The recording for the forthcoming Guns n Roses album, Chinese Democracy, was begun in 1994.  Duff McKagan, ex-bassist, is quoted "but that band was so splintered at that point that nothing got started".  Slash, ex Guns n Roses lead guitarist, has criticized Axl Rose for making the band seem "like a dictatorship".  Slash wrote in his autobiography that his leaving the band in 1996 was caused by "Axl wanting control to the point that the rest of us were strangled".  Slash quit Guns n Roses in 1996, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum left soon after.  Slash was replaced by Nine Inch Nails' Robin Finck, McKagan by  Tommy Stinson (formerly of the Replacements) and drummer Josh Freese joined as well.

In 1998, the band (Rose, Stinson, Finck and Freese along with Paul Tobias, Chris Pitman and Dizzy Reed) started recording at Rumbo Recorders, a  studio in the San Fernando Valley where Guns n Roses had recorded parts for Appetite for Destruction.  Geffen Records paid Axl Rose $1,000,000 to finish the album during this time; with a another $1,000,000 if he finished it by March 1st of 1999.

Robin Finck left to rejoin Nine Inch Nails, breifly, in 1999.  In 2000, Axl hired Buckethead and drummer Bryan Mantia, who has appeared on several of Buckethead's albums, to replace the Josh Freese.  Later in 2000, Robin Finck rejoined GnR as the third guitarist.

On the 1st of January, 2001, GnR played their first concert in over seven years at House of Blues in Las Vegas.  Following this, they were the headlining performance at Rock in Rio III on January 14th 2001 with 190,000 people in attendance. GnR planned to tour Europe in June of 2001, however, the tour was cancelled because Buckethead was suffering from stomach problems.  They rescheduled the tour for December 2001 but it was cancelled again.

Richard Fortus, who replaced Paul Tobias, joined the band in 2002.  Tobias left because of his dislike of touring.  In August of 2002, they played dates in Hong Kong, England, Japan and Belgium.  On August 29th, GnR played at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards. During their set, consisting of "Welcome to the Jungle", "Madagascar" and "Paradise City", Axl was seemingly out of breath and appeared to struggle to keep up with the band. Following the VMA appearance, the band headed out on their first North American tour since 1993 (Use Your Illusion Tour).  This tour was set to begin on November 7th in Vancouver, but, a spokesman for GnR said that due to inclement weather conditions, Axl was unable to fly to Canada from L.A., although the rest of the band  was already at the venue.  The show was cancelled fewer than two hours before GnR were scheduled to go onstage.  This caused riots outside the venue. Riots caused in excess of $400,000 in damages.  Although Axl was not able to reach Vancouver on the previous day, he performed in Tacoma on November 8th and GnR played the first concert of their North American tour at the Tacoma Dome.  According to an MTV representative, Axl blew his vocal chords by the end of the concert.  The last show on the tour was a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York, which was sold-out.  The night before,  the band was scheduled to appear at the First Union Center in Philadelphia; the opening acts both performed but GnR failed to show up.  This cancellation resulted in yet another riot.  After this incident. the tour promoter cancelled the rest of the 16 shows remaining on the tour.  Between November 8th and the last show on December 5th, GnR performed 16 shows, they had planned to play approximately 32.

Following the 2002 tour, the band all but disappeared.  Their scheduled Rock in Rio IV performance in May 2004 was cancelled.  Rose claimed Buckethead's leaving the band in March left them unable to play.

May 2006 rolls around, in New York the band plays their first concerts in over three years, four shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom.  Following these shows an acoustic set for Rosario Dawson's birthday party at The Plumm was performed on May 18th.  Before GnR took the stage, Axl had an altercation with Tommy Hilfiger which was highly publicized.  About 2 weeks before the shows in New York, Ron Thal (Bumblefoot) replaced Buckethead.  A summer tour followed the shows in New York with a tour in Europe.  After their performance in Stockholm on June 26th, Axl was arrested for biting a security guards leg, also he threatened police and damaged hotel property.  The band managed to make their show in Oslo despite this.

After the European tour the band embarked on a North American tour in October.  They cancelled two shows in November; first of which was scheduled for November 6th in Portland and the second, which was scheduled for November 29th in Milwaukee.

On December 14th, 2006, Axl Rose published an open letter Guns n Roses fans on the bands website, announcing the cancellation of the four shows remaining on the North American tour.  He claimed time the band needed to finish recording Chinese Democracy would be taken up by fulfilling these shows.  Axl also mentioned the band had parted company Merck Mercuriadis, their manager, loosely blaming him as the reason the album wasn't released in 2006.  In the same open letter to the fans, Axl announced a tentative release date for Chinese Democracy as March 6th, 2007, but, that date came and went with no release of the album.

On February 22nd, 2007, Del James announced on the GnR website, that recording for the album had been completed and it was being mixed  He also said that there was no official or unofficial release date for Chinese Democracy but that things appeared to be moving on.

In the summer of 2007, the band begun touring again.  The tour was supposed to start with 2 performances in South Africa.  This included being the headliners on the My Coke Fest, the largest music festival for South Africa.  These dates were also cancelled due to bassist Stinson injuring his wrist, of course,  after falling down a flight of stairs.

Chinese Democracy, when released, will be the first studio album of original material by Guns n Roses since the release of the Use Your Illusion I and II albums in 1991.

Some titles rumored to appear on the completed album include but are not limited to: "Better", "Chinese Democracy", "I.R.S.", "Madagascar", "Sorry", "The Blues" and "There Was a Time".  All of these tracks have mysteriously 'leaked' onto the Internet excluding "Sorry".  This title was mentioned by former Skid Row frontman, Sebastian Bach, in a 2006 Rolling Stone interview.

The current reported lineup for Guns n Roses is as follows:

• Axl Rose – Lead Vocals
• Dizzy Reed – Keyboards, Piano and Percussion
• Robin Finck – Guitar and Backing vocals
• Tommy Stinson – Bass Guitar and Backing Vocals
• Chris Pitman – Synthesizer
• Bryan Mantia – Drums and Percussion
• Richard Fortus – Guitar and Backing Vocals
• Bumblefoot – Lead Guitar
• Frank Ferrer – Drums