The Original Guns 'n' Roses: Reuniting (Coachella + Tour)?

[the captain]

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/6828129/guns-n-roses-reunion-coachella-stadium-las-vegas

[KDS]

If this is true, this is HUGE news.  Although no official release from the band yet. 

And, even if this news turns out to be true, I'm not even sure if it can be 100% believed until Axl and Slash are onstage together. 

[Ron]

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[KDS]

If this tour really does happen, I'm going to have a pretty high concert budget for 2016. 

Already seeing The Beach Boys in February (although that was paid for over a month ago). 

Anticipating a Brian Wilson Pet Sounds date.

Iron Maiden touring for their new album. 

My wife and I are considering seeing Journey now that Steve Smith is drumming for them again.  That's all classic members sans Steve Perry.  That's probably as good as it's gonna get.

Now, a possible, and very expensive GNR ticket. 

Good thing I decided to pass on the Black Sabbath Farewell Tour ticket. 

[the captain]

Apparently this is true, though I still won't fully believe it until after it has happened.

http://pitchfork.com/news/62714-guns-n-roses-confirm-classic-lineup-reunion/

[Jay]

So far there has been no mention of who will be on drums. Hmm.

[SurfRiderHawaii]

So far there has been no mention of who will be on drums. Hmm.

Or that Izzy is onboard.

[Jay]

So far there has been no mention of who will be on drums. Hmm.

Or that Izy is onboard.

Yeah, I forgot about him. I just read an article that speculated that some members of Axl's latest Guns 'n' Roses might be included to fill out the lineup. Somehow the "reunion" just got a little more uninteresting.

[KDS]

So far there has been no mention of who will be on drums. Hmm.

Or that Izy is onboard.

Yeah, I forgot about him. I just read an article that speculated that some members of Axl's latest Guns 'n' Roses might be included to fill out the lineup. Somehow the "reunion" just got a little more uninteresting.

It's looking likely that the best of the lineup will be filled out by current GNR members. 

It could be a one time thing where Slash and Duff join Guns N Roses on a temporary basis for a one off performance, and maybe a tour. 

Sounds familiar. 

But, if the projected ticket prices really are close to $300, and Izzy, Steven Adler, Matt Sorum, or even Gilby Clarke aren't involved, I'll save my money. 

As much as I like GNR, their career really consists of one great album (Appetite), a decent EP (Lies), two very good albums that should've been one amazing album (Use Your Illusion), and an awful covers album (Spaghetti).  That's not a catalog that warrants a $300 ticket IMO.

[Jay]

I wonder why they wouldn't go for just the classic five lineup, or the early 1991 lineup with Izzy and Matt? It seems unusual that both Slash and Duff would both be on board for this.

[Ron]

Slash has always struck me as the type of guy that will play with anybody, anytime, I always assumed the reason Slash wasn't involved was because Axl wouldn't let him.... not sure Slash would be the type of guy to sit out if the other two weren't involved....

[Jay]

Slash has said several times that he wouldn't even consider a reunion if Steven Adler wasn't involved.

[KDS]

Izzy has been pretty much a recluse since he left GNR the first time. 

I thought the most recent Use Your Illusion touring lineup with Gilby Clarke and Matt Sorum would be used.

I get the impression that this "reunion" is not a long term deal.  So, I'm thinking Slash and Duff are just going to join the current incarnation of GNR.  Maybe for this one show.  Maybe for a tour.  Who knows? 

[the captain]

I'd be really shocked if Izzy toured. If I'm not mistaken, his distaste for touring was a major reason he quit GnR in the first place. (We must remember, he wasn't part of the Axl-driven house-cleaning: he left on his own.) But I could imagine him possibly doing Coachella, for example. Just a one-off. Wasn't he part of a taped and broadcasted show at the O2? But he was hugely important to that band. KDS correctly described their albums, and I think one of the main reasons for their declining quality was the absence of Izzy. His songwriting, his rhythm guitar, and his sensibilities were key. He and Axl were close, and I believe--totally speculating--he kept Axl somewhat in check, musically aligning better with the counterbalancing Slash. His presence would be really great.

For drums, the reality is that Adler wasn't very good. Maybe he's better now, being reportedly cleaned up. But Sorum is by far the better drummer.

As for Gilby and Dizzy, I don't much care either way. Axl-Slash-Izzy-Duff-Sorum/Adler would be an amazing, "true" GnR. Axl-Slash-Duff-Sorum/Adler would be great. Axl-Slash-Duff would be sufficient.

In the end, it's just a curiosity to me anyway: I'm not going to a GnR show regardless. And I'd be shocked--blown away--if they produced a new album. (Not that this has been suggested anywhere anyway.) Seems to me it's pretty obviously just a great way to make an enormous amount of money for relatively little effort. Dust off some decades-old songs and make a lot of GenXers with a few hundred bucks to dole out happy.

[Jay]

Actually, I believe a major factor for Izzy deciding to leave the group was the fact that he was newly sober, and the rest of the guys(minus Axl) were very much not sober. Both Duff and Slash have said that Izzy basically quit being an active group member as far back as 1989.

