Guns N' Roses Discussion Thread

Lithium93_

Yeah hard to believe Dizzy has been in GN'R for 24 years, he's survived a lot since 1990

Itssoeasy

I checked the UYI albums. He played piano on ten songs( 5 on each album) and two backing vocals, so twelve out of thirty songs. I know not all the songs have piano in them so he wouldn't have any credit if he didn't have any involvement but it's madness. I'm suprised he was kept in the band as Axl plays piano and could have done the bits involving piano but glad he is still in the band.

Lithium93_

Like you said Dizzy has been credited on 12 of the 30 songs on the Illusions albums and 3 songs on Chinese Democracy, (The silent years also have to be taken into account,). Who knows what was recorded in the 17 years after The Spaghetti Incident

Plus i think the only reason Axl has kept him on the payroll as he's also the only member with the exception of Axl himself left over from the Illusion years.

Lithium93_

Guns N' Roses 2nd Vegas residency ‘NO TRICKERY! AN EVENING OF DESTRUCTION’ gets underway Wednesday, and will last until June 7th.

Lithium93_

I wonder how legitimate this article could be

http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2014/05/guns-n-roses-split-axl-rose-slash-break-up-band-rock/

RVD420

No dice - rumours shot down:

Link

First show of the Vegas residency finished up a few hours ago. Still waiting on a full setlist (the GNR twitter feed had a few cryptic tweets with various song names).

Rumours now flying around that Bumblefoot is leaving after the Vegas shows. Probably more BS, but we'll wait and see....

Lithium93_

Damn and here i was hoping the rumours were true, damn it Axl just pull the plug already............ Bumblefoot has threatened to leave before so i'll take him leaving after this Vegas run with a grain of salt.

Here's the Vegas setlist nothing shocking,

Chinese Democracy
Welcome to the Jungle
It's So Easy
Mr. Brownstone
Estranged
Better
Rocket Queen
Richard Fortus Guitar Solo
Live and Let Die
This I Love
Holidays in the Sun
Dizzy Reed Piano Solo
Catcher in the Rye
You Could Be Mine
DJ Ashba Guitar Solo
Sweet Child O' Mine
Jam
November Rain
Abnormal
Don't Cry
Civil War
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Jam
Nightrain
Encore:
Jam
Patience
The Seeker
Jam
Paradise City

Lithium93_

Buckethead & Robin Finck were 2 of the most unique guitar players to play under the Guns N' Roses banner

thegreengoblin

The latest issue of Classic Rock magazine has Axl and Slash on the cover with an eight-page feature on the year that nearly finished the band off, 1989. I have a real fascination with this time because I remember I was a huge fan by this stage yet, like many others, hadn't a clue what was going on...a bit like the band themselves I suppose.

It was a very strange time where they had become massive yet they weren't up to anything and there were all sorts of rumours floating around. We were relying on the rock magazines for good solid info and even then a lot of it was bullsh1t.

I assumed they were going in the studio and that an album would be out by early 1990. I often think how great it would have been had they done that... just go in for a couple of months at most, hammer out some bad-ass tunes and put them out there before Axl got a chance to take over and make it his over-produced baby. The results could have been fairly thrilling.

Anyway, for long-time fans there's not a whole lot new in the article, just mostly rehashed quotes and some anecdotes such as Izzy's arrest for pissing on the plane. If anyone hasn't read it, Mick Wall's book The Most Dangerous Band in the World is a very good and entertaining account of what went on at that time.

Lithium93_

thegreengoblin wrote: »

The latest issue of Classic Rock magazine has Axl and Slash on the cover with an eight-page feature on the year that nearly finished the band off, 1989. I have a real fascination with this time because I remember I was a huge fan by this stage yet, like many others, hadn't a clue what was going on...a bit like the band themselves I suppose.

It was a very strange time where they had become massive yet they weren't up to anything and there were all sorts of rumours floating around. We were relying on the rock magazines for good solid info and even then a lot of it was bullsh1t.

I assumed they were going in the studio and that an album would be out by early 1990. I often think how great it would have been had they done that... just go in for a couple of months at most, hammer out some bad-ass tunes and put them out there before Axl got a chance to take over and make it his over-produced baby. The results could have been fairly thrilling.

Anyway, for long-time fans there's not a whole lot new in the article, just mostly rehashed quotes and some anecdotes such as Izzy's arrest for pissing on the plane. If anyone hasn't read it, Mick Wall's book The Most Dangerous Band in the World is a very good and entertaining account of what went on at that time.

