The breakup started when Izzy left then Slash and Axl simply could not work out their differences. Nothing more, nothing less. Neither are liars and neither are saints. Shit happens, people change, and relationships end. Will they ever get back together? Who knows....however, us continuously arguing over it is really kinda silly at this point.:haha:

dec 1999 Axl on Snakepit..
Rose: You could find ways to blend all kind of things. It really just takes the right song. I don't personally believe that was the interest of Guns or Slash, I don't believe the right song was the interest. I mean, what people don't know is, the [Slash's] Snakepit album, that is the Guns N' Roses album. I just wouldn't do it.

Loder: Really?

Rose: Oh, yeah! Duff walked out on it, and I walked out on it, because I wasn't allowed to be any part of it. It's like, "No, you do this, that's how it is." And I didn't believe in it. I thought that there were riffs and parts and some ideas, I thought, that needed to be developed. I had no problem working on it, or working with it, but you know, as is, I think I'm with the public on that one.

2002 interview with Del
'Originally I intended to do more of an Appetite style recording but with the changes in the band's dynamics and the band's musical influences at the time it didn't appear realistic. So, I opted for what I thought would or should've made the band and especially Slash very happy. Basically I was interested in making a Slash record with some contributions from everybody else. There'd still be some chemistry and some synergy happening and whatever dynamics anyone else could bring in to the project. It seemed to me that anytime we got close to something that would work, it wasn't out of opinion that Slash would go '˜hey it doesn't work', but it was nixed simply because it did work. In other words, '˜Whoa, wait a minute. That actually might be successful, we can't do that.' People like to call me paranoid. It has nothing to do with paranoia; it was to do with reality. If the material were strong enough for me to sink my teeth in then I would still be in a certain public position in regards to Guns, we'd have possibly still held a certain popularity with the public as I have previously been fortunate enough to have had.

Had Slash stepped up and written what we captured glimpses of, it would have created an environment that was beyond Slash's ability to control. He did not want to do that or put himself through the rigors of taking the band to that level even if he was capable of writing it. Was he capable of doing it? Absolutely 100%. I think that some of the riffs that were coming out of him were the meanest, most contemporary, bluesiest, rocking thing since Aerosmith's Rocks. The 2000 version of Aerosmith Rocks or the 1996 Aerosmith Rocks by the time we would have put it out. I don't know if I would have wanted to even do a world tour at the time but I wanted to put that record together and could we have done it? Yes. It's not something I would want to approach (without Slash) because at the time there was only one person that I knew who could do certain riffs that way. We still needed the collaboration of the band as a whole to write the best songs. Since none of that happened, that's the reason why that material got scrapped. "

Axl is really not inconsistent at all regarding the Snakepit era material and what was going on at the time. To me, it seems that he liked certain riffs and wanted to work with certain material. However, Slash wanted the entire body of stuff as the next Gnr record. Duff has statements similar to these as does Slash. Slash is also the only one who ever alleged that Axl wanted to take the material back. I think it is clear that he would have wanted some of the ideas from Snakepit but certainly not all. Sic has more of this stuff and if you read it in it's entirety and I have a hundred times, the stories really are consistent.

James, of course you can form opinions of what you actually hear-that is all we have. But you know and I know and anybody who knows about the history of rock and roll, knows that artists can record 3-4 fairly different mixes or alternate takes on the same song. Dylan did it all the time. Neil Young is releasing two or three tracks not released from a scrapped mid 70's album in the next few weeks. They are suppose to be awesome. This is not uncommon in rock and roll. If the current leaks ended up being a large chunk of the final album, I would be pissed because I only like bits and pieces of most of those songs. I personally think they could be A LOT better. However, I do hold hope that the record will not be a hodge podge melting pot of styles that the 10 new songs from the new Gnr represent. After all this time, I would hope Axl, the other band members,  and the record company have more sense than that. But, until I hear an official album, I am not going to prejudge an album or an artists ten years of work on 6 demos and a few songs played live 3-4 times.:/

ps...I also agree that the production sucks. Maybe that is the reason the band never let go of the material, they were simply trying to get the production right. The songs don't stink, but some of the production does. Tommy mentioned something about poor production in the past...

amen!:thumbup: pretty much my feelings as well.

Those samples are fuckin' great.....:mosh::mosh: