If Axl and Slash Did Not Reunite, What will They Be Doing Now?

[ChristmasFnatic]

While we wait for the tour announcement sometime today(as some said), let us visit a what if.

Almost a decade after the reunion… say they did not though, what would they be doing with their careers going to 2025?

Will NuGNR grow/release a new album? Will Serpent Fest exist? Etc etc etc.

oh and where would Duff be? Dizzy I presume will still be with Axl.

[ZoSoRose]

NuGNR MK VII and SMKC 17

[allwaystired]

Yep. Axl would be touring with some version of GNR and no new music, Slash would be doing pretty much as he is now - solo stuff and SMKC. 

[rocknroll41]

Axl: Vegas act

Slash: Same stuff he’s been doing anyways (with probably a few more SMKC albums by now).

[Cosmo]

6 minutes ago, rocknroll41 said:

Axl: Vegas act

Slash: Same stuff he’s been doing anyways (with probably a few more SMKC albums by now).

Basically this. Or maybe an indefinite hiatus from Axl after a few years of DJ Ashba-style vegas residencies with little to no different between them.

[DanteStraviosky]

Slash wouldn’t be doing anything different from what he’s doing now. Maybe a couple of guest appearances on someone’s records to make some money for his divorce recovery.

Axl would be doing a couple of tours milking the band's name and  releasing the same exact songs he has released so far, but with the Nu-Guns guys (Ron, Dj, Ashba, etc).

[Free Bird]

Well we wouldn’t have Love To Love

[evilfacelessturtle]

Slash would be hosting a Bed & Breakfast in upstate Vermont, and Axl would be managing a Taco Bell in Fresno that is hemorrhaging money.

[HOOSIER GUNZ]

Axl & Buckethead  reunion and would travel California be performing seventies and eighties covers throughout the year approximately 12 to 30 shows 

[SoulMonster]

Axl would embark on a corporate career slowly winding his ways into middle management in a mid-tiered juice company where he'd be loved and feared by his colleagues for his joke cracking and quick anger, respectively, but ultimately not advance any higher due to his inability to deliver on schedule and tendency to procrastinate. Slash would return to his roots and enthusiastically restart Road Crew but his lack of finding a decent singer would result in the band not going anywhere, forcing Slash to carry his own gear to small club shows in Los Angeles, thus becoming his own road crew.

[Karice]

Wow, a LOT of these "What if Slash and Axl never reunited?" Posts are DEPRESSING! 😫☢️

[Steff_66]

On 12/2/2024 at 9:24 PM, DanteStraviosky said:

Slash wouldn’t be doing anything different from what he’s doing now. Maybe a couple of guest appearances on someone’s records to make some money for his divorce recovery.

Axl would be doing a couple of tours milking the band's name and  releasing the same exact songs he has released so far, but with the Nu-Guns guys (Ron, Dj, Ashba, etc).

I sincerely believe he wouldn't release a single new song in that timeline. 

[Karice]

People have surmised that if Guns N' Roses never existed, Steven, Izzy, Axl, Slash, and Duff would all be construction workers. 😵‍💫 I cannot see these 5 being construction workers. 😵‍💫 They would probably be Businessman like Stockbrokers.  💡 In fact, Axl did an interview where he was dressed in a VERY sharp business suit and looked like a Stockbroker. 😀

Edited December 4, 2024 by Karice

[tboneman]

Either "Dead, Jail or Rock N Roll" of course 😄

Edited December 4, 2024 by tboneman

[jacdaniel]

I don’t think Axl was in a position to carry on as Guns without the reunion.  Nobody would have cared with yet another line up. 

I think he would have either finally went solo or more likely retired. 

The reunion was easiest for him. Swallow your pride, call Slash, make millions

[Karice]

2 hours ago, jacdaniel said:

I don’t think Axl was in a position to carry on as Guns without the reunion.  Nobody would have cared with yet another line up. 

I think he would have either finally went solo or more likely retired. 

