The guitarist wear and tear that ran through the making of 2008’s Guns N’ Roses “Chinese Democracy” is said to have also hit Queen guitarist Brian May: None of the parts he recorded for Axl Rose would make it onto the finale Album done, explains the 74-year-old.
The guitarists despaired of “Chinese Democracy”.
If you look at the history of the band, one thing stands out in particular: the countless guitarists who have supported Guns N’ Roses over the years. In 1996, stalwart Slash left the band, requiring the addition of Paul Huge, Robin Finck, Buckethead, Richard Fortus, Bumblefoot and DJ Ashba. Only Fortus is currently still there, Ashba’s Guns N’ Roses time happened between 2009 and 2015 – accordingly after the release of “Chinese Democracy”.
But everyone else mentioned the same exit criterion: the lack of progress on the album. Now Brian May also reported that he was involved in the creation. However, he cannot be heard on the record. May recalls it took a whopping nine years to record the guitar parts for the track Catcher in the Rye. It was all “strange” for him.
The guitarist describes working with Rose as a “strange experience”. “Halfway through the process, Axl became a recluse,” May said. He would have worked at his home while the Queen musician was mostly in the “down the hill” studio with Rose’s recording engineer. Rose had hardly come by. “Every once in a while he would call and he would be very excited, then he would talk a lot. But then he disappeared again,” reports the musician.
He would have recorded his guitar parts in 1999, but by the time the album was released in 2008, these were probably no longer current enough. Shortly before the release, it was announced that May would not be heard on the disc.
Brian May is disappointed
He doesn’t question the frontman’s decision and understands that Rose would probably like to have a guitarist on the album, who was a member of Guns N’ Roses at the time of release. It was still a bit of a disappointment: “I put a lot of work into it and I was proud of it,” says May.
Rose is said to have remained a Queen fan anyway. After performing at the 1992 Freddie Mercury tribute concert and calling Queen the greatest band of all time in 2018, there’s little doubt. Brian May still enjoys his colleague’s appearance to this day and even posted about it again on Instagram in 2020.
You can see Guns N’ Roses on tour in Germany in June. Slash recently explained in an interview how the band wants to tour without Corona.