Some Say GNR is Starting to Go Down Since TSI Anyway...

[ChristmasFnatic]

Due to the poor sale of TSI. Do you think if they didnt break up, they will continue to go down? Or is it just cuz TSI is a cover album?

[magisme]

TSI is a covers album that sounds like it was thrown together in half an hour by a bunch of drunks. If they put out solid original material afterward, they would have been fine. They were still a huge band. The only people that deny that either weren't around to remember or are revisionist GNR historians obsessed with denigrating any version of GNR with Slash in it.

[Bansidhe]

Due to the poor sale of TSI. Do you think if they didnt break up, they will continue to go down? Or is it just cuz TSI is a cover album?

The fact that the whole "grunge" thing was taking prominence around the time wouldn't have helped but if they'd put out a contemporary sounding record with decent tunes (i.e. the good songwriting of UYI but less bloated) then it'd have likely sold well and they'd have still had decent success from it.

[zepsun]

They still would have been huge with a followup album. You have to understand i was an obsessed teenager that the time TSI was out. I had read, watched and listened to everything GNR. TSI is an excellent cover album, but not an excellent GNR album. The media wanted a new, original GNR album and I think they were negatively spinning it, because they were genuinely disappointed waiting.

GNR were still in the media regularly as much as Nirvana, and the other grunge crowd. Thing is, I think Slash quitting got more coverage on mainstream media than any other rock band, in the grunge timeframe, with the exception of Cobain's death.

Also, with the Canadian music countdowns, GNR always got into the Top 5 and usually number #2, sometimes #1. Since I Don't Have You video made it to number #2, maybe #1 if I'm not mistaken. Slash's first solo stuff was also getting lots of airplay and press.

As long as they maintained their musical integrity, they would have been just as strong.

[EvH]

I think disappointment is the keyword here.

But, looking back at TSI?, it's quite unjustified. There are a few low points on this album : Raw Power is bland, "You can't put..." is so cheesy it's shameful. But boy are the high points high : Hair of the Dog, Buick McKane, Black Leather and of course the awesome Ain'It Fun.

[username]

Nah, GnR was pretty much over after the UYI tour was over. TSI came a few months later, but they'd already worked on most of it anyway. It was just some sort of last cough. But the band was already lost. Everybody was burnt out, Slash and Duff were fucked up from drugs and alcohol, Izzy was gone and Axl just got more and more insane.

Edited September 29, 2013 by username

[John Bonham]

I was there, and I can tell you that releasing 3 consecutive ballads (Don't Cry, November Rain and Estranged) as singles, is what killed GN'R.

[Kapitch_77]

It's true Since I don't have you was being played a lot on Mtv, Much Music, Musique +, etc, but look what was played at the same time... Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and lots and lots of other bands that were great... If a kid wanted to buy music he had plenty of choice... and since Since I Don't Have You is so bad they putted their money elsewhere, that's what I did at that time. An album with good original material would have been another story I think.

[wasted]

The problem was they couldnt write anything decent and slash didnt want to do TIL. Putting out a covers album seemed to suggest they didnt have anything new.

[Rustycage]

TSI is a covers album that sounds like it was thrown together in half an hour by a bunch of drunks. If they put out solid original material afterward, they would have been fine. They were still a huge band. The only people that deny that either weren't around to remember or are revisionist GNR historians obsessed with denigrating any version of GNR with Slash in it.

^This

There are some knuckleheads that try to act like Grunge killed GNR when in fact GNR toured the globe during Grunge's prime. They were fine. A lot of the time, they are the same people that thought CD was going to change rock music.

[Use Your Delusion]

probably would have sold well in the US and great overseas, especially if it was a stripped down rock album of 10 tracks or something

no doubt there would have been 2/3 big singles

I always thought a album in the vein of Don't Damn Me, Yesterdays and Dead Horse would have been cool

[dalsh327]

I think "Since I Don't Have You" song and video did more harm than good as far as the album went. I think it turned some people off to buying it, plus they were hearing about it being punk rock covers and a Charles Manson song tacked on at the end. The cover didn't help, either. Cold canned spaghetti close up?

It's a well made video and has hot chicks and all that, but they should have gone with "Hair of the Dog".

The covers were UYI era outtakes, so UYI could have turned into a 3 parter had they packed these songs in.

