Apparently, the marketing team at Dr. Pepper are fans of rock band Guns N’ Roses. The soft drink company has proposed that if the band’s “Chinese Democracy” CD, which has been more than 15 years in the making, is released within the calendar year 2008, everyone in the U.S. will receive one free can of Dr. Pepper. Well, almost everyone.

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 [sic] 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.”

It will be the first album of fresh Guns N’ Roses material since the 1991 sets “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II.” Rose has reportedly burned through $13 million in recording expenses for “Chinese Democracy,” and also burned his bridges with the bandmates who helped him turn Guns into one of the biggest rock groups in the world by the early 1990s.

[From Reuters]

I doubt this CD is ever going to see the light of day. Sources that that control-freak Axl Rose is obsessed with it and can’t stop re-recording the tracks to make them perfect. Besides, most people who buy popular music these days probably don’t even know who Guns N’ Roses are anymore.

Who knows - maybe Axl Rose really liked Dr. Pepper and will finally release the CD so he can get his free can. This kind of reminds me of the Taco Bell stunt during the 2007 World Series, in which the fast food restaurant offered to give everyone in America one free taco if someone stole a base during the games. They must have freaked when Boston Red Sox rookie Jacoby Ellsbury stole second- they had to follow through on that offer!

Axl Rose is shown below on 9/1/06, thanks to WENN. He’s seen in the header image performing on 6/1/06, thanks to PRPhotos.

With all these 90s bands getting back together again, I feel like I’ve come full circle and am cool again. Except, it wasn’t exactly cool back then to be a fan of the Spice Girls or Take That or…the Backstreet Boys!

After a two-year layoff and the departure of Kevin Richardson, the all-grown-up Backstreet Boys are readying the release of their sixth studio album for Oct. 30.

The yet-to-be-titled disc will be issued by Jive Records and marks the Backstreeters’ 10th anniversary with the label that launched them to superstardom.

E! Online

Backstreet’s back indeed. On August 27 the new single, Inconsolable, will be shipped to radio. This is their first single since 2005’s Incomplete, and after that I really hope they creat an In-trilogy. Actually, how about Incontinent, since the band are so old? 35! They’re not boys anymore.

Another 90s band doing the cash raising rounds is Guns N Roses. They (only original member Axl Rose) toured recently for the Chinese Democracy album (the album took years to make, at least politics move slow in China).

Now Guns N Roses are thinking about a reunion, after playing this week without Axl!

With the big “Appetite For Destruction” 20th anniversary show behind him, original Guns N’ Roses drummer Steven Adler is looking forward to taking his Adler’s Appetite band worldwide. But he’s also holding out hope for a blowout reunion bash with his former bandmates.

“I believe I made it this far for some reason,” Adler tells Billboard.com. “I want to finish what we started, and … with the love and support I got from those guys, I think we can (reunite). I’m gonna leave it up to Axl [Rose]. That’s gonna be Axl’s call, and I love Axl and I know he’ll make the right call.”

Billboard

Actually, I desperately hope this doesn’t happen. I really like Slash’s new band Velvet Revolver with Scott Weiland, and also don’t want to have to suffer through any GNR concerts with my hair band loving partner. I think I could give Backstreet Boys a miss too, although I am very sorry I’ve failed in my one-woman bid to make my town Spice City.

Picture note by Celebitchy: The Backstreet Boys are shown on 6/14/2005 at a signing session for their “Never Gone” CD. Guns N Roses are shown performing on 6/4/2006 at the Rock in Rio Lisboa Music Festival. It seems neither of these bands really went away. Thanks to PRPhotos for these images.