In just three weeks, Guns N' Roses will be releasing their new album Chinese Democracy. The album has been in the works for over a decade and has survived lineup changes, cancelled tours, and more than enough jokes about democracy finding its way to China before the album's release. Now, the album is finally scheduled for release on November 23rd, exclusively through Best Buy and iTunes in the U.S., and available in all music stores throughout the rest of the world.. Over the years the band has gone through numerous lineup changes since their last release of new material (the Use Your Illusion albums in 1991), but still consists of dynamic frontman Axl Rose, and keyboardist Dizzy Reed.

To say that the journey for the release of this album has been strange would be an understatement. Back in 1999 Axl submitted to a rare interview with MTV's Kurt Loder in which Axl stated that the band was working on 70 songs. In the same year, Guns N' Roses included a new song ("Oh My God") to the soundtrack of the Arnold Schwarzenegger film End of Days. The song itself wasn't very well received, and featured a sound that was quite different than past Guns N' Roses songs. Though it was played live a couple times in recent years, it will not be featured on their new album Chinese Democracy.

Along with speculation on the release of the album, there have also been a few tours, and cancelled tours, in the past decade. The new lineup, which has since changed a bit, would first perform together on New Year's 2001 at the House of Blues in Las Vegas. They followed that up with a performance on Jan. 15th at the music festival Rock In Rio III. A planned tour of Europe in June was cancelled due to a mysterious illness affecting guitarist Buckethead; a rescheduled tour for December was eventually cancelled as well. They would go on to perform another New Year's show at the House of Blues that year, and finally set foot in Asia and Europe in late 2002 for a brief tour. Just before their concert in Hong Kong they issued a press release which, among other things, mentioned that the forthcoming album was near completion but at the same time alluded that fans shouldn't hold their breath in anticipation.

In September of 2002, the band gave a surprise performance at the MTV VMAs; but, most admit, the song medley was in the end a subpar performance. Following that, the band's tour of North America was also a bit puzzling and disappointing. Their first show was supposed to be in Vancouver, Canada, but after it was cancelled at the very last minute a riot ensued. Though the tour would continue after this setback, it would finally unravel in Philadelphia after another last minute cancellation. The last 15 dates on the tour would subsequently be cancelled as well, with no official explanation ever being given.

The mystery surrounding Guns N' Roses would continue in August of 2003 when baseball star Mike Piazza co-hosted on the Eddie Trunk radio show in New York. During the show Eddie played a tape that Mike gave him that supposedly came from his fan mail. After playing it they revealed that it was in fact a new song titled "I.R.S." by Guns N' Roses. The band's management contacted the radio station the next day and requested that the song not be performed again.

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