New Guns N’ Roses Material Exists, But Duff McKagan Isn’t Sure How It’ll Be Released

It’s now been 16 years since metal legends Guns N’ Roses put out an album. Since then, they’ve gotten a few original members back but only put out a small handful of singles and one EP. A lot of what they’ve been focusing on is reworking old material rather than writing anything new. But, when bassist Duff McKagan was asked recently on an episode of SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk if the band was ever planning to release more new material, he insisted that the band had something in the works. Here’s what he had to say, as transcribed by Blabbermouth:

“Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. There’s new material. I don’t know how we’re gonna put it out. I think that’s a question too. Like, do you put out a record? Do you just keep putting out singles? I don’t know what the right answer is there in this day and age.”

You’ll notice that McKagan was careful not to promise a new studio album from the band, and that’s probably a good idea. Besides the fact that he’s right about there being more avenues to easily release individual singles in the digital age, there’s also the fact that the last time Guns N’ Roses promised a new album, it very famously didn’t go well.

The band took so long to release their sixth album, Chinese Democracy, after promising it for years that the album’s epic delay became a running joke that spread beyond the metal world. Because of the years and years of false starts and the ever-changing lineup of musicians and engineers, and the use of 14 different studios, Chinese Democracy ended up becoming the most expensive album ever produced, with a total estimated cost of $13 million. And, after all that, the album is just okay. So yeah, maybe it’s best that Guns N’ Roses tries to stick to singles these days.