Is there a real friendship between Axl n Slash? or simply business

[SlashElvisTCB]

"Axl, it is said, is a notoriously difficult character to deal with. How do the two of you get along as people, outside the band?" "We love each other" [slash in "The Most Dangerous Band in the World by Mick Wall, 1988]

INTERVIEW: Do you think that having a relationship with a band has to do with the same things as having a relationship with a person?

AXL: Yes, l think so. Especially with Slash and it's definitely a marriage. (Interview Magazine, May, 1992)

Slash on the process of writing with Axl (Calling Howard Stern in 1996):

It's a matter of sitting down with somebody you love very much and like going 'you know let's try this' and he goes 'yeah, it's a great idea'

Me and Axl and Duff are obviously way the fuck more close and personal than they can even possibly put out in some magazine. (Coiled and Ready

Rolling Stone, April 1995)

Slash on splitting with Axl and divorce: In retrospect, it’s kind of interesting that I suddenly had disconnected with the two most long-term, closest relationships I had had up to that point, just a matter of months apart. (....)

(Anthony Bozza – Slash).

(...)There were moments there when I loved him to death

(Anthony Bozza – Slash)

[…]The bottom line is that nothing can come between Slash and I, and as long as we have that bond we have Guns N’ Roses. (Hit Parader Axl Rose Interview, 1992)

We'll just sit up all night and talk, and it's me and Axl talking. It goes beyond anything you could write down… (Slash, Tears Before Bedtime, Q, July 1991)

Well, somehow I don't think you can really go back to the "most long-term and closest relationship" you had had up to the age of over 30 years old which is the most important and most formative period of your life in an unemotional and purely business oriented way. Humans don't work that way and they are humans in the first place, musicians in the second...

I wanna add to your last line...

Humans First

Musicians Second

and Business Partners last.

As a musician, when you click with somebody in a creative way, you bond and can sometimes express emotions that you never could by having a face to face convo.

[SlashElvisTCB]

Also, Slash ain't broke.....but.......he probably took a hit in his divorce. Now he gets to cash in big time and Perla gets nothing out of it.

Can't these big divorce trials hammer you for 50% of your fortune?

From the way its been said recently by TMZ or some news article I read, Perla is only able to collect on whatever Slash made from 2002-2014. She is NOT entitled to anything he had prior including his GNR & Snakepit fortune supposedly. All the money from Guitar Hero, Velvet Revolver, solo albums and various marketing things he's done since she can take up to 50% of.

Edited January 7, 2016 by SlashElvisTCB

[BadApples87]

Also, Slash ain't broke.....but.......he probably took a hit in his divorce. Now he gets to cash in big time and Perla gets nothing out of it.

Can't these big divorce trials hammer you for 50% of your fortune?

From the way its been said recently by TMZ or some news article I read, Perla is only able to collect on whatever Slash made from 2002-2014. She is NOT entitled to anything he had prior including his GNR & Snakepit fortune supposedly. All the money from Guitar Hero, Velvet Revolver, solo albums and various marketing things he's done since she can take up to 50% of.

Good, well at least Slash is free and clear on the early GNR days and this mega cash in tour. Slash Rules BTW!

[GNR-girl]

Yes, I can.

Hardly can imagine Slash going to Axl house and having lunch with him, or speaking with him relaxed beside the swimming pool....

Do you?

Dont mind on my english, i dont mind on your spanish

[sonofnazareth]

Yes, I can.

Hardly can imagine Slash going to Axl house and having lunch with him, or speaking with him relaxed beside the swimming pool....

Do you?

Dont mind on my english, i dont mind on your spanish

I can imagine Axl and Slash meeting at a restaurant for a light lunch/dinner to discuss the business side of GNR.

[NineInchGun]

Technology and big money have made reunions like the Eagles, Police, Van Halen and GNR all possible.

All these bands that hated each other had blowups from being surrounded by each other all the time. In the day and age of $275 tickets, $16 Bud Lights at the concession stands and $45 souvenir t-shirts, the amount of money that will change hands allows the band to be able to go to great lengths to isolate Axl and Slash as much as possible off stage.

