What? Have a provision that says they can't fire him or have any say in financial matters? That's pretty much what he offered them. On financial benefits the terms seem to have been as fair as in the past.

Not really. Either they have equal say or they don't. If they die, which at the time was a perfectly reasonable assumption, he will be stuck with negotiating about business and band matters with a bunch of self serving heirs. Ask Nirvana and the Beatles how fun that can be.

And just because they're junkies doesn't mean they're shooting heroin before a show or are so drunk to not know what they're doing. Basically Goldstein came and told them Axl wanted them to sign over the rights because in their state they couldn't be trusted with the responsibility, probably also followed with a little *wink*wink* from Doug as to what might happen if they didn't.

Sneaky, dickish, manipulative yeah, but if you're gonna sign over the rights to a multi million dollar enterprise just because you're too pussy to take one of Axls semi regular no shows you got it coming.

And that's probably whey they never made a huge fuzz about it in later years. They knew he was right and they knew they'd not been tricked into anything. Pushed for sure, but that's something else entirely. As they say in football, shoulder to shoulder is not a foul.

Easiest path to continue making big bucks, but certainly not for his career and musical output. Carrying the name has been a heavy burden for him, incomparable to the rest of them really. In a way it's akin to trying to carry a brand like Zeppelin or the Stones on your own. There are certain standards to be held. The performance part of it can be handled fairly well with the right players, but the creative demands are something else entirely. In the end he did manage, perhaps amazingly so, to produce a good to great album. And he still didn't get much to any credit for it.

Of course much of this is his own doing, but I wouldn't call it easy. Apart from covering living expenses he doesn't seem very interested in fleecing the brand for cash either, so I don't think it was ever about that. Security perhaps but not greed.

I'd be interested to know how he feels about those things nowadays. Surely getting CD out there must have been a heavy load of his back, but that was 4 years ago and he supposedly has close to finished tracks laying around. Funnily I hope the lack of a follow up album is due to his infrequent work ethic and not some sort of jadedness as to releasing music at all.

Agreed. Axl was put in a real tough spot. Don't even think there's much precedence for it. In the end I think he made the right choice for himself, and long term probably also for his fans. His somewhat warped sense of integrity is one of the things that keeps me rooting for him.

When it comes to band activities, plans and schedules Izzy is far worse than Axl. The reason he doesn't get any stick for it is because he took the manly route when he realized this and went and did his own thing with no promises he knew he couldn't keep. Izzy is very much a man of principle, and while it might not be apparent to outsiders I think his history shows that when the man makes a decision it's for good honest intentions. He didn't want to compromise himself and for that I respect him immensely. We really have no right to question that. He never led anyone on, and neither did Axl for that matter.