IS AXL ROSE ACTUALLY MISSING?
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 11:19am by Axl Rosenberg
As you are no doubt aware by now, Chinese Democracy was released last week to what are generally considered disappointing sales figures. Here in the States, the album sold 261,000 copies to land at number three on the Billboard charts; that’s a little more than Velvet Revolver’s debut, Contraband, sold in its first week back in 2004, when the industry was actually in better shape – but Contraband didn’t take fifteen years and didn’t cost thirteen million dollars. So that number just ain’t really cutting it in most people’s eyes.
But the number actually strikes me as being kind of impressive, when you consider how little promotion was actually done for the record. At the Best Buy where I bought my copy of the album, not only was there no floor display or posters announcing its release, but when I couldn’t find a copy on the shelves (in either the “new release” section of the “Guns N’ Roses” section), one employee actually tried to tell me that they weren’t carrying the disc – despite the fact that Best Buy is the only store in America that are stocking the record (Another, slightly less retarded store worker was able to find the album for me no problem. As it turns out, I could have walked ten blocks to the Virgin Megastore, who are selling Canadian imports of the CD at a slightly higher price.). And if reports are any indication, I’m not the only one who experienced a Best Buy blunder.
And that’s on top of the fact that, as we’ve noted, the man himself, W. Axl Rose, hasn’t come out of hiding to grant interviews, shoot a music video, tour, or in any way acknowledge that his masterpiece is finally seeing the light of day after years of waiting. I think this fact struck most Axl fans as a typically bizarre/enigmatic/just plain dumb move on Rose’s part – I don’t think it actually occurred to anyone that Rose might be, y’know, actually missing, as Music-News.com is now reporting.
A source says, “‘People have been trying to contact Axl for two months and he’s completely AWOL.”
SERIOUSLY? This dude works with some of the biggest managers and record execs in the business, and no one can find the guy? Assuming it’s true and not just another bullshit GN’R rumor, that is completely and utterly FUCKED.
So what’s going on? Is Rose running from the spotlight because he can’t handle the pressure? Has he finally gone way off the deep end (I mean even further off than he already was) and had a total fucking nervous breakdown? Or is he just enjoying a nice, long vacation, and trying not to worry about business, the way George Lucas apparently does every time he release a movie and retreats to Hawaii?
Whatever the case, I don’t think it’s too late to turn Chinese Democracy’s numbers around. For one thing, industry insiders are saying that Best Buy purchased roughly three million copies of the album, at least half of which they are contractually obligated to keep whether they sell or not. That means that it’s in the chain’s best interest to do everything they can to move 1.5 million units of the album – which, again, would place its sales in the Contraband neighborhood (and way above Velvet Revolver’s sophmore effort, Libertad). Add to that international sales and the fact that the Chinese Democracy sessions are allegedly going to bring about two more albums in the next two years, and suddenly recouping the sizable investment it cost to make the album doesn’t seem like such an impossible dream.
But even if Best Buy does get their shit together, I don’t know how much they can do without Rose’s support. There have been rumblings of a music video and a tour in January, but if Rose is really, truly AWOL, than that’s obviously not going to happen.
I really thought that with its release, the myth of Chinese Democracy would come to its conclusion. How foolish of me. Leave it to Axl Rose to outdo himself, even now.
-AR
[via Metal Underground]
Metasucks.com- The Fox News of online metal journalism.
This album fucking bombed, possibly due to the fact that kids buying albums today were not even fucking born when G&R were popular. Why are you making excuses for it? And please stop pretending like sales will suddenly pick up, becuase people just “forgot” that this came out and this thing will be a hit, aint gonna happen.
He’s apparently still alive and well enough to sue Dr. Pepper.
