Guns N’ Roses celebrated the release of the first song written by its reunited core trio of Axl Rose, Slash, and Duff McKagan in 30 years by debuting it live last night (Aug. 18) in Pittsburgh. Prior to performing “Perhaps,” Rose told the audience, “forgive me if I don’t run around and try to project as much because I’m gonna try to figure out how to fucking sing it live. I like to think of when we wrote this song [as] like the immaculate inception.”
The piano-tinged rocker certainly shares some DNA with the vintage GNR sound of the Use Your Illusion albums, with Rose singing, “my sense of rejection is no excuse for my behavior / you pulled the gun that shot and crucified my savior.” After completing the song, Rose joked, “Thank you. Now, that was an experience.”
“Perhaps,” which has been circulating in demo form amongst fans for some time, was inadvertently made available last week via TouchTones jukeboxes. A second new song, “The General,” will only be available Oct. 23 as the b-side of a limited-edition 7-inch vinyl single of “Perhaps.”
Guns N’ Roses made some tentative steps toward new music in 2021 by releasing “Absurd” and “Hard Skool” as singles. Both songs were outtakes from the long-festering sessions for the album Chinese Democracy, which finally arrived in 2008 but did not include Slash or McKagan.
The group has tour dates on tap through Oct. 16 in Vancouver, including an Oct. 6 appearance at the inaugural Power Trip festival alongside AC/DC, Metallica, Tool, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden.
