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- Topics: Active | Unanswered
- shotgunblues1978
- Rep: 11
Re: Is the Van Halen tour a lesson to Axl?
the problem wasn't a lack of vision. it was axl never being around.
I agree with most of your comments war. Axl did have a vision; it was to move GNR forward into the new millenium past the musical style favored by Slash and others. That is why he hired Robin Finck, Buckethead, and added another synth guy in Pittman. The main problem here was the lack of execution. From the simple task of introducing the new members to the public where they would not be seen as a old GNR cover band to the recording of the album in a reasonable time period, they failed miserably. It was a lack of leadership that doomed this era.
I think some of the blame has to go to Doug Goldstein and Merck. They did nothing to further the recording process--I think this is more true for Goldstein. It seemed like whenever there was some sort of minor problem--ie. the stuff with the drum sounds--those things would take forever to fix and doom the making of the album. What GNR needed was a kick ass guy who could get things done and at the same time convince Axl that the world wasn't falling apart when there were problems in the process. It's a shame that Tom Zutaut got booted in 2002 since it appeared that he had made significant progress in allaying Axl's worries about the album and progressing towards it's long awaited release.
I'm real interested in seeing if Irving Azoff can coax any new material out of Axl. Axl seems to trust him and he is a guy that gets stuff done (reunited Eagles album, reunited VH w/ Dave and allegedly an album in the future).
Nice post. There's a solid amount of evidence that in 1997, desperate Geffen execs handed out a $10 million advance when Axl didn't really want to make music, which was evidenced by the story Youth told about Axl telling him he was moving too fast. For years there was money being spent with no oversight or supervision. Management apparently rejected some version of the album in 1999 or 2000, because the people who handed out the advance in 1997 were let go in 1998 when Polygram got swallowed by Interscope. There's plenty of blame going around but to say Axl had no vision is not necessarily true, seems more a case of trying to figure out how to realize the vision and getting the right people in place to do so, and trying to balance the desire to do something new (in the context of GnR) without straying too far from the brand
Re: Is the Van Halen tour a lesson to Axl?
No one can make Axl do anything. No one can convince him of anything. No clear and practical example will make him change his mind. And he gives a shit about the profits or pleasing fans. Besides, he does always the opposite of what everyone demands (we better shut our mouths then).
Put the happy-puppy-savage-animal Baz and the wonder-worker Azoff to be around Axl and we'll see things happening in GnR world.
