Axl has his own Website now

[Lethalis]

9 hours ago, ToonGuns said:

Can I dream of an Axl + Bucket "WAR" solo album?

While Slash and Diff other thang...?

I don't think we'll see Bucket back ever.

*If* (big if) Axl would release solo stuff, we might see Richard Fortus on it though. Or - and people are gonna hate this - DJ Ashba

[Lethalis]

7 hours ago, AxlRQ93 said:

he did call the UYI videos cheesy or something to that effect in the Trunk interview back in 06. So by then he’d soured on that era and its trappings presumably.

my question is, now that slash and duff are back, how honest would he be about the breakup? would he be blunt and tell it how it went down as he saw it or whitewash it cause he doesn’t wanna piss off Slash?

I doubt Slash is going to be pissed off about shit that went down more than 20 years ago.

Anyways... I know this is stupid, but I hope the launch of his personal website has to do with music. There are probably songs in the vault he really wants to release at some point, but that just don't fit with the current incarnation of Guns N Roses. Maybe he finally came to terms with it, and is going to release the more experimental stuff under his own name. And maybe, just maybe, release a classic GNR rock album with Slash and Duff.

This might make too much sense to happen

Another crazy idea: maybe his high pitched voice is actually done for and he'll reinvent himself and release solo stuff with his lower register. As a perfectionist he probably doesn't want to do that with GNR, so it's more ideal to do that as a solo artist. In which case we might get more piano driven songs.

Anyways... with Axl and Duff doing their own solo stuff, it makes sense if Axl would do the same. However big or small that may be. It could just be a intimate piano tour... whatever. It can be anything. But it makes sense that he'll do something. Every year counts at his age and doing nothing is going to end in retirement at some point.

Edited April 19 by Lethalis

[Blackstar]

6 hours ago, downzy said:

It all depends on whether sales of Chinese Democracy repaid the money owed to UMG.  And what kind of album commitments had (or still has) with UMG. 

If Axl repaid his debts and isn't contractually to deliver additional albums, he likely retained rights to unreleased material without payment. 

If I had to bet, all of this was renegotiated at some point since the reunion.  It's just a matter of whether any recording during the CD sessions remains the property of UMG if Axl repaid UMG of all recording costs. 

The label appears to still own the rights to the songs that are on the Chinese Democracy album, whereas the rights to the "NITL" singles are registered with the US Copyright Office as owned by Gundam (the GN'R business entity).

[jamillos]

I hope we won't get into yet another "the band can't release an album, because they are held back by contracts they signed decades ago" nonsense. I'm not a lawyer, but even if they did have a contract like that, having made half a billion only during 2016-17 would suggest they can buy themselves out of anything, right? 
No, it's not contracts. It's you know who.  

Edited April 19 by jamillos

[Blackstar]

1 hour ago, lunastar said:

What generally keeps GNR at UMG? If there are any obligations and circumstances that prevent the release of the album, then why not change the label?

UMG still owns the rights to the recordings of old releases (I'm not sure about the current status of AFD and Lies, as GN'R should have retained the rights to the recordings by now due to the time passed), so it probably wouldn't be convenient to move to another label for the distribution of the "new" songs (for which the label acts only as a distributor, as they are owned by GN'R).

And given the latter fact (that GN'R owns the rights to the recordings of the four "new" songs), I don't think there are any obstacles from the label that would prevent the release of a new album.

[Karice]

31 minutes ago, jamillos said:

I hope we won't get into yet another "the band can't release an album, because they are held back by contracts they signed decades ago" nonsense. I'm not a lawyer, but even if they did have a contract like that, having made half a billion only during 2016-17 would suggest they can buy themselves out of anything, right? 
No, it's not contracts. It's you know who.  

Does "You know who?" Rhyme with Merchnando? 😏😉💡🤣🤔

[rocknroll41]

The Appetite for Distortion guy says the website is for an autobiography.

[jamillos]

7 minutes ago, Karice said:

Does "You know who?" Rhyme with Merchnando? 😏😉💡🤣🤔

Nah, it rhymes with axle nose. 

