"Next Album" rumor / speculation thread *UPDATE AUG 22/2023*

[D-GenerationX]

These guys have had so much success (and have so much money/fame) that it?s not about ?have to? anymore, it?s about want to.  Metallica doesn?t have to put out new music anymore, they want to.  GnR didn?t have to reunite?they wanted to.  IMO, there are no ?outside? impediments to new music (you think the label is pushing back on them anymore?).  It?s just a matter of want to.  And until they do, where left with what we?ve got (which is pretty fucking good, btw).

I'm thrilled with what we've gotten.

My sig is not flippant.  It's as real as it gets.  I absolutely love no longer having to pretend that the replacement line-ups were awesome and just as good.  I love how I don't have to say I am still a GNR fan in present day, but clarify that it was mostly based on their prime and not whatever the latest band aid line-up was.

I think, somewhere deep down, Axl was glad to be free of that too.

[saz]

Who's to say this wicked tour isn't part of a plan to get as many people pumped up about the band again, all over the world, then release an album? I'd say a high percentage of the people going to the shoes would buy a new album after seeing them live again or for the first time.
-my 2 cents

This tour is about making a shitload of money.

Ya that too, never said it wasn't smart guy

[saz]

Who's to say this wicked tour isn't part of a plan to get as many people pumped up about the band again, all over the world, then release an album? I'd say a high percentage of the people going to the shoes would buy a new album after seeing them live again or for the first time.
-my 2 cents

I'd be willing to stake everything I own on that not being the case.

I have a feeling you wouldn't lose a lot to make that statement

[jarmo]

I absolutely love no longer having to pretend that the replacement line-ups were awesome and just as good. 

I think most people here always knew what a fraud you were.... It was kinda obvious.
Yeah, your acting skills leave a lot to be desired.

It's possible to have enjoyed the whole ride instead of, like you, having to put down something..... Some of us have managed.




/jarmo

[D-GenerationX]

I absolutely love no longer having to pretend that the replacement line-ups were awesome and just as good. 

I think most people here always knew what a fraud you were.... It was kinda obvious.
Yeah, your acting skills leave a lot to be desired.

I tolerated it.  I never pretended otherwise.  Did anyone really need a decoder ring?

Said many, many times, word for word..."this is literally better than nothing".  Guns N' Roses in name only was better than no Guns N' Roses in any form.

But now...we can dispense with the tortured rationalizations.  When I said I was going to see them last year, no one made a face.  No one rolled their eyes.

I was finally seeing a legimate product after years of rocking a Folex.

[allwaystired]

I re-watched the Appetite For Democracy DVD the other night, for the first time since recent developments- and you know what? I absolutely loved every second of it. At no point watching it did I feel I was watching anything 'second best'. Different sure, but different in a good way.

[sofine11]

I re-watched the Appetite For Democracy DVD the other night, for the first time since recent developments- and you know what? I absolutely loved every second of it. At no point watching it did I feel I was watching anything 'second best'. Different sure, but different in a good way.

I don't think anyone could deny that each lineup post '93 were incredible musicians and great live performers.  To this day, I will always remember the 01-02 lineup fondly.  Those early days, going to the record store to buy bootlegs of RIR3 and hearing the new songs was just so cool. I'm forever a Buckethead & Robin Finck fan because of it.   DJ Ashba...not so much, but if you can't say anything nice........

In my mind, you can appreciate and revisit previous GNR lineups the same way you can look at an old VR or SMKC performance or album.  Nothing wrong with that.  With that said, none of that impressed me nearly as much as seeing Axl, Slash & Duff back where they belong...Together.  I've seen VR, Slash solo, & NuGNR live.  The classic GNR songs always got the loudest cheers, of course.  But the first time I saw Slash play the opening chords to SCOM with Axl back at his side last year, hard to explain how that felt to a longtime fan, but summed up I think the thought was "We're home."

[D-GenerationX]

But the first time I saw Slash play the opening chords to SCOM with Axl back at his side last year, hard to explain how that felt to a longtime fan, but summed up I think the thought was "We're home."

