Due to the schedule of these particular shows valuable time needed by the band and record company for the proper setup and release of the album Chinese Democracy would be lost. Rather than delay the album yet again all involved have decided to remove these shows from GNR’s schedule. We sincerely hope our fans understand and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone. Tickets may be refunded at local point of purchase.
To say the making of this album has been an unbearably long and incomprehensible journey would be an understatement. Overcoming the endless and seemingly insanity of the obstacles faced by all involved, not withstanding the emotional challenges endured by everyone: the fans, the band, our road crew and business team has at many times seemed for all like a bad dream where one wakes up only to find they are still in the nightmare and unfortunately this time it has been played out for over a decade in real life.
The true ongoing behind-the-scenes triumphs and casualties are much more complicated than any negative speculation that media or otherwise has managed to hit upon. For much of the time some form or another of legalities have been taking place that really the best way to deal with publicly was to keep our mouths shut in an attempt to ensure the best outcome and especially one that wouldn’t jeopardize the band or the album. One can easily point to how others have done things or how they themselves feel that they would were they in the same situations but without full knowledge of the various dynamics and circumstances involved, again these types of comments or commentary are uninformed, outside, generally useless and often hindering speculation.
When I agreed to do our recent North American tour I agreed with the understanding that I and my manager Merck Mercuriadis were in full agreement as to our strategy, touring plans and most importantly that any and all things needed to release the album at the latest by Dec. 26th were to be in place. Unfortunately this turned out not to be the case and not only do I regret to say that again the album will not be released by the end of the year but that though many things went extremely well and were very exciting there were in our opinion unnecessary and avoidable complications on our tour having to do with the tour routing, scheduling and album and video plans that played hell on all involved especially our crew. This was compounded by an overall sense of a lack of respect by management for the band and crew and each individual’s particular expertise that has resulted unfortunately in the end of both Guns and my relationship in having a management or sense of band involvement with Merck Mercuriadis.
In regard to a release date for the album itself certain minor and by that I do mean minor things and or additions as well as contract negotiations need to be completed and barring any unforeseen complications these things have now been adequately scheduled. Both the band and I along with our record company feel that this record deserves the proper setup and promotion not the “13 Tuesdays left” and “it may just appear in your record store” approach offered by management. We believe this strategy may have been used in order for management to sell this latest tour to the various promoters. We feel that if this was so, this was obviously unfair to them. The stress of dealing with this situation has been considerable for everyone as well as to the band themselves as a whole but that this was more importantly in our opinion something utterly insane to do to our fans. Our apologies and please know we have been laboring over this with management for the entire North American tour.
It takes approximately 8 weeks for an album to hit the shelves once it has been turned in to the record company. For whatever reasons it appears it may have been mistakenly inferred by management that this could be condensed to three. That being said this is not a promise, a lie or a guarantee but we do wish to announce a tentative release date of March 6th. This is the first time we have done this publicly for this album. Any and all other dates have been made up by others for their own reasons. We would like to assure the fans that though tentative everything in our power will be done to meet this date. Once it is finalized and official you will be notified. If we are delayed for unseen reasons you will also be notified as soon as possible in regard to a new date and the album will be released as shortly thereafter as is possible. We thank you for your patience.
In the end it’s just an album and one that I, the band, our record company and all involved believe and feel is a true Guns N’ Roses album. Ultimately the public will decide and regardless of the outcome our hearts, lives and our passion has been put into this project every step of the way. If for no other reason we feel those elements alone merit your consideration. We do hope you can hold on just a bit longer and if not we hope you would please feel free to take a break and we’ll be more than glad (if you so choose) to see you again later.
Once again, our sincere apologies and our deepest thanks, Guns N’ Roses would also like to thank all the fans who attended the 70 concerts in 21 different countries for their support in 2006. All the best to each and every one of you over this holiday season, thank-you and God bless.
Sincerely,
Axl Rose
(2006-09-30) A Press Release from GNR!
GUNS N' ROSES ANNOUNCE "CHINESE DEMOCRACY" NORTH AMERICAN TOUR AND STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP WITH MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ADVANCED MEDIA
Hot on the heels of their sell out shows last week in Las Vegas, San Francisco and KROQ's Inland Invasion in Los Angeles Guns N' Roses announce the first leg of their "Chinese Democracy" North American Tour.
The tour which will kick off on the 20th of October in Jacksonville, Florida finds the band in top form having spent the summer in Europe playing to 700,000 plus people over 32 shows in 18 countries, making it one of the biggest tours of the year on the continent and in the UK. Concert goers were not let down as Axl Rose and his band mates Dizzy Reed, Robin Finck, Richard Fortus, Tommy Stinson, Chris Pitman, Brain and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal burned through classics such as "Welcome to the Jungle," "Paradise City," "Nightrain," "Mr. Brownstone," "November Rain" and "Sweet Child O' Mine" as well as highlighting soon to be favourites from the forthcoming "Chinese Democracy" album.