[the captain]

Interesting. I just did a little digging online to see a bit more, since I was writing based on my recollections alone before. One interview by Kurt Loder with Izzy conducted within that first year of his exit mentions that the perception/story was his displeasure with touring, and Izzy responds with what I'd call a measured turn: he says something like "it's not so much that I don't like touring..." and goes on to mention that he would take a bus and they'd take a plane, and he'd beat them to the gig. That almost implies a fear of flying, and so not that he's opposed to touring, per se, but would prefer to bus around than fly around. At least that's how I take that. A Slash interview says something about Izzy not liking all the nonsense that goes on with the band's huge status, which can mean a lot of things (including the dependency issues you mentioned).

Anyway, thanks for that insight into another possible cause.

[the captain]

While digging around a little, I came across this Steven Adler interview with Eddie Trunk from September of 2015. (I had no idea this was so publicly discussed that early, I only just heard of the reunion through the Billboard article I started off the thread with.) According to Trunk, the plan has been that the original members would indeed be part of / the core of the reunion, but with other guys both for their own work as that is performed, and (presumably in the case of Adler specifically) as a backup plan should things go wrong.

So maybe we'll have Adler and Sorum, Izzy and Gilby, Dizzy for this or that, and so on.

https://youtu.be/waM0iqEFDZQ?t=17m34s

[Alex]

If Duff sticks around Tommy Stinson is going to need a new gig.

[the captain]

Tommy Stinson won't lack for work. He's touring on his own music now and has had no trouble sitting in or forming bands over the years.

Of course even if he didn't want to work, after the GnR paychecks and the more recent Replacements reunion shows, I think he'll be fine...

[Jay]

When Duff filled in for Stinson for a few shows a year or two back, I strongly suspected that some kind of reunion would take place soon. Axl apparently asked Duff to fill in, which seems pretty significant because it shows that for the first time in years Axl has been willing to work with another member of the old group, other than Izzy.

[the captain]

This isn't especially surprising, but at least now it's official (for now): no Izzy.

http://pitchfork.com/news/63877-guns-n-roses-reunion-wont-include-izzy-stradlin/

[?]

The thing is, this isn't and never was a reunion of the original GNR.  Basically the bass and guitar spots opened in Axl's existing band so Duff and Slash slid back in.  That's a very different distinction to me.

[KDS]

While no dates or venues yet, Guns N Roses have announced cities in the US they'll be hitting on tour.

http://eddietrunk.com/guns-n-roses-announce-north-american-tour-dates/

I wonder if this announcement was made earlier than planned to squash the rumor of Axl playing with AC/DC.

[Ron]

I think I've got a fairly unique perspective on this stuff, I was never a big fan back in the day, but over the years have of course heard all their big stuff hundreds of times.  So the 'story' I'd always heard was that basically Axl was crazy, and had lost his voice, and now he's fat, etc.

So with all this info about the reunion, and Axl possibly singing lead for AC/DC (who may actually open for Guns N Roses on tour this year) I thought I"d finally actually go LISTEN to one of their recent shows on youtube.

So I checked out a clip of Axl last year doing "Welcome to the Jungle".  I don't know what everybody's complaining about.  He sounds great.    He's dead on key, he's hitting pretty crazy high notes, he's pretty agressive... it's not exactly like the record but I suspect he was probably never exactly the same live as he was in the studio, as is usual for Rock singers.

So then I checked out last year, him doing "Sweet Child 'o Mine" and while part of it he sang with a kind of over dramatic tone it was obvious it was just a style he wanted to sing it in and his voice sounds as good as it ever did. 

It seems his weight was a bit of a hindrance, in some of the songs he sounds a little winded.

So then I see that he's lost a lot of weight, and watched some videos from their reunion show last night.  He sounds fantastic.

Not really sure why the die-hard fans are so eager to throw Axl under the bus, the guy looks good, sounds good, is working hard, buried the hatchet with at least a couple members of the band and is out trying to make the fans happy. 

Good for him. 

[the captain]

Not really sure why the die-hard fans are so eager to throw Axl under the bus, the guy looks good, sounds good, is working hard, buried the hatchet with at least a couple members of the band and is out trying to make the fans happy. 

Honestly I think there are just some people who aren't happy unless they're unhappy. Maybe it's sharing their personal misery, maybe it's talking sh*t about this, that, or the other, but just shutting up and enjoying something (minus snark) appears to be beyond them. And I'll admit to some hypocrisy here because I'm prone to sarcasm that veers toward nastiness at times, myself ... but I'm not proud of that, and work to defeat it.

Axl was very big at times, from what I understand, but he's certainly not Meatloaf. And even if he were, he's a singer, not an underwear model. (People seem to fail to realize these aren't the same thing, the way they harp about how pop stars look.) Much of what I've seen of live clips from recent years, he sounded fine. Not the same, but fine. There have been more dramatic declines from other singers over the years. I'd guess that Axl will be training his ass off, physically and vocally, before this tour because if there's one thing he's going to want to do in front of American audiences, it's re-energize their legacy.