If you look down the page a bit, you’ll see a story I did earlier on the Free! Dr! Pepper! that will be given out to celebrate the release of Chinese Democracy, the long-awaited album from Guns N’ Roses (or what passes for them nowadays).  Dr Pepper said it would give away a free drink to every man, woman, and child in America (excluding Slash and Buckethead) if Axl Rose released the album at some point in 2008.  Well, here are the details:

Guns N’ Roses fans thirsting for the upcoming “Chinese Democracy” will have a sweet, fizzy treat to savor as they listen.

Dr Pepper is making good on a prior promise to provide every person in America a can of the soft drink if the album were to arrive in 2008, and yesterday (Oct. 22) revealed details of the plan.

“We never thought this day would come,” says Dr Pepper VP of marketing Tony Jacobs. “But now that it’s here all we can say is: The Dr Pepper’s on us.”

Interested fans are being asked to visit DrPepper.com on Nov. 23, the day “Chinese Democracy” is released in the U.S. exclusively via Best Buy. After registering online, fans will receive a coupon redeemable for a 20-oz. Dr Pepper wherever the drink is sold.

The twist: the coupon is only available for 24 hours and will expire on Feb. 28. [all emphasis mine]

Speaking of the album, it seems that even former members think it is going to be killer, even as they acknowledge it was sometimes a bit of a pain working with Little Miss Thang:

Former guitarist Slash told The Pulse of Radio why he finally found it too difficult to work with Rose. “Something with Axl was very insecure and it just kept the band from sort of functioning properly,” he said. “Although he was wanting to do things, I never to this day really understand exactly what he was getting at, and because it took so long to ever get anything done, I always attribute it to some sort of fear factor.”

Keyboardist Dizzy Reed, who joined in 1990 and is the longest-serving member after Axl Rose, told The Pulse of Radio a while back that he thinks fans will be pleased when they finally get to hear “Chinese Democracy”. “It’s a pretty intense musical journey, really,” he said. “Everyone that is in the band, or was in the band at some point — ’cause there, you know, there’s been a few guys who have come and gone even since the old band — has contributed, and because of that I think it really takes you to some interesting musical places. When you add Axl and guitars, of course, though, it kinda glues it all together. There’s something for everybody, but I think if you’re a GUNS fan, if you’re an Axl fan, you’ll like it all. You’ll love it all.”

Don’t worry, I’ll be here to remind you to get your free Dr Pepper.  It’s just another service I offer at no cost or obligation to you. 

Little Miss Thang, also known as Axl Rose, has been letting the long-long-long-awaited Guns N’ Roses album Chinese Democracy out in fits and starts…If The World, one of the tracks, was featured in the movie Body Of Lies, and another track, Shackler’s Revenge, is in the new Rock Band 2 video game.  But now, news is that the whole thing is coming to a Best Buy near you:

The album, “Chinese Democracy,” will go on sale Nov. 23 at Best Buy stores and online as part of an exclusive deal, the chain and Guns N’ Roses’ record label, Geffen, announced, confirming rumors that have been circulating in the music press for weeks. It will be the first new album in 17 years by the band, which has sold more than 42 million albums in the United States, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

Best Buy is already accepting online orders, so fire up that computer and get yours today!  After all, GNR has to recoup some of the money poured into this project:

“Chinese Democracy” has been in the works for 14 years at enormous cost; a report in The New York Times in 2005 put recording expenses to that point at $13 million, based on record company documents. Many recording deadlines and release dates have come and gone over the years, exasperating fans and turning the very phrase “Chinese Democracy” into pop-culture shorthand for any endless and indulgent folly.

Mr. Rose has been promoting the album on tour since 2001, and over the years many songs have leaked on the Internet. But only recently, it seemed, did a concrete plan for the album’s release take shape.

And just how does Dr Pepper fit into this, you might ask?  Well, waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in March we did a story…if Axl released the album this year, we all get free pop!  w00t!

Many have tried, but so far nobody has been able to pry the decade-in-the-works Guns N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy” from the hands of lone remaining original member Axl Rose.

Now, Dr Pepper thinks it’s up to the challenge. The soft drink company says it will give a free can of Dr Pepper to “everyone in America” (excluding ex-Guns members Slash and Buckethead) if “Chinese Democracy” arrives anytime during the calendar year 2008.

