Guns N’ Roses were in turmoil in 1995.

They found themselves under immense pressure to deliver another hit album after 1991’s sprawling Use Your Illusion boxset, and three years of touring had worn them down their their bare bones.

The album would never materialize.

Instead, frontman Axl Rose would watch on in horror a “the most dangerous band in the world” fell apart, and then try to re-capture lightning in a bottle by creating a new version of Guns N’ Roses, which came to be known by fans as Nu-GNR, to stick it to his old bandmates.

Considering the original line-up amassed more classic songs on their first two albums than most rock bands do in their career, the fiery singer had set himself for a mammoth task, and it’s one which would ultimately fail.

However, it makes for a very cool story.

They’re Out Ta Get Me

The disintegration of the old band started in late 1994, when they began discussing ideas for the follow-up to 1991’s Use Your Illusion album.

“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’ sound further into new territory by incorporating some elements of electronic rock and industrial rock into their work, but everybody else in the band disagreed.

Especially Slash.

The way Slash saw it, GN’R had already departed their trademark sound on Use Your Illusion, and he wanted to cut an album in the style of 1987’s breakthrough LP Appetite For Destruction.

Rose, who by this point was surrounded by “yes men” and operating in a mad dictator role, shot down the idea and challenged Slash to grow his guitar-playing repertoire rather than re-treading old ground, to which the top-hatted axeman flatly refused.

And then things got even worse.

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

The person he is referring to here is Paul Huge (pronounced Hoogey).

Slash believed that most of GN’R’s creative differences could be worked out if they got inside a studio and started jamming again, so he agreed to a deal which saw GN’R provide a cover version of the Rolling Stones classic Sympathy For The Devil for the soundtrack to the new Tom Cruise movie.

Completely missing the point of Slash’s idea, Axl skipped the studio time altogether and chose to record his vocals after everyone else had completed their parts. When he eventually arrived to do so, he brought childhood friend Paul Huge with him. Rose then appointed him as the band’s new rhythm guitarist without consulting anyone, and even had the audacity to add Huge over the top of Slash’s outro solo.

This would prove to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“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.”

Slash’s rage towards Huge seemed to go deeper than just the music.

“I didn’t like the 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 worse. I can’t be clear enough when I say that Paul Huge is Axl’s friend and nothing more. He is not and will not ever be in GN’R as far as I’m concerned. Fuck that guy.”

GN’R would book sporadic recording sessions over the next two years in a bid to put the past behind them and get back on track, but the relationship of Axl and Slash had reached an all-time low.

In late 1996, the fiery singer appeared to drop a nuke on fans’ hopes of a reconciliation by sending 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 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 aside from a 2-week period in the fall of 1995, he has not been musically involved with Guns N’ Roses since April 1994. Nothing here is subject to change, without a permanent suspension of his “pseudo studio musician” work ethic.”

By early 1997, Slash was officialy out of the band and the pair hadn’t spoken in three long months.

Drummer Matt Sorum figured he might be able to mend their fragile relationship if he could end the Paul Huge fiasco once and for all by helping Axl appoint a permanent new rhythm guitarist, so he took his frustrated singer on a trip to the circus to watch Cirque de Soleil.

That’s where Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck was performing, and Sorum told Rose that he’d been keeping tabs on Finck for a while, and believed he’d make the perfect rhythm guitar foil for Slash.

Axl sat with the idea and went to check out one of Finck’s solo gigs later that week.

“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, “No, he’ll be playing lead.””

This was confirmation-of-sorts that Slash would not be returning, and can be seen as the first step in the creation of Nu-GNR.

Just six weeks later Sorum himself was forced out of the band.

Duff McKagan says he, Sorum and Rose got into a somewhat heated debate in the studio, with the drummer expressing his frustrations that Axl had been late in creating a new Guns N’ Roses album.

“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 told him that those decisions cannot be made by one single person, 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.”

Just after the argument, Paul Huge walked into the studio and made a negative comment about Slash, which caused Sorum to fly off the handle.

