Recommendations of the Editorial team
When Guns N ‘Roses suddenly published two albums in 1991, “Use Your Illusion I & II”, this not only caused discussions with fans. Alan Niven, then manager of the band, was also little convinced of the decision. As he explained in his new book “Sound N’ Roll Stories”, he would have preferred to publish a single, compressed album.
Axl Rose made the decisions
Guns N ‘Roses front man Axl Rose deliberately opted against a classic double album for “use your illusion” to relieve fans financially. Instead, two albums appeared at the same time. “Axl explained to me that he wanted to have his double album faster than Led Zeppelin,” said Niven. But the manager was skeptical whether there was enough material in consistently high quality.
The idea of publishing two albums instead of a double album came from Niven himself. “I convinced Axl that we should bring two individual albums out at the same time. Nobody has ever done that. It will be exciting. It will be an event. Nevertheless, it was clear to him:” What we shouldn’t do is a double album. “
Enormous pressure after mega success
The expectations of Guns n ‘Roses After the breakthrough with “Appetite for Destruction”, were enormous. According to Niven, the pressure was jointly responsible for the departure of drummer Steven Adler, who was overwhelmed with the more complex songs such as “Coma” or “Estranged”. Guitarist Slash finally proposed Matt Sorum as a replacement.
Before the “Illusion” album was published, Niven was released in 1991. Axl Rose had refused to complete the album project with him. In retrospect, there is a dubble crevices: “The more control he (Axl Rose) won, the less productive it was and the worse the material became.” Today he says: “Whatever, that’s all in the rearview mirror.”
Alan Niven’s perfect version of “Use You Illusion”
- 1. “Double Talking Jive”
- 2. “Back Off Bitch”
- 3. “Dust and Bones”
- 4. “Yesterdays”
- 5. “Civil War”
- 6. “Pretty Tied up”
- 7. “You Could Be Mine”
- 8. “Locomotive”
- 9. “November Rain”
- 10. “Dead Horse”