Guns N' Roses to return to the road in 2025

[Free Bird]

5 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

There is no reason to think Izzy coming in would induce Axl to put side the music he has labored on for years. It is likely Slash and Duff have some great song ideas too, yet Axl doesn't want to let the old music go. Izzy has sent him music previously without that having any impact on Axl too. So it doesn't seem to be about a lack of material, nor maybe even quality of music, Axl is still loyal to the old music and seems to want that out first. 

No, it’s not about lack of material. It really seems to be about Axl only. He either lost his ability to write new lyrics or isn’t happy with his vocal recordings. 

[JimiRose]

8 hours ago, Sweersa said:

I bet if they would have dropped the unnecessarily long Chinese Democracy and Riad intros, they could have fit it in. (And the weird Scraped intro too) 

I don't understand it either, i thought the intros were superfluous. They didn't add anything to the songs or the album flow. But I also think axl genuinely believed there would be a CD2 in the next year or 2, so holding back songs wasn't the end of the world. Of course Axl being axl, here we are 16 years later

[JimiRose]

11 hours ago, DoMw94 said:

Of course they did. I don't get this whole "they play what they're told" bullshit that people insist on all the time.

It was Slash and Duff that asked Axl which Chinese Democracy songs Axl wanted to play, which suggests there was perhaps a willingness from Axl's side to ditch them from the live show, and an obvious openness from Slash and Duff to play them willingly.

It was also Axl's idea to play Slither.

The band – or at least the main three – are obviously more collaborative than people give them credit for, yet we still have to put up with this nonsense narrative that Axl has them under his thumb.

You kind of contradicted yourself when you said they asked axl what he wanted - that is basically him telling them. Of course it shows willing on their part, but he could have said anything and they would have agreed. that's the point. 

I agree they are not just complete yes men, axl values their opinion. they are important. But that doesn't mean they have any real influence. it's 9 years since the make up dinner at axls. we don't have a new album - slash and duff 100% would want new music. That's a key indicator that it is still all down to axl, and Sluff are there  for the ride. Which is fine if they're cool with that. Obviously as fans, we'd rather they could axl to make a new album and release it. 

[JimiRose]

10 hours ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

You're comparing a blues standards album to one man's magnum opus. Of course the blues album has less layers.

lAyErS bAd!

The producer did not tell Axl to add layers, that was Axl's decision. The production actually does a impressive job of putting it all together while maintaining as much separation and breathing room as possible (and bucks the trend of brickwalling, no less). If you think CD has bad production, you simply don't know what you're talking about.

Agree. The production and sound on CD is incredible, not liking the songs because of the layers is a separate topic. That was axls artistic choice and the production has been to suit that, and done it incredibly well (if only the bass was 1 or 2 DB higher!) 

[Free Bird]

22 minutes ago, JimiRose said:

You kind of contradicted yourself when you said they asked axl what he wanted - that is basically him telling them. Of course it shows willing on their part, but he could have said anything and they would have agreed. that's the point. 

I agree they are not just complete yes men, axl values their opinion. they are important. But that doesn't mean they have any real influence. it's 9 years since the make up dinner at axls. we don't have a new album - slash and duff 100% would want new music. That's a key indicator that it is still all down to axl, and Sluff are there  for the ride. Which is fine if they're cool with that. Obviously as fans, we'd rather they could axl to make a new album and release it. 

That’s not an indicator at all. If Axl decides to not write and record new vocals, then both, Slash and Duff are powerless in this regard. They can’t force him to go into the studio and they can’t just use his existing material. That doesn’t mean they have no influence in business and other things. If Slash was the lazy motherfucker and Axl was willing to work, he couldn’t do much either. I mean, he still has the name, so he has more power in regard of taking over the band again, using other guitarists but he couldn’t force Slash to play on any new material.

[D4NNY]

5 hours ago, Free Bird said:

No, it’s not about lack of material. It really seems to be about Axl only. He either lost his ability to write new lyrics or isn’t happy with his vocal recordings. 

