Over their decades-long career, Guns N' Roses have collaborated with many legendary artists, but little did fans know that Queen's Brian May was also almost featured in their iconic "Chinese Democracy" album. The musician described his experience with the band in a recent interview.
According to Loudwire, many renowned guitarists have stood beside frontman Axl Rose since they rose to fame in 1985.
When Slash quit the group in 1996, the lead singer had to find new musicians to fill the guitar slot. At one point, Bumblefoot, Buckethead, Robin Finick, DJ Ashba, and Richard Fortus were all brought in.
Not all of them made it, as there was a lack of progress on the album "Chinese Democracy."
There were also inconsistencies, as described by Brian May in an interview with Classic Rock. The guitarist said the experience was "odd," and it took them nine years to record guitar parts for the track "Catcher in the Eye."
"It was an odd experience. I think it was about midway through the whole thing. By that point Axl was pretty much a recluse," May told the outlet.
A lack of communication caused his on-off contribution to the album as Rose was working in his house, and the Queen member was working in the studio at the bottom of the hill with the musician's engineer.
In addition to their problem, the lead singer rarely came down.
"Now and again he would call in and get all enthusiastic and talk a lot, and then he'd be gone again. I don't think any of what I played actually got onto the album," he added.
Weeks before the release of "Chinese Democracy" in 2008, it was reported that May had been dropped from the final output despite recording his parts of the song in 1999. He later expressed his dismay on his website.
May explained that him not getting on the album was a "shame" because he put in "quite a lot of work" and was proud of his contribution, but he understood why Rose wanted the album to feature artists who were in the band at the time.
Axl Rose has been open about how he admires Queen over the past decades. He previously collaborated with the band at a Freddie Mercury tribute concert in 1992.
In 2018, he said Queen is "the greatest band of all time."
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