Axl's voice. Everything about it.

[C0ma]

Does anybody know if Axl still smokes? He was obviously a smoker back in the 80/90s. I haven't seen any photos of him in the last few years of him smoking so maybe he quit but pending on how long he did smoke maybe that had some long term effects when it comes to vocals. Completely speculating on my part.

I think he still smokes cigars, based on semi recent pictures, at least more recent than anything with a cigarette. If you've watched any recent Metallica videos, James has a sort of pre-show ritual where he smokes a cigar while prepping... and James' voice is arguably better now then ever before, so I would think that has much less impact than the cigarette smoking (on singing not on overall health).

[PermissionToLand]

It's often said that smoking creates a raspy voice, but I question whether that's actually true or just an old wives tale.

[ITARocker]

It's often said that smoking creates a raspy voice, but I question whether that's actually true or just an old wives tale.

I think It can affect vocal cords and general breathing so your voice sounds deeper and raspier because of the damage, the catarrh production and they heavy breathing. But we are talking about severe damage to the speaking voice and your breathing capabilities. When you have to sing it affects badly your breath sustain and power and the eventual rasp you can add with some technique it sounds more irregular and weak than powerful.

The main difference with cigarettes is that when u smoke cigars you don't inhale so it will affect mainly the upper part of the respiratory system, never forgetting in any case that the saliva still goes down to the stomach (creating gastric reflux). Another thing with cigars is that u don't chain smoke.

And don't underestimate alchol: spirits dry out the throat and create gastric reflux which damage vocal cords too.

[PermissionToLand]

I was watching a vocal coach react to Axl recently on Youtube and he said Axl was using falsetto for all the high notes, and that's why it sounds so quiet. He assumed Axl must have been doing that because he was recovering from a vocal injury or sickness.

[ITARocker]

I was watching a vocal coach react to Axl recently on Youtube and he said Axl was using falsetto for all the high notes, and that's why it sounds so quiet. He assumed Axl must have been doing that because he was recovering from a vocal injury or sickness.

Well, he's been using falsetto for at least 5 years and not only for high notes, as "perhaps" shows us. It's not a "recover", his voice is done. If he needed a recover i highly doubt he would keep touring forever. The ac dc thing probably destroyed his voice, and the sad part is that the ac dc fans didn't even appreciate it. And it's even sadder if you think he never pushed that hard for gnr in the new century.
He's unlucky that his falsetto is weak and not beautiful at all, cause many singers use it with good results. But you know, you can't change magically the timbre of your voice. You can see he's slimming down, doing something to help is general health (voice included) like in 2006. But 20 years has gone by, it's not going to work again, I think we are at the point of no return: It's not gettin better so the faster you get use to it the better.

[C0ma]

I was watching a vocal coach react to Axl recently on Youtube and he said Axl was using falsetto for all the high notes, and that's why it sounds so quiet. He assumed Axl must have been doing that because he was recovering from a vocal injury or sickness.

Well, he's been using falsetto for at least 5 years and not only for high notes, as "perhaps" shows us. It's not a "recover", his voice is done. If he needed a recover i highly doubt he would keep touring forever. The ac dc thing probably destroyed his voice, and the sad part is that the ac dc fans didn't even appreciate it. And it's even sadder if you think he never pushed that hard for gnr in the new century.
He's unlucky that his falsetto is weak and not beautiful at all, cause many singers use it with good results. But you know, you can't change magically the timbre of your voice. You can see he's slimming down, doing something to help is general health (voice included) like in 2006. But 20 years has gone by, it's not going to work again, I think we are at the point of no return: It's not gettin better so the faster you get use to it the better.

The in person experience certainly skews perspective slightly... however, I was at each of the last two Fenway Park shows in Boston. In this last one I thought some of his typically weaker songs sound much much better even in comparison to the live performance there in 2021. He has more power and there is more rasp in places and less 'Mickey Mouse'... NOW yes, the man is 61 and for years didn't really care for his instrument in the best way, so this is never going to be 1988 or even 2006 again, but take it for what it is... an AMAZING live show.

