Marc Canter: "Axl and Slash would have to go to a marriage counselor"

[Dead Flower]

shouldn't you be sprouting your horseshit else were?

[Kickingthehabit]

Slash wasn't interested in any effort to explore new musical directions and to improve his style, and, sadly, Slash had proven us, along the years, that his stuck somewhere back in time, and that his skills are quite limited

You should check out the solo he did in Atlanta a week ago. It's a really gorgeous jazz melody with sweeping arpeggios. He's been doing a lot of tremolo picking, finger-picking and harmonic stuff as well. This tour has probably been the most revealing of his guitar repertoire. His chord voicings have never been better. I recommend checking out some of the clips. Don't worry so much about commenting here. I know you feel it's meaningful and significant to defend the current band. That's fine. If all you want to do is say Slash blows — cool. But if you've ever been a fan of his playing, I highly recommend you look up some of his recent shows. He's never played better..

-Kickingthehabit

[Vincent Vega]

Slash wasn't interested in any effort to explore new musical directions and to improve his style, and, sadly, Slash had proven us, along the years, that his stuck somewhere back in time, and that his skills are quite limited

You should check out the solo he did in Atlanta a week ago. It's a really gorgeous jazz melody with sweeping arpeggios. He's been doing a lot of tremolo picking, finger-picking and harmonic stuff as well. This tour has probably been the most revealing of his guitar repertoire. His chord voicings have never been better. I recommend checking out some of the clips. Don't worry so much about commenting here. I know you feel it's meaningful and significant to defend the current band. That's fine. If all you want to do is say Slash blows — cool. But if you've ever been a fan of his playing, I highly recommend you look up some of his recent shows. He's never played better..

-Kickingthehabit

Yeah, but that's now. He or she is talking about 1995-1996, when the crux of Axl and Slash's disagreement over the direction of the band, and the break up in turn, happened.

Most of Slash's stuff up to that time was blues based, or at times venturing into a Spanish style guitar. Look at the first Snakepit record--That was what was up Slash's alley in that period, and most of the album musically is literally what he wanted the next Guns album to be. That was his vision. We know of course that Axl even then wanted something different. "Oh My God" was written (musically) in early 1997, and "This I Love" sometime in 1993--Those give an idea of what Axl's vision was in the mid 90s.

Edited September 28, 2010 by MetalForever

[STARABOSTES]

Slash wasn't interested in any effort to explore new musical directions and to improve his style, and, sadly, Slash had proven us, along the years, that his stuck somewhere back in time, and that his skills are quite limited

You should check out the solo he did in Atlanta a week ago. It's a really gorgeous jazz melody with sweeping arpeggios. He's been doing a lot of tremolo picking, finger-picking and harmonic stuff as well. This tour has probably been the most revealing of his guitar repertoire. His chord voicings have never been better. I recommend checking out some of the clips. Don't worry so much about commenting here. I know you feel it's meaningful and significant to defend the current band. That's fine. If all you want to do is say Slash blows — cool. But if you've ever been a fan of his playing, I highly recommend you look up some of his recent shows. He's never played better..

-Kickingthehabit

thanks for the tips.

I am not a defender. I'm just expressing myself the way you - "reunionists" do.

And, did I said anywhere that Slash blows? com'on. please don't interpreted and put words were there weren't.

I know he could really be second behind Hendrix, but he's got a lot to work in that perspective. I have all albums of Hendrix, and what that man could do with guitar... well, Slash is, for now, far from being a skillful guitar. but he could be. with a little effort.

As, I said - I love his work in GNR! but don't really like the way he twisted the whole story of him quiting GNR. It was his decision, he wanted sole world recognition, so he did put out Snake Pit's Five o'clock somewhere (pretty wick in my opinion), and, from all I could get as infos he has a big ego as Axl has, and he tried to get control on GNR, and since he couldn't he left. that's that.

it's just sad, that a lot of GNR fans see him as the victim.

god help him!

