Dammit! Janet! I'm mildly tolerant of you, at least when you're obviously not wearing a bra. The rest of the time...

Not sure how far I'll get into it tonight, but I've found a few interesting essays on the internet regarding something you'd never expect me to write about, Guns'n'Roses.  Specifically Axl Rose.  I know, it's I just came from an alternate dimension but no, it's really me.

□ [Gunsnfnroses.com: “Rose, what happened to your voice?"]

There's no way to know how accurate this information is or the writer's experience in the field, but it's an interesting look at Axl's decrease in singing ability.  Actual throat problems.  It's kinda funny - not HA-HA funny - but I've always assumed it was deliberate, that he consciously decided to sound worse.  I guess it's actually good to hear - not HURRAY good - that he didn't go that far, it was an actual problem.

The claim is basically that alot of times he didn't sing within his normal range (2nd baritone) and compensated with what's called "the drive," which is essentially that powerful aspect of his singing.  Worse, he didn't use the "drive" correctly, or at least without proper training.

Apparently the "drive" is very damaging to vocal cords when done through the throat, it should be used through the soft palate, but is very difficult to use that way so a lot of singers don't.

Axl was already having problems singing by the end of the 1991-3 Illusions tour.  I think he sounded weaker on what little I've heard from that era but I wouldn't have noticed much.  The whole point of live singing is that you get one chance to get it right and have to move on no matter how good or bad you were.  Regardless, the audience won't care much because they get to watch G'n'f'n'R, man!  In the studio, there are obviously many more attempts and different styles to attempt before anyone else hears it.

Ok, I just remembered the b-side to one of the UYI singles, I'm blanking on which but it was a live version of a song and I had always noticed Axl sounded weak on that and wondered why they ever used it.  Anyway...

It might explain why Axl did no touring or any kind of appearance for quite a few years.  The Illusions tour would have ended earlier, except that he's spent so much money on needless additions and paying late fees that the band hadn't really made any money from the first two years.  The other article I'll get to suggests that he had money problems for various reasons and must have needed to find an income since there was no new album, but the 2001 tour was almost entirely cancelled and the 2002 tour was cut short after less then two dozen shows after riots in Philadelphia.  The 2006 tour had roughly 76 shows, a few more were cancelled.  20 shows in 2007.  72 shows in 2010.  42 shows in 2011.  49 shows in 2012 for the Up Close and Personal tour, then 17 to start-off Appetite For Democracy.  Another 22 shows in 2013.  24 shows in 2014.  The Not In This Lifetime tour started in 2016 and had 175 shows through 2019.

Sometime after 2000, Axl went in to surgery for the nodules on his vocal cords.  It's said this is what made his voice clearer and less raspy.  This could be why he was finally willing to start touring again.  It may also be why the 2001 tour was cancelled, he wasn't sounding good in the new style.  It's even possible this is why he cancelled the Philadelphia concert which led to the riots.  Years later, he would say he wasn't blameless for not showing up.

He had surgery again in 2004 which helped somewhat.  In 2006, he started using the "drive" again but it wasn't nearly as good as everybody was used to.  Nor was it healthy for him.  He was increasingly out-of-tune which has nothing to do with "drive."  He had sung better in 2002 when he couldn't use "drive."  In 2010, he was the closest to the olden days that his audience remembered.

I'm still a little ambivalent about this article even though there's an obvious response to my objection.  My issue is that 'how could Axl Rose not find anyone after nearly three decades who could give him proper training and maintenance for the voice that got him to where he was?'  Yes, ok, he's Axl Rose, he doesn't do that, but still...

It's possible that he had more nodules after 2010, he's dropped the "drive" since then.  He does sound horrible on the few videos I've seen although I did hear less of a problem on the few videos I saw from the AC-DC tour.  He has less breath than he used to which may or may not be because of the weight he's gained.  It's speculated that much of the songlist was picked because it didn't require "drive" in the studio versions and doesn't have to learn anything new.  This does help explain the bizarre change on the Chinese Democracy songs.  As I said, I thought he did that deliberately.

The article was written by someone on a website from Brazil, I read a translated version.  Given Axl's connections to Brazil, is it possible that the writer was close to this at some point and was repeating established facts?  It's possible, Brazil only has, what, 30 people?

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