Guns N’ Roses were in turmoil in 1995.

They found themselves under immense pressure to deliver a follow-up to 1991’s sprawling mega-hit Use Your Illusion, and three years of non-stop touring had worn them down to the bone.

Sadly, the album never materialized.

Instead, frontman Axl Rose looked on in horror as “the most dangerous band in the world” slowly imploded, and he spent the next few years trying to stick it to his former friends by creating a new version of the band, in a project which came to be known as Nu-GNR.

It’s a task which would ultimately fail, but it makes for a very cool story.

They’re Out Ta Get Me

The disintegration of Guns N’ Roses began in late 1994, as they started discussing ideas for the follow-up to 1991’s Use Your Illusion boxset.

“I could tell that Axl wasn’t ready to do a new record yet.

I was hesitant to start the process, but there was a lot of pressure on us, because even though we’d been touring and filling stadiums for the last three years, somehow we’d lost money.”

Axl had decided he would like to push Guns into new territory by introducing elements of electronic and industrial rock into their sound, but none of the other members were keen on this idea.

Especially Slash.

The way Slash saw it, GN’R had already departed from their trademark sound on Use Your Illusion, and he wanted to go back to the raw sound they had on 1987’s Appetite For Destruction.

Rose, who by this point was surrounded by “yes men” and operating in a mad dictator role, shot down that idea and challenged Slash to grow his guitar-playing repertoire rather than re-treading old ground, which drove a wedge between the pair before they’d even recorded a note.

And then things got even worse.

“I can summarize the Guns break-up with three words; Paul. Fucking. Huge.”

Paul. Fucking. Huge.

Slash believed that most of the band’s problems would be worked out if they could just get inside the studio and start jamming.

With that in mind, he agreed to a deal which would see GN’R provide a cover of The Rolling Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil for the soundtrack of a new Tom Cruise movie.

The whole point of the concept seemed to go over Axl’s head, as he skipped the band’s studio time and decided to record his vocal parts by himself once all of the music had been finished.

When he arrived at the studio to do so, he brought childhood friend Paul Huge (pronounced Hoogey) with him. The band were currently operating without a rhythm guitarist, since Axl had fired Gilby Clarke upon completion of the previous tour, but Slash had laid down both parts for this track – only for Rose to replace one of those tracks with his pal Huge.

He then appointed Huge as the band’s new rhythm guitarist without consulting any of the other guys, and had the record company finalise the recording of Sympathy For The Devil before any of them had a chance to listen to it.

This is what ultimately caused Slash to leave Guns N’ Roses.

“That’s one of the biggest, most personal things that Axl and I ever went through. It really pissed me off that he brought in an outside guitar player without ever telling me.

When I heard the final mix I was very angry, because he’s got him doing this “call and answer” thing over my solo, and they’ve ruined what I thought would be a great version of a song we all like, as well a way for us to get back into the studio as a band.”

Axl claimed he only introduced Huge as a temporary measure until his bandmates could decide upon a permanent new rhythm guitarist, but this claim is flatly refused by the rest of the band, who believed he never should’ve fired Gilby Clarke.

On top of this, Slash’s rage towards Huge seemed to go deeper than just the music.

“I didn’t like that guy from day one.

He wasn’t good enough to be in the band, and the fact we weren’t consulted about it made it so much worse. I can’t be clear enough when I say that Paul Huge is Axl’s friend and nothing more. He is not and never will be in GN’R as far as I’m concerned. Fuck that guy.”

Over the next two years, GN’R held sporadic recording sessions in a bid to get things moving again, but Axl and Slash’s relationship was had hit an all-time low.

Towards the end of 1996, the fiery singer seemed to drop a nuke on fans’ hopes of a reconciliation, as he sent this astonishing fax directly to MTV News:

“LIVE!!! From “Burning Hills”, California…

Dur to overwhelming enthusiasm and that “dive in and find the money” attitude, there will not be a GNR tour, there will not be an official GNR website, there will not be any new GNR music videos, there will not be any new GNR merchandise, and there will not be a GNR fanclub.

There will, however, be a new Guns N’ Roses 12-15 song album. If it does well, it will be immediately repeated with another one.

Moreover, Slash will not be involved in any future GN’R music, because he hasn’t been musically involved with Guns N’ Roses since April 1994, aside from an unproductive 2-week period in the fall of 1995. Nothing here is subject to change, without a permanent suspension of his “pseudo studio musician” work ethic.”

Yikes.

Slash decided to leave the band in the fall-out from this message (early 1997).

Drummer Matt Sorum figured that he could fix things by drawing a line under the “Paul Fucking Huge fiasco” and appointing a new rhythm guitarist, which would make it easier for Axl and Slash to come back together. He took Rose to the circus to watch Cirque de Soleil, where former Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck was performing.

Sorum explained to Rose that he had been keeping tabs on Finck, and believed he was perfect for Guns N’ Roses. Axl liked what he saw, which gave Sorum hope for the future, and the singer told hi that he would attend one of Finck’s solo gigs later that week with a view to recruiting him for GN’R.

“He came back from that solo gig and said “Wow! That’s our new guitar player!”

I was really happy, because I thought he meant to bring him in and play alongside Slash like I had suggested, but he said, “Nope! He’ll be playing lead.””

Even though long-time members Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum were technically still in the band at this point, Rose’s pursuit of Finck is largely regarded as the first step of Nu-GNR, because it kicked off a cataclysmic reaction which spelled doom for the other members.

