MTV has had quite a lengthy and, um, interesting relationship with Mr. W. Axl Rose — one that has spanned decades, musical genres (metal, pseudo-industrial, sorta rap-rock) and, of course, cornrows.
Our cameras have been there at basically every step of Rose’s career: from Guns N’ Roses’ first appearance on “Headbangers Ball” in 1987 to their ascent to legendary status in ‘91 and then through the bevy of beefs, arrests and in-band bickering that eventually led to their demise. And, for the most part, one man has been in front of (or beside) those cameras: Kurt Loder.
So after combing our vaults to find the most Awesome Axl Moments on MTV, we decided to sit down with Kurt to get his take on the man himself — and luckily, he also had more than a few truly excellent Axl stories to share with us before the release of Chinese Democracy.
On Axl, The Man:
“Well, I think Axl is a little out of control, which is the way you should be if you’re going to be a big rock star with the limos and all that,” Loder said. “You should be out of control, and you should never know what’s going to happen next, so I thought that was great. That doesn’t happen at that level any more, because I think bands arrive at that level with all kinds of attorneys and handlers and stuff. They sort of pose as rebels, but they’re not dangerous. Nothing’s going to happen around them. Whereas with Axl, you never knew. Because I think he was on drugs or something, I don’t know. He was a very talented guy. He could be very, very nice, and he could all of a sudden be prickly. So, it was always interesting to be around him.”
On Axl’s Post-Bail Limo Trip In 1992:
“Oh yeah, it was totally prearranged. Totally corny, totally prearranged. All set up in advance. [Axl] was inside signing autographs for the cops; they loved him. He had started a fight a year earlier, outside of St. Louis, and there was a fugitive warrant out for him, so he was arrested when he arrived at JFK Airport in New York. They brought him down to the jailhouse and kept him there overnight or something, so we went there, got the limo, he got in and we talked to him. It was all preplanned, of course. But he was in a jolly mood, you know? And then he went on to start a tour. … He also started wearing a lot of Versace [around then]. Maybe it was the Elton John period.”
On Axl, The Myth:
“It’s a shame that people who claim to be revolutionary and dangerous today, they just aren’t. I’m sure there are a million bands at a lower level, but when you reach the big chart level, you’re not going to endanger anything. Whereas Axl Rose can take 16 years to make a record, still keep his record label, after 16 years of having various studios on hold around the clock, and make it work. He’s finally put the record out. Who else could do that? Nobody.” [Editor's note: If there's a band working that angle these days, it's Hinder — check out what they have to say about Chinese Democracy here.]
On Axl’s 1992 VMA Performance With Elton John, And His Backstage Beef With Kurt Cobain:
“Axl had that song ‘One in a Million’ … and he tried to explain that ‘n—–’ didn’t necessarily mean ‘black person,’ and he tried to explain the ‘f—-t’ thing, so he got together with Elton John. You know, Elton John got together with Eminem. He’s there to save souls, I think. So, the two of them up there, with the pianos — it was a little weird, you know? The backstage thing was the most interesting, because it was Courtney [Love] and it was Kurt [Cobain] and it was Axl. It was like two worlds colliding. That was sort of an important moment in the way fashions changed, and you really saw the culture of music going in a slightly different way. But it didn’t last, did it? The guys in the flannel shirts started buying Gucci too.”
On Axl’s 2002 VMA Performance:
“Well, nobody knew about it. Really nobody knew about it. And then [MTV Executive VP] Dave [Sirulnick] came to me and said, ‘You should really come over to see this.’ It was the night before the show, and they were doing a rehearsal, and it was Axl. And you just thought, ‘Where’s he been? What decade are we in?’ And he had this big band — and they were a great band, you know — but he was doing Guns N’ Roses material, and they were great. It really was a surprise. And when he came out, it was like the Pee-Wee Herman moment.”
