dunno if anyone mentioned this but robins site is down at the moment

it says "new site soon"

http://robinfinck.com/

This could mean a ton of things.

Robin left for good for NIN to get back to a band that plays new material, puts out new albums, updates it's fans and is one of the biggest bands out there - looks like a very inviting deal if you ask me compared to what he's been doing.

He's just touring temporarily with them

Bucket could be coming back but somehow I doubt that.

GNR is just going to continue on with Richard and BBF.

Either way it just goes to show that GNR will continue to lose band members if he doesn't return because of the antics that go on, the fans get pissed can you imagine being in the band. 

Considering this is posted on the NIN website, this isn't a rumor.

August 4th, 1999
Robin Finck Leaves Guns N' Roses, Rejoins Nine Inch Nails
 
After about two years of enduring what is certainly the toughest work schedule in rock, guitarist Robin Finck is leaving the Guns N' Roses fold to rejoin Nine Inch Nails.
Rumbles of Finck's decision had been going around for just a week, but it couldn't be made official because his two-year contract with GNR wasn't up until Saturday (Aug. 1). This leaves open the never-ending question of "will Slash rejoin" Guns, however, there is no news on that front as of now. A label spokesperson says, "Robin finished recording several albums worth of material with Guns N' Roses. Axl is now working on the vocals for the album." As far as the street date goes, that is still undetermined. "When the album's done, it will come out," says the spokesperson. It's also too early to speculate who will replace Finck in GNR's touring incarnation, since a tour is too far off in the future at this point.

A spokesperson for Nine Inch Nails confirms that Finck has rejoined the band "for the tour."

Finck joined Nine Inch Nails in February 1994 for The Downward Spiral tour and quit the band two months after NIN's tour with David Bowie ended in October 1995. After quitting, Finck joined Cirque du Soleil as the guitarist in the orchestra, and did that gig up until joining GNR. Previous to joining Nails, Finck was in the outlandish Impotent Sea Snakes.

One can only speculate that what may have contributed to Finck's decision is A) The length of time it has taken to record and finish the album, and B) The crazy hours GNR had been working, which at one point were from about 11 or 12 at night until 6 in the morning.

-- Carrie Borzillo

September 4th, 1999
GN'R album delayed?
 
Guns N' Roses have apparently postponed the release their long delayed new studio album, possibly until next year. This is because they are rumoured to be redoing all the guitar parts originally cut by Robin Finck, who recently quit the band to return to Nine Inch Nails.
Reports from sources close to GNR suggest that they're getting in various guest guitarists, including former Red Hot Chili Peppers man Dave Navarro, to re-do this guitar work.

However, there will still possibly be a Guns N' Roses album this year. A live album, covering the years 1987-92, is currently being mixed by Andy Wallace, and this is set for release by Geffen before Christmas.

November 13th, 1999
Axl Rose - A conversation with Kurt Loder

Loder: When do you think we will actually see this album? Is it possible to say early next year?

Rose: We're hoping. Yes, definitely, everything seems to be going well. Robin's departure was abrupt, sudden, you know, not expected...

Loder: He just wanted to get back to Nine Inch Nails, right?

Rose: [continuing] ... but at the same time, it's turned out to be a good thing. We've been able to push some of the guitar parts a step farther, that had he been here, it's not something that would have been considered, and I wouldn't have been rude enough to attempt to do that. Robin did a great job, but we've been able to up the ante a little bit. Dave came in and did something great on "Oh My God," and we've had a few other people come in, so that was a setback for a while, but then it's turned out to be a good thing.

December 7th, 1999
Trent Reznor on Axl
 
Taken from a French music magazine, transcribed from French to English :
---

Nine Inch Nails toured with Guns N' Roses for a few dates in the summer of 1991, including a concert with Guns N' Roses at Wembley Stadium in August of 1991. Axl Rose has been a fan of Nine Inch Nails since 1990 and continues to admire them.

Trent Reznor: " I have respect for Axl Rose, I wish him all the success that he deserves and if his album sounds a little industrial, I will take it like a compliment... On the other hand, when we played the MTV awards, he made a press release announcing that he would cut Robin Finck's guitar parts on the disc (Finck, former guitarist of NIN with which Mr. Rose worked during two years and which finally rejoined Reznor a few months ago)... and I find that a little ridiculous, it is a whim of star. Read the insanities written on my account by Brian (Marilyn Manson) affected much myself... He crossed a limit that a friend should not cross, speak about what was private parts. Courtney Love? This poor wretch bitch... Nothing of what she can tell can reach me "

April 13th, 2000
Robin Finck mentions Axl in interview
 
In an interview with Real Detroit Weekly, Robin briefly mentions working with Axl Rose.
RD: The Downward Spiral came out in '94 and The Fragile in '99. The tours are long, but is it hard for a musician to take a five-year hiatus between albums?

RF: Well, actually, when Trent was doing the record I was touring with Cirque De Soleil, playing guitar with them. It was a completely polar opposite experience for me compared to NIN. I was with them for about a year and a half. I got a call from Axl (Rose), we've been working on a record, but I doubt that will come out any time soon. The drummer in A Perfect Circle (John Freese) was also working with us. That's basically what I was doing while Trent was doing The Fragile. I had kept in touch with Danny, Trent and Charlie (Clouser) and my work was through with Axl. My time with Axl was up. I was excited to come back to NIN. It was right for me. It was right for Trent. The timing was uncanny.

