Michael Schenker said Axl Rose recorded three tracks for the guitarist’s upcoming album My Years With UFO but refused to approve two of them.
Rose will be heard performing a new version of his former band’s Lights Out track “Love to Love” on the LP, which arrives on Sept. 20. In a new interview with the Appetite for Distortion podcast (below), Schenker explained the collaboration came about after a studio session with Rose’s Guns N’ Roses bandmate Slash.
“[W]hen he came in, he said, ‘Michael, I just told Axl that I was going to do this…[Rose] said, ‘I wanna sing a song too.’ And I said to Slash, ‘That would be fantastic. Ask Axl which song he would like to do.’ And so actually, Axl ended up singing ‘Too Hot To Handle’ (also from 1977’s Lights Out), ‘Only You Can Rock Me’ (from 1978’s Obsession) and ‘Love To Love.’”
Schenker said he believed Rose had tracked his vocals while Guns N’ Roses were on tour, and that’s the reason they didn’t live up to the singer’s standards. “Axl was not actually happy with his performance on ‘Only You Can Rock Me’ and ‘Too Hot To Handle,’” he reported.
“I guess it was too many songs, because they were in the middle of a tour, and he preferred to just focus on ‘Love To Love.’ And he is a perfectionist, I have noticed… we waited until he was ready, and then finally he went, ‘Okay, “Love to love” I approve. You can release it.’”
Who Replaced Axl Rose on Michael Schenker’s Album
Schenker doesn’t seem to have had any problems finding contributors to replace Rose. The upcoming version of “Only You Can Rock Me” features Joey Tempest and Roger Glover, while “Too Hot to Handle” features Joe Lynn Turner, Adrian Vandenberg and Carmine Appice.
Slash appears on ”Mother Mary” alongside Eric Gronwwall, while other guests on the record include Dee Snider, Jeff Scott Soto and Stephen Pearcy
