A Kiss From A Rose: Axl Will Bring Democracy To China In March

Maybe this thing is happening after all: Last night, Axl Rose posted a lengthy open letter on the Guns N’ Roses website, explaining that they’ve canceled shows in January, parted ways with their management, and set a release date (March 6th) for Chinese Democracy:

To say the making of this album has been an unbearably long and incomprehensible journey would be an understatement. Overcoming the endless and seemingly insane amount of obstacles faced by all involved, notwithstanding the emotional challenges endured by everyone — the fans, the band, our road crew and business team — has at many times seemed like a bad dream in which one wakes up only to find that they are still in the nightmare. Unfortunately, this time it has been played out for over a decade in real life.

The true, ongoing, behind-the-scenes triumphs and casualties are much more complicated than any negative speculation that the media or otherwise has managed to hit upon. For much of the time, various legal issues have arisen, demanding that the best way to deal with these things publicly, quite frankly, was to keep our mouths shut in an attempt to ensure the best outcome — especially one that wouldn’t jeopardize the band or the album….

It takes approximately eight weeks for an album to hit the shelves once it has been turned in to the record company. For whatever reasons, it appears that it may have been mistakenly inferred by management that this time period could be condensed to three weeks. With that being said, this is not a promise, a lie or a guarantee, but we do wish to announce a tentative release date of March 6. This is the first time we have done this publicly for this album. Others have made up all the other dates for their own reasons. We would like to assure the fans that everything in our power will be done to meet this date. Once it is finalized and official, you will be notified. If we are delayed for unseen reasons, you also will be notified as soon as possible in regard to a new date, and the album will be released as shortly thereafter as is possible. We thank you for your patience.

This sounds like it was written by a very polite Citibank representative, not the guy who used to wear biker shorts and a novelty anti-Jesus T-shirt. We’ll believe it when we see it, obviously, but one thing’s for sure: If he doesn’t stick to this date, Tom Arnold’s birthday will be ruined.

An Open Letter From Axl Rose [Gunsnroses.com]