| When
Zakk Wylde arrived to the Complex, where Axl was rehearsing, he was slightly
surprised. "There were never any melodies," Wylde recalls. "There
were never any lyrics." The music Wylde heard during a period of several
months sounded like "Guns on steroids." Wylde felt sorry for Axl.
"The poor fuckin' guy's got every fuckin' cunt trying to sue his ass,"
Wylde says. "I'd be on the phone with him. He'd be telling me about
all these strategic moves his lawyers were making. I was listening to him
playing Axis and Allies on the fuckin' phone." Wylde left to record
with his new band, Black Label Society. "They were trying to get ideas together, see who was compatible with who as far as a band vibe," says former Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna, who came in for a few sessions in the spring of 1997 when late-night jams (10 PM to 6 AM) were stil taking place at the Complex. Vrenna turned down a drumming spot in GN'R to work on a record of his own. "It was going to be a long commitment," Vrenna says. "There was no firm line-up. Axl had a definite direction he ultimately wanted to head toward, but at the time there wasn't even a song yet." Producers came and went like pizza deliverymen: Youth, Moby, Mike Clink and Sean Beaven. Axl's legal troubles continued to distract him. Finally, a wall full of tapes, hours and hours of scraps of music, riffs, ideas, stacked up. Some of the music reportedly sounded like U2 during their Achtung Baby period, powerful and melodic. Some gave off a whiff of Nine Inch Nails of Nirvana. Touring was on the horizon. All the new songs Axl announced, would have to work live. "I founded difficult to chart a linear development of the songs that they were working on," Moby recalls. "They would work on something, it would be a sketch for a while, and then they'd put it aside and go back to it a year, six months later." "He became a little bit defensive when I asked him about the vocals. He just said he was going to get them eventually," Moby continues. "I wouldn't be surprised if the record never came out, they've been working on it for such a long time." I asked Moby whether Axl seemed at peace. Moby thought carefully. "He seemed like he had an idea of what being at peace would be like, and he was working toward that." Axl's record would
address the issue of domestic violence. So went the industry gossip. "It's
Guns N' Roses music," Goldstein says. "There's rumors about
it being a techno record. It's what Guns N' Roses has always been: diversified."
Jim Barber, the former Geffen executive, recalls, "An artist like
Axl who had as much success with Guns N' Roses as he has gets to a point
in his career where he can settle into one sound and do it over and over
again, usually with diminishing returns. Axl is determined not to do that.
There's a sort of ruthlessness about pushing Guns N' Roses to grow, and
to find some depth in their music, and to evolve." Whether Chinese comes out or not, Axl himself, friends says, seems healthier, less angry - and still a maze of contradictions. He likes to think he makes all the decisions in his life, yet he listens carefully to New Age counselors. He feels like the world revolves around him, but he refuses most requests to speak publicly about himself. He believes in justice, but he doesn't believe he has to be fair. He can be an incisive observer of human weakness in his songs, yet when it comes to his own conduct, he has little perspective. "Axl's really easy to hate and he doesn't understand why," a friend observes. "He lives in fantasy world, a parallel universe. He's self-centered, like a chils, but not so naive. When he calls, all he wants to talk about is his record and how Interscope can't fix things for him." "A family is what Axl wants more than anything in life," another friend says. "He wants to find within himself the ability to show affection. He's really, really incapable of showing gratitude an affection." As long as he remains in his mountain, behind his fence, rumors swirls and the appetite for his return grows. Or does it? How much of a Guns N' Roses audience is really left? Who wants to watch a Guns N' Roses show that will probably include only one founding member: Mr. Rose himself? On September 22nd,
Axl issued a statement, his first in years. The document was by turns
bitter ( Axl referred to Matt Sorum as a "former employee"),
funny ("Power to the people, peace out and blame Canada", he
signed off) and incomprehensible. It's stilted phrasing and syntax sounded
like just the sort of thing you would expect from a man too long immersed
in self-help books and too long isolated from the world. Axl announced
"OH MY GOD", etc deals with the societal repression of deep
and often agonizing emotions - some of which will may be willingly accepted
for one reason or another - the appropiate expression of which (one that
promotes a healing, release and positive resolve) is often discouraged
and many times denied." Whatever that means. "The appropiates
expression and vehicle for such emotions and concepts is not something
taken for granted." |