1989 wasn't that the year Axl threatened to pull the plug on the band? Because certain members were ''dancing with Mr. Brownstone'', and if memory serves they were in the middle of a 4 show stint opening for The Rolling Stone, but then again with the classic line up you never knew what was gonna happen, must've been tough been a fan back then, not knowing what was going on.

I think the Illusions album came out at the perfect time, GN'R were riding a huge wave of momentum with Appetite & Lies, shame they couldn't have kept it together after the Illusions tour, some good songs on both Illusions albums. I also wonder what the Illusions albums would've sounded like had the songs been more stripped back.

Also for someone who wasn't around during the bands heyday (me), it's cool shooting the breeze with people who actually lived through the bands heyday & eventual implosion in 91 with Izzy jumping ship, credit to Izzy though he saw the writing on the wall well before everyone else.

Motley Crue

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Seeing dizzys name being mention above and you'd nearly forget the guy has been in the band for nearly twenty five years. I always wondered why dizzy didn't leave/fired like the rest did.

By all accounts it wasn't a great welcome.

His first show was Rio alongside Matt Sorum, apparently Sorum had been hired as a session drummer to do Adler's work on the Illusion albums and the band enjoyed working with him to the extent they asked him to stay. On the Live Era CD, when Sorum is referred to as an additional musician, he was said (at the time) to be very vocal about his displeasure in that.

Anyway Dizzy Reed apparently played on the Sunset Strip with his own band and knew people like West Arkeen and Axl, so Rose and him chatted and he was invited to join as they needed a percussionist, but without much consultation to the rest of the group.

I believe it's in Slash's autobiography that he speaks about how they purposely didn't speak to Dizzy for months after he joined. On the Illusion tour the rest of the band did their best to ignore him for the first year or so as they simply didn't agree with him having the same billing as a full time band member. When Izzy left and Gilby came in - essentially getting a billing as a full time band member, more or less - that led to Dizzy being a little more accepted.

Dizzy was invited to work on the Slash's Snakepit album in 1995 so you'd have to believe there was a cordial relationship between them all, though Reed hasn't (to my knowledge) kept up any kind of relationship with any former band members - with the possible exception of Teddy Zig Zag - so he pretty much survived by being loyal to Axl.

thegreengoblin

Lithium93_ wrote: »

1989 wasn't that the year Axl threatened to pull the plug on the band? Because certain members were ''dancing with Mr. Brownstone'', and if memory serves they were in the middle of a 4 show stint opening for The Rolling Stone, but then again with the classic line up you never knew what was gonna happen, must've been tough been a fan back then, not knowing what was going on.

I think the Illusions album came out at the perfect time, GN'R were riding a huge wave of momentum with Appetite & Lies, shame they couldn't have kept it together after the Illusions tour, some good songs on both Illusions albums. I also wonder what the Illusions albums would've sounded like had the songs been more stripped back.

Also for someone who wasn't around during the bands heyday (me), it's cool shooting the breeze with people who actually lived through the bands heyday & eventual implosion in 91 with Izzy jumping ship, credit to Izzy though he saw the writing on the wall well before everyone else.

It actually was quite tough at times but there was a real charm to it also! For a start the amount of GNR music around was limited to Appetite and Lies so the only 'new' music anyone could hear was live bootlegs. And as this was the days of pre-internet, that meant a trip into town (in Dublin) to see had anything new appeared.

There were usually a few guys selling tapes on O'Connell bridge so I pretty much bought whatever I could get my hands on. There were various live shows that I picked up, all wildly different in sound quality but all were listened to over and over.

The icing on the cake arrived one day in early 1990 when I saw a tape with a lime green cover which said 'GNR demos' across a photocopied pic of Izzy and Slash. The guy selling the tapes even made a pitch to me, saying 'These are the demos for the new album and it's not even out yet'....as if I needed any encouragement to buy it. It was basically the Rumbo Tapes that are easily available today.

So I became very familiar with songs like The Garden, Yesterdays (or Yesterdaze as it appeared on the track listing), Sentimental Movie, Bad Obsession, all those songs. The sound quality was excellent but the actual demos were fairly primitive. And being a real novice as far as music production goes I remember wondering why the band sounded so different and would the end product be much different from what I was listening to on the tapes! In the end of course the albums ended up going too far the other direction and were over-produced.

It was a definite golden period as far as being a GNR fan and I suppose it continued all the way up to the UYI tour and the release of the albums. But once Steven had been fired and especially when Izzy left it didn't have the same feel to it. But I still have all these tapes and would never part with them!

