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 Studios. He described the song as "almost like doom metal with Axl singing really clean over this grinding, slow beat that is fucking mean, I cannot get it out of my head." Harpist Patti Hood, who had worked with Pitman on the album "Free Mars", and conductor Suzy Katayama also recorded parts. In January 2008, rumors arose that "Chinese Democracy" had been handed to Geffen but was delayed because the label and Rose could not agree on the marketing. Radio host Eddie Trunk said Geffen might have the album and that delays were due to financial reasons; in a February