monkeychow wrote:

I personally wish Axl was more open to sharing info, and would hire some kind of offical PR person who could address the thousands of questions people have, and that way the answers could be made public, but Axl himself wouldn't have to deal with the negativity inherent to much of the fanbase which seems to bother him. As right now it's a cycle. People don't like the way axl is quiet or what he does, so they get pissy, and the pissier the fanbase gets, the quieter the band seems to get, and the angrier the fanbase gets, and it goes on and on. Some kind of offical regular information  source could really help break that cycle. But hey...it's not my band!

They dont need to do that and Axl doesnt have to give people a minute by minute account of what happens in his life (most of it is no cunts business). But they have gunsnroses.com and its completely wasted. If that site was updated at least once a month with a little band message to the fans and some new media like,  proshot tour photos, studio photos, video interviews from on tour and in the studio, live videos - the GNR/Fan relationship would be much healthier.
Its breeds negativity the way they keep stonewalling the fans for long periods, sometimes years, at a time.

monkeychow wrote:

Sure it's maybe not how other bands run, but he's been doing it this way for 15 years or soemthing now, and, no offence to anyone in this thread, but I don't really think it's disrespectful to the fan base from ashba, sure we're all hungry for more info, but realisticly it's not his role to give out fresh info, and that's not a surprise.

What's really funny is that the "what-i-say-goes" approach seems like it would be a much more efficient, productive, unmuddled way or doing things, but has only resulted in 1 album and countless aborted tours in 15 years.

But you present a good point.

My whole point is that just because its not a surprise, and just because its been done this way forever doesn't make it any less frustrating, mind-boggling, or ridiculous.

James Lofton wrote:

I disagree. When Axl appeared to do a couple chats, he was forced into answering some idiotic shit. He was even asked about Disney movies, and time spent on Disney movies could have been spent asking him about the making of Chinese Democracy.

Please, Axl yanked our chains just as bad as Ashba did, he was just much more verbose and incoherent. He wasn't going to answer any questions outside of why slash is such a bell end.

When any member of the band does a chat, time is very limited. Piss take or no piss take, trolls need to be a light year away from the situation.

Examples....

Ron did a chat on our old site a couple years ago. He said he was willing to answer CD related questions but within reason. During this chat, he actually gave real info not yet revealed about the album(Bucket was still on the album, Ron was recording rhythm and not just leads,etc.).

Ron did a chat here last year. Said he would not be able to discuss the album and/or tour. The chat lasted hours and it was basically a group of 20 or 30 people discussing all sorts of topics.

So GNR info or no GNR info, it all depends on how the artist AND the people participating in the chat react to the situation on whether or not its even worth it.

Those two chats were polar opposites of one another, yet fans enjoyed chatting with Ron and he enjoyed the chat as well.

Fair enough, but I don't think Ashba would've said a single interesting word, piss or no piss.

Ron is a cool guy, and I'm sure once Axl found out about one iota of ChiDem info coming out, he put an end to that -- but him coming on one of the more intimate gnr boards and telling ya'll ahead of time what was on and off limits is miles away from Ashba baiting and switching.

Had Ashba said from the get go "sorry guys, I'm not gonna have anything to say about GnR other than 'yay axl!'" then people's complaints would be close to moot.