Lithium93_

Vegas Night #2

Chinese Democracy
Welcome To The Jungle
It's So Easy
Mr. Brownstone
Estranged
Better
Rocket Queen
Fortus Solo
Live And Let Die
This I Love
Holidays In The Sun
Dizzy Solo
Catcher In The Rye
You Could Be Mine
DJ Solo
Sweet Child O' Mine
Jam
November Rain
Abnormal
Don't Cry
Used To Love Her
Civil War
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Jam
Nightrain
Jam
Patience
The Seeker
Jam
Paradise City

Nicholas Cage intro'd the band

Lithium93_

This is how i'd imagine the vault in Axl's Malibu mansion, where everything recorded post original line up is kept.

Lithium93_

Forbes article about Craig Duswalts Axl Rose’s personal assistant during the Use Your Illusion tour,

He also has a book coming out, Welcome to My Jungle: An Unauthorized Account of How a Regular Guy Like Me Survived Years of Touring with Guns N’ Roses, Pet Wallabies, Crazed Groupies, Axl Rose’s Moth Extermination System, and Other Perils on the Road with One of the Greatest Rock Bands of All Time.

Jesus Christ, thats a long ass title for a book


http://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthblatt/2014/05/27/how-being-late-and-volatile-was-axl-roses-contribution-to-the-guns-n-roses-brand/

rednik

Appetite for Democracy finally gets a dvd/blu ray release date. It is also due to be shown in cinemas again this time in June.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/guns-n-roses-appetite-for-democracy-live-video/

lord lucan

thegreengoblin wrote: »

It actually was quite tough at times but there was a real charm to it also! For a start the amount of GNR music around was limited to Appetite and Lies so the only 'new' music anyone could hear was live bootlegs. And as this was the days of pre-internet, that meant a trip into town (in Dublin) to see had anything new appeared.

There were usually a few guys selling tapes on O'Connell bridge so I pretty much bought whatever I could get my hands on. There were various live shows that I picked up, all wildly different in sound quality but all were listened to over and over.

The icing on the cake arrived one day in early 1990 when I saw a tape with a lime green cover which said 'GNR demos' across a photocopied pic of Izzy and Slash. The guy selling the tapes even made a pitch to me, saying 'These are the demos for the new album and it's not even out yet'....as if I needed any encouragement to buy it. It was basically the Rumbo Tapes that are easily available today.

So I became very familiar with songs like The Garden, Yesterdays (or Yesterdaze as it appeared on the track listing), Sentimental Movie, Bad Obsession, all those songs. The sound quality was excellent but the actual demos were fairly primitive. And being a real novice as far as music production goes I remember wondering why the band sounded so different and would the end product be much different from what I was listening to on the tapes! In the end of course the albums ended up going too far the other direction and were over-produced.

It was a definite golden period as far as being a GNR fan and I suppose it continued all the way up to the UYI tour and the release of the albums. But once Steven had been fired and especially when Izzy left it didn't have the same feel to it. But I still have all these tapes and would never part with them!

Great post that sums up what being a GN'R fan at that time was like. In an era when there was no internet and instant access to bands through social media you clung to whatever news you could get. This led to rumours being taken as truth and the whole 'Most Dangerous Band in the World' mystique gain traction. I remember buying many unofficial publications that portrayed them as the ultimate bad boys and the peers of every other band on the circuit at the time.

Looking back it was actually a magic time. You really hadn't a clue what was going on and the sense of anticipation for the follow up to AFD/Lies was palpable. It sounds corny but i went to see Terminator 2 at least 3 times in the cinema so i could hear the new song(YCBM)before it was released as a single. I was one of many eagerly awaiting the opening of the record shop(think it was Virgin) in September 1991 for UYI 1&2 to go on sale.

Now there's no secrets,everything is reported in real time. Most of your favourite musicians are on Twitter and share their daily life online. I miss the mystique tbh.

Lithium93_

I've said it many times before, but i'll say it again, those who saw GN'R in their heyday i envy you for seeing awesomeness at the time.

I haven't even seen Axl's revamped GN'R

Lithium93_

Just some excerpts

Do you think you and Duff will do more work together?

It's possible. I don't know yet. It depends on scheduling, or what shows Tommy Stinson wants to do with the Replacements and stuff like that. And you know, almost everybody in the band has some kind of issue going on, personally. There's people who have lost family members. Other people are dealing with separations. Sometimes court gets in the way. Real life!

Where do things stand as far as recording new Guns N' Roses music?

We recorded a lot of things before Chinese was out. We've worked more on some of those things and we've written a few new things. But basically, we have what I call kind of the second half of Chinese. That's already recorded. And then we have a remix album made of the songs from Chinese. That's been done for a while, too. But after Vegas [Guns N' Roses performed a residency at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino that ran through early June], we're going to start looking very seriously at what we're doing in that regard.


