Guns N’ Roses were in turmoil in 1995.

Under immense pressure to repeat the success of 1991’s sprawling mega-hit Use Your Illusion, three years of non-stop touring had worn them down to the bone.

It’s an album which would never materialize.

Instead, frontman Axl Rose watched on in horror as “the most dangerous band in the world” slowly began to implode, and then spent the remainder of the 90s attempting to bury his former friends by re-inventing Guns N’ Roses into an experimental project which came to be known as Nu-GNR.

He would ultimately fail in this quest, 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 incorporate elements of electronic and industrial rock into their sound, because of his current fascination with Nine Inch Nails.

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 the next album to return to the raw rock of their 1987 debut Appetite For Destruction.

Rose is said to have berated his top-hatted guitarist for wanting to stay in familiar territory, and challenged him to improve his skill-set in order to keep GN’R at the cutting edge of 90s rock.

It’s a heated exchange which drove a wedge between the pair before a single note had been recorded – and the situation was about to get a whole lot worse…

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

Paul. Fucking. Huge.

Slash believed they could work out most of their differences if they got back in the studio and started jamming again.

With that in mind, he agreed for GN’R to provide a cover of The Rolling Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil for the a movie soundtrack.

The concept seemed to go straight over Axl’s head, because the fiery frontman decided to skip the studio time and do his vocals alone once all of the music had been finished.

When he arrived to do so, he brought along childhood friend Paul Huge (pronounced Hoogey).

At some point throughout this night, Axl made a decision which would change the course of GN’R forever.

You see, Axl had fired rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke at the end of the previous tour, so the band were currently operating without a second guitarist. Slash had laid down both parts for the new song, but Axl decided that his friend should be on it, and had Huge replace Slash’s rhythm guitar segments. He then hired him to fill Clarke’s position, and fast-tracked the finished recording of Sympathy For The Devil to Geffen Records before any of his bandmates had a chance to listen to it.

This proved to be final straw for Slash, who is said to have “quiet quit” at this point.

“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 that he only hired Huge as a temporary measure until his bandmates could decide upon a permanent new rhythm guitarist, so he didn’t understand their frustration.

However, the other band members have all shot down this belief in their autobiographies, stating that Rose was operating on his own agenda at this point in the 90s, and that they were all still confused as to why he’d axed the well-liked Gilby Clarke.

And 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 anywhere near good enough to be in the band, and the fact that 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 in GN’R and never will be as far as I’m concerned. Fuck that guy.”

Over the next two years, GN’R held sporadic recording sessions in a bid to smooth over their issues and lay the foundations for the next album.

However, the relationship between Axl and Slash was at an all-time low.

At the end of 1996, Rose dropped a nuke on fans’ hopes of a reconciliation when he sent this astonishing fax 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 new GNR tour, or a website, or a fan club, or any new videos, or any new merchandise.

There will, however, be a new 12-15 song Guns N’ Roses album.

If the album does well, it will be immediately followed by another.

Moreover, Slash will not be involved in the project, because he hasn’t been musically involved with Guns N’ Roses since April 1994 anyway (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.

Rose had issued what he considered a final warning to his guitarist, but to his dismay, the public embarrassment of such an act caused Slash to hand in his resignation.

It was followed by four months of radio silence.

Meanwhile, drummer Matt Sorum believed he might be able to fix Axl and Slash’s broken relationship if he could track down a proper new rhythm guitarist.

He took Rose to watch Cirque de Soleil, where former Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck was playing as part of the show. He explained that he’d been keeping tabs on Finck for some time, and felt he’d be perfect for the vacant slot in GN’R. Rose was keen, and told his bandmate he’d go watch one of Finck’s upcoming solo gigs with a view to recruiting him.

“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.””

Now, although long-term members Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum were technically still in the band at this point, the pursuit of Finck is largely recognized as the first step towards Nu-GNR as it sparked a chain of events which spelled doom for the old line-up.

The first to go was Sorum.

Just six weeks after he took Axl to the circus, the pair got into an altercation in the studio. Duff McKagan said that this happened when Matt 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 hiring and firing is not up to him, because we are supposed to be a group. He fired him anyway, of course, and it was all because Matt told him he was wrong.

The truth is Matt was right, and Axl was wrong indeed.”

