The Blues, TWAT, Catcher...

I would call them good fits to any Guns setlist.

Put it this way, it can hardly get worse than the 2011-14 era.
Axl out of depth. DJ in the band. Playing weddings and private shows.

I was a big CD supporter for a long time (with those '06-'07 top shows).
The myth, Axl the recluse studio rat, putting Brian Wilson into shame.

It came down to a Slash lookalike with Fat Elvis. A mockery of best intentions.
Still, Axl's got an uphill to climb. We'll see in Vegas how serious he is this time.

That's a great point, actually. Merck described it to a tee; if they get the deal, the album may get a bum's rush because of the nonexistent band / record company relationship. Axl would have to do his own promo.

I agree that the contracts were renewed, at some point, to all the way up to the 2014 residency.

In around April, in South America, Ron 'quit', according to a "confirmed source with the band." Curiously, this was when Duff was around. It's tempting to think Ron and Duff had a heart-to-heart, and Duff recalled the way he felt in '97. Ron would've seen Slash coming, anyway, and he had been chronically unhappy with Guns since 2011. He'd attempted suicide on tour, because of his back injury and the medication he was on.

In May, it was reported that Axl was putting the band on hiatus after the residency. This ties in with what Tommy said, they all 'left it in Vegas'. Axl and Duff had their own plans to hatch, and it was probably up in the air who would get the call, eventually. This was apparently all right with Tommy as well, as he had personal issues coming up that would possibly hinder his future touring with Guns.

In mid-June, Appetite for Democracy Blu-Ray, from the 2012 residency, is finally released. Two weeks later, DJ posts his letter and the source confirms Ron has also left the band. The band was on hiatus, so big deal. The Occam's Razor solution offered by many here is that both Ron and DJ simply accomodated the Blu-Ray release by announcing their exits after it hit.

They all left for their own reasons. With Ron and DJ, it was the lack of new songs and an album, along with the likelier undertaking to purge the CD vault. There's less to be gained in royalties by putting in a new guitar solo to a decade-old track. Also, Ron was up to here with Team Brazil and their irreverent attitude towards him as an employee / contract player, despite the many times he did more than his share to save the day. DJ, well. He had the album thing, too, but also, he was taking the heat, left, right and center. Deservedly so, to a degree.