I’m sure he’s capable of writing lyrics, even if he didn’t have much inspiration he could even collaborate with another writer or band member. As for not being happy with vocal recordings I’d assume if he really wasn’t happy with his voice then endless touring would be a no go also, hundreds of thousands of people around the world hearing his voice in its rawest form live would be contradictory if his isn’t happy with his studio voice. So to take a guess on why he is this way in terms of no ‘new’ material, maybe he just truly isn’t bothered, has no interest in it, or maybe tours and cleaning up old demos are the easiest route in his career to keep the money flowing and fans somewhat happy.

The sad thing is we as fans know full well he has it in him to create something new, especially with Slash back on board. We don’t expect Appetite 2 or Illusion 3 but maybe he has too much self doubt to even take the first steps.

[siraddam]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C513JxfM8Yc/?igsh=MTJ4ODdxY2NuMW14Ng==

😆

[Free Bird]

1 hour ago, D4NNY said:

I’m sure he’s capable of writing lyrics, even if he didn’t have much inspiration he could even collaborate with another writer or band member. As for not being happy with vocal recordings I’d assume if he really wasn’t happy with his voice then endless touring would be a no go also, hundreds of thousands of people around the world hearing his voice in its rawest form live would be contradictory if his isn’t happy with his studio voice. So to take a guess on why he is this way in terms of no ‘new’ material, maybe he just truly isn’t bothered, has no interest in it, or maybe tours and cleaning up old demos are the easiest route in his career to keep the money flowing and fans somewhat happy.

The sad thing is we as fans know full well he has it in him to create something new, especially with Slash back on board. We don’t expect Appetite 2 or Illusion 3 but maybe he has too much self doubt to even take the first steps.

Nobody knows 100% why he acts (or doesn’t act) like that. All we can do is assuming and these are my guesses. Either that or that he’s just a lazy motherfucker.

[SoulMonster]

8 hours ago, Free Bird said:

No, it’s not about lack of material. It really seems to be about Axl only. He either lost his ability to write new lyrics or isn’t happy with his vocal recordings. 

I don't think the fact that he focuses on old material and won't work on songs from Duff or Slash has got to do with him not being able to write new lyrics or don't trust his voice. I think it comes down to wanting to get the old songs out. He spent so many years working on those songs with so many problems and criticism, it's a way to redeem his effort and prove that all the money and time spent didn't just go into one album ("most expensive album never made"). I think for him personally getting the songs out is vindication and closure. If he were to abandon the songs and instead work on new music with Slash and Duff, it would all have been for naught and the criticisms would in a sense be fulfilled. This is just speculation from my side, of course.

[Tom2112]

19 hours ago, gavgnr said:

Be cool if they release a new album and announce a tour in November 

Of course, but I can't see how they could pul it off with Slash and Duff constantly touring and working on other projects. It would have to be a very secretive and thrown together album.... Which might not be a bad thing, overthinking hasn't always been to the benefit of GNR

[Tom2112]

23 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

I don't think the fact that he focuses on old material and won't work on songs from Duff or Slash has got to do with him not being able to write new lyrics or don't trust his voice. I think it comes down to wanting to get the old songs out. He spent so many years working on those songs with so many problems and criticism, it's a way to redeem his effort and prove that all the money and time spent didn't just go into one album ("most expensive album never made"). I think for him personally getting the songs out is vindication and closure. If he were to abandon the songs and instead work on new music with Slash and Duff, it would all have been for naught and the criticisms would in a sense be fulfilled. This is just speculation from my side, of course.

He might consider it redeeming that time and effort. In reality it's cementing opinions that Chinese Democracy was shit (I love the album) and here's 4 more songs we don't care about.

He needs to walk away from that material OR just bulk release whatever else he needs to get out

[SoulMonster]

2 minutes ago, Tom2112 said:

He might consider it redeeming that time and effort. In reality it's cementing opinions that Chinese Democracy was shit (I love the album) and here's 4 more songs we don't care about.