[colonizedmind]

35 minutes ago, rocknroll41 said:

The Appetite for Distortion guy says the website is for an autobiography.

Makes sense....this has been coming for ages! I'm sure there may be events that go along with this....hopefully! Maybe Axl finally returns to Kimmel to promote it 😎

[Karice]

28 minutes ago, jamillos said:

Nah, it rhymes with axle nose. 

I actually was JUST about to ask if "You know who?" Is someone named Axl Rose, but I posted Merchnando at literally the last second. 😉😏

[Blackstar]

8 hours ago, W. Axl Kev said:

I associate Axl with some of the most interesting quotes ever. I've read this back to front 30 times since yesterday and I cannot make any sense of it. It feels satirical because it makes no apparent sense but the way it's displayed on that website makes it look like it's some legendary, celebrated remark. Latest thing in the litany of bizarre things these musicians have done in the last 25 years.

The conclusion of the discussion about this quote on the previous pages is that it's most likely fake, taken from an AI generated "book" site/app (and whoever is working on setting up the Axl website just found it by googling).

8 hours ago, W. Axl Kev said:

This is an interesting observation. He has a pending civil suit in New York and the last think his lawyers would want is him publishing a self evaluation of his, possibly ill-advised, behavior from the early years.

I guess that in the case of an autobiography this would be taken into consideration, and the release date of the book would be set after the lawsuit issue would be resolved.

[D4NNY]

13 hours ago, Ratam said:

Welcome back!!! 

Thank you! Took a little break while things have been very quiet in the GNR world, this intrigued me enough to join the party again 

[allwaystired]

If (and big if) it's an autobiography, that would be something i'd love to read, but I'm not sure how 'open' it would be, given Axl's desire for privacy. 

I can imagine it might be one of those ones where you don't really feel you know much more about the person after you've finished it.

I can't see him suddenly opening up on a massive scale. 

 

[SoulMonster]

23 minutes ago, allwaystired said:

If (and big if) it's an autobiography, that would be something i'd love to read, but I'm not sure how 'open' it would be, given Axl's desire for privacy. 

I can imagine it might be one of those ones where you don't really feel you know much more about the person after you've finished it.

I can't see him suddenly opening up on a massive scale. 

He has had no problems sharing personal things from his life previously. But after 1991 only under controlled situations. He stopped doing press not so much because he didn't want to share, but because he thought media was against him and wouldn't give him a fair chance. And he doesn't have a particular interest in growing his celebrity status, so he avoids press for promoting himself. An autobiography wouldn't really be opposed to any of this.

[Ratam]

1 hour ago, D4NNY said:

Thank you! Took a little break while things have been very quiet in the GNR world, this intrigued me enough to join the party again 

Yes, very quiet until Axl website thread. Now is hot again.

[F*ck Fear]

I'm not expecting anything positive to come from this.

If history proves anything, the website will never get updated and it will amount to nothing of importance.

[jamillos]

1 hour ago, allwaystired said:

If (and big if) it's an autobiography, that would be something i'd love to read, but I'm not sure how 'open' it would be, given Axl's desire for privacy. 

I can imagine it might be one of those ones where you don't really feel you know much more about the person after you've finished it.

I can't see him suddenly opening up on a massive scale. 

 

Exactly, just the notion feels like the opposite of everything we've learned about this fella. 

[DeNfr]

not impressed, his Instagram is better 

[colonizedmind]

56 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

He has had no problems sharing personal things from his life previously. But after 1991 only under controlled situations. He stopped doing press not so much because he didn't want to share, but because he thought media was against him and wouldn't give him a fair chance. And he doesn't have a particular interest in growing his celebrity status, so he avoids press for promoting himself. An autobiography wouldn't really be opposed to any of this.

Yea...by pass the media, get it from the horses mouth...he's more than game for a story on stage, last tour was a return to that....perhaps he's in a sharing mood! 

 

[We love Axl Rose]

17 hours ago, StrangerInThisTown said:

Ok this might derail the thread but I gotta get into this: Yes he is right about the creativity aspect, but he's forgetting one major thing, that just started existing within this last year: which is the advancement in AI technology which also influences the "studio magic" that is possible.