“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. Axl laid into me over it, we argued, and I was fired.

As I walked through the carpark he (Huge) followed me and said I should come back inside, but I told him “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 I can’t either.”

Axl set about finding a new drummer and held sessions with Chris Vrenna (Nine Inch Nails). He played with the band for a couple of weeks but decided he didn’t want to be part of the line-up due to the tensions between the other members.

“We spent time jamming, but something wasn’t right. 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.”

He switched his attention to Dave Abbruzzese (Red Hot Chili Peppers), and Joey Castillo (Queens Of The Stone Age), but neither worked out.

To make matters worse, long-time producer Mike Clink ended his association with the band due to Axl wanting to go in a new direction, and then Duff McKagan handed in his resignation.

Duff: “It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but it just wasn’t fun anymore. I only hung on as long as I did because I was acting as a bridge between Axl and Slash, and once it became clear he’s not coming back, I was done.

Axl took me for lunch a couple of days later, I guess he wanted to see if I was serious.

I really let go on him, I told him; “This is your band, and I can’t play in it with you acting like a dictator. You hired Paul (Huge) without asking anybody, and you’ve seen how it has torn us apart.”

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

And with that, I was gone.

I didn’t speak to him again until 2007. Although I don’t regret my decision to leave, it was a mistake to not speak to Axl for ten years.”

The Wheels Already Set In Motion

At this point Axl was pretty much starting from scratch.

All that remained of the GN’R camp was long-time keyboardist Dizzy Reed, newly appointed guitarist Robin Finck, and of course Paul Huge, who was still hanging around Axl at every opportunity.

“I’m a fan first-and-foremost, so I was bummed when I heard that Duff left. He wa a cool guy and the last thread to the first record.

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

I asked if he was thinking of maybe dropping the Guns N’ Roses name now, considering it’s just gonna be him and a bunch of new guys, and he wanted to go in a different direction sound-wise anyway. He told me that he wouldn’t be dropping the name, because Duff and Slash choosing to leave him shouldn’t be a reason to kill what he has worked so hard to create.”

Rose began the process of recruiting a whole new band, starting with drummer Josh Freese (The Vandals) and Tommy Stinson (The Replacements) on bass, who was recommended by the newly-appointed Freese.

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 didn’t make a dime from my previous band, so when Josh mentioned they need a bass player I joked that I’d do it. I went out and bought a second-hand copy of Appetite For Destruction and learned five of the songs, and somehow got the job!”

Provided he was going to stick to his guns over Huge’s appointment, it appeared that Axl now had a full band in place, but things got off to a rocky start for the Nu-Guns as 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 or 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 really annoying, but we got over it.”

With the project now up and running, a delighted Geffen Records handed Axl $1 million to push on with recording a new album, and they promised him another $1 million bonus when the final mixes were handed over.

In a move which seemingly confirmed that the wheels were now in motion, Rose also agreed to provide a track called This I Love for the soundtrack to the 1998 Robin Williams movie What Dreams May Come. Originally written in 1994, the song is rumoured to be about Rose’s sadness at losing contact with Stephanie Seymour’s son, Dylan, when their relationship ended.

To the disappointment of the record company (and fans), the movie came and went with no new GN’R material.

It turned out Rose himself was having some personal issues.

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.

I had a feeling he might never come back. He seemed to have depression, likely due to only working between 9pm and 9am every day and living a hermit lifestyle.”

In early 1999, while Axl was busy arguing with his former bandmates over the setlist for the upcoming Live Era 87-93 album which Geffen wanted to release, his new Gunners suffered another setback.

Guitarist Robin Finck had decided to go back to Nine Inch Nails.

When asked for his reasons for doing so, he cited the same issues producer Youth mentions above.

“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 write lyrics and add vocals to them. No songs were completed in the whole time I was there. I just couldn’t work with song titles like “Instrumental 34″ anymore.”

Many fans thought the gig was up for GN’R at this point, but that was not the case.

