GNR Behind the Music

[haVoc 0]

It's not useless. Slash & Duff ripping Axl apart = good time entertainment.

[1234-5678 0]

Oh boy, more lawsuits.

[1234-5678 0]

It premieres Sunday at noon for those interested.

[jimmy no nose 0]

Just aired. A lot of inaccuracies in there, but still a decent show. Good to see Guns on TV whenever. Very few mentions of Izzy, arguably the most important member of the band. Also, they announced Chinese Democracy for November 2004!

[Guest slacklet]

EDIT: Jimmy read my mind

[haVoc 0]

They could have at least fit a good half hour more into that show. But, I guess they had to hurry and get back to the "Fabulous life of J'Lo" for the 286th time.

[1234-5678 0]

Wasn't Aerosmith's BTM an hour and a half long? Granted, they had a much longer career then GNR's initial 6 year burst.

 

Anyways, as a obsessive Guns fan, the show sucked for me, because they was nothing I didn't already know. They skipped a lot, and it would've been nice to get a little more info on the 2002 tour, but hearing a Chinese Democracy release date was pretty cool.

[jimmy no nose 0]

I wonder where they got the November 2004 date from. I'm expecting either an official release date, like which week of November to expect it, to be announced by Axl very soon since he said he'd be coming out with the date in a few months about 3 months ago. Or if VH1 was just reporting an unofficial rumor I'd expect a statement from management about it. Either way there should be some official news fairly soon.

[Use Your Illusion 0]

Well, Axl would have gone ballistic had the BTM program gone ahead and stated a release date that was wrong, and we haven't heard anything from him yet. It gets to the point where GNR fans begin to grasp onto whatever microscopic points they can find in order to justify believing in the latest rumour, which is a sad indication of how things are right now in GNR land.

 

As per usual, time will tell.

 

UYI

[1234-5678 0]

Maybe in dealing with his record label, VH1 got a little inside info.

[Use Your Illusion 0]

That's the only conclusion I can come to. I can understand doubt arising if they had simply stated 'sometime this year', but the information was quite specific, so it had to come from somewhere.

 

It was due LAST November too, wasn't it?

 

UYI

[1234-5678 0]

"Apparently management has denied that any planned release date exist for Chinese Democracy....."

 

Link

 

"The Behind The Music: Guns N' Roses premiered on VH1 and according to the documentary, Chinese Democracy is now slated for a November 2005 release."

 

Link

 

 

I know for a fact they said November 2004 on BTM.

[River City Rocker 0]

"Apparently management has denied that any planned release date exist for Chinese Democracy....."

 

Link

 

"The Behind The Music: Guns N' Roses premiered on VH1 and according to the documentary, Chinese Democracy is now slated for a November 2005 release."

 

Link

Another year delay?

 

For some reason, I'm not really surprised. Then again, it's been "due for release" for how many years now? Axl is making Tom Scholz from Boston look like an amateur.

 

This better be the best damn record ever recorded if it's taking this long to get released, seriously.

 

-Ben

[Guest Choken One]

I am now more then ever...convinced this album never existed.

[1234-5678 0]

From an interview with Queen guitarist Brian May......

 

MAH: Speaking of good singers, we've heard a lot of rumours about the fact that you've been doing some recording with Axl Rose. And, in fact, many of the listeners, people including Louise in Inverness, Charlie Dixon, Ravi and Seth Lubin have sent e-mails in saying you must ask Brian what's he been doing with Axl. What's the score?

 

BM: Okay, well, I have a lot of history with those guys, as you know, because, well, I was on tour with them for a while. My own band supported them, which was great fun. They also did the Freddie tribute with us and I think I regard them as great friends, Axl in particular. And they just said come over and do some stuff. It's a long story, to be honest, and I won't bore you with all the details. But Axl was feeling he that was in a difficult place because the guitarist he'd been working with on this new album had, sort of, replaced Slash, because they fell out, sadly. I think that is sad actually because they're both brilliant talents and great with each other. But the guitarist that'd done most of the tracks had departed and Axl had a real emotional attachment to what he'd done, and yet he didn't want him on the album, I hope I'm not saying too much here, he didn't really want him to stay on the album because he'd disappeared, you know. So, he's sort of feeling a kind of divided loyalty and he said, 'Brian can you come and do stuff which I will like and I won't feel too bad about ditching this other stuff?'. So I did. I went over there and I think I played on three tracks and messed around on various other things. But it worked out pretty well, as far as I can tell. And it's very strange 'cause most of the Guns N' Roses people are not there 'cause Axl's sacked 'em all. So you're talking about Axl and the 'new' Guns N' Roses but, boy, is there a lot of energy there and his singing is outrageous. There's some great tracks on it.

