Used to Love 'Em

"And now announcing the nominees for the Rock category, Nickelback’s Dark Horse, and Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy." The speaker said his loud voice booming over the auditorium. All around people were whispering as Chad Kroger smiled to himself. As far as he knew he had this all down. He was going to win. Nickelback was going to win this award. After all they had to, they just did. There was no way that he would come in second place to Chinese Democracy, to Guns N' Roses of all things. To a bunch of forty year old has beens, to Axl Rose and his new so-called band, which no true fan of Guns would support. He looked around, keeping his plastic smile on his otherwise handsome face.

They had to win, no-one from Guns N' Roses was even there, no-one had shown up, how were they supposed to claim an award if no-one was there? Maybe it was because they knew that Nickelback would win. After all Nickelback had become quite popular in the last few years while Guns N' Roses, they had become simply a joke. "And the winner is." Chad Kroger shared a smile with fellow band mate Mike, they both knew what was coming, they both knew they were nearly destined to win this one. "Chinese Democracy." He finished as Chad's jaw dropped open, there was no-way they had one. No, not them, they weren't even here to claim the award. Chad shared a look with Mike, who also had a similar expression cast upon his face. This. Was. Bullshit. On the largest scale imaginable. Guns, they didn't deserve this award, they were old, they were has-beens, and they were nothing more than dirt. They were old and they were the past, Nickelback was new, and they were the future, they held the future in the music industry, or the Rock music industry.

"Guys, c'mon you have to clap." Ryan Peake, Nickelback’s rhythm guitarist hissed at them. Slowly almost robotically Mike began to clap and then a few moments later Chad began to clap along with him while thoughts raced through his mind. How did they win instead of him, how did the has beens win against the lean mean Nickelback machines? It just wasn't possible, they just couldn't. Other people in the auditorium were clapping and some were even whistling. The spotlights were rotating overhead, probably looking for someone of Guns N' Roses to step forward and claim the award. Seconds ticked by as the clapping and cheering began to fade and no-one still had decided to claim the award when a small man stepped up and took the award gingerly, holding it as if it was a child or infant.

"I know that no-one from Guns N' Roses happens to be here tonight but I can tell you that if they were here." He paused to clear his throat. "If Axl was here, I know he'd be very happy and thankful for winning this award, he'd also be very surprised to come out on top next to Nickelback, which has been a fierce competitor when it came to album sales." He paused again to shoot a look at Chad Kroger who again pasted his fake, plastic smile upon his face and nodded. "So thank you all for supporting Guns N' Roses and I'm glad that we didn't let any of our fans down." He finished his speech and the applause and cheering took over once again. Chad recognized the man who had given the speech as he had gotten off the stage, it was Guns producer, Mike Clint, he was an okay man to talk to, not that Chad had ever said more than two or three words to him. The MC stepped up to the podium and began to speak, making the awful, dreaded applause and cheering stop. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard to him, they were clapping for the people, in his eyes that had taken Nickelback, his rightful award away, and snatched out of there descending jaws. He began to talk and move onto the next category which was pop as Chad sighed and slouched in his chair. This was going to be an extremely long night now, and extremely boring. As the MC continued to speak and whoever was announcing the winners he began to play with the loose threads on his sleeve, this was uninteresting, boring, and he was unamused, still upset over his oh-so-close victory which had been taken away.

Miles away at Axl Rose's house he was sitting in front of the television watching the music awards, sure he had gotten nominated for a single award, but that didn't mean he would go. he was old, he grew tired at the thought of sitting in a chair for a long period of time and just listening and name after name was called, and he would have to clap every time when in reality he didn't give a shit about the names and the people. He stood up and stretched while watching the TV screen intently. He needed a beer, badly. He thought to himself as he slowly began to weave his way through the house to the kitchen opening the fridge door and searching through it for a beer, pushing the lettuce and the tomatoes and whatever else he had in the fridge aside.

"Of course, my luck, no fucking beer." He grumbled to himself as he reached the back of the refrigerator and saw nothing but well, the back of the fridge. He mumbled something incoherent to himself before continuing to search the fridge for his beer. Eventually after digging through the mass amounts of vegetables and crap that he had in the fridge. Eventually he managed to find a beer that was hiding behind an unopened jug of milk that had expired over three months ago. He sighed as he cracked open the beer with the little hiss it made when a beer was first opened. It all sounded quite lovely to him.

"Time to get back to the TV." He told himself, speaking out loud rather than just having a conversation in his head, he had a big empty house and nothing to fill it with other then his material possessions, no wife, no girlfriend, no children, and he was in a sense alone. He began the walk to television when the phone began to ring. "If it's important they’ll leave a message." He mumbled to himself as the caller ID popped up on the TV it was Guns N' Roses producer, Mike Clint, a short little balding man who knew almost everything about the music industry. The key words being almost everything. He let out a sigh as he put his beer down carefully on the countertop and scratched his head idly, this had to be important, Mikehardly ever never called just so he could chat, he was a business man, and only called to talk about that business. Whether that was getting into the studio and recording an album, or mixing tracks or preparing for an upcoming tour or a publicity event. It was never ever just to talk. Axl picked up the phone on the fifth and final ring before it would go to a message.

"Hello, Axl is this you?" Mike started as Axl rolled his eyes. Well this was Axl's house wasn't it? And seeing as Axl didn't have anyone else that lived with him, logically speaking it had to be Axl in the house. Logically of course.