Soon after the argument, Paul Huge 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.

As I walked through the carpark, the guy (Huge) followed me and said 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?”

He’s a joke. Slash couldn’t stand him, and neither could I.”

Axl began the process of finding a new drummer by holding sessions with Chris Vrenna (another ex-member of Nine Inch Nails).

He visited the studio for a couple of weeks, but decided to reject the role.

“Yeah, something wasn’t right.

We spent time jamming, but fuck. Paul Huge coming in seemed to change the atmosphere 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.”

Instead of listening to Duff’s pleas to patch things over with Slash (and now also Matt), the fiery singer pushed on with his quest to find a new drummer.

He made contact with both Dave Abbruzzese (Red Hot Chili Peppers), and Joey Castillo (Queens Of The Stone Age), but was unable to persuade them to leave their current bands.

This stubbornness led to the departure of long-time producer Mike Clink, who had produced all of GN’R’s albums so far. Clink had reached the conclusion that the original line-up were never going to get back together, and found Rose’s desire to pursue a new musical direction unappealing.

It 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 stayed for as long as I did because I was acting as a sort of bridge between Axl and Slash, and once it became clear that he’s not coming back, I felt like I was done.

Axl was shocked, but he still didn’t really understand why I had decided to leave.

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? Well 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, yet you still don’t give a shit!”

I didn’t care how much the record company was going to give us for the next record. I told him, “You can fucking have it!”, and stormed out.

We didn’t speak again until 2007.

Looking back now, I don’t regret my decision to leave because it was the right thing to do at the time, but I regret cutting Axl off for so long because he’s one of my best friends.”

The Wheels Already Set In Motion

At this point, Axl was starting from scratch.

All that remained of the GN’R camp were long-time keyboardist (and largely background member) Dizzy Reed, and the problematic Paul Fucking Huge.

“I’m a huge fan, so I was bummed when I heard that Duff left.

He is such a cool guy, and alongside Axl, when I was auditioning he was like the last thread back to that awesome first record they made.

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

I asked if he was considering dropping the Guns N’ Roses name now. You know, considering he was going to be working with new musicians and he wanted to go in a different direction with the sound, I figured it would make sense.

He told me that he had no intention of doing so, because Slash and Duff quitting wasn’t a valid reason for him to destroy everything he had worked so hard to create.”

Although things were presently in tatters, it didn’t take long for Rose to get a bit of good news.

Robin Finck had decided to accept his invitation.

Finck’s appointment gave him new hope for the future, and he quickly recruited popular drummer Josh Freese (The Vandals), who then suggested his old friend Tommy Stinson (The Replacements) for the vacant bass slot.

“Yeah, to be honest GN’R were never my thing. I mainly answered their call because it gave me a chance to play with my buddy Josh.

I was flat broke at the time because I never made any money from my previous band, so when Josh told me they needed a bass player I joked with him that I could do it.

I didn’t think they’d take it seriously, because they’re such a big fucking band, but he passed my comment on to Axl and I got a call the next day. I rushed out and bought a second-hand copy of Appetite For Destruction (because I couldn’t afford a new one!), and learned five of the songs, and somehow landed the job.

It’s funny how things work out, because I ended up staying with GN’R for about 16-years, made some fantastic memories with those guys, and Axl became one of my best friends!”

Axl seemed to have pulled things back from the brink, and now had a full line-up in place.

It consisted of himself on vocals, Robin Finck on lead guitar, Paul Huge on rhythm guitar, Stinson on bass, Freese on drums, and Dizzy Reed on keyboards.

Unfortunately, things got off to a rocky start for the new band when Stinson 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, all on the basis that he’s Axl’s friend!

I can see why the other guys had difficulties with him, but in time I got past it.”

Now that momentum appeared to be gathering, the band informed Geffen Records that they were ready to go.

The record company were delighted with the news, and immediately handed Axl a $1 million bonus to convince him to record a new album.

(They even promised him another $1 million gift upon completion!)

Rose’s first move was to contribute a new track for the 1998 Robin Williams movie What Dreams My Come.

The song 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 when the couple ended their relationship in 1993.

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

Producer Youth, who Geffen had drafted in to produce the new album in the wake of Mike Clink’s departure, has since revealed that this situation occurred because Rose remained hesitant to begin the recording process.