Another two albums from the Chinese Democracy sessions? Since when did Axl Rose become the Tupac Shakur of rock and roll?! (Geffen as Death Row Records)
I think this rumor about him being missing is almost certainly untrue. I mean, save for the Guns N’ Roses tours of the last few years, Axl has essentially been a recluse, popping out of his hole only to aid Sebastian Bach or pet the occasional mammal. It should come as no surprise that he’d avoid any promotion for this record. If there is a music video for any track off this one, do not expect Axl to actually appear in it (unless, of course, they use previously recorded live footage from the aforementioned live appearances).
And anyway dreadlocked red-headed rockstars don’t go missing!
It’s a good thing I’ve never been to “Metasucks.com” – I fuckin’ hate Fox News.
When i went to best buy last week i was expecting to see some more promotion than there was. After looking through the cd’s I did spot a floor display in the back with maybe 10 or 15 cd’s left on it. Like AC/DC, i think the majority of gun and roses fans are now in there late 30’s and early 40’s and most likely nascar fans. Maybe when best buy does get to sell back the rest of these albums, they should go to every race track in the country and we can watch the numbers race for #1!
I think the blame for the disappointing sales can be placed equally on both Axl and Best Buy. Look what Wal-Mart did with “Black Ice”. That’s on track to be the biggest selling rock album of the year.
Of course, AC/DC actually promoted their album. I really, really like Chinese Democracy, but can’t help but feel that Axl is his own worst enemy
OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY! I hope, with all of my heart and soul, that Axl Rose has indeed walked off into the sunset somewhere and subsequently fell off the face of this fine planet called Earth. That would be the best Christmas present I’ve ever had the pleasure of giving to anybody that will fucking listen.
Axl Rose dissapearing and acting erratic IS the promotion. It’s the same shit bag, me first attitude that he had when he was in the REAL GnR. It’s funny how somethings never change. Unfortunately for Axl, people don’t seem to care as much now.
@Matt – I completely agree that this was a botched rollout of an album that could have done better. Still Geffen (the label/distributor) deserves most of the blame for their lackluster dinosaur approach to marketing this one. Radio singles? A TV advert? Sure, that’ll perhaps snag a portion of the nostalgic fogies who were fans of Guns N’ Roses back when ‘Appetite’ came out. Where was the online promotion? Partnership with blogs? Freebies for email list subscribers? Special collector’s editions exclusively available from the website a la Metallica and Nine Inch Nails? Bueller? This is no-brainer shit nowadays and with retail sales universally in the crapper, being a Best Buy exclusive alone doesn’t cut the proverbial mustard.
Let’s just accept that one of the following scenarios applies to why Chinese Democracy had such a dismal first week:
A) Axl, the band (why couldn’t Buckethead or Bumblefoot or Robin Finck do interviews?), Geffen, and Best Buy assumed that the “buzz” for this “highly anticipated” album would shift units with minimal promotion.
B) Most if not all of the above parties accepted that it would be impossible to recoup the exorbitant costs of ‘Chinese Democracy’ and opted to cut their losses by pushing it out into the marketplace with minimal promotion.
maybe Axl realized that he’e really not the big pop star now and that Chinese Democracy would be an album for the die-hard GnR fans only. that or Axl & Co. are rehearsing day and night for that worldwide trek.
@Gary: Hell, take a look at Journey’s new album. It’s sold upwards of 500k. Look what you got with it; one disc of all new music, one disc of re-recorded classics, and a dvd….all for $11.99. I’m nowhere near being a big Journey fan but not even I could pass that up. If they didn’t wanna do promotion, they could have made this a triple disc effort. Or thrown in a dvd chronicling the making of Chinese Democracy, or a live dvd from the Download Festival, or absolutely anything other than a bare bones cd.
Speaking of lack of promo for the album. Do you think Chinese Democracy will ever be the giveaway for any Metalsucks contests in the near future? I won’t keep my hopes up…
And exactly which musicians are going to tour with Axl? Who exactly IS Guns ‘N’ Roses? It’s Axl Rose and any number of studio musicians who can stand to be around him (or who don’t get fired) for about 8 minutes. It’s not as if we’re talking about Dave Mustaine, who has always been the principal songwriting force behind his mostly solo-effort band.
