Axl Rose and Dr. Pepper: About the fans or the money?

Axl Rose must be a bit worried. At least that's what I gather. Because so far there has been no official report on the sales of the latest Guns 'n Roses album, Chinese Democracy. But Axl Rose is looking to garner more media attention, and possibly a few bucks as well.

By now everyone knows that Dr. Pepper famously made a promise to the public that if Chinese Democracy was released this year they would give the nation a free drink. At the time the odds of the much rumored and 15 years delayed album actually arriving in stores for sale were slim at best. But Guns 'n Roses finally got it out, and Dr. Pepper decided to make good on their promise - as I mentioned in a prior post.

The problem for Dr. Pepper is that everyone paid attention to their offer. There was such a rush on their site that it crashed. They then extended their offer by 24 hours. But it seems that the company's website was still unable to handle the demand, or was otherwise disabled for most of the extension time. This is where Axl Rose comes in.

Rose has now gotten his lawyer to jump into the fray and demand that Dr. Pepper do more to live up to their word. He is insiting that Dr. Pepper make good for all the people that were unable to receive the coupon that would provide a free 20 oz drink of their products. And Rose wants the company to take out full page ads apologizing for the problems encountered, and the use of Guns 'n Roses' as a publicity stunt.

If all of these things are not done, then Axl Rose plans on some form of lawsuit to get paid.

Now who is using who to get paid, make sales, and drum up publicity? It makes me wonder what the sales numbers are really going to look like. According to Newsday

"..."Chinese Democracy" is a good effort and it would have seemed even better if it came out in a decent amount of time, say, you know, a decade ago....

That "Chinese Democracy" came out at all is a monument to Rose's artistic vision and his belief in himself. But all its excesses and its occasional lack of focus also serve as a testament to the kind of ridiculous spending and star-coddling that led to the music industry's current sales-dropping predicament. All along the line, this project would have benefited from someone telling Rose "no," but any check on him came too late."

Mark Savage at the BBC had a bit more positive take on the album

"This record is an uncompromising, fully-focused, hard rock monster.
At times, it will rattle the rafters with its ferocious riffs. At others, you will laugh out loud at the ridiculously overblown melodrama.
In other words, it's business as usual for Guns N' Roses."

And of course there is Rolling Stone

"Let's get right to it: The first Guns n' Roses album of new, original songs since the first Bush administration is a great, audacious, unhinged and uncompromising hard-rock record...

You may debate whether any rock record is worth that extreme self-indulgence. Actually, the most rock & roll thing about Chinese Democracy is he doesn't care if you do."

In every review, positive or not, there is the consistent thought that this album would have been a stellar release a decade ago. Everyone seems to agree that there are several songs that relive the glory of the past that Guns n' Roses enjoyed. But overall the final thoughts seem to say mixed things. And that's never wonderful for sales.

So I expect that this bruhha over Dr. Pepper is just a way to either gain more record sales, or more likely an attempt to get Dr. Pepper to dole out some cash in a settlement so as to recoup some of the $11 million spent on creating Chinese Democracy. In effect it gives me pause on just how good the album is, which I admit I have not heard yet.

So in the end what do you think? Is Axl Rose protecting his property as he did when he had blogger Kevin Cogill arrested, or is it to just make some money in the face of low sales?

Is Chinese Democracy good? You win even if it's not

Guns n’ Roses’ can be called many things. Sporadic, drugged, crazed, genius, lyrical, inspirational all have been used and fit well to this band. Perhaps this can all best be ascribed to lead singer Axl Rose, a man with a plethora of issues, passion, demons, and intensity. And it can be said that Axl’s many weaknesses are his strengths as well. But one of the short-comings of the band he famously heads will soon be naught but the memories of the past.

It’s been more than a decade since Guns n’ Roses’ last released an album. The upcoming album Chinese Democracy has been worked on and redone since 1994. And most believed that it would be the equivalent of Meatloaf topping Bat Out of Hell. It just won’t happen. But all things are probable, even the improbable (as a certain engine proved).

Thus Chinese Democracy is going to come out in a mere handful of days. Most in Rock and Roll are more than just a bit surprised. And no one is sure what to really expect. Well no one except a blogger that placed early bits of the album on his blog, and was rudely awoken by the police because of it.

Will this be a good album? Will it be worth the wait? To be honest, I doubt it. Anything that takes that long to make, and is not destined to operate in outer space is most likely to be a ruinous waste of time. There might be a song or 2 that are ok, but the rest will fail miserably. The past glory will remain in the past – no matter the sales of all the curious.

But even if this new album is a complete waste of time, an utter disgrace confirming that some things are best left undone, you will be able to gain something from the effort. And you won’t even need to buy anything to get it. Yes you can be rewarded for the sweat, humiliation, and decade of work laid out by Axl Rose. Courtesy of Dr. Pepper.

Back in March of this year Dr. Pepper bet that Chinese Democracy was as likely to be released this year as Hillary Clinton becoming the sweetheart of America. Senator Hillary Clinton is still despised by some 50% of the nation (including more than a few in the Obama camp), but Dr. Pepper lost their bet. And that means that every person in America wins. You are now entitled to a free 20 ounce Dr. Pepper. Talk about buying a round for the house.

As of 12:01 Sunday you will have one day to get a coupon, at their website located at www.drpepper.com, which will be good until Feb. 28, 2009. That coupon will get you your free drink.

I have to admit that I never thought they would do this. It’s rare to see a major corporation live up to the letter of their word – when it’s costing them money. Then again the release of Guns n’ Roses’ album is even more rare an occurrence.