Pitman Over Zig Zag?

[von]

If this is Dead Horse material, I'm sorry and please feel free to move it. Anyway, no big deal but something to think about. If we're supposed to be looking at this current lineup as an eight-man job, and we're assuming all those who have been touring with and seemingly presenting themselves as Guns N' Roses are in fact Guns N' Roses...why should we consider Chris Pitman an official member of the band while most do not do the same for Teddy "Zig Zag" Andreadis? I'm serious, especially until we have Chinese Democracy and can confirm whether or not Pitman's actually contributed anything of substance to the recordings. And I'm not bashing Pitman, I'm a fan and he's proven himself live. But so did Teddy, and yet he gets kinda shit on. So, that was my big question. Basically, what makes a member official or not?

By the way, I don't consider people like Tracii Guns, Rob Gardner, or Ole Beich members of Guns N' Roses. I think they helped contribute to what became Guns N' Roses, but I don't think there's any real way to justify them being considered ex-members of this same band, no matter what the name they were attached to was. Just to put that in perspective and put that out there...

[Chuzeville]

It seems to me that Teddy's part wasn't as creative as Chris'. No samples were involved back then, I'd say.

[Jim Bob]

bring back teddy zigzag.       its not gnr without him.   

but seriously, Pitman is an official member, it was known that zigzag was just a touring guy.

[snakepiter]

pitman is all high tech and zig zag was all rock & roll

[CheapJon]

why would axl introduce him as a band member at every single show if he wasn't a member... he never introduced teddy during UYI tour when he introduced the others in the band.. u must get what i mean, pitman is a member in a way zig-zag wasn't

[supaplex]

i'd rather have pitman over teddy just for madagascar only.

[Jim Bob]

i'd rather have pitman over teddy just for madagascar only.

agreed.  what pitman does in madagascar is pretty empowering. 

[Chris Axl]

Pitman > Zig-Zag

[ChrisPittman]

VH1 got Teddy on the Behind the Music Special, so I suppose you could call him a member of the band, and he was certainly more of a band member then any of the backup singers or the saxaphone player

Chris Pittman, on the other hand, is supposed to have written material with Axl for Chinese Democracy so if this is true we prob wouldnt have a GNR anymore without Chris

Oh, and Axl said thanks to Chris on the linear notes of Live Era, what for I dont know but he was obviously a big part of Axls life in some respect

In terms of style, Teddy gets my vote, but in terms of being an actual member of GNR its Pittman for me

[snakepiter]

zig zag wasn't gnr

[michaelvincent]

Teddy Zigzag was part of the overblown 'fat Elvis' era of GnR: lots of horns, backup singers, keyboards....it was Guns n' Vegas at that point.

[xCRASHxDiiETx]

Cuz suposidly pittman wrote some of the stuff, and live he is introduced as part of the band unlike Teddy Zig Zag, he was just introduced when played Bad Obsesion.

[erose]

i think it's an insult to compare pitman with teddy... pitman is very much gn'r wile teddy most sertanly was not.

like someone mentioned, pitman has written lots of stuff for and are one of the major creative forces behind CD while, as far as i know, all teddy ever did was to contribute some keys and harmonica to something that alredy existed and was mainly in the band for live purposes.

[thenextslash]

zig zag because i hate pitmans style i dont hate i just dont like it     

[thenextslash]

and the song tht pitman wrote was silkworms which i think sucked and pitmans just all high tech which sucks

[Naruto]

Ever heard of Madagascar?

Go give it a spin.

Chris does some amazing parts on the songs we've heard, I don't think that people notice that too often.

[Neemo]

zig zag can play the harmonica

haha pittman is the better musician IMO...he brings a new dimension to any band he is in