What happened to Steven Adler?

[annabanana]

15 minutes ago, RONIN said:

 

Agreed. Even if they wanted to be corporate rockers, it could still have been done in a way that still had integrity. Especially given that they've PUBLICLY talked about how important Stradlin' was to the band for the last 25 years. They look like such greedy hypocrites now by moving forward without him. 

But duff kinda changed his tune in his last interview saying that they were all equally important which is different to what he used to say about izzy being the most integral part (not his exact words but that's pretty much the gist). It kinda seems that they also want to minimize the role izzy played from before 

[annabanana]

1 hour ago, RONIN said:

They just don't have much integrity anymore. Whatever Duff had, he left it behind in the 90's. These guys are now corporate rockers through and through. That doesn't really even have to be a bad thing, but Axl, Duff, and Slash just take it to a ruthless almost "Lord of the Flies" level as @MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle once put it. Nothing surprises me when it comes to Slash although I will say Duff's behavior with Izzy was unexpected. Izzy himself has publicly mentioned several times how close him and Duff have remained over the last 25 years.

I think on some level Duff and Slash realized what a terrible mistake they both made by leaving GnR - what an immense amount of money they walked away from because of their lack of foresight and taking their success for granted. I think if you asked them today if they made the right decision in leaving, they would say No. That may have had a major influence on their immense greed and cutthroat behavior now with the reunion. I suppose business is business and friendship is friendship. The two shouldn't mix. Nothing personal Izzy.

Even duff in an interview back in 2010 or 2012 don't remember exact year said that him and izzy are really good friends and they just don't talk about music and the last time he spoke to izzy a few days prior to the interview was because he has some yoga questions. So prior to this tour they we're good friends as both claimed

[Blackstar]

2 hours ago, RONIN said:

 Nothing surprises me when it comes to Slash although I will say Duff's behavior with Izzy was unexpected. Izzy himself has publicly mentioned several times how close him and Duff have remained over the last 25 years.

I think on some level Duff and Slash realized what a terrible mistake they both made by leaving GnR - what an immense amount of money they walked away from because of their lack of foresight and taking their success for granted. I think if you asked them today if they made the right decision in leaving, they would say No. That may have had a major influence on their immense greed and cutthroat behavior now with the reunion. I suppose business is business and friendship is friendship. The two shouldn't mix. Nothing personal Izzy.

The Slash and Duff quotes from the VR era I posted a few pages ago are very enlightening. What Duff had said then in sort was that Izzy is great, but he's not cut out for serious business.

[Zoot]

Thank you @BorderlineCrazy for posting those!

Seeing Steven clean and playing so well has to be the highlight of 2016 for me. - Even more so than Izzy's singles. Don't tell the Izzy thread. - He's fucked up so much and to see him turn it all around just blows my mind. It'll be pretty interesting to see what he does with Adler's Appetite going forward.

[RONIN]

On 8/27/2017 at 3:38 AM, Blackstar said:

Repost from the Izzy thread in the Jungle section - I think it's relevant to this discussion (since it's about both Izzy and Steven) and maybe it says something about Slash's and Duff's relationship with Izzy.

It's from a VR interview (2003):

While Kushner's predilection for Fernades guitars, Bogner heads and a whole arsenal of Line 6 and Boss pedals might seem at odds with Slash's Les Paul-into-Marshall approach, the two gui­tarists quickly meshed. Bur when Izzy Stradlin suddenly started showing up at rehearsals, Kushner began to wonder if his days in the band were numbered. "Izzy just came out of nowhere, as Izzy does," Slash says, laughing. "Poor Dave. Izzy's sitting there, this ominous presence, and Dave's thinkin', That's the original guitarist from Guns N' Roses. Am I still gonna have a job? But we're real loyal people. It wasn't like, 'Hey, Dave, we're gonna work on some songs with Izzy; call us back in a couple of weeks!' When Izzy was there, we just played with three guitarists."
Stradlin hung out and jammed with his old mates for several weeks, but Slash and McKagan both say there was never any real possibility of their old guitarist joining their new band. "The Izzy thing probably got mis­construed a little bit,"says McKagan. "I think he wanted to come in, like, 'Let's go out on tour right away! I've got eight songs, let's go! We'll do some covers; Duff and I will sing!' [laughs] But Matt and Slash and I were more like, 'If we're gonna do this, we're gonna have to do it so it's amazing.' I've heard a lot of fans saying, 'Why don't you have Izzy in the band now?' Well, this isn't cut out for him; he's more of a guy who will be here one day and be gone the next, and you won't know where he's gone to. But he added a new energy that we probably needed at that point.''

