Axl Rose blames Slash for his inability to write new Guns' music

For a man who has often been portrayed as a raging lunatic with no shortage of opinions, Axl Rose doesn’t exactly have a thick skin. The notoriously temperamental Guns N’ Roses singer evidently never got the elementary school message about how sticks and stones might break a dude’s bones, but names will never hurt him.

In a new interview with USA Today, Rose reveals the reason that it took him a good 17 years to finally give birth to Chinese Democracy. As one might have suspected, Rose ended up with writer’s block after the release of Guns N’ Roses’ 1991 albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. Those records were, of course, the last releases from the band when founding members Slash and Duff McKagan were still in the fold.

The source of his inability to pull the trigger on new material? That would be because Slash and McKagan evidently ground his self-esteem into the ground. And how, might you ask? Perhaps by mocking Rose for mixing-and-matching balls-baring white cycling shorts with pimp-tastic fur coats? Or for snickering every time he showed up at practice in army boots and a Groundskeeper Willie-style kilt?

No, it was something much more damning than that: Slash and McKagan called him a “loser”. (Which, actually, doesn’t sound nearly as bad as Rose referring to Slash, as he’s done over the years, as a cancer). The singer’s ex-, Stephanie Seymour, reportedly also got in on the belittling.

“To those three, it was all crap,” Rose tells USA Today. “It beat me down so much. At the time of the (‘Use Your Illusion’) tours, Slash and Duff said, ‘You’re an idiot, you’re a loser.’ I didn’t write for years. I felt I was hindered for a very long time.”

Seriously dude? You broke up the original Guns N’ Roses—the version that people actually care about—for that? It’s not like they were referring to you as a fat, Botox-faced, wig-wearing fuck.

The normally reclusive Rose has been in the public eye more than usual of late, recently appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he seemed relaxed, funny, and in good spirits. Consider his latest revelation an attempt to help drum up interest for Guns N’ Roses’ upcoming residency in Las Vegas.

At press time there was no confirming the rumour that Beck’s first big hit will be played over the P.A. as Rose arrives on stage each night.