the events of the last week have really changed the GNR landscape when it comes to the hoarding of information and material. the more fernando attacked me, the more people i had emailing in to say that they'd received songs from him in the past. the more azoff threatened journalists, the more people i had emailing in with stories their editors were prohibiting them from writing.
i've had to sit on this story a day or two longer than i would have liked as it took quite a bit of time to double source the facts. however, after speaking to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, mistersaintlaurent.com is pleased to report the following:
the current intended release date for CHINESE DEMOCRACY is november 25, 2008. it is azoff's strong preference that the release be done through best buy and not wal-mart. i've been told his reasoning is two-fold. #1, azoff's goal is to be able to create future bidding wars between the two retail giants for his other acts and feels best buy will lose interest in these type of promotions if they always lose out to wal-mart. #2, if he goes with wal-mart, he has to convince axl to swap a couple of tracks from volume 1 with tracks from the other volumes to avoid the dreaded parental advisory warning.
i was also told that the story was leaked by azoff to put pressure on best buy to up their offer and close the deal. it's no coincidence that this story hit right before wal-mart's AC/DC deal was finally publically announced. it is azoff's hope that fear of ending up with egg on their face will force best buy to roll out the red carpet in every imaginable way for chinese democracy.
questions, comments, news, and songs can be sent to:
mister@mistersaintlaurent.com
it's really amazing to me that some innocuous comments could cause a 65 page monstrosity. obviously, fernando is trying to cover his own ass and i do feel bad for him. friends he trusted stabbed him in the back, ultimately resulting in a few songs circulating among a select group of south american fans through the years. he's in a position where he has no choice but to lie and i don't hold it against him.
however, it is quite amazing to me that i would remain banned while page after page dedicated to me continued to flourish, with most pro-MSL posts being deleted and most anti-MSL posts allowed to remain.
what really takes the cake though is that the things i said about beta were nothing new and had been discussed a year ago in a much more in depth fashion. since i wasn't allowed to post in yesterday's thread, i'll just allow what i said last year to speak for itself:
http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?showtopic=103853&st=45&p=1898400&#entry1898400
http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?showtopic=103853&st=210&p=1900234&#entry1900234
http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?showtopic=103853&st=300&p=1901663&#entry1901663
http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?showtopic=103853&st=300&p=1901733&#entry1901733
http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?showtopic=103853&st=330&p=1902371&#entry1902371
questions, comments, news, and songs can be sent to:
mister@mistersaintlaurent.com
i've got a lot to do today, but did want to address a few things before heading out.
MYGNR - madison finally gave a reason for why i was banned and while i don't agree with it, i accept it. i hope she does the right and unbans me when the week is up. i say the "right thing" not because it effects me much, but because clearly the community has spoken on the matter and their wishes should be respected.
what people have to understand is that i am a lot of things. a wrestler, a musician, a poet, a juggler, an actor, etc. i'm also a journalist. while my pro wrestling style antics may have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, i felt they were necessary to get us songs. however, now that i have decided to cover GNR current events, i must abide by the same code of conduct and ethics that i do when writing for a newspaper.
the reason i bring this up is because when i say "i have been able to confirm through reliable sources working for MYGNR and CD.com that guns n' roses manager irving azoff has been on a rampage" it's because i have. if madison would like to dispute the story, i'm all ears, but i got the story from HER moderators (as well as BP's). so if she wants to call anyone a liar, she needs to start with her own staff.
CD.com - while some of you emailed me to scoff at my claims that this site had instituted an anti-MSL policy, it was confirmed PUBLICALLY by one of the sites moderators:
"MSL Posts and Links are being removed by the request of BP."
as for PRIVATELY, someone close to BP emailed in claiming that BP had been promised interviews with band members and a review copy of chinese democracy if he continued to play ball with azoff's requests.
but BP isn't content just controlling his own site. he's even attempting to control OTHER sites. here is a message i received from mango of GNRSOURCE (printed with permission):
> I also recieved an email from Sean (Bipolar?) from cd.com asking me to
> take down the audio intervew from source's servers as "people are upset and
> its only one side of story and bla-bla-bla".
>
>
> Of course i declined that one =)
if you still haven't heard the interview that has the GNR camp up in arms, check out: http://www.gnrsource.com/dloads/mp3/interviews/2008-gnrsource.com_interview_mistersaintlaurent.mp3
if you like your GNR news and views without management filtration, another great site is GNRevolution.
