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- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: DJ Ashba Live Chat
"owning" a band is a weird concept to me, when he turns around and claims its not a solo project. Even "solo projects" often include other writers and permanent members/touring musicians. My problem with the current GnR isn't that its different or new, but that its consumer fraud to tell us that its any sort of band with members on equal footing. DJ. BBF, Tommy, etc are all just in it for the hefty paydays.
or when the rest of the band assures us that "oh no, we're a cohesive unit, everyone has a say, we're all buddies! this 'band' is the real deal!"
I think Axl ment its not a solo project in the sence that he personally would have approached a solo album from a very different creative standpoint.
Like it sounds like for Chinese, he wrote some of the ballads alone and had other's add to them, but that for many of the tracks, the basis of the track came from others (Huge, Bucket, Fink, Stinson whoever) and then Axl added his own unique approach and touches to it. And he doesn't see those songs, which is most of the album, as solo tunes.
As for the rest of the matter. It's a distinction between the brand and business, and the creative side of things.
Well, it seems to me the band has creative freedom in the sence that they arn't given sheet music to play on arival. It's more like they go into a room and jam out 1000 takes on a song and just do whatever they want. But the ultimate artistic and creative control belongs to Axl in that, while i'm sure there is much discussion, the final say on which take stays on the record is going to be his. But when the band go on about their role, I think they are just stressing that they wern't forced to play a certain thing and never given a chance to experiement.
I don't think the band members have ever ment to imply that they have business control/say or that any business/brand decsions are controlled by anyone other than Axl.
Sure it's maybe not how other bands run, but he's been doing it this way for 15 years or soemthing now, and, no offence to anyone in this thread, but I don't really think it's disrespectful to the fan base from ashba, sure we're all hungry for more info, but realisticly it's not his role to give out fresh info, and that's not a surprise.
- st@rfucker
- Rep: 1
Re: DJ Ashba Live Chat
I honestly don't see the problem.
GNR is Axl's band these days, he owns it, he controls it and for better or worse, it's up to him and ONLY him to release information.
Clearly Axl doesn't like talk about the band very often unless he has something specific he wants to say, and current band members are showing respect to the owner of the band by letting him control the flow of information.
I can see it sucks for fans but that's how GNR is run. We are NOT going to learn much new from a keys player, guitarist or anyone else currently in the band. They will chat to fans, talk minor details, sometimes discuss their specific role - like which guitar was used or some tidbit, but if the questions relate to issues controlled by Axl and/or GNR managment, such as tour dates, future albums and so on, they are not going to respond.
And I can't for the life of me see why at this stage in the game anyone expects differently or is really all that upset about it, let alone be upset at the specific players in the band.
What do you want DJ to do? Name drop the title of every unrealsed track? Make promices of tour dates that he has no say in the booking of? It's not realistic for him or bumble to be doing anything other than what they do.
That said, there is some good news going under the radar from this chat, firstly it's pretty clear DJ is still in the band, so everyone saying he is long gone is clearly jumping the gun, secondly, and this might be me reading too much in, but there is almost an implication that he has been writing with GNR, he doesn't say it directly out of respect for way thigns are run, but it sounds like it could be possible from what he does say.
In any event, it's great news that DJ is still part of GNR, I might be the only one around here, but i'm seriously happy he's in the band!
I am in total agreement with monkeychow, realistically Did you expect Ashba to blow the holy hookah of when and where the
future tour will commence? Did anyone expect him to make any sort of unreleased song list? Definately barking up the wrong man's
leg if you thought this was forthcoming,so don't complain if you got pissed on.
He is still in GNR, he constantly writes-two good pieces of information to have among all the idiocy occuring in chat, that said
Hello,this is my first post 
- emcitymisfit
- Rep: 28
Re: DJ Ashba Live Chat
Sure it's maybe not how other bands run, but he's been doing it this way for 15 years or soemthing now, and, no offence to anyone in this thread, but I don't really think it's disrespectful to the fan base from ashba, sure we're all hungry for more info, but realisticly it's not his role to give out fresh info, and that's not a surprise.
What's really funny is that the "what-i-say-goes" approach seems like it would be a much more efficient, productive, unmuddled way or doing things, but has only resulted in 1 album and countless aborted tours in 15 years.
But you present a good point.
My whole point is that just because its not a surprise, and just because its been done this way forever doesn't make it any less frustrating, mind-boggling, or ridiculous.
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: DJ Ashba Live Chat
^ Welcome
Hey...can i start a conspiricy theory.
He seemed to be talking about writing with GNR, vanished for 10 mins, came back - said he'd been on a call, and then starts saying he isn't the man to give GNR news, and says he won't respond for Axl and so on. Makes me wonder if that phone call was a "shut the fuck up" call.
hahah - but for all i know it was his mum calling up, and he just didn't like the direction the questions were headed already.
- st@rfucker
- Rep: 1
Re: DJ Ashba Live Chat
James Lofton wrote:I disagree. When Axl appeared to do a couple chats, he was forced into answering some idiotic shit. He was even asked about Disney movies, and time spent on Disney movies could have been spent asking him about the making of Chinese Democracy.
Please, Axl yanked our chains just as bad as Ashba did, he was just much more verbose and incoherent. He wasn't going to answer any questions outside of why slash is such a bell end.
When any member of the band does a chat, time is very limited. Piss take or no piss take, trolls need to be a light year away from the situation.
Examples....
Ron did a chat on our old site a couple years ago. He said he was willing to answer CD related questions but within reason. During this chat, he actually gave real info not yet revealed about the album(Bucket was still on the album, Ron was recording rhythm and not just leads,etc.).
Ron did a chat here last year. Said he would not be able to discuss the album and/or tour. The chat lasted hours and it was basically a group of 20 or 30 people discussing all sorts of topics.
