Guns N' Roses, both past and present, were the most proliferate feuders of 2009. Here are some of the highlights! In February Axl Rose told Billboard that either he or Slash would have to die before the classic Guns N' Roses lineup would reunite. "In regards to Slash," he said, "I read a desperate fan's message about, 'What if one of us were to die, and looking back I had the possibility of a reunion now.' My thoughts are, 'Yeah, and while you're at the show your baby accidentally kicks a candle and burns your house down, killing himself and the rest of your family.' "Give me a f--king break. What's clear is that one of the two of us will die before a reunion and however sad, ugly, or unfortunate anyone views it, it is how it is. Those decisions were made a long time ago and reiterated year after year by one man. " more
Shortly afterwards, Axl told Del James: "I suppose (former bass player) Duff (McKagan) could play guitar on something somewhere but there's zero possibility of me having anything to do with Slash," Rose said. "In a nutshell, personally I consider him a cancer and better removed, avoided -- and the less anyone heard of him or his supporters the better." more
Steven Adler took every opportunity during the year to insure that the original lineup will never reunite with comments like: "If I could finish what I started with the GN'R guys, as a band, I know I could die happy. But I'm not gonna wait for him (Axl Rose). I waited and cried for decades, and no more. F**k him!"
And when asked to look back on his GNR days: "Oh, those were great days. It was a great time. It's a shame that Axl [Rose, GN'R singer] put me through all that ... he did. He likes to blame people, like everything's Slash's fault, that's why we're not going to do a reunion. What did Slash do? He didn't do anything." On Chinese Democracy, Adler said ""He should have called it 'WAR.' W-A-R. W. Axl Rose. It only went gold, and that's not Guns N' Roses. They go double platinum in the first week." more.
Adler was asked whether he is still hopeful of a GN'R reunion: "Axl is being a real selfish prick about it," he said. "Forget about the original band for a second. Axl's not thinking about the fans. The fans want a reunion desperately. It's really sad because we are all still alive and I know there's so many people that want to see us. I hope Axl gets it together soon while the fans still want it." more
Duff McKagan and Slash would go back to playing with their former Guns N' Roses bandmate Axl Rose before reteaming with former Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland according a Jam! report. McKagan says, "Some bad s**t happened at the end of the last Velvet Revolver tour. It was brutal... There were late gigs... I just wanted it to be over." more
On the other hand while other Guns N' Rosers were taking the low road, Duff took the high road when speaking with Classic Rock magazine: Classic Rock: What did you think of [the latest Guns N' Roses album] "Chinese Democracy"? McKagan: I was glad to hear Axl's [Rose] voice. I've always been a fan of his voice. He's one of the real ones. I'm in sort of a different position listening to that record, because I'm not listening to it for it to sound like anything I was part of, because I know it's not that. I think Axl sang his ass off. He made the record he wanted to make and I'm happy for him. I thought he did a great job." He goes on to discuss the possibility of the original GNR member reconciling here.
Josh Freese also couldn't be baited into trashing Axl: "Everyone always baits me to give them a crazy Axl story. I don't really have any," he told the online pub. "I spent two years in a studio with him [and] I never saw any mood swings. He was never not cool to me. So, I am always quick to defend the guy, even though I know his reality is different than mine. Then again, everyone has a different reality." more
Motley Crue's Vince Neil has slammed Axl Rose for letting the Guns N' Roses fans down. Guns N' Roses' latest album, "Chinese Democracy", the band's first since 1993's "The Spaghetti Incident", failed to live up to the hype its 10 years in the making generated. more
Song theft? A lawsuit alleges that Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses band members and album producers copied portions of two of Ulrich Schnauss' songs for the song "Riad N' the Bedouins" off of "Chinese Democracy" more.
The GNR camp quickly fired back: "The band vigorously contests these claims and intends to respond accordingly," said manager Irving Azoff. "The band believed when the record came out and still believes that there are no unauthorized samples on the track. The snippets of 'ambient noise' in question were provided by a member of the album's production team who has assured us that these few seconds of sound were obtained legitimately. Artists these days can't read the minds of those they collaborate with and therefore are unfortunately vulnerable to claims like this one. While the band resents the implication that they would ever use another artist's work improperly and are assessing possible counterclaims, they are confident this situation will be satisfactorily resolved." -
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