Sounds good. It's going to be interesting to see how Axl responds to the material live. It's one of his favourite bands and he's doing the replacement singer deal for the second time in his career - if we include the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. It's the equivalent of joining Guns to replace someone else - the songs are there and you need to step up to the plate to keep the machine going. Should be insightful to him in many ways.

Having said that, the dude's insane lucky, when it all comes down to it. People were glooming and dooming after the '02 tour cancellation and here he is, nigh 15 years down the line, doing on a sideshow with AC/DC, the biggest rock act out there, having revved up his own wheels with Slash.

What can you say?

Robin Finck just added a new feather into his hat - he's in the cast of the series!

David Lynch is friends with Trent Reznor, which may explain how Robin landed an audition.

Again, Robin moves in the fringes of pop culture, seemingly care-free and dedicated at the same time.

The full story is something to the effect of Axl going Yoda with his hubris and Slash and Duff going Vader with their substance abuse. They all have their own accounts. They're looking back to a whirlwind of memories and are all barely at the same page.

Axl consulted his lawyers. How could he protect the assets of Guns? Well, they're in a three-way partnership as it is. He could pull the usual of US corporate legislation - run the company down behind a facade. All you lose are shareholders. You simply take the assets away and a three-way partnership turns into a sole propietor. To accomplish this, he would need the name - who'd control the name, would control the company.

Axl indeed cares very little for money against his art. The lawyers made his bidding in a cutthroat fashion, as that's the legal loophole. Whether Axl completely understood the emotional consequences of his actions, we can only wonder. But he may have indeed been naive in his desire to protect the band assets.

Tom Zutaut was probably the first to confirm there was an incident around the name.

They were in a bad place to begin with. Axl ran the show and everybody was on his clock already. He wanted papers to be signed. Or he'd get mad. Everybody in the UYI crew must've known that the worst thing that can happen is Axl getting mad - that spells 'no-show'.

Everybody but Axl were intimidated. He held the power and unwittingly abused it.

Damn straight. They could've otherwise fired your arse afterwards.

However, Axl fails to address the timing of the partnership rundown, after the Snakepit tour in late '95.

Now, the point here is that Duff was already in good health, recovering from his swollen pancreas and leading a healthy life like Axl. On the outset, Slash was active as a musician, spending the Guns downtime wisely by doing his own thing. It's doubtful he was as chronically and wholly wasted with Snakepit as he was during the UYI tour.

Maybe it in itself was a disciplinary action from Axl's perspective. Slash taking (3-4) maybe-Guns songs, recording them on his own, badmouthing Axl in the press and touring the world. The rascal.

That's when Slash and Duff became contracted employees. That's the other half of the coin, an arduous legal process by its own right. They worked on the '96 album somewhat. Duff and Matt were touring with Neurotic Outsiders on the side. Slash quit, during his trial period.

Axl may have a point, here. Certainly, Slash only opened up in the media about the name after he resigned, in January '97. People pointed out to him how he should've exercised his right as 1/3 shareholder to contest Axl's demands, or at least to ask for money.

Only, Slash and Duff gave it to Axl for nothing. Duff later mentioned he took business classes after Guns so he'd be able to go through the books from the UYI era, to see if anything was amiss. Apparently, they did check out. Duff must've gone through hell with them numbers.

After Slash opened up to the media with his version, the story escalated slowly and they ended up heading up to the courthouse a few times.

I can imagine after reading the depositions, the court was just as baffled as the rest of us.

The biggest band in the world was given away.

Dougie had Axl to handle, and the rest of the band. Based on all we've heard, it's something of a miracle they pulled through with the UYI tour. The dangers were constant, from down to the wire contract negotiations to Izzy leaving, to late starts, riots and lawsuits.