axl's self-consciousness projected itself onto the entire band. back in 02', when he started rambling onstage about being the fuckin' serpico, it was clear that the weight of the gnr cross was too heavy for his weak ankles to carry.

a sane man would have taken buckethead and turned him into a household name. he was ready, brother. i love finck, but there's no reason they both had to be on lead alongside bucket. that was a mistake from the start.

like you said, it's unreal that we never had a pic of the entire "band" together. funnily enough, the best piece of media press the ever had was mtv's coverage of the tacoma 2002 show.

tommy and dizzy were sitting with loder like actual members of the band, they showed clips of new music being performed, bucket was being classic bucket... if only axl was ready to give this band an actual shot. instead, he half-assed his own performance and made non-stop excuses until the whole thing blew up.

sometimes i think he should have just dropped the gnr name and come back with his debut solo album. without the shackles of the band's legacy, he could have become a zappa, captain beefheart or trent reznor type character, who shifted band members around every few years to tackle new sounds and ideas. in this made-up universe, we could have had the beaven album, a bucket & brain album, and whatever axl hand in mind for the final installment of the trilogy. maybe this was the plan at some point, but the label & contracts prevented him from executing on his grand vision.

in any case, when it comes to new or unreleased music, speculation is probably all the fun we have left... sadly.

reading back thru chinese whispers.... and clink was indeed considered in '97 to produce the record.

robin entered the fold around the same time. i'm sure that played a part in signaling the end for clink. in an era of freak guitarists and pro tools, he was way out of his element.

in 2017, however, with axl, slash & duff back together... i don't think anyone could produce this other than clink.

what's clink's story, anyway? he seems to have just popped out of the woodwork the moment guns needed a producer. according to wikipedia, he had only just begun producing in '86. crazy shit.

without question, his efforts were quintessential to the band's sound. the absence of slash isn't the only reason chinese democracy sounds so jarringly different than the rest of gnr's catalog.

you could almost consider clink gnr's own george martin. any attempt to re-capture the magic of guns needs him at the helm; without him, it's a game of pin the tail on the donkey.

it really is a shame that during axl's creative prime, he channeled his energy into nonsense rather than music. instead of embarking guns on a multi-album journey through various sounds and styles, he was consumed with petty lawsuits, bogus mysticism and endless back & forth bullshit w/ slash & duff.

these days, what would axl even write about? the journey we went thru to release chinese democracy? imagine if the next album was focused around that.. it'd be perfect.

the best thing we could hope for is axl, slash and duff jumping back in the studio and just having fun. i'm not sure how they could even agree on a sound to explore on a new album. maybe they could just pick right back up where they left off in the mid 90s?

thats great news! when i saw him a few months ago, he had the ipod. it was an amazing fuckin' show regardless, but i might have to fly out to denver to see him again with a backing band. i've been meaning to head out to colorado anyway, so this might be the perfect excuse.