Interesting comment from Robin on the number of songs (back in '00)

[Vincent Vega]

"When I left New Orleans I hooked-up with the Cirque Du Soleil and started playing guitar in a circus band. I wanted to do something completely 180 degrees opposite of what I had been doing, and for me and my life at the time, it seemed like a far out thing to do. It was a great experience for me. About 18 months into that, I got a call from Axl Rose, who I never met at the time. He invited me to the studio as he was writing and recording songs. It was an invitation for a casual listen. Eventually, after about 8 weeks, we started playing together. We played some of my songs and finally I left the circus and was doing records with Axl, Josh and Tommy, and what would have been a new Guns N' Roses, if you will. We wrote and rehearsed and argued and laboriously recorded several records worth of musical material, which to the best of my knowledge Axl is still finishing. But my work was through. We had dozens of finished songs, as far as I was concerned, and we were waiting for Axl to complete the songs. So the timing was perfect. Nails were about to go on the road again, and I wanted to go out on the road with them."

This was from a 2000 interview with Robin, after he had left Guns for the first time to go back to NiN.

[Lose Your Illusions]

"When I left New Orleans I hooked-up with the Cirque Du Soleil and started playing guitar in a circus band. I wanted to do something completely 180 degrees opposite of what I had been doing, and for me and my life at the time, it seemed like a far out thing to do. It was a great experience for me. About 18 months into that, I got a call from Axl Rose, who I never met at the time. He invited me to the studio as he was writing and recording songs. It was an invitation for a casual listen. Eventually, after about 8 weeks, we started playing together. We played some of my songs and finally I left the circus and was doing records with Axl, Josh and Tommy, and what would have been a new Guns N' Roses, if you will. We wrote and rehearsed and argued and laboriously recorded several records worth of musical material, which to the best of my knowledge Axl is still finishing. But my work was through. We had dozens of finished songs, as far as I was concerned, and we were waiting for Axl to complete the songs. So the timing was perfect. Nails were about to go on the road again, and I wanted to go out on the road with them."

This was from a 2000 interview with Robin, after he had left Guns for the first time to go back to NiN.

There are a alot of quotes from current and former band members that suggest there is alot of material finished, yet obviously, unreleased.

anyone who thinks that there isnt that much material is an idiot.

[Stiff Competition]

Musical material really doesn't mean much. All bands have tons of albums worth of unfinished songs. Just because they lay down a track doesn't mean Axl is going to put lyrics and vocals to it.

[Guest King Of Spades]

So what was the deal with Opihuchus aka Zodiac?

"Whether or not you believe that the position and relationship of the sun

Be rest assured that the zodiac has begun"

[ManetsBR]

Nothing. Certainly fake.

[Guest King Of Spades]

I really wish something would leak...

[Butters]

Bono has made similar comments regarding U2 material before and the rest of the band disagreed. Nothing came of Bono assertions.

[wasted]

Maybe a lot of that material was too advanced for gnr fans back then. CD tested the waters I think we're ready.

[CoBrA2168]

Maybe a lot of that material was too advanced for gnr fans back then. CD tested the waters I think we're ready.

Yes, that we are.

[Vincent Vega]

Bono has made similar comments regarding U2 material before and the rest of the band disagreed. Nothing came of Bono assertions.

Moby said in 1997:

"'I don't think this new music is just a vehicle for him as a solo performer. He wants this to be a band where everyone contributes,' says Moby. 'On the music I've heard, you can hear everyone's distinctive voice coming through. [...] The music they're working on has a very dramatic quality to it. They're using some modern technology. Axl's really excited about sampling. He loves the DJ Shadow record and Nine Inch Nails. The stuff I've heard is much more concise than, say, 'November Rain.' Not bombastic. Very stripped down. Very intense. It's not hard-rock music in the way that 'Welcome to the Jungle' was.'"

