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- Mama's Good Boy
- Rep: 25
Re: Axl at the Chinese Exchange
I very much appreciate the "new" Axl Rose. He is a human being like anyone of us, subject to the same feelings and emotions we all go through in our lives.....it's just he is constantly under the microscope because of his fame and past history. I couldn't do it. I'm loving 2016 and everything we have been seeing thus far. The AC/DC gig was a pleasant turn of events and he's killed it! It makes sense for him to do both Guns and AC/DC, which God-willing, leads to new music on both sides. Hearing him say he is back with a vocal coach after 20 years to help him be able to sing the Back in Black material tells us how serious he is to do right by the music and the fans in order to give us the best performance possible and do justice to them. That is part of his perfectionism. I found it interesting as well that he purposely changed up his vocals to sing cleaner and with much less rasp on the CD material and all songs in general. I always thought is was because of the abuse of singing that way for years may have led him to have to change up his vocals just to save his voice. I was wrong there. He feels the fans did not receive his vocals as well as they might have had he maintained his pre CD vocal style. I like both myself and think it really depends on the song. Like when he sings Bon Scott era songs and strives to match Bon as well as when he sings Brian Johnson and strives to match the recorded version. Hearing him sing Back in Black and Thunderstruck is freaking amazing! It's menacing, lol! I love it. Take nothing away from Brian either because he is a legend in his own right. We have a lot to be excited about with GnR. It will be awesome to watch it as it all unfolds. I cannot wait until July 12th to catch them in Pittsburgh, PA. I saw the "new" band back in 2011 and was very happy with that version of that band. But now? Wow!!! Never would have thought a year ago, I'd ever get to see Axl and Slash together. It's great to be a die hard fan!
- killingvector
- Rep: 21
Re: Axl at the Chinese Exchange
mumbles his way through that. So far, not saying much.
Re: Axl at the Chinese Exchange
Much thanks to Jim @ Truth.
20 Things We Learned During Axl Rose’s New Q&A Session
Axl Rose offered his insights and opinions on a wide variety of topics – including the return of Slash and Duff McKagan to Guns N’ Roses, his current stint as AC/DC‘s singer and the state of the music industry – during a wide-ranging, nearly hour-long Q&A session at the China Exchange in London yesterday.
You can hear the whole interview above, but we’ve selected a large selection of highlights for you below.
Guns N’ Roses’ Future Looks Bright …
“I hope to keep this going for a quite a while. … Right now, it’s all good. I mean, obviously that could just explode. I do want to put out more music with Guns N’ Roses, and I don’t know if that has to do with Slash or not. … If he wants to play on something, that would be great. I’ve been working to get kind of where things are. The Guns N’ Roses reunion didn’t happen by chance or whatever. It was always looked at as a possibility, but it never seemed right or felt right.”
… But it’s a Bad Time for New BajThe heads of the music industry realize that for their business, why deal with a band? All they need is a star and a producer. They don’t even care who writes what or what it sounds like. They could be a genuine fan of music, say, the music company president, owner, whatever. But when it comes to their business, it doesn’t have anything to do with that. It just has to do with what’s going to be the easiest, what’s going to make the most money, and make the company and the shareholders happy and stuff like that. I can respect that … but as an artist and a musician and working with bands, it doesn’t help me at all, and i don’t think that it helps music. It doesn’t help the bands become self-sufficient and successful, they’ve got to work a lot harder because the labels are more worried about themselves making money.”
Get in the Ring, 2016 Style
“Google and YouTube have really changed things for the artist, and the government’s just stepped out of the way. They lobby very hard to pay minimal royalties, and I don’t think that’s right.”
On Working With Angus Young
“It’s great. I can’t really explain it. I feel protective, I feel I do not want to let this guy down, more than almost anybody I’ve ever known. And I don’t know why. And he’s very responsive to me. And they said they hadn’t seen him this happy, they hadn’t seen him moving around [this much]. In between songs, he’s playing other stuff [that has inspired potential new song ideas]. So that’s kind of a neat thing between musicians.”
How Slash Responded to Playing Chinese Democracy Songs
“I’m a big fan of our previous lineup, before getting back with Slash and Duff. We did a lot of work with that. For him to take on Buckethead or Bumblefoot’s parts, and just step to it on his own, and work on it and like it and enjoy it, that helped a lot.”
