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

[allwaystired]

A little more from the interview:


What ambitions do you still have left?

I'd like to do an album with this band. I have not written or played on an album that is legendary, you know, in my opinion. You know, I haven't done an "Appetite-record"... you know. I hope to do that someday, that'll be amazing.

Is he saying that Chidem sucks ?   

There is a space between "legendary" and "sucks".

I'm not so sure any album will be regarded as legendary anymore. Times have changed. A legendary album requires it to go beyond music-and I'm not so sure people care about music in the same way as the past. It's not so important in their lives now it's so easy to consume.

[zombux]

the album indeed IS legendary, mainly because it took so insanely long to complete, and all those complications related to it... hmm... see the link in my signature, if you haven't done so yet
from the purely artistic point of view, it's not THAT breaking through. yes, there are some moments which are great. then there are some moments which are meh. and of course a few moments which are awkward. as a whole, the album feels extremely inconsistent - and it really is, considering it's a patchwork, glued up together from probably thousands and thousands of pieces from a number of sessions with waaaaay way too many musicians.
on the other hand, not trying to say the album is a flop. no. it IS interesting to listen to, and some of the songs are my all-time favourite.
but it's just neither a revolution, nor a perfection, which was generally expected. just an attempt to move on and bury the past.
which, as we can see as of 2016-17, failed.

[Conan]

TBH I think that Axl would want to release something when the issue of being paid for his craft is resolved. The Bestbuy gig has burnt him badly, yes he got an assured sum, but the rest was meh!

Should something workable turn up, I'd image they would record an album, look to tour behind it and drop a few songs from the NITL set. But as things stand, they are touring to sold out stadiums, what HAS TO change? At this point I''d say fans expectations 

Indeed. Why I was told on this very forum only recently that even hoping as a fan that some new music emerges one day from my favourite musical artist, is more than I am allowed to do and because I did in fact dare to hope that a musical artist might want to break his previous record of 17 years between releasing some new original and properly recorded material, therefore GNR can't 'win.'

So all we have to do to be completely satisfied with GNR is hope for nothing and when we get it, be grateful for the nothing that we got...

[Spirit]

A little more from the interview:


What ambitions do you still have left?

I'd like to do an album with this band. I have not written or played on an album that is legendary, you know, in my opinion. You know, I haven't done an "Appetite-record"... you know. I hope to do that someday, that'll be amazing.

Is he saying that Chidem sucks ?   

There is a space between "legendary" and "sucks".

I'm not so sure any album will be regarded as legendary anymore. Times have changed. A legendary album requires it to go beyond music-and I'm not so sure people care about music in the same way as the past. It's not so important in their lives now it's so easy to consume.

I agree. The albums that are considered legendary have an insane amount of sales. It's almost impossible to achieve today.

Adele probably has the last record which made such impact.

[gunsbetterthanever]

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/guns-n-roses-possible-new-album/

[sofine11]

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/guns-n-roses-possible-new-album/

Stopped reading at "Guitarist Richard Fortus says..."

[JAEBALL]

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/guns-n-roses-possible-new-album/

Stopped reading at "Guitarist Richard Fortus says..."

 

Can't get too worked up by anything at this point... I am enjoying the ride too much.

I have followed Axl Rose long enough now to just not sweat the next release ... like at all.

My only hope is that the presence of Slash makes the label more willing and eager to meet Axl's requests and vice versa... whatever those might be.

[D-GenerationX]

I agree. The albums that are considered legendary have an insane amount of sales. It's almost impossible to achieve today.

Adele probably has the last record which made such impact.

Let's start small.  How about just having an album with a song or two that made an impact?

If you rounded up 10 random rock fans, put a gun to their head, and asked them to name a song from CD other than the title track (the obvious guess)...know what you'd have?

10 dead bodies.

[D-GenerationX]

Can't get too worked up by anything at this point... I am enjoying the ride too much.

100% agreed.  Past 2 years have been stellar. 

In October, I will be seeing Axl for the 3rd time in 15 months.  After seeing him once in the 25 years before that, and with a replacement band.

Life is good.

[allwaystired]

I agree. The albums that are considered legendary have an insane amount of sales. It's almost impossible to achieve today.