Six weeks later, Sorum was fired.

Duff McKagan says the situation occurred when Sorum and Rose got into a heated debate in the studio, where the drummer expressed frustration that Axl hadn’t committed to a new Guns N’ Roses album yet.

“Because Matt was not part of the original band, it’s like he was always sitting on an ejector seat as far as Axl was concerned.

He’d say “I’m gonna fire him!” over little things, and on this particular day I snapped back at him.

I told him that those kind of decisions cannot be made by a single person, because we are supposed to be a group. He fired him anyway, and all because Matt told him he was wrong. The truth is, Matt was right, and Axl was wrong indeed.”

Shortly after the argument, Paul Huge appeared in the studio and is said to have made a derogatory comment about Slash, to which Sorum decided enough was enough.

“I jumped up and said “You don’t say anything about him when I’m in the room, motherfucker!”

He’s one of Axl’s oldest friends, so it just made things ten times worse between us.

As I was walking through the carpark, the guy (Huge) followed me outside and told me I should come back to the studio, and I yelled “I can’t, dickhead, he’s fired me! Do you feel good about breaking up one of the best rock bands in the fucking world?” Slash couldn’t stand that guy, and neither can I.”

Axl began the process of finding a new drummer by holding sessions with Chris Vrenna (another ex-member of Nine Inch Nails), who auditioned for a couple of weeks but decided to reject the role, citing the obvious inner-band tensions as his reason.

“Yeah, something wasn’t right.

We spent time jamming, but fuck. Paul Huge coming in made the atmosphere change quite a bit, it was like they weren’t getting along. After a couple of weeks I decided I didn’t want to become part of that band.”

Rose then made contact with Dave Abbruzzese (Red Hot Chili Peppers), and Joey Castillo (Queens Of The Stone Age), but neither of those options worked out either.

As he continued his quest to find a new drummer, Rose ignored the suggestions of Duff McKagen for him to simply patch things up with Slash and Matt.

This eventually led to the departure of long-time producer Mike Clink, who had come to the realization that the old band wasn’t going to get back together, and that Axl’s desire to go in a new musical direction didn’t appeal to him.

His leaving was quickly followed by the resignation of Duff McKagan.

“It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but being in the band just wasn’t fun anymore.

I only hung in there for as long as I did because I was acting as a bridge between Axl and Slash, and once it became clear that he’s not coming back, I felt like I was just done with it all.

Axl was shocked by my decision, but he still didn’t really understand why, and that was part of the problem for me.

We went to lunch a couple of days later, I guess he wanted to see if I had cooled down, and I really gave him both barrels. I told him, “You want this to be your band, and I can’t be part of it with you acting like a fucking dictator. You hired him (Paul Huge) without asking any of us, and you’ve seen how much that decision has torn us apart but you still don’t give a shit!”

Honestly, I didn’t even care how much money the record company were going to advance us for making the next record. I told him, “You can fucking have it!”

And with that, I was gone.

We didn’t speak again until 2007.

I don’t regret my decision to leave, because at the time it was the right thing to do, but I wish I hadn’t cut Axl off for so long..”

The Wheels Already Set In Motion

At this point, Axl was starting from scratch.

All that remained of the GN’R camp was long-time keyboardist Dizzy Reed, and Paul Fucking Huge.

“I’m a fan first-and-foremost, so I was bummed when I heard that Duff left.

He was a cool guy, and he was the last thread which linked them back to that awesome first record they made.

I rang Axl and we spoke a little bit about it.

I asked him if he was thinking about dropping the Guns N’ Roses name now, considering his next album is just gonna be him and some new guys, and I think it made sense considering he wanted to go in a different direction sound-wise anyway. He told me that he had no intention of losing the same, because the way he saw it, Duff and Slash deciding to leave isn’t a reason for him to kill the brand he has worked so hard to create all these years.”

He did receive some good news, though, as Robin Finck accepted his invitation to join the band.

Rose used Finck’s appointment as momentum to fill up the other positions, and quickly recruited popular drummer Josh Freese (The Vandals), who then suggested his old friend Tommy Stinson (The Replacements) for bass.

Despite having initial concerns, Stinson wound up becoming a long-term GN’R member.

“Yeah, to be honest GN’R were never my thing. I mainly answered their call because it would give me an opportunity to play with my buddy Josh, but I ended up staying for 16-years and Axl became a great friend!

I never made a dime from my previous band, so when Josh mentioned that they needed a bass player I joked with him that I could do it, and he mentioned it to Axl and I got the call. I bought a second-hand copy of Appetite For Destruction and learned five of the songs, and somehow landed the job.”

Axl seemed to have a full line-up in place now, with Finck on lead guitar, Huge on rhythm guitar, Stinson on bass, Freese on drums, and Dizzy Reed on keyboards.

Things got off to a rocky start, though, as veteran rocker Stinson immediately clashed with… you know who.

“Man, Paul Huge would walk around with the whole GN’R attitude, but he’s never even toured! We’d be hammering out ideas, and this guy who had never been in a band and never made any records was just going over our heads and laying out what he thinks the new Guns N’ Roses album should be, on the basis that he’s Axl’s pal!

I found that to be really annoying, but I was dead set on what we were doing, so over time I just bit my tongue and kinda figured out a way to get past it.”

Things seemed to be moving in the right direction, so Geffen Records handed Axl $1 million as an incentive to record the next GN’R album with his new band, and promised him another $1 million bonus upon completion.