On Axl, The Legend … And The Dinner-Party Host:
“I think, even as eccentric as Axl seems, he really is who he is. It’s not really an act or anything. I think maybe he had some problems with kind of … keeping it together in public, which would be storming off the stage or jumping into the pit to wrestle cameras out of fans’ hands. But that’s just the way he is. He’s not at all pretentious. And it’s good to have him back. I think Sebastian Bach was telling me that he thought Axl should get out of the house more, because he spent years just giving dinners — he had a big long table and people would come eat. But I had heard that Sebastian told him ‘Axl, you’re Axl. Why don’t we go out occasionally?!’ And he started getting him to go to nightclubs occasionally, which was probably a good thing.”
For something like 15 years now, Axl Rose hasn't existed in the music industry so much as he's hauntedit. He's been the creepy old guy with the goatee and the Raiders jersey who lives in the mansion on top of the hill. A spook story. A cornrowed specter.
You never really knew if Axl was real or not, but you definitely believed in him — you could feel his presence every time rock music would get dragged through the mud, or whenever Britney Spears would notch another #1 album on her bejeweled belt. You had a fearful faith in him, a knowledge that he was out there, watching, waiting, working on something big.
That something big was — as it always was — Chinese Democracy, which I'm pretty sure you're aware will finally arrive in stores November 23. To say that it is the decade's most-anticipated album is perhaps a disservice to the phrase "most-anticipated," and not only because it's been in the works for more than a decade now, features more musicians than a Zappa record and has reportedly cost something north of $13 million to make. No, Rose himself — the man, the myth, the mystery — has had more than a bit to do with all the hyperbole surrounding the album, if only because he's remained persona non grata for most of its creation.
There have been few in-depth interviews, in-the-studio pieces and sneak peeks. Rose has been content to simply tinker away on Democracy from his mansion atop the hill, maintaining radio silence throughout. It has not always been this way, though.
There was a time (pardon the pun) when Rose was just like any other super-mega rock star out there. He did interviews, he incited riots, he got arrested. And luckily, all this has happened during MTV News' lifespan. So, when Rose passed on our requests for an interview in support of Chinese Democracy, we dove deep into our archives and dug up some of our best Axl moments.
Some of them are sort of hilarious. Others are testaments to the magnetic power Rose had (and still has). But all of them are part of that myth I was referring to ... the process that turned a kid from Indiana into a genuine Rock God. So with Democracyon our doorsteps, please enjoy this humble tribute to that creepy old guy in the mansion: the one and only W. Axl Rose.
Long-delayed LP might finally be released — which means anything is possible.On The Record: W. Axl Rose: The Great Destroyer
There is a passage from Chuck Palahniuk's book "Fight Club" that strikes me as incredibly appropriate this week, given that there is roughly a 60 percent chance that it may actually be prophetic.
"We wanted to blast the world free of history. ... Picture yourself planting radishes and seed potatoes on the 15th green of a forgotten golf course. You'll hunt elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center and dig clams next to the skeleton of the Space Needle leaning at a 45-degree angle. We'll paint the skyscrapers with huge totem faces and goblin tikis, and every evening what's left of mankind will retreat to empty zoos and lock itself in cages as protection against the bears and big cats and wolves that pace and watch us from outside the cage bars at night."
Oh, did you think I was referring to the implosion of our economy, the freefall on Wall Street, the impending sense of doom that looms over us all like a giant, pitch-black penny loafer, or the fact that pretty soon we're going to be left wearing barrels like they did during the Great Depression? No, no, no. I'm actually talking about Guns N' Roses.
Or, more specifically, the fact that — after more than a decade of false starts, empty promises and litigious gymnastics — GN'R's long-awaited Chinese Democracyalbum could actually be foisted upon us as early as next month, exclusively at your neighborhood Best Buy.
