 Chinese Democracy is the upcoming sixth studio album by the American rock band Guns N' Roses. When released, it will be the band's first album since 1993's "The Spaghetti Incident?", and their first album of original studio material since the simultaneous release of Use Your Illusion I and II in September 1991. In a 2007 interview, Axl Rose's close friend Sebastian Bach stated that Chinese Democracy will be the first installment in a trilogy of new albums. Bach also remarked that Rose had told him the third, as of yet untitled, album has been slated for 2012.
Recording for Chinese Democracy began in 1994. Ex-bassist Duff McKagan is quoted as saying, "[the] band was so splintered at that point that nothing got started".Slash has criticized Rose for making the band seem "like a dictatorship". In his autobiography, Slash, Slash writes that his departure from the band in 1996 was caused by "Axl wanting control to the point that the rest of us were strangled".Slash quit the band in 1996; drummer Matt Sorum and McKagan left soon afterwards. Slash was replaced by Nine Inch Nails touring guitarist Robin Finck, ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson replaced McKagan, and Josh Freese joined as the drummer.
In early 1998, the band — which comprised Rose, Finck, Stinson and Freese along with long-time Guns N' Roses associate Paul Tobias, keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman — began recording at Rumbo Recorders, a state-of-the-art studio in the San Fernando Valley where Guns N' Roses had partially recorded parts for their debut album, Appetite for Destruction. During this time, Geffen paid Rose $1 million to try and finish the album; with a further $1 million if he handed it in to them by March 1, 1999.
Finck briefly left the band to rejoin Nine Inch Nails on tour in 1999. In 2000, Rose hired avant-garde metal guitarist Buckethead, and drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia, who has appeared on many of Buckethead's solo albums, to replace the departed Freese. Later on in 2000, Finck rejoined the band as the third guitarist.
On February 22, 2007, the band's road manager, Del James, announced that all recording for the album had been completed and it was in the mixing process, James stated that there was no release date for the album but that things appeared to be moving on after a number of delays.
In the summer of 2007, the band begun touring again; playing in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The tour was supposed to begin with two performances in South Africa, including headlining the My Coke Fest, South Africa's biggest music festival, in late April/early May but they were cancelled after bassist Stinson injured his wrist after falling down a flight of stairs.
On March 26, 2008, various media outlets reported that Dr Pepper will offer a free can of Dr Pepper to everyone in America — excluding former Guns N' Roses guitarists Buckethead and Slash — if the band releases Chinese Democracy in 2008. Later on March 26, Rose replied to Dr Pepper on Guns N' Roses' official website and spoke of his surprise at Dr Pepper's support. Rose also said he would share his Dr Pepper with Buckethead as "some of Buckethead's performances are on [Chinese Democracy]".
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