Axl speaks (just about)

[Mindgames]

An interview by Billboard, conducted via email (yup, he can type. I'm shocked), is online here. The guy really doesn't like his label, but he's learned if you don't want your new tracks leaked, you shouldn't test them at full volume through a local strip club's PA system.

It includes a disclaimer which only Axl or Dubya could have applied to them:-

"...answers appear here almost exactly as he sent them, edited only for grammar, length and clarity."

[Amelia G]

Okay, I am a huge GNR fan or at least I was and I maybe even felt like Axl was perhaps the most important member of the original lineup, but is he seriously whining about record company support being lacking after they spent $13 mill and he did dickall for promo other than possibly let the product get out for free?

I think cutting off the real music stores in favor of a Best Buy exclusive hurt Chinese Democracy's sales. I buy cheap electronics at Best Buy when I don't have time to wait for an internet purchase to be shipped. I don't get music there and I kind of ethically disapprove of a major release doing an exclusive, especially doing one with a store which can't offer anything special for them. Is Best Buy going to give the band free rack space for their exclusive or something? With the extra money they made from proper distro, they could have purchased rack space at Best Buy.

Re: "talk shows, rock magazines and dot-coms" he says, "Efforts are being made to understand the relationships and evaluate how best to proceed."??? Axl, dude, either you do press or you don't.

He's been "asking for a marketing plan for over five years"? How many years was the label asking for an album?

I understand his pain when it comes to press coverage. I really do. It is very difficult to find modern press which doesn't feel like it has an agenda, but, damn, it is part of his job. A lot of bands could stand to learn that a little positive and friendly outreach goes a long way and an expectation of a hatchet job is going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[Mindgames]

Axl doesn't "do" petty stuff like promo.. touring... breathing... As a living Rock God, he employs people to open his eyelids in the morning. I hear the position of "understudy to assistant testicle-scratcher" is hiring if you're interested. Nobody's entirely sure if the guy answering the emails was even Axl.

Yes, the Best Buy deal has hammered sales; but it hasn't hammered his overall earnings. It was a dead donkey from the start, as from the fan point of view they didn't gain anything - the CD cost the same, but was harder to find. Personally, I think if Interscope really wanted to hedge their revenue through a tie-in, they should've stuck to the "free with a burger" deals. The fans don't mind buying a Mac or a newspaper to get their CD provided it's cheaper than the CD would cost alone, and with the known fanbase of GNR the money involved would be considerably more than they got from Best Buy. I know many people hate the feeling of corporate tie-in deals, but if you're going to do one, you do one that annoys the fans the least.

[jonny.illuminati]

i hear he spends most of his days hiding under his bed...

[nathanmbailey]

It doesn't help when you're trying to create an album and you can't stick with one guitarist long enough to lay all the tracks, and then when you get a new guitarist make him redo all the shit the last one did out of spite. Oh, it also doesn't help when you just write as many songs as possible then half ass work on each one until you figure out which ones might work for the album, then actually work on them to find that they suck and have to pick others.

Oh, and appearantly he expected everyone else in the band to be in the studio all day and night just in case he actually showed up to do something.

And they say he didn't do drugs with everyone else? What the fuck is up with that?

[Ajax Knucklebones]

Okay, I am a huge GNR fan or at least I was and I maybe even felt like Axl was perhaps the most important member of the original lineup, but is he seriously whining about record company support being lacking after they spent $13 mill and he did dickall for promo other than possibly let the product get out for free?

I think cutting off the real music stores in favor of a Best Buy exclusive hurt Chinese Democracy's sales. I buy cheap electronics at Best Buy when I don't have time to wait for an internet purchase to be shipped. I don't get music there and I kind of ethically disapprove of a major release doing an exclusive, especially doing one with a store which can't offer anything special for them. Is Best Buy going to give the band free rack space for their exclusive or something? With the extra money they made from proper distro, they could have purchased rack space at Best Buy.

Re: "talk shows, rock magazines and dot-coms" he says, "Efforts are being made to understand the relationships and evaluate how best to proceed."??? Axl, dude, either you do press or you don't.

He's been "asking for a marketing plan for over five years"? How many years was the label asking for an album?

I understand his pain when it comes to press coverage. I really do. It is very difficult to find modern press which doesn't feel like it has an agenda, but, damn, it is part of his job. A lot of bands could stand to learn that a little positive and friendly outreach goes a long way and an expectation of a hatchet job is going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

***Okay, I am a huge GNR fan or at least I was and I maybe even felt like Axl was perhaps the most important member of the original lineup***

Actually from what I heard, Izzy pretty much wrote all the good songs or at least the catchy music. When he decided to book it the fuck out of there, Axel and Slash immediately knew they were fucked. Which is why it took sooooo fuckin' long for a new GNR album to come out. Because Axel, deep down, knew he didn't have shit. Which is also why the new album, 12 years too late, IS shit. He had the pipes to make GNR distinctive....But that was about it.

[Bikerpunk]

FUCK Axl Rose.

FUCK HIM TO DEATH.

Balding piece of shit hasbeen. He should go back to being a rent boy.

[Ajax Knucklebones]

FUCK Axl Rose.

FUCK HIM TO DEATH.

Balding piece of shit hasbeen. He should go back to being a rent boy.

Don't worry...He will.

[Amelia G]

FUCK Axl Rose.

FUCK HIM TO DEATH.

Balding piece of shit hasbeen. He should go back to being a rent boy.

(1) Any special reason why?

(2) You know time might wait for some, but it doesn't stop for anyone, right? As you age, do you really want to be criticized for it?

[Bikerpunk]

(1) Any special reason why?

(2) You know time might wait for some, but it doesn't stop for anyone, right? As you age, do you really want to be criticized for it?

1) Seven words:

"FUCK YOU MONTREAL! SUCK MY FUCKIN' DICK!"

Thanks, asshole (Axl, not you). I hope the fact that I was nearly skull-fractured in the ensuing riot makes you happy.

[nathanmbailey]

It makes me happy....

[Mr Karl]

1) Seven words:

"FUCK YOU MONTREAL! SUCK MY FUCKIN' DICK!"

Thanks, asshole (Axl, not you). I hope the fact that I was nearly skull-fractured in the ensuing riot makes you happy.

well, you should have seen that one coming