"You have to understand our relationship with Izzy," Slash explains. "Izzy's always been the  guy who's sort of there and sort of not there. Duff and I have seen Izzy periodically; I've played on his records a couple of times, and Duff has done the same thing. And then he called up right when we were in the midst of writing, and he actually came over and brought a couple of songs with him. And then we just started hanging out and jamming, and we wrote, like, 10 or so songs. It was just a lot of fun, but he didn't want to deal with the fuckin' long haul at all.As soon as we started to physi­cally audition singers, we didn't see him again." Slash  laughs.  "He's so fucking shattered from his experience [with Axi] that he refuses to ever do  anything involving a singer again!"  [...]
"The first CD that Slash gave me had a lot f music that Izzy had written with them, and it was a lot more classic-based," Weiland remembers. "I wasn't as excited about that stuff, you know? But when I got the next batch of songs, it was like, 'Okay, there's a handful of songs in here that I definitely feel I can  wrap my head around.

My takeaway here is simply that Izzy doesn't want to deal with the bullshit that comes with the business side of music (frontman drama, chasing mainstream success, etc). Duff and Slash wanted to become mainstream again with VR and Izzy wanted to play purely for the joy of playing. Fundamental differences there.

And Weiland's quote is amusing. Contraband is about as generic mainstream rock as you can get. 

[RONIN]

38 minutes ago, Blackstar said:

The Slash and Duff quotes from the VR era I posted a few pages ago are very enlightening. What Duff had said then in sort was that Izzy is great, but he's not cut out for serious business.

I have a theory on this. I think the guy felt he had already reached the top of the mountain with GnR. How much more success could he achieve? He had already done it all by '91. I imagine when he heard what Slash and Duff's plans were for VR - he probably rolled his eyes. Izzy was over all that. Duff and Slash on the other hand missed the perks of superstardom and wanted to use VR as a vehicle to achieve that again. They were coming from different places.

The GnR thing is different though. In this case - Izzy helped build this band from the ground up. I think it's more personal to him than something like VR which was just another chance to jam with his friends.  His recent interviews seem to indicate an openness to getting GnR back together and see where it goes. They give an open ended impression as if he finds the thought of continuing the band interesting. That sort of goes along with his random guest spots with Axl and jamming with Duff and Slash. He used to be the glue of the band - the guy that bound them all together since he had the ear of Axl and was close to Duff and Slash. To be cut out now is rather ironic.

Point being, I would conjecture that he probably was open to being serious about business with GnR once they had put all their past baggage behind but he may not have even been given that opportunity since he's at a legal disadvantage compared to the partners. Given his passive aggressiveness on twitter, I suspect he felt he was not given the respect (financially) he deserved for being a co-founder of the band. It's also anyone's guess whether touring as a full member was even on the table given Axl's fondness for Fortus. That may have also been another sore point. Maybe they only wanted him to guest on a few songs. 

From what we know about Izzy, he does not seem like a very difficult guy to deal with. How bad was the offer to him to make him react like this? That's the million dollar question here.

Edited September 15, 2017 by RONIN

[RONIN]

1 hour ago, annabanana said:

But duff kinda changed his tune in his last interview saying that they were all equally important which is different to what he used to say about izzy being the most integral part (not his exact words but that's pretty much the gist). It kinda seems that they also want to minimize the role izzy played from before 

The only people who seem to keep their stories straight are Axl and Izzy. Go figure.

As for Duff, go youtube his Howard Stern interview from 1996, it's a classic. "Yeah everything is going great with Guns - no issues." 2 months later, Slash quits the band. 

