kind of stuff doesn't work when you're approaching 50 years old.

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WHY?!?! It's his longtime friend...you have no clue exactly what's went on between them over the years. Baz has a right to his opinion and if he wants to defend his buddy axl he has that right whether people buy it or not. The only person here who should shut up is you. You should also leave your bitterness and bias for axl out of these discussions..

I mean seriously relax...the guy shows up late for shows. Stop treating it like he started an anthrax epidemic across the world.

Who pissed in your corn flakes this morning? You are so off the mark, you have no concept of who I am and my perspective on Axl. You base your silly comment on one of my posts that was about Bach and not Axl. Go away now, you bother me.

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