Chinese Democracy Tour of Europe was announced in December 2000 as a New Year's Day performance at the House of Blues in Las Vegas. It was also rumoured that the long-awaited "Chinese Democracy" would be released in June 2001, for which the scheduled European Tour would be promotional. Guns N' Roses – then composed of vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarists Buckethead and Robin Finck, rhythm guitarist Paul Tobias (who joined in 1994 to replace Gilby Clarke), bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Brain and keyboardists Dizzy Reed (still with the band since joining in 1990) and Chris Pitman (who joined between 1998 and 2000) –
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