They're about the same age in those pics, both in their mid-50's.

A decade ago, he was still impersonating Sean Paul.

This album is moving backwards!

Slash will play on CD2 songs, if it comes to that.

They can re-record the band and keep the vocals.

And people'll think the NITL band wrote the songs

That's a very informed Guns section from 1h20mins on.

First bit. Brain confirms he & Bucket met Dan Monti at the Village Studios. Monti was an in-house engineer assigned work with to Guns. He co-wrote Nottingham Lace, btw.

Another minor bit. Caram & Eric, the last men standing in 2008, were already in the studio with Beavan.

The big bit.

Brain keeps referring to the 2006 tour. He describes it as a 'stressful period' for everybody in the band, every being in their own bubbles.

(He came back, with a hefty retainer to a blitzkrieg auditioning of Bucket replacements. Richard & Robin had learned to manage it by themselves. Axl wanted a 3rd gtr without telling them, as per usual.)

Ron didn't make much of an impression on Brain, as he was just focusing on his own thing.

(Ron walked in about a week before the first Hammerstein show. He felt shunned by the band. Brain's side of the story suggests the others were just blasé due to all the insecurity.)

The London show at Hammersmith Apollo was three hours late. They were stressed out. Brian May was supposed to play with them.

(AFAIK, he didn't. As I recall, May addressed this on his website. He had his Red Special with him, ready to roll. Only he did not get a soundcheck. That's how chaotic it was.)

By the time Ron signed, Brain had decided he would leave the band. The delays in show starts and tensions were probably much like in 2002. His paternity leave was met by an about-face band. 

(Axl went drinking with Frank a few times on tour. Guess he won the boss over, as they wanted to extend Frank's stay. Brain was originally due back in two weeks.)

Brain did come back for a handful of California shows in the autumn. By then, he seemed to agree with everybody that it was Frank's gig.

Brain underlines that the environmental stress wore him out eventually. Axl was cool as such.

And Brain has forgotten Guns played a show on 01/01/01. Vegas to Vegas, the 14-year CD tour

Some, for sure.

NITL, for one. Slash gleefully planted their reconciliation to the media as public knowledge. Very simple. The reporter is told beforehand that Slash and Ax are friends again. What happens;

That's about 8 months before the Coachella shows. Axl's still a big unknown at that point. The last future plan from him was Stay of Execution, and it was trademarked in June 2014, when the Ashba/BBF -lineup called it a day with another Vegas residency. So, in a year, Axl had gone from SOE to NITL.

I would say that by August, Axl was game to do some shows together. He was likely in on the deal that Slash would 'leak' the news in a throwaway comment or two, before shutting up as Coachella became official.

To a degree, I think NITL was pre-booked and contracted. You don't just come up with a tour that big. However, knowing their history, smart money would be to try it out at Coachella.

Axl probably learned about NITL after Coachella, tho