Axl said that he would be appointing a new lead guitarist soon, and tried to quell frustrations by gifting a new song (finally!) to the soundtrack of the latest Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, End Of Days.

Titled Oh My God, this track was the first Nu-GNR material ever to be released, and it was met with mixed reviews. Some praised the bravery of Axl’s new direction, but many GN’R fans felt that the industrial-tinged production was too much of a shift away from their trademark sound.

A few days later, Axl finally got the guitar player he’d been searching for – thanks once again to the connections of drummer Josh Freese.

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

“Buckethead! Does anybody know him?”

I’ve known Bucket since 1991, so I told him we go way back, and he was like, “I knew it! I just knew you would! How can we get in touch with him?” I set up a meeting and the they hit it off immediately. Within about a month Axl was Bucket’s hero.

He didn’t connect with many people, but something about Axl made him feel like understood.”

This is a guitar virtuoso the likes of which GN’R had never seen before.

Sure, we all love Slash, and Robin Finck is awesome too, but Buckethead is one of the few people who can legitimately lay claim to the title of being among the best guitarists on the planet, so Axl had completed quite the coup in convincing him to join the project.

His bandmates say that Rose was besotted with Buckethead from the second he saw him, deriving great enjoyment not just in 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 a KFC bucket on top of his head. He also refused to speak, instead engaging in conversation via hand gestures and awkward head tilts. And despite the serial killer vibes of his costume, Buckethead was crazy about all things Disneyland. Axl took him on a trip to the famous theme park, where rumour has it he signed his GN’R contract inside the Haunted Mansion ride.

Things seemed to be looking really good for Nu-GNR at this stage, but then they hit a bump in the road.

Drummer Josh Freese, who had played an integral role in writing the new material as well as bringing in both Buckethead and Tommy Stinson, had decided to hand in his resignation.

“I, like Robin, left GNR because I was feeling 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 still wasn’t any sign that we would be releasing the album or touring. 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 sit around waiting any longer, I want to get out and play.”

Immediately after leaving, Freese formed A Perfect Circle with Billy Howerdel, who had been working alongside him as a Pro Tools engineer for the Guns N’ Roses album. Somewhat ironically, their new band immediately landed a support slot for Nine Inch Nails (featuring Robin Finck).

Thankfully, this departure didn’t set the GN’R camp back as much as it could have.

Buckethead recommended his best friend Brian “Brain” Mantia (Primus) take the stool, and Freese gave Axl a nod of approval at his replacement.

“The studio they were using was insane.

Imagine if you got a room on level ten of the hotel… this was eleven! Like, what the fuck! Axl was nice, too. He even said I could still do side projects if I wanted to, but honestly this was it for me.”

The problematic Paul Huge saw his role diminish even further when Axl made the surprise announcement that Robin Finck would be returning to Guns N’ Roses, forming an insane guitar tag team with Buckethead.

Riding high on the confidence of this appointment, Rose then made a sensational attempt to lure founding member Izzy Stradlin back into the fold, hoping he would play rhythm guitar behind his two weapons of mass destruction.

“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, as I was the only one he spoke to, but in any event, I declined the invitation.”

That one didn’t work out, but Axl could breathe a long overdue sigh of relief, for his powerful “super group” was now complete.

The Nu-GNR line-up would consist of Axl Rose on vocals, Buckethead and Robin Finck sharing lead and rhythm guitar duties, Tommy Stinson on bass, Dizzy Reed on piano, and Brain on drums.

Ain’t It Fun

During the late 90s, Axl had become an expert at hiding his identity while out on the town.

So much so, that when he attended a concert by ex-GNR rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke, his former bandmate said he was it took him about 30-seconds to recognise his old friend.

The pair caught up old times, and Axl hung around to watch the show. To the surprise of everybody in attendance, he climbed onstage and performed a duet of Clarke’s 1994 single Dead Flowers, marking his first public performance since the 1994 Rock And Roll Hall of Fame ceremony.

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

They announced they would be playing at the upcoming Rock In Rio III festival. It doesn’t get any bigger than that, with the Brazilian music gathering regularly attracting crowds of over 200,000.