God damn right.

[TheBaconman]

But the first time I saw Slash play the opening chords to SCOM with Axl back at his side last year, hard to explain how that felt to a longtime fan, but summed up I think the thought was "We're home."

God damn right.

So eventually the

"I love this ".   "Slash makes everything better ". "This is my band "

Gets very old.   

I can totally understand why others have been bitter and would comment on my repetitive posts about my high expectaions for being a fan   How I think we as fans should have more   How I am just not satisfied with this currrnt touring show.  I get it.   I also get the fact the people don't like me always pointing out how week the fans at USA concerts are.  How they are more concerned about telling people on there facebooks and taking videos and telling people how great it it's   Other than just enjoying being in the moment.  Listening to the music and dancing.  I totally get when people get mad st reading how I complain about the 7 cover songs this band performs in a night.  How I as a fan want new original music played.  I get it

But

Yours and others countless meaningless posts about

"Finally I am not embarrassed to be a fan"   "Axl sounded good"

Get just as tiresome

[sofine11]

But the first time I saw Slash play the opening chords to SCOM with Axl back at his side last year, hard to explain how that felt to a longtime fan, but summed up I think the thought was "We're home."

God damn right.

So eventually the

"I love this ".   "Slash makes everything better ". "This is my band "

Gets very old.   

I can totally understand why others have been bitter and would comment on my repetitive posts about my high expectaions for being a fan   How I think we as fans should have more   How I am just not satisfied with this currrnt touring show.  I get it.   I also get the fact the people don't like me always pointing out how week the fans at USA concerts are.  How they are more concerned about telling people on there facebooks and taking videos and telling people how great it it's   Other than just enjoying being in the moment.  Listening to the music and dancing.  I totally get when people get mad st reading how I complain about the 7 cover songs this band performs in a night.  How I as a fan want new original music played.  I get it

But

Yours and others countless meaningless posts about

"Finally I am not embarrassed to be a fan"   "Axl sounded good"

Get just as tiresome

So you're annoyed that fans around here are still on cloud 9 because of the reunion?  Cool. Isn't incredibly rational/reasonable/etc., but cool. 

It seems like you simply just want what you want (new music) and you won't be happy until it lands in your hands.   Which is fine, but it makes me wonder if you were simply a fan of the Chinese Democracy lineup(s) and were never really psyched about the reunion to begin with.  I only say this because like 99.999% of your posts include some kind of gripe about the lack of new or original music, either in the setlist or in the form of a new album.   Which, again, is fine...But let's not pretend you're incredibly happy about Guns N' Roses in 2017, new album or not.

Side note: You also should probably get used to the fact that whatever form the next album may take, it more than likely will look/sound very little like what would have been Chinese Democracy II.  Just a hunch.

[D-GenerationX]

But the first time I saw Slash play the opening chords to SCOM with Axl back at his side last year, hard to explain how that felt to a longtime fan, but summed up I think the thought was "We're home."

God damn right.

So eventually the

"I love this ".   "Slash makes everything better ". "This is my band "

Gets very old.   

I can totally understand why others have been bitter and would comment on my repetitive posts about my high expectaions for being a fan   How I think we as fans should have more   How I am just not satisfied with this currrnt touring show.  I get it.   I also get the fact the people don't like me always pointing out how week the fans at USA concerts are.  How they are more concerned about telling people on there facebooks and taking videos and telling people how great it it's   Other than just enjoying being in the moment.  Listening to the music and dancing.  I totally get when people get mad st reading how I complain about the 7 cover songs this band performs in a night.  How I as a fan want new original music played.  I get it

But

Yours and others countless meaningless posts about

"Finally I am not embarrassed to be a fan"   "Axl sounded good"

Get just as tiresome

I never gave you any crap about that stuff.

The only things I weighed in on was your desire to see LALD and KOHD dropped from the setlist, because that's just living in fucking fantasyland.

