Naturally, when the label decides upon a release date, it'll be all over the company within the next few weeks, and will inevitably leak out simply because of the number of people involved. That's a sure-fire of the process having been started. I'd say we're currently looking at 2-3 months from point x before record would be out, as I strongly it has been completed.

I do agree with Scabman that point x is still in the future, as that'll be the day when Universal formally locks down the release date and has the master ready. Hard to say what the status of the subsequent albums might be, but they've been recording and mixing for a good while now. Before the European tour, the band had enough material for CD (13 songs), 13 other songs "nearly done", with another 6 work-in-progress cuts.

That would be enough songs to cover CD and the follow-up and half of the third album. A good amount of that material might be traced back all the way to the original midnight jams in late 90's, which has since been laboriously cut and pasted with ProTools into various takes, with various musicians and producers doing alternative takes. For instance, The General originates from mid-02 the latest, as that's when Marco Beltrami was brought in to work on some orchestral arrangements on it.

"The music was eclectic and at the time that I was doing it there were no lyrics on the songs that I was working on. [...] They had finished tracks. On one song [Seven] I actually wrote a guitar part, but they pretty much had the band tracks down and then I added orchestral stuff on top of it." - Beltrami

"One of my favorite songs is this song called 'The General', which is so'¦ it's by far the heaviest metal tune I think ive ever heard Axl do, this slow, grinding riff with these high, peircing vocals, screaming vocals. I was like, 'When is this coming out?' And he said '2012″ I was like, 'Dude, you're killin' me!' He goes, 'Well, this comes out on the third record. It relates to this song, it's a trilogy, this goes with this lyrically.'" - Baz

Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if Axl had worked on two or three albums simultaneously, and with the lack of proper or even ordinary production management during the years (himself being the producer, sole lyrics writer, vocalist, etc. since 2002), it shouldn't come as a wonder why he would've been losing track of time more than once. He boasted years ago that lyrics are written last, once the music was done.  If The General, for instance, has this third album intertextuality going for it, Axl would've had to have an idea of three albums way back in 2002; otherwise he would've been forced to re-do a lot of lyrics in more recent times simply to match the trilogy concept.

In any case, I'd think they have a pretty good idea of what the second album is and what it will entail. That would be mean relatively finished recording, various mixes and completed lyrics. Otherwise there's very little point in working a on a third album song and playing it to your over-zealous opening act.

Just to clear this up:

-1999: GNR was at Geffen
1999-2003: Geffen became a part of Interscope, GNR now nominally at Interscope
2003-2004: Geffen relaunch, GNR is moved over to their roster. It's specifically Geffen that terminates future funding for CD.

The album will come out under the Universal umbrella. But I'd be curious to know whether Axl's been battling with the company to get back to Jimmy Iovine at Interscope, who proved to be much more patient with him than the then-Geffen CEO Jordan Scher.

The vids won't work for me. Guess their servers have been overloaded by Finck fans.

Anyway, here's a few clips on LedZaerial.

LZ#1    LZ#2

Robin Finck on guitar, Bianca Sapetto, Russ Stark, and Ana Lenchantin on cello

So this is what Robin did in 2003, alongside Paz Lenchantin's sister no less.

LedZAerial is a physical, sensual, thrilling journey through the psychedelic and elaborate music of Led Zeppelin. [...] Ask for a Power Point presentation, DVD or video. - Rajiworld

Damn. I'd be interested in getting a DVD of the show.

As far as I know, A.X.L. was a Lafayette band, before Izzy and Axl moved to California.

Paul Tobias and Axl wrote Shadow of Your Love and Back Off Bitch. They were pre-Hollywood Rose songs, quite possibly A.X.L. songs.

Here, Izzy talks about his times in Lafayette pre-1980 and his move to LA. While he never mentions the band, it's pretty obvious that he's referring to A.X.L.; particularly because he was still a drummer back then.

Stradlin recalls: "My dad built a bar in our basement. He sold insurance, and on the weekends all his work buddies would come over to get drunk and party. There would always be a band, and while I was working the keg, they'd use my drum kit. The guy who played drums would teach me stuff. I had a guitar, too, at one point, and I dicked around with it, but I always went back to drums."

In high school, Stradlin and some friends began playing in his garage. Axl Rose was the singer. "I met Axl in drivers' ed," Stradlin relates. "We were long-haired guys in high school. You were either a jock or a stoner. We weren't jocks, so we ended up hanging out together. We'd play covers in the garage. There were no clubs to play at, so we never made it out of the garage. Axl was really shy about singing back then. But I always knew he was a singer." - Izzy, '98

There you have the original Indiana posse. Lank and Tobias would move on to Mank Rage with the occasional run-in with Hollywood Rose/GNR, Mike Hammernik would later be featured in Rapidfire. When Axl called Paul Tobias "the original guitar player" at HOB 01/01/01, he sure as hell wasn't kidding.

Ah, there it is.

After re-reading the letter, I'll rephrase my earlier comment. I feel Axl was overtly optimistic on how easy it would be to strike a new deal with the label. First off, he's got 'two to three days' left on the album. Tour ends Dec 20th. The following week is all season holidays. With a label willing to commit to a March 6th release, by eight week processing time the record would have to be turned in during the second week of January. Axl certainly could've done in the remaining studio days during the New Year (and he did, in Vegas no less). But. He obviously thought he could also persuade Universal with only cursory post-holiday listenings / meetings to release the beast posthaste, simply because he and his people had made some miscalculations down the line and now needed to redeem themselves.

I think March 6th was lost first and foremost because Axl realized he'd acted a bit too hastily (even April 3rd would've noticeably tipped the scales to his favor) and painted himself into a real nifty corner with a completely unrealistic release date simply because Universal would never commit to such a rapid action - not with a $13 Million project.