And I STILL don't believe Axl hated Slash's fame.... the way you and others think.

I think Axl was proud to have Slash be the biggest and the baddest rock n' roll guitarist of all time.... Axl's way. GNR's way.

Slash would play with fucking Santa Claus if there was a check in it. Slash was obviously VERY influence by Kiss, because like Kiss wanted to be Coca-Cola, Slash wanted to be KISS-popular and had no problem doing whatever it took to get there (other than Glee).

I think Axl hated Slash playing with guys like Michael Jackson (which Axl turned around and did an interview recently citing Jackson as an influence and one of his favorite vocalists/performers)

I think Axl correlated GNR's image with HIS image of GN'R and when Slash did things that countered that... he was on Axl's shit list, and Axl resented him.

Yes it was about Ego, but not in the way you or the media depicts it. I think Axl truely had a vision, and from 1996 onward... all of it turned to shit.

I don't buy that for a second. Duff told a story back in the day when a bunch of fans ran up to Axl & Duff and basically everyone ran right past Duff and all wanted Axl's autograph. Axl obliged, but tried to encourage them to go get Duff's autograph, after all he's in the band too.

I'm sorry, but Axl has NEVER struck me as a narcissist. Slash has a corner on the market on that imo. If anyone ever associated with GN'R was in the ballpark you speak of, it'd be Slash imo, with Axl at the bottom of the list.

I think Axl actually would RATHER be left alone.

Now on the power grab front, I don't buy it either. In several of Axl's interviews whether directly or indirectly in the last 20-25 years, he basically alluded to wishing someone had just taken the ball/initiative to help guide the band. Axl complained that Slash & Duff wanted equal say in the band, but back in the day did nothing but party and had absolutely nothing to do with business discussions as far back as 1989, at least.

Axl was then accused of stealing the band and being a dictator, but yet the royalty distribution proves Axl was never trying to cut out the band, but in fact management and any other blood sharks that threatned the (at that point) global business brand that Guns N' Roses had become.

Slash & Duff (pre-rock minister of finance) wanted nothing to do with that shit, other than drugs, pussy and rock n' roll. They were still young and immature, while Axl was thrust into a world where "someone's got to take the responsibility to go to the meetings" he complained about.

When the dust settled, if you put all the work in, you do all the studying to try and make sure the band doesn't get robbed blind, you aren't going to feel entitled to the brand name's ownership to ensure its survival?

Based on everything i've read, if there was anything Axl DID EARN without any doubt, or thievery... it was the band name.

This x a million. All these people that think Axl's "obsessed with Slash", is simply not true imo. Axl was 'disappointed' in Slash, and let down imo. Feeling betrayed might even be a stronger word. But it was THE WAY Slash went about it, that buried him perminately with Axl, and that was ALL Slash's fault. Slash didn't just leave. If you look back over the interviews back then, Slash was already openly slagging Axl in the press in little passive-aggressive ways, and it was obvious in hind-sight looking back over those words then, that there was trouble in paradise. This didn't go over well with Axl, nor did Slash's difficulty in hardlining his material as "take it or leave it" that it buried any music they wrote or recorded during that late 1993-to-late 1995 period. Again, Axl is pissed. Then Slash quits, which in Axl's eyes is saying "I want a divorce". Slash doesn't just stop there, he proceeds to encourage Axl's persona with the media as a tyranical dick (something that has haunted Axl from day one), and beat into the ground until the present day.

The irony in all of this, is EVERY SINGLE PERSON (Alan Niven & Stephanie Seymour) have all but recanted their feelings towards Axl in the present day. The same people that encouraged that media bullshit persona of him, turned around and said he was a "great guy". Erin Everly, a bitch who supposedly had the shit kicked out of her, kicked in the stomach to miscarry a baby, destroyed property, had her life threatened, gagged with a ball gag, tied up, fucked in the ass repeatedly and thrown in a closet.... still took a girlfriend to see him at a show a couple years ago.

I don't think Axl is the villian here. I think we're dealing with dozens and dozens of liars, not Axl is the cause of all the problems. All of these people basically backed off on their "fuck Axl" stance. Even Slash who goes back and forth between, "I love Axl", and "Axl is a dictator.... but I love 'em xoxoxo"

With every passing year, the more time vindicates Axl again and again.

Axl wanted to be rid of Slash and is more than happy he's gone. Called him "a cancer" for God's sake. He also said he loved him, so maybe even for Axl it goes back and forth. But in the band? No, I think Axl doesn't really ever want Slash back in the band full time. I think Axl is happy with Duff, but I think Axl is just fine with Slash & Izzy being part-timers with GN'R. Izzy because he's so unrealiable, and Slash because of drama. It's like having your ex-wife around your new wife, 20 years after the divorce.