I don't think it matters any more. The average man's opinion on CD won't be affected by these new releases because the average man doesn't listen to them - not because they are necessarily bad but because people don't listen to this kind of music and the releases were so low-key events that barely caused any commotion. It wasn't like, "GUNS N' ROSES, THE 80S ROCKERS, RELEASE THEIR FIRST ALBUM AFTER SLASH REJOINED THE BAND!" It wasn't a thing. Releasing the songs this way, instead of bunding them into an album with all that means, takes pressure off Axl but it still means he gets the music out which he worked at for years and years. He can go back to the naysayers around him, like label and music journalists and previous music professionals and say, "Hey, I told you, we did create more than one album, the music is coming out," and more importantly, he can tell himself that he was right all along and did what he set out to do. Without having the scrutiny and backlash he would get it the songs came out as an album which would likely perform poorly, even more poorly than CD did. Anyway, just speculation from me, of course.

And yes, of course I wish he would just bulk release it all. It might draw more attention to it, though, so that might be one reason he is not doing that, but who know, he works in mysterious ways. 

[Voodoochild]

14 hours ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

It's also been said that Brian actually sings very quiet and does not actually push a lot of volume on the mic or scream, it just sounds like he's screaming. I get the impression that Axl actually was screaming back in the day.

Not sure about Brian, but that's the correct way to apply drive in a healthy manner. It's supposed to be very low volume, mixing head voice/belt and vocal fry. 

Axl seems to have been trying to do this, hence why his mic volume was all over the place in the last tours. 

[Free Bird]

2 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

I don't think the fact that he focuses on old material and won't work on songs from Duff or Slash has got to do with him not being able to write new lyrics or don't trust his voice. I think it comes down to wanting to get the old songs out. He spent so many years working on those songs with so many problems and criticism, it's a way to redeem his effort and prove that all the money and time spent didn't just go into one album ("most expensive album never made"). I think for him personally getting the songs out is vindication and closure. If he were to abandon the songs and instead work on new music with Slash and Duff, it would all have been for naught and the criticisms would in a sense be fulfilled. This is just speculation from my side, of course.

I get that argumentation but he had so much time releasing them. I don’t believe revolving band members or the record label are the reasons for the lack of music. Furthermore he could have used the old songs and combine them with newly written for an album. Even the way to release 2 songs every few years is strange, when you know they are ready to go.

[SoulMonster]

34 minutes ago, Free Bird said:

I get that argumentation but he had so much time releasing them. I don’t believe revolving band members or the record label are the reasons for the lack of music. Furthermore he could have used the old songs and combine them with newly written for an album. Even the way to release 2 songs every few years is strange, when you know they are ready to go.

I think the reasons for the lack of output, or slow output, are complex but mainly Axl's fault. Still, regardless of how slow he moves, I believe getting these songs out are important to him for the reasons I mentioned, and that it is not connected to him not being able to write lyrics or has lost trust in his voice. 

[Free Bird]

30 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

I think the reasons for the lack of output, or slow output, are complex but mainly Axl's fault. Still, regardless of how slow he moves, I believe getting these songs out are important to him for the reasons I mentioned, and that it is not connected to him not being able to write lyrics or has lost trust in his voice. 

I really hope you’re right and he finish his CD work, so he can move on. I really wanna hear something new created by those guys as long as something’s left to tell. Usually creativity dies somewhere in the course of a lifetime.

Edited June 5 by Free Bird

[Uncle Bob]

2 hours ago, SoulMonster said:

I don't think it matters any more. The average man's opinion on CD won't be affected by these new releases because the average man doesn't listen to them - not because they are necessarily bad but because people don't listen to this kind of music and the releases were so low-key events that barely caused any commotion. It wasn't like, "GUNS N' ROSES, THE 80S ROCKERS, RELEASE THEIR FIRST ALBUM AFTER SLASH REJOINED THE BAND!" It wasn't a thing. Releasing the songs this way, instead of bunding them into an album with all that means, takes pressure off Axl but it still means he gets the music out which he worked at for years and years. He can go back to the naysayers around him, like label and music journalists and previous music professionals and say, "Hey, I told you, we did create more than one album, the music is coming out," and more importantly, he can tell himself that he was right all along and did what he set out to do. Without having the scrutiny and backlash he would get it the songs came out as an album which would likely perform poorly, even more poorly than CD did. Anyway, just speculation from me, of course.

And yes, of course I wish he would just bulk release it all. It might draw more attention to it, though, so that might be one reason he is not doing that, but who know, he works in mysterious ways. 