SONG NAMES - i've never said song #2 is prostitute. what i've said is that ever since song #2 leaked, prostitute has been removed from the trading lists of some very high profile hoarders. make of that what you will. as for the latest leak, if i had a gun to my head, i would say it is shackler's revenge. i base that on requests azoff has made to the media in regards to holding off on reporting about the leak. unfortunately, many publications can be influenced in this manner. i hope you disgruntled writers out there will continue to email me so that the truth can make its way to the fans.
questions, comments, news, and songs can be sent to:
mister@mistersaintlaurent.com
i have been able to confirm through reliable sources working for MYGNR and CD.com that guns n' roses manager irving azoff has been on a rampage. MYGNR moderators have privately confirmed that azoff was ultimately responsible for me being banned. while that is unfortunate, fans at least appear to still be able to discuss the situation.
however, over on CD.com, a strict anti-MSL policy has been instituted at the request of azoff. in fact, moderators have been told to remove all mentions of mistersaintlaurent.com.
chat with mister (3:51:18 AM): are you the only one who knows?
xxxxxxxx (3:51:23 AM): Knows about?
chat with mister (3:51:28 AM): about the new policy?
xxxxxxxx (3:52:02 AM): The Mods are afraid to even talk about the policy.
questions, comments, news, and songs can be sent to:
mister@mistersaintlaurent.com
wanted to say a few things before starting a game of "RISK" with some friends. today was very educational as i learned first hand why azoff really is one of the best at what he does. was tipped off by someone at rolling stone today that azoff had threatened to stop floating exclusive stories their way if they ran the "MSL story" they were working on.
partially to punish rolling stone, but more importantly to deflect attention from the leak, azoff sent a scoop over to billboard, which you can read here: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003839499
very smart move. bravo for azoff. wish the same could be said for beta and fernando though. while they may finally have MYGNR in their back pocket to go along with HTGTH, posting lies while everyone knows i've been banned and can't defend myself certainly didn't help their cause.
hey fernando, some of your buddies in brazil have been emailing me today to back up the story i told on GNRSOURCE. thanks. the more hoarders i have contact with, the better chance we have of getting more songs. here's a sample:
"holly shit fernando want to slice you jugular ive never heard him so angry. he just wanted some friends to hear some good music now his mom become angry."
remember, english is not the first language for a lot of these people, so be nice. i guarantee you their english is better than my spanish.
as for that interview, kind of makes you wonder why it keeps vanishing off the boards?
questions, comments, news, and songs can be sent to:
mister@mistersaintlaurent.com
2:21pm EST, 8/15. woke up an hour ago and found that i'd been unbanned from mygnrforum.com. saw the thread about the interview i did last night and decided to download it.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OUPLW05A
man i sound crazy (in a good way?). most of the interview talks about last year, so i'm sure i will still have to write a short story or do another interview to cover the specifics of how the new song was aquired.
oh, what do you know, i was just banned on mygnrforum.com again. why do they keep banning and unbanning me when i don't even post? i wish the members over there would put their foot down and ask that i be left alone.
11:45pm EST, 8/14. banned on mygnrforum.com again even though i haven't been posting. this is so silly.
8:19pm EST, 8/14. finally back home. have 300 emails to go through. mygnrforum.com appears to have unbanned me. GNRsource is supposed to call at midnight my time and apparantly is fielding questions on their site, although i don't normally check that site out and haven't yet.
THE NAME OF THE SONG IS NOT CHICKEN DINNER!!!
apparantly chinesedemocracy.com is blocked in china, which is why our dear friend "i live in china" did not post there. my roommate just came home and let me know that he'd heard the song on the radio all day. that's kind of funny. i'd offered the song to the local rock station here a few days ago, but they said they already had it. i'm assuming they were mistaken.
to those turning on me on the boards for being an attention whore . . . do we really need to go through this again? me getting involved in all this leaking business to begin with started as a publicity stunt that spiraled out of control. like i said last year -- I AM A CRAZY FUCK . . . JUST CRAZY ENOUGH TO GET US SONGS . . . if my personality bothers you, that's fine, but realize it takes a weirdo like me to pull this kind of stuff off.
UPDATE (4:51PM ORLANDO TIME, 8/14): rolling stone called, so don't be surprised if their site has a story on this soon. chicken dinner is just the silly name the hoarder gave the file to hide what it was. i've been banned by mygnrforum.com. PLEASE SPEAK UP AND MAKE THEM CHANGE THEIR MINDS.
i have a lot to say, but need to be careful. no word from the GNR camp yet. it's really incredible how inept they are when it comes to the leaks. need to eat. it's almost five and i haven't had lunch yet. GNRsource will be interviewing me tonight, so send them any questions you may have.
also, let's take a second to thank our hero over in china for making this happen. he's very busy helping with the olympics, but made sure to strike at midnight (his time) as promised.
you're welcome. please be nice and share. pulling this kind of stuff off takes a lot out of me. everyone always wanted a sequel and after over a year of close calls, i'm proud to have finally delivered. i have quite the story to tell, so for media looking to contact me, i am available. it was very important to me that everything take place in china for both emotional and legal reasons. obviously i needed help to make that happen. thank you to everyone.