Youth (producer): “It could’ve been great, but it wasn’t to be. I visited his house and had him singing, it was a real breakthrough because he hadn’t sang for 18-months.

He seemed to have depression, and the fact he only worked between 9pm-9am and lived a hermit lifestyle was making it worse. 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 for it.

Deadlines starting coming and going, and I pulled out of producing their album at that point because I had a gut feeling he might never really come back.”

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

Axl wasted several months arguing (via lawyers) with Slash and Duff about the track-listing, and tinkering with the vocals on the live recordings in the studio.

While he was distracted by this, new guitarist Robin Finck decided to pull out of the band. 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 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 opportunity for the frontman to patch things up with his former colleagues, but Rose still refused.

He announced that he would be appointing a new lead guitarist in the coming weeks, and promised that a brand 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 far removed from their trademark sound to be called GN’R.

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?”

Those two hit it off immediately. Bucket didn’t connect with many people, but I guess something about Axl made him feel comfortable, or understood.

In less than a month, Axl was Bucket’s hero and he was all-in.”

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

Sure, we all love Slash (and Robin Finck is also great), but Buckethead is probably one of the few humans who can lay claim to the title of “best guitarist on the planet”, so the fact that Axl was able to recruit him for his project felt like a major coup and made a lot of the rock world take notice.

The singer was reportedly obsessed with his new axeman from the moment he saw him – not just in his fretboard skills, but also his quirky, mysterious character.

You see, the 6″6 tall guitarist chose to conceal his identity at all times by wearing an emotionless white mask and an upturned KFC bucket on his head. Yep. He also didn’t talk, and would communicate via a series of simplistic hand gestures and awkward head tilts.

But despite the Michael Myers vibes he gave off, it turns out he’s crazy about all things Disney.

This only added to Axl’s amusement, and he is said to have taken his new recruit on a vacation to the famous theme park, where it is rumoured he signed his GN’R contract inside the Haunted Mansion.

In true Guns style, though, the exceptional news of Buckethead’s arrival was immediately followed by the devastating announcement that Josh Freese was leaving the band. Having played such an instrumental role in helping Axl assemble his Nu-Guns (and in the writing of new material), Rose saw Freese’s departure as a crushing blow.

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. They quickly landed a Summer ’99 support slot alongside none other than Nine Inch Nails, featuring Robin Finck, who had quit GN’R for the exact same reasons.

Unlike other departures, though, Josh left on incredibly good terms.

He made sure not to leave Rose in the lurch, handing him a list of potential replacement drummers who he felt could carry on the work he had completed 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 pals.

“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 leaving, so he told me that I could still do my side projects if I got bored of waiting around for him to finish the album, but no, as soon as I met the guy I knew this was it for me.”

The problematic Paul Huge was still attached to the band at this point.

However, he saw his role diminish significantly when Rose made the surprise announcement that Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck would be returning to the fold.

Riding high on the confidence of Finck’s return, Rose then made a sensational attempt to lure Izzy Stradlin back into GN’R.

Yes, seriously.

Stradlin famously walked out during the Use Your Illusion tour several years earlier, and his departure is often referenced by fans as the moment where GN’R started to lose its way, so it would’ve been a sensational appointmet – even before we consider the prospect of Izzy playing rhythm guitar next to the insane tag team of Buckethead and Finck!

Sadly, he 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.”

So that one didn’t work out, but everything else was looking good, and for the first time in five years there seemed to be a steady band in place.

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 that ex-Gunner Gilby Clarke didn’t even recognize him when he attended one of Clarke’s 1999 solo gigs!

Rose is said to have spent about half an hour chatting to his former bandmate, then stayed to watch the show. To the surprise of everyone in attendance, he climbed on stage to duet with Clarke on the track Dead Flowers, which he sung on the guitarist’s 1994 solo album.

This marked his first public appearance (and performance) in 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 years of hirings, firings, and re-hirings, Axl’s new incarnation of Guns N’ Roses were ready to go.

They announced that their comeback show would take place at Rock In Rio III.

Over 200,000 fans flock to the Brazilian music festival every year, so the stage (and the pressure that comes with it) doesn’t really get any bigger than that!