Rose decided that it would be a good idea to do a warm-up show before facing such a vast crowd with his new band, so on January 1st, 2001, they took to the stage at the House Of Blues, Las Vegas, in what has become 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 the old classics, and even debut a few new tracks they’d been working on in the studio.

The concert was so secretive there is no official video footage (although some audio can be found online), and the general consensus of those in attendance is that Axl sounded fantastic.

Holy shit, maybe this is possible?

Two weeks later they were in Brazil, headlining their first “proper” gig with the new line-up in front of almost a quarter of a million fans.

What’s perhaps strangest about the pandemonium surrounding his comeback is that, at the time, he had been away from the music scene for 6-years. Several other artists have taken just as much time away (Beyonce left a 6-year gap between albums as recently as 2022), but a 6-year gap in the crazy world of Axl Rose seemed like a fucking lifetime.

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 excitement, curiosity, and dread, which culminated in a state of euphoria as the as the staccato riff of Welcome To The Jungle cut through the Rio night sky.

Axl announced his re-arrival with a soul-crunching “Do you know where the fuck you are?” which went on… and on… and on… somehow capturing five years of rage and frustration in one hellish note, which sent the 200,000 baying fans over the top. The band went on to play for two-and-a-half hours in what was largely seen a great comeback show. Read our review of it here.

Rose even decided to give new songs Chinese Democracy, The Blues, and Madagascar a trial run, to which the Brazilian crowd were very appreciative.

Overall, his comeback was everything he could’ve possibly hoped for and, perhaps highlighting a lack of quality in the early 2000’s, he’d managed to elevate himself back into the top tier of rock music in the space of one 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

In typical GN’R style they shot themselves in the foot right after this concert ended.

Having impressed the rock media and won over many critics with their stellar performance at Rock In Rio III, the plan was to head off on a world tour which started with dates in Chile and Argentina…

… but that’s not what happened.

Axl decided that the concert had taken a toll on his voice (understandable given it was his first show in so long) and postponed the dates indefinitely. This break ended up lasting two years.

Pretty Tied Up

Buckethead was the subject of a lot of drama over this 2-year period.

The guitar virtuoso was a polarizing character. Axl couldn’t get enough of his weird characteristics, whereas new producer Roy Thomas Baker (Queen) didn’t feel the same way at all.

Tom Zutaut (manager): “Buckethead actually left the band in mid-2001.

His reason was the same as Robin and Josh before him; he was tired of not playing shows. He didn’t think the record would ever come out, and wasn’t prepared to waste another year doing nothing. There were also creative differences with Roy Thomas Baker (producer), who wanted him to record a more traditional rock sound, which is just not him.

The thing about Buckethead is despite his scary appearance, his personality is like that of a young child. Axl is his hero, and he hated the thought of letting him down.

It genuinely broke his heart to leave.”

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

Zutaut: “He took a trip to Disneyland with Axl to tell him why he had left, and Axl convinced him to stay by reassuring him that the record would come out and a tour was in the works. He even agreed to build Buckethead a chicken coup inside the recording studio, which Buckethead said would make him feel more comfortable and inspire him to create great work.”

Wait… a chicken coup?!

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

And then it all went to hell, of course!

One evening Axl came down to the studio and saw that Buckethead is watching pornography in there, like hardcore stuff. He just lost it with him. It was the only time I ever saw him lose his temper with the new band. Buckethead tried to say that the videos were inspiring him to create more material, but Axl shut the whole thing down and told him to stop that behaviour immediately.”

Rose kept good on his word and scheduled a tour for Summer 2001, just as Buckethead had requested, but the Kentucky Fried Shredder was still reeling from being berated by his hero and decided to go AWOL the night before the first concert, posting a message on his website which claimed he’d been taken to hospital with a mystery illness.

This forced GN’R to cancel their impromptu tour.

With the band now stuck in limbo awaiting his return, Axl decided this was a good opportunity to have a clear out.