(Icon Magazine, 10/97)

"The story goes that Moby [...] went in to soak up some music compiled on nearly 300 DAT tapes that the band had filled with what the source described as 'ideas, loops and sketches,' and was duly impressed with what Rose and crew had come up with." (Addicted to Noise, 03/19/97)

"'I found it difficult to chart a linear development of the songs that they were working on,' recalls Moby. 'They would work on something, it would be a sketch for a while, and then they'd put it aside and go back to it a year, six months later. He became a little bit defensive when I asked him about the vocals. He just said that he was going to get to them eventually,' Moby continues." (Rolling Stone, 05/11/00)

'This I Love' was supposed to be for a soundtrack to a Robin Williams movie awhile back. Thats the only reason any old track was even thought about by Axl, that track was never going be on the record." (Dave Dominguez, elsewhere, 02/07/05)

"Dawn Soler, the musical supervisor for the film "What Dreams May Come", [...] assured me that Axl 'was really into the film' and rather interestingly suggested that he 'wrote the song for it'. This contradicts an interview from 1994 where Axl said he had already written the song, which many fans speculated was about Dylan, the son of Axl's one time partner, Stephanie Seymour. However the film did not make the final cut despite Dawn's fondness of the Guns n Roses track, the reason she gave elsewhere was that 'the director was a pill and didn't get how cool it would be'." (elsewhere, 02/15/05)

"Youth from Killing Joke was hired and fired. I met him before he was hired and never saw him again." (Dave Dominguez, 2004)

"[Youth] had "four or five" spells working with Rose in [1998]. [...] 'I went to his house and we started writing songs, strumming guitars in the kitchen', says Youth. 'That was a major breakthrough because it got him singing again which he hadn't done for a long time.' (Q Magazine, 05/01)

"He hadn't been singing for around 18 months. I think the record had turned into a real labour. He was stuck and didn't know how to proceed, so he was avoiding it." (Youth, The Times, 03/18/05)

"Axl Rose has finally scheduled studio time in early August to begin recording with the revamped version of Guns 'N' Roses." (muzic.com, 07/10/98)

"Rose is laboring over a song with the working title 'Prostitute', according to Youth, but past successes weigh heavily on him." (Spin, 07/99)

"He had some brilliant ideas, but they really were just sketches. He really wanted to leave the past behind and make a hugely ambitious album, like Led Zeppelin's Physical Grafitti crossed with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon." (Youth, The Times, 03/18/05)

Axl opted for a more intimate studio setting before embarking to Rumbo.

"[in around June] I got the buzz, 'Hey, me and Sean are just finishing up putting a studio together up in Axl's guest house, and he wants you to come hang out", 'Yeah... and do what exactly?!' 'You know... just do what you do, recording, playing whatever!' 'Cool.... When do you want to do this?' 'You can come up tonite if you want to hang.'" (Chris Pitman, official website)

"He invited me up to his house, like a guest house that was made into a studio, and we wrote music there for like three years just me and him. It was a great neutral zone without people bugging you and a lot of great stuff came out of there." (Chris Pitman, Talking Metal, 11/08/08)

"I was up at his house for about a week or two, and I was setting up rack mounted samplers, and you had your fake orchestra with synthesizers. One would be the strings, one would be the brass, and I was setting that up for him, and I was going "now this module here, we’re going to us this for brass instruments and here you have horns…", and he was playing while I was switching the sounds, and I switched the sounds to French horn sound and he was playing this chord progression and I went to another sound, and he goes "oh no, go back to that one".

We went back and it was the French horn sound and he kept playing this progression and it sounded really cool and I turned around and turned on the tape machine and that ended up being the very intro for the song "Madagascar". And that’s just how that evolved and he just had this chord progression and all of the sudden it married with the French horn and it was their super-moody song and that was the start of that song. We actually recorded it really quickly up there at his house and he just sang unbelievably on it." (Chris Pitman, Talking Metal, 11/08/08)

"As the far as the songs go: 'Oklahoma' was pretty much written by the time they got to the studio. Axl wrote that with inspiration from the Oklahoma City bombing (more as a tribute to those who died, if I'm not mistaken). 'Ides of March' was a working title of one of the songs that came from a loop name that Dizzy came up with: I think they kept the name, but it's been years so I'm sure everything has changed by now." (Dave Dominguez, elsewhere, 02/07/05)

