14 DAY TRIAL // It’s been 6 years since the last Guns N’ Roses album, “Chinese Democracy,” which was in the making for many years and reportedly cost leading man Axl Rose an estimated $13 million (€10.2 million) out of his own pocket. New music is on the way, guitarist DJ Ashba reveals in a new interview.
DJ Ashba is keeping very busy these days, what with touring with Nikki Sixx and his Sixx:A.M, working solo, and doing his bit with Guns. Speaking with Guitar International, Ashba says that fans of the iconic rock band are in for a treat, hopefully very soon.
Axl has been recording new music, and they should expect not one, but possibly two studio albums. Could this really be true?
Delay is due to their busy schedules, not the dreaded writer’s block
Ashba tells the publication that “lack of songs” was never a problem with Guns N’ Roses, but rather the actual act of going into the studio. It’s hard to get all the guys together when they’re all spread out thin like he is.
That and the fact that they don’t want to put out an album just for the sake of adding a new item to their discography, their desire of delivering something of quality, explain the delay. On the bright side, DJ Ashba says this might happen by the end of the year.
“A machine like Sixx: A.M. isn’t as nearly as hard to move as a machine like Guns N’ Roses with eight guys. It just takes a little more to turn the wheel,” he explains.
Until he and the other Guns guys get together in the studio, Ashba has been writing his own music, which he describes as “classic Guns N’ Roses,” the music he grew up with. He hopes Axl will allow him to put his “stamp” on the tracks he’s been working on.
And there are plenty of those.
“Axl, of course, has, I believe, two complete albums worth of songs already recorded and probably a [expletive]-load of other stuff I’ve never heard. He’s played me quite a bit of stuff that’s phenomenal, and, hopefully, I can get my hands on it and put my little stamp on it, before all is said and done,” he teases.
Yes but haven’t we heard all this before?
That Axl has been working on 2 albums’ worth of music is amazing news, but fans should probably not put their hopes in Ashba’s promise, such as it is.
Since Slash left the band in 1995 and was followed soon by the remaining original members, Axl has been having major issues with putting out new material. The original Guns disbanded because of tensions between Axl and Slash, but it seems that Axl’s prolificacy ended then – a theory supported by the fact that he only released one album since then.
So, yes, we’ve heard this before. In fact, we’ve been hearing promises of a new GnR album every time a member of the band makes an appearance to promote whatever project they might be working on at the time.
Hopefully, this time, this amazing “news” actually leads to a release, but experience would advise against holding your breath for this to happen.
Embedded below is another interview from Ashba, this time to KTNV.