Fresh Gn'R Tracks Leak

Nine finished-sounding songs from Guns n' Roses' Chinese Democracy leaked online in mid-June, increasing speculation that the perpetually-in-the-making album could be finally nearing release. Guns' management team declined to comment, but Axl Rose's longtime friend Sebastian Bach — who has recorded backing vocals for Chinese Democracy — tells Rolling Stone that the album is indeed completed and is only being held up by business negotiations. "I know for a fact it's not Axl saying, 'Let's wait,' " Bach says. "They're trying to figure out the best way to put the music out. The standard way of putting a CD in the store may not be enough for a release of this magnitude." Rose finished a tour with the current incarnation of G n' R last July and has since been lying low. He had announced a tentative release date of March 2007 for the album.

Various versions of Chinese Democracy tracks have hit the Web before, but the June 18th leak was the biggest one yet — the tracks sound complete, and studio versions of three of them had never been heard before. Blogger Kevin Skwerl — who used to work in Universal's distribution department — posted the songs after getting them from an anonymous tipster, who told him that they were the versions that Rose had turned in to his label. Within minutes, Skwerl received a call from "a guy from the G n' R camp" who politely asked him to take them down. He complied.

Still, the songs spread far enough that several radio stations nationwide began playing them. Among them was Minneapolis station 93X, which stopped after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Rose's attorneys. "People are really excited about these new songs," says 93X program director Wade Linder.

Meanwhile, according to Bach, Rose has three other albums in various stages of completion. After spending six hours listening to new music, Bach asked when one song — which Rose described as a sequel to "Estranged" — would come out. Recalls Bach, "Axl goes, 'I don't know, 2010 or something.' "