He relieved Zutaut and Baker of their behind-the-scenes duties, and also came to the conclusion that Paul Huge (the problematic guitarist who was famously at the centre of the original line-up’s demise) had to go, quickly replacing him with accomplished rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus.

Don’t Watch That Much TV

In August of 2002, GN’R agreed to be surprise guests at the 2002 MTV VMA’s.

The new album was due out the same week (that’s a whole other story) and they were going to embark on their first proper tour straight after the show.

What’s interesting about this show is that while rock fans were aware the band had performed in Rio two years before, the vast majority of the world still had no idea that Axl was coming back with a brand new band, and this surprise appearance was their first exposure to so-called Nu-GNR.

Their performance did not go down well.

Running through a medley of Welcome To The Jungle, Madagascar, and Paradise City, the frontman found himself out of breath and out of tune on numerous occasions. To make matters worse, fans reacted angrily to the array of new guys in the band and the vastly different appearance of Axl’s “freak show” to the classic GN’R line-up.

Heck, even Axl was unrecognisable; sporting cornrows, an over-sized sports jersey, and a fresh batch of botox, he looked a far cry from the singer who ruled one of the 1990s biggest rock bands.

Out of all the new members, Buckethead copped it the worst.

The majority of casual fans tuned in expecting to see the classic line-up when they heard GN’R were back, so you can only imagine their shock at the axeman’s jarring appearance.

He was on a hiding to nothing; sure, he could play the music, but that’s a minimum requirement, and without wanting to offend the GN’R back catalogue there’s nothing in there which would push Buckethead near the levels necessary to display his insane technical ability, so the way fans saw it, Axl had decided to replace Slash’s effortless cool with some weird guy wearing a KFC bucket on his head.

It was a PR disaster, but perhaps most alarming about this performance is that, while the new guys received a lot of stick for not being the old guys, the band were actually very solid in their performance, and Axl was the weak link.

He Lost His Mind Today

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

Unfortunately, Axl’s delays and the MTV debacle meant the tour took on a different purpose to that which they initially intended, as they focussed on trying to recapture fan interest instead of capitalizing on their stellar performance in Rio 2001.

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

One of the highlights came at Leeds Festival (UK), where Nu-GNR performed strongly in front of a large crowd and a sizeable TV audience, enabling them to 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 the lead guitarist for most bands, having him sit as a safety net behind Buckethead and Finck seemed like a strange idea, but it really worked, 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 when they began the North American leg of the tour, when the concert was cancelled just one hour before its scheduled start time, kicking off a riot which saw around 9000 fans take out their frustrations on the arena and its surrounding area.

The organizers blamed Axl for the mess, and 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 that I would still make it in time to play the show, and they just announced over the P.A. system that the show was cancelled.”

His ex-bandmates were less than impressed.

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

“All these years later and he finally gets out there, and he had two options; either go and prove us all wrong, or screw it up, and he screwed it up.

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

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 largely positive 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.”

And then they hit the skids again, when Axl failed to turn up to a concert in Philadelphia. This kick-started another riot, resulting in the cancellation of the rest of the tour.

“I was in the hotel with Buckethead when we heard Axl wasn’t going to arrive. We could see people throwing chairs around and causing damage.

It was crazy, but man, this was life in GN’R.

I can see how it would 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.

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 Axl was. They managed to get his manager on the phone and it turns out he’s still miles away, and is refusing to get on the helicopter until the server in Starbucks gets his coffee right (laughs).

You can hear him arguing with the guy in the background, it was insane.

They’re telling him to move to the side, I guess there’s a queue building as a result of him keep asking for his drink to be made again and again or whatever, and we hear Axl say, “Welcome to your worst nightmare, son, I’ve got thirty two fucking thousand people waiting on me, and I won’t move until you get this right!” (laughs).

I had to put my hand over my mouth and grit my teeth to stop myself laughing out loud at that.

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 rockstar diva shit, and I was there for 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 experienced a few shake-ups during their first Appetite-to-Illusion era, and for the most part, the new recruits were accepted.

