Pribek

More Guns N’ Roses stuff. Yeah, I know everywhere you look the big hype, the big push, the big sell is on. And, I’m just piling on, front running but, I couldn’t resist these bits from TimesOnline.

Just why did it take Axl Rose 14 years to deliver “Chinese Democracy”?

Deeply affected by the death of his mother, Sharon, from cancer, in 1996, and his collaborator West Arkeen, from a drug overdose, Rose also became a recluse, refusing to leave his Malibu mansion. He kept tanks of exotic spiders and reptiles for company, adopting bizarre disguises whenever he went out.

Well, anybody could understand a guy wanting to get away for a while, spend some time with the lizards and spiders after a series of traumatic events. That’s not crazy, just makes good sense.

All employees were required to sign confidentiality agreements containing stiff penalties if breached. They also had to submit a photograph of themselves which Rose would then offer to a personal guru, nicknamed Yoda by his road crew, for “psychic inspection” to reveal their true motives, strengths and weaknesses. Even photographs of an employee’s children were requested on occasion.

Photos for “psychic inspection” by a guru? Yeah, that’s a bit nuts.

When another new recruit, the bizarre guitarist Buckethead — so-named because he wore a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket on his head and hid behind a Friday the 13th mask — requested a chicken coop be built in the studio, stocked with live chickens, Rose accommodated him — until the singer’s pet wolf cubs got in there one night and feasted on them. Buckethead left soon afterwards.

Now Buckethead….

…..he’s a great guitar player, a fine musician, a top notch entertainer, a crowd pleaser, a show stopper but…he’s off his rocker. He wears a KFC bucket on his head. That’s a dead give away. The thing is, if you are the guy in charge, the ramrod, the band leader and you got a whacked out guitarist that wants to keep live chickens in the studio, for whatever reason then, it’s your responsibility to do the right thing and keep your wolf cubs away from the chickens. I mean, everybody knows that, right?

The record company authorised a further $1 million “incentive” payment to Rose, with the promise of another $1 million if he delivered a finished album by March 1999. The date came and went.

1999!!?? Woah! That’s when there was still a record business.

Err..yeah…the question was; “Just why did it take Axl Rose 14 years to deliver “Chinese Democracy”?”

Because, Axl Rose is nuts, bonkers, out to lunch, unbalanced, unhinged, silly, screwy, barmy, batty, berserk, half-baked, that’s why.

Guns N’ Roses’ manager Andy Gould said recently: “When they asked Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel, they didn’t say, ‘Can you do it in the fourth quarter?’ Great art sometimes takes time.”

And, so too are the people around him.

From Reuters.

Many have tried, but so far nobody has been able to pry the decade-in-the-works Guns N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy” from the hands of lone remaining original member Axl Rose.

Now, Dr Pepper thinks it’s up to the challenge. The soft drink company says it will give a free can of Dr Pepper to “everyone in America” (excluding ex-Guns members Slash and Buckethead) if “Chinese Democracy” arrives anytime during the calendar year 2008.

Rose responded on his band’s web site (http://www.gunsnroses.com) that the band was “surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr Pepper.”

You know sometimes a recording artist just has a hard time “letting go” of a project. Maybe Axl is having problems getting the liner notes together or, something like that.

C’mon Axl, I’ve been hearing about this record for ten years, I’d like to hear the record. Any record that takes that long; I want to hear it. And, I want a free Dr. Pepper too.

It will be the first album of fresh Guns N’ Roses material since the 1991 sets “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II.” Rose has reportedly burned through $13 million in recording expenses for “Chinese Democracy,” and also burned his bridges with the bandmates who helped him turn Guns into one of the biggest rock groups in the world by the early 1990s.

Woah! $13 Million is a lot of recording expenses. I could see how old Axl would be wanting to make sure that everything is just right with the release. After you already have 13 Mil into the thing, you don’t want to have some screw up with the artwork or, anything like that. Damn, $13 million-That’s remarkable.

Look at it this way Axl; You have sunk $13 million into the project but, Dr. Pepper is willing to make a huge commitment just to hear the thing. A free can of Dr. Pepper for “everyone in America”, do the math. At $5.00 a twelve pack and roughly 300 million people in America at any given time…Dr. Pepper is willing to shell out $99 MILLION! Just to hear a record! That, of course, is if everybody in America has a can, I mean everybody-Slash, Buckethead, Jeff Tweedy, Flavor Flav-everybody. So, it will probably be a little less than the $99 million but, still a big gesture on the part of DP.

So, whad’ya say Axl? Ready to throw a little Chinese Democracy our way?