If he does not shed the vampires sucking his blood taking advantage of his vulnerabilities, then he is doomed.  He is not in a healthy creative place or frame of mind if he is refusing interviews, but is hunkered down formulating lawsuits against Dr. Pepper over a fucking joke that worked in his favor.  Really, how bizarre.  It's making radio embarrassed to even play their songs for fear of association with this Whacko/Jacko behavior.

There is a pretty cool GNR display in all the stores, but what shocks me is how bad at retail displays Best Buy is. I visited five of the Best Buy's in my metro area today.  One of them, had the display directly to the right of the store entrance (it was a one-sided display), with the back to the door where no one could see it.  The second store, actually had a sign out front, but the sign was set-up sideways, not facing forward so people could see it as they walked in.  Nonetheless, the store had a nice four sided GNR display visible, with the vinyl on top when one walked in the doors.  They were re-stocking it when I visited, so they had sold copies of it.   Saw four other people in the store buying it.  Next store, had the same sign out front, sideways again so no one would see it (what is the purpose of a sign, if it is set-up incorrectly?)--they had two displays right up front, and also copies stacked on top of Guitar Hero boxes--they were moving CD's, as people were picking them up.  Fourth store, had the sign out front, had three big four sided displays, and they were all picked thin.  I asked the worker how it was moving, and he said they had to fill up the station I was at twice "today"--this was 2 p.m. this afternoon.  There was also people walking around with the CD I saw.

With all that said, UMG only shipped Best Buy 700K in the U.S.  So, anything exceeding 500K this week with downloads and pre-orders, is solid.  Secondly, Sunday and Monday, prior to Thanksgiving are two slow shopping days.  Tomorrow, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday are going to be big shopping days!  I would imagine, Friday is going to be Best Buy's busiest day of the year, but they are going to be very busy during the week leading right up to Christmas with last minute shoppers.  Shoot, I have stood in line at Best Buy the day prior to X-mas Eve for twenty or thirty minutes before.  All of this fussing is premature, and is due to outlandish expectations.  Since the advent of file sharing, pushing over 1.5 million annually is tough to do.  Moreover, since when did album sales equal great music?

Jimmy Iovine, though, seems very confident.  I am quite sure, they are going to push This I Love (brilliant song) to adult contemporary at some point, and it is going to pull in a new crowd of buyers, and give this another boost.  I would imagine, that if they have surpassed 1 million units in the U.S. by Dec. 31st, UMG will be smiling.  I do think, worldwide, they are going to move over 5 million units by the end of the year, so sales are not the concern some here make it out to be.

Well, this argument is about as old and over as Velvet Revolvers record contract:

http://www.metalunderground.com/news/de … wsid=40246

Yeah, I am struck by how strange it is to read on a few forums how the marketing is awful, the cover will restrain sales, what a depressing time this is because there has been no official line-up announced for a 2009 tour, Axl doesn't come on the boards and chat with us, etc.  It's some sort of group phobia, or mental illness unique to the internet which has yet to be named.  Misery loves company, that is for sure (I am not throwing anyone under the bus, as most fans everywhere and on the boards are great--there is a very loud minority, though, who suffer from this ytbd disease).

When reality is, the song is a top five modern rock song, the album is the #1 pre-ordered album on ITUNES and at bestbuy, the single is the #1 rock single in the world, the album we've all been waiting for is coming out on vinyl and on cd in nine fucking days, the whole freaking world is talking about, and GNR has the top manager in the world who runs Ticketmaster, AEG, a division of UMG, Frontline, and is the most powerful man in music.  Oh, and did I forget, the music is brilliant.  Much to celebrate guy's and girls!

This over the top negativity is hilarious!!!