Yeah, I think if we are talking about well functioning bands and artists, that puts things into percpective. That's why I mention Tori Amos regularly.
An improtant update: she has just released the instrumental version of her 2011 (classic) album, Night of Hunters. You can download it for free, if you bought the first record.

This.

tejastech08 wrote:

Yes, it's different. Cause they were in the same fuckin' band. So while my or your opinion, be it spot on or absolutely wrong, doesn't change and mean much, he was there, so he is either the most delusioned bitter old freak, suffering from Alzheimer, who has ever lived on this planet, or he's simply lying with this desperate try to rewrite the band's history and erase Slash. Fuck, Axl, you'd better get your hired session guys write new solos and riffs instead of trying to play Slash's stuff note by note, or even better get them write new material, and play that, not Slash's songs. You'd 'tour' in half empty bars.
More below.

Axlin12 wrote

You both are absolutely wrong. Noone's denying Izzy's importance. It's enough to listen the UYIs, and his absence is felt badly. GN'R lost that magic Slash and Izzy brought to the table when they were complementing each other's playing. They were the perfect guitar duo for me - only the Slash/Gilby twin attack comes close to this on 5 O' Clock. That was some well-worked out rock guitar, for sure.

But. I had to make it clear that Izzy wasn't more important than Slash. In fact, he played a lesser role. To quote Izzy himself, he always wrote songs in the style of his solo albums, but then came Slash and Axl, who rewrote it. That's why some Izzy songs sound so GN'R - cause Slash and Axl changed it. YCBM would have been a C-side Rolling Stones song - with Slash it became an all-time classic. 99,9 percent of GN'R fans wouldn't be there, if the band music would have sounded like Izzy's solo work.

But the Slash N' Axl songs, like Locomotive, Estranged, November Rain, Coma, Civil War still have that GN'R feel, although Izzy did close to nothing on those songs. It's not against Izzy, but during the UYI recordings he was AWOL - it was Slash and Duff who worked pretty hard on the others' material, and Axl did his part, too, at home. Izzy didn't work on the band songs, and you can blame Slash and his addiction, Axl and his antics, the fact is that Izzy left the others in deep shit, both during the recordings and then when he left days before the world tour. That was mean.

Izzy's playing is unique, his additions are unique, but his song-writing is simple. It helped GN'R to reach wider audience, since Slash often makes too riff-based songs, while Izzy is all for simple chords. Izzy was important and perfect for GN'R. He is irreplacable. But a lot of people, who are only seeing liner notes, and don't know anything about how a band works, or how this band worked, not to mention that they have never ever played guitar or any instrument, can come to the conclusion that Izzy was more important than Slash. No. Fuckin'. Way. I love Izzy, but Slash's guitar guitar solos made the band outstanding musically and those 'few key riffs', he wrote. You know, the songs that made Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses and not Hollywood Rose.

Before some Izzylite or Axlite comes - I've never said that Slash alone would have been the band. No. But he was the most important songwriter, and the guy who worked his ass off on others' leftover songs, to make them GN'R. And he made them GN'R. He was (and is) everything, but not lazy or replacable. Axl, slash, Duff, Izzy and Steven made Guns N' Roses. That five made the chemistry. It was enough to remove Steven, and that changed the dynamics. Izzy was an even bigger loss. But without Slash, Axl can't even pretend that it's Guns N' Roses. They lost it, both in image, and what's much worse, musically.

SCOM is mostly D,C,G,D, like zillions of songs. Show me any other that reached the same quality, thanks to some creative guitarist, like
Slash.

There is noone. Zillions of people had the chance to get inspired by those simple chords, yet Slash made SCOM, which is sitting next to God himself in the guitar heaven. So Slash wrote it. Before Izzy, zillions 'wrote' that stupid chord progression, Jacks, Johns, Abrahams and Saids. But there was only one Slash to fire this nothing to the stratosphere.

And before madagas comes complaining about the 'too much ass kissing from Slash fans'. Well, EVERY GN'R FAN should kiss his ass as a daily routine. If he weren't in GN'R, none of us would be here.

I don't think that Bet could do as much damage to GN'R to end it. As long as Axl had the money, he can hire a back-up band, better or worse. I wouldn't even say that the Lebeis family managing GN'R would be the end of the world. Since Azoff had gone, this was the situation pretty much, but a middle mand was involved as a 'manager'. Now they'd need to deal with all the shit themselves, which is good, but I see blaming promoters, venues etc. on the horizon. I just can't picture anyone taking a clown like Fernando seriously in the music business. It's not Malibu, where Fernando is a boss, it's the outside world.

Anyway, we'll see what happens. I expect European shows, maybe some other in Asia, then goodbye 2012.