Outlook 2011

Guns N' Roses/New GN'R - Don't expect a new album in 2011 or anytime soon. They might play Rock in Rio in September/October, but don't get your hopes up for a tour of the United States. I don't know why Dj Ashba said that.

Slash - Velvet Revolver looks like it's on the back-burner once again. Slash and Myles are recording another album and are going to continue to tour together, on and off, throughout the year.

Izzy Stradlin - Will probably release another under-the-radar collection of songs for iTunes. Maybe he'll submit to an interview - he skipped his semi-annual interview in 2010.

Duff McKagan's Loaded - just signed with Eagle Rock, who will release their new album, The Soundtrack, on March 22, 2011. Eagle Rock also plans to re-release Loaded's 2009 album, Sick, in April. The reissue will have a bonus DVD, featuring 11 tracks from a live set filmed at The Garage in Glasgow 2008. Duff has also "penned more than 150,000 words thus far" for his upcoming autobiography, tentatively due in November 2011.

Adler's Appetite - will release their first full-length album next year and embark on a World tour including a short US run in January and a longer jaunt through Europe in February.

Predictions - Bumblefoot will be the next member of New GN'R to leave the band. I'll go back to listening to my 1970s Myles Davis records.

Fresh, New Adler's Appetite in the Oven

via AntiMusic
Former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler has revealed that his band Adler's Appetite whas begun production of their new CD with Cinderella's Fred Coury.

Adler's Appetite have also confirmed the first batch of dates for a 2011 European tour. The band has already confirmed dates in the UK, Spain, The Netherlands and France.

Axl Rose Sues Activision (Makers of Guitar Hero)

Radar Online
Axl Rose is suing Activision Blizzard Inc, the owner of the hit video game Guitar Hero, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned.

Axl is suing the company for over $20 million dollars for fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment, among others claims.

COURT DOCUMENTS: Axl Rose Suing Guitar Hero Makers

In the court filing, Rose sates that he is the majority owner of the trademarks and licensing associated with the band.

Axl has an issue with Guitar Hero III using "Welcome to the Jungle" without his permission.

In the legal documents, Rose states, that there was an agreement to use the song for Guitar Hero III, but (all quotes from Rose's lawsuit)

"Activision breached the contract when it released GH III which prominently features Slash imagery in direct connection with the use of "Welcome to the Jungle," exploits the prior association between Slash and Guns N' Roses, promotes Slash's and VR's (Velvet Revolver) separate interests and includes VR tracks as available downloads, all of which was and is directly contrary to the contractual obligations of Defendants."

"In order to promote Guns N' Roses, Rose diligently attempts to channel fan and media attention to the current status of the band, including its current lineup, and focus on the band's current endeavors and plans for the future."

"Rose and Guns N' Roses pursue a forward-looking outlook rather than one that dwells on the past."

"Nonetheless members of the tabloid media have tended to focus on and mythologize a rift within the band that occured in 1996, when one of the bands guitarist, Saul Hudson, aka "Slash" and Guns N' Roses parted ways."

"A preoccupation on the part of some members of the media with the rift between Slash and Guns N' Roses has led to a distorted public perception between the images and careers of Slash and Guns N' Roses."

"Despite the fact that Slash has had nothing to do with Guns N' Roses' ongoing popularity and success since 1996."

"(Slash's) association with the band lingers, at least as far as certain members of the media are concerned."

"Riley sought to reassure Rose, through his representative Beta Lebeis, that in no uncertain terms, if given the authorisation to use Welcome to the Jungle in GH III, no VR related material would be included and no Slash imagery would be used at all, let alone in association with Guns N' Roses and 'Welcome to the Jungle.'"

"In numerous conversations occuring in May of 2007, Riley reassured and represented that none of the rumours Rose was reading on the internet regarding the planned use of Slash and VR in GH III were true. For example, in one conversation Riley flatly denied the rumours stating "'Come on Beta, you know you can't believe everything you read on the internet.'"

"While the form and substance of these conversations may have occasionally varied the central message and operative language used did not. Riley 'guaranteed' that provided Rose agreed to approve Activision's use of 'Welcome to the Jungle,' there would be no use of 'Welcome to the Jungle' and no VR in GH III."

