Guns N Roses Released Their New Single "Perhaps" Not Via Streaming Services, But Only On TouchTunes Machines Around The Country Over The Weekend
Blabbermouth - A number of GN'R fans have reported that the shelved "Chinese Democracy"-era song which was originally expected to be officially released this past Friday (August 11) populated on TouchTunes machines at bars and other locations across the United States. As the fans showed up at their favorite watering hole and went to play a GN'R song, they noticed the new selection in their catalog. The track came with what is apparently the official single cover art, and was attributed to Geffen Records, which is the band's longtime record label home owned by Universal Music Group.
This is not the first time that there have been reports of songs prematurely appearing on TouchTunes. In April, fans of the American country band TURNPIKE TROUBADOURS were surprised to see a previously unreleased track called "Mean Old Sun" on the entertainment platform with 65,000 connected jukeboxes.
Last week, a link to pre-save "Perhaps" on Spotify and Apple Music was briefly shared via the Universal Music web site, along with a release date of August 11, but there has been no official announcement from the band yet regarding the song's imminent arrival.
GUNS N' ROSES reportedly soundchecked "Perhaps" ahead of the band's concert in Tel Aviv, Israel on June 5 but ended up not performing it at the gig. However, astute fans who stood outside the venue during soundcheck were quick to bust out their phones and record the rehearsal, with low-quality clips surfacing online immediately thereafter.
Like Guns' 2021 single "Hard Skool", "Perhaps" was originally written and recorded during the sessions for "Chinese Democracy", and a rough demo version of the song had previously been leaked and uploaded to YouTube. The band re-recorded all tracks and is rumored to be releasing them slowly until new material is locked and loaded in the chamber.
According to Slash, several other older GUNS N' ROSES tracks have also been reworked during the pandemic. "There's a handful of those songs that we actually fixed up and did when we were in lockdown," he explained to "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk". "So those have yet to be released. So those are gonna come out. They're really good, too. So I'm excited for those. We're just gonna put out like one or two songs, and another one or two songs. And I think that's gonna be pretty much all of 'em. I'm not sure exactly how many we did in total."
Tour manager Tom Mayhue discussed the bands future plans while speaking to the media ahead of Guns n Roses' July 13 concert in Paris, France. He noted that GN'R will finish the North American leg of its tour in mid-October, and added: "And I know that the band's gonna start working on new music. They've got a bunch of stuff recorded already."
"It sounds great. It's a lot more kind of 'Appetite [For Destruction]'-orientated. They had a lot of songs. When the band went in originally and recorded 'Appetite For Destruction', I think they recorded, like, 29 songs. So there's a bunch of other music that was left over that didn't make the first record. I think there's only 11 songs on the first record."
Which is fucking great news.
I also love this touchtunes move big time. Dropping shit on Spotify and Apple Music is played out. It's what everybody nowadays does. Whether intentional or not, there's not another band who could profit off of this "gaffe" happening more than GNR. I'm willing to bet that half of their hardcore fans don't even have smartphones. They're probably still rocking flip phones with pixelated screens like my uncle. You think they even know what the fuck a spotify app is nevermind have it downloaded and subscribed?
You think that a good portion of their paychecks go towards scratch tickets and Keno, with the winnings and/or remainder going into a Touchtunes juke box at their favorite watering hole?
I'm headed to Roundhouse tomorrow morning just to open it up and play this track on our Touchtunes now.
So keep fucking up and releasing singles early Touchtunes.
And please, Lord just let this band manage to stand each other (it's unreal that it's been like 5 years now since the reunited and they're still cool) until they finish up and actually release this new album. Please.
Back in 2019, man rocket Duff McKagan hinted that GNR were at work on their first album together since 1993’s The Spaghetti Incident?
“Oh, it’s real, but the fun part and the cool part about Guns N’ Roses is we don’t really talk about it, and what happens next just happens,” McKagan said of a new album.
“It’s never been that band that there’s a direct schedule of how we do things. I’ve heard some magnificent stuff that Axl has, really cool stuff he’s been working on. So I’m excited about the possibilities with that, of course. I don’t mean to get anybody rabid. Our day will happen when it happens, that’s for sure.”
Roy Rochlin. Getty Images.I'm not saying it's going to be a great rock n roll album. Or that it'll even be on Spaghetti Inciddent level. It doesn't need to be. Just the fact this band is writing and recording new material is a great fucking sign for rock music in general. They've been touring non-stop for years now, living together, and getting along. At least so it would seem. There's a high probability they rediscover the magic that gave us Appetite for Destruction and the Use Your Illusion's.