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 was followed up by the release of the sprawling Use Your Illusion double albums the following year. Likewise, when founding member Izzy Stradlin quit shortly after that album’s release, 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.

Their presence in the public eye made the transition to the new guys much easier to swallow.

Meanwhile, Axl’s Nu-GNR had already seen several changes, and people were joining and leaving without releasing a single thing, which led to most fans dismissing the new recruits as glorified session players, rather than actual band members.

If Nu-Guns wanted to be taken seriously, they needed to release an album – and even then, it would still be a daunting task, because many of the musicians who had contributed to the album were already out of the picture, and the new record would also have to fight an uphill battle 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

Following the end of the drama-filled tour, Buckethead decided he’d had enough.

He disappeared from rehearsals and the recording studio, and cut off all contact with the other members of the band. When lawyers from GNR would reach out to him about his absence, he would communicate with them via a sock puppet on his hand (!).

His original reasons for leaving in 2001 had resurfaced, but this time there would be no going back.

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

“I didn’t like the way their management team were doing things. My life was good at the time, and I was busy with a lot of projects. I knew that if I joined Guns N’ Roses it would take over every aspect of my life, and honestly, the way their management team acted seemed pretty toxic.”

The Big Machine

Velvet Revolver had just released their debut album, Contraband.

The band featured ex-GNR members Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, and would be fronted by former Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland.

The album went on to crack the Top 10 and gave the ex-Gunners another shot at the big time; something which seemed to irk Rose. When appearing on a late night chat show, the reclusive frontman was asked about his thoughts on the album, and he accused Slash of stealing material which he had written for Guns N’ Roses some ten years ago.

The track he was referring to is Fall To Pieces. It’s one of the best songs on the album, and features some of Slash’s finest guitar work to date.

Axl’s comments about Fall To Pieces had infuriated Weiland, who later took the to the media to call him a “plastic-faced, wig-wearing fuck.”

No doubt sensing the publicity a feud with Rose could bring (and with most of GNR’s frustrated fanbase on his side at this point), VR frontman Weiland upped the ante by dressing up as Axl for a Halloween photo shoot (and pulls it off superbly!):

Rose chose not to respond.

In fact, many pointed out that the real controversy in this image was Slash seemingly mocking Buckethead. The guitarist later insisted that his involvement was taken out of context, because he had no problems with Buckethead.

What became clear at this point is that the length of time which Axl had spent deliberating over his grand vision for Nu-GNR had turned his band into a an industry joke.

Shortly after this, Rose issued a cease-and-desist order to pop punk band The Offspring, who attempted to name their new album Chinese Democracy, with a marketing campaign which read, “Hey Axl, you snooze, you lose!”

And then plot then thickened further…

Weiland’s erratic behaviour and shots at Axl didn’t sit well with Slash, who believed the name-calling would cause irreparable damage to an already mangled relationship with his former friend. Shortly after this, Slash is said to have made a surprise visit to Axl’s house.

“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.”

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 a guest appearance during the tour, and it looked like things were finally beginning to take shape.

There was good news and bad news on the line-up front.

Axl finally secured the services of Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal as his third guitarist, but long-time drummer Brain decided to leave after the birth of his first child, and was replaced by Frank Ferrer, who was recommended by Richard Fortus.

Bumblefoot experienced some initial teething problems with the other members.

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

My loyalty was to Axl anyway, so it didn’t bother me much. 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, and then they started realizing that I’m not gonna just leave, so they stopped being assholes.

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

Towards the end of 2007, Axl made a guest appearance on three tracks featuring on the new solo album of his pal Sebastian Bach, marking his first official music since GN’R slapped Oh My God on a movie soundtrack in 1999.

Delighted with the positive feedback he received, a newly-invigorated Rose also agreed to let the video game Rock Band use a brand new GN’R track called Shackler’s Revenge, and then contributed another new song called If The World to the soundtrack of the Leonardo DiCaprio movie, Body Of Lies.

And then, 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.