Billy Howerdel worked as Pro Tools engineer during the album's early years. He said: "I came in, to start, making sounds for Robin Finck, and that kind of turned into this two-and-a-half-year gig with the band." In early 1998, the band was composed of Rose and Reed along with Finck, Stinson, Tobias, Pitman, and Freese. They began recording at Rumbo Recorders, a studio in the San Fernando Valley where Guns N' Roses had recorded parts of "Appetite for Destruction". Around this time, Geffen paid Rose $1 million to finish the album and offered a further $1 million if he submitted it by March 1, 1999.