[GypsySoul]

This quote by Tommy in this recent RollingStone interview makes me think that an album of new material isn't in the cards.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/how-tommy-stinson-moved-on-from-replacements-and-gnr-w458836

Incidentally, Stinson says there's a wealth of recordings Guns N' Roses made during his tenure that have yet to be released. "There's some stuff with lyrics, some without," he says. "We did a lot of stuff that was supposed to be on Chinese Democracy ? the record was meant to be more than one disc, but after spending so much time on it we just had to put an end to it. There's also stuff that was held over from [the original lineup] before they all disbanded, so there's some stuff that should someday see the light of day."

We all know Axl was not on board with Chinese Democracy being released when it was and that it was released 17 years after the prior new material release.

After the 1991 release of the UYI albums, Axl/GNR has given the fans new material via songs in movies and has brought new material directly to the fans by touring since Vegas 2001.

I'm guessing that for whatever reason, some time between 1991 and the 1993 release of TSI, Axl/GNR no longer wanted to be obligated to the contract holder for the remaining number of albums.  (I believe TSI and the subsequent releases were covers or compilations of previous released GNR songs, right?)

Tommy mentioned in that quote that "There's some stuff with lyrics, some without."  I take that to show that because of how CD was released, Axl/GNR didn't put studio-release-quality music & lyrics together so that this could not happen again.  (fool me once, shame on you.  fool me twice, shame on me.)

Again, all along Axl/GNR has brought the music directly to the fans and, IMO, this is how we will hear brand new/un-vaulted GNR songs in the not too distant future.

Looks to me that instead of releasing less-than-top-quality material under the GNR name just to fulfill that obligation to the contract holder, Axl chose giving the fans what a lot have been longing for and is touring with Slash n' Duff with the eventual performing live of new-to-the-fans music.

 

[sofine11]

This quote by Tommy in this recent RollingStone interview makes me think that an album of new material isn't in the cards.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/how-tommy-stinson-moved-on-from-replacements-and-gnr-w458836

Incidentally, Stinson says there's a wealth of recordings Guns N' Roses made during his tenure that have yet to be released. "There's some stuff with lyrics, some without," he says. "We did a lot of stuff that was supposed to be on Chinese Democracy ? the record was meant to be more than one disc, but after spending so much time on it we just had to put an end to it. There's also stuff that was held over from [the original lineup] before they all disbanded, so there's some stuff that should someday see the light of day."

We all know Axl was not on board with Chinese Democracy being released when it was and that it was released 17 years after the prior new material release.

After the 1991 release of the UYI albums, Axl/GNR has given the fans new material via songs in movies and has brought new material directly to the fans by touring since Vegas 2001.

I'm guessing that for whatever reason, some time between 1991 and the 1993 release of TSI, Axl/GNR no longer wanted to be obligated to the contract holder for the remaining number of albums.  (I believe TSI and the subsequent releases were covers or compilations of previous released GNR songs, right?)

Tommy mentioned in that quote that "There's some stuff with lyrics, some without."  I take that to show that because of how CD was released, Axl/GNR didn't put studio-release-quality music & lyrics together so that this could not happen again.  (fool me once, shame on you.  fool me twice, shame on me.)

Again, all along Axl/GNR has brought the music directly to the fans and, IMO, this is how we will hear brand new/un-vaulted GNR songs in the not too distant future.

Looks to me that instead of releasing less-than-top-quality material under the GNR name just to fulfill that obligation to the contract holder, Axl chose giving the fans what a lot have been longing for and is touring with Slash n' Duff with the eventual performing live of new-to-the-fans music.

 

I see what you're saying, however, to me these comments only reaffirm (at least in my mind) that should the spirit move Axl to put on another GNR record, he has enough stuff "in the can" to make it a relatively easy album to bang out/finish with the help of Slash and Duff (as well as Richard, Frank & Melissa).  Hell, they could still keep the vocals he's already recorded on tracks from '98-07, saving time that way.

But that's the caveat, isn't it?  Axl has to *want* it enough to make a new album a reality.  I've said before that after the success of this tour, I have to believe that he has the label/industry support this time that perhaps he was lacking with the Chinese Democracy lineup(s).  Again, it just takes the work necessary to make a release real.