Rose decided it would be a good idea to have a smaller gig shortly beforehand to shake off the rust and get a feel for playing alongside his new band. This warm-up gig took place on January 1st, 2001, and is considered 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.”

A sold out crowd at the House Of Blues witnessed the first ever live performance of Nu-GNR, as they tore through all the old classics, and even debuted a few new tracks. It was such a secretive affair that there is no video footage of it anywhere (although audio can be found online), and the general consensus of those in attendance is that Axl sounded great.

Holy shit, maybe this is possible then?

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

The media was in over-drive for this one, and Axl was their primary target.

It’s perhaps testament to how big of an attraction he was during the 90s that the rest of the star-studded Rio line-up (which included Elton John, Foo Fighters, and Britney Spears) were able to enjoy the freedom of the resort without being hassled by reporters.

Geffen worried that that being thrust back into the spotlight might trigger one of Rose’s famous hissy fits, but it didn’t. Instead he looked relaxed as he posed for pictures with fans and joked with reporters, seemingly bewildered by their obsession with him (almost as if he’d spent the last few years locked away from the outside world!).

The truth is, the rock world needed him more than he needed it.

What’s most interesting about this time is that Rose had only been gone for six years.

Seriously, that’s all it was.

In recent years we have seen several other artists take the same length of time away (e.g. Beyonce left a 6-year gap between albums from 2016-2022), but such was the gaping hole Axl Rose had left in the rock world, it felt like fucking decades.

(Of course, we must also recognize that most artists who decide to take a lengthy break remain accessible via guest appearances and/or social media, whereas Rose literally disappeared off the face of the Earth.)

As showtime approached, the atmosphere was a delicate mixture of excitement and dread.

Would he show up?

Is he fat and bald?

How can Slash not be in the band?

Indeed, there was a palpable release of euphoria when the staccato riff of Welcome To The Jungle finally began cutting through the air. A few moments later, Axl announced his return from the wilderness thanks to a soul-churning “Do you know where the fuck you are?” which seemed to go on… and on… and on… capturing five long years of frustration into a single hell-bent note.

It’s a moment which sent a quarter of a million fans into fever pitch, and simultaneously confirmed to all of the doubters that this is not a drill, he is really here.

Nu-GNR 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 indicative of the lack of quality in the hard rock scene of the early 2000s, Rose was able to push himself straight back to the top tier in just one night.

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

Of course, this being Guns N’ Roses, things didn’t stay on track for very long.

They had laid out plans to start a world tour in the aftermath of their glowing Rio performance, but Rose decided to pull the plug as the dates neared.

Had he released a statement saying that the Rio show had taken a toll on his voice and he wanted a bit more recovery time, most fans would have accepted this (especially considering he hadn’t performed in such a long time).

But he didn’t.

Instead he just cancelled the tour, and the break ended up lasting 18-months!

Pretty Tied Up

After teasing their comeback with such a well-received show, this 18-month return to inactivity caused tensions within the band.

Most notably for Buckethead.

Geffen Records executives found him difficult to handle, and things reached a head with no-nonsense producer Roy Thomas Baker.

Tom Zutaut (manager): “Buckethead actually quit the band in mid-2001, about four months after the Rio performance. He was having lots of creative differences with Roy Thomas Baker at the time, because Roy wanted him to play in a more traditional style, whereas Buckethead doesn’t really do that at all.”

It resulted in the guitarist leaving the project, until Axl managed to turn it around.

Zutaut: “The thing about Buckethead is, despite his scary appearance, he’s a bit like a child.

Axl was his hero, and it really broke his heart to leave because he didn’t want to let Axl down.

So when Axl came to the studio and heard what happened, he took Buckethead on another trip to Disneyland and discussed things. He reassured him that he doesn’t share Roy’s views about changing his playing style (Roy was fired soon afterwards) and promised him that the record would soon be finished, and a world tour would commence.

In one of the crazier things I’ve seen him do (and that’s saying something for Axl), he agreed to build a chicken coup inside of the recording studio. Buckethead used to carry this toy chicken with him, and he told Axl that a coup would make him feel more comfortable and inspire him to write great music.”

Wait… a chicken coup?!

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

Well, until it all went wrong.