GNR Company Policy: No Beating Up Kids
“When we were opening for bigger bands, and then when we first started headlining, I don’t think anybody knows how violent it was. It was really violent in the crowd. … You’d have to stop the show. I got a lot of grief for stopping the show ‘for no reason,’ [but] there was just a lot of really rowdy crowds. I remember when we first started, you would have security that was looking for that, they wanted to get in and get in a fight with somebody. We put a stop to that pretty quickly, and got rid of people working for us that wanted to beat up kids. So it was really violent, it’s not as near that now.”
It Was Tough to Leave Dave Grohl’s Throne Behind
Apparently, Rose’s team was busy rather unsuccessfully trying to make their own version of Grohl’s chair when the Foo Fighters star offered the original for use after Rose’s foot injury. “At first it’s really strange, but then people apparently liked how I was moving in it. I had to make myself get out of it in in AC/DC. They didn’t tell me to, but I made myself get out of that chair because you start feeling, as Angus said, ‘a little too comfy.’ It became a safety zone, rather than having to get out their and face the people in another way.”
He’s Taking His Increased Workload Very Seriously
Saying he’s returned to his vocal coach after two decades, Rose explained why he’s sounding so good nowadays. “I do a lot of vocal exercises. … The Brian Johnson Back in Black stuff is really demanding. Sing it wrong and you might not be signing again.”
Third Band? No Thanks!
When asked which other artists he’d like to collaborate with, the already overbooked Rose humorously and incredulously responded. “TO JOIN?,” before explaining once again that he offered to help AC/DC simply because he realized “they were going to have a lot of problems” with fans and business partners if they were forced to cancel their tour due to Brian Johnson’s hearing problems.
He Did Not Eat His Own Pets
Rose explained that some of the band’s bad boy reputation was hoisted upon them by an overeager media. “Part of that was just being young, [but] when we would go to MTV, they’d ask us to tear their set apart. England was one of the greatest places for that, because the media here would write anything to try to promote you. They said I ran over my dogs and then I ate them. They said all kinds of crazy things.”
He Loves Queen …
“Queen has always been my favorite band. Freddie is the greatest singer ever is the way I look at it. The other thing about Queen for me is they embraced so many different styles.”
… And Bon Scott’s Soft Side
“You don’t find that much in Brian’s work with AC/DC, but what I like about Bon’s old AC/DC, as aggressive as that music was, he would talk about having a broken heart or something like that. So it made it okay for guys to feel, and to let some of it out someway.”
He Brought Back “Coma” for Slash … and You
“Right now, I like performing the Chinese Democracy stuff most, but it was also really good to be doing the song ‘Coma.’ I knew it would make Slash happy, I knew it would make the fans happy, and since I was sitting in the chair, I knew I wouldn’t have to run around so much.”
Guns N’ Roses Barely Survived Getting Their First Record Deal
“We had to sit on our asses for about four months, and it almost broke up the whole band. Everybody got hooked on drugs and stuff [during] whatever the label was doing to figure out who would work with us. Everybody was terrified of us anyway because they thought we were all going to die. We were going to leave the label. We wanted to play, we wanted to get out to New York or something. We didn’t get signed to sit in an apartment.”
He Was Worried How AC/DC’s Fans Would React to Him
Rose admitted to being concerned about how he’d connect with AC/DC’s audience, even if he sang the songs correctly. “I know how hard it is. Lots of bands do not want to open for [Guns N’ Roses], they just don’t want to, they don’t want to deal with our fans. It’s kind of the same with AC/DC fans. They’re very serious about their band.”
His Advice to a Younger Axl?
“Form my own label. We didn’t think that big at the time, I didn’t have that type of business education. We should have formed our own company and figured out a distributor. It’s not just the money.”
Will He Write an Autobiography?
“I think so, possibly yes. But it’s tough because I haven’t figured out a way to word things that doesn’t just look like I’m being negative to everybody else, or calling them a liar. Slash and I hadn’t talked in 19 years, and when we did talk, I was like, ‘You know, you wrote about a lot of stuff that didn’t happen, that just … is not real.'”