"When Youth ushered Rose back into the studio, progress ceased: So I said, 'Next time I come over I want to record the songs', and he said, 'You're pushing me too fast.' I had to pull out." (Q Magazine, 05/01)

"Axl was deeply unhappy. I sensed he was clinically depressed because he only worked from 9pm to 9am. He was living a hermit lifestyle. In the end, he told me he wasn't ready. He was trying to get to some spiritual level that would make him happy." (Youth, The Times, 03/18/05)

"The Robin Finck/Josh Freese/Tommy Stinson/Billy Howerdel/Dizzy Reed version of the album that existed in 1998 was pretty incredible. It still sounded like GNR but there were elements of Zeppelin, Nine Inch Nails and Pink Floyd mixed in." (James Barber, Poptones, 10/16/05)

"The time I was on [the songs], they were very industrial sounding with the old GN'R elements on top. Axl had some vocal ideas down, but not many." (Dave Dominguez, 2004)

"The record just needed a lead vocal and a mix. [...] If Axl had recorded vocals, it would have been an absolutely contemporary record in 1999." (James Barber, Poptones, 10/16/05)

"I'd helped write and arrange and recorded enough songs for several records. [...] Honestly, we recorded so many different song ideas and completed so many different types of songs; from quiet, very simple traditional piano songs to 16 stereo tracks of keyboard blur and everything in between. [...] Most of the stronger songs that ended up on A-lists when I was there were huge rock songs, built for the masses, really guitar-driven." (Robin, Wall of Sound, 05/00)

"I was excited about the material - the band sounded good. But we'd get a song done to an extent and wait for Axl to write a lyric and/or song. I couldn't work on songs with titles like 'Instrumental 34' anymore." (Robin, Kerrang, 12/99)

"There's a whole album of vocal parts [in late '99]. In fact, there's two albums worth that they've got there, at least." (Brian May, Radio One Rock Show, 05/10/00)

Edited November 16, 2010 by Indigo Child

[crashoride]

Come on!

You know damn well they have a shit ton of material especially Axl. I'm sure he has tons and tons of lyrics layed down somewhere.

[wasted]

It's amazing from such a positive creative time that it didn't come out and when it did felt like a last ditch, last chance thing. It's almost terrifying.

[WhazUp]

^^ cool quotes, it was an intresting read

[tange]

I'll just say that Robin likely knows the difference between a song and a just a sketch.

[amacfantasy]

so will this be the article that finally shuts up certain people about Axl's work over the years, over those 15 years he did NOT just work on those 14 songs aka CD 1.

[tange]

so will this be the article that finally shuts up certain people about Axl's work over the years, over those 15 years he did NOT just work on those 14 songs aka CD 1.

Unfortunately no matter how many members confirm other songs, there are people that just refuse to believe it. What can you do?

[HOOSIER GUNZ]

"The Robin Finck/Josh Freese/Tommy Stinson/Billy Howerdel/Dizzy Reed version of the album that existed in 1998 was pretty incredible. It still sounded like GNR but there were elements of Zeppelin, Nine Inch Nails and Pink Floyd mixed in." (James Barber, Poptones, 10/16/05)

This is the real deal material imo if it exists at all anymore. josh and billy went on to create JUDITH & 3 LIBRES w/keenan

[prez]

Moby said in 1997:

"'I don't think this new music is just a vehicle for him as a solo performer. He wants this to be a band where everyone contributes,' says Moby. 'On the music I've heard, you can hear everyone's distinctive voice coming through. [...] The music they're working on has a very dramatic quality to it. They're using some modern technology. Axl's really excited about sampling. He loves the DJ Shadow record and Nine Inch Nails. The stuff I've heard is much more concise than, say, 'November Rain.' Not bombastic. Very stripped down. Very intense. It's not hard-rock music in the way that 'Welcome to the Jungle' was.'"

