James wrote:

It's not too advanced for my ears....Prodigy was doing it better in 1995.

I can't speak for him but I always took it to mean advanced as in what we consider to be GNR.

Like AFD era GNR means raw guitars plugged into loud amps in the spirit of Aerosmith etc.

By UYI era Axl forced that to also include Elton John and Queen style music.

I think the plan was that it was to next include stuff like prodigy, NiN, and maybe a side order of Ice Cube or something.

But he knew it wasn't going to be an easy sell to the audience who likes them for what they did originally.

I remember in his talk about the 3 albums he was speaking that way too, of moving further and further away from the traditional sound each album.

But I mean without the original guys on board he was faced with a mamoth task to try and recreate one of the best bands in history, while changing it's style of music into an area that was both new and frankly not what the existing band was good at. So he's going to face push back from the original band, the label, the media and the fans for that.....all this while being a guy from a bad background, poor education, with his own mental health problems, in an industry of con men and thieves, junkies, and suddenly being one of the most famous people on the planet....

Is it any wonder that failed? It's just impossible. Bad idea all along I guess, but if thats what he wanted to do, that's what he wanted to do.

The real shame to me is that they could have sorted out their shit and moved on around 2004 - back when there was still some game left in everyone. A reunion back then and we may have seen a lot more music I think.