[Orsys]

Slash wasn't interested in any effort to explore new musical directions and to improve his style, and, sadly, Slash had proven us, along the years, that his stuck somewhere back in time, and that his skills are quite limited

You should check out the solo he did in Atlanta a week ago. It's a really gorgeous jazz melody with sweeping arpeggios. He's been doing a lot of tremolo picking, finger-picking and harmonic stuff as well. This tour has probably been the most revealing of his guitar repertoire. His chord voicings have never been better. I recommend checking out some of the clips. Don't worry so much about commenting here. I know you feel it's meaningful and significant to defend the current band. That's fine. If all you want to do is say Slash blows — cool. But if you've ever been a fan of his playing, I highly recommend you look up some of his recent shows. He's never played better..

-Kickingthehabit

thanks for the tips.

I am not a defender. I'm just expressing myself the way you - "reunionists" do.

And, did I said anywhere that Slash blows? com'on. please don't interpreted and put words were there weren't.

I know he could really be second behind Hendrix, but he's got a lot to work in that perspective. I have all albums of Hendrix, and what that man could do with guitar... well, Slash is, for now, far from being a skillful guitar. but he could be. with a little effort.

As, I said - I love his work in GNR! but don't really like the way he twisted the whole story of him quiting GNR. It was his decision, he wanted sole world recognition, so he did put out Snake Pit's Five o'clock somewhere (pretty wick in my opinion), and, from all I could get as infos he has a big ego as Axl has, and he tried to get control on GNR, and since he couldn't he left. that's that.

it's just sad, that a lot of GNR fans see him as the victim.

god help him!

Yeah, he does play the victim sometimes, but I think the split served him very well and allowed him to improve as a guitarist without GnR to trap him into one style. He has improved immensely over the years.

Marc's post is an important one, I think. It is what happened without all the clutter of rumours and media and it illustrates two immense talents simply moving in different directions and suffering a bit at the split. And I think that's it!

[SpiritDave]

Nice read. I like his insights about the break-up reasons. Might be the most objective view on the topic we can get in the end.

Yes. For the quite disturbing, other end of the spectrum, see Mick Wall.

Why? You don't know anything about Mick Wall or his involvement in GnR's history.

[STARABOSTES]

I just found it there

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1604318&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=48706027438&aid=-1&id=1089924740&oid=48706027438

[STARABOSTES]

So what makes you think Slash is twisting the truth? It is not only Slash who is claiming Axl coerced the other members to sign over their rights while the only one defending Axl's version of the story is Axl. If I had the time I could find you quotes from Slash, Izzy, Duff, Stephen and Alan Niven who all say Axl became a dictator and wanted total control over band decisions while nobody other than Axl has claimed Slash was making a power play........Regarding the "5 Oclock Somewhere" material, Slash offered it to Axl first and he rejected it intially so Slash decided to put it out on his own. Both Slash and Gilby Clarke have confirmed this in interviews from that time period so your theory that he wanted "sole world recognition" does not make any sense.

well... because, how can a single man have that power to "coerced the other members to sign"?

use your head for once. would you and another friend submit to a third one?

Because, you have to realize that Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarck were "hired hands", and most important to understand that Slash and Duff weren't original members, but replacements, and that the only original members of the formation of Guns N' Roses in the line-up which got out Appettite were Axl and Izzy, and with the leave of Izzy, the only original member left was Axl Rose, and as much as you, or any other reunionist like to dismiss this, this are the facts, this is the truth, and that is way, Slash and Duff sign the name to Axl. The signing was a moral and correct thing to do, and that is way they did it. And if it was a "twist of an arm" from Axl's part, and without the truth on his side, don't you think that by now we would have one trial, just one, on which, all the people you mentioned would prove that Axl's actions against them was wrong and unjust? ha? and with that trial, the name Guns N' Roses would have been baned to ever be use again, or, even more, would become the right of Slash and Duff to use it?! the humanity!

