Robin Finck members Josh Freese and Alessandro Cortini. In November 2008 Guns N' Roses' long-awaited album "Chinese Democracy" was released. Finck has a co-writing credit on the song "Better", which was later released as a single. He also played guitar on every track, performed 7 of the guitar solos and has additional credits for keyboards, arrangements and pre-production. He chose to remain with NIN after the album's release and, on March 21, 2009, was officially replaced as the lead guitarist of Guns N' Roses by guitarist DJ Ashba. The official Guns N' Roses website states that "Robin continues to be part of
Chinese Democracy Geffen had removed "Chinese Democracy" from its release schedule and withdrawn funding, stating: "Having exceeded all budgeted and approved recording costs by millions of dollars, it is Mr. Rose's obligation to fund and complete the album, not Geffen's." Around that time, manager Merck Mercuriadis said the album was close to complete. According to a March 2005 "New York Times" article, production costs for the album had reached $13 million, making it probably the most expensive recording "never made". Mercuriadis dismissed the article, writing in a letter that the newspaper's sources had not been involved with the project for several years.