One evening Axl came to the studio and noticed that Buckethead was watching pornography inside this chicken coup, like really hardcore stuff. He said that the videos were inspiring him to create better material, but Axl totally lost it and made it clear that kind of behaviour has no place in his band. It was the only time I ever saw him lose his temper with anyone in the new band.”

Despite the fact he felt his voice hadn’t fully recovered from Rio, Rose kept good on his promise to Buckethead by scheduling a small tour for the latter half of 2001.

Unfortunately, the Kentucky Fried Shredder was said to have been so deeply impacted by the rollicking he received he went AWOL on the eve of the first show.

The guitarist never contacted anyone in the GN’R camp to inform them of his absence, forcing them into a last-minute cancellation, and then he uploaded a cryptic message to his personal website in which he claimed to have experienced a sudden mystery illness.

Nobody heard from him for the next two months.

The frustration of having to cancel his hastily assembled tour put Axl on the warpath, and during the two months Buckethead was gone he dismissed long-term manager Tom Zutaut, producer Roy Thomas Baker, and even his old mate Paul Fucking Huge (finally!). Rose then hired Richard Fortus to be the band’s rhythm guitarist behind Buckethead and Finck, a move which doubled as a safety net if Buckethead decided to pull this trick again.

Don’t Watch That Much TV

Upon the guitarist’s return, Axl was keen to get to work.

He still wasn’t fully recovered from Rio (some 18-months ago) but he felt there was no more time to waste, so he agreed for Nu-GNR to make a surprise appearance at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards before heading off on their much-delayed world tour.

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

Rose appeared out of breathe, out of tune, and out of synch with everything that was going on around him.

it made sense that he felt like he needed to rush his voice back to keep Buckethead appeased, but it was undoubtedly the wrong call. There are several instances during this performance where you can hear the vocal chord damage which he is said to have sustained during the Rio performance (most likely the first note of it), and thee Mickey Mouse-esque tone which would dog him throughout his later years.

All in all, it was a performance to forget.

To make matters worse, the new band copped a lot of unfair criticism from fans.

You see, while the rock world was aware of their triumphant return in Rio, the majority of casual GN’R fans remained oblivious, and this was the first time they had seen Rose since 1994. Not only was his apperance jarring (sporting an over-sized NFL jersey, cornrows, and what seemed to be a fresh batch of botox), they had no idea about the radical line-up changes which had taken place, so there was an audible gasp when the lights dimmed to reveal the eclectic bunch of musicians who made up Nu-GNR!

Axl’s insistence that each member keep their own individual look meant Nu-GNR had a “freak show” element to it, which Rose is said to have loved, but it just didn’t work. Tommy Stinson’s punk attire stood out like a sore thumb next to Robin Finck’s goth styling, and Buckethead’s, err, whatever you call that.

Musically, the new band did remarkably well, and it was remarkable seeing the ease with which Buckethead casually cruised through Slash’s impossible-looking Paradise City outro as if it were a beginner level guitar track.

Unfortunately, their performance was ruined by Axl , and everybody knew it.

He Lost His Mind Today

There was a risk the MTV horror show could’ve drove Axl back into hiding, but to his credit he pushed on.

The band embarked on their world tour (his first since 1993), determined to win back fans.

It started off well, with several European dates garnering largely positive feedback. Their performance at Leeds Festival (UK) is one of the highlights, with a great performance in front of a very large crowd and a sizeable TV audience doing much to repair the damage caused by their MTV debacle.

New rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus was a standout performer during this run of shows.

Although talented enough to be play lead for most bands, Axl’s decision to have him operating behind Buckethead and Finck worked exceptionally well, turning Nu-GNR’s rhythm section into a wall of noise, and making them one of the loudest bands in the word.

Of course, not everything went to plan…

Chaos ensued on the North American leg of the tour, after a show was cancelled just one hour before it’s scheduled start time. This kicked off a riot which saw 9,000 fans destroy the arena and surrounding area. The organizers blamed Rose for causing the riot, but he passed the buck right back to them.

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

I told the company that my plane had been delayed due to a mechanical fault, but I made it clear that I would still be there in time, and then they just announced over the P.A. system that the whole concert had been 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 only has two options; either prove us all wrong, or screw it up. He screwed it up.”