Edited October 1, 2010 by roua gri

[Vincent Vega]

Nobody knows for sure what happened regarding the signing over the name to GnR but considering all the former members commented on Axl's power play to take over the band I tend to beleive them over Axl who is the only one pushing his side of the story...GnR was just another club band until Slash and Stephen joined...the fame they created was the result of contributions from all of them not just Axl and they were equal partners in that success..

If you really believe the others would sign over their rights without some sort of arm twisting you are really blind to all the crap Axl put the others through. There was nothing moral about how Axl acquired the rights to the GnR name and he fucked over his supposed brothers to gain complete control all for the sake of $$$$... Axl might own the rights to the name but he will never be GnR without the others

you can keep spinning your pro Axl propaganda but you can't change the truth of what happened............Axl is right about one thing he did outlast them all and was the last man standing but at what price?..

His reputation and possibly his legacy.

But people can only do to you what you let them do. Slash was weak. He could have fought tooth and nail against it; He didn't, he caved.

Slash even says in his book that in a meeting with Keith Richards in the summer of 1996, Keith told him specifically NOT TO LEAVE--that that is the one thing you DON'T do. He decided not to take Keith's advice on the matter. He was weak, buckled, and ran instead of taking the heat.

As for Duff, his reasons for leaving are a mixture it seems of boredom since the band wasn't doing anything, and his problems with Axl. Note that Duff didn't leave until August 1997, nearly a year after Slash.

Izzy left for a variety of reasons including the fact that he never wanted to be in a massively popular stadium band, his idea was just that garage style stuff, he was off Heroin and was surrounded by guys who were still on Heroin which he felt would lead him to relapse and he didn't want to watch his friends killing themselves, and he also felt that Axl's worst tendencies (along with the rest of the band's worst tendencies) were made larger by fame. The last straw for him was him being demoted in the band in a new contract. Axl's reasoning behind this was that Izzy wasn't putting 100% into the band (and this is backed up by Slash saying he had to ''double up'' guitars for Izzy on the UYI albums, apparently Izzy didn't show up for most of the later recordings and has said himself he wasn't there for the mixing).

Steven's firing was agreed upon by the band as a whole, and he was becoming a liability and a hassle to getting shit done, so I don't think you can count that as part of Axl's dictatorship.

Matt and Gilby were hired hands, so their reasons for leaving don't really matter. They are basically as much Guns as any present member is.

Edited October 2, 2010 by MetalForever

[Dark_Eagle]

I don't even know when that happened. I don't remember if Axl ever told me anything about it and Slash never said anything about it until I saw it in his book. Slash felt that if he didn't sign it, that Axl wouldn't go on stage. That doesn't mean that Axl made that threat Slash and Duff just assumed that Axl wouldn't go on stage or record again if they didn't sign. So Axl didn't blackmail them. Also Slash and Duff may have not have had the best advice by their management regarding signing the name over, but if they didn't sign the name over the band would have broken up anyways in 1995/1996 when they didn't agree on who was going to be replacing Izzy and what songs they would record. No one would have the name GUN N' ROSES. If that was the case Axl would have had a lot more music out by now but, under a different name, but probably with the same guys that worked on Chinese Democracy and that record would have been out in 1998/1999 with new music from Axl every few years. There was a lot Axl had to deal with to keep GUNS N ' ROSES going when Slash and Duff left and it took many years to deal with. Plus some law suits. Slash would have done the same thing as he did anyways with out Axl, 2 Snakepit records 2 VR records and 1 solo record and still there would be no reunion. So who is lying? Maybe no one, maybe just a bunch of miscommunication and why does it matter anyway? They wanted different things so going their own way was the only way they could get what they wanted. It was sad for me to see that split but thats life, shit happens and we lick our wounds and move on.

Here you go, he didn't just gave the most related answer to the question of the band splitting, Marc closed the forum with this statement.

In future forum will be opened for album, song and concert discussions, everything you need to know about the breakup and Axl/Slash relationship is up here. Have a nice day.