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- Topics: Active | Unanswered
- elevendayempire
- Rep: 96
Re: 2026 Tour Dates
The circus factor of the 2002 band could have worked. It clearly separated old from new. In contrast the 2012 band just looked like a pale version of the old band.
But Axl going for a new look was a mistake. He should have concentrated on looking like he did in the 90s, to create a strong impression of continuity. On the other hand I don't want to be too harsh because the record company really made things difficult for him when they refused to release the album. He spent years building GNR back up from scratch and put a lot of soul and heart into it then he just gets cock blocked by the suits at Interscope. Must have been embarrassing.
He made a last push for it in 2006, then after CD was released he just gave up. No more ambitions. Just a nostalgia band, and that's when the reunion started looking like a better deal.
The frustrating thing for me is that in retrospect the suits were kinda right to try and push for the reunion in the '00s, since plainly Slash and Duff clearly aren't averse to playing the sort of stuff that Axl was pushing for in the 90s/00s. As evidenced by the fact that they're playing Absurd, Nothin', Madagascar etc on the tours. There's a parallel universe where Axl and Slash reconciled in 2006, we got a Axl/Slash/Duff/Fortus/Frank/Pitman lineup back then, and they just… re-recorded the Chinese Democracy sessions and bashed out the album with that lineup. And we'd have got 2006-10-vintage Axl vocals on the reunion tour.
Re: 2026 Tour Dates
It’s hard to envision that universe given that their problems were mostly personal. They went from being a band to being an LLC in the early 90s. While that was probably a smart move business wise, it was the beginning of a meandering path that got us here.
It’s just sad that the most exciting thing we can do at this point is wish that things could’ve been different and fantasizing about alternative timelines.
