Rumor: Another New Guns N’ Roses Song Coming Soon
Take this with a grain of salt for the time being, but a new rumor says that Guns N’ Roses are getting ready to drop their second single since founding members Slash and Duff McKagan returned to the band.
The song is question is called “Hard School.” Like “Absurd,” the new song the band dropped in August, “Hard School” (once known as “Jackie Chan” and sometimes known as “Hard Skool”) was originally written for, but ultimately didn’t make it onto, Chinese Democracy. Although it has never been performed live, leaked studio demos of the song have been floating around the web for years. The track has, presumably, since been reworked to be more Slash/Duff-friendly (which, again, is what they did with “Absurd”).
The rumor stems from the fact that there’s video of the band rehearsing it before a 2019 show in Hollywood, and it has reportedly shown up on some GN’R set lists during this year’s tour (although the band hasn’t actually played it yet — meaning someone keeps calling an audible for whatever reason).
Then a fan met Axl Rose after a GN’R show in Atlantic City on September 12. The fan claims that after asking Rose about “Hard School,” he played her the new version of the track and promised that it would be released “soon.” Which would sound like total B.S. if not for the stuff about the band rehearsing the song and having it on setlists.
On the one hand, the notion of Guns N’ Roses being so blasé about releasing new music seems ludicrous. On the other hand, this band has always been pretty ludicrous, and they released “Absurd” with almost no fanfare. So suddenly this idea doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
It’s interesting that for the time being, at least, they’re running with unused Chinese Democracy material. At one point during those sessions, Rose said the band was working on 70+ songs, and would eventually release three albums, not one. So, yeah, it makes sense that he wants to work on that stuff. But in doing so, he’s ostensibly turning Slash and Duff into session musicians. That doesn’t bother me as a fan — I’ll take Chinese Democracy material over most Velvet Revolver and Slash solo stuff any day — but I’d love to know how he got the returning duo to agree to that.
While we wait for more news, here are the remaining dates on GN’R’s current tour:
SEP 16 – Wrigley Field – Chicago, IL [tickets]
SEP 21 – Xcel Energy Center – St. Paul, MN [tickets]
SEP 23 – Schottenstein Center – Columbus, OH [tickets]
SEP 26 Royal Farms Arena – Baltimore, MD [tickets]
SEP 29 – PNC Arena – Raleigh, NC [tickets]
OCT 2 – Hard Rock Live Arena – Hollywood, FL [tickets]
OCT 3 – Hard Rock Live Arena- Hollywood, FL [tickets]
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