This temporarily killed their momentum, as the next few shows took place in front of half-empty arenas, but they gradually turned things around via strong performances.

The final leg of the tour saw them back in front of sold-out crowds, and receiving great reviews.

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, another Axl outburst was just around the corner.

He decided to no-show a concert in Philadelphia, kick-starting a second riot, and this time the showrunners responded by cancelling all of their 2003 dates.

Now, it would be easy to sympathize with the other members of Nu-GNR at this point, many of whom were probably starting to see why Slash and Duff had grown tired of Rose’s touring problems all those years ago, but one member of the new line-up didn’t want any sympathy.

“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-GNR still hadn’t won over fans as we rolled into 2004.

That being said, they had an incredible line-up.

Axl questioned why people were so reluctant to accept the new guys into the fold, and pointed out that fans didn’t behave this way when Matt Sorum replaced Steven Adler in 1990, nor when Gilby Clarke replaced Izzy Stradlin in 1992.

The key difference, of course, is that the original band were active.

Shortly after Sorum arrived in 1990, GN’R released the sprawling Use Your Illusion albums, and when Clarke later joined the fold he featured in the band’s first-ever DVD release and then played on “The Spaghetti Incident?” just six months later.

This is in stark contrast to Axl’s Nu-GNR line-up, which had experienced several shake-ups without ever releasing a damn thing, causing fans to dismiss them as nothing more than Axl’s “hired guns”.

By mid-2004 it was clear that if Nu-Guns wanted to be taken seriously then they needed to release their long-gestating album – and even then, it would still be a daunting task, because many of the musicians who had contributed to the material were already out of the picture, and the new LP would also need to be good enough to convince older fans about Axl’s new direction (which, at this point, wasn’t even “new” anymore).

Quite simply, he’d fucked it up.

Kicking The Bucket

Deflated by the prospect of more inactivity, Buckethead threw in the towel.

He disappeared from rehearsals and cut off all contact with the band (including Axl), and when Geffen lawyers pulled him in for a meeting about his behaviour, he communicated with them via a sock puppet on his hand (!).

But unlike 2001, this time there would be no going back.

Axl offered his position in the band to Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, a highly accomplished shredder who had previously worked with Joe Satriani, but he declined the invitation.

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

My life felt pretty good, and I was keeping 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 outcasted members of the original Guns N’ Roses had been quiet for almost a decade, but that changed in 2004.

Slash, Duff, and Matt created Velvet Revolver, and hired Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland.

VR’s commitment to straight-ahead rock was an instant hit with fans (especially those who followed GN’R), and their debut album Contraband reached the Top 10 in several coutries.

Their instant success seemed to irk Rose.

During a rare television appearance in early 2005, a reporter asked him about the VR project, and he snapped that Slash had stolen songs which he submitted for the defunct Guns N’ Roses album of 1996. The track he referred to is Fall To Pieces, an epic 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. You’re nothing more than a frightened little man who once believed he was king, but unfortunately now you’re just a memory of the asshole you used to be.”

Possibly sensing how much publicity a war or words between the two bands could attract, Weiland continued his attack.

His next move was to poke the bear some more by (hilariously) dressing up as Axl for a Halloween gig.

(The photograph also shows Slash seemingly making fun of Buckethead, although he since said this was just a joke and he wasn’t trying to cause offense).

They didn’t get any response from Rose, who chose to ignore the entire situation.

However, it was clear by this point (2005) that Nu-GNR had become an industry joke due to the stop-start nature of their schedule, the hirings and firings within the band, and the never-ending process of making the Chinese Democracy album.

People were no longer curious about Axl’s vision, instead they mocked it.

Shortly after this, Rose issued a cease-and-desist order to The Offspring, who tried to name their new album Chinese Democracy, and cheekily led the marketing campaign with the note, “Hey Axl, you snooze, you lose!”

Then the plot thickened…

Weiland’s erratic behaviour and shots at Rose 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 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 drunk, and he spent around 15-minutes ranting about the in-fighting which was taking place VR, then stated that he wanted nothing more than to patch things up with Axl.

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

Interestingly, when Velvet Revolver decided to disband Scott Weiland issued a public apology to Rose.