If the reports are true — and given that W. Axl Rose is involved, there's a very good chance they might not be — then Chinese Democracy is coming, and its release would be an event unlike any other in the history of rock music. The sun would be blotted out, the gates of heaven would open, and we'd all be reduced to grunting, screaming primates. It would be like every bank in the United States failing simultaneously, only more so, because it would involve die-hard Guns N' Roses fans getting drunk in Best Buy parking lots at midnight. It would reset the clock, empty the reservoirs, crumble the towers. It would be rock-and-roll Year Zero (which is not to be confused with Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero.
This is because Chinese Democracy was never supposed to happen. It was destined to be the eternal punch line, a $13 million albatross and an ongoing testament to the will, ego and insanity of Axl Rose. There is perhaps no rock-and-roll album as starstruck or anticipated in history — eternally promoted by disastrous world tours, tinkered with by no less that five producers and featuring contributions from God-knows-how-many musicians. Democracy has been in the works since at least 1998, victimized by infinite false starts (the industrial mess of "Oh My God," featured in the industrial-size mess that was Arnold Schwarzenegger's "End of Days," Rose's winded performance at the 2002 Video Music Awards, Buckethead) and promised (threatened?) to be released more times than I care to recall. (Resident metalhead Chris Harris attempted to do so in a blog post earlier this year.) It's become a FEMA-level catastrophe at this point, and the fact that the entire saga has played out before our eyes only makes its actual conclusion seem all the more improbable. This is an album that we were supposed to speculate about, snicker at but never — ever — hear. This just wasn't supposed to happen.
But now, apparently, it is. And frankly, I'm not sure if we're prepared. If and when the first crate of Democracy is opened in a Best Buy storeroom, it'll represent the moment when all bets are off, when anything can happen, music-wise. Will it come bundled with a copy of Dr. Dre'slong-delayed Detox album? Will it inspire My Bloody Valentine or the Pixies to drop new albums? After Democracy, will we finally get to hear Pink Floyd'sHousehold Objects or the Who'sLifehouse? The answer to any of those questions might very well be "yes," if only because, likeDemocracy, no one really believed any of those albums would see the light of day either. In short, it would be entirely possible that we would never not hear anything ever again.
And when it has finally moved from the storeroom to the shelves, will there be mass chaos? When GN'R fans — half-crazed with anticipation, half-dazed from spending the past 48 hours sleeping in line outside an electronics retailer — actually catch a glimpse of the album, will they summarily combust? And are we prepared, in these darkest of times (I'm speaking in terms of the music industry, not Wall Street), for an album that's unlike any this decade? It could be an honest-to-goodness event, a surefire blockbuster that will cause music fans to behave like music fans, cueing up for midnight sales, throwing the album on in their cars, celebrating the release of a dozen or so pieces of recorded music. We will be transformed into savage rock-and-roll animals. Again, this isn't supposed to happen.
Oh, and about those pieces of recorded music. They're insignificant in all this, because really, there is absolutely no way that anyone is going to be happy with the content of Chinese Democracy. It's just not going to happen. Anticipation is too high, we've lost a little bit of faith in the all-knowing Axl, and to be honest, the stuff we've heard from the album (none of which, to be fair, might actually be on the album) has been spotty, to say the least. The exception to this is, of course, "Shackler's Revenge," the just-released (via "Rock Band 2") track that is most certainly on the album, and in addition to having a title that reminds me of a National Lampoon film, is also pretty terrible. (OK, it's really terrible.)
But again, none of that matters, because people are still going to buy the ever-loving crap out of Chinese Democracy, even though they know they're ultimately going to end up disappointed. They will be strangely compelled to do so, if only because, well, they have to buy it. Likewise, critics will slay the album, because that's their job, but they will do so knowing that nothing they write will matter in any way, shape or form. None of this has ever happened before. Nothing will be the same ever again.