 

MAH: Now this is really interesting because there has been so much speculation about this new album, 'Chinese Democracy' (potentially it's called) and there are many, many people who've spoken to journalists, who've played with Axl over a number of years now, who have laid claims recently that the only one track that Axl has ever laid down a vocal part for is 'Oh My God' but you're saying that there are more vocal parts then?

 

BM: Oh yeah, there's a whole album of vocal parts. In fact, there's two albums worth that they've got there, at least. They played me everything. Axl actually sat down and made me listen to everything (laughs) and there's some wonderful stuff there.

 

MAH: How do you deal with somebody like Axl though, when he sits you down and says listen to all of this? I mean can you really critique him and sit there and say, 'D'ya know what Axl, that's rubbish mate, you wanna bin that one'?

 

BM: Well, Axl sort of holds Queen and our whole thing in a great deal of respect, so I always figure as long as I tell my truth, he's fine, and it's always held out so far. He's always been very good to me. He will tell you if he doesn't agree with what you say, you know, I mean I went in and immediately Brian May opens his mouth and blab, blab, blab and I told him exactly what I thought of the stuff as it was, and some of it he went "yeah", and some of it he went "I couldn't do that". You know, like some of the suggestions and that's it, and Axl's a very emotionallly, kind of, connected person, I mean to the point where he's so intense about every single note that's on there and the solos that I played, he was totally into it, very much in the way that Freddie used to be. You know, Freddie used to go through my solos and say, you know there's this particular note here and, I think, if you did this and this and this. I thought I would go in there, you know, I'd forgotten what Axl is like and I thought I would just go in there and he'd like it. He did like it but he wanted to get into every single take of every single note and, you know, from one day to another Axl would've been in there like from 5 o'clock in the morning 'till 7 o'clock in the morning comping little bits of my solos and saying, 'can you get Brian to try this'. You know, he's utterly meticulous.

 

MAH: That's amazing. So, what's your position, you've just played this amazing solo, as far as you're concerned, and Axl comes along and says, 'you know what, I really don't like that B flat, or whatever it is, can you just change that?' Do you say..

 

BM: Oh I'm fine, I don't care because I'm there to deliver, you know, and in this context I'm a session player and people can take what they want, it doesn't bother me. I'll give my best and if someone will make a comment, generally it will be… You know, if someone makes a comment to you about your playing, and it's someone who cares, then it's probably going to do you some good, whether you like it or not. So, I'm always open to that stuff, always. There's always room for improvements.

 

MAH: Interesting. The other big question on the lips of our listeners this evening, "Would you ever consider touring with Axl, if he asked you to join the band?"

 

BM: I don't know if I would be up for those long tours anymore, you know, I did that for twenty years of my life, nine months of the year, and I'm not in that position anymore in my life. You know, I don't feel like I want to have that chaotic lack of balance in my life anymore. I dealt with it, and I loved it, but I'm just not in that place anymore. I don't think I could do that. If it was a short tour, it's possible.

 

MAH: Even if he promised never to ruin one of your solos again? (laughs)

 

BM: I'll tell you, Axl is a very persuasive guy. He's magic really, he is, you know, and I think he's not always easy, as genius very often isn't, you know, Fred was not the easiest person in the world to get on with, but someone who has that amount of passion and gives a million percent of themselves, you'll take any amount of stuff from, and I would from Axl, I think he's that good.

[Guest Choken One]

just because he recorded shit...doesn't mean the album exists.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

I caught this show today, and I thought it was awful. All they did was lightly outline stuff, and it was only an hour long. It was full of stuff I already knew, and they just kept repeating themselves over and over: They were from LA. They partied and did drugs and were irresponsible. Band members came and went. Axl was/is a psycho. The end.

[Black Lushus 0]

I agree with everyone else here, the show was lackluster and i was also disappointed with the lack of Izzy history. imagine the shit they would have put out if Izzy wasn't with them...they could have easily made this into a 2 hour show like other bands, i mean, hell didn't Creed get a two hour show? i like Creed, but no where near as much as GNR, it's like comparing apples to oranges. the fan base is huge enough to warrant a full 2 hour, in-depth show...also, i know Axl is crazy and has issues, but it seemed like a total dump on Axl show as opposed to a history of GNR show, perhaps it's warranted, but he's not the only guy in rock music to have issues...i had no idea Steve Adler had gotten THAT bad, man what a waste of talent he became...

[jimmy no nose 0]

I noticed last night that they story they went with was that Slash and Steven formed the band then found Axl and Izzy in Hollywood Rose. That's not even close to being right. I don't mind them not telling the whole story with LA Guns+Hollywood Rose combining to Guns N Roses, but they could've at least not included a fake story. Tracii Guns said they had him come to New York on one of his days off from tour and interviewed him telling him they were focusing on the early days and that he would definitely be in it and they were going to use his interview. They didn't use any of his stuff, and never mentioned him except in the special thanks.

