That could be Tidus Sloan, the instrumental band Slash played with in '81-'83. They never found a singer.

In 1983, Tracii Guns introduced Chris Weber to a friend of his, Izzy Stradlin. Weber and Izzy hit off and start writing music. Izzy suggests his old Lafayette chum / garage band singer, Bill Rose, as the vocalist. Bill was just coming off Rapidfire, his first serious effort to front a band in LA.

The group lacked a name. Bill suggested AXL, and they went with it for a while. Then, Bill thought the name was cool and adopted it as his stage name. Conveniently, the band was then named Rose. Now, Bill was Axl and AXL was Rose. They blew it up to Hollywood Rose and stuck with it.

While this is going on, Slash and Steven are in a band called Road Crew, doing some UK shows to boot. Slash would join a band called Black Sheep with vocalist Willie Basse, who apparently had a knack for picking up promising guitarists.

During a show in 1984, Axl collides with the headstock of Weber's guitar. Furious, Axl fires Weber. To substitute, Axl'd hire the guitar player from Road Crew, Slash. Izzy was so flustered about Weber that he left the group as Slash came in. Riding his coattails, Steven also joined the band at this point, replacing drummer Johnny Kreis.

This is one possibility wherein Slash could've showed off a Tidus Sloan tape. If so, he would've known already that they could do better together than Hollywood Rose.

That lasted for a few months. His second time around as a frontman, Axl had alienated the other founding members and taken the band name for himself. 'Where's Izzy?' was already a relevant question. The band calls it a day after opening for the Christian metal band, Stryper. Slash performed double-duty that night, also appearing with Black Sheep.

About a month later, Axl re-emerges as the new vocalist of LA Guns, which also featured Tracii Guns, Ole Belch and Rob Gardner. Izzy's new band, London, plays on the same bill. Cue New Year's Eve 1985. Axl resurrects Hollywood Rose with Izzy and Weber, Slash's HR-era bassist Steve Darrow and LA Guns drummer Gardner.

Weber moves to New York City, leaving the band perhaps more amicably this time around. He is soon replaced by Tracii Guns. With a sleight of hand, Axl has made amends towards Weber and Izzy - and lured his LA Guns employer into his own band.

In early '85, Road Crew were auditioning for players. One day, two Seattle punks walked in, Gregg Gilmore and Duff McKagan. Gilmore would return to Seattle after a few rehearsals, but Duff stuck around. The backbone of AFD were getting along.

Meanwhle, Axl's Hollywood Rose project is moulding up. He'd later insist he had the new name at the back of his head before hooking up with the others. Tracii recalls the story differently: Axl was about to be fired by the manager of LA Guns. He and Tracii came up with the new name as way to put out singles together.

In any case, it does look like a mesh of his and Tracii's names, signalling a balance of power between the two. Having said that, Guns N' Roses makes for an impressive band name. At least, moreso than Heads of Amazon or AIDS.

Steven Darrow has by now been replaced by LA Guns bassist Ole Belch. The lineup is essentially the latest LA Guns incarnation with Izzy. They last for about four shows in March-April '85. At this point, Belch was fired. He was replaced by that Road Crew bassist, Duff.

In the following month, Tracii Guns would miss a rehearsal and get into an argument with Axl. Tracii leaves the band. To substitute, Axl'd hire the guitar player from Road Crew, Slash. Riding his coattails, Steven also joined the band at this point, replacing drummer Rob Gardner.

Axl's detour with LA Guns had now been all but erased. Slash had picked Guns over his other band, Black Sheep. He was saving Axl's band the second time in a row.  But Axl would always be wary around his lead guitarists.

True, that.

This is why Axl blew his lid on the CD release.

Axl was asking up the label about this in Feb 2004 (or earlier) is a curious notion, btw. That's Geffen had decided to 'fuck this headache' and suspended funding. Merck would later acknowledge the label bothered little with Guns prior to a contract re-negotiation and a mastered album. They equally failed to do much afterwards - on the other hand, the choice of singles was poor and Axl failed to do any videos or pre-release promo.

Slash and Duff would be a huge asset in this regard. They would know to ask for a fair deal for their services, as Axl owns Guns and is, by default, the most significant beneficiary with a new album. That's an internal issue they would need to look into - how to divide profits from the next album? Would Slash and Duff become junior shareholders, equal partners, or how would they suss it out? Axl knows that the money issue needs to be dealt with before they can readily announce any collaborations. Also, in consequence, Guns may ask for additional monies from the label to compensate.

Surely the first step in the reformation was to see how it goes. Pitman left, and there was likely a lot more to it than a few tweets. He either resigned in spite or was fired by Axl. Go figure, but new music was low on the priority list. Instead of a band coming together from a hiatus, this was about revisiting a 20-year-old acrimonious split. Coachella and the assorted dates were set up for them to placate promoters to take the plunge. Now, they're paying back in spades.

I would guess new music for next summer, somehow.  They need to feed the machine to keep touring.