Guns N’ Roses have dropped ‘Perhaps,’ a track that marks Axl Rose, Duff McKagan and Slash’s first time writing and recording a song together in 30 years.
Fans were anticipating the release of the tune from the 'Chinese Democracy' era for a while, with a demo floating doing the rounds online for a few years now.
It was originally set for release earlier this month on Friday 11th August, but was delayed for unknown reasons. It was then mistakenly leaked on digital jukeboxes in bars around America (would hate to be the person in the jukebox department who screwed up their one job), and a pre-save link was uploaded then deleted on Spotify and Apple Music.
But finally it’s officially here - dropped along with a nice music video, and fans were treated to a live performance in Pittsburgh over the weekend.
Before ripping into the debut performance, Axl told the audience, “forgive me if I don’t run around and try to project as much because I’m gonna try to figure out how to fucking sing it live. I like to think of when we wrote this song [as] like the immaculate inception.”
According to a press release, ‘Perhaps’ was "written and recorded by Axl Rose, Slash, and Duff McKagan this year," and is Guns N' Roses' "first collective new composition and recording together in thirty years since 1993’s The Spaghetti Incident?". At the same time, the song is reported to be from the ‘Chinese Democracy’ era, and a demo has circulated online for a while - so it could've been finished this year.
The notorious ‘Chinese Democracy’ record was delayed for years and held up by legal hassles, while guitar-slayer Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum quit the group, and only frontman Axl Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed remained.
The band reunited with original members Slash and Duff for the 2016 'Not in This Lifetime... Tour'.
Not only have GnR dropped the new tune, but they’ve also announced its B-side ‘The General’ will be released on vinyl with ‘Perhaps’ on October 27th, which is also from the Chinese Democracy era.
Have a listen & watch the 'Perhaps' music video up top.
Guns N' Roses are staples in The Rock 2000 Countdown. Check out a list of their highest-performing songs ranked from 20 years of Rock 2000 data.