[RONIN]

re: Steven and Erin Everly, ff to 8:19

 

[annabanana]

2 hours ago, RONIN said:

My takeaway here is simply that Izzy doesn't want to deal with the bullshit that comes with the business side of music (frontman drama, chasing mainstream success, etc). Duff and Slash wanted to become mainstream again with VR and Izzy wanted to play purely for the joy of playing. Fundamental differences there.

And Weiland's quote is amusing. Contraband is about as generic mainstream rock as you can get. 

I think so too. Slash and duff wanted to get back on top again. They still wanted the fame and notoriety, it can be seen with the stuff they did since then. Duff even went the reality show route! How desperate can you get! Even his whole family seems to want the fame and attention, they all just come across as really thirsty. Slash who will be probably always popular or liked by the general public wasn't at the top of the food chain back then, that's why they wanted a known, established singer which is what they got 

[Gold top 78]

2 hours ago, RONIN said:

I have a theory on this. I think the guy felt he had already reached the top of the mountain with GnR. How much more success could he achieve? He had already done it all by '91. I imagine when he heard what Slash and Duff's plans were for VR - he probably rolled his eyes. Izzy was over all that. Duff and Slash on the other hand missed the perks of superstardom and wanted to use VR as a vehicle to achieve that again. They were coming from different places.

The GnR thing is different though. In this case - Izzy helped build this band from the ground up. I think it's more personal to him than something like VR which was just another chance to jam with his friends.  His recent interviews seem to indicate an openness to getting GnR back together and see where it goes. They give an open ended impression as if he finds the thought of continuing the band interesting. That sort of goes along with his random guest spots with Axl and jamming with Duff and Slash. He used to be the glue of the band - the guy that bound them all together since he had the ear of Axl and was close to Duff and Slash. To be cut out now is rather ironic.

Point being, I would conjecture that he probably was open to being serious about business with GnR once they had put all their past baggage behind but he may not have even been given that opportunity since he's at a legal disadvantage compared to the partners. Given his passive aggressiveness on twitter, I suspect he felt he was not given the respect (financially) he deserved for being a co-founder of the band. It's also anyone's guess whether touring as a full member was even on the table given Axl's fondness for Fortus. That may have also been another sore point. Maybe they only wanted him to guest on a few songs. 

From what we know about Izzy, he does not seem like a very difficult guy to deal with. How bad was the offer to him to make him react like this? That's the million dollar question here.

Totally agree with you that's how I've viewed it for a while. I think Izzy was happy to get back on stage with the other guys and the discussions were about the April shows in 2016. After all, the money offer from Coachella was for a reunion. I think Izzy seen it as the AFD line up going on stage and splitting the money more evenly between them and just enjoying being on stage together for those 5 shows. But Axl Slash and Duff had a bigger picture in mind and wanted to make Guns work again and go on a big tour and when the contracts for that start that's when the " 3 partners " side comes into the equation. They should've at least offered Izzy more money even if it was for a few shows. 

[annabanana]

19 minutes ago, Gold top 78 said:

Totally agree with you that's how I've viewed it for a while. I think Izzy was happy to get back on stage with the other guys and the discussions were about the April shows in 2016. After all, the money offer from Coachella was for a reunion. I think Izzy seen it as the AFD line up going on stage and splitting the money more evenly between them and just enjoying being on stage together for those 5 shows. But Axl Slash and Duff had a bigger picture in mind and wanted to make Guns work again and go on a big tour and when the contracts for that start that's when the " 3 partners " side comes into the equation. They should've at least offered Izzy more money even if it was for a few shows. 

That's what I think too izzy meant afd5 with the earning split equally among them except for merch income which izzy and Steven has no business to be a part of. The 3 probably only wanted them for a song or 2 like with what happened with Steven 

[beautifulanddamned]

I honestly don't believe that Izzy would be interested in a 2 year year, 130 date tour. That's a lot of clock punching for a freewheeling, independent guy who has been essentially retired for 25 years. I also doubt Izzy is dumb enough to ask for equal money to play 3 or 4 songs of a full length concert. I think that Izzy's idea was to have the Coachella and Vegas shows be a full scale reunion- Slash, Axl, Duff, Izzy, Steven and Matt, with others backing if Axl insisted. Split the loot equally. The problem is that Axl, Slash and Duff were planning a giant, two year tour after those shows, that Izzy was only interested in guesting at intermittently and Steven couldn't be trusted with. They couldn't very well come out of the gate with the Appetite5 and then try to sell wildly overpriced tickets for a watered down version of the holy grail lineups. So Izzy and Steven were simply offered guest slots for minimal cash. Steven didn't like it but accepted it, Izzy was pissed off enough by those first shows that he was dunzo.

[MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle]

6 hours ago, DieselDaisy said:

It is Duff I'm most surprised in. Slash has always been a savvy businessman, and chasing money has led him into some ''interesting'' career detours, computer games, action figures and questionable guest appearances. Axl is a little shit and probably about as litigious a person as one can fathom, his life basically consisting of a series of lawsuits and counter-suits. Duff however?

I thought Duff would be making Stradlin's case, and basically saying ''it would be a load of old bollocks'', which it is, ''without Jeff's presence''. Zeppelin conceded that they were ''not Zeppelin'' without Bonham and promptly folded; the money no doubt diminished but this was their decision. It is possible to retain some semblance of integrity in this cut and thrust industry.

It's actually not that surprising if you look at his attitude and behaviour from his early days.  You read Duff's autobiography and you get a sense of someone who, when he wasn't soaked to his eyeballs in alcohol and partying into oblivion, was fairly sensible and decidedly non-punk about the management of  his day-to-day living. He always looked out for himself.

He always had a job, be it doing deliveries for dodgy mafia types, or crafting cakes in the bakery (and if Duff is to be believed, he was reasonably skilled at this, which is amusing). It's worth noting he was never fired from any of these jobs, in fact, he was even promoted for one or two, or he was offered more hours - which he always took. 

He always had a place of his own that he paid for with his own money.  He made sure to always have a girlfriend living there who wasn't a stripper or a party animal, but a sort of 'nice' girl.  Sounds trivial, but Duff was smart enough to know that he needed someone for emotional support, someone to come back to at the end of touring who'd offer him some semblance of stability and normalcy in his otherwise chaotic life.

Job, girlfriend, roof over head, pay the bills and upkeep. Those things were important to Duff and he always maintained that base level living standard even through his addiction. 

As well - and this is really telling - he made sure for both his marriages pre-Susan, that he had a prenup.  Now he was absolutely out of his fucking tree with Linda (see video of those two, where she's doing some semi-naked photo shoot for a men's mag and Duff is so clearly drunk and high he's slurring his words and looks like shit) yet some part of his addled brain was functioning enough to remember the prenup (same cannot be said for Slash, who would have us all believe that he was 'in control' through his addiction, as he mentions frequently in his book).

Even towards the height of his alcoholism and GNR rapidly imploding, Duff was making that solo album of his and doing all the press etc for it, almost as if he could read the writing on the wall and was trying to make sure he had a secondary income stream in the only way he knew how at the time. Like Slash, Duff has always liked money coming in. It was inevitable that when he eventually sobered up, those instinctive qualities that had served him well during his early 20s would come into their own when he enrolled in business school and took an interest in finance. 

So Duff has never really been a punk in the true sense of the word.  I think for him punk is an attitude and a musical aesthetic, rather than a code of conduct, or a set of principles to live life by.  Hence his about turn regarding Izzy.  What was it he said in the Jericho interview when asked if Izzy was the unsung hero of GNR?  "If Izzy is unsung, then we are all unsung."  

Edited September 15, 2017 by MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle

[Modano09]

14 minutes ago, MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle said:

It's actually not that surprising if you look at his attitude and behaviour from his early days.  You read Duff's autobiography and you get a sense of someone who, when he wasn't soaked to his eyeballs in alcohol and partying into oblivion, was fairly sensible and decidedly non-punk about the management of  his day-to-day living. He always looked out for himself.

He always had a job, be it doing deliveries for dodgy mafia types, or crafting cakes in the bakery (and if Duff is to be believed, he was reasonably skilled at this, which is amusing). It's worth noting he was never fired from any of these jobs, in fact, he was even promoted for one or two, or he was offered more hours - which he always took. 