He Would Like to Score Movies
Rose’s answer to a question about his current favorite music revealed a surprising career ambition. “I mainly listen to the music that’s playing during movies. It can be the theme to Pirates of the Caribbean, The Equalizer, stuff like that. I like the blend of orchestra with modern instrumentation. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do. I was more interested in that than staying in Guns N’ Roses. It would have been easier and more fun. I have a lot of respect for people that do that.”
He’s Not Down With Censorship
“Chinese Democracy wasn’t trying to tell China to have a democracy or anything like that. I don’t have an opinion on what kind of government they should have. My thing is, I went to stay there for about three months, and everywhere I went, the people are so shielded from what’s going on in the world. When you stay in hotels there, you don’t realize that the stuff you’re seeing on TV, the average person isn’t seeing. Everywhere I went, people are scared, they’re frightened for their lives to have an opinion that deviates from the government about the simplest things, things that we take for granted. I feel that that’s wrong, it’s not good for anyone. I do feel people should be free to have their opinions and develop their thoughts.” He then joked, “but.. [I’m] speaking as a dictator,” in reference to longstanding rumors about the manner in which he supposedly runs Guns N’ Roses.
Advice on Living With Cats
“If you don’t keep yourself open, to some degree, they’re not going to be around.”
ultimateclassicrock.com/
Re: Axl at the Chinese Exchange
I do think he could be the next Trent Reznor when it comes to film soundtracks.
Most definitely. Guy is multi talented. He's said he'd like to do more instrumental stuff too, so very possible he develops his career in that direction once he gets too old to be belting out hard rock.
- Mama's Good Boy
- Rep: 25
Re: Axl at the Chinese Exchange
I wonder how much GnR music would have been released or not released had Axl formed his own label. Does seem he's had some trouble with them, to say the least.
Re: Axl at the Chinese Exchange
Guns N’ Roses’ Future Looks Bright …
“I hope to keep this going for a quite a while. … Right now, it’s all good. I mean, obviously that could just explode. I do want to put out more music with Guns N’ Roses, and I don’t know if that has to do with Slash or not. … If he wants to play on something, that would be great. I’ve been working to get kind of where things are. The Guns N’ Roses reunion didn’t happen by chance or whatever. It was always looked at as a possibility, but it never seemed right or felt right.”
We now have proof it was always on the table....he simply wasn't ready and both sides painted themselves into a corner with some negative comments.
Sounds like if Slash is willing to lay down tracks on vault mterial, we may be getting an album fairly quickly. Sounds like Axl may be sticking to his old comment on the CD material about not doing it just so he can bury it. It's still on the table.
How Slash Responded to Playing Chinese Democracy Songs
“I’m a big fan of our previous lineup, before getting back with Slash and Duff. We did a lot of work with that. For him to take on Buckethead or Bumblefoot’s parts, and just step to it on his own, and work on it and like it and enjoy it, that helped a lot.”
Thank God he likes it. He's improved several tracks already so dive into the vault and improve it.
His Advice to a Younger Axl?
“Form my own label. We didn’t think that big at the time, I didn’t have that type of business education. We should have formed our own company and figured out a distributor. It’s not just the money.”
He talked about this very thing in the mid 90s and GNR fans thought he might be ahead of his time....also talked about using the net to his advantage....things he never did but artists like Reznor wound up doing themselves. I really wish he had taken it more seriously. Chinese might have turned out differently.
He Would Like to Score Movies
Rose’s answer to a question about his current favorite music revealed a surprising career ambition. “I mainly listen to the music that’s playing during movies. It can be the theme to Pirates of the Caribbean, The Equalizer, stuff like that. I like the blend of orchestra with modern instrumentation. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do. I was more interested in that than staying in Guns N’ Roses. It would have been easier and more fun. I have a lot of respect for people that do that.”
He's mentioned this several times in the past. I never took it seriously due to the laziness of the CD years(especially the second half) but now that we know he can multitask and is taking his career seriously, its possible. He's gonna need to release a few things in a timely fashion for anyone to take him seriously in this regard....so getb to work. 
No one will hire him to compose anything knowing it takes him over a decade to finish one album that he had technically finished in a couple years.
He's already changing the public's previous perception of him. Keep doing it and this phase of his career could be the most productive yet.
- Smoking Guns
- Rep: 330
Re: Axl at the Chinese Exchange
He still seems hesitant to go all in and embrace slash.. Still seems a little guarded.
