GUNS N' ROSES Could Have New Music Out In Next Year, Says Guitarist RICHARD FORTUS

GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Richard Fortus told the Associated Press at yesterday's (Wednesday, April 23) Revolver Golden Gods awards show in Los Angeles that fans could see new music from the band in the next year.

"We are working on stuff and hopefully very soon we're going to have new stuff out," Fortus said on the event's "black carpet (see video below). "Well, in the next year."

He added: "We're going to be in [Las] Vegas all together [for next month's second residency at the Joint inside Hard Rock Hotel and Casino], so hopefully during that time we're going to be able to get in a room and start laying down some more stuff."

GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal told Rolling Stone last year that there is music ready to go for GUNS N' ROSES' follow-up to 2008's "Chinese Democracy". He explained, "There's a lot of stuff, it's just a question of all of us organizing. We're still doing shows, and I think once we clear our schedule and focus more on new music, it'll happen. We just have little things on the back burner, just waiting for the right time for us to organize and make something new out of it. Hopefully we can make more music — that's what it's about."

According to The Pulse Of Radio, Thal believes that the group's fans want to hear something new from GUNS too, saying, "They want new music, and we can do it. It's not that we're done. I'm not ready for that. We need to keep making music. We have a great band that's ready to do it and can do it well."

Any chances of a new album, of course, depend on frontman Axl Rose. It took Rose 13 years to finish "Chinese Democracy", burning through hundreds of thousands of dollars, multiple producers, every last remaining original member of the group and a few replacements before he was done.

The finished product got mixed reviews and was a relative flop, moving less than one million copies in the U.S.

But Rose remains an enigma. He has not spoken about making a new album in any of his rare interviews and skipped out on GUNS' induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2012.

Ex-GUNS N' ROSES bassist Duff McKagan performed with the band at yesterday's Revolver Golden Gods event, marking the first time that McKagan has performed with the group on U.S. soil in 20 years.

Axl Rose took home this year's Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award, while Joan Jett became the first female recipient of the Golden God Award.