With cell phones and texting, management doesn't need to keep the band in one place at all times. Axl and Slash can stay in completely different hotels - across town even. With the money coming in, they can afford to travel in separate limos/jets from gig to gig, just as long as they can hold it together in rehearsal and on stage.

It's easy to smile and get along on stage if you haven't had been arguing/fighting with that person all day and don't have to see them after the show.

[sonofnazareth]

Technology and big money have made reunions like the Eagles, Police, Van Halen and GNR all possible.

All these bands that hated each other had blowups from being surrounded by each other all the time. In the day and age of $275 tickets, $16 Bud Lights at the concession stands and $45 souvenir t-shirts, the amount of money that will change hands allows the band to be able to go to great lengths to isolate Axl and Slash as much as possible off stage.

With cell phones and texting, management doesn't need to keep the band in one place at all times. Axl and Slash can stay in completely different hotels - across town even. With the money coming in, they can afford to travel in separate limos/jets from gig to gig, just as long as they can hold it together in rehearsal and on stage.

It's easy to smile and get along on stage if you haven't had been arguing/fighting with that person all day and don't have to see them after the show.

true.

[Asia]

Yeah, I can imagine perfectly well that they sit in either one's house and talk. They've done it a million times before. And I'm sure they have lots to talk about after 20 years.

The notion that people who have such history together, who have been through so much together and were so close for so long wouldn't want to talk after they finally explained all the misunderstandings is just idiotic and completely artificial. Human beings don't function that way.

The only way this could happen would be if they were doing it just for the money and never really reconciled. But this seems unlikely with Axl. If Axl was the man to do such thing he'd do it long ago, he'd be there at the HOF induction and all...

[wasted]

Any 50 year old guy turning down 30 mil should be shipped off to the loony bin.

You can hang with me. I got scrabble.

It's virtually unamerican to turn down that kind of money.

[Asia]

Any 50 year old guy turning down 30 mil should be shipped off to the loony bin.

You can hang with me. I got scrabble.

It's virtually unamerican to turn down that kind of money.

Yeah but he kept turning down that kind of money for 20 years and already lost hundreds of millions doing so. Plus in 2000 it would be far more than now - people were still more into GNR and both Axl and the rest were in much better form and capable of delivering much higher quality which would translate into much larger paycheques.

[Darkness Descends]

Any 50 year old guy turning down 30 mil should be shipped off to the loony bin.

You can hang with me. I got scrabble.

It's virtually unamerican to turn down that kind of money.

Yeah but he kept turning down that kind of money for 20 years and already lost hundreds of millions doing so. Plus in 2000 it would be far more than now - people were still more into GNR and both Axl and the rest were in much better form and capable of delivering much higher quality which would translate into much larger paycheques.

Ego makes people test out their limits.

Axl lost the will to try harder. He wanted CD to come out... but post that the changing lineups and the lineups not creating any big splash in the mainstream+rock crowds wouldve stopped him to try at all.

Moreover, now the music world is all about touring. No one buys albums anymore. So the best way out is to have the best tour ever = most cash earning one. And he wouldnt have gotten most cash if he had DJ or Bumble or Frank in the band.

So why not say "peace" and grin n bear it.

[wasted]

In 2000 it wouldn't be the biggest reunion of all time. It would have just been another reunion.

Now it's all or nothing, GNR kamikaze style.

It's the difference between big in the rock world and big in popular culture.

[Asia]

Any 50 year old guy turning down 30 mil should be shipped off to the loony bin.

You can hang with me. I got scrabble.

It's virtually unamerican to turn down that kind of money.

Yeah but he kept turning down that kind of money for 20 years and already lost hundreds of millions doing so. Plus in 2000 it would be far more than now - people were still more into GNR and both Axl and the rest were in much better form and capable of delivering much higher quality which would translate into much larger paycheques.

Ego makes people test out their limits.

Axl lost the will to try harder. He wanted CD to come out... but post that the changing lineups and the lineups not creating any big splash in the mainstream+rock crowds wouldve stopped him to try at all.

Moreover, now the music world is all about touring. No one buys albums anymore. So the best way out is to have the best tour ever = most cash earning one. And he wouldnt have gotten most cash if he had DJ or Bumble or Frank in the band.

