Producers are a very important part of the sound of the record. I cringe at the thought of Axl being the producer. He needs an individual to reign him in and make things coherent. Otherwise, you get a mixed bag of sounds and tones. Then, you end up with a jumbled mess like the Illusions. Moments of brilliance and moments of crap. Axl needs somebody to say "no". Personally, I would like to see Rick Rubin produce the record or Daniel Lanois. Only in my dreams....