[GypsySoul]

I see what you're saying, however, to me these comments only reaffirm (at least in my mind) that should the spirit move Axl to put on another GNR record, he has enough stuff "in the can" to make it a relatively easy album to bang out/finish with the help of Slash and Duff (as well as Richard, Frank & Melissa).  Hell, they could still keep the vocals he's already recorded on tracks from '98-07, saving time that way.

But that's the caveat, isn't it?  Axl has to *want* it enough to make a new album a reality.  I've said before that after the success of this tour, I have to believe that he has the label/industry support this time that perhaps he was lacking with the Chinese Democracy lineup(s).  Again, it just takes the work necessary to make a release real.

I (respectfully) disagree because IMO the issue is that - for a very very long time now - the way new albums are marketed.  Under the contract which GNR is still (supposedly) obligated, they would probably get nothing for any new material releases and the contract holder would probably "own" all the rights to that material.  (others here are far more knowledgeable about the legal aspect of these things)

With the emergence of things like iTunes (and piracy before that), established artists like GNR need to have that kind of control that back-in-the-day lead them to sign such contracts.  That's why IMO in today's world you have artists releasing their material either under their own label or through the newer more artist-friendly labels.

 

[Spirit]

I see what you're saying, however, to me these comments only reaffirm (at least in my mind) that should the spirit move Axl to put on another GNR record, he has enough stuff "in the can" to make it a relatively easy album to bang out/finish with the help of Slash and Duff (as well as Richard, Frank & Melissa).  Hell, they could still keep the vocals he's already recorded on tracks from '98-07, saving time that way.

But that's the caveat, isn't it?  Axl has to *want* it enough to make a new album a reality.  I've said before that after the success of this tour, I have to believe that he has the label/industry support this time that perhaps he was lacking with the Chinese Democracy lineup(s).  Again, it just takes the work necessary to make a release real.

I (respectfully) disagree because IMO the issue is that - for a very very long time now - the way new albums are marketed.  Under the contract which GNR is still (supposedly) obligated, they would probably get nothing for any new material releases and the contract holder would probably "own" all the rights to that material.  (others here are far more knowledgeable about the legal aspect of these things)

With the emergence of things like iTunes (and piracy before that), established artists like GNR need to have that kind of control that back-in-the-day lead them to sign such contracts.  That's why IMO in today's world you have artists releasing their material either under their own label or through the newer more artist-friendly labels.

 

A couple of years ago I completely agreed with what you're saying. Creative control was essential.

Now, with this tour, I would say that money isn't an issue any more. Ultimately, that's the advantage of having complete control of your own material, no middle men and more money for yourself. As for "integrity", or whatever one wants to call it, it seems they don't have any issues with their songs being used in movies, commercials etc. any more.

But I don't think you're correct by saying they won't get anything in terms of monies. They are probably just a little more restricted in making decisions when it comes to publishing.

[GypsySoul]

A couple of years ago I completely agreed with what you're saying. Creative control was essential.

Now, with this tour, I would say that money isn't an issue any more. Ultimately, that's the advantage of having complete control of your own material, no middle men and more money for yourself. As for "integrity", or whatever one wants to call it, it seems they don't have any issues with their songs being used in movies, commercials etc. any more.

But I don't think you're correct by saying they won't get anything in terms of monies. They are probably just a little more restricted in making decisions when it comes to publishing.

Not sure if you're replying to sofine11's post or mine but for my part I was not talking money.  Yes, money is always a part of any business equation but in this case I was talking more about (as you stated) "having complete control of your own material, no middle men..." for the sake of the "integrity" of what happens with your (as the artist) music.

For example:  Greatest Hits.  Axl and Slash n' Duff all opposed and tried to block the release of this album to no avail.

