Rose has long admired Nine Inch Nails, and has worked with the band's former drummer Chris Vrenna and producer/musician Billy Howerdel. It was at Rose's studio that Howerdel hooked up with ex-Vandals drummer Josh Freese. Both are now currently in A Perfect Circle, which features Tool's Maynard Keenan on vocals.

Howerdel said that his experience working with Rose was a positive one. He told LAUNCH about his time in the GN'R studio, which delayed the formation of A Perfect Circle. "I didn't plan on being there that long. You know there's goods and bads. I mean, Maynard and I were going to do this [A Perfect Circle] a long, long, time ago," Howerdel recalled. "And when I started with them I said, 'I'm going to work three days a week,' and they said, 'four.' Well, they said, 'five,' I said, 'three,' they said, 'four,' we compromised. And then I just said, 'This is just going to be for a month or two,' and it wound up being two-and-a-half years. So you know, goods: I got to learn a lot of stuff. Bads: I could have stayed there forever, and I was there a little longer than I wanted to be. And I believed in it at the time, but there comes a time where you have to follow your dream, I guess."

Freese, who in addition to the Vandals has played with Paul Westerberg and Devo, also learned from his experience working with Guns N' Roses.

"Yeah, I learn something from everyone I work with. I've worked with a billion different artists," Freese said. "I've played on almost a hundred records. Depending on the situation, you can learn from every experience -- whether it's a good experience, a bad experience, or I might work with somebody that I could pick up some engineering skills from, or just learn to communicate better with people or just. . .No comment."

Vrenna was involved in the Chinese Democracy project at the beginning, when Moby was scheduled to produce the record. "Matt Sorum had left the band, and I was one of the first people down there. Robin Finck, who was in Nails, was already down there as a guitar player, kind of in the Slash role. It was very new at the time. They were just putting stuff together, and I went down there for a little while, just for a few nights. It never materialized into anything, but it was fun. I really liked Axl. I thought he was a really great guy."

The new GN'R album was slotted for a July release, but now it's been postponed indefinitely.

-- Darren Davis, New York