Guns N' Roses was finally done
touring in June of 1993. The final "leftovers" from the "
Use Your Illusion" sessions, "
The Spaghetti Incident?" was released in December, and a
video to "
Since I Don't Have You" was recorded.
Duff released his solo album "
Believe In Me" in September and
toured Europe and Japan,
Gilby had his
solo album, and
Slash started working on what he thought would be the next GN'R album. It turned out it wasn't the music
Axl wanted to do, so Slash took the material back and it eventually evolved into
Snakepit's "
It's Five O'Clock Somewhere".
In the end of 1994 Guns recorded the
Rolling Stones' classic "
Sympathy For The Devil" for the "
Interview With The Vampire" soundtrack. Slash saw this as a chance of getting the band back together
1, but that didn't happen as Axl wasn't even in the studio at the same time as the others. Him bringing in his childhood friend
Paul H. Tobias to play on the track certainly played a part in making the crack in GN'R bigger.
In 1996 when Slash was done with Snakepit, and Duff and
Matt with
Neurotic Outsiders GN'R tried to agree and do some recording. It ended with Slash out of the band. He talked a little with Total Guitar in 2001 about the reasons behind him splitting: "One of the main reasons I actually ended up leaving is because the ideology behind Guns N' Roses all of a sudden took up a more preconceived turn than what we originally set out doing. I'm still working on being a rock 'n' roll band and when I realised that I didn't have much control over the outcome of the way Guns was gonna sound, I went on to do the next thing."
2
1997 saw Matt and Duff leaving the band. Matt was fired and Duff left because he felt he only played in the band because of the money, and that wasn't something he enjoyed. During the whole time new people were brought into the band. As Axl never talked to the media, nothing was really certain about who were in the band. In 1999 things started moving though. As we're talking Guns N' Roses here, the comeback wasn't exactly done in a common way...
In the summer a weird version of "
Sweet Child O' Mine" appeared in the
Adam Sandler movie "
Big Daddy". It started with a live version from the Use Your Illusion tour, and then half ways it morphed into a studio version by the new Guns N' Roses. A few months later an actual new song, "
Oh My God" was featured in
Arnold Schwarzenegger's "
End Of Days". Axl also sent a
fax to
MTV to explain the song. The new line up was revealed in this fax. Paul H. Tobias played rhythm guitar,
Nine Inch Nails tour guitarist
Robin Finck did the lead work, ex-
Replacements bassist
Tommy Stinson took Duff's position and
Josh Freese of
the Vandals handled the drums. Axl also did two interviews around this time, and in 2000 he did his
comeback to the stage when he joined
Gilby Clarke's
The Starfuckers at the Cat Club in Hollywood.
New Years Eve 2000 saw Guns N' Roses returning to the stage when they
played the Las Vegas House Of Blues. The "Oh My God line up" now had changed some.
Buckethead joined Robin Finck on lead guitar, ex-
Primus drummer
Brain replaced Josh Freese and
Chris Pitman was added as a second keyboard player. This gig was considered a warm-up before
playing the massive Rock In Rio III festival on January 15, 2001. The show was a huge success and an European tour in the summer was booked. Eventually it was postponed then cancelled, though. The band did do
two shows in Las Vegas in December.