April 24th, 2000
Robin Finck talks about Axl (again)
 
A fan who recently went to a NIN concert got to talk to some of the members backstage, including Mr. Finck:
Not only was Eric lucky enough to speak with Charlie, but also with Robin Finck, "who was equally nice and humble," he said, which then Robin thanked him for coming to the show. Eric then asked Robin about what it was like working with Axl Rose, which he said, "It started off great then kind of plateaued." After Eric chatted with him about the long delayed Guns N' Roses album, he said, "Robin doesn't have strong expectations of the album coming out soon." It's been said, many times before, but more recent in the new Axl Rose Rollingstone interview, now on stands by the way, that the new record is very NIN trendy? Interesting...

Robin, who put nearly two years of work into GNR's new album, replaced former GNR guitarist Slash when he left in '96. Before he signed up and departed with GNR, Robin took a temporary leave of absence early in '96 to play with French Canadian circus troupe Cirque du Soleil as well as performance-art glam punks the Impotent Sea Snakes.

May 10th, 2000
Brian May talks about Axl/GN'R
 
This is an excerpt from Brian May's appearance on the Radio 1 Rock Show (Wed 10 May). He was with presenter, Mary Anne Hobbs, for an hour and, below, is a transcription of the part where he spoke about working with Axl.
MAH: Speaking of good singers, we've heard a lot of rumours about the fact that you've been doing some recording with Axl Rose. And, in fact, many of the listeners, people including Louise in Inverness, Charlie Dixon, Ravi and Seth Lubin have sent e-mails in saying you must ask Brian what's he been doing with Axl. What's the score?

BM: Okay, well, I have a lot of history with those guys, as you know, because, well, I was on tour with them for a while. My own band supported them, which was great fun. They also did the Freddie tribute with us and I think I regard them as great friends, Axl in particular. And they just said come over and do some stuff. It's a long story, to be honest, and I won't bore you with all the details. But Axl was feeling he that was in a difficult place because the guitarist he'd been working with on this new album had, sort of, replaced Slash, because they fell out, sadly. I think that is sad actually because they're both brilliant talents and great with each other. But the guitarist that'd done most of the tracks had departed and Axl had a real emotional attachment to what he'd done, and yet he didn't want him on the album, I hope I'm not saying too much here, he didn't really want him to stay on the album because he'd disappeared, you know. So, he's sort of feeling a kind of divided loyalty and he said, 'Brian can you come and do stuff which I will like and I won't feel too bad about ditching this other stuff?'. So I did. I went over there and I think I played on three tracks and messed around on various other things. But it worked out pretty well, as far as I can tell. And it's very strange 'cause most of the Guns N' Roses people are not there 'cause Axl's sacked 'em all. So you're talking about Axl and the 'new' Guns N' Roses but, boy, is there a lot of energy there and his singing is outrageous. There's some great tracks on it.

May 24th, 2000
Guitarist Says GN'R Album Is Still in Limbo
 
With the release of the song "Oh My God" on the End of Days soundtrack last November, Axl Rose fans had some hope that the fabled new Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy, might soon see the light of day. Better keep hoping.
"There's not a release date right now, not that I'm aware of," says Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck, who teamed with Rose for much of the album before quitting in frustration. "And I would know."

A publicity spokesperson at Interscope Records, GN'R's label, confirmed that the album does not currently appear on the schedule of upcoming releases for 2000, even as a title TBD (with release date "to be determined").

Finck laughs at a comparison to Brian Wilson's legendary Beach Boys album, Smile, and notes the similarities. (Wilson worked feverishly on the record throughout the mid-'60s but was never able to coherently complete it. It remains one of the great lost albums of rock.)

"Yeah," Finck chuckles. "It was great for a while, but then it became terribly frustrating not seeing anything completed because no lyrics were finished." Adding to the frustration was that Finck had passed on the chance to work with Trent Reznor on NIN's latest, The Fragile, in order to do the Rose sessions.

"It's one of the reasons I'm not there anymore. No one song was ever completed '” and I was there for two and a half years."

But even after working endlessly on the GN'R album, Finck is unable to speculate on how it's going to turn out.

"I'd helped write and arrange and recorded enough songs for several records," he says. "Honestly, we recorded so many different song ideas and completed so many different types of songs '” from quiet, very simple traditional piano songs to 16 stereo tracks of keyboard blur and everything in between."

But, he notes, "most of the stronger songs that ended up on A-lists when I was there were huge rock songs, built for the masses, really guitar-driven."

Finck has heard little since then from Rose, who is the only remaining member of the Guns N' Roses lineup after buying the rights to the name from former guitarist Slash.

"When he finishes the lyrics, I assume [the songs] are going to be released," Finck says. "I hope they turn out great. There's a lot of potential there."

- Mark Brown

October 30th, 2000
Guns N' Roses Make Buckethead, Robin Finck, & Bob Ezrin Official

Though no big secret, Guns N' Roses' management company, Big F.D., has officially confirmed that Buckethead and former Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck are handling noodling duties for the band.
The announcement came late Friday (Oct. 27), and also stated that Bob Ezrin -- best known for producing Pink Floyd's The Wall -- has signed on as A&R man for the project. While neither management nor Interscope has officially said so, Brain from Primus has been behind the kit since the departure of Josh Freese.

To recap, Finck originally left the unhappy NIN camp in late 1995 and joined GNR around 1997. Obviously unable to figure out which is the lesser of two evils, Finck then left GNR in August 1999 to re-join NIN for The Fragile tour only to return once again to Axl Rose & Co. in the past weeks.

Bay Area, twenty-something guitar prodigy Buckethead is best known for his avant-garde solo guitar albums and his eccentric stage look in which he's been known to wear masks or buckets on his head. His latest album is Giant Robot, which was released this August on Higher Octave.

A release date still hasn't been set for GNR's next album, the Roy Thomas Baker-produced Chinese Democracy, but a world tour is expected to rear its head in the summer of 2001. As previously reported, the band is slated for Rock in Rio in January. This will be GNR's first concert in seven years.

-- Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna