Chinese Democracy which meant that the salaried musicians, engineers, and assistants were often unable to work; Zutaut said: "These fucking people are getting paid shitloads of money and they’re sitting on their arse doing nothing because Axl’s not coming to the studio and they can’t get him on the phone." Zutaut estimated that Guns N' Roses were working on 50 or 60 songs; he went through each with Rose, trying to decide which were worth finishing. According to Zutaut, during his time with the band they completed versions of "The Blues", "Madagascar", "Chinese Democracy", and a "good" version of "Atlas Shrugged". When
Chinese Democracy the Not in This Lifetime... Tour in 2016, Slash complimented Buckethead's guitar parts and spoke of the album in a 2018 interview, stating "You know, it's very different. It's really cool stuff, but it was played by guitar players that are very different from me, style-wise... I also want to give credit where credit's due - the guitar players that played on Chinese Democracy, Buckethead being one of the main ones - are fucking amazing guitar players." Soon after its release, Stradlin said "I have listened to some tracks off the record and I enjoyed them" and "I like what