As usual, spot on John!

Bucket began work with Gnr in late 1999/early 2000 I believe... so, he may have already put his solos on twat, etc by summer 2001

Well, Axl is essentially the reason the record turned in to "a mish mash of instrumentation" as Tommy called it. Don't hang the mixing of that record and the ultimate finished product on the band members. Every note on that album had Axl's hands on it at some point.

I watched the 2001 RIO performance the other day...damn good for the first time those guys played live together at a real big event. That performance blows away the slick 3d dvd they just officially released. However, again, the Vegas show just highlighted how bad Axl sounds live now. He has his moments but overall the power is completely gone. My wife could not believe it. The band, again, kicked ass....the jams were tight, they put some cool spins on the classics. They rocked and Axl sounded horrific. He kept trying to go from Mickey to his lower register and it was pitchy as hell...middle register didn't exist except for a few moments.... Catcher in the Rye was cool and SOD....The Seeker (ha-it is good fuckers!).

Ok, I am rambling. I just get agitated when people dismiss the band. He has had TONS of talent around him. However, he was responsible for delivering the product...definitely not the band's fault for anything.

In the end, every one claims 2002 should have been the year to deliver the album. I now disagree. I think it should have been delivered after Rio in the summer of 2001 as the camp was alluding to in interviews around the time of Rio. Obviously, the more time went on, the more the album suffered as simply too many people became involved.

Here is the album I wish we would have gotten.....as always, thanks to Whispers...

Ever since 01/08/01, a week after the Vegas show and a week before the Rio performance, GNR had added European dates for the June tour itinerary.

"[The album] will be released in June or July. They already have 48 songs and the record company is selecting the material." (Beta Lebeis, Brazilian Journal, 03/12/01)

"Robin Finck shed some light on the groups (GnR's) upcoming plans. He stated that the new album, 'Chinese Democracy', is looking for a June release through Interscope [...] with a single hitting radio earlier in the Spring [...] while the band will be doing a European tour in May and June."  (Finck Tank, 03/03/01)

[...] 'I have heard the a leaked version of Chinese Democracy that had some really weird keyboards on it and I didn't like the sound of that at all,' [Zutaut says]. 'The stuff we worked on back in '01 smoked its ass.'" (Classic Rock, 04/08)

Tommy seems content.....Ron does not. I don't see their individual situation as being similar at all.

At this point, I don't really care who Axl plays with. He generally surrounds himself with talent. As I have stated in the past, since 1998, it is just a travelling Guns n Roses cabaret act ...taylor made for Vegas. I just watched that concert last night on OnDemand. So many mixed emotions, it was hard to watch.