His first move was to agree to provide a track to the 1998 Robin Williams movie What Dreams My Come.

The track in question was This I Love, a gut-wrenching ballad rumoured to be about the depression he suffered after losing access to Stephanie Seymour’s son, Dylan, when the couple ended their relationship in 1993.

He later pulled out of this deal, leaving fans (and record executives) feeling frustrated.

Produced Youth, who had been drafted in by Geffen to work on the new album, revealed this happened because Rose was suffering from some personal issues and simply wasn’t ready to come back yet.

Youth (producer): “I visited him at his house and had him singing, it was a real breakthrough because he hadn’t sang for 18-months. I said the next time I see you I want us to go to the studio and record some vocals, and he told me I was pushing him too fast and that he wasn’t ready.

I pulled out of producing their album at that point, because I had a feeling he might never come back.

He seemed to have depression, and the fact that he only worked between 9pm-9am and lived a kinda hermit lifestyle wasn’t helping.”

In mid-1998, Geffen decided to recoup some of the cash they’d given to Rose by announcing a live album (Live Era 87-93).

Axl wasted much of the year arguing (via lawyers) with Slash and Duff about the track-listing, and editing some of the vocals in the studio, and his being so distracted led new guitarist Robin Finck to hand in his resignation.

His reasoning was similar to that of Slash, Duff, Matt, and Youth.

“We wrote so many great songs in the two-and-a-half years I was there, but I grew tired of waiting for Axl to and add vocals to them. Nothing was finished, and I just couldn’t work with song titles like “Instrumental 34″ anymore.”

In retrospect, this was a perfect time for Axl to patch things up with his former colleagues, but in typical Axl Rose style, he pushed on.

He announced that he would be appointing a new lead guitarist in the coming weeks, and promised a new track would appear on the soundtrack to the next Arnold Schwarzenegger movie (1999’s End Of Days).

This time he stayed true to his word.

Titled Oh My God, this industrial-tinged rocker marked the first new release from GN’R in over four years, and it was the first time the public had the chance to hear a) how Nu-GNR sounded, and b) how Axl’s big new musical direction sounded.

It was met with a mixed response.

Several rock outlets praised the frontman’s bravery for trying new things, whereas the majority of the band’s fanbase felt it was too big of a departure from their trademark sound. It’s hard to disagree with either viewpoint.

Two weeks later, Rose finally landed the lead guitarist he had been searching for.

“Axl walks into the studio on evening with a big smile on his face and says:

“Buckethead!!!”

I’ve known Bucket since 1991, so I told him we go way back, and he was like, “I knew you’d know him! How can we get in touch with him?”

I set up a meeting and those two hit it off immediately. Bucket didn’t connect with many people, but something about Axl made him feel comfortable, or I guess understood, and they just they hit it off immediately. Within about a month, Axl was Bucket’s hero and he was all-in.”

For those unfamiliar with Buckethead, this is a guitar virtuoso the likes of which GN’R had never seen.

Sure, we all love Slash (and Robin Finck is also great), but this guy is one of the few who can legitimately lay claim to the moniker of “best guitarist on the planet”, making it quite the coup for Axl.

Rose was reportedly obsessed with him from day one, and took great enjoyment in not only his fretboard skills but also his mysterious character.

You see, the 6″6 tall guitarist concealed his identity at all times by wearing an emotionless white facemask and an upturned KFC bucket on top of his head (yep). He also refused to speak, and would engage in conversation via hand gestures and awkward head tilts.

Despite the serial killer vibes he gave off, Buckethead was crazy about all things Disney. It is rumoued that Axl took him on a trip to the famous theme park, and he signed his contract inside the Haunted Mansion.

In true Guns style, though, this exciting news was quickly followed by another devastating blow; drummer Josh Freese had decided to leave the band. Freese played an integral role in writing new material, as well as helping recruit half of the new line-up, so this was a monumental loss.

As usual, his reasons for leaving sounded familiar.

“I, like Robin, left GN’R because I felt frustrated at how long the record was taking.

My two-and-a-half year contract was up, and I would’ve happily signed a new one, but there was no sign that we would be releasing anything or touring anytime soon, and I was bored. I really like Axl, and I’ve told him that once the record is complete if he needs me for anything I’ll happily come back, but I can’t just sit around any longer, I wanna play.”

Immediately after leaving, Freese formed A Perfect Circle with Billy Howerdel, who was working as a Pro Tools engineer in the GN’R studio.

Ironically, their new band immediately landed a Summer ’99 support slot for Nine Inch Nails (featuring Robin Finck).

Unlike other departures, Josh made sure that he didn’t leave Axl in the lurch by giving him a list of potential replacements who he felt would be able to carry on the work he had done for the Nu-GNR project.

Top of that list was Brian “Brain” Mantia, the former Primus drummer who happened to be one of Buckethead’s best friends.

“The studio they were using was insane.

Like, imagine if you rented a room on level ten of the hotel… this place was eleven! I remember thinking, “What the fuck?!” when I first saw it. Axl was nice, too. He seemed like he’d been through some shit, though. I guess he had grown used to people wanting to leave before the work was finished, so he told me that I could still do side projects on the side if I wanted to, but no, as soon as I met him I knew this was it for me.”

The problematic Paul Huge was still attached to the band at this point, although he saw his role diminish significantly when Rose made the surprise announcement that Robin Finck would be returning to the fold.

Axl’s vision now looked really solid, and the prospect of a Finck/Buckethead guitar combination sounded absolutely insane.

Riding high on the confidence of this appointment, Rose then made a sensational attempt to lure Izzy Stradlin back into the band.

Yes, seriously.

Stradlin have left during the early stages of the Use Your Illusion tour, and his departure is referenced by most fans as the moment the wheels began to come off, so this would have been a sensational appointment – and that’s before we even look at the prospect of him playing rhythm guitar alongside his two new weapons of mass destruction!

Sadly, the ex-GN’R member was not interested.

“Yes, Axl called me up in early 2000 and asked if I’d be interested in taking a look at things. He didn’t want to reform the original line-up, because I was the only one he spoke to, but in any event, I declined the invitation.”

That one didn’t work out, but for the first time in five years, there appeared to be a steady band in place and they could plan for the future.

The Nu-GNR line-up consisted of:

• Axl Rose on vocals
• Buckethead and Robin Finck sharing guitar duties
• Tommy Stinson on bass
• Brain on drums
• Dizzy Reed on keyboards

Ain’t It Fun

Rose had become an expert at concealing his identity throughout the late 90s.

So much so, that when he attended a concert by ex-GNR member Gilby Clarke, his former bandmate didn’t even recognize him.

After catching up on old times, he climbed on stage and duetted with Clarke on his 1994 hit Dead Flowers, to the surprise of everyone in attendance. This marked his first public appearance (and performance) in over five years.

Gilby: “One of the guys in my band said the man in the baseball cap at the bar looked like Axl. We walked over there, tapped him on the shoulder, and I was like “Nope, that’s not him!”, and he answers, “Hey Gilby, how you doing?!” We had a great talk. He was so full of life when discussing his plans for his new band. It made me happy to see him happy.”

Welcome (Back) To The Jungle

After four long years of hirings, firings, and re-hirings, Axl’s new incarnation of Guns N’ Roses were finally ready to go.

They announced their return at the upcoming Rock In Rio III festival.

The stage doesn’t get any bigger than that, with over 200,000 fans attending the Brazilian music festival each year, so Rose decided that it would be a good idea for his new line-up to have a little warm-up gig before facing such a vast crowd.

On January 1st, 2001, they took to the stage at the House Of Blues, Las Vegas, in what is now regarded a key moment in GN’R history.

Kevin Morrow (House Of Blues): “We had already booked Goo Goo Dolls as our New Year entertainment, and to tell you the truth, when I got a call from Guns N’ Roses I thought it was a prank. When it was confirmed real, we arranged that they could take the stage after the New Year celebrations, around 2am.”

The show went ahead as planned, with a sold out crowd taking in a performance that saw Nu-GNR rip through all of the old classics, and even debut a few new tracks. The concert was so secretive that there is no official video footage (although some audio can be found online), and the general consensus of those in attendance was that Axl sounded fantastic.

Holy shit, maybe this is possible then?

Fast-forward two weeks, and they were in Rio.

The media ate up all things Axl, as the rest of the weekend’s star-studded line-up were mostly left to their own devices while reporters clamoured to get a glimpse of the reclusive frontman.

Is he fat?

Is he bald?

Is Slash really not in the band?

These were the questions people wanted to know, and the press were out in force to find out.

It’s perhaps an ode to his persona that he had only been away from the rock scene for six years. It wasn’t decades. In fact, several other artists have take just as much time away in recent years (Beyonce left a 6-year gap between albums from 2016-2022), but in the crazy world of Axl Rose this length of time seemed like forever.

Of course, we must also take into consideration that the majority of other artists who decide to take a break still remain accessible via guest appearances and/or social media, whereas Rose literally disappeared.

Another key factor, of course, is that most other musicians will remain present in the music scene via appearances and/or social media, whereas Axl literally disappeared off the face of the Earth.

The atmosphere was a delicate mixture of curiosity and dread as showtime approached.

Indeed, there was a palpable release of euphoria when the staccato riff of Welcome To The Jungle finally started cutting through the air, confirming to all of those in attendance that this was not a drill, they were really here.

Axl announced his re-arrival with a soul-crunching “Do you know where the fuck you are?” which seemed to go on… and on… and on… in a note which managed to capture five years of frustration in one hellish howl, sending the 200,000 baying fans over the top.

They went on to play a mostly great two-and-a-half hour set. Read our review of it here.

His comeback was everything he could’ve hoped for and, perhaps highlighting a lack of quality in the rock scene of the early 2000s, he was able to elevate himself back into the top tier of the genre with one stellar performance.

Kurt Loder (MTV): “About 10-minutes into their set, it became clear that the new Guns N’ Roses line-up is a rock n’ roll event, the sort that a lot of people (me included) have been waiting a long, long time for.

While the reigning rap-rock groups of the moment (Korn, Limp Bizkit, et al) manage to get by with pure sonic wallop, the new GN’R already play with a level of precision and passion that’s unlikely to be matched anytime soon, which is astounding considering they’ve only had one month of rehearsals.”

Hey You Caught Me In A Coma

Having impressed the rock media and won over many critics with their performance at Rock In Rio III, they planned to start a world tour with dates in Chile and Argentina.

And in typical GN’R style, they shot themselves in the foot.

Axl decided that the Rio show had taken a toll on his voice, which is understandable considering how long he was away, and postponed the world tour until he had recovered.

