Pete Scaturro has worked on several Buckethead albums, and he's also a Primus associate. No surprise then for him to have collaborated with GNR.

Funny that Caram Costanzo is getting a credit.

Yeah well,

we have somewhat different approach on the saga. gnrfans work is more like a date by date breakdown, whereas mine's a more loose thing, which still strives to maintain a chronology of sorts. What I tried to do was to create these 'ghost dialogs' between different people describing certain points in time during the project. Other times, people like with Moby and Youth have been interviewed on GNR throughout several years, and they can't bring in anything contemporary, and can only reveal more of the status as it was in '97-98. So putting all that into one place is pretty necessary to establish perspective.

But yeah, pretty extensive research you've got there - I know what a drag it can be to sort all that out. I've been deliberately avoiding the leaks as of yet, because it's one of those ongoing things, I reckon. Will get into that eventually.

You even have the John Stoll quote from 10/24/06, which I knew I'd read but never found again.

I thought I'd offer up some additional info on the personell side you got - it's pretty thorough, although the inclusion of guys like Vrenna, Navarro and Abbruzzese falls into the same category as Duff and Matt (whom you've left out). They jammed / worked with the band at one point, but did they really contribute that much to what would eventually be the final album?

Critter was the programmer from at least mid-98 to mid-99. In August '99, during the work on OMG, his job was taken over by Stuart White.

Don't know if Axl ever did that.

Caram Costanzo has been the main engineer since 2001, if not earlier.

Bob Ezrin was not a producer, he was the A&R man. Other A&R's include Todd Sullivan, James Barber and Tom Zutaut. Axl's said he's handled those duties as well as of 2002.

Curt Cuomo co-produced with Axl from early '04 to mid '05, I believe.

Dave Dominguez was the studio engineer at Rumbo Recorders, as Dan Monti was at Village. Eric Caudieux is the Pro-Tools engineer.

Andy Wallace mixed the album in 2005/6. John O'Mahoney's also been doing mixes in 2007.

Confirmed by Tom Zutaut in Classic Rock, 2008.

Anyway, it's a rather big undertaking and definitely the most comprehensive timeline I've seen (if not made myself ), and I've seen a few.

To his credit, Slash has publicly said to have been eager to hear the record for some time now.

Slash: Axl's got got a record coming out, Guns I guess you call it, I think in March. Which is sorta cool, you know it's gonna be interesting to hear it. After all this time and after all this talk what's going on with him. - 01/04/06

Although Axl and Slash have not spoken in the last 10 years, the Velvet Revolver guitarist said he was pleased that the record is finally going to see the light of day.

"I'm really excited, it's been a long time waiting to see what the next step around the corner was going to be for him (Axl), we know where everybody else is, but we were wondering what he was going to be doing. It's coming out in March and apparently it sounds great."

He added: "I've always been supportive over that thing, even though it's been turned in to a big controversial blah blah blah thing.

"When I left I was pretty pissed off for having to leave in the first place. After a while all the boo-haha that was stirred and all the negative press, sort of went in his direction, so I'm just waiting for the record to come out, so I'm glad where it's got to the point that that's happening." - 02/12/06

Of course, that was after the GH2 release never happened and insiders assumed it was pulled in favor of CD. In March, when either CD or GH2 was rumored to be released, Axl put out the press release on Slash saying all those things some six months prior - just another distraction. The media loves their feud, and Axl seems to be using it to his advantage every now and then.

Actually,

I think the (apparent) scrapping of Aykroyd's original Manhellton storyline and a fresh start with new blood in the creative team is the best thing that's happened to this project in a while.

Aykroyd, to his credit, has worked long and hard to keep the project alive over the past years. But like so many other valuable commodities, the GB franchise is under Aykroyd's jurisdiction as long as the studio isn't seriously contemplating over a new entry. He had 15 years since the previous film to write a script that'd blow everyones socks off, and the best he could do was the turgid Ghostbusters in Hell storyline.

It's certainly more interesting to bring outsider writers in, as I think at some point Aykroyd just got caught with GB's success and instead of coming up something that's equally as witty and original as the initial film, he resorted to upping the ante on the rollercoaster side and as a surefire way to top the preceding films, he opted to take on the afterlife. Nothing wrong with that, but I doubt he remembered to include the things that made the original film so appealing.

The original film found the 'busters as Steve Jobs/Wozniak figures crossed with plumbers, post-grads discovering a killer business venture. Their plight is recognizable to anyone dreaming of their own business, the nature of their work ambiguous enough to appeal to various social classes (blue-collar scientists, if you may). Hiring the black guy was amusing turning point, as they got into the level at which they actually had to enlist outside help out in the field, which is a distinct turning point in every business. Rounding up the shop and the booming of the biz is half the fun in the midst of all the ghost-hunting, while the latter definitely distinguishes the franchise from On The Waterfront and any other film studying the labor.

When you start throwing the team into Hell battling ghosts, you tend to lose that allure.

Now, there's a whole slew of decisions to be made as to where the ghost-catching business has gone to in the past decade or so. It's already established that the amount of paranormal activity fluctuates in NYC, so they need some alternative sources of revenue to maintain the establishment. I'd might like the idea of government-funding, as it'd put them into an Area 51-type setting with gag orders that'd kill Venkman for one as he couldn't ride the fame no longer.

If the US Mil would be taking over, that would relinquish ghost-hunting from the premises of the rich and wealthy and give the proton packs to 'away teams' that would go into really scary places like Abu Ghraib or Auschwitz, where'd there really be some wild things from the other side. Or even, they could follow any main troop around and be ready to clean up the battlefield on the day after the fight - effectively going through the second time.

You could also throw in the R&D aspect and seeking the foundation of life itself with captured specimens - I'd hate to think scientists like Egon and Ray would let all those spooks just float around in the containment grid for years on end. Also, I'd doubt Winston, the odd man out with no degree, could hold a steady job even as an assistant when the work would grow overtly technical, so there'd be possibilities for all sorts of disruption amongst the original crew.

Soon, things would go horribly wrong (with Men in Black et al), and the ghostbusting team would find their department closed with the government claiming ownership of all data and gear. At this point, they'd need to get back to basics and start thinking outside the box once again, putting up a competing business to take on the US Military's ghost-hunters.

The only problem is that it should be a family movie.