All those sources can and sometimes are very different from the reality of what actually happened, unfortunately. "We wanted to credit everyone", "We wanted to pay everyone", "We wanted to be fair with pay", "We paid people off so they wouldn't get royalties..."

His vocal chords were pierced for our transgressions, his throat was crushed for our iniquities.

None of us actually know. But...

You can't sing like he did and keep singing like he did. That voice we came to know and love wasn't any kind of natural singing voice. In the times when they were doing clubs and small shows, you know he was doing things not productive to his voice - drinking, smoking, cocaine... and also trying to sing over the amplifiers. To some extent, that continues after getting signed and the touring in the 80's - although by some accounts he stopped with the cocaine because it made it harder to sing. You can listen to shows from the club times and then later in the late 80's and see the kinds of vocal performances he would give... sometimes forcing things out in an inhuman way, almost screaming.

He had different vocal coaches off and on.

We can all hear in the 1992 shows something had changed. Actually this is one of my favorite times for his voice, but it wasn't necessarily good for him.

With the new material I believe he was going for more of a cleaner sound and like glam rock sort of vocal style. I think, if you listen to the end of 'Rocket Queen' on Live Era, you can hear what he was going for. That's what I think he was aiming for when fans started to call things Mickey or note how off-key he could be in the 2002 shows. I think this was also to protect his voice. He wasn't 28, he was into his 30's going into 40's, that makes sense.

2006...some of those Canada shows...2009, amazing. But did he find out he screwed something up when he *did* go back into the studio in the little bits that he did, forcing himself into 'safe mode' vocally?

For all the positives of the ACDC stuff, I don't know if it was any different than some of what he did before or since.

In 2001/2002, he was in shape - writers even talked about how he'd taken up kickboxing and he had a 6 pack in Vegas... and 2006 he was lean and mean, but we know later on his cardio got in the way.

I think he's lost control in the register he's been trying to default to that's safe for him, and that's why things can be inconsistent. Like, why not let it rip during that November Rain at Graceland? Maybe he couldn't?

There could have been some surgeries. They could have went well, and some not to swell. That would add a layer into the whole Chinese Democracy intrigue, certainly.

The end of Rocket Queen is one of my favorite moments lyrically, musically, and vocally from GNR. A long time ago I made a compilation of various live and 'live' performances. "What happened to Axl's voice?" Man... just listen to Rocket Queen. A human can't do this.

https://hartlx.com/rocketcompo.mp3

I can't hear the guitar over myself saying JESUS AXL WTF when I'm playing this.
Sigh.

Could it be the way that I carried on -
like a broken record, for so long?

Well I'm personally waiting for chinesedemocracy@gnfr.com to answer all my questions.