Fans were expecting this to be resolved in a matter of weeks, but it ended up lasting two years.

Pretty Tied Up

After teasing their comeback, this 2-year period of inactivity cause several tensions within the band.

Most notably for Buckethead.

The guitar virtuoso had been a polarizing character in the band since his arrival, with only really Axl and the other guys in the band able to communicate with him, whereas Geffen Records and new producer Roy Thomas Baker (Queen) felt weirded out by him.

Tom Zutaut (manager): “Buckethead actually quit the band in mid-2001 because he wasn’t getting along with all of the outside people involved in the project, but Axl managed to get him back.

He was having lots of creative differences with Roy Thomas Baker at the time,

Roy wanted him to record a more traditional rock sound, which is just not him.

The thing about Buckethead is that, despite his scary appearance, his personality is like that of a small child. It genuinely broke his heart to leave over that, because Axl was his hero and he hated the idea of letting him down.”

Axl pulled out all the stops to get his friend back.

Zutaut: “They went to Disneyland again, so he could tell Axl why he left. Axl managed to convince him to stay by reassuring him that he didn’t have to change the way he played or be something he’s not, and promised him that the record would come out and a world tour was in the works.

He even agreed to build Buckethead a chicken coup inside the recording studio, because Buckethead told him that it would make him feel more comfortable and inspire him to create great music.”

Wait… a chicken coup?!

Zutaut: “Yeah, and it actually did lead to him creating some exceptional work (laughs), so it was an inspired move on Axl’s part I guess.

And then it all went to hell, of course! One evening Axl came to the studio and noticed that Buckethead was watching pornography inside this chicken coup, like really hardcore stuff. He absolutely lost it with him. It was the only time I ever saw him lose his temper with anyone in the new band.

Buckethead tried to say that those videos were inspiring him to create, but Axl shut the whole thing down and told him to stop that kind of behaviour immediately.”

Keeping good on all of his promises to Buckethead, Rose then scheduled a world tour for 2001.

However, the Kentucky Fried Shredder was said to have been so deeply impacted by the bollocking he received from his hero that he decided to go AWOL on the eve of the first show, forcing the band to cancel.

He never contacted anyone from the GN’R camp to let them know of his disappearance, but he did post a message to his website in which claimed to have suffered a sudden mystery illness.

This frustration of this cancellation set Axl on a rampage, during which he took out his rage on anyone involved in the project who he felt wasn’t pulling their weight. This led to the firings of manager Tom Zutaut, producer Roy Thomas Baker, and even his old mate Paul Fucking Huge.

As he awaited Buckethead’s return, he drafted in Richard Fortus as the band’s third guitarist.

Don’t Watch That Much TV

Upon Buckethead’s return, Guns N’ Roses decided to make a surprise appearance at the 2002 MTV VMAs.

It’s a performance which has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons.

And it’s also a moment in time where their lack of communication with fans really came back to bite them on the ass.

Because while those in the rock world saw their triumphant return in Rio, the majority of the world had no idea about it (due to there being no announcements, no new music, no world tour, and a lengthy two-year gap since it happened).

Heck, most of GN’R’s casual fans still thought Slash was part of the setup, and the last time they saw Axl was at the 1994 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Ceremony, so for them, this was their comeback show.

So there is a noticeable gasp from the audience the first time they lay eyes on the new-look line-up.

Not only does Axl look significant different, sporting cornrows and an over-sized NFL jersey, but he’s surrounding by a bunch of musicians which most people do not recognize, due to GN’R’s own failure to keep their fans informed of what was happening.

Guitarist Buckethead received the most abuse from fans.

There’s nothing in the GN’R back catalogue which would push him near his limits as a guitarist or provide an opportunity to display his insane ability, so the way fans saw it, Axl had replaced the effortlessly cool Slash with a weird-looking motherfucker who had a KFC bucket on his head.

This was unfair criticism, because although they look like a weird collection of characters (Stinson’s punk appearance jars alongside Brain’s sportswear, Finck’s goth style, and, err, Buckethead) the new members actually nail the songs perfectly.

Instead, it’s Axl himself who comes across as the weak link.

His two-year absence since Rio appeared to have been the result of vocal damage caused during the concert (most likely the first note of it), and the Mickey Mouse-esque tone which would dog him throughout his later years is very noticeable here, as is his inability to hold a note.

All in all, this is a performance best forgotten.

He Lost His Mind Today

Guns N’ Roses then flew out on tour as planned.

It’s their first since the conclusion of Use Your Illusion in 1993.

Had they done this when first planned, it would’ve acted as a platform for the new band to capitalize on their stellar performance in Rio 2001, but the 2-year delay and MTV shit-show meant they were now trying to re-gain the interest of fans.

Things started off well, though, with dates across Europe receiving largely positive feedback.

One of the highlights of the tour came at Leeds Festival (UK), where Nu-GNR performed strongly in front of a huge crowd (and a sizeable TV audience), helping them right some of the wrongs from one month earlier.

New rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus was a standout performer during this run of shows. Undoubtedly talented enough to be play lead for most bands, having him operate as a safety net behind Buckethead and Finck seemed like a strange idea at firsts, but when seen live it worked spectacularly, turning the band’s new-look rhythm section into an absolute wall of noise.

In true GN’R style, though, things didn’t stay on track for very long. Chaos ensued on the North American leg of the tour, when a show was cancelled just one hour before it’s scheduled start time, kicking off a riot which resulting in 9,000 fans smashing up the arena and surrounding area.