Just this week, the Hollywood Reporter's concert review of KROQ's Inland Invasion observed, "when headliner Guns N' Roses took the stage everything old became new again - and everything new on the bill, just couldn't hold a candle in comparison... the night belonged to Guns N' Roses!"
Axl Rose commented, "We had an amazing tour in Europe this summer and last week's shows here in the US were great. It's been a long time getting here but we look forward to coming to your town and having a lot of fun."
Sebastian Bach who has been guesting with Guns N' Roses on "My Michelle" will open the entire tour with the Special Guest slot going to a number of great bands starting with Papa Roach for the dates through the 3rd of November. The shows have been planned to cater to a Guns N' Roses rock n' roll party atmosphere with Sebastian hitting the stage every night at 8 pm followed by the Special Guest at 9 pm and Guns N' Roses shortly after 10 pm and lots of great music in between.
Guns N' Roses are also delighted to announce that they have partnered with Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLB.COM) to provide their fans with premium ticketing opportunities and up to the minute information on the tour and the band's other activities via gunsnroses.com which will be launched as of tomorrow.
As for Guns N' Roses forthcoming "Chinese Democracy" album the only comment at this time is that there are 13 Tuesdays left between now and the end of the year.
The itinerary for the "Chinese Democracy" North American Tour is as follows. Tickets for most dates go on sale on the 30th of September with up to the minute information and pre-sales available now at gunsnroses.com.
October
10/20/06 Jacksonville, FL Vets Memorial Arena
10/22/06 Nashville, TN Gaylord Entertainment Center
10/24/06 Sunrise, FL BankAtlantic Center
10/25/06 St. Petersburg, FL St. Pete Times Forum
10/27/06 Estero, FL Germain Arena
10/29/06 San Juan, Puerto Rico Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum
November
11/2/06 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum
11/3/06 Huntington, WV Big Sandy Superstore Arena
11/5/06 East Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena
11/6/06 Portland, ME Cumber County Civic Center
11/8/06 Worcester, MA Worcester Centrum
11/10/06 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
11/13/06 Baltimore, MD 1st Mariner
11/15/06 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
11/17/06 Ottawa, ON Scotiabank
11/18/06 Quebec Colisee Pepsi
11/20/06 Halifax, NS Halifax Metro Centre
11/24/06 Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena
11/25/06 Auburn Hills, MI The Palace of Auburn Hills
11/27/06 Chicago, IL Allstate Arena
11/29/06 Milwaukee, WI Bradley Center
December
12/1/06 Ames, IA Hilton Coliseum
12/2/06 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
12/4/06 Winnipeg, MB MTS Centre
12/6/06 Calgary, AB Pengrowth Saddledome
12/7/06 Edmonton, AB Rexall Place
12/10/06 Everett, WA Everett Events Center
12/11/06 Portland, OR Rose Garden
12/13/06 Fresno, CA Save Mart Center
12/15/06 Oakland, CA Oakland Coliseum
12/17/06 Universal City, CA Gibson Amphitheatre
12/19/06 Universal City, CA Gibson Amphitheatre
January
1/10/07 Sacramento, CA ARCO Arena
1/11/07 Bakersfield, CA Rabobank Arena
1/13/07 Reno, NV Reno Events Ctr
1/16/07 San Diego, CA iPayOne Center
*Check out the GNR On Tour section on this web site for more dates as they become available.*
(2005-06-13) G&R are on tour again, this time in Europe! Axl was also invited, by English team McLaren-Mercedes, at the Formula 1 race in England, last sunday June 11th. Check out the "Reviews" section for a review of the Download show!
(2004-03-30) Believe it or not, here's a letter from Axl to his fans!
"The band has been put in an untenable position by guitarist Buckethead and
his untimely departure. During his tenure with the band Buckethead has been
inconsistent and erratic in both his behavior and commitment - despite being
under contract - creating uncertainty and confusion and making it virtually
impossible to move forward with recording, rehearsals and live plans with
confidence. His transient lifestyle has made it impossible for even his
closest friends to have nearly any form of communication with him
whatsoever. Last time I talked to Bucket, he called to tell me he had bought
a bootleg DVD off EBay and how proud he was to be in Guns and how impressed
he was with everyone's performance. Then, in February we got word from Brain
that Bucket had called him and said he was back in Guns!? Apparently,
according to Bucket he had been "Gone" but had turned himself around and was
really excited to do Rio-Lisbon and a European tour. Somewhere in the
following month things changed once again. According to those who have
actually spoken with Buckethead it appears his plans were to secure a
recording contract with Sanctuary Records which I encouraged my management
to make available to him, quit GN'R and to use his involvement in the
upcoming Guns release to immediately promote his individual efforts...Nice
guy!