With the advancements of AI technology in just this year alone (it's in it's infancy), Axl can pretty much record and sound like he did on Appetite, aslong as he can still hit the notes (which he can, albeit in his clean tone). He didn't lose his range, he just lost the rasp which is really demanding vocally, and of course you can't keep up that singing style for 30+ years. This is the reason why people like Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler still sound so good, they sang more with their natural tone.

But now in a studio setting, he can record with the clean vocals and apply an AI created Axl voice filter on it, which works kind of like a guitar effect pedal (but just on his recorded voice instead) and have him sound like his 1987 self with the rasp completely added onto the vocals by the AI which works by feeding it with soundclips of his isolated studio vocals from AFD/UYI. People are already doing this with other singers, just applying an AI Axl onto the voice and it sometimes already sounds dead on, so when he does it with his own vocals, it'll sound pretty much perfect.

So GNR can release as much music as they want, aslong as Axl actually starts working on it.

16 hours ago, Tom2112 said:

This is a fair and reasonable point, they could use the tech available today.

My argument against is that 1. I'm a purist and don't want to hear robot music. I'm ok with some autotune here and there but the idea of AI enhanced Axl makes me nauseous. I'll take current day Axls attempt for better or for worse. 2. If Axl uses that tech to sound like a younger voiced version of himself, he paints himself into a corner of not being able to perform it live. 3. I'd have to imagine Slash would be seriously against this, he is a pure traditional rock guy and barely likes using pro tools. 

This idea is fine for deceased musicians to finish off demos like the Beatles etc. but Axl is still alive and fit to work. I think the point of the post is the reality of Axls vocal ability and the reality of performing live and that it's not going to get any easier so now is the time to release music and tour while he still can pull it off. I don't think he's going to be able to do jungle etc. in another few years. 

On topic. I would love to read an Axl book. 

I would not like to be the editor though🤣

I don't think Axl needs any help from AI technology for vocals in the studio. As many have written here, singing in the studio and at shows are completely different things. He can still use a rasp in concerts, from time to time, but in the studio, he has more time to rest, and because of that he can use it constantly. Rock the Rock is the most recent example of Axl being able to use rasp(vocals) in the studio, i hope we will soon hear that song he sang for Michael Schenker and find out if things have changed.

[StrangerInThisTown]

45 minutes ago, We love Axl Rose said:

I don't think Axl needs any help from AI technology for vocals in the studio. As many have written here, singing in the studio and at shows are completely different things. He can still use a rasp in concerts, from time to time, but in the studio, he has more time to rest, and because of that he can use it constantly. Rock the Rock is the most recent example of Axl being able to use rasp(vocals) in the studio, i hope we will soon hear that song he sang for Michael Schenker and find out if things have changed.

Maybe true, there is no way to know until we hear something, because even Rock The Rock was plenty of years ago now.

Even still, I have to disagree with the other poster, because it would be literally just re-applying the tone of his own voice, to his own voice. He would still have to sing and record it all. That's not a "robot". Using AUTO TUNE is "a robot", where notes are added and adjusted in a robot way, not reminiscent of how the original vocals were recorded and sung into the mic at all, that shit is WAY more "robot" than adding bits rasp back to the vocals that he himself has to record.

And live, that point doesn't make a lot of sense to me, because he ALREADY sings ALL the songs that he recorded back then with his classic tone live with his current voice. So it'll just be the same thing as literally all the other songs.
 

Edited April 19 by StrangerInThisTown

[AxlRoseCDII]

It’s a good point that he would be wise not to release an autobiography until the lawsuit is resolved. However, with his money, he’s very much able to just settle this lawsuit for practically whatever and whenever he wants to.

[themadcaplaughs]

11 hours ago, downzy said:

It all depends on whether sales of Chinese Democracy repaid the money owed to UMG.  And what kind of album commitments had (or still has) with UMG. 

If Axl repaid his debts and isn't contractually to deliver additional albums, he likely retained rights to unreleased material without payment. 

