Could be true however Merk was very experienced even at that stage. By which I mean saying "it isn't up to Axl if that muse is present or not" is a quite slick way to acknowlegde that things may not be where they want them to be and yet also deftly deflects the blame from Axl, even painting him in a way to make people feel sorry for the guy.

I mean merck managed Morrissey that guy knew how to deal with difficult people, at least all the way up until he didn't.

TIL remix vocals sound possibly 2010'ish to me but who knows

Soul monster is only an instrumental in the sense that's how we have heard it from the locker leaks and probably how we think of it due to that.

In reality Axl said himself in the forum chats that it has vocals, that he recorded them around christmas and that there either "dark" or "heavy" (i forget the wording)

Oklahoma was on a setlist at some point in the early 2000's and I doubt it would be without vocals. Also in soundchecks last year they were running through a song that sounded quite like it, I can believe that it has vocals and that it may even be one of the songs Slash and Duff have recorded on.