Thanks to madagas for these Tommy comments, they should provide some fuel for the fire:

"Looking ahead, Stinson says the hope is to write new songs next year and move forward with GNR. " - Tommy, 12/01/11

"There's talk of doing some recording in the new year, getting some songs together. But that's just talk." - Tommy, 11/30/11

Tommy also hints to what appears to me as a re-release of CD, and if I'm reading it right, it could be a double album (as Axl has admitted to have intended) with the "new" old songs thrown in.

"There are songs left over from the "Chinese Democracy" sessions that are almost ready to go, he says, and could be polished up for potential release.

[...] He says Axl may not be completely finished with the record. "I think in his head there's still some stuff left to be done," Stinson says. "If what he wants to do happens, it could drag it out for awhile. But we'll see what happens."

[...] 'Who knows, maybe there will be Chinese Democracy 2,' Stinson says. 'Who knows?'"  - Tommy, 12/01/11

dear friends,

i want to make this opportunity to comment on gnr's recent withdrawal from the rock-in-lisbon festival. i was disappointed, as were the lot of us, to come to grips that we won't be performing there as anticipated. my bags have been packed for some time awaiting such an event. i'm chomping at the bit to get out and really shake things up with gnr and look forward to the release of the new album and ultimately to tour and to tour.

'til then - love, r ob i n

- HTGTH

We wrote and rehearsed and argued and laboriously recorded several records worth of musical material, which to the best of my knowledge Axl is still finishing. But my work was through. We had dozens of finished songs, as far as I was concerned, and we were waiting for Axl to complete the songs. - Robin, 2000

Robin's work on the next is done so there's not lots for him to do here except the elusive promo and he'd rather be on stage. - Axl, 2008

Do I see a pattern?

Guess he'll cancel the tour now that we dissed them, huh?

To me, Axl has always represented something like the last man out of a burning building.

The UYI's were the last big hard rock albums to stand against the Seattle movement, with an equally ambitious tour.

November Rain is considered among the last big videos of the Golden Age of MTV, and it sitll gets mentioned in the annals.

To me, CD itself and its making process provide a fitting metaphor to the record industry itself, with its insane production time and lucrative budget a daydream to any artist since.

I say since, because even if Michael Jackson's Invicible (amusingly, recorded simultaneously with the bulk of CD in 97-01) reportedly cost Epic/Sony BMG a whopping $30M, it was released seven years earlier.

But Ax seems to be the last man out to wave the flag under which he and his peers have marched. In his way, he's a blast from the past, but at best, a damn fine one.

If he's consistently as cool as that, one shouldn't wonder why he's been with Axl since the AFD days. Axl needs a level-headed, firmly rooted person on the other end of the line during shows. One who doesnt catch fire when Ax lashes up (either publicly or to the band mike).

I'd like to see guys like DJ, Stinson and Pitman do more video interviews. DJ because he knows how to promote the band, Stinson, for speaking his mind and Pitman, as he comes off nicely on the recent interviews I've seen him, and he'd be a good person to describe the overall sound of GNR, and all the levels of music that are going, both live and studio.