[haVoc 0]

See, there is so much more to GNR's history then they showed. There are always things lefted out, but the GNR story is pretty much made for this show. They should have put a lot more work into this.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Alright. I actually caught the tailend of this and I wanted to watch it all before I made a comment on it. But I did have a question for some of the GnR hardcores here though. I used to be a HUGE GnR fan years ago(aka when the original band was putting out records) and I still enjoy those records today. I never really had ANY interest in seeing one of the Axl created mutations of GnR but I would want to see the original though. Is that the attitude of the hardcore GnR fans as well, or do you guys just want to see ANY reincarnation of the band???

[jimmy no nose 0]

I've seen people who go both ways on that issue on this board. I initially didn't think Axl's band would be any good, but I ended up seeing them for free on the 2002 tour in Pittsburgh because one of my friends who had tickets couldn't make it. I've heard that Pittsburgh was one of the better shows on the tour. Axl definitely turned me around there. He was hitting all the high notes in the all the songs, he had a lot of power in his voice, and the three new songs impressed me a lot. The band was very tight and played everything perfectly. A bunch of the songs they basically played Slash's solo, but they changed them up a bit on some of the songs nearer to the end and gave them their own feel. After hearing Velvet Revolver, I'm kind of surprised that given the choice of Axl or everyone else in the band I'd take Axl by far.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

I've seen people who go both ways on that issue on this board. I initially didn't think Axl's band would be any good, but I ended up seeing them for free on the 2002 tour in Pittsburgh because one of my friends who had tickets couldn't make it. I've heard that Pittsburgh was one of the better shows on the tour. Axl definitely turned me around there. He was hitting all the high notes in the all the songs, he had a lot of power in his voice, and the three new songs impressed me a lot. The band was very tight and played everything perfectly. A bunch of the songs they basically played Slash's solo, but they changed them up a bit on some of the songs nearer to the end and gave them their own feel. After hearing Velvet Revolver, I'm kind of surprised that given the choice of Axl or everyone else in the band I'd take Axl by far.

Strange as I live in Pittsburgh.......

[Black Lushus 0]

Axl is one of the better frontmen in decades, so that alone is a strong selling point for me, but as i've said several times before, Izzy wrote most of the GNR tunes that I dug the most so hopefully they were able to compensate for him not being there...i'm not holding my breath, but i will be one of the first ones there to pick Chinese Democracy up in 2010, or whenever it's coming out...

[1234-5678 0]

I think Izzy's best GNR tunes were "Patience" and "14 Years", but I was always an Axl fan even from the early days. Just the fact that he is behind the pen guanrantees that "Chinese Democracy" or whatever the hell it is called by the time it comes out, will be better then Velvelt Revolver's "Contraband".

 

Although I have found myself singing along to "Slither"..........

[Black Lushus 0]

Dust N' Bones and Pretty Tied Up are good Izzy tunes as well...i think the only non-Izzy tune I really dug was Locomotive...though I'm sure I can think of more if I look back at the liner notes...

[1234-5678 0]

"AntiMsuic reports: We now have a new release date announcement for the long awaited album “Chinese Democracy” from the Axl Rose fronted Guns N’ Roses. The Guns N’ Roses Behind The Music special which aired this weekend on VH1 stated that the album was set for a November 2004 release.

 

 

 

The decade in the making album has been delayed numerous times for various reasons including personnel changes and Axl stepping in as a co-producer. This will be the first new studio album for the group since 1993’s “The Spaghetti Incident?”, a collection of cover songs, however fans have caught a preview of some of the material during live performances and the release of the song “Oh My God”, which appeared on the soundtrack to “End Of Days” in 1999.

 

An official announcement from Guns N’ Roses or their record label, Geffen, has not yet been made. And most fans will most likely take a wait and see if it happens stance towards the “Behind The Music” announcement."

 

Link

[jimmy no nose 0]

Management denying the rumor isn't really something that should be looked into too much. Obviously the band and the record label plan on announcing the date on their own at some point and that time has not yet happened. Management saying the date isnt set means that the date is not going to the public yet, not that it doesn't exist. I'm not saying it's definitely true, but it did come from somewhere.

[Guest The Winter Of My Discontent]

People are actually still waiting and interested to listen to Chinese Democracy? ...weird.

[Guest The Last Free Voice]

Okay, from reading responces in the thread I take it the show was filled with inaccuracies. So, what was the real story behind their formation?

 

And another question I have is about Chinese Democracy. I take it that Slash and the others who left the band aren't involved? It's the VMA version of GNR, not the real ones, right?