New Guns N’ Roses single leaked via jukeboxes across US
'Perhaps' had been rumoured for a release last week
By Joe Goggins
A new Guns N’ Roses song was accidentally leaked over the weekend, when it was made available on digital jukeboxes across the United States.
‘Perhaps’, which would represent the first new music from the hard rock legends since their Hard Skool EP in 2021, was expected to be released last Friday (August 11). Whilst the band had not made an official announcement about the single, a link had briefly appeared on the Universal Music website that encouraged fans to pre-save it on the streaming service of their choice.
It failed to surface, though, signalling an apparent change of plans by the band, but did become available a day later (August 12) via TouchTunes jukeboxes all over America, along with what appears to be the track’s artwork. It is unclear whether the song remains available via the jukeboxes, whilst the band themselves have failed to comment on the development.
A rough demo of the track has been circulating on the internet for some years, but speculation that it would receive an official release mounted after fans heard the band sound-checking it ahead of a concert in Tel Aviv earlier this year. The song dates to the Chinese Democracy sessions, like ‘Hard Skool’ and ‘Absurd’, the two new songs on the Hard Skool EP. However, those tracks were reworked with the current lineup, making Hard Skool the first Guns N’ Roses release in 28 years to feature guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan.
Since reuniting with the pair under the GNR name in 2016, Axl Rose has taken the band on a long-running tour of the world’s stadiums, with their most recent UK run taking in a Saturday night headline slot at Glastonbury, which met with mixed reviews.
Rolling Stone UK’s John Lewis was among those to give the show a generous writeup, saying: This corner of Somerset will never entirely embrace metal, but GNR almost – almost – won them over.” They have repeatedly insisted that a new full-length album is on the way, with their manager , Tom Mayhue, confirming that they will head back into the studio in the latter months of this year (via Blabbermouth).