The organizers blamed Axl for the mess, but he passed the buck right back to them.

“The band were already inside the arena, and I was flying to the show.

I told the showrunners that my plane had been delayed due to a mechanical fault, but I made it clear that I would still make it in time to play the show, and then they just announced over the P.A. system that the whole concert was cancelled.”

His ex-bandmates were less than impressed with these shenanigans.

“I was really pulling for them when I saw that on the news. However, it’s something that you could see coming, unfortunately.”

“It’s a mess, simple as that, and it’s sort of par for course with Axl.

He finally gets out there after all these years, and he’s only got two options. Either prove us all wrong, or screw it up. He screwed it up.”

This temporarily killed their momentum, with the next few shows played in front of half empty arenas, but Nu-GNR gradually managed to turn things around by sending those fans away with glowing reviews.

They ended this leg of the tour with a series of sold out shows, and some great feedback.

Spin Magazine: “There was a sense that the entire existence of Guns N’ Roses hung in the balance on December 5th, 2002.

After their no-show in Vancouver, a poor performance here at the famous Madison Square Garden would surely spell doom. They absolutely rocked the joint, and to everybody’s surprise, they even went onstage early! Against seemingly unfathomable odds, the reinvented Guns N’ Roses were remarkably fucking awesome.”

Unfortunately, the ran into trouble again soon after.

This time Axl no-showed at a concert in Philadelphia, kick-starting another riot, and led to the cancellation of the remainder of the tour.

It’s easy to feel sorry for the new members of GN’R, who must’ve been wondering what on Earth they had signed up to now with all of the drama going on around them, but there was one member of the new line-up who took great enjoyment in Axl’s crazy antics.

“I was in the hotel with Buckethead when we heard Axl wasn’t coming.

We could see people throwing chairs around and causing damage, it was starting to get pretty crazy.

But man, that was life in GN’R.

I can see how he’d be stressful from a management perspective, but in many ways I think I thrived on the pressure of working with somebody like that, I really loved the chaos of it.

One time, I think it was in ’03 or ’04, we were due to go live in 30-minutes and there’s lots of tension backstage because nobody knew where the hell Axl was. They managed to get his agent on the phone and it turns out he’s miles away, and his agent says he’s refusing to get on the helicopter until the server in Starbucks gets his coffee right (laughs).

I shit you not, you can Axl arguing in the background!

They employee was telling him to move aside, I guess there’s a queue building as a result of him keep asking for his drink to be re-made, and Axl came back with, “I’ve got twenty five thousand people waiting for me, and I won’t fuckin’ move until you get this right!” (laughs).

Man, I had to cover mouth and grit my teeth to stop myself laughing out loud. There’s really not another person like him. I tried to never let it stress me out, because I knew what I was getting into when I joined the band. I knew there’d be this kind of stuff, and I just sat back and chuckled at it, I loved it.”

Pleased To Meet You, Hope You Guessed My Name

Nu-GN’R had an incredible line-up coming into 2004, but they still hadn’t been able to win the fans over.

Axl was beginning to question why, because even the classic GN’R line-up had experienced a few shake-ups during their first run, yet the new recruits were accepted into the fold.

The key difference is that the original band were present.

You see, when original drummer Steven Adler was replaced by Matt Sorum in 1990, this led to the release of the sprawling Use Your Illusion double albums the following year. Likewise, when Izzy Stradlin departed in 1992, he was replaced by Gilby Clarke, who took part in a monstrous 2-year world tour, during which they released several singles from those albums, and he played on “The Spaghetti Incident?” in 1993.

Meanwhile, Axl’s new band had already gone through several line-up changes, with people joining and leaving without releasing a single thing, and this is what made fans dismiss the new recruits as glorified session musicians.

If Nu-Guns wanted to be taken seriously, they needed to release an album.

Even then, it would still be a daunting task, because many of the musicians who had contributed to material were already out of the picture, and the new record would also need to be good enough to convince older fans of Axl’s new direction (which at this point wasn’t even “new” anymore).

Quite simply, he’d fucked it up.

Kicking The Bucket

At the end of this ill-fated world tour, Buckethead decided he’d finally had enough.

He disappeared from rehearsals and cut off all contact with the other members of the band (including Axl). When lawyers from Geffen would reached out to him, he communicated via a sock puppet on his hand (!).

Unlike 2001, this time there would be no going back.

Axl offered Buckethead’s position in the band to Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, a highly accomplished guitarist who had previously worked with rock maestro Joe Satriani, but he declined.

“I didn’t like the way their management team were doing things.

My life felt good at the time, and I was busy with a lot of different projects. I knew that if I joined Guns N’ Roses it would take over everything, and honestly, the way their management team acted seemed pretty toxic.”

The Big Machine

The majority of ex-GN’R members had remained quiet for the best part of the last decade, but that all changed in 2004.

Former members Slash, Duff, and Matt got back together to create Velvet Revolver, which would be fronted by ex-Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland.

Their commitment to playing straight-ahead rock music was an instant hit with fans (including much of GN’R’s fanbase) and it catapulted their debut album Contraband into the Top 10.

Their instant success seemed to irk Rose.

During a rare television appearance he was asked for his thoughts on his ex-colleagues’ new album, and he astonishingly accused Slash of stealing material which he had submitted for the defunct Guns N’ Roses album of 1996.

