Ron says 'Just Forget About A New Record Until It Happens'

jonesy

faldor wrote:

I know people don't want to believe him, but hasn't Dizzy mentioned working on new music as a band without Axl of course? Maybe not with EVERYONE but Axl, but more than just one group member coming up with ideas on their own. I see no reason why they can't jam together and create something to propose to Axl. And I was under the assumption this had been done.

Yes, Dizzy has said pretty much that. In fact yesterday Blabbermouth reported an interview, with the headline "GUNS N' ROSES Keyboardist DIZZY REED: AXL ROSE's 'Work Ethic Has Really Rubbed Off On Me' - gotta love Blabbermouth's headlines, you know they'll pick the most contentious words from an interview and use it as the headline!

Anyway, Dizzy said this below, and this is exactly why I posted Ron's interview up, its awesome he will just say it how it is compared to what Dizzy always says.

The Maitland Mercury recently conducted an interview with GUNS N' ROSES keyboardist Dizzy Reed. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Maitland Mercury: When GUNS N' ROSES released "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II" simultaneously in 1991, you became the biggest rock band on the planet. What are your strongest memories of that time?

Reed: It was definitely a pinch-myself-every-once-in-a-while situation to see if I was dreaming. But it I had known them before they even got signed and Axl [Rose, GUNS N' ROSES lead singer] had talked about having me in the band from very early on and then to watch them become so gigantic, I was always wondering if it was really going to happen. But he's a man of his word and when they were ready to start tracking those songs and those albums he called me and I got a phone call a couple of days later from Del James who was putting together the press release and said, "Congratulations, you're in GUNS N' ROSES." When I joined the band, they were chartering this jet that we used to fly around on everywhere for those three years. So I toured with a major band for three years and one day I was sitting around with some of the guys in the crew and they were all telling bus stories — stories about things that happened on the [tour] bus. It got to me and they said, "C'mon, Dizzy, what are some of your bus stories?" and I said, "I've never been on a bus." But, you know what? I've been on a shitload of buses since then. I prefer it these days — I like being on the bus and rolling down the highway.

The Maitland Mercury: It has been reported that Axl has written a lot of new material. When might we be able to hear some?

Reed: There's a lot of material that is in the can and there's a lot of ideas that we've been throwing around. Everyone's been sending stuff back and forth, and there's a lot of stuff ready to go. When we're ready to make that step, it will happen. It will happen quicker than the last album, let's put it that way.

The Maitland Mercury: What's it like to work with Axl on writing songs?

Reed: You know, I can't really imagine what it would be like to not make music the way he does it. Working with him has taught me a lot. He's a bit of a perfectionist, I guess. Because of that it always brings out the best in everyone that's working there [in the studio], and also out of me. You need some tension to make the best recordings you can make. It's easy to get something that sounds kick-ass and just roll with it and say, "Hey, there it is. We're done." But everything should have a second go around — or three — to make sure it's right. I think Axl's work ethic has really rubbed off on me.

The Maitland Mercury: Are there a lot of misconceptions out there about what Axl is like as a person?

Reed: Absolutely. Of course. Unfortunately, in the world we're living in — especially today — negativity sells. That's all people want to know about. When you make it to the top of the heap, everybody wants to knock you off. Things have always been like that. The more a person fights that, then the more it gets thrown back at them. If you took anybody and just presented all the negative things about them — a lot of them untrue or exaggerated — then you're not going to think too highly of that person. So there's misconceptions, definitely.

The whole interview can be found here: http://www.maitlandmercury.com.au/story … oom/?cs=12

monkeychow

I really hope he's right.

RaZor

What I took from Reed is the same old story, there is a ton of stuff in ” the vault”. I don't think the two interviews are mutually exclusive, it seems they both suggest the band is working on releasing CD era songs.

misterID

monkeychow wrote:

That's where we see things differently.
Old GNR put out 5 albums in as many years - and they're some of the best albums of all time.
Axl's new method got us 15 songs in as many years. I really like those songs. But the whole reason we're having this discussion is the band can't seem to function creativity...
Blaming ron for wanting to write in a certain method seems like a device to me to shift the blame from Axl when the entire band is under Axl's control...again there's almost no evidence that Ron writing any other way would have any impact at all...as it's not like we're listening to the songs DJ wrote with Axl.

I've never put the blame on the way things work with any apsect in this band on anyone other than Axl, so there's no shifting blame here. I seriously think we're not talking about the same thing.

Again, if Ron wants to start writing for GN'R, go do it. Nothing is stopping him. This is not about the next album being released. This has nothing to do with anything other than Ron wanting to write as a band in the same room. Then keep waiting.

Just in case I didn't make my argument clear, this has absolutely, positively, nothing to do with any album being released. It's with Ron seemingly frustrated because he hasn't written anything with the band. Album releases and hang ups with the label have absolutely nothing to do with songwriting for the band and the way they go down. There's an album ready. The way they write songs has nothing to do with why it isn't being released.

monkeychow

misterID wrote:

Just in case I didn't make my argument clear, this has absolutely, positively, nothing to do with any album being released. It's with Ron seemingly frustrated because he hasn't written anything with the band.

Umm...and why do you think he want's to write with the band? So that he can jack off at home to a private copy no one else will ever hear? Nooo....Musicians like to write and release their works.

It has EVERYTHING to do with an album not being release, it's the whole topic Ron was responding to.

Did he say "just forget about me writing a song until it happens"? No he said "Just forget about A NEW RECORD until it happens".

The whole thing he is complaining about is that the band doesn't release albums, and even if they did, it's going to be an album of old works because they don't write together to create an album they could release.

