So my question is if someone would have told any of you back in 2000-2001 that it would be early 2007 and the album still would not be out would you be shocked, angry, thinking axl was missing and presumed dead.....would the future seem bleak knowing that all that time would pass and you still wouldn't have a new album from your favorite band....
Imagine meeting Axl on the backstage of the House of Blues on the 01/01/01 show. Axl would know the future events regarding the band to this day but would be unable to alter them.
- Axl, great show, man. When's the new album coming out?
- Well, it's supposed to be this year (2001), we're next heading out to RIR3...
- Right...
- But it won't be out. Actually, we'll disappear after RIR3.
- Uh?
- That's right. There'll be a summer tour, later a winter tour this year. Oh, and two nights at Vegas in the New Year.
- That sound fun...
- Yeah, but we'll cancel both tours and only do the Vegas dates. Publicly, we'll blame the manager.
- What about 2002?
- Well, we'll tour, sure... even appear at the VMA's, play a new track there, "Madagascar"...
- That's so cool! A surefire way to promote the album!
- Perhaps, but we're not going to release it anyway. Instead, we'll do a few Euro dates and cancel the US tour after the Garden...
- What the?! Why?
- No reason given; to you, anyway.
- 2003?
- Not there. Sorry, bud.
- 2004?
- We'll be booked to headline Rock In Rio-Lisboa...
- A full circle, sounds great!
- But Buckethead will quit and we'll cancel the whole thing.
- Oh, crap! Must be a bitch to release the album, while searching for a replacement.
- Doesn't matter really, the record company no longer gives us the money anyway.
- No for 2004? Not even a glimpse?
- Sorry, bud...
- 2005?
- What about 2005?
- 200...6?
- Oh, glad you asked. Finally, a couple of weeks before a full-blown Europe/US tour, we'll hire a new guitar player, Ron Thal. Meanwhile, some new tracks have leaked to the internet...
- Sweet!
- So we're obviously going to play some.
- That should get everybody excited about the album!
- Err... right, the album. See...
- Yes?
- We're all going to say "2006 is the year"...
- When it's not...
- You're damn skippy. We'll tour the entire year and just before Christmas I'll announce the tentative release date of March 6th, 2007.
- Yowza!
- Sorry, bud...