Did Rock’s Anti-Hero Make Good?
You may remember a little band that went by the name of Guns N’ Roses. They were kind of a big deal from ’87(ish) ‘till…well…now. It’s been over a decade since we’ve heard anything new from them, but their catalogue of hits has never grown tiresome. Despite the passing years, “Welcome To The Jungle”, “November Rain”, “Paradise City” and many others have remained relevant and bad a$$ rock tracks!
While the band may have technically “died” when one of the key members, Slash, left in 1996, they were never forgotten, or given up on. Could that have had something to do with the promise of a sixth album?
Formed in the 80’s (1985, it’s dated) in Los Angeles, California, Guns N’ Roses was set to shake things up and become one of the biggest things to happen to Rock Music.
The original band line-up went like this; Axl Rose (vocals), Izzy Stradlin (rhythm guitar),Tracii Guns, Ole Bench (bass) and Rob Gardner (drums).
In what may have set a trend for GN’R, there was a line-up change early on. Tracii Guns walked out on the band and Ole Bench was soon to follow. This move no doubt angered the ever cool, calm and collected Axl, but it was a blessing in disguise as it allowed for the soon to be worldwide phenomenon known as Slash to come onboard. 
Shortly after this change, Duff McKagan replaced Ole Bench and Guns N’ Roses as most of us knew/ remember/loved them was formed.
The band went on to record and release five mega albums.
1987: Appetite for Destruction
1988: G N' R Lies
1991: Use Your Illusion I
1991: Use Your Illusion II
1993: "The Spaghetti Incident?"
They also went on to develop a reputation for being one of the most hard-partying, unreliable (thanks to Axl), and explosive bands to hit the charts. No one partied harder or lived the Rock ‘N Roll lifestyle like these boys did. But this lifestyle dies hard, as they soon realized. We all know what happened next; ego’s clashed, lifestyles changed and the band split, leaving some loose ends.
There were always mumblings of a “GN’R Masterpiece” that Axl held the rights to that would round out the Guns N’ Roses catalogue. Already named, the skeleton of a sixth album, Chinese Democracy, sat in progress, unfinished in a studio somewhere. This holy grail of albums caused much controversy. Being the final nail in the group’s coffin, it is said that this album was what finally broke the band into pieces. That Axl became a control freak creating major rifts between himself and the rest of the band. Despite the personal complications, the album was also a record company’s worst nightmare. Chinese Democracy was known to be an album that had racked up millions of dollars in recording-related debt. It had suffered numerous false starts, changes in direction, had featured numerous “guest” musicians and suffered leaked samples. Most of us had given up on this album, or had used it as the butt of many jokes, until recently.
In September 2008, ROCK BAND 2 for the X BOX 360 was released, featuring “Shackler’s Revenge”, a track off the famed Chinese Democracy. On October 9th, it was officially announced that Chinese Democracy will be released on November 23rd!
On October 16th, the band released confirmed track listings for the album on their website
1. Chinese Democracy
2. Scraped
3. Shackler's Revenge
4. Street Of Dreams (The Blues)
5. If The World
6. Better
7. This I Love
8. There Was A Time
9. Riad N' The Bedovins
10. Sorry
11. I.R.S.
12. Catcher
13. Madagascar
14. Prostitute
Axl Rose has some “new friends”, a new album and a promise of a revived career.
Tour Dates have been posted http://www.newgnr.com/newgnr.html and everything seems legit! Who would have thought that this album would ever be finished, that it would be released or that we would even care all these years later?
Axl better not let us down!!
The new G N’R looks like this; a warped Axl Rose, Dizzy Reid (keys), Robin Fink (guitar), Ron Thal aka Bumblefoot (guitar), Richard Fortus (rhythm guitarist), Tommy Stinson (bass), Frank Ferrer (drums) Chris Pitman (synth, keyboard).
I laugh when I see comments like, "it took him 15 years to come up with that riff?" No, look at the big picture, you'll see.
GnR hasn't released anything worthwhile since Izzy left the band, Most people don't realize that Izzy wrote or co-wrote with Axl most of the hit songs. (Patience for example was written entirely by Izzy).
As a GnR fan I will still buy this album...but it will never be like it was. No Izzy = not the same.