Axl Rose Promises New Album And Hints At Playing With Old Guitarists

05/09/06 6:30pm

Let us know if you've heard this one before: Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy album will be released this fall.

That was Axl Rose's declaration on Saturday, when he appeared on Eddie Trunk's syndicated radio show. Sebastian Bach, the Canadian former frontman of Skid Row, was co-hosting the program and called the reclusive Rose on his cellphone to invite him to join them in the studio. Surprisingly, he agreed.

When asked about the release prospects for the long overdue album, Rose said, "Sometime this fall or late fall. It will be out this year."

Rose added that he was pressured into the ill-fated 2002 GNR comeback tour, which included a Nov. 7 riot in Vancouver after a cancelled performance. The entire thing was scrapped a month later after another no-show by the band.

The lineup for that tour included '90s GNR member Dizzy Reed on keyboards, Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck, former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, guitarist Buckethead, former Primus drummer Brian "Brain" Mantia, former Psychedelic Furs and Love Spit Love guitarist Richard Fortus, and keyboardist Chris Pittman.

Rose said that the new lineup will be similar to that one. The world mourned when Buckethead quit in 2004, and the singer wouldn't reveal who the new lead guitarist is. While he initially said that it wouldn't be a former GNR member, he later hinted that Izzy Stradlin may show up for four concerts at New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom that begin on Friday, and that Slash may play a role in shows that the group have lined up in Europe through the rest of the spring and summer.

But when's the last time that anyone took anything Rose said seriously, anyway?