I need to look in the mirror on what I'm about to say because I was in the same 'camp'... in 2006 when he was in the best shape he'd been in years and was singing at the top of his game... everyone was focused on where Slash and Duff were... complaining about how Fink looked, why Bumble and not Bucket... etc... everyone is focused on complaining about every little detail.

It's 2023... Axl, Slash, and Duff have been touring since 2016, every leg we get additions to the live set, there have been 3 'new' tracks, Videos, Concert Footage, AFD Box, UYI Box... I mean think about what it was like from 1995-2006 (the 2002 failed tour not withstanding)... you finally had regular shows but were still 2 years away from an album and the Dr Pepper disaster. If 1999 me heard me complain as much as I did, and most of us do, he would slap the shit out of me when he sees the gluttony of stuff we have gotten since 2016.

***Edited to add the last part is a generalization added on and not a direct response to the ITARocker quote... just wanted to clear that up

[PermissionToLand]

Well, he's been using falsetto for at least 5 years and not only for high notes, as "perhaps" shows us. It's not a "recover", his voice is done. If he needed a recover i highly doubt he would keep touring forever. The ac dc thing probably destroyed his voice, and the sad part is that the ac dc fans didn't even appreciate it. And it's even sadder if you think he never pushed that hard for gnr in the new century.
He's unlucky that his falsetto is weak and not beautiful at all, cause many singers use it with good results. But you know, you can't change magically the timbre of your voice. You can see he's slimming down, doing something to help is general health (voice included) like in 2006. But 20 years has gone by, it's not going to work again, I think we are at the point of no return: It's not gettin better so the faster you get use to it the better.

I wouldn't be so sure. He used his full voice with rasp on that Looney Tunes song recorded in 2019. I think he's doing it to save his voice for the studio.

[ITARocker]

Well, he's been using falsetto for at least 5 years and not only for high notes, as "perhaps" shows us. It's not a "recover", his voice is done. If he needed a recover i highly doubt he would keep touring forever. The ac dc thing probably destroyed his voice, and the sad part is that the ac dc fans didn't even appreciate it. And it's even sadder if you think he never pushed that hard for gnr in the new century.
He's unlucky that his falsetto is weak and not beautiful at all, cause many singers use it with good results. But you know, you can't change magically the timbre of your voice. You can see he's slimming down, doing something to help is general health (voice included) like in 2006. But 20 years has gone by, it's not going to work again, I think we are at the point of no return: It's not gettin better so the faster you get use to it the better.

I wouldn't be so sure. He used his full voice with rasp on that Looney Tunes song recorded in 2019. I think he's doing it to save his voice for the studio.

True, but that's a different animal. In studio u can take your time (hours for a 3 minutes song), cut and copy takes etc. And, like in the case of the song you're talking about, u can actually take a soft kind of voice and and pump it up. If u listen carefully at the song, he's not that he's screaming at the top of his lunges. It's a raspy falsetto more than his old style raspy masked voice. It sounds good btw. Technology helps, so i won't be surpised if we will have an album with raspy voice everywhere. But live it won't sound that way and not by choice. You really think he's saving his voice for a studio album to be called mickey mouse by everybody? If he saved his voice for all the albums he made, he would probably sound like prime Pavarotti with 0 efforts even in live shows.

[PermissionToLand]

True, but that's a different animal. In studio u can take your time (hours for a 3 minutes song), cut and copy takes etc. And, like in the case of the song you're talking about, u can actually take a soft kind of voice and and pump it up. If u listen carefully at the song, he's not that he's screaming at the top of his lunges. It's a raspy falsetto more than his old style raspy masked voice. It sounds good btw. Technology helps, so i won't be surpised if we will have an album with raspy voice everywhere. But live it won't sound that way and not by choice. You really think he's saving his voice for a studio album to be called mickey mouse by everybody? If he saved his voice for all the albums he made, he would probably sound like prime Pavarotti with 0 efforts even in live shows.

