Do you think Axl realizes or acknowledges that 2010 was his best year vocally?

[Jordan Rose]

As I said on page 2, there's no debate to be had about it: he wears angry Mickey Mouse shirts in direct response to us all slagging off his clean/falsetto singing.

It's a combination of not giving a fuck and preserving his voice. If the record company called and said 'we wanna release two new albums over the next two years with full label support, videos, singles etc' then we'd see 2006-2010 Axl again.

[GUNNER PT]

In my expert opinion, he has a terminal case of Dontgiveafuckitis. Pay me, mygnr.

Well ... guess you don't give a fuck, too ...

[magisme]

In my expert opinion, he has a terminal case of Dontgiveafuckitis. Pay me, mygnr.

Well ... guess you don't give a fuck, too ...

Whaddya mean? It was just a joke, bud.

[prettytiedup88]

There is no way he can't realise. The difference is substantial. What I think you're seeing is an inability to hold the rasp like he used to. He's not lost the ability to pull it off where required, but not throughout whole songs for a whole concert.

I don't think its an auto pilot thing really, I think it just takes a lot more effort to hit the rasp than it used to and so he holds back for certain lines that require it.

[DangerousCurves]

I've said this several times. Rasp is very hard to maintain if it isn't your normal sound. Axl's speaking voice (which has also become higher over the years, if you notice) is very smooth. His natural singing voice would also be smooth. Compared to someone like Rod Stewart who sounds like he's been gargling glass for 5 decades. Much love to ROd, he's a cool motherfucker, but his speaking voice is very abrasive. He probably couldn't sing in a smooth voice if he wanted to. Axl's voice is very different. My speaking voice is smooth and I was a classical soprano for many years. It was only after actually training a rasp into my voice that I became able to cover raspy bands like ACDC and Janis Joplin. It also helps that I smoke too much. Anyway, My band always did 3 hour shows. I used rasp and rattlevoice for about half my songs and by the end of the night, I was exhausted and sounded like Bonnie Tyler when I croaked...er...spoke. I can't imagine hammering the rasp that hard for three hours straight. He's lucky he didn't end up like the guy from Cinderella with the paralyzed vocal chord.

[SeBaZ]

I genuinely get the impression that he doesn't t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶a̶s̶p̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶t̶t̶e̶r̶. give a fuck about anything

Fixed

Edited March 25, 2014 by SeBaZ

[rudolf1978]

I genuinely get the impression that he doesn't think that the rasp is better.

I don't get that impression at all. I don't think that it's a coincidence that his give a shit left at the same time as the rasp. He's just going through the motions out there.

6:45

If he related the lack of rasp to not giving a shit, I don't think he'd talk about not using it live in front of thousands of people. That's why I get the impression that he doesn't really grasp that people prefer he sings with rasp. And it's not like this is his first time period without using rasp.

I don't think he necessarily consciously associates lack of rasp with lack of give a shit. I just think they go hand in hand, currently at least. Admittedly rasp (this word gets dumber every time I use it) wasn't there in 2002, yet give a shit was there, so it's not like one to one correlation. But I tend to think 2002 shit voice was about not really singing much for near a decade and his voice not being ready. Since 2011, I feel like he's just given up. He shows up, does some twisty dances, walks around a bit, sings his songs in a relatively leisurely fashion, cashes his checks and goes home with the Brazilians.

What Axl said at the end of that video? he doesnt know what its the rasp? WTF!!! we are fucked.

[valengf]

I do not know why everyone says 2010 was the best. The best was 2006. This is from Rock Am Ring in Germany. It's unbelievable.

[Nosaj Thing]

I genuinely get the impression that he doesn't think that the rasp is better.

I don't get that impression at all. I don't think that it's a coincidence that his give a shit left at the same time as the rasp. He's just going through the motions out there.

6:45

If he related the lack of rasp to not giving a shit, I don't think he'd talk about not using it live in front of thousands of people. That's why I get the impression that he doesn't really grasp that people prefer he sings with rasp. And it's not like this is his first time period without using rasp.

I don't think he necessarily consciously associates lack of rasp with lack of give a shit. I just think they go hand in hand, currently at least. Admittedly rasp (this word gets dumber every time I use it) wasn't there in 2002, yet give a shit was there, so it's not like one to one correlation. But I tend to think 2002 shit voice was about not really singing much for near a decade and his voice not being ready. Since 2011, I feel like he's just given up. He shows up, does some twisty dances, walks around a bit, sings his songs in a relatively leisurely fashion, cashes his checks and goes home with the Brazilians.

What Axl said at the end of that video? he doesnt know what its the rasp? WTF!!! we are fucked.

No he said he had no fuckin' idea as to why he couldn't finish Don't Cry with his excellent raspy voice.

Another lie from Axl.

[Pedrolg]

The lack of an explanation surrounding the shitty vocals is almost unbearable as a fan. The fact that he had such shitty spells before and rebounded amazingly from them in 2006 and 2010 creates an eternal hope that it will, somehow, happen again, and that makes it even more unbearable.

Theories that the current state of affairs is due to his utter lack of fitness are hard to believe for me. Honestly, he wasn't in any sort of fantastic shape in 2010.

Is it even possible for a singer to completely lose his voice in a 6-8 month interval? I don't think so either, which leaves me with a theory, completely unsupported by evidence, based on solely my imagination.

Maybe his performances of 2010 were artificially supported in some way, for example, use of extreme medication such as painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs that numbed his throat in order to enable to sing like that, but left a tremendous toll afterwards, one that Axl is not willing to deal with again. Or even some sort of device that applied an overdrive effect in his voice, enabling to keep power and rasp throughout the whole tour.

Either that, or he simply does not give a shit. Or, even worse, thinks his current vocal performances sound better than those of 2006 and 2010. In either case, we are fucked, and it's time to drop any expectations.

[ChineseIRS]

Its not that i dont like his clean vocals, i think they work great where theyre sposed to. Songs like Catcher, Prostitute, and the chorus of If The World all have clean vocals and are great. Its when he sings songs live with that voice, like Jungle, YCBM, November Rain, etc.. its like no dude, wtf are u doing. Doesnt sound good at all. Then add the lack of power and it gets even worse.

[Pedrolg]

There are little things more atrocious than Mickey Mouse YCBM and Welcome to the jungle. I'd throw Paradise City in there too. It's been quite a while since the last decent live performance of those songs.

[star]

Axl sounded better live during the UYI years..

[Nosaj Thing]

Axl sounded better live during the UYI years..

Of course but you can't expect him to sound like that forever. Nothing will ever top his 1993 voice.

2010 was great because it showed an almost 50 year old man sounding awesome for his age.