We won't lose our rockstars, just the ones nobody wants to hear from.  If you are good at whatever genre you're in musically, you will be successful.  Chart rankings are still relative to other current releases, not releases from the pre-internet era.  If you're 90th in the top 100 in sales today, you'd be roughly 90th out of 100 10 years ago.

The key is that you don't make your money on album sales anymore.  You have to do other things to support yourself.  Most artists are starting to get that, others are whining to the media.  Everything changes.  Ignore that and you become Bach - a once pretty good singer from a once pretty good band.  there's nothing wrong with that, but when your claim to fame outside of your 80s success is reality tv, licking Axl Rose's balls, and singing on Broadway, you can't expect to sell a million records just by putting Axl Rose on your album and going out of the way to tell everybody he's on it instead of talking about what you did.

I think I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but he is pretty complimentary about Axl's singing and writing abilities.  He even goes out of his way not to mention personal things about Axl that he certainly could have gotten into about his past.  I think it's pretty obvious that Slash respects his talents and despises his attitude, which is the way I think a lot of people fall on the issue.  The only things he really bashes Axl about are blowing money on shit they don't need and not showing up/walking out of shows.

It was actually a more difficult list than I thought it was going to be.  There are several other songs I would have loved to include and honestly my top 10 list is always changing.  If they hadn't made that 2nd album, I really think I could list any MB20 song on the other 2 albums and be pretty happy with the list.  For some reason I relate pretty well to most of the songs - even on the 2nd album...I just think the 2nd album is too mellow to have a whole album be that way.  Rob really comes off as a pussy.

Axl is free to say fuck it and blow off the fans, but he has to live with the concequenses of his actions.  He's treated the fans like shit for years going all the way back to the UYI days - even those that have stuck with him through all the fuckin shit.  If he wasn't expecting a backlash as a result, then he underestimated his fan base.  You can only shit on people for so long before they are going to say enough.  The truth is that the fans don't need Axl - good or not so good, there are other musical options out there - but if Axl wants to continue living the lifestyle he wants to live, he sure as hell needs the fans.

Axl deserves much of the flack he gets.  The members of the band deserve at the very least some of the flack they get, though they are more victims of Axl's lunacy then they are at fault for any of this.  The people around him deserve all of the flack they get - the leeches need to learn to shut up.  People have a right to be disappointed that this isn't really the Guns N' Roses they fell in love with.  If that's enough for Axl to say fuck it, then fuck him.  It's apparent that as much as he's always wanted to be the lone person in the spotlight, he can't handle it and everything that goes with it.

Short of Axl's death, the best chance we have for ever seeing CD released is a long period of silence followed by doing things right for once.  Change the musicians from employees to band members and reward their loyalty and patience.  Finish the album in the quiet time.  Prepare the marketing and promotion plans.  Release the best song you have as the 1st single followed by an album release within the next 2 months.  Tour to support the album, not the salaries of the musicians.  Give back to the fans that have supported your existance for what could be 20 years at that point.  Treat the fans with respect before demanding they respect you.  Anything less than this will result in failure in my opinion.

The good news is that they already have their 2009-2014 articles prepared as well so they can spen time with their families over the next 5 holiday seasons.