The song in question is Fall To Pieces, a powerful ballad which features the top-hatted guitarist unleashing some of his best ever work.

Slash did not confirm or deny the accusations, but Scott Weiland chose to go on the offense.

Scott Weiland: “Get in the ring? Go to the gym, motherfucker! Or if you prefer, get a new hairstyle you botox-faced, wig-wearin’ fuck. What we’re talking about here is nothing more than a frightened little man who once believed he was king, but unfortunately now he’s just a memory of the asshole he used to be.”

Sensing how much publicity a war of words between the two bands could bring, Weiland then tried to poke the bear some more by (hilariously) dressing up as Axl for Halloween. The photo also shows Slash appearing to take an unprovoked pot-shot at Buckethead (although he later stated that he meant no offense by it).

Perhaps getting wind that his ex-bandmates stood to gain far more from this feud than he could, Rose decided to ignore it all.

However, it was clear by this point (mid-2004) that the length of time Axl had spent working on his grand vision for Nu-GNR had become an industry joke.

People were no longer curious about it. Instead they mocked it.

Shortly after this, Rose was forced to issue a cease-and-desist order to The Offspring, who attempted to call their new album Chinese Democracy, and led the marketing campaign with a cheeky note reading, “Hey Axl, you snooze, you lose!”

The plot then thickened…

Weiland’s erratic behaviour and shots at Axl didn’t sit well with Slash, who reportedly told him to lay off his former friend before he ruins any chance of them repairing their already mangled relationship.

Slash is said to have made a surprise late night visit to Axl’s house soon after this.

“I went to see Axl, I called at his house but he wasn’t there. I wrote a note which said something like, “Let’s work this out, call me – Slash” and I handed it to his assistant, but never heard back.”

Axl’s assistant Beta Lebeis claims that Slash was intoxicated upon his arrival, and spent around 15-minutes ranting about the in-fighting and toxicity within his current band, stating that he wanted nothing more than to patch things up with Axl.

When Rose was informed of his visit, he decided to ignore the note.

Interestingly, Scott Weiland would issue a public apology to Axl several years later, after the break-up of Velvet Revolver.

Scott Weiland: “I guess it’s ironic that my recently ex-bandmates are regurgitating the same stories that they did with Axl Rose in their last band, where the singer was demonized. I heard all the stories when we first got together, and I used to think he must’ve been such a troll to work with, but let’s just say I have an entirely different opinion of him today.”

I’m On The Nightrain

The success of his old bandmates seemed to light a fire under Rose.

Nu-GNR toured relentlessly throughout 2006 and 2007, and Axl was in fine form for the vast majority of these gigs, delivering some of his best vocal performances since his return in 2001.

This included a headline slot at Rock Am Ring 2006 (see above), which is widely regarded as Nu-GNR’s best concert, and a show-stealing performance at Download Festival 2006 where Rose rolled back the years and won over what was an initially sceptical crowd.

Former GNR guitarist Izzy Stradlin even made some guest appearances.

There was also some good news and bad news for the band’s line-up.

The good news is that Axl finally secured the services of Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal as his third guitarist, but the bad news is that long-time drummer Brain had decided to take time off due to the birth of his first child. Fortus recommended that they draft in Frank Ferrer as a temporary replacement (a move which ended up becoming permanent).

New guitarist Bumblefoot recently spoke about the initial problems he experienced from other GN’R members.

“Yeah, Axl was always really nice to me, but the other guys didn’t want me.

My loyalty was to Axl, because he hired me, so I didn’t care.

It’s to be expected, because they’d all been working on their album for so long, I guess they didn’t want a new guy coming in at a late stage.

I was treated like shit at first, to the point where I ended up getting a little violent with one of them, and then they started realizing that I’m not just gonna be walked all over, and I’m not just gonna leave either, so they stopped being such jerks.

I probably underestimated the scale of the gigs at first; I figured we’d be playing like House Of Blues type shows, but within days of joining we’d jetted off to headline festivals across Europe with like 100,000 fans!”

Towards the end of 2007, Axl made a guest appearance on the solo album of his pal Sebastian Bach, his first official music since GN’R dropped Oh My God in 1999.

Delighted with the positive feedback he received, the newly-invigorated Rose also agreed to gift a brand new GN’R song called Shacklers Revenge to the video game Rock Band, and then agreed to contribute a song called If The World (anther new track) to the Leonardo DiCaprio movie Body Of Lies.

Fans were in disbelief, as things seemed to be finally moving in the right direction after years of turmoil.

And then, on November 23rd, 2009, the unthinkable happened…

Chinese Democracy Is Released

On a rainy November 23rd, 2008, Guns N’ Roses finally dropped Chinese Democracy.

The album was 14-years in the making, and it’s the first (and only) disc featuring material from Nu-GNR.

It was met with mixed reviews, with some outlets praising Rose for refusing to live on former glories, while others craved just that.

Rolling Stone: “To him, the long march to Chinese Democracy was not about paranoia and control. It was about saying “I won’t” when everyone else insisted, “You must.”

You can debate whether any rock record is worth that extreme level of self-indulgence, but the most rock & roll thing about Chinese Democracy is that Axl Rose doesn’t care whether you like it or not, and in an age of watered down rock stars too afraid to create the controversy which the genre thrives upon, that’s actually very refreshing.”

Axl was correct in 2001 prediction that the album would not sound like old GN’R.