Rose is seeking at least $20 million dollars in damages, punitive damages and other associated costs.

Lindsay Lohan for Velvet Revolver

Lindsay Lohan just lost a job playing a porn actress.

I don't work in the movie business, but I'm guessing things are pretty bad when that happens to you.

Velvet Revolver is looking for a new singer - the stars are aligning.

Velvet Revolver was huge when they emerged as a super group because they satisfied people's appetites for the GN'R and STP of yesterdays. If they come out with a new record, I wouldn't want to see it disappear like a Libertad II.

Getting some unknown singer may just not really do it the second time around.

I knew that Lindsay might be interested when I read this story on how she wanted guitar lessons from Slash.

Lindsay Lohan has been begging former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash to help her brush up on her strumming skills. She said: "Can you maybe give me guitar lessons? I've lost any sort of magic touch I've ever had."

They're not going to be making a grandiose Picasso or Monet painting. It's just rock 'n' roll. I don't think it really matters if she can sing that well. Slash and the gang have got a ton of riffs, and I can see that this would be a success. Also, Slash is friendly with Lohan, and this past April NME reported that

Slash has said there will definitely not be a Guns N' Roses reunion - as he only wants to work with ladies now.

Lindsay's a triple-threat - actor, singer and dancer. Or if you prefer - drug addict, ex-con and porn-star. Ke$ha is just a poser. Lindsay Lohan is a lot more rock 'n' roll than what's out there, and she's also a Ginger.

Please tag your tweets with #LL4VR if you want to see this grassroots campaign succeed.

She should at least get an audition.

Slash Begins Recording New Material

This Tuesday, Slash announced via his Twitter account that the recording for his new album had started.

So far so good in the studio! Got a couple brand new riffs, pretty heavy stuff.

Earlier this month, Slash told the UK's Planet Rock radio that he would be working with Myles Kennedy.

I'm working on new material for what would be a new record. As well on my own but probably working with Myles. That's the plan: to do an album with him.

Bumblefoot: Don't Hold Your Breath for New GN'R Album

via Blabbermouth
Guns N' Roses fans shouldn't expect a new studio album from the band anytime soon, according to the band's guitarist, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal.

Even though GN'R axeman Dj Ashba said in an interview at last week's launch party for the Call Of Duty: Black Ops video game that the band is "throwing around a bunch of ideas" for its next CD, Bumblefoot doesn't believe that a new GN'R album will surface in the foreseeable future. He writes on his Facebook page, "We've yet to get in a room and write as a band." He adds, "I know Dj mentioned something about a new album, but don't want y'all expecting anything soon. Other than old unreleased Chinese Democracy songs, songs need to be written, jammed, recorded, tweaked, re-worked, re-recorded, mixed, re-mixed, mastered, re-mastered, art, new art, label approval, a game plan from the label that Axl approves ... not as simple when it's on such a big scale ... Just don't want ya getting frustrated if a GN'R album doesn't happen quick ..."

Rose himself hinted in an interview back in 2002 that he had compiled enough songs to release follow-ups to Chinese Democracy in rapid succession, saying, "The plan is to drop the record. Have a bunch of extra tracks . about a year or so down the road, drop another record, and drop a third record. This is a three stage thing; we'll be touring for a real long time."

In addition to Ashba, Thal and sole original member Rose, the current lineup of GN'R includes guitarist Richard Fortus, bassist Tommy Stinson, keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman and drummer Frank Ferrer.

Guns N Roses' latest album, Chinese Democracy, was released in November 2008 as a Best Buy exclusive, 17 years after the last all-original Guns sets, Use Your Illusion I and II. The album was a commercial disappointment, selling less than one million copies in the US (according to Nielsen SoundScan) despite the long wait.

Bumblefoot joined GN'R in early 2006 as the replacement for Buckethead. He made his live debut with the band at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on May 12, 2006.

Ashba joined GN'R in March 2009 following the departure of Robin Finck.

Armistice Day

I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day.

When I was a boy ... all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another.

I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not.

So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.

What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.

And all music is.



-Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions (1973)