Leak Of The Day, Part III: Guns N’ Roses Gets Emo

One more track from this weekend’s Chinese Democracy deluge: “There Was A Time,” a mid-tempo piano ballad that’s not exactly lacking in production “flourishes,” and which some observers are already billing as “TWAT.”

Guns N’ Roses – There Was A Time [MP3, link expired; via metalsucks.net]

And so, as the CD mystery continues to unravel, we have to ask: Just how did these leaks get out?

If this Google-cached message board thread is to be believed (scroll down and look for the parts actually written in English), a GNR fan decided to offer big money for the tracks, and started scouring the message boards:

Many of you picked up on the fact that what I was doing was similar to the movie Ransom. That movie was definitely an inspiration for my strategy. I upped the money to $2,500, but deliberately worded my offer in a vague manner. Some would interpret it as $2,500 per song while others would read the offer and come away thinking the offer was $2,500 total. I felt confusion would be a good thing because maybe a hoarder would wonder whether the offer was $2,500 or $5,000 and then contact me to find out. At the end of the day, for anything good to happen, a hoarder had to reach out to me. I was playing a major game of mindfuck and needed to come across as sincere yet a little off balance…

I woke up at noon on Thursday and went straight to my computer. I checked my email to see if I’d missed anything during my four hours of sleep and sure enough I had. Finally, something had gone right. Someone from Portugal who was trying to sell me the songs actually sent a 53 second clip that contained enough of Chinese Democracy and The Blues for me to know that they had the songs. I did it. I got someone to send a clip. It’s over. I’ll just leak the clip and explain that my plan all along was to get a clip and then I’ll move on with my life. Some will be happy to hear more of the songs and some will say I’m lame for lying about offering money for tracks. Whatever, no big deal, right?

Well, before I could do that, my phone rang. The person on the other end claimed to be from Spain and said they had most of Chinese Democracy and would sell it for $2,500 per song. I started to shake. I didn’t know what to do. Was this for real? After all the non-sense, did I really just wake up to a clip in my email box and a phone call from a hoarder? My phone was about to die, so I ran downstairs to find my charger. The hoarder, who I’ll refer to as Mr. Spain, proceeded to play me several songs over the phone. I couldn’t believe it. Chinese Democracy, The Blues, a new version of Madagascar, songs I’d never heard before, he played all sorts of stuff. He said his phone card was about to expire and asked me to call him back. I said I would and hung up the phone. I immediately tried to call him back, but I guess my parent’s cell phone plan, which my phone is a part of, doesn’t allow for international calls. The guy mentioned on the phone that he was one of the people that had been PM’ing me on chinesedemocracy.com, so I rushed upstairs to PM him and explain that I couldn’t call him back…

Mr. Spain told me so much in such a short time, I was trying to remember everything he said. He mentioned that a friend or close relative of his was dating a band member. That is how he got access to the disc(s) he stole. He had 9 songs in all. Six that he gave to his underlings (CD, The Blues, IRS, Maddy, TWAT, and Better) and three that he kept to himself (a newer version of Maddy and two songs I’d never heard before). I didn’t know if I would ever talk to him again and I certainly didn’t have the $20,000 he wanted for all of the songs.

And there you have it! Actually, you don’t, as this story goes on for a few more thousand words, and includes references to the wrestling industry, Marilyn Manson and a $5 guitar chord. All you have to know is that someone, somewhere is getting fired over this. We just don’t know who.