He always had a place of his own that he paid for with his own money.  He made sure to always have a girlfriend living there who wasn't a stripper or a party animal, but a sort of 'nice' girl.  Sounds trivial, but Duff was smart enough to know that he needed someone for emotional support, someone to come back to at the end of touring who'd offer him some semblance of stability and normalcy in his otherwise chaotic life.

Job, girlfriend, roof over head, pay the bills and upkeep. Those things were important to Duff and he always maintained that base level living standard even through his addiction. 

As well - and this is really telling - he made sure for both his marriages pre-Susan, that he had a prenup.  Now he was absolutely out of his fucking tree with Linda (see video of those two, where she's doing some semi-naked photo shoot for a men's mag and Duff is so clearly drunk and high he's slurring his words and looks like shit) yet some part of his addled brain was functioning enough to remember the prenup (same cannot be said for Slash, who would have us all believe that he was 'in control' through his addiction, as he mentions frequently in his book).

Even towards the height of his alcoholism and GNR rapidly imploding, Duff was making that solo album of his and doing all the press etc for it, almost as if he could read the writing on the wall and was trying to make sure he had a secondary income stream in the only way he knew how at the time. Like Slash, Duff has always liked money coming in. It was inevitable that when he eventually sobered up, those instinctive qualities that had served him well during his early 20s would come into their own when he enrolled in business school and took an interest in finance. 

So Duff has never really been a punk in the true sense of the word.  I think for him punk is an attitude and a musical aesthetic, rather than a code of conduct, or a set of principles to live life by.  Hence his about turn regarding Izzy.  What was it he said in the Jericho interview when asked if Izzy was the unsung hero of GNR?  "If Izzy is unsung, then we are all unsung."  

I know I bring this up all the time but it's kind of frustrating that some people just dismiss it as irrelevant, but if Izzy wants to profit as if he owns something that he doesn't, because he already profited by selling it, how is that the other guys being unfair to Izzy? Like, people will go back 20 to 25 years dissecting everything looking for some motivation to explain why they'd do this to Izzy when the answer seems pretty straight forward - he sold his share in the band and washed his hands of it, while Axl/Slash/Duff didn't. They managed the brand for 20 years, Izzy wanted nothing to do with it. Izzy already got his "loot" from selling his share of the band back to Axl/Slash/Duff. If he wanted equal "loot" he's being unrealistic and I don't understand why people act like Axl/Slash/Duff are the bad guys for not just giving it to him. Aside from that, I'm somewhat skeptical that a guy who doesn't like to tour and doesn't like to be in the spotlight would sign up for high profile, two year tour, but that's just my opinion. 

[MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle]

12 minutes ago, Modano09 said:

I know I bring this up all the time but it's kind of frustrating that some people just dismiss it as irrelevant, but if Izzy wants to profit as if he owns something that he doesn't, because he already profited by selling it, how is that the other guys being unfair to Izzy? Like, people will go back 20 to 25 years dissecting everything looking for some motivation to explain why they'd do this to Izzy when the answer seems pretty straight forward - he sold his share in the band and washed his hands of it, while Axl/Slash/Duff didn't. They managed the brand for 20 years, Izzy wanted nothing to do with it. Izzy already got his "loot" from selling his share of the band back to Axl/Slash/Duff. If he wanted equal "loot" he's being unrealistic and I don't understand why people act like Axl/Slash/Duff are the bad guys for not just giving it to him. Aside from that, I'm somewhat skeptical that a guy who doesn't like to tour and doesn't like to be in the spotlight would sign up for high profile, two year tour, but that's just my opinion. 

LOL! I know you do and I always think to myself, why doesn't anyone get the perfectly sensible thing Modano is saying?   I am in total agreement with you there.  My post was in response to Diesel Daisy's being surprised by Duff not being very punk about the whole Izzy thing.  So I was going back to Duff's early days to point out that he has always looked out for number 1 and always been tactical about certain parts of his life (|in a non-punk way) even when he was sozzled out of his brain.  Was Duff punk? No.  Was he smart?  Yep.

Certain Izzy fanatics will never accept that Izzy might be as motivated by money as much as the rest of them.  That's a very hard pill for them to swallow.  