Adele probably has the last record which made such impact.

Let's start small.  How about just having an album with a song or two that made an impact?

If you rounded up 10 random rock fans, put a gun to their head, and asked them to name a song from CD other than the title track (the obvious guess)...know what you'd have?

10 dead bodies.

No matter how good Chinese is though, it was never going to be listened to by lots of people.

[D-GenerationX]

No matter how good Chinese is though, it was never going to be listened to by lots of people.

That's very true. 

Might have helped if Axl gave them a reason to do so.  You work 10 years on something, you expect a little more effort to put it over with the general public.  Not just some interet chats on fan boards and one interview with Billboard, months later.

The only thing I could never figure out was if he might have been more gung-ho had the band that actually recorded it was not already gone.  It had to take some sting out of the sales pitch dealing with the reality that all 3 guitarists and the drummer were already gone, some for years.

[TheBaconman]

No matter how good Chinese is though, it was never going to be listened to by lots of people.

That's very true. 

Might have helped if Axl gave them a reason to do so.  You work 10 years on something, you expect a little more effort to put it over with the general public.  Not just some interet chats on fan boards and one interview with Billboard, months later.

The only thing I could never figure out was if he might have been more gung-ho had the band that actually recorded it was not already gone.  It had to take some sting out of the sales pitch dealing with the reality that all 3 guitarists and the drummer were already gone, some for years.

That is very true and something I could. Ever figure out

Howvwr he did tour the album for years.  Really up until last year and every time they play a cd song live is some sorta promotion   

That or people have no clue what the song is or where it is from

It would. E nice if Axl went back to introducting songs with a little bit of what each song meant

For all I know "sorry' is written about dog poo and hard core  porn

[C0ma]

Howvwr he did tour the album for years.  Really up until last year and every time they play a cd song live is some sorta promotion   

The only tour that was heavily promoted as a Chinese Democracy World Tour though was in 2002 (6 years before it was released) and we all know how that started and ended. After that everything they did was a failure to promote the band and album... Dr. Pepper? Harley Davidson?

That whole Sanctuary Group fiasco with Merck should be a Harvard Business study in how not to manage a band. If they focused on one or two of the most commercially viable tracks and flooded the market with them it would have maybe helped the album get some traction. The Rockband DLC wasn't enough, and throwing "If the World" during the credits of a shitty movie wasn't helpful.

ALSO as this past two years has shown, Slash also makes a difference. If something were to come out this time around I think it would fear much better with the general public than CD ever did.

[TheBaconman]

Howvwr he did tour the album for years.  Really up until last year and every time they play a cd song live is some sorta promotion   

The only tour that was heavily promoted as a Chinese Democracy World Tour though was in 2002 (6 years before it was released) and we all know how that started and ended. After that everything they did was a failure to promote the band and album... Dr. Pepper? Harley Davidson?

That whole Sanctuary Group fiasco with Merck should be a Harvard Business study in how not to manage a band. If they focused on one or two of the most commercially viable tracks and flooded the market with them it would have maybe helped the album get some traction. The Rockband DLC wasn't enough, and throwing "If the World" during the credits of a shitty movie wasn't helpful.

ALSO as this past two years has shown, Slash also makes a difference. If something were to come out this time around I think it would fear much better with the general public than CD ever did.

To a lot of people it's like the past 20 years never happens with gnr

And give Slash a ton of credit

Durring those 20 years he was out building his barns up huge.  Where he is almost associated with gnr as much as Axl is

[D-GenerationX]

"It's the most anticipated album EVER!  All the intrgue alone, it SELLS ITSELF!!"

This was such flawed god damn thinking.

This was all but launching a new band.  A whole LOT of work was going to be required from Axl.  But he does so starting out with one of the most identifiable names in the business, and a built in catalog of hits people alreayd loved.  It was like starting the at bat on third base...with, a healthy lead.

But you gotta sell that shit.  Sell people why this is cool.  Tell them how excited you are about <insert new member here>  Tell people how excited you are to work with <insert new member here>.  Talk about how <insert new song here> and <insert new song here> is some of your best work.  Get people excited about your enterprise.  Any question about the old band or the break-up, you deflect, and re-iterate how excited you are about the band's present and future.

