My two cents...

Axl mentioned issues with the label more than once. Pay attention to how diplomatically he worded it in 2001, as opposed to the full-on assault on Universal after the album launch.

R&P: We know that Chinese Democracy will be released in June, but we wanted to know what the reasons are for taking so long before releasing the album?

Axl: We hadn't written songs or recorded for many years. There were band changes and there were many changes in the record company. People in the record company had many opinions and they wanted to make the best possible record. Every time that we thought that we had the correct songs, then somebody thought that we could make it better. We started over, we continued adding songs, continued recording and recording.

- http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/arti … ticleid=38

To provide context, GnR was THE biggest artist of the 90s at Geffen, hands down. The company had gone through a tumultuous latter half of the decade, and everybody was hoping CD would come out and be a UYI level hit, which would improve their overall financial situation. This is why Axl got a blank check to do anything he wanted... until they realized that another blues-based rock album simply wasn't in the cards.

Also, Tommy has suggested many times the songs, as such, had been completed to a degree for a while.

"We did most of the music as a total collaborative effort a while back, most of the music was recorded four years ago. In the last seven years, in the last four years, [between 1998-2001]  it's been pretty much done. [...] It's been through a couple of producers' hands, some have been good, some have been bad." (Tommy, Rhinocast, 01/16/06)"

Axl has two-three albums worth of material, sure. But Universal had a hard time accepting this is what he wanted to release and a lot of money went into polishing turds and making well-honed songs sound incoherent. On one end, you have Axl with his insecurities, on another, a desperate label, dying to have him deliver a hit.

No wonder these things take forever.

Agree with Bri on Minnemann, Mangini and, well, Bucket, but I digress.

What's with the hyperbole? The rest of DT were actually doing a decent job at this media frenzy before they started releasing those overblown, syrup-laced audition tapes. If they're trying to reach out to the fans, A for effort, but they're so transparent it's laughable.

Do their hardcores actually buy that?

With Guns, expect a 2-3 month window for pre-sales. Hence, no dates in the foreseeable future before July at the moment. What can be read in no uncertain terms from Ashba's comment, is that pre-RIR dates are to be expected. US or not, who knows.

The last Euro tour aside, I'd expect Guns to do something like this in the US; http://spacelabmagazine.typepad.com/hap … tival.html

The Azoff conundrum may indeed be a problem, as Axl had his bouts with ClearChannel following the 02 tour, and while their promotion aspect was since separated into Live Nation, that company is now in the hands of good old Irving. Event appearances like Sturgis are a short-term solution to route around the problem.

As for the new songs, Axl likes to get bits and pieces recorded by individual members, listen them up and pass initial judgment based on that. This has been the process since 1990 at least.

My guesstimate is some dates to be announced by June/July, with the album in the cards for 2012 (at the very earliest). This situation is so close to the cancelled RIR-Lisboa appearance in 2004 it's not even funny (and by that I mean the date being booked well beforehand & a Euro tour planned around it. Hopefully no-one quits this time around, or we get two more years of naught).

Insecure and flaky, sure.

That qualifies the 'stuck' part, I think. He's certainly boneheaded to have stuck with the band name, franchise and legacy, which, obviously, have proven to be one big two-edged sword any given day.

He could've delivered the album faster, if only his inner circle would've been more professional around him. Irving Azoff was great news, if only for the reason that the album did get released in his time.

Naturally, the album was two years late, because the pre-release was celebrated with a US tour in 2006. Merck's words in 2006 still come true. People still walk into Best Buys and found CDs there. In the bargain bin. The vinyl edition still comes with inner groove distortion.

These are just a few examples of events to which GNR has been linked to in the past decade. Not saying it's always and directly the bands fault, by they get more things thrown out the window than their peers (Metallica, for example).

There's a bit of perfectionism in Axl doing the Rocket Queen backing tapes in the studio, there's more obsession in doing the umpteenth orchestration instrument for November Rain.

His organization contributes, because he needs to be pretty isolated from the world in order to fully gain the drive he's after. Those manic performances dont come cheap, you know.