GUNS N' ROSES' 'Chinese Democracy' Can Now Be Yours For Just $1.99

Best Buy, which was the exclusive U.S. retailer for GUNS N' ROSES decade-plus-in-the-making album "Chinese Democracy", is offering a special deal on copies of the CD. You can now purchase the album via the BestBuy.com web site for just $1.99.

"Chinese Democracy" was a commercial disappointment upon its release in November 2008, selling just 614,000 copies in the U.S. so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The CD was officially certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on February 3, 2009 for shipments in the United States in excess of one million copies.

Best Buy paid $14 million for 1.6 million copies of the album, according to Hits.

Aside from Billboard and Spinner interviews and answering a number of fan questions at a GUNS N' ROSES message board, singer Axl Rose has done no promotion of any kind for "Chinese Democracy".

GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal threw cold water on remarks by fellow GUNS axeman D.J. Ashba, who was quoted as saying at a party in Los Angeles late last year that the band was "throwing around a bunch of ideas" for a new album. Thal took to his Facebook page to set the record straight, saying, "We've yet to get in a room and write as a band. (I) know D.J. mentioned something about a new album, but don't want y'all expecting anything soon. Other than old unreleased songs, songs need to be written, jammed, recorded, tweaked, re-worked, re-recorded, mixed, re-mixed, mastered, re-mastered, art, new art, label approval, a game plan from the label that Axl [Rose, singer] approves . . . not as simple when it's on such a big scale . . . Just don't want ya getting frustrated if a GN'R album doesn't happen quick."

"Chinese Democracy" came out 15 years after its predecessor, 1993's "The Spaghetti Incident". It took more than a decade to record, during which every original member of the band except Rose was replaced and four different producers were used.

Nevertheless, Rose hinted in a 2002 interview that the lengthy sessions for the record had left him with enough material for two follow-ups.

Bassist Tommy Stinson, who has been playing in the current GUNS lineup for 12 years, told The Pulse Of Radio that he's always had confidence in Rose's vision. "I had doubts at certain points, and the thing that kept me going every time is that I would talk to Axl about this and that, his ideas about what we're doing and what we're gonna do and stuff like that," he said. "And every time, I just kinda had to stop and go, 'You know, he really knows exactly what he wants to get.' How to get there is another issue, but he knows what he wants, how he wants it to be. Every time I had a doubt, I would talk to him about stuff, and totally be back in it."