(Icon Magazine, 10/97)

heh

Edited November 16, 2010 by prez

[hudsonsaul]

"The Robin Finck/Josh Freese/Tommy Stinson/Billy Howerdel/Dizzy Reed version of the album that existed in 1998 was pretty incredible. It still sounded like GNR but there were elements of Zeppelin, Nine Inch Nails and Pink Floyd mixed in." (James Barber, Poptones, 10/16/05)

This is the real deal material imo if it exists at all anymore. josh and billy went on to create JUDITH & 3 LIBRES w/keenan

Yeah man, its a great shame we didnt get this. 98/99 would have been a great time to release an album too.

[Nintari]

We should get someone to do a remix of CD and strip it down to the basics. Two guitars,one bass, one drum track,vocals. Leave out the keyboards/synth/drum machines (with the exception of intos) and release it to the fans. It would be pretty cool to hear imo. We could call it Appetite For Democracy.

Edited November 16, 2010 by Nintari

[bacardimayne]

We should get someone to do a remix of CD and strip it down to the basics. Two guitars,one bass, one drum track,vocals. Leave out the keyboards/synth/drum machines (with the exception of intos) and release it to the fans. It would be pretty cool to hear imo. We could call it Appetite For Democracy.

If by "get someone to do it" you mean someone should do it with the multitracks, it can't be done. Too much is crammed onto the additional instrument tracks.

[Vincent Vega]

We should get someone to do a remix of CD and strip it down to the basics. Two guitars,one bass, one drum track,vocals. Leave out the keyboards/synth/drum machines (with the exception of intos) and release it to the fans. It would be pretty cool to hear imo. We could call it Appetite For Democracy.

If by "get someone to do it" you mean someone should do it with the multitracks, it can't be done. Too much is crammed onto the additional instrument tracks.

Someone could rerecord it and place Axl's vox over the re-record.

[bacardimayne]

We should get someone to do a remix of CD and strip it down to the basics. Two guitars,one bass, one drum track,vocals. Leave out the keyboards/synth/drum machines (with the exception of intos) and release it to the fans. It would be pretty cool to hear imo. We could call it Appetite For Democracy.

If by "get someone to do it" you mean someone should do it with the multitracks, it can't be done. Too much is crammed onto the additional instrument tracks.

Someone could rerecord it and place Axl's vox over the re-record.

That'd be cool. The bass, drum and lead guitar tracks from the multitracks would for the most part be salvagable, so only select rhythm guitar parts would need to be rerecorded.

Yes, I'm looking at you Glow.

[stivbator]

Hope we really get to hear some of these tracks as they were recorded over the years, and i am pretty positive that we haven't heard some of the best songs yet. Would really like to hear some of the stuff from 95 as it was mean't to be some of the heaviest they had worked on

[phaeryen]

"When I left New Orleans I hooked-up with the Cirque Du Soleil and started playing guitar in a circus band. I wanted to do something completely 180 degrees opposite of what I had been doing, and for me and my life at the time, it seemed like a far out thing to do. It was a great experience for me. About 18 months into that, I got a call from Axl Rose, who I never met at the time. He invited me to the studio as he was writing and recording songs. It was an invitation for a casual listen. Eventually, after about 8 weeks, we started playing together. We played some of my songs and finally I left the circus and was doing records with Axl, Josh and Tommy, and what would have been a new Guns N' Roses, if you will. We wrote and rehearsed and argued and laboriously recorded several records worth of musical material, which to the best of my knowledge Axl is still finishing. But my work was through. We had dozens of finished songs, as far as I was concerned, and we were waiting for Axl to complete the songs. So the timing was perfect. Nails were about to go on the road again, and I wanted to go out on the road with them."

This was from a 2000 interview with Robin, after he had left Guns for the first time to go back to NiN.

There are a alot of quotes from current and former band members that suggest there is alot of material finished, yet obviously, unreleased.

anyone who thinks that there isnt that much material is an idiot.

How do you end up thinking that this comment from robin indicated any finished material?

We all know there are hours upon hours of tapes, jams riffs and ideas.

That stuff, the starting points for songs, they are fun and easy to do. You put a skilled bunch of musicians in a box for a weekend and tell them to come up with ideas, you will end up with hours and hours of tape and most probably a lot of fun ideas and jams and what not, but that stuff is not "finished material" by a longshot.