If I had to bet, all of this was renegotiated at some point since the reunion.  It's just a matter of whether any recording during the CD sessions remains the property of UMG if Axl repaid UMG of all recording costs. 

My understanding, having been present on the message board of certain "insiders" (IYKYK) was that Chinese Democracy, against all odds, set the ledger to zero when it came to production costs. People throw around the $13 million dollar number a lot, but almost all of that was written off over the years through the various mergers and acquisitions of the record labels. Apparently, Universal only footed a small portion of the Chinese Democracy expenses before cutting off Axl in 2004. When Azoff, one of the most powerful managers in the business, negotiated the Best Buy deal, Best Buy covered the portion of the money Universal spent and ordered a million copies of the record. Despite all the money sunk into the project and the jokes made at its expense, Universal essentially went into immediate profit on the album AND got to state that the album debuted as a platinum record. The Azoff thing is tough. I have no doubt Azoff probably used less than truthful tactics with Axl, but at the end of it all, Azoff was probably the only person powerful enough in the business at the time to negotiate the deal he did. I honestly believe, without Azoff, Chinese Democracy would never have been released (at least in a conventional sense). 

Also worth nothing was that the costs of the Chinese Democracy sessions also (per the same "insider") covered the costs of the CD2 material. So beyond the fact that the record company made all their money back on Chinese Democracy, they also had the recording cots of the next album covered as well. The issue, apparently, came from the fact that the record label, in 2009/10 (when Axl wanted to release the next record), would not release anything unless Slash/Duff were back in the band in some capacity. Despite the majority of CD2's costs for recording having been paid back, the label apparently did not want to spend another dime on other costs (like marketing) for "Axl's band" given the muted reception to Chinese Democracy. 

So how did we get to where we are now (as @Blackstar laid out). As a former entertainment attorney, my guess would be one of two things:

1. Unlikely: Axl's contract had some kind of reversion right for masters. This would be very unlikely given that this is not something that really got added to contracts until fairly recently. 

2. More Likely: Given that things were in a "stalemate", the band probably paid a lump sum to acquire the masters back to the remainder of the songs with the record label having a right of first refusal on a distribution deal. In other words, the band would foot the costs for extra recording, mixing, mastering, videos, and the majority of the marketing. Under the distribution deal, the record label would pay to manufacture the physical product, coordinate getting the song on streaming and download platforms, and (possibly depending on the deal) paying some minor marketing costs. The record label would then take a cut of the money made from these sales/streams/downloads (usually 15% for a distribution deal vs the up to 80% a record label can take under a normal record contract). It's also possible, with a band the size of GN'R, they just paid the label a lump sum for these services and GN'R gets to keep all money from streaming/sales/downloads. 

Edited April 19 by themadcaplaughs

[allwaystired]

2 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

He has had no problems sharing personal things from his life previously. But after 1991 only under controlled situations. He stopped doing press not so much because he didn't want to share, but because he thought media was against him and wouldn't give him a fair chance. And he doesn't have a particular interest in growing his celebrity status, so he avoids press for promoting himself. An autobiography wouldn't really be opposed to any of this.

Glad you know him so well! 

I have no idea what he thinks, only that he seems incredibly private. 

[SoulMonster]

17 minutes ago, allwaystired said:

Glad you know him so well! 

I have no idea what he thinks, only that he seems incredibly private. 

Well, if you read a bit more you would know more.

Here's Axl himself talking about why he didn't do press and how it had to do with his belief that the press was out to get him and protect Slash: (35) 28. AUGUST 2008-FEBRUARY 2009: CHINESE DEMOCRACY IS RELEASED - Page 2 (a-4-d.com)

And here's about Axl deliberately keeping out of the spotlight and that he did have an aversion to promoting himself: (35) 23. JANUARY 2001-NOVEMBER 2002: RICHARD REPLACES PAUL, TOURING STARTS (a-4-d.com)

The latter point about Axl not having an interest in self-promotion or celebrity status is also exemplified with Sebastian Bach talking about how Axl would paid big money to not be part of celebrity shows on tv, in contrast to Bach.