I think this was the beginning of Duff's - in all his business academia senses - understanding of Axl's attempts to regain the creative control and "integrity" of the GNR brand and legacy.  I'm sure they all knew the release of GH would bring each of them a shitload of money but that meant little to nothing in comparison of what they had given up in terms of control held by the contract holder (I use the term 'contract holder' because I don't know who exactly 'they' are.)  I think that when CD was released without Axl's approval, Duff had an epiphany on the dangers to the artist - any artist - when "complete control of your own material" is relinquished.

It's one thing if the artist agrees for their music to be used in movies/commercials/etc.  It's a whole 'nother deal when someone else has control over that decision.
 

[allwaystired]

There might also be an element of "fuck you" to this- a thinking of "what's the point labouring to produce a new album for years, making all the effort, only to be confronted by a load of people shouting for songs you wrote 30 years ago." That's got to hurt a bit- perhaps there's finally a bit of "you know what, fucking give them this, it's way easier for us, and let's have the money."

I hope not- but that situation is a possibility.

[D-GenerationX]

There might also be an element of "fuck you" to this- a thinking of "what's the point labouring to produce a new album for years, making all the effort, only to be confronted by a load of people shouting for songs you wrote 30 years ago." That's got to hurt a bit- perhaps there's finally a bit of "you know what, fucking give them this, it's way easier for us, and let's have the money."

I hope not- but that situation is a possibility.

Absoltuely think this plays at least some role.

The CD songs get the weakest reactions on this current tour.  You might chalk that up to a lot of people in that crowd that were either unimpressed with them, or never even gave them a chance int he first place, so they don't even know them.

A new Axl/Slash/Duff led effort of new songs would be better recieved, I think.  But I also think your point remains the salient one.  The majority of people buying tickets want to hear AFD and UYI stuff, and likely always will.

Also wonder, even if there was a new album, how many of those songs would be in the setlist?  Artists like U2 or Springsteen, if they put out a new album, you better damn well buy it and learn it.  They can play as many as 7 or 8 songs from the new album on that tour.

Would GNR do that?  Dunno.  But any new song would be added at the expense of dropping songs they already do.  So how many we talking?  2?  3?

[Spirit]

A couple of years ago I completely agreed with what you're saying. Creative control was essential.

Now, with this tour, I would say that money isn't an issue any more. Ultimately, that's the advantage of having complete control of your own material, no middle men and more money for yourself. As for "integrity", or whatever one wants to call it, it seems they don't have any issues with their songs being used in movies, commercials etc. any more.

But I don't think you're correct by saying they won't get anything in terms of monies. They are probably just a little more restricted in making decisions when it comes to publishing.

Not sure if you're replying to sofine11's post or mine but for my part I was not talking money.  Yes, money is always a part of any business equation but in this case I was talking more about (as you stated) "having complete control of your own material, no middle men..." for the sake of the "integrity" of what happens with your (as the artist) music.

For example:  Greatest Hits.  Axl and Slash n' Duff all opposed and tried to block the release of this album to no avail.

I think this was the beginning of Duff's - in all his business academia senses - understanding of Axl's attempts to regain the creative control and "integrity" of the GNR brand and legacy.  I'm sure they all knew the release of GH would bring each of them a shitload of money but that meant little to nothing in comparison of what they had given up in terms of control held by the contract holder (I use the term 'contract holder' because I don't know who exactly 'they' are.)  I think that when CD was released without Axl's approval, Duff had an epiphany on the dangers to the artist - any artist - when "complete control of your own material" is relinquished.

It's one thing if the artist agrees for their music to be used in movies/commercials/etc.  It's a whole 'nother deal when someone else has control over that decision.
 

But even under contract with a record company, they're not without power over their own music.

GN'R music was not being used in movies, commercials etc for years. Just because not all of the band members (Axl) would sign off on that. Black Hawk Down is an example, Axl refused to sign off WTTJ.

[D-GenerationX]

GN'R music was not being used in movies, commercials etc for years. Just because not all of the band members (Axl) would sign off on that. Black Hawk Down is an example, Axl refused to sign off WTTJ.

Was that the one where he was trying to sell them on a re-recorded WTTJ with his current line-up at that time?