There's no such thing as a raspy falsetto. And he never was screaming at the top of his lungs. He sang in a way to give the impression that he was, but that's not actually how you sing.

Yes, he has to save his voice in order to continue having a career. It doesn't have to be one extreme or the other; he's sparing his rasp live so that he can save his voice but also still give some of the experience people expect at live shows.

[ITARocker]

True, but that's a different animal. In studio u can take your time (hours for a 3 minutes song), cut and copy takes etc. And, like in the case of the song you're talking about, u can actually take a soft kind of voice and and pump it up. If u listen carefully at the song, he's not that he's screaming at the top of his lunges. It's a raspy falsetto more than his old style raspy masked voice. It sounds good btw. Technology helps, so i won't be surpised if we will have an album with raspy voice everywhere. But live it won't sound that way and not by choice. You really think he's saving his voice for a studio album to be called mickey mouse by everybody? If he saved his voice for all the albums he made, he would probably sound like prime Pavarotti with 0 efforts even in live shows.

There's no such thing as a raspy falsetto. And he never was screaming at the top of his lungs. He sang in a way to give the impression that he was, but that's not actually how you sing.

Yes, he has to save his voice in order to continue having a career. It doesn't have to be one extreme or the other; he's sparing his rasp live so that he can save his voice but also still give some of the experience people expect at live shows.

You can use raspy falsetto 100%, while singin falsetto u close the vestibular folds and with a little addition of air u obtain the sound. It's like a vocal fry but on a higher tone. U can add rasp in many ways, everywhere. When i'm referring to his screaming ,I know he's not screaming (with the exception of his oversingin) i'm referring to his masked voice (pharyngeal voice) that is more demanding. He's not saving his voice at all, cause when he tries to push his voice (and he tries a lot) he can't do what he want (he cannot do the chorus of hard school, he struggles with the high part of perhaps and so on...). Plus if people say he's giving his 100% as a justification for his performances, it means that they notice that he's really trying and he's not saving, and then they start the"he's 60 years old" litany. Listen to a 2016 jungle (which was one of the few he could sing well at the time) and 2023 jungle. It's like he's lost a lung. When carrie underwood joisn the stage axl disappears not because he's saving, but because his voice has no texture anymore.

[SkeletorSerpent]

Axl could have used his low bass and mid register his entire career and still would have been considered one of the top 3, top 5 hard rock vocalists of all time. IF he desired, he could have built an entire career on nothing but his low and mid register vocals and still would have been one of the greatest to ever do it. It's a testament to not only his five octave range, but the warmth and soul of his timbre and the uniqueness of his tone.
As I've said many times on this board, Axl has an intimacy and closeness in his vocals that are more reminiscent of the great R & B singers, classic outlaw country singers, and blues singers than he does with standard hard rock singers. He's more Willie Nelson, Joe Cocker, George Jones, Bob Seger, Janis Joplin, Sister Rosetta than he is Bruce Dickinson, Dio, Halford, Mercury.

That being said, Axl's lower register is just as impressive, emotionally stirring, stunning, mesmerizing, and moving as his highest register. He could have an entire "second career" over the next 10-20 years using just his natural singing voice. He has nothing left to prove. When he wants to, his vocals can be velvet, silk, and butter like any of the best crooners.
He still manages to share his soul with his audience; he can communicate utter rage, nihilistic angst, and demonic fury in his vocals, and then turn on a dime, and break your heart with his tenderness, brokenness, and sadness.

In other words, Axl could use the twilight of his career to show off his unparalleled bass vocals in the same way he spent the past 35 years blowing us away with his unrivaled high notes.

I'm excited for the future of GNR. I think Axl has so much more left in the tank, and so much more music to offer the world. His legacy isn't done, yet.
I think we all need to get ready to be shocked by Axl Rose. With his generational vocal range, soul, and tone, anything is possible vocally. Again, he has another good 10-15 years to produce legitimate, relevant rock n roll music.

As proof, here is Axl singing Estranged in his mid register. Fucking brilliant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q1o187Dw8A