2019.11.11 - GN'R Reddit - Bob Ezrin comments on his involvement with Chinese Democracy

Checkmate_JackieChan
Can’t believe the fucking guy who made “The Elder” from Kiss is the reason why the 2000/2001 material got fucked up and why the album got delayed 7 or 8 years. Axl should’ve just released that version of the album anyways. IMO.

Asherzalman
I never got to work on the album. I met with Axl twice: once at around 2:00 am to listen through to everything they had done (which I was allowed to take with me on CDs so I could listen more carefully and more consciously). And the second time a few months later when Axl told me he was ready to start mixing - a position I told him I disagreed with and withdrew. I had copious notes on the material but he never saw them. He was convinced he was ready and I was absolutely convinced he was not.

The only material effect I had was to get other people to focus on what had been happening, and the money they were spending, out there in the Valley in their years of sessions, and to getting the project moved to The Village Recorder and closer to the label so they could keep an eye on it. As it stands, that didn’t help much because it took them 7 or 8 more years to finish during which I had zero contact with Axl.

So “the guy who produced The Elder” is not responsible for holding up that project.

Bob Ezrin

https://www.reddit.com/r/GunsNRoses/comments/duvtwu/comment/f7bvm7p/