I, too, feel it's a great Robin solo, and he's really unimitable there.

Much of CD's guitar work is frankly pretty atrocious, as it's cut-and-paste botch jobs. There's all this "incremental weaving" going on - try Catcher - which sounds exactly what it is when isolated. The mishmash of orchestration, as Tommy memorably put it,  does well to drown some of that into the wall of sound.

Mainstay problem; Axl lacked that strong lead guitar going in. Robin worked out well in TIL and some other places. Brians May and Carroll were  a bit restrained to work within structures that were already there. But the lead guitar, building organically into the songs, was apparently a tall order. The Bucket/Brain era songs are horses of very different color, to the point that Axl would've gotten a more cohesie record by releasing it as a double, with disc 1 having the Paul Huge tracks, and disc 2 featuring the BnB songwriting.

Who's shocked? The irony of it all is that Fortus' comments on 2016 being a big year for Guns were only picked up after the Slash interview - he could've practically confirmed CD2 was coming on such n' such date without anyone outside the forums batting an eye.

Axl must be fuming. Nigh 20 years of 'moving on' were instantly swept away from public memory by a few casual words from Slash.

It's funny. I recall from Duff's book that he started dating Susan Holmes around the time Slash left Guns, and they found out she was pregnant during the holiday season in late '96. Obviously, this meant a major priority shift in Duff's life and certainly contributed to his decision to leave Guns in the fall of '97, mere weeks prior to their firstborn showing up. Without it, Duff might have soldiered on with CD a bit further - and who knows how things would've turned out? He's likely happier this way, but it's interesting to look back and note the different factors that finally weighted in and broke the old band, one member at a time.

It's a matter of work clothes. Rock is a superficial genre of music in many ways, and if people are insecure enough to idolize a manic-depressive underachiever as a rock star, they need him to look the part. Ax got the looks down in the AFD era, but during the UYI tour, he certainly started going awkward with bicycle shorts and fur coats - at the same time. Fans lapped it up for the extravaganza, he could get away with it and he mostly did.

Axl himself was aware of the image way back in 1989.

Thus, it can be argued that Axl's attire represents his way of communicating his inner state during performances. Some artists may put up the stage clothes like a camouflage or a second skin. He's different in the sense that even if he has a continuing trend in sport jerseys or coats and tees (02 vs 06), it varies from show to show. I'll argue that even in 2002, Axl evidenced a degree of image-consciousness by having a variety of local jerseys per each show.

What can then be deduced by such fashion? There's the insecurity; putting up with layers of clothing to hide one's bodily shape. The crowd-pleasing, associating with their local sports heroes. The identity crisis, he certainly came across wondering who he was in that day and age, and how should he express that. It's as if he looked at the entertainment world around himself and had a serious issue with placing himself on the map anymore. "Just be yourself" is a tough advice to give him.

The biggest singular artistic push came in at about '98-'00. That was the Sean Beavan era. Axl was deadset in making the rock album and the EDM album. He took his time to allow the band to feel their way into it in the dark. Then, he recorded vocals and every time he did that, a GNR track was born. Granted, he was apparently went through a hideously dark period in life to reach the recording booth, and releasing the album(s) there and then would've been a major relief on a human level.

That's probably a fairly apt description. People who waited on the album, I mean, waited, were clinging to it like to an idol to fill a void in their existence in a religious fervor. Fair enough, but they would've been absolutely abhorred had Axl opened up on "the true, ongoing, behind-the-scenes triumphs and casualties" - such as Buckethead watching porn in his dog-shit-ridden chicken coop.

It has to be immensely taxing to go through all that knowing there's a vocal and highly anxious audience out there waiting to tear through the work. The same work that needs to be done without Slash, with a guy who wears a bucket and a mask and talks through a puppet. Then again, Axl's known to be a person who clamps down when everyone is out ta get him.

That was a tough ruling, actually - "I refuse to compromise with the band in regards to the album." Meaning, forcing his hand is bound to end in tears, which probably contributed to production personnel walking in and out like no tomorrow. It was likely an obstacle course in trying to pamper and coax Axl to make any progress.

Fortus was touring with Enrique Iglesias while he auditioned for Guns. He's a career musician first and an artisté second. He's like Frank and Dizzy, the ideal people Axl wants in his solo project. They'll show up on notice, are happy enough on retainer and work dutifully on whatever he wants.

And to be fair, most of the songs included had been written by the time Fortus showed up.

I hope he grew up.

I'd be perfectly happy with CD2 feat. those three songs - based on Slash's original riffs or something of the sorts - with Slash on guitar in them. It would, in my mind, close the circle in a redeeming fashion and bring the ChiDem saga to a more noble end than the BestBuy/Azoff conundrum.

Axl would need to get to at least 2010 shape to keep up with Slash in a live setting, tho. Anything less would be, well, embarrassing, remembering what could've been had they just grown up a bit sooner.