Oh hell yes - that clip was hilarious!

Nice topic, Otto.  Those rumors came from "youthinkso" at mygnr, right?  Taken with a grain of salt, but interesting.

I would be all for Bucket being reintroduced.  That would certainly make it easier for Axl to release the old stuff.  It would also mean GNR has a guitar virtuoso that loves GNR, who is amazingly proficient at writing, recording and releasing quality music.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if attempts to get Bucket back have led to delays - both of CD, and of subsequent releases.  As much as I like the guys in the band, I'd have no problem with Axl dumping the lot, and offering the world to Bucket for him to return.

He wrote or co-wrote most of the hits, but they really only had hit singles from Empire (if memory serves).  I had to look it up, but DeGarmo gets full credit for both Best I Can and Silent Lucidity from Empire.  The other singles from that album were credited to Tate/DeGarmo, or Tate/Wilton.  The Operation Mindcrime singles were both DeGarmo/Tate.  I don't know if they had any other songs that could be considered "hits", but there were a couple of older singles that were credited entirely to DeGarmo.  Most have shared credits.

I had completely forgotten about that, so I looked around for info.  Apparently, their marriage didn't last very long.  He is still in the band though, best I can tell.

I have now watched all of this guy's covers.  Pretty amazing stuff - thanks for the link!