[cuneo77]

There were videos between the trilogy videos. I think after tsi ,with a new album they woulda been fine. I think what killed the momentum was no new album,slash quitting, and then 6 yrs of nothing,lineup changes, one album 7yrs after 6 of silence, 2002 tour and no album now... they would be big had they kept it together. I couldnt help but think it coulda been axl and slash doin a song on conan instead of miles.

Edited September 29, 2013 by cuneo77

[axlrod]

I have more fun listening to TSI than any of the other classic albums.

Riots, Tour Cancellations, concert TARDINESS killed GNR.

Bon Jovi earns top grossing worldwide everytime (4 yrs now?) not because they're better than GNR but because they do the best practices in music industry.

[DieselDaisy]

It sold alright for a covers album. The problem with TSI is, it is shite.

[Rustycage]

Riots, Tour Cancellations, concert TARDINESS killed GNR.

Huh?

All of that went along with their "dangerous band" appeal. It's like too many so called fans these days weren't around at the time and like to rewrite history.

[cuneo77]

^but didnt help the 02 lineup

[bacardimayne]

I was there, and I can tell you that releasing 3 consecutive ballads (Don't Cry, November Rain and Estranged) as singles, is what killed GN'R.

Well they didn't exactly have much of a choice. The strength in the UYIs was in the ballads. Most of the hard rocking songs leaned more towards filler or just weren't single material.

As for TSI, SIDHY was the only commercially viable song on that shitheap.

[Rustycage]

^but didnt help the 02 lineup

Neither did the lineup itself being everyone but the GNR people remembered. Except in Brazil, of course.

GNR was dead well before '02.

[Chris 55]

Due to the poor sale of TSI. Do you think if they didnt break up, they will continue to go down? Or is it just cuz TSI is a cover album?

"Some" who say that? TSI was a covers album released in the wrong musical climate.

[wasted]

UYI lost them a lot of fans in the UK. Just about everyone bought it but said it wasnt as good as AfD and Axl was a so and so.

But record had Dont Cry, Nov Rain, Heavens Door that sold to wider audience. But they lost metalheads.

This is where the media turned on them.

Thats why they quit, they were taking so many beatings for Axl and next he wanted to go electronica?

Spag Incident seemed like a farewell record. Like these are roots.

Guns showed that heavy could sell opening the door for all those bands. NIN, FNM, Soundgarden all toured with GNR and became huge.

[rockerman]

Due to the poor sale of TSI. Do you think if they didnt break up, they will continue to go down? Or is it just cuz TSI is a cover album?

That Album was supposed to be like Lies was... a stop gap offering between major releases.

[trqster]

No matter what Gn'R with Slash would always be popular, since both Axl and Slash are such iconic figures and living legends. And the sum of the parts is so much bigger than what either one of them can ever achieve alone. Sad story.

[axlrod]

Riots, Tour Cancellations, concert TARDINESS killed GNR.

Huh?

All of that went along with their "dangerous band" appeal. It's like too many so called fans these days weren't around at the time and like to rewrite history.

GNR History gives you a hint how this band started falling apart. It's funny if you were around those days and seems you don't know anything or lack of common sense.

http://loudwire.com/izzy-stradlin-quits-25-most-destructive-guns-n-roses-moments/

In 1991, Guns N’ Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin left the band. Having become disillusioned with incidents such as the St. Louis riot and Axl Rose‘s constant tardiness to live shows, Stradlin decided that leaving the group was the right decision.

“Once I quit drugs,” Stradlin began. “I couldn’t help looking around and asking myself, ‘Is this all there is?’ I was just tired of it; I needed to get out … “When you’re f—ed up, you’re more likely to put up with things you wouldn’t normally put up with.”

http://www.helium.com/items/2041402-why-izzy-stradlin-left-guns-n-roses

2. He was tired of paying money because Axl Rose wanted to go on stage late.

From 1991 and onwards, Axl began going on stage late. At first, he’d apologize for this, but over time, he stopped apologizing and it became part of the package. The result was that the whole band had to pay overtime fines. Izzy disliked this and felt that the person responsible should be the one to pay the fine. It’s unknown whether he ever confronted Axl on this issue.

[wasted]

Its rock n roll not sunday school. Oh no i have stay up til 3am when I dont have to get up til 6pm the next day.

I think they just burnt out. Axl didnt because he wasnt a complete junkie.

Sobriety is tough on tour with GNR.