I just don't know if that works in 2008.  Maybe it doens't work in 2002 either, but at least that was the band that created the material.

Selling replacments were already a tough ask.  Selling the replacments for the replacements, that skipped over an "era" most people don't know was even a thing?

Maybe no one can sell that. 

But don't you give it a go, at least?

[TheBaconman]

"It's the most anticipated album EVER!  All the intrgue alone, it SELLS ITSELF!!"

This was such flawed god damn thinking.

This was all but launching a new band.  A whole LOT of work was going to be required from Axl.  But he does so starting out with one of the most identifiable names in the business, and a built in catalog of hits people alreayd loved.  It was like starting the at bat on third base...with, a healthy lead.

But you gotta sell that shit.  Sell people why this is cool.  Tell them how excited you are about <insert new member here>  Tell people how excited you are to work with <insert new member here>.  Talk about how <insert new song here> and <insert new song here> is some of your best work.  Get people excited about your enterprise.  Any question about the old band or the break-up, you deflect, and re-iterate how excited you are about the band's present and future.

I just don't know if that works in 2008.  Maybe it doens't work in 2002 either, but at least that was the band that created the material.

Selling replacments were already a tough ask.  Selling the replacments for the replacements, that skipped over an "era" most people don't know was even a thing?

Maybe no one can sell that. 

But don't you give it a go, at least?

2001-2 was the money years

Does it matter any more though

Axl gets all his songs and can play them any time

And has made his money 20 times over since this reunion

[D-GenerationX]

Oh yeah.

He was already set for life, but now he's REALLY set for life after these 2 years.

I just think it's great to see him actually having fun onstage.  The money is amazing, to be sure, but having fun with it has to help.

[Spirit]

Oh yeah.

He was already set for life, but now he's REALLY set for life after these 2 years.

I just think it's great to see him actually having fun onstage.  The money is amazing, to be sure, but having fun with it has to help.

I wonder if this past year's success will affect Axl's approach to releasing a new album.

What I mean is, the financial incentive is practically non-existent at this point. On one hand, that could be an instance of "why bother then". Another case would be him having fun, maybe wanting to create and go more on a gut feeling with the music. Maybe we'll see an album closer to Appetite, in the sense of writing songs in the spur of the moment and then having one- or two-take tracks.

[raindog]

No matter how good Chinese is though, it was never going to be listened to by lots of people.

That's very true. 

Might have helped if Axl gave them a reason to do so.  You work 10 years on something, you expect a little more effort to put it over with the general public.  Not just some interet chats on fan boards and one interview with Billboard, months later.

The only thing I could never figure out was if he might have been more gung-ho had the band that actually recorded it was not already gone.  It had to take some sting out of the sales pitch dealing with the reality that all 3 guitarists and the drummer were already gone, some for years.

That is very true and something I could. Ever figure out

Howvwr he did tour the album for years.  Really up until last year and every time they play a cd song live is some sorta promotion   

That or people have no clue what the song is or where it is from

It would. E nice if Axl went back to introducting songs with a little bit of what each song meant

For all I know "sorry' is written about dog poo and hard core  porn

Sounds more like the kind of song Duff would have come up with around the time of Cornshucker.

[GNR4LIFEJD]

Let's all look at this logically. Let's all assume whatever material from the early to mid 2000's that led to the creation of chinese democracy was probably mostly made from guys like Axl, Robin, Dizzy maybe Buckethead. Any material that was left of CD was probably intended for future albums but once guys started leaving like robin and bucket and then BBF and Ashba and whatever they may have tried to add to CD material just never transpired.

Now your Axl you bring back Slash and duff so you scrap whatever was made in those early years and you start over thats why if you go by Richards comments about playing around with things its not hard to fathom that that is the case. Im sure the major thing Axl, Slash and Duff have discussed is what type of direction they want to go in terms of sound for the band. We know Axl has always tried to grow in sound Slash & Duff have stayed more to old school gnr type of sound. They might be trying to find a mix that works for all 3 that they all feel proud of. Only time will tell if this is happening at all. If not then this is probably more towards the end of the line for the GNR brand name because you don't go back from this when it comes to who plays in the band.