Have u had a chance to sit down and listen to Chinese Democracy all the way through? Your thoughts on it?

Yes. I have to say that I pretty much love it. The way I have been describing it has been 70% awesome and 30% really weird, but after a few listens... The weird becomes awesome again. I don't know if it's the songs or the fact that I just enjoy hearing that guy's voice or both, but I am a fan. It's not GnR as we know it... It feels more like an Axl solo record... Probably because as music lovers, we were able to get a feel for the old GnR dynamics and the personalities of each member in the band. I know very little about this band so it's hard to connect with each member sonically like I did before. People have been commenting on how long it took to make but I kind of don't believe he was working on all THESE songs the whole time. I'm sure there have been versions, stuff that got scrapped, breaks, line up changes, personal time... I'm speculating of course, but having worked on so many projects I know that there are a million things that go down before you even decide on the track listing.

Buried deep in an article about Guns n’ Roses guitarist Richard Fortus and his one-night reunion with Pale Divine is this bit of potentially huge news: A Gn’R tour should start in late March and is expected to last “at least two years,” according to Fortus. The band had hinted at a possible tour on their official Website in April, saying the fifth Chinese Democracy tour since 2001 was in negotiations — “When we begin to put tour plans together, we’ll see where things are,” the band said at the time — and a source close to the band told Rolling Stone an ‘09 tour was in the works. With album sales slumping and Axl Rose still reluctant to conduct any interview outside of message board forums, a tour is just what the album needs for a promotional boost. If the March start date is correct, it puts Guns in a position to headline several huge festivals in 2009 on both sides of the Atlantic.
 
Fortus has played guitar in some capacity for Gn’R since 2002, when Axl Rose’s friend Paul Tobias left the group’s revolving-door guitarist job. Currently, Fortus is the lead guitarist on Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad tour. A St. Louis native, Fortus says he and Axl joked about returning to the city where, in 1991, Rose caused a riot after he stormed offstage because a photographer in the crowd ticked him off. “There has been talk of us doing a Love tour, a tour of all the cities where there have been riots, and doing free shows,” Fortus said.

When Guns renegotiated our contract with Geffen I had the bit about the name added in as protection for myself as I had come up with the name and then originally started the band with it. It had more to do with management than the band as our then manager was always tryin’ to convince someone they should fire me. As I had stopped speaking with him he sensed his days were numbered and was bending any ear he could along with attempting to sell our renegotiation out for a personal payday from Geffen.

It was added to the contract and everyone signed off on it. It wasn’t hidden in fine print etc as you had to initial the section verifying you had acknowledged it.

Now at that time I didn’t know or think about brand names or corporate value etc. All I knew is that I came in with the name and from day one everyone had agreed to it being mine should we break up and now it was in writing.

I still didn’t grasp any other issues until long after I’d left and formed a new partnership which was only an effort to salvage Guns not steal it.

In my opinion the reality of the shift and the public embarrassment and ridicule by others (which included a lot of not so on the level business types he was associating with at the time) for not contesting the rights to the brand name, were more than Slash could openly face. Also we aren’t lawyers or formally business educated so it was just a matter of all of us being naïve and doing what we thought was right at the time. Slash was imo being on the up and up in agreeing I had the rights and I wasn’t trying to be some snake in the grass pulling a fast one. The others could’ve cared less.

But when the reality of the breakup hit and the strategy to have me crawl back was put into play Slash had to save face and get business team and public support. Painting me as the one who held a crowd hostage forcing the others to sign over the name worked out pretty well in that regard. I’m the bad guy and Duff, the fans and most importantly himself were the victims. Oh and they had actually made the sacrifice for the crowd, the people, the fans at the show. But again…. IT NEVER HAPPENED.

Media and others ignorantly, wrongly and falsely harped on about it at mine and the fans expense for years and Slash has hoped to use all that to continually sue and have some sort of legal nonsense going on behind the scenes in an effort to reverse things. He wouldn’t have been able to get the support and action on the part of his various team members over the years to do so if the truth were out there especially when the statute of limitations had run out years ago.

Why keep the name? I’m literally the last man standing. Not bragging, not proud. It’s been a fucking nightmare but I didn’t leave Guns and I didn’t drive others out. With Slash it’s been nothing more than pure strategy and saving face while manipulating the public like he used to me. I earned the right to protect my efforts and to be able to take advantage of our contract I’d worked hard for where Slash’s exact words were that he didn’t care. I get that some like a different version or lineup the same way some like a specific team line up or a particular year of a specific car but because you and I are getting played I’m supposed to throw the baby out with the bath water?

I didn’t make a solo record. A solo record would be completely different than this and probably much more instrumental. I made a Guns record with the right people who were the only people who really wanted to help me try, were qualified and capable while enduring the public abuse for years . The songs were chosen by everyone involved. I didn’t want to do This I love in anyway shape or form and Robin and Caram insisted gaining Tommy’s and the others support. There’s been a lot of pressure to go with using my name (all external) but that never felt right to me for this band and the parameters in regard to this music have lots more to do with the mindset of Guns than something else. The instrumental I wrote for End of Days that’s more a solo effort at least presently.

As far as a new name…this is who I am not whatever else someone else thinks of. I don’t see myself as solely Guns but I do see myself as the only one from the past making the effort to take it forward whether anyone approves or not and giving beyond what many would or fight for to do so. The name helped the music more than you could ever know and I’m not talking in regards to studios or budgets I mean it as in being pushed by something and having to get the music to a place where I can find my peace regardless of what anyone says. And that wasn’t fully achieved until the last round of mastering and swapping out a version of a track at the pressing plant that had gotten inadvertently changed at the last minute.

Also the name was what the industry wanted as well and the burden of keeping it was something to endure in order to make the record. After the monies invested by old Geffen (that were decisions made that have worked out for me but I'm on record as having opposed) dropping the name became suicide.

primo, la voie artistique, t'en sais rien du tout, tu ne sais pas ce qu'aurait donne un album avec les anciens Guns. Tu peux speculer, mais pas plus, et meme moins. Meme carrement moins en fait...
Deuxio, tu n'as qu'a lire les explications d'Axl concernant la continuite du nom du groupe... Il l'a tres bien fait. Si ca te plait pas, c'est comme ca, il va pas changer le nom du groupe parce que toi et quelques autres le trouvez super malhonnete pas gentil le mechant qui abuse alors que Slashlespula

Tertio, tu es au courant que Axl et Dizzy sont les seuls rescapes des GnRs version -->1993. Alors en quoi tu t'es fait "enfler"??? Tu pensais encore que... Non, c'est pas vrai!! T'etais pas au courant???

Au fait, ca t'a pas gene un peu que Queen continue apres la morte de Mercury? Bon Scott, c'etait quand meme LE chanteur de AC/DC. T'as du soufrir quand ils ont continue le groupe avec un autre... Te dis ca parce que ca parle ca parle ca parle que de Slash, mais aurais tu dit la meme chose si, finalement, du groupe original, seul  Slash etait parti? Ca aurait ete toujours les Guns? Ou finalement, non? Il vous manque pas, Duff? Ou Matt?  
Un de ceux qui me manque depuis le debut, moi, c'est Steven... Encore une fois, c'est des son ejection (par tous membres du groupe) que les Guns ont commence a se fissurer...