2002 - 2005: CHINESE DEMOCRACY TAKE 1

Early 2002: Roy Thomas Baker is fired.

Early 2002: Paul Tobias leaves Guns N Roses. He is replaced with Richard Fortus (formerly of Love Spit Love).

August 14th 2002: GnR’s official website announces the Chinese Democracy World Tour which will commence in August. “Guns N’ Roses will go back into the studio immediately following the aforementioned dates to put the final touches on the forthcoming “Chinese Democracy” album.”

August 14th 2002: Axl official statement on the album: “I gave into a lot of pressure on Illusions both internally in Guns and externally in the press, those albums suffered as a consequence, it's not something I'm too excited to have to live with again. There are a lot of new songs that were just done in the last year that we feel that ‘okay, well that bumps a lot of stuff off the previous list but it's time to stop that now and wrap up the baby. It feels right, the timing, and a lot of things. We’ve sorted it down to what songs are on the record. What the sequence of the songs is. The album cover art is ready. Blah, blah, blah.

"If you're waiting...don't. Live your life. That's your responsibility not mine. If it were not to happen you won't have missed a thing. If in fact it does you might get something that works for you, in the end you could win on this either way. But if you're really into waiting try holding your breath for Jesus cause I hear the payoff may be that much greater.”

August 2002: The band plays concerts in China, Japan, London and Belgium.

08/29/02: GN'R make a surprise appearance at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards in New York. Kurt Loder interviews Axl afterwards and asks him if Chinese Democracy will be out soon. Axl: “Umm you'll see it, I dont know if soon is the word. But it will come out and we will, we'll go back, we'll do some more recording and then we'll start the American leg of the tour... And see how it goes from there.”

October, 2002 - Marco Beltrami reveals on his website that he provided orchestral arrangements for several songs on the new album: “Seven,” “Leave Me Alone,” “General” and “Thyme.”

11.07.02: The North American tour is set to kick off in Vancouver, Canada . However, the show is cancelled because Axl was running over an hour late. The promoters pulled the plug on the concert and a riot erupted in and out of the arena.

November – December 2002: The band tours the United States. They perform in 16 cities including a sold out show at Madison Square Garden in New York.

12.06.02: Philadelphia First Union Center: Fans wait several hours for the show to begin. Around 11 pm a spokesman tells the crowd one of the band member’s sick and the show is canceled. A riot occurs.

Dec 2002: Tour promoter Clear Channel cancels the remaining 15 dates of the tour.

July 2003: Axl plays tracks from the Chinese Democracy album to a mostly empty Crazy Horse Too club in Las Vegas.

Early 2004: GN'R record at Village Recording Studios in West Los Angeles, CA with producer/engineer Caram Costanzo and Pro Tools engineer Eric Cadieux.

02/02/04: Geffen Records Press Release: "Having exceeded all budgeted and approved recording costs by millions of dollars it is Mr. Rose's obligation to fund and complete the album, not Geffen's." Over a legal challenge by Axl, the label then issues a GnR greatest hits compilation.

March 2004: Buckethead leaves the band.

March 30th 2004 Official Press Release confirms the departure of Buckethead and talks about the status of the album. “In the meantime rather than dwelling on the negative, Guns will be moving forward and surprisingly (without giving away any details) this unfortunate set of circumstances may have given us the opportunity to take our recording that one extra step further. Regardless we hope to announce a release date within the next few months.”

October 2004: The videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is released. Featuring Axl as the voice of Tommy "The Nightmare" Smith, the K-DST DJ.

December 2004: Guns N' Roses' manager Merck Mercuriadis becomes CEO of Sanctuary Music Group. In January 2005, Rose signs a publishing deal with Sanctuary, which covers past and future work by Rose, including "dozens of new tracks Rose has recently recorded for Universal Music."

March 2005: A New York Times article about Chinese Democracy titled “The Most Expensive Album Never Made” states that production costs have reached $13 million.

March 2005: Sanctuary Group CEO and Guns N Roses manager Merck Mercuriadis states: "The 'Chinese Democracy' album is very close to being completed, people felt like the record had been made four or five times already."

September 2005: Rose reportedly tells a group of fans in Malibu that the album might be released in early 2006 and that the band is looking to put a song on the soundtrack for the movie The Da Vinci Code .

December 2005: Richard Fortus says he's going back to Los Angeles to do some recording with GN'R.

December 2005: Amazon.com posts a listing for "Guns N Roses: Chinese Democracy". The price is $21.49 with a release date of December 31, 2025 (the temporary date set for all new unconfirmed releases). The listing was removed a few days later.