There is not a member of this camp that is not hurt, upset and ultimately
disappointed by this event, and more to the point - if not this individual,
certainly this individual's choices. Regardless of anyone's opinions of me
and what I may or may not deserve, clearly the fans, individuals in this
band, management, crew and our support group do not deserve this type of
treatment. We as a whole, definitely feel that we afforded Bucket every
accommodation perhaps so much so that it may be that we or more precisely, I
may have done Guns a disservice and unintentionally allowed Guns to be put
in this position.
On behalf of Guns N' Roses and myself I apologize to the fans who planned to see us at Rock In Rio - Lisbon. The festival and its tradition mean a lot to
me personally and I sincerely do not enjoy being robbed by one of our own of
the opportunity to be the first artist to play it for the third time. I
would also like to express my gratitude to those who chose to embrace
Buckethead's role in Guns and support our new line up. We greatly appreciate
Bucket's contributions and remain open to "discussions" as there are
obviously several issues to resolve. In the meantime rather than dwelling on
the negative, Guns will be moving forward and surprisingly (without giving
away any details) this unfortunate set of circumstances may have given us
the opportunity to take our recording that one extra step further.
Regardless we hope to announce a release date within the next few months.
Sincerely,
W. Axl Rose"
(2002-12-11) Well folks, it seems like the tour is now off. Why? Well, there is no official statement yet. MTV news posted a brief statement by GNR's tour promoters, Clear Channel, that said: "The remainder of the Guns N' Roses concert dates promoted by Clear Channel Entertainment have been cancelled. Refunds will be available at point of purchase." You can also check out Clear Channel's web site by clicking here: Clear Channel: GNR tour dates.
(2002-12-08) Philadelphia's First Union Centre show that was suppose to be held on December 6th was cancelled. Why? Well, that's a good question! Alot of rumours are going around and I will not give any of them publicity. The GNR camp is suppose to give an explanation of what actually happened. Maybe we'll see that tomorrow. Keep checking this News section for more details.
(2002-11-09) The tour has started! Yes! But not in Vancouver on the 7th of November, but in Tacoma on th 8th! For some reasons that are yet to be confirmed, the GM Place canceled the show before Axl could get there. Axl said in an interview hew was actually flying there when he learned that the show was canceled. A riot then occured and the GM Place was trashed. But the Tacoma concert has been held, as schedule yesterday and the reviews I've read so far from GNR fans are great! Stay tuned for more news on this tour as they become available!
(2002-09-25) GNR is starting a new tour! Yes, it's true, you will be able to see them performing during their North American tour that is starting this fall! Check out www.gnronline.com for the details! Here are the dates for the tour:
11/7/2002 GM Place Vancouver, Canada
11/8/2002 Tacoma Dome Tacoma, WA
11/11/2002 Idaho Center Arena Bosie, ID
11/14/2002 Target Center Minneapolis, MN
11/15/2002 Fargodome Fargo, ND
11/17/2002 The Mark Moline, IL
11/18/2002 Allstate Arena Chicago, IL
11/19/2002 Nationwide Arena Columbus, OH
11/21/2002 The Palace Detriot , MI
11/22/2002 Rupp Arena Lexington, KY
11/24/2002 Gund Arena Cleveland, OH
11/26/2002 HSBC Arena Buffalo, NY
11/27/2002 Pepsi Arena Albany, NY
11/29/2002 Air Canada Centre Toronto, Canada
11/30/2002 Nassau Coliseum Uniondale, NY
12/2/2002 Fleet Center Boston, MA
12/3/2002 Civic Center Hartford, CT
12/5/2002 Madison Square Garden Arena New York, NY
12/6/2002 First Union Center Philadelphia, PA
12/8/2002 First Union Center Wilkes Barre, PA
12/9/2002 MCI Center Washington, DC
12/11/2002 Bi Lo Center Greenville, SC
12/19/2002 Gulf Coast Coliseum Biloxi, MS
12/21/2002 American Airlines Arena Dallas , TX
Check out the GNR On Tour section on this web site for more dates as they become available.
(2002-08-29) Guns N' Roses playing at the MTV Video Awards! Finally a TV performance by Axl and the new GNR! After having started a tour in Asia and Europe, GNR was playing tonight at the MTV video awards. Tonight, everyone saw and remembered that Axl is the best frontman ever!
(2002-02-06) Happy Birthday Axl! Axl Rose turned 40 today!
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