Scott Weiland: “I guess it’s ironic that my recently ex-bandmates are regurgitating the same stories about me that they did with Axl Rose in their last band, where the singer was demonized. I heard all the crazy stories from them, and I used to think he must’ve been such a troll to work with, but having been through this I’ve got an entirely different opinion of him today.”

I’m On The Nightrain

Seeing his ex-bandmates riding high appeared to light a fire under Rose.

He found a level of consistency and performance which hadn’t been seen for years, and Nu-GNR would tour relentlessly throughout 2006 and 2007.

Highlight of this run (their first full tour since they formed in the late-90s, by the way!) included a headline slot at Rock Am Ring 2006 (see above) which is widely regarded as Nu-GNR’s best concert, and a no-nonsense performance at Download Festival 2006 where Axl rolled back the years and won over an incredibly sceptical crowd.

He even brought out former GNR guitarist Izzy Stradlin for several guest appearances.

The line-up underwent a couple of changes at this time, too.

Axl finally secured the services of Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal as Buckethead’s replacement, but long-time drummer Brain had decided to go on paternity leave after the birth of his first child. Fortus recommended that they draft in Frank Ferrer as a cover (a move which became permanent when Brain expressed a desire to remain at home with his family).

Ron Thal recently spoke about the problems he experienced when he first joined the GN’R fold.

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

I guess they’d got used to playing with two guitarists since Buckethead left, but Axl wanted three, and my loyalty was to Axl anyway as he hired me, so their hostility didn’t really bother me.

I underestimated the size of the shows we would be playing. I figured it would be House Of Blues type venues, but within days we jetted off to headline festivals in Europe with like 100,000 fans!

At first it was pretty hostile between myself and the other members, where they would just exclude me from things, or ignore my input, make me travel alone, that sort of thing. Eventually one of them really crossed the line and I ended up getting a little violent, and I think that’s when they realized I’m not gonna let them walk all over me, and I’m not gonna leave either, so they stopped being jerks.”

The band were flying high at this point, and at the end of 2007 Axl made a guest appearance on three tracks of his pal Sebastian Bach’s solo album, marking 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 contributed another new song (If The World) to the Leonardo DiCaprio movie Body Of Lies.

Fans were in disbelief at this burst of activity.

And as they waited for the inevitable thing to go wrong (because something ALWAYS goes wrong), the unthinkable happened…

Chinese Democracy Is Released

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

The LP was 14-years in the making, and it’s the first (and only) to feature music by Nu-GNR.

One thing is clear: Axl was correct in 2001 prediction that this wouldn’t sound like the old Guns N’ Roses.

Because while Appetite For Destruction was raw, and Use Your Illusion showed a band which had suddenly been given the freedom of the studio to expand their vision, Chinese Democracy sounds like it’s been made with the most expensive everything, and then endured endless mixes, remixes, and alternate mixes.

It was greeted by very mixed reviews, with some outlets praising Rose for his refusal to live on former glories, and others berating him over the exact same thing.

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

In an era of rockstars who seem afraid of the controversy which the genre needs in order to survive, that’s quite a refreshing take.

You can debate whether any rock record is worth that extreme level of self-indulgence, or the time it took, but the most rock & roll thing about Chinese Democracy is that Axl Rose genuinely doesn’t give a fuck whether you like it or not.”

To its credit, it produces some truly sublime moments.

These include the impressive vocal gymnastics of Street Of Dreams (formerly known as The Blues), and a tear-jerking solo from Robin Finck on ballad This I Love (the track which was earmarked for a movie soundtrack in 1998).

He made sure ever member of the current line-up gets to play on the record by having them re-record the songs which were already finished in 2001/2002, and he chose to retain several face-melting contributions from the now-departed 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 performance of Axl’s career to date.

Lincoln Journal: “Despite all the pressure, Axl Rose 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, it also gets in its own way at times.

There are numerous examples of Rose lashing out at anyone with the temerity to confront him, but taunts like, “Don’t you try to stop us now!” (from the throbbing Scraped) don’t exactly ring true from a man who has seemed to stop himself for years.”

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

I’m happy that he got to make the record he always wanted to make, and I understand now that if that’s what he was hearing in his head when we were planning our next album in 95/96, then that’s probably why there were such tensions between us, because it’s 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 that Geffen/Interscope had denied his request for a couple more weeks to edit the artwork of Chinese Democracy, and he retaliated by refusing to partake in any promotional work.