This

I don't think Axl wants or wanted Slash back. Maybe initially, but once it sunk in, he rolled with it. I think what Axl HATED and drove him nuts was that Slash's presence in not being in GN'R would become a curse for Axl. He tried to reboot the band into a totally different think ala Halloween III, and like Halloween III, it pissed Axl off that virtually everyone, including the business, hated that 1998-2002 GN'R, 21st-century modern-rock/prog-rock/industrial GN'R.

And Axl blamed Slash for it. The industry and the label were doing everything for him with Chinese, including $14 million investment... until.... they heard it. Then they wanted to bury it and distance themselves from it. Legendary producers didn't even want to work on it, because it wasn't the GN'R they were prepared for. So while Slash was selling out and doing "Set Me Free" for The Hulk with Scott Weiland and VR, Axl's over there looking at it as that top-hatted bastard PUT ME in this situation, and nobody is giving Chinese or the band, the push it deserves.

And he blamed Slash.

BUT... in defense of Slash, Axl's insistence on tinkering with every little thing on Chinese, put Axl in his own quagmire of an album. I remember when Axl told Kurt Loder post-VMA's in 2002 that Chinese was basically nowhere near ready... lolz... Chinese should've already been out for a year at the time that they played the VMA's. Even then it was a year past due.

That kind of shit is what buried Axl in reality.

I never once said Axl took the band in the right direction, but I bet you my left nut that if Slash had gotten the name, the band would be worse off than it is now. Slash would've had garbage like Eric Dover or whatever hack this week, fronting the band, called Guns N' Roses, recording whatever come to mind, driving down the quality of the band, when unless a Chris Cornell-type writer would've been willing to work with GN'R (or front them in replacement of Axl), to at least compare to Axl's writing style.

Axl with GN'R (and no players) = no new albums, and a destruction of the name based on the lack of work with tribute shows
Slash with GN'R (with the band and no Axl) = a Rolling Stones-level of output without 50-80% of the lyrical writing team, destroying the name into Skid Row-level obscurity

When I say -- "I'll take Axl" -- that's what's in my mind when I think it

And I will totally agree that Axl made his own bed. I don't think people left him, like Robin, Bucket, Tommy (off and on), Ron (?), Josh Freese, Brain etc. because Axl was a tyrant. Many of these people had almost GLOWING things to say about Axl, as opposed to his almost Mel Gibson-level reputation. Axl's lack of regularly working caused most of these people to walk out the door, and that I blame Axl and the label for both equally. I think Axl takes too long, and is a maladaptive perfectionist, with a severe procrastination issue. But I fully believed and said (even before Axl did), that the label forced and virtually blackmailed Axl to try and get a reunion out of him, with basically an ultimatum of "reunite, and we'll promote your album", Axl-"no", Uni-"well then we can't help you, nor will we let you out of your contract, nor will we let you go record as Axl Rose", etc.

Axl might've out foxed the band legally... but he didn't out fox the music business one damn bit. They whipped his ass. The only difference is Axl picked up his teeth and hat, and walked home never to return, rather than submit to the business like Slash.

Whatever Axl's reasons for doing that, are a mystery to this day. But pussy ain't one of them imo. I think Axl still has a good reason, and lack of talent or ability ain't one of them either.

And I fuckin' love it. Ol' JR himself would be proud. I have very little sympathy for these guys. They SIGNED AWAY THEIR NAMESAKE!

Come ON! How can you do that? And Slash later had two different stories about it, Matt had a story then later admitted (oh wait, I don't own part of the name), and Duff agreed with Slash's story until his book came out, and in it he had an entirely different timeline.

Yet there's 'ol Axl, with the same consistent story. No matter how scum bag, scandalous, or dastardly he was in securing it, he got for a variety of reasons, all of which come back to either A) Weakness on the band members, B) drugs, C) lies, or D) a combination of all of the above.

Slash's response was "what's in a name? What's the band without the players" ... really? That's the excuse? You pussed out bro, and gave away the biggest thing you were ever apart of.

Oh please, Slash was the biggest pussy of the bunch. Even IF you believe Slash's story, (let's assume we both do), he basically laid over and gave away his fucking creation, not to Axl, but to Doug fucking GOLDSTEIN.

That's how much of a pussy Slash is. He couldn't even stand up to the Harley Quinn of Axl's Joker.

Slash didn't stand up to Axl. Slash didn't say ONE FUCKING WORD (according to him) of his issues with Axl (neither did Axl).

Slash quit and ran, as did Izzy. Then suddenly grew a pair of balls in the fucking press, without ever talking to Axl.

P-U-S-S-I-E-S every fucking one of them. Even Axl sent his male secretary to deliever the news. The least Axl could've did was donned a pair of $2,000 cowboys boots and a Stetson hat, dropped 3 bricks of China White in Slash's bag on an international flight (in South America) once he was busted, visited him in jail (butt rape SA prison) and said "i'll bail you out right now, just sign on the dotted line"

That's how it's done