2021.10.22 - Audacy Music - Interview with Slash

Not surprising. I always found it unlikely they would ever write new music together. I am just happy Slash and Duff are willing to add their parts to old Axl songs. Bring on Soul Monster, Quick Song and The General!

Indeed not surprising but completely disheartening.

Is Axl so different from every other functioning musician in the planet that he will not get in a room with his band mates to write music?

Is he too good for that?

Or can't he do that anymore because his musical abilities are not functional anymore?

Sadly, it appears that the root of all things that turned Guns n' Roses into a joke band remains unchanged: Axl Rose.

Axl Rose clearly has no idea of what made Guns n' Roses be Guns n' Roses. It was the collaborative effort of five individuals. It was a band. Not his band.

I don't think that Guns n' Roses will ever be Guns n' Roses again (for the good or for the bad) if people that are in the band accept this insane notion that it is Axl's band.

That's one of the main reasons why Izzy left and that's also very likely one of the main reasons why he never returned.

I don't think that Izzy is willing to put up with this Axl insanity.

I actually thought Slash and the blonde businessman wouldn't put up with this sort of nonsense too, due to what they said in interviews for nearly two decades (1996-2016), but I was clearly wrong.

Maybe $omething changed?

I hope they re-record all these old Axl songs and release them all and that after that they can get Izzy back and be a band -- Guns n' Roses -- again.

I am afraid there is not enough years for that though

ludurigan wrote:Indeed not surprising but completely disheartening.

Is Axl so different from every other functioning musician in the planet that he will not get in a room with his band mates to write music?

Is he too good for that?

I think he is pretty different but whether he thinks he is too good to make music with other musicians? I don't think so. But I don't know the guy. He was clearly interested in making music with other people during the late 90s and early 00s. Maybe he doesn't want to do it any more or maybe he just doesn't want to make new songs from scratch with Slash and Duff because he either wants to get the rest of the CD songs out first, or because he doesn't believe the three of them could make the right kind of songs? Also don't forget that Axl has moved away from Appetite, and the kind of bland rock Slash makes, many, many years ago.

Soulmonster wrote: I think he is pretty different but whether he thinks he is too good to make music with other musicians? I don't think so.

Yeah he is pretty different for sure and that is brilliant, that is part off the reason he is (was?) so great. But why doesn't he get in a room and make new songs? It is either because he doesn't want to or because he can't, right? Or both?

Soulmonster wrote: He was clearly interested in making music with other people during the late 90s and early 00s.

That can be true but sometimes I think it is not. Sometimes it seems to me that Axl was actually more interested in making a statement, which roughly can be described as "proving the world that I am Guns n' Roses and I don't need those guys to make great music". And he obviously needed other people for that, because he is not capable to write and record music by himself. So it served him to have other people around him at the time, the same way it served him to have the GNR guys when he was younger and wanted to "make it" in the music business.

Soulmonster wrote: Maybe he doesn't want to do it any more

Could be. I think it is either that -- he doesn't want to do it any more -- or he actually can't do it any more.

Soulmonster wrote: or maybe he just doesn't want to make new songs from scratch with Slash and Duff because he either wants to get the rest of the CD songs out first

Could be. And that somehow would be good news because if they are gonna do that "first" then it means they are gonna do something else "later" (which I hope involves Izzy). If that is the case I hope they can speed up the process because if they keep going at this extremely slow pace then I am afraid we are not gonna live long enough to see that "first" thing completed during our lifetimes -- unless someone finds a way for us to live 300 years.

Soulmonster wrote:...or because he doesn't believe the three of them could make the right kind of songs?

I think that could be the case. I actually think that Axl never really wanted to reunite with those guys and only did it to keep his cash cow alive. The shows from his last solo tour were not selling that many tickets and I think he felt the need to get Slash back to attract the audience again.

Soulmonster wrote: Also don't forget that Axl has moved away from Appetite

That is not really true, is it? Axl plays those songs every night and has been doing that since 2001.

Soulmonster wrote:... and the kind of bland rock Slash makes, many, many years ago.

Slash music is bland because he doesn't have someone like Izzy (meaning a good songwriter partner and/or a good producer) to give him proper "tracks" to play over. That's what Izzy gave to Slash and also to Axl in Guns n' Roses. He gave them the perfect rhythm tracks for they to add melodies on top of. Sometimes he even gave them the basic melodies and some or all of the lyrics, and apparently Axl was able to improve tremendously on those, specially on the vocal melodies. But back to what makes Slash music bland... Sometimes all you need is a good & simple chord progression, good dynamics, a good groove and good transitions. Slash keeps coming up with great riffs and ideas on each of his albums but they basically go nowhere (and sound really bland) because most of the time people writing with him can't actually build good songs around Slash riffs and ideas.

Sometimes it seems that Axl lost all the sense of having fun writing songs. Writing songs is fun -- or should be. It probably stops being fun when you take yourself so seriously that you need to come up with a masterpiece epic every time you write...

ludurigan wrote:

That is not really true, is it? Axl plays those songs every night and has been doing that since 2001.

I meant it in the sense that that is not the type of music he wants to make (or who knows, he hasn't talked about this in a long time). Having to play the songs live is something different.