The reunion was easiest for him. Swallow your pride, call Slash, make millions

And he also brought Duff back along too! 😀 Fans have said that they would have been still pumped if only Slash came back, but having Duff come back too was extra icing on the cake. 😀

Edited December 5, 2024 by Karice

[Sweersa]

I believe if they didn't reunite, we would of had CD2 (or whatever they were going to call it) by 2018, and they would probably be touring arenas and theatres to that. 

[SlashisGOD]

Axl would have retired probably. Slash would still be successful with The Conspirators.

[allwaystired]

1 hour ago, Sweersa said:

I believe if they didn't reunite, we would of had CD2 (or whatever they were going to call it) by 2018, and they would probably be touring arenas and theatres to that. 

That's an interesting thought actually.

I wonder if Axl would have been forced to release it due to a continued decline in interest and bookings? There's no way he could have continued what he was doing at the level he was doing it at indefinitely. He would have had to get used to smaller values and lower fees. 

While I think he probably would have just done that, and the most likely scenario is that he continued to tour with some version of GNR and no new music, it is sort of interesting to contemplate whether it would have increased pressure on the release of new material.

We'll never know, sadly.

The only thing we know for sure is that there seems to be no reason whatsoever for him to release music anymore, be that financial, to facilitate touring or through simple creative drive. 

[Sweersa]

1 hour ago, allwaystired said:

That's an interesting thought actually.

I wonder if Axl would have been forced to release it due to a continued decline in interest and bookings? There's no way he could have continued what he was doing at the level he was doing it at indefinitely. He would have had to get used to smaller values and lower fees. 

While I think he probably would have just done that, and the most likely scenario is that he continued to tour with some version of GNR and no new music, it is sort of interesting to contemplate whether it would have increased pressure on the release of new material.

We'll never know, sadly.

The only thing we know for sure is that there seems to be no reason whatsoever for him to release music anymore, be that financial, to facilitate touring or through simple creative drive. 

There have been rumors of Axl and Pitman around 2014 doing some final touches on CD2, then of course as the partial reunion sparked (and departing CD members), it was abandoned in whatever form it was in. (Presumably) 

For a few or more reasons, it's too bad it wasn't released before NITL happened. Then, perhaps we would be getting actual new songs from this band, and/or CD3 (or whatever post CD2) material with a similar treatment to the CD2 songs that were reworked with Slash and Duff. 

I wish they kept the CD2 stuff as it was, and recorded/finished new material with Slash and Duff, and mix them together between two albums. That would have been a nice way to transition out of the CD era, and into the new era, and would have been respectful to all past and present members who have contributed to the material over the years. 

[Uncle Bob]

Supposedly, he was working on CDII back in 2014 or 2016, he posted a picture in studio with Chris Pitman, but that could have been anything

 

https://x.com/axlrose/status/540358940689563649

 

 

[ChristmasFnatic]

2 hours ago, allwaystired said:

That's an interesting thought actually.

I wonder if Axl would have been forced to release it due to a continued decline in interest and bookings? There's no way he could have continued what he was doing at the level he was doing it at indefinitely. He would have had to get used to smaller values and lower fees. 

While I think he probably would have just done that, and the most likely scenario is that he continued to tour with some version of GNR and no new music, it is sort of interesting to contemplate whether it would have increased pressure on the release of new material.

We'll never know, sadly.

The only thing we know for sure is that there seems to be no reason whatsoever for him to release music anymore, be that financial, to facilitate touring or through simple creative drive. 

Yeah. Why bother releasing new music when Slash is his money maker!

[Free Bird]

All speculation but I don’t believe Axl would have released anything without the reunion. A safe bet is there would be more Slash/SMKC music out by now.

[Voodoochild]

One interesting question is: would Axl have released the singles we got so far with that lineup? I honestly think that after the 2019 leaks, that could be likely. Maybe not the exact same songs, but I believe we would've got them and maybe Going Down.

[rumandraisin]

I actually think the timeline, releases wise might have been roughly the same. We'd have gotten Absurd, Hard Skool etc as one off singles maybe a couple of years earlier but I still can't see that an album would have come out. 

The touring would have still been successful albeit smaller venues between occasional arena tours in Europe. But really just a continuation of 2011-14 with a few singles by 2019ish.