The rest can be found here
http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?/topic/207515-revolver-interview-with-axl-rose/

Lithium93_

We recorded a lot of things before Chinese was out. But basically, we have what I call kind of the second half of Chinese. That's already recorded. We're going to start looking very seriously at what we're doing in that regard.

Could we see a follow up album to Chinese Democracy before the decade is finished?

Motley Crue

rednik wrote: »

Appetite for Democracy finally gets a dvd/blu ray release date. It is also due to be shown in cinemas again this time in June.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/guns-n-roses-appetite-for-democracy-live-video/

If and when it happens I look forward to seeing it!

rednik

Motley Crue wrote: »

If and when it happens I look forward to seeing it!

Axl's favourite two words 'if' & 'when'.

Lithium93_

rednik wrote: »

Axl's favourite two words 'if' & 'when'.

Not to mention, Axl also likes to use 'soon' and 'definitely maybe' when quizzed about a new album.

gnfnrhead

"That's already recorded."

So why the fcuk not promote it for a release some time soon? Chinese Democracy was 2008. Unless they rush it out this year, it will be over six years of laying around waiting to be released. A second album would go a hell of a long way towards removing the cover band stigma.

With the amount of songs they seem to have done in the Chinese Democracy sessions, there is really no reason they couldn't have done Chinese Democracy in 2008 and the follow up in 2011 or 2012. The songs are there, Axl just needs to sign off on them. The Vegas shows could have easily been to promote a third album.

Lithium93_

gnfnrhead wrote: »

"That's already recorded."

So why the fcuk not promote it for a release some time soon? Chinese Democracy was 2008. Unless they rush it out this year, it will be over six years of laying around waiting to be released. A second album would go a hell of a long way towards removing the cover band stigma.

With the amount of songs they seem to have done in the Chinese Democracy sessions, there is really no reason they couldn't have done Chinese Democracy in 2008 and the follow up in 2011 or 2012. The songs are there, Axl just needs to sign off on them. The Vegas shows could have easily been to promote a third album.

Due to Axl's constant tinkering that's probably why they haven't released a follow up..... Again Axl constantly tinkering with said songs until they sound right in his head, if a new album was released prior to this Vegas run it would like you said go ''towards removing the cover band stigma''.

gnfnrhead

Lithium93_ wrote: »

Due to Axl's constant tinkering that's probably why they haven't released a follow up..... Again Axl constantly tinkering with said songs until they sound right in his head, if a new album was released prior to this Vegas run it would like you said go ''towards removing the cover band stigma''.

I really think he needs a deadline. For example, someone needs to have the balls to tell him that the album is coming out in November so he has until August to play around with it. After that, it's going out. Without a deadline, he will just keep changing things around.

Lithium93_

gnfnrhead wrote: »

I really think he needs a deadline. For example, someone needs to have the balls to tell him that the album is coming out in November so he has until August to play around with it. After that, it's going out. Without a deadline, he will just keep changing things around.

I doubt any of his hired hands are gonna risk their paychecks by setting him off & challenging his stance on releasing a new album & his current ''management'' team are happy to have him ride the nostalgia train playing the same set of songs over and over. You really think handing Axl a deadline to work on an album would work, it was tried once years ago, and it failed, what makes ya think it would work this time around?

gnfnrhead

Lithium93_ wrote: »

I doubt any of his hired hands are gonna risk their paychecks by setting him off & challenging his stance on releasing a new album & his current ''management'' team are happy to have him ride the nostalgia train playing the same set of songs over and over. You really think handing Axl a deadline to work on an album would work, it was tried once years ago, and it failed, what makes ya think it would work this time around?

Tell him that the album is coming out in November. He has until August. Whatever it is like after that is how it goes out. Six years is long enough to wait for a follow up. May not work, but letting him spend years on it isn't working either.

Lithium93_

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Tell him that the album is coming out in November. He has until August. Whatever it is like after that is how it goes out. Six years is long enough to wait for a follow up. May not work, but letting him spend years on it isn't working either.

Telling Axl what to do is the equivalent of signing a death warrant, what i think Axl needs is a proper management team to motivate him, (A management team that won't sabotage him or his release and hope he takes the reunion route i.e Azoff)... I guess we'll just have to wait and see after the residency if Axl was serious about this line in his interview with Revolver magazine.

But after Vegas we're going to start looking very seriously at what we're doing in that regard.

Itssoeasy

I've just watched the farm aid performance where Adler fell at the start before civil war. Also Steven said he had never heard the song down on the farm(which is on the spaghetti incident) and listening to matts recorded version and it sounds the same as Stevens performance that night. So either Steven was talking ****e or duff helped Steven out to the point where he sounded good.