I heard a rumour that he went AWOL to try and get the classic lineup back together. Which seems kinda unlikely. But the guy I heard it from says that he saw it in Billboard. So crazy things might happen.
Maybe he went completely nuts and we’ll never have to listen to his shitty attempt at writing music again! YAY!
It would be even better if I could some how never hear his voice again in my life.
i’m not buying it just because it took so long and axl spent, no… wasted so much money. how about this axl rose: instead of spending millions to make a mediocre album… spend millions on something useful like finding a cure for cancer or helping end the genocide in darfur.
I also boycott cause of axl’s fuckin dreadlocks. so un-metal dude…
and the original lineup will never happen… if slash rejoins pigs will fly, hell will freeze over, etc….
Why are so many people saying “I’m not buying it cos’”
- it has been a long wait
- it has cost a lot of money
- Axl is dumb
WHO CARES? It’s not YOUR money they’ve spent, so the money one is NOT an excuse to trash CD. And as for the wait – we’ll how long is it since the last Kiss or Van Halen album? And if we said Axl had been on vacation or hiatus or had been knee deep in addiction, INSTEAD of working and working – you WOULDN’T be whining, you’d be applauding him. And who cares if he’s a jerk, that doesn’t affect whether the music is good or not.
I was a doubter, but I bought the cd and BOY does it rock – I’m REALLY surprised at how good it is, much better than I had hoped for. Do yourselves a favour and check it out instead of spending your time here whining
@chris: It’s the idea that so much was wasted on something so insignificant… Does Axl really need more money? No. And I have checked the album out, I listened to it front to back… 15 years and production costs that reached $13 million. I know artists want the album to be how they envisioned it, but when there is so much other shit going on in the world, $13 million on a mediocre (in my opinion) album seems selfish, arrogant, and is like a big “FUCK YOU!” to poor people.
It’s what I think. I’m not whining… this is where people write comments, so I did.
Axl has been such a recluse for so long that he probably has no idea how the business operates right now. He more than likely still counted on G’N'R being one of the most recognizable “brands” in the business and no one around him was going to tell him otherwise. His label and Best Buy should have fucking known better and done a hell of a better job promoting this record. Epic, epic fail.
But also, I think the fact that this album is really, really underwhelming. At its best it’s pretty good, at its worst it’s fucking laughable. The song “Better”? Shitty late 90’s alt-metal riffs, weak vocals, poor execution? Yeah, I’m fucking psyched.
I’m not a guy who is hating for the sake of hate, I really wanted this album to be great. I was really excited when I heard it was coming out. But for 15 years of tweaking the record, I would have expected much, MUCH stronger riffs, vocals, melodies, etc. This shit just didn’t do it for me, and I imagine a lot of people feel the same way. Lack of promotion makes up for a lot, but don’t discount poor word of mouth affecting record sales.
Interesting comments all round. The $13 million reportedly spent on the record all went somewhere, wages, studio time etc and so what? That amount is a TINY drop in the ocean of wasted cash spent on recordings that never make it out of the studio. As a fan of the original G’n'R (and lucky enough to see the band live at Wembley!) I expected this record to be bland. Though I do not find the guitar playing to have the distinct personality that Slash brings, I really like it.
Axl has always done his own thing no matter what. He seems to care not what anyone thinks from the press to fans, and therein has created a mystique that everyone else can only comment on. Frankly, I am glad he’s back and if he wants to duck out while the record drops then good on him. As for the rumor mill saying there is a reunion in the works, I have always thought it stupid that great bands cannot get passed themselves and rock on while at least everyone is still alive to do it. If they do, and you never saw them live I recommend you do yourself a favor and get a ticket no matter what the cost.
i wana say that he is not missing but their is always a voice on the back of my head asking what if he is missing? and if he is missing where can he be? and what is he doing well i dont know for sure but i hope hes not missing.