Edited September 15, 2017 by MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle

[RONIN]

13 minutes ago, Modano09 said:

I know I bring this up all the time but it's kind of frustrating that some people just dismiss it as irrelevant, but if Izzy wants to profit as if he owns something that he doesn't, because he already profited by selling it, how is that the other guys being unfair to Izzy? Like, people will go back 20 to 25 years dissecting everything looking for some motivation to explain why they'd do this to Izzy when the answer seems pretty straight forward - he sold his share in the band and washed his hands of it, while Axl/Slash/Duff didn't. They managed the brand for 20 years, Izzy wanted nothing to do with it. Izzy already got his "loot" from selling his share of the band back to Axl/Slash/Duff. If he wanted equal "loot" he's being unrealistic and I don't understand why people act like Axl/Slash/Duff are the bad guys for not just giving it to him. Aside from that, I'm somewhat skeptical that a guy who doesn't like to tour and doesn't like to be in the spotlight would sign up for high profile, two year tour, but that's just my opinion. 

Well if it went down as you say with Izzy asking for an equal piece of the pie down to the merchandising, then it's understandable why the deal fell through as he has no legal basis to make that type of demand. You could very well be right that Izzy more than likely may not have wanted a part in a 2 year tour. Maybe he was more interested in a few one-off reunion shows where they could split the payday 5 ways as someone mentioned earlier. If the partners wanted to use Izzy as a recurring guest on the tour to legitimize the reunion, then it really isn't beyond the bounds of reason for Izzy to ask for a higher payday, especially as a co-founder of the band. Who knows how it went down.

The thing is, as I've mentioned with Steven's firing, there's probably some happy middle ground that could have been reached but as always with GnR, the most extreme option is the one that was ultimately used with Izzy's deal falling through. It's that bitter pill which makes Axl and the others look bad. The way they celebrated AFD30 also diminishes their credibility.  If rumors are to be believed, Izzy was significantly lowballed. Steven has mentioned several times already that the pay wasn't all that great for his guest spots. Gilby and Matt were asked but declined - I mean objectively speaking, none of what we know speaks to the generosity of the partners with the former members of GnR. 

[TheKillerQueen]

5 hours ago, Kris_1989 said:

Thank you @BorderlineCrazy for posting those!

Seeing Steven clean and playing so well has to be the highlight of 2016 for me. - Even more so than Izzy's singles. Don't tell the Izzy thread. - He's fucked up so much and to see him turn it all around just blows my mind. It'll be pretty interesting to see what he does with Adler's Appetite going forward.

Traitor! Traitor to our lord of avocados! How could you 

P.S: jokes aside, I'm happy as hell for Steven, I hope he keeps doing well in the future

[BorderlineCrazy]

7 hours ago, Kris_1989 said:

Thank you @BorderlineCrazy for posting those!

Seeing Steven clean and playing so well has to be the highlight of 2016 for me. - Even more so than Izzy's singles. Don't tell the Izzy thread. - He's fucked up so much and to see him turn it all around just blows my mind. It'll be pretty interesting to see what he does with Adler's Appetite going forward.

I think it is the highlight of the decade for me. Hopefully Steven will get together with some good musicians and come up with some great new songs. Always rooting for the legendary king of the groove! 

[MyPrettyTiedUpMichelle]

9 hours ago, Bailey96 said:

I know this Guns N' Roses lineup isn't being sold to hardcore fans or trying to be a full on reunion on but why have they done things that kind of resembled that. Why did Steven come out for a couple shows last year? Why did they bring coma back in the setlist? Isn't this a song they rarely played during the illusion tour due to its length and strain on axl? Now they play it almost every night. These kind of things are why fans continue to ask for more deep cuts and more appearances from both izzy and Steven on this tour. I know duff was a huge mediator between axl and slash but I think they would still be playing stadiums if it was just slash and axl in the group. I mean a decent amount of people going to these shows are casual or hipster fans and probably don't know who Steven, duff, or izzy is. 

My take is that Axl and Slash (and Duff for what it's worth) probably genuinely didn't know what to expect, or how this was all going to go down back when Coachella was first raised.  I believe Duff when he said in that Brazilian interview that they initially didn't think 'beyond Coachella'.  The subsequent success of the tour was probably hugely unexpected.