So why not say "peace" and grin n bear it.

Nah... It's not like he believed he may achieve the same success with Nu-GNR and once he was proven wrong he opted for a reuinion. If that was the case reunion would have happened years ago. For it to be possible he had to mend fences with Slash, that's just obvious. And he did. It happened now because Duff was necessary to make it possible.

Axl wouldn't reunite with Slash for all the money in the world if his attitude towards him didn't change.

[GNR-girl]

Any 50 year old guy turning down 30 mil should be shipped off to the loony bin.

You can hang with me. I got scrabble.

It's virtually unamerican to turn down that kind of money.

Yeah but he kept turning down that kind of money for 20 years and already lost hundreds of millions doing so. Plus in 2000 it would be far more than now - people were still more into GNR and both Axl and the rest were in much better form and capable of delivering much higher quality which would translate into much larger paycheques.

Ego makes people test out their limits.

Axl lost the will to try harder. He wanted CD to come out... but post that the changing lineups and the lineups not creating any big splash in the mainstream+rock crowds wouldve stopped him to try at all.

Moreover, now the music world is all about touring. No one buys albums anymore. So the best way out is to have the best tour ever = most cash earning one. And he wouldnt have gotten most cash if he had DJ or Bumble or Frank in the band.

So why not say "peace" and grin n bear it.

Nah... It's not like he believed he may achieve the same success with Nu-GNR and once he was proven wrong he opted for a reuinion. If that was the case reunion would have happened years ago. For it to be possible he had to mend fences with Slash, that's just obvious. And he did. It happened now because Duff was necessary to make it possible.

Axl wouldn't reunite with Slash for all the money in the world if his attitude towards him didn't change.

This. 100%.

[Dazey]

You are not telling me that there has not been an artistic sacrifice for pecuniary interests here? How can you go from discussing 'trilogies' of 'industrial music', to warbling through November Rain on a levitating piano?

[aleyavu]

In 2011 Axl tells to some guys this funny story about Slash:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/0yEZMwyZlwA

i think after all they keep good memories and feelings about each other. I dont know if they could be friends again but I think this reunion its more about to have a good time, revive good memories and get some fun more than a business thing.

[Babooshka]

I don't know Axl, yet watching some recent performances can be very sad. So what must Slash have thought when the democracy dvd came across his desk? What must Duff have really thought during that GG performance? There is no way they don't feel some sorrow when looking at Axl. It's easier for them, they're guitarists, they can age more gracefully.

But Axl has been dying on stage for years; the burden of carrying the GNR name by himself has clearly taken a toll. Regardless of what happened, at one time he was their friend. He was their frontman in a way nuGNR members will never understand. They had him during his heyday and together they blazed a trial. There's got to be an element of sadness about what they all lost, about where Axl currently is, and what that represents for Guns; A band who once ruled the world, now playing Vegas with flying pianos.

Todd's blog kinda hinted at this being a personal thing for Slash, a journey. I think Slash has wanted to reconcile for some time. So with that in mind, I do think there's some semblance of a rekindled friendship. Same for Duff, who has been very philosophical about things for a number of years.

Edited January 8, 2016 by Babooshka

[Tom-Ass]

I've come to the conclusion this is a 100% cash grab... For many years Slash and Duff said if they were going to do a reunion that they would do it right.. This is a joke..

[annablue]

We've not heard a peep from Axl. This might all be going ahead because he is (somehow) on the verge of bankruptcy and has had to swallow his pride to keep the wolves from the door.

LOL!

I literally laugh out loud every time somebody says Axl is going bankrupt!

He holds controlling rights to the biggest debut album EVER! with 40 million+ sales and his NuGNR Vegas residency grossed 15 million. The Use Your Illusions Tour money is surely still floating around, along with the success of those albums. On top of that, even in his down time he made money touring and the 8 million that Chinese Democracy sold. Not to mention merchandising rights on anything GNR. Axl has PLENTY of Money!. There may have been massive money blowing on the Use Your Illusions tour with late fees and theme parties, we all splurge on shit once in a while but we keep a safety net just incase, I believe just like with the drug use shit Axl always knew how to control himself, he may have done those things but he could cut himself off at any time. Axl is probably sitting better than anyone in the band besides Slash, they all have done well, the ones who need the money are Steven & Izzy and theres no word on weather or not they're in yet.

