GN’R FANS GET THEIR PANTIES IN A TWIST OVER ROBIN FINCK’S RETURN TO NIN

Y’know, considering the fact that every time we post some GN’R-related news at least one you tells us we talk about GN’R too much, I sure did get a lot of e-mails over the weekend from fans concerned that guitarist Robin Finck may be leaving the band.

So let’s get this out of the way quickly: yes, the above photo of Robin, appearing more goth-friendly than the hippy-dippy look he sported on the last Guns tour, did appear on Friday on the Nine Inch Nails official website with the caption “Welcome back!” Yes, that means he’s going to do another tour with NIN. Now, what does that mean with regards to his future with GN’R? Honestly, I have no fucking idea, and I imagine no one who’s not Finck, Trent Reznor or Axl Rose does, either.

I know that some GN’R fans have interpreted Axl’s hiring of new managers Irving Azoff and Andy Gould – former managers to Velvet Revolver and still current managers to Scott Weiland – means that Chinese Democracy is finally coming out, or that Slash is re-joining the band, or that there was a second shooter on the grassy knoll. I don’t think it means anything besides the fact that Axl will now have had at least three managers (after Doug Goldstein and Merck Mercuriadis) during this whole CD debacle.

As for whether or not Finck has a future with GN’R, well, he’s toured with NIN before and still returned to Axl’s fold; if the band’s current “hiatus” (can we even call it that?!) is gonna go on for awhile longer, he might as well go out and do some touring – hell, Tommy Stinson toured with Soul Asylum and it didn’t mean anything. Finck was the first member of the “new” Guns to get hired, and he’s stuck it out for a decade; I don’t see why he’d wanna leave now. If Axl doesn’t release a hostile statement to the press dismissing Finck by the end of the week, I’d say everyone can just fuckin’ relax while we settle into another year of non-news.

-AR

P.S. If there ever is gonna be a reunion of the originial GN’R line-up, it ain’t happenin’ any time soon. Too much ego and money is at stake with regards to CD for the album not to see the light of day in one form or another.