carlossacanell wrote:

I remember The General had a lot of mentions and Axl or other members talked about it. Can anyone remind me what they said and what we know about the song, please? Cause i remember there was a part of OPERA in the song or something like that... but i´m confused

"GN'R was sort of just work for hire . I met with Axl and he played me these songs, asked me my ideas about them, and I told him what I thought they needed. They gave me four songs to orchestrate. A song called  'Seven,' which is the one I actually wrote a guitar part on. There was one called 'Thyme,' one called 'The  General,' one called 'Leave Me Alone.'" (Marco Beltrami, IGN, 07/20/03) he worked on the songs in  October of 2002.

“One of my favorite songs - I asked axl if I could mention the song titles and he said "fine"--and one of my favorite songs is this song called "the general" which is so, it's by far the heaviest metal tune I think i've ever heard axl do, this slow grinding riff with these high piercing vocals, screaming vocals. I was like , when is this coming out? and he said "2012" I was like dude, you're killing me! He goes, "well this comes out on the third record. it relates to this song, it's a trilogy, this goes with this lyrically." he's got it all figured out, he's just different than other people. he does things in his own time, in his own way, but you know...the worlds not prepared for what i've heard from this guy. It's got the grandness and the epic-ness of November rain but with the snarl, the attitude of appetite. because the album that i've heard, a lot of the drumming is by brain, who plays so heavy and mean. it's really...grand is the word for it, but it’s still got that attitude.(Sebastian Bach Metal Edge Magazine 2007)

Umm... I don't know... last year Brain had this song called 'the General' that was really cool... and another  song called "we were lying [not sure if that's the name he said]" ... I don't know. (Dizzy Reed, Sp1at, January 2006)

"Yes I wrote the general! Not sure if bucket or robin are on it... It will have to be a surprise!!! (Brain)

"You may have heard parts of it somewhere".(Axl Rose, chinesedemocracy.com, Dec. 2008)

The band played a gig in Vienna in 2010. After the show there was a party at The Box in Vienna, this was covered for Fashion TV, who filmed band members essentially promoting the channel and a line of drinks it seems to have/had, vodka ect.I don't know if money changed hands but it would seem that the channel/company laid on fancy cars, models and the club so that GN'R could uphold there side of things and promote Fashion TV. Axl mentioned "all these girls'' at the show so they were obviously in attendance there too.
Bumblefoot was actually sick for this show according to his facebook so the fact he was at the aftershow promoting this stuff indicates that he may have been contractually obliged to do so. In addition to Bumblefoot, Fortus, Ashba, Pittman, Ferrar, Stinson & Dizzy were there, so essentially the full lineup of the day with the exception of Axl. Who if he was there must not have wanted to appear on video.
Michel Adam Lisowski a Polish businessman is the President and sole owner of Fashion TV was seen partying with the band. At this show  unreleased songs were played on the sound system at the club. Among them was what seemed to be a complete sounding version of The General. This is where the cell phone clip of The General and Silworms came from.

The Opera thing is more than likely nonsense. I found on the wayback archive a few months ago the original place that started. It was said Sarah Brightman sang on the song, and that she was interviewed about it in Opera magazine in October 2003. I found a copy of the magazine and there's nothing in it.

I would recommend people to lower their expectations regarding The General

carlossacanell wrote:

From Spain there is nothing at Spotify

Its about 8pm Thursady there? Song doesn't come out untill the 18th