Why bring Steven out?  Look, for all their flaws and money grubbing, they are still human. lol  Even Axl!  They are people with relationships, emotions, bonds and memories and what not.  Money making aside, I'm sure they had good intentions about bringing certain old members back to 1. please the fans and 2. have a good time playing with the alumni, as Axl calls it, see how it goes.  Axl most likely offered pittance for the privilege but still, the fact he asked anyone shows they wanted that to happen.  If they didn't, he wouldn't have asked.  Clearly, it didn't work out because [insert thread of choice and/or 16 pages worth of speculation]. 

Why Coma?  To keep Slash happy, like Axl said.  I don't believe there's any more to it than that.  I think Axl enjoys it, too.  Don't forget, Axl is a big fan of Slash, despite everything that's happened.  He'll always admire Slash's talent and pander to him in that regard.

They don't play the deep cuts because they want to please a diverse crowd with the known songs and hits and also I'm guessing because Axl can't manage many of those deep cut songs due their being vocally very demanding.

As for Izzy [insert pages of speculation].   

Bottom line with Izzy: he was never excluded from the tour.  He was asked to join; he turned it down.  Whichever way we spin it, that's the outcome and the only thing we know for certain.

[annabanana]

5 hours ago, Modano09 said:

I know I bring this up all the time but it's kind of frustrating that some people just dismiss it as irrelevant, but if Izzy wants to profit as if he owns something that he doesn't, because he already profited by selling it, how is that the other guys being unfair to Izzy? Like, people will go back 20 to 25 years dissecting everything looking for some motivation to explain why they'd do this to Izzy when the answer seems pretty straight forward - he sold his share in the band and washed his hands of it, while Axl/Slash/Duff didn't. They managed the brand for 20 years, Izzy wanted nothing to do with it. Izzy already got his "loot" from selling his share of the band back to Axl/Slash/Duff. If he wanted equal "loot" he's being unrealistic and I don't understand why people act like Axl/Slash/Duff are the bad guys for not just giving it to him. Aside from that, I'm somewhat skeptical that a guy who doesn't like to tour and doesn't like to be in the spotlight would sign up for high profile, two year tour, but that's just my opinion. 

Do you know for sure that izzy asked for equal split of everything including merchandise and all? If not then your argument which you keep bringing up again and again about him selling his shares and earning from that is pointless 

[Modano09]

12 minutes ago, annabanana said:

Do you know for sure that izzy asked for equal split of everything including merchandise and all? If not then your argument which you keep bringing up again and again about him selling his shares and earning from that is pointless 

Well Axl/Duff were asked why he wasn't there in that interview and pretty much danced around it, and like, the next day he tweeted something about "bullshit, they didn't want to split the loot equally". So, 2+2=4, you know?  

Duff was also reportedly quoted saying that Izzy was trying to get his 25% back or something, but I'm not sure where that quote came from, I just saw it repeated on here. 

Edited September 15, 2017 by Modano09

[Tucknroll]

I'm more than happy with what axls done for us. Apparently everyone we want was asked to join in and even get paid. What else can he Do? Saw them last year in Nashville,  started on time, saw Adler play, perfect night!

[Derick]

45 minutes ago, annabanana said:

Do you know for sure that izzy asked for equal split of everything including merchandise and all? If not then your argument which you keep bringing up again and again about him selling his shares and earning from that is pointless 

Sorry but..Even IF he asked equal split only for the NITLT tour that´s,IMO, still makes this Mondano´s point valid. After Izzy´s departure they kept working hard, very hard! They continued the Illusions tour, they make those clips that helped to perpetuate the Guns N´Roses name , launched VHS live from Tokyo, those Making Of videos..I mean I´m pretty sure that the big money from this current tour came from the hard work from that era (and another big money part came from the fact that Axl and Slash are playing together after more then 20 fkn years!). So I ask, why it should be equally splited? This is not only about the songs! To make money they need to work a lot! They traveled all around the world, they did many things besides the songs to make this band able to bring money to them.

[MillionsOfSpiders]

How can being a rock star be classed as hard work? 

[janrichmond]

31 minutes ago, MillionsOfSpiders said:

How can being a rock star be classed as hard work? 

by working with Axl