GUNS N ROSES STINSON TALKS DELAY, WITH NOV 23 RELEASE ANNOUNCED

The seventeen year wait is over for what might be the most anticipated album in music history. Guns N’ Roses is set to release their first album since 1991’s Use Your Illusion 1 and 2. Chinese Democracy will be released exclusively through Best Buy November 23, and the title track has already been given to radio. Those who can’t get to a radio can go to gunsnroses.com, where they can hear the song and where the countdown clock to the release keeps rolling.

Former Replacements bandmember Tommy Stinson, who took the place of Duff McKagan in the band, chatted with us about his solo album, Village Gorilla Head, in 2004. The album was perhaps his finest musical accomplishment, but he begged to differ. At the time he talked about the delay in making Chinese Democracy.

“The real delay was just how it went down. Having an eight person band collaborating to write a record is a daunting task to begin with, but to have it, to do it in a way where none of the guys have really been in the band all that long together and trying to pull in all those different influences from each band member to make it have a cohesive songwriting thing. It takes time. It was a lengthy process, but it was definitely the best way to go about it, and certainly the best learning experience I’ve ever had as a musician. As far my musical years and all the cool stuff I’ve done, it was one of the coolest things in that aspect, of just collaborating with people from totally different areas, genres, what have you.”

Stinson said that Axl Rose was very supportive of him making Village Gorilla Head, and the bassist talks about the balance between being solo and in GNR.

“You know I love being in Guns and being a bass player with that but I also write songs on my own that aren’t really geared for that. There’s a good juxtaposition between the two.”

Stinson joined Guns N Roses in 1998, and the band has seen various members come and go throughout the making of Chinese Democracy. The title track isn’t the only tracks fans can get their hands on. “Shackler’s Revenge” debuted September 14 through the music video game Rock Band 2, and “If The World” is in the film “Body Of Lies,” which premiered on October 11.