After typing that last sentence, I got so freaked out that I hid underneath my desk for a good 20 minutes. Eventually, I mustered up the courage to uncurl myself from the fetal position, climb back up into my chair and re-read everything I've written so far. And here's what struck me more than anything: Basically everything I've written about Chinese Democracy is interchangeable with this country's current economic collapse. The idea of the album being released once seemed as impossible as banks failing or massive, multinational brokerage firms filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, yet both are happening. The results of both are relatively terrifying, if only because they mean that, really, nothing is certain anymore. Both involve large sums of money and ego being handled irresponsibly. And both — be it the sinking feeling that Democracy will be rather bad or the proposed $700 billion bailoutcurrently flailing on Capitol Hill — are accompanied by some rather unpleasant side effects. Also, after our economy disintegrates, it's entirely possible that China might actually buy us, creating an actual Chinese democracy. Marinate on that.
And all of that either proves that Axl Rose is: A) a genius; B) a prognosticator; or C) the rock-and-roll version of T. Boone Pickens, because he's seemingly omnipresent, insanely wealthy, kind of creepy and is trying to pitch you something that seemslegit, except you can't shake the lingering feeling that you're being conned, because, well, the dude's an oil baron (you know, that and his ties to the whole Swift Boat thing). Either way, he's terrifying. He's going to bring society to its knees. He's going to change the world forever.
Get your barrels ready. Chinese Democracy could be right around the corner.
Rumors surface about possible November release date for band's long-delayed album.
After years of inveterate delays, empty promises and false alarms, it looks like hell's first-ever snowball fight could go down this November. That's if the latest reports on Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy — an LP the band's sole original member, Axl Rose, has been working on for well over a decade with a handful of producers, racking up a production bill estimated at more than $13 million — are to be believed.
While there's been no official announcement yet (per usual), it seems we may finally be close to a genuine, authentic, set-in-stone release date for Rose's long-awaited magnum opus. But of course, Rose's manager, Andy Gould, won't confirm recent reports that the sixth GN'R album could be in stores before year's end. MTV News contacted Gould's office last week to inquire about the release date but were told he wouldn't be commenting. (The release date of Chinese Democracy has been prematurely expected so many times that we wrote a Newsroom blog post about all the false alarms back in July.)
Yet, according to Rolling Stone's Web site, Gould reportedly told 900 Best Buy employees — during some sort of mystery convention held last week in Dallas — that Chinese Democracy would hit the streets on November 25; Interscope last listed the album's release date as March 2007. Gould also declared that the record would be a Best Buy exclusive, and even previewed three of the album's tracks — this all according to a man who claims his nephew works for Best Buy and was present for the big reveal.
Several calls left with Best Buy's public-relations department were not returned as of press time, but this deal has been rumored for weeks, with several news outlets citing unnamed sources "close to the negotiations" who claimed the release of the disc was imminent. Meanwhile, other rumors have suggested Wal-Mart would be the album's exclusive retail carrier.
In what some believe is a strong sign we could be closer than ever before to hearingChinese Democracy, one song from the oft-delayed record, "If the World," was chosen to accompany the closing credits of Leonardo DiCaprio's forthcoming film,"Body of Lies," which hits theaters nationwide October 10. A mastered version of the same song — which is a speedy, riff-heavy tune, reminiscent of "Night Train" and "Dead Horse" — leaked online earlier this year.
It's worth noting that, way back in 1991, GN'R's track "You Could Be Mine" was the second to surface from the band's perpetually postponed Use Your Illusion albums, and it also appeared on the soundtrack to "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." At the time, some hinted that the song's inclusion on the film's soundtrack helped encourage Axl and the boys to push forward the albums' release date. The first song released from those conceptual companion efforts was "Civil War," which appeared on a charity compilation in 1990.
The first recent sign that the release of Chinese Democracy could be nigh came this summer, when Harmonix and MTV Games announced that "Shackler's Revenge," a track from the album, would be making its worldwide debut on the forthcoming game "Rock Band 2." So, while questions of "if" and "when" continue to remain unanswered, the signs are there, giving fans new hope that Rose will soon deliver on his decade-long promise. But, as with everything in Guns N' Roses Land, nothing's official until Axl says so.