So my point stands....there's no reason to criticise Ron for not sending solo songs to Axl (when for all we know he does that anyway) when that method hasn't helped anything else get released, and Ron's whole point was that the band can't get it's act together and function like a band long enough to write and release a record.

If you're talking about something else then it's either semantics or it's not what Ron was talking about.

faldor

monkeychow wrote:

So my point stands....there's no reason to criticise Ron for not sending solo songs to Axl (when for all we know he does that anyway) when that method hasn't helped anything else get released, and Ron's whole point was that the band can't get it's act together and function like a band long enough to write and release a record.

Here's the problem with that though. What IF, one day Axl decides he likes 6 or 7 song ideas DJ has presented to him? What if he takes a few more that Dizzy, Tommy, Chris have worked on and then dusts off a few old ideas of his own? At that point all Ron could do is add on to songs that already exist in some form and he really wouldn't have brought anything to the table in terms of creating the songs that might appear on future releases. Except of course for the fact that he complained about not being able to all get together in a room and write an album from scratch. Which, isn't really helping the situation as far as I'm concerned.

monkeychow

I guess...i just figure they spend a lot of time saying it's not just Axl and Friends, it's not Axl's solo project, it's GNR and this is a band and has it's own chemistry and it's own vibe and now half the fan base seems to want to crucify Ron for getting upset that in, what 7 years?, the band has not got together as a group to write music.

misterID

Come on, Monkey. I'm not crucifying him. This is not semantics. You are talking about not releasing material and saying that the way they write has to do with albums not being released. I disagree with that. And that's not what I'm talking about. They could get in the same room tomorrow and start writing, but I don't see how that will make an album get released any faster, considering they've had an album ready to go for years now. Ron was talking about writing with the band (and he's said this exact same thing before) and he doesn't consider the next album to be from this band or a new album. Again, I understand THAT frustration.

But again, I think I've stated it pretty clearly: DJ is writing for GN'R. Perhaps he's even taken it upon himself to get with Dizzy and Mother Goose. It is reported by Tommy that Axl really likes some of those songs. If in five years they haven't gotten into a room, something tells me that Ron shouldn't wait around for that to happen at this point. Just write some songs ideas and send them to Axl. I don't know why that's crucifying Ron. I understand his frustration. But there is nothing stopping him from writing. he wouldn't have control over an album being released even if they do get into a room and write. I don't see how that speeds up the process when they already have an album ready to go.

Again, I understand he's frustrated, but I have to hand it to DJ for just writing, and who, imo, has more reason to be pissed off because he's actually working towards that new music. According TO RON, he hasn't been writing for the band because they haven't gotten into a room together to write.

And...again, I haven't seen that the songwriting method is the reason for the album delay. Even DJ has talked about the vault and Axl saying he wants him to play on it. Axl's not dumping that album just to start from scratch and he shouldn't.

monkeychow

I'm not saying Axl should dump that album and I hope he doesn't.

It depends what you want though, if all we want is new Axl material fine, but if you go see this band and think "there's a band with some chemistry", if you start thinking of GNR has being Richard Fortus, Frank and Ron...etc...and you want to hear an album from GNR that's actually that band....then you have to question the methodolgy they use.

I'm more of a supporter of Chinese Democracy than most.

But the facts remain that the "Cut and Paste" method of writing led us to an album that couldn't even be promoted because in most songs BOTH of the lead guitarists who play on the track are not the people in the band now, most tracks feature the old drummer, and god only knows who plays the rhythms you hear. It also led us to a situation where 2/3 of the material recorded to be released has not been released because something about it feels unfinished. To get even the third of the stuff that we did took 15 years.

I'm not saying they should ditch the vault, and i'm sure great songs are made over email too, but I also see no reason to be violently espousing this as the best method to make a record, and criticising someone who wants to attempt to do something in a more efficient way.

There's already been nearly 5 years from CD, and something tells me the album isn't about to hit the shelves soon. On the model of last time we have 10 more years for CD2...so that's circa 2023...then at that stage we can look at maybe starting to do doing something with the emailed DJ and Ron tracks...in 10-15 more years.....2048????

I know everyone is going to scream that it's the business issues and the label rather than the songwriting, and while I'm sure that plays it's part, I also think that realistically no dispute in business can't be solved after this length of time, people have negotiated the end to wars in less.

I just don't understand the hostility to Ron for actually wanting the band that goes around calling itself GNR to maybe write an album together, and frankly with the track record of this project since 1995 or whatever, I can't fault him for maybe thinking it's time to pursue recording methods that don't lead to a re-enactment of the Chinese Democracy saga - as it seems we're well down that path again and it doesn't have a very good track record.

misterID

monkeychow wrote:

but I also see no reason to be violently espousing this as the best method to make a record, and criticising someone who wants to attempt to do something in a more efficient way.

Man, I don't know where that's coming from. I do think it's a sort of passive aggressive thing on Ron's part, but I'm not "violently espousing" him. I'm saying nothing is stopping him if he really wants to write. Hell, call Richard and Tommy up to write some stuff together. We're acting like this is the only band where members write stuff on their own.

And I would use the term "Cut and Paste" more to their recording process than their writing. Also, I'd say it looks like it does have more to do with record label issues than songwriting issues, as Axl and the band are STILL talking about unresolved issues with the label. But I would think that if everything was fine, we would have had that second album by now. Maybe Axl doesn't feel he needs to write anything new right now because of all the time he invested in writing in the CD sessions. Maybe he's heard stuff from Ron and doesn't like it. Maybe he's waiting until he finishes the CD saga. Maybe he's blocked. Maybe he's just not comfortabe writing the way Ron wants. There could be a million reasons and I'm not going to try to read the redheaded madman's mind.

For the record, I will take any way they want to write if it produces something productive.

Re: Ron says 'Just Forget About A New Record Until It Happens'

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