So GNR info or no GNR info, it all depends on how the artist AND the people participating in the chat react to the situation on whether or not its even worth it.
Those two chats were polar opposites of one another, yet fans enjoyed chatting with Ron and he enjoyed the chat as well.
Fair enough, but I don't think Ashba would've said a single interesting word, piss or no piss.
Ron is a cool guy, and I'm sure once Axl found out about one iota of ChiDem info coming out, he put an end to that -- but him coming on one of the more intimate gnr boards and telling ya'll ahead of time what was on and off limits is miles away from Ashba baiting and switching.
Had Ashba said from the get go "sorry guys, I'm not gonna have anything to say about GnR other than 'yay axl!'" then people's complaints would be close to moot.
I disagree concerning the "chain yanking" what would your public response be if asked about "the little mermaid?" It was obviously a choice to humor the idiot that asked it,secondly It lightened the atmosphere, so it wasn't a bad choice. Some GNR fans are demented in strange and unusual ways,so you confront them or humor the imbeciles. Hell look at some of the asanine bullshit that was thrown in Ashba's chat,moronic babble-nothing more. If you're under the assumption that senseless questions and unanswerable suppositions aren't going to be present in any GNR related chat,you have overestamated the IQ collective,or maybe the age of said posters.:ummm:
- monkeychow
- Rep: 661
Re: DJ Ashba Live Chat
My whole point is that just because its not a surprise, and just because its been done this way forever doesn't make it any less frustrating, mind-boggling, or ridiculous.
Oh yeah i hear that.
I just think the focus of that anger shouldn't be DJ, as he's not the guy driving the GNR train at the end of the day, and if the band runs a certain way, we can't expect him to do stuff that will get himself in trouble, even if the idea that he'd get in trouble for it is kinda crazy.
I personally wish Axl was more open to sharing info, and would hire some kind of offical PR person who could address the thousands of questions people have, and that way the answers could be made public, but Axl himself wouldn't have to deal with the negativity inherent to much of the fanbase which seems to bother him. As right now it's a cycle. People don't like the way axl is quiet or what he does, so they get pissy, and the pissier the fanbase gets, the quieter the band seems to get, and the angrier the fanbase gets, and it goes on and on. Some kind of offical regular information source could really help break that cycle. But hey...it's not my band!
- st@rfucker
- Rep: 1
Re: DJ Ashba Live Chat
^ Welcome
Hey...can i start a conspiricy theory.
He seemed to be talking about writing with GNR, vanished for 10 mins, came back - said he'd been on a call, and then starts saying he isn't the man to give GNR news, and says he won't respond for Axl and so on. Makes me wonder if that phone call was a "shut the fuck up" call.
hahah - but for all i know it was his mum calling up, and he just didn't like the direction the questions were headed already.
Thanks for the welcome! That conspiracy theory could well hold merit,but I'm sure he was briefed ahead of time what "Appropriate topics" were, and how far his leash ran.
At least you provided a moment of levity, always appreciated. 
- st@rfucker
- Rep: 1
Re: DJ Ashba Live Chat
monkeychow wrote:Sure it's maybe not how other bands run, but he's been doing it this way for 15 years or soemthing now, and, no offence to anyone in this thread, but I don't really think it's disrespectful to the fan base from ashba, sure we're all hungry for more info, but realisticly it's not his role to give out fresh info, and that's not a surprise.
What's really funny is that the "what-i-say-goes" approach seems like it would be a much more efficient, productive, unmuddled way or doing things, but has only resulted in 1 album and countless aborted tours in 15 years.
But you present a good point.
My whole point is that just because its not a surprise, and just because its been done this way forever doesn't make it any less frustrating, mind-boggling, or ridiculous.
I have a feeling this has been going on much longer than 15 years
and I would venture to say that it was basically the same in the original lineup,to a degree. Alumni did sign name over-fact.
As well as several other instances to assume while not outright ownership, running things basically nonetheless.
Re: DJ Ashba Live Chat
I dont get why some forum dwellers can now be seen bashing Axls chats, I thought they were good banter for the most part, very interesting with more than a few revelations and a generally just lot of fun just before Christmas. I still like reading them now and again, and I wish there were more of them 
But I reckon its unlikely to ever happen again though if he has wasted any time reading a lot of the shit on the forums on the last 6 months. Theres a percentage of the posters I wouldnt even give the steam off my piss.
That Ashba transcript is eyewatering though, I cant read through all the jibberish and squealing. I tried just picking out his name and reading what he said, but where did he say he liked This I Love? I must have missed it.
All I take from it is he is still in the band and it would be wrong to lose hope for the future, sounds like a bigass hint that somethings going to happen.
He could have just posted something like that on his twitter and saved himself the headache of trying make sense of all that nonsense thrown at him.
Re: DJ Ashba Live Chat
I personally wish Axl was more open to sharing info, and would hire some kind of offical PR person who could address the thousands of questions people have, and that way the answers could be made public, but Axl himself wouldn't have to deal with the negativity inherent to much of the fanbase which seems to bother him. As right now it's a cycle. People don't like the way axl is quiet or what he does, so they get pissy, and the pissier the fanbase gets, the quieter the band seems to get, and the angrier the fanbase gets, and it goes on and on. Some kind of offical regular information source could really help break that cycle. But hey...it's not my band!
They dont need to do that and Axl doesnt have to give people a minute by minute account of what happens in his life (most of it is no cunts business). But they have gunsnroses.com and its completely wasted. If that site was updated at least once a month with a little band message to the fans and some new media like, proshot tour photos, studio photos, video interviews from on tour and in the studio, live videos - the GNR/Fan relationship would be much healthier.
Its breeds negativity the way they keep stonewalling the fans for long periods, sometimes years, at a time.