I think people tend to forget that while cd sales have slumped, Music usage rights have NOT. I'm assistant manager & investor at a Strip Club and we're a smaller club and we still pay $10,000 per year to the big 3 music companies (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC) just to play their music, that covers nearly every major recording artist and now theres a 4th company trying to get its paws into things. Now figure this, Bars, restaurants and Strip clubs all have to pay to legally use this music, now add this on to your figuring...how many restaurants, bars, strip clubs are there in the world? do the math...now that you've done it, you can clearly see just off of that alone Axl doesn't need to EVER do a damn thing again in his life to make money, he just needs to sit & wait on the checks. The number of bars & clubs in Wisconsin alone could fund Axl's great grand children and their children off of his royalties.

Its definitely not like the Beatles where they pissed their whole music catalogue away selling it or just plain not controlling it, Axl at least controls it.

I've always been curious about this...how does one check up on a club's music usage? I can understand with radio because that's very public but a small bar etc would be hard to know what they play.

[maxpax]

Duffs guest appearances at nugnr concert were pretty sober so i don't think they will fool around with slash, too. Its still very interesting how they will interact with each other. Since all of them are actually really sober it will be a different performance than 86-93

Edited January 8, 2016 by maxpax

[Asia]

While their lack of sobriety was a huge issue as far as having contact with them offstage, while performing, giving interviews or working in general, they were sober enough 98% of the time so I don't believe there will be much difference in the performance.

But there may be a significant difference in their communication off stage which may become a lot easier when everyone is sober. Which would be great and could mean something more than tour would come out of it.

[GNRfan2008]

Yeah, I can imagine perfectly well that they sit in either one's house and talk. They've done it a million times before. And I'm sure they have lots to talk about after 20 years.

The notion that people who have such history together, who have been through so much together and were so close for so long wouldn't want to talk after they finally explained all the misunderstandings is just idiotic and completely artificial. Human beings don't function that way.

The only way this could happen would be if they were doing it just for the money and never really reconciled. But this seems unlikely with Axl. If Axl was the man to do such thing he'd do it long ago, he'd be there at the HOF induction and all...

What about Mick and Keith? They don't get along at all. But the money is damn good and they are able to keep their fans happy.

[GNR-girl]

Yeah, I can imagine perfectly well that they sit in either one's house and talk. They've done it a million times before. And I'm sure they have lots to talk about after 20 years.

The notion that people who have such history together, who have been through so much together and were so close for so long wouldn't want to talk after they finally explained all the misunderstandings is just idiotic and completely artificial. Human beings don't function that way.

The only way this could happen would be if they were doing it just for the money and never really reconciled. But this seems unlikely with Axl. If Axl was the man to do such thing he'd do it long ago, he'd be there at the HOF induction and all...

What about Mick and Keith? They don't get along at all. But the money is damn good and they are able to keep their fans happy.

With Guns it's the opposite - they now get along very well but their fans are not happy

[Asia]

Yeah, I can imagine perfectly well that they sit in either one's house and talk. They've done it a million times before. And I'm sure they have lots to talk about after 20 years.

The notion that people who have such history together, who have been through so much together and were so close for so long wouldn't want to talk after they finally explained all the misunderstandings is just idiotic and completely artificial. Human beings don't function that way.

The only way this could happen would be if they were doing it just for the money and never really reconciled. But this seems unlikely with Axl. If Axl was the man to do such thing he'd do it long ago, he'd be there at the HOF induction and all...

What about Mick and Keith? They don't get along at all. But the money is damn good and they are able to keep their fans happy.

Axl is very much unlike Mick Jagger. Which translated into a little different careers and different levels of success and income between these two blokes, didn't it? If Axl was as business and money oriented as Mick is he'd be in Mick's place now.

[Babooshka]

I think Axl tried to be like Jagger, but we all know how that ended up.

Edited January 8, 2016 by Babooshka