Rose responded on his band’s web site (http://www.gunsnroses.com) that the band was “surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr Pepper.” But the offer did not prompt him to rose to the challenge.

“Chinese Democracy” was most recently scheduled for release in March 2007, but promptly vanished from the schedule without a new date being set. Rose said at the time that all the recording had been completed, but there were some “scheduling difficulties.”

Yeah, Axl couldn’t figure out how to schedule the multiple runs to the bank to deposit the millions this album is certain to net him inbetween visits to the plastic surgeon and the hairdresser.

Hey, I’m just in it for the Dr Pepper!  Srsly, awesum!

And you know I can’t pass up the opportunity to visit the warm-up scale that became their signature song…

It’s Friiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiday!

The original Sims!

Come on.  You can’t tell me that this doesn’t make you want to get your your cassette, toss it in the tape player of your rusty Firebird (the one with the big bird on the hood), and go out cruisin’ wearing your Members Only jacket and your pegged jeans and your Reeboks with the velcro straps while blasting this at full volume.  I dare you not to tap your foot.  I dare ya!

Have a great one, kids…I am outta here!

What a shame.  Anyway…call the manicurist, because somebody done ticked off Little Miss Thang Axl Rose, and you don’t mess with Axl, because he will cut you.  I mean it.  He will break off one of those braids and totally mess you up.

Seriously…the FBI had to come in and do Axl’s dirty work for him, arresting a blogger who streamed some of the songs off the long-awaited Chinese Democracy album:

FBI agents arrested 27-year-old Kevin Cogill on Wednesday morning on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws. Cogill appeared in court in the afternoon wearing a T-shirt; his girlfriend sat court and afterward said, “Rally the troops,” but declined further comment.

Federal authorities say Cogill posted nine unreleased Guns N’ Roses songs on his Web site in June. The songs were later removed.

In later posts, Cogill wrote that the FBI had questioned him and asked his readers if any of them knew a good attorney. He was represented Wednesday by a federal public defender.

According to an arrest affidavit, Cogill admitted to agents that he posted the songs on his Web site. Prosecutors said Wednesday the leak could result in a “significant” financial loss for the band.

And the album sitting in some studio not being released for ten years isn’t costing the band anything, I’m sure.  There’s a smart move…let’s make an album, but let’s not release it!  That should really get the dough rolling in!

In case you’re wondering just why the album hasn’t hit the stores yet, it’s because Axl and his former bandmates are at odds and he’s pretty much burned his bridges with them.  It’s reported that the album has cost $13 million to make…and it still sits on a shelf somewhere, gathering dust.  There is one song that you will reportedly be able to hear legally, though…Shackler’s Revenge, supposedly to be released in the video game Rock Band 2.  I’ll head to my nearest Wal-Mart and listen for some teenage kid to screw up the demo.

No, the guy shouldn’t have streamed what wasn’t legally his (no word on how he got the music to start with).  But come on.  Shouldn’t the FBI be doing something like searching for the complete strangers who have little Caylee Anthony, like the family asked?  (btw, that’s sarcasm)

But hey…does this mean that we all get a free can of Dr Pepper now?  I mean, some of the album has been released, does that count?

(I know, I know…but so many memories of my misspent youth!  Happy Friday!)

In what was being hailed as the “Last Police Concert Ever…No, Really, We’re Serious”, Sting decided that he wanted to mark the moment by having his tour beard shaved off:

After an hour of vintage hits, the bassist and his accumulation of salt-and-pepper facial scrub left the stage — along with bandmates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, of course — to await the traditional audience demand for an encore. After a few minutes, the big video screen above the stage blinked back on, and we saw Sting, now fetchingly bare-chested, stretched out in a backstage makeup chair while two women with electric clippers set about buzzing off the famous beard. Out front, the crowd watched in something like wonder. You could feel their hopes rise after the women reduced the foliage to a modest stubble and snicked off their trimmers; and you could feel them subside again when one of the amateur barbers slopped a large handful of shaving cream onto Sting’s face and the process continued, this time with razors. I thought to myself, “People will pay to see anything.“

This to introduce their farewell single, Don’t Stand So Close To Me, I Might Cut Myself With The Razor.

Not much else to say about it, other than it sounded like a rockin’ good time at Madison Square Garden.  Wow, there are times I wish I lived in NYC.