That makes sense but 2 songs every 2 years is crazy 

Edited June 5 by Uncle Bob

[JimiRose]

6 hours ago, Free Bird said:

That’s not an indicator at all. If Axl decides to not write and record new vocals, then both, Slash and Duff are powerless in this regard. They can’t force him to go into the studio and they can’t just use his existing material. That doesn’t mean they have no influence in business and other things. If Slash was the lazy motherfucker and Axl was willing to work, he couldn’t do much either. I mean, he still has the name, so he has more power in regard of taking over the band again, using other guitarists but he couldn’t force Slash to play on any new material.

It's an indicator because slash would love GnR to write and release, as would duff. And they aren't. Because Axl calls the shots. He respects their opinion, but doesn't mean they actually get a say. TB run GnR. That's another clear indicator, this is Axls band, slash turns up and plays guitar. TB probably say 'You free to tour in 2025' Slash says yes, then the next time slash worries about GnR is rehearsal and then performing the show. he's not involved in anything else like he was in the 80s. 

[JimiRose]

5 hours ago, Free Bird said:

Nobody knows 100% why he acts (or doesn’t act) like that. All we can do is assuming and these are my guesses. Either that or that he’s just a lazy motherfucker.

He is definitely a lazy motherfucker, but lets not start that debate again 

[Sweersa]

I hope they hit Detroit on the next North American tour. They didn't on the last tour.  

7 hours ago, JimiRose said:

Agree. The production and sound on CD is incredible, not liking the songs because of the layers is a separate topic. That was axls artistic choice and the production has been to suit that, and done it incredibly well (if only the bass was 1 or 2 DB higher!) 

I agree! I can only make out the bass in If The World. I was listening to CD again recently, and it really was mixed and mastered well. It's painful to go from that to one of the modern singles, save for Perhaps, which was mastered by the same man who mastered the 2008 album. (Bob Ludwig) 

Edited June 5 by Sweersa

[allwaystired]

I don't think Axl can really be seen as eager to get that CD stuff out there. If he was, it wouldn't be sitting on a shelf right now. 

[SoulMonster]

43 minutes ago, Uncle Bob said:

That makes sense but 2 songs every 2 years is crazy 

Yeah, it takes a crazy person to do crazy stuff. 

33 minutes ago, JimiRose said:

He is definitely a lazy motherfucker, but lets not start that debate again 

I get push notifications whenever "lazy" is typed. 

[SoulMonster]

26 minutes ago, allwaystired said:

I don't think Axl can really be seen as eager to get that CD stuff out there. If he was, it wouldn't be sitting on a shelf right now. 

I think it is important to get it out...some time. And then it is also important to him it is done the right way. Why what we are getting is the right way to him, is harder to figure out, but I do believe I get why we are getting singles and not an album or a bulk, digital release of all he got. 

And "eager" implies someone who can't wait to get something done. Oh, Uncle Axl can wait, a long time. Whether it is to release November Rain, release Chinese Democracy, release The General, or release Atlas Shrugged. It's got to be done right, according to his mind, not immediately or soon.

I don't think Axl understands "time" the same way as the rest of us. 

Edited June 5 by SoulMonster

[allwaystired]

20 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

I think it is important to get it out...some time. And then it is also important to him it is done the right way. Why what we are getting is the right way to him, is harder to figure out, but I do believe I get why we are getting singles and not an album or a bulk, digital release of all he got. 

And "eager" implies someone who can't wait to get something done. Oh, Uncle Axl can wait, a long time. Whether it is to release November Rain, release Chinese Democracy, release The General, or release Atlas Shrugged. It's got to be done right, according to his mind, not immediately or soon.

I don't think Axl understands "time" the same way as the rest of us. 

If doing it the 'right way' involves the dreadful production and mix we've seen, I'd dread to hear the 'wrong way'. 

I'll take the low quality though just to hear the songs. If they continue at the rate they are, it'll go on for years and years. 

Edited June 5 by allwaystired

[Spoon87]

1 hour ago, SoulMonster said:

 

I don't think Axl understands "time" the same way as the rest of us. 

It's just spectacular that people, not necessarily only you, can type this with a straight face.