While Appetite For Destruction sounded like a young band capturing their raw aggression on tape, and Use Your Illusion a band who had suddenly been given the freedom of the studio to expand their vision, Chinese Democracy sounds like it has been made with the most expensive everything, and then laboured over for several years of mixes, remixes, and alternate mixes.

To its credit, it produces some truly sublime moments.

Rose made sure every member of the current line-up features on the record, and he also kept many guitar contributions from Buckethead. The most notable of these is a shredding guitar solo which sets the record alight on standout track There Was A Time, a song which also features the best vocal work of Axl’s career. Other highlights of the album include a tear-jerking solo from Robin Finck on This I Love, and some impressive vocal gymnastics from Axl on Street Of Dreams (previously called The Blues).

Lincoln Journal: “Despite all the pressure, Axl has succeeded in making a very decent record, one which easily links up with the band’s previous efforts and features some amazing moments.

However, there are numerous times on the album where Rose appears to lash out at anyone with the temerity to confront him. Taunts likes like “Don’t you try to stop us now!” (which opens the throbbing Scraped) don’t exactly ring true from a guy who has seemingly stopped himself for years.”

“It’s so awesome to hear his voice again after all these years.

I’m happy that Axl got to make the record he always wanted to make, but I can also understand now that if that’s what he was hearing in his head when we were planning our next album, I get why there were tensions between us, because it’s probably not a direction I would’ve went in. back then”

Sick Of This Life, Not That You’d Care

Despite having all the momentum in the world, Axl wasn’t happy.

He was pissed off that Geffen had denied his request for a couple more weeks to edit the artwork of Chinese Democracy, and he retaliated by refusing to take part in any promotional work.

That meant no interviews, no public appearances, and no music videos.

“There was no real involvement from Interscope throughout. Everyone in the band hates the record company. They never helped at any stage of the process, from recording, to marketing, to artwork.

In light of all the pirating mess the major labels are in right now, I have no sympathy for them.”

In a temper tantrum which led to six months of inactivity, and with no world tour announced, long-time member Robin Finck decided to leave the band.

All Things Are Possible, I Am Unstoppable

Once Axl snapped out of his funk, he decided that he wanted to keep the three guitarist setup which Nu-GNR had been using for many years.

He recruited Ashba to fill the void left by the departed Finck.

Having never experienced the heights which Guns N’ Roses (and by this point even the “new guys”) were accustomed to, Ashba brought a sense of youthful excitement to the project which seemed to inject new life into Rose.

The reinvigorated band hit the road in support of Chinese Democracy soon after, and the frontman seemed to have a real fire in his belly to prove himself all over again.

This line-up would tour consistently for the next 4-years, the longest stint of touring in Axl’s entire career. One again, things started very well with the frontman appearing happy on stage and delivering some great performances, but towards the end of the tour there was a noticeable decline in his mood, as the vocal chord damage he suffered in the late 1990s began to appear more frequently than ever before.

This turned out to be the end.

Dead Era 13-15

When their Las Vegas residency crawled to a close, Axl decided he would take some time out to let his voice recover.

During this break he received a triple-whammy of losses which ultimately killed the future of Nu-GNR.

Long-time bassist Tommy Stinson (a member since 1999) decided it was time to call it a day, and then Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal left to pursue his side project Art Of Anarchy, and then Ashba began achieving chart success with his other band Sixx AM and decided to focus on that full-time.

This shrunk the Nu-GNR ranks to just Axl Rose, guitarist Richard Fortus, keyboardist Dizzy Reed, and drummer Frank Ferrer.

The prospect of watching Axl start all over again pushed most fans to turn on Axl. Their curiosity over Chinese Democracy was long since over, and Rose had failed to fulfil his promise of delivering second and third instalments of new material.

At this stage, all they really wanted was for the temperamental frontman to swallow his pride and call Slash.

“Let’s Work This Out, Call Me” – Slash

In February 2015, fans of Guns N’ Roses woke up to find the band trending across social media.

It the news they were all craving (but never expecting), Axl Rose had decided to patch things up with original members Duff McKagan and Slash, re-introducing them into the Guns N’ Roses fold after 20-years away.

They also drafted in keyboard player and backing vocalist Melissa Reese (on the recommendation of former drummer Brain), alongside longstanding members Frank Ferrer (2006-present), keyboardist Dizzy Reed (1990-present) and rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus (2004-present), to create a hybrid version of classic GN’R and Nu-GNR.

In typical chaotic fashion, fans were unsure whether to believe the news, after it was announced they would perform their comeback show at the famous Troubadour club on April 1st, 2016.

Because let’s face it, if anybody is crazy enough to pull of an April Fool’s Joke of this magnitude, it’s Axl Rose.

It was 100% real.

The band absolutely rocked the joint, and looked visibly happy to be back together, with an electric atmosphere not dissimilar to that of Rock In Rio III all those years ago.

They have remained a functional touring unit ever since, and their world tour (ironically dubbed “Not In This Lifetime…”) went on to become one of the most profitable tours of all time. To give you an idea how profitable, a 2017 rich-list showed that Guns N’ Roses generated more than Belgium (yes, the country!).

When lockdown arrived in 2020, the band wasted no time getting back in the studio and released re-worked versions of a handful of leftover Chinese Democracy tracks, including a Slash-tastic version of Hardskool.

Where they go from here is anyone’s guess.

But while never scaling the heights they initially promised with that first Rio performance, the 19-year story of Axl’s failed attempt to create Nu-GNR has definitely been one still worth telling.