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

This temper tantrum led to six months of inactivity at the worst possible time for Nu-GNR, and in the absence of a world tour announcement, long-time guitarist Robin Finck decided to leave the band.

“There was no real involvement from Interscope throughout the whole process!

Everyone in the band hates the record company, because they never helped with anything from recording, or marketing, or artwork. With regards to the current state of the industry with piracy/leaks, I have no sympathy for them, because they have brought it upon themselves.”

All Things Are Possible, I Am Unstoppable

Once Axl snapped out of his funk, he decided decided to book a world tour.

He wanted to keep the three-guitar approach which Nu-GNR had been using for several years, so he recruited Ashba to fill the void left by Robin Finck.

Ashba brought a sense of youthful excitement to the band, having never experienced the crazy heights of Guns N’ Roses before, and this appeared to rub off on Rose. The frontman hit the road in support of the album with a real fire in his belly, determined to prove the quality of the material via stellar live performances.

During this time, Axl famously no showed his own induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.

He did so due to his belief that those in charge of the ceremony shouldn’t get to decide who is worthy, because they’ve never lived the life, and in a show of solidarity to his current line-up of Nu-GNR, shooting down any talk of a classic GN’R reunion.

“That really meant something to us.

You’ve gotta remember, he could’ve bailed on us at any time and made a stack of money by getting back together with his old band – instead he stayed in the trenches with us, battling to get our record made and through all the bad press he got. I’ll never forget that.

I have nothing but nice things to say about Axl, and my time in GN’R will be remembered fondly.”

This version of the band would tour relentlessly for the next 4-years (the longest of Axl’s entire career).

There were several great shows throughout the run, but the vocal chord damage he had suffered over a decade ago began to catch up with him, and as their lucrative Las Vegas residency drew to a close, it spelled the end for Nu-GNR.

Dead Era 13-15

After leaving Vegas, Axl decided he would take some time off to let his voice heal.

During this break he received a triple-whammy of bad news that ultimately killed Nu-GNR.

Long-time bassist Tommy Stinson (a member since 1999!) decided it was time to call it a day, guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal left to pursue his side project Art Of Anarchy, and then Ashba’s side project Sixx A.M. started to achieve chart success, so he left 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 didn’t appeal to GN’R fans, who turned on Rose and expressed their frustration at his stubborn refusal to get the old line-up back together. Their curiosity for Chinese Democracy had long since passed, and Rose had failed to deliver his much-promised second and third instalments of new material.

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

The band trended across social media in February 2015, as rumours of a classic GN’R reunion caught on fire.

It the moment which fans had all been craving (but never truly expecting), news broke that Axl Rose and Slash had patched things up, and he would be returning to Guns N’ Roses.

Better still, he was bringing Duff McKagan with him!

Axl also hired keyboardist and backing vocalist Melissa Reese (on the recommendation of former drummer Brain), and these old/new faces would join existing members Dizzy Reed (1990-present), Richard Fortus (2002-present), and Frank Ferrer (2006-present) to create a hybrid version of Nu-GNR and classic GN’R.

True to the chaotic nature of the band, fans were unsure whether to really believe the news.

They became even more sceptical when it was announced they would perform a comeback show at the famous Troubadour club in Los Angeles on April 1st, 2016.

(Let’s face it, if anybody is mad enough to pull of an April Fool’s Joke of this magnitude, it’s Axl Rose!)

It turned out to be 100% real.

Bette yet, the band absolutely rocked the joint, and looked visibly happy on stage, creating an electric atmosphere similar to that which occurred at Rock In Rio III all those years ago.

They pencilled in ten dates around the U.S. to test the waters, but this ended up becoming a full-blown world tour (ironically dubbed the “Not In This Lifetime” tour – a joke which referenced Axl’s response to a reporter in 2009 when he was asked if he’d ever perform with Slash again).

It became one of the most lucrative world tours of all time.

To give you an idea how profitable it was, a 2017 rich list showed that Guns N’ Roses generated more money than Belgium (yes, the country!) in that calendar year.

The band have been a functional unit ever since, and when lockdown arrived in 2020, they went back into the studio and re-worked new 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.