"Yes it's me, and I'm assuming that there's a reason you called?" Was Axl's reply, he just wanted to get this chat and whatever business Mike had over with, he wanted to go back to his couch, watch the awards until they ended then drink beer and watch Sunday night football.

"Actually yes, I'm calling because after I told you to show up at the music awards you didn't, after I told you to show up and bring everyone from the band you didn't." He paused a moment to take a breath, either that or someone that knew him was walking by and he wanted to maintain his reputation, Axl briefly wondered why Mike felt the extreme need to go into a ridiculous amount of detail whenever Axl really wasn't in the mood to talk and when he had other, more important arrangements. "And I'm telling you all this." Well about time! Axl thought sourly, couldn't he have just gotten to this point thirty seconds earlier? Did he really need to tell the entire story? Probably not. "Because when you and the rest of Guns N' Roses won for best hard rock album, I had to go up and get the award. I had to go up and speak in front of everyone and on worldwide television. I had to accept it because you Mr. Rose didn't show up the one time I told you to." Axl examined his fingernails uninterested. That was it? That was why he needed to tell the entire fucking story? Because he had won an award and because Mike had gotten the honour to accept the award as well as speech.

"That's great, I'm glad we won! I'll be sure to call Bumblefoot and Dizzy and everyone right away to tell them!" Axl said as the news finally sunk in, they had won. Guns N' Roses had won. Not Nickelback, not who Axl and the rest of Guns N' Roses had thought would win but them. Chinese Democracy, the album that had been in the works for a decade and a half.

"You better call them, and give them shit from me, for not being there, when I told you to." Mike said before disconnecting, of course now that something interesting had actually happened when they decided not to show up, now they were going to be bothered about that until Mike got fired, which who knew, it could be soon. In Guns only the best would survive, Guns ran through musicians like Motley Crue had gone through alcohol, which was plenty in a short period of time.

"Something tells me this isn't going to be the night I had hoped it would be." Axl groaned as the phone began to ring again in his hand.

"Hi Axl, I just wanted to congratulate you on the win, you guys deserved it and it was quite the shocker." Chad said speaking into his cell phone, earning looks of disgust from other musicians around him, what he was just congratulating him, something that everyone wanted to do. He brushed the strand of his dirty blonde hair which was constantly getting in his eyes. Maybe one day he'd finally break down and get his damned hair cut! He would see about that, later.

"Well thanks Chad, it means a lot, I'm sorry to hear you guys got runner up, if anyone deserved the win it was you." Was Axl's reply, he sounded quite humble actually, not the goading, prodding, pestering man Chad had heard he was. People began to clap all around him; they must have announced another winner. Briefly Chad wondered what the category was before he resumed focus on this conversation, with Axl.

"Thanks, but I think you guys much deserved it after all a decade in a half, that's quite a bit of time to spend on a single album! Well I just wanted to call you and congratulate you on the win, shame you weren't here to pick it up." Chad replied, trying to sound as pleasant as he possible could.

"Chad hang up the goddamn phone, we're sitting in the middle of the goddamn awards and you're blabbing on the phone, you'll have more than enough time after to talk." Mike hissed at him, someone was getting a little overworked from the loss, and someone had to control their temper and keep the language to a minimum.

"Just give me a second." He hissed back, covering the mouth of the phone with his hand, he needed to get this out, he didn't want to be on bad terms with Axl Rose, not after the stories he had heard with him. Not a chance.

On the other side of the phone Axl laughed, "Alright thanks Chad we'll talk later, you sound a little busy." He said before saying his goodbye and disconnecting. A sinister smile appeared on Chad's face as both Mike and Ryan stared at him Ryan shaking his head in disbelief.

"What is wrong with you Chad? This is the middle of the awards, why were you on the phone?" Ryan asked him, his voice barely above a whisper. Chad could barely hear him over the amount of noise everyone was causing.

"Nothing's wrong, I just wanted to congratulate Axl on the win." Chad replied, in response to that statement both Ryan and Mike were staring at him as though he had gone mad.

"You wanted to congratulate the person that you were cursing under your breath five minutes ago?" Mike asked as Ryan's jaw remained open in disbelief.

"Yes as a matter of fact I do and I just did." I replied stiffly, that was as far as I was concerned the end of that conversation. Ryan just shook his head at me before focusing once again on the awards.

"Chad and his moods." I heard Mike mumble under his breath, more to himself then to me, I ignored him. We didn't need to get into this right now, in the middle of the awards, not to mention it wouldn't look very good if we began to fight here and now. So once again I turned my head and focused without really focusing on the awards that were taking place, they were nearly done, they had to be nearly done, how could this thing not be over yet, we had to have been here for hours, or that is what it seemed it had been.

"Chad, how much longer until you think this is over?" Ryan asked after a moment, as I strained to see the stage, sitting up as much as I could before slumping down again. There was no point in trying to see over everyone, I wasn't very tall and well some very tall people had managed to get seats in front of us, how lovely.

"I don't know, just watch what they're doing, or try to." I replied hearing Ryan grumble to himself for a moment before settling down and becoming quiet once again. We weren't always fighting this much who knows why we were fighting so much today, maybe it was just because of the awards and because we had been robbed of our victory, of winning something we deserved too. A decade in a half for one album, that tells you that they're getting older, that they're unable to produce as much music as others musicians, which means that musicians who can write more music is better, right? See where I'm going with this? I'm going where Nickelback deserved to win that award and Guns N' Roses sure as well didn't. Now back to those dreary awards.

Axl sat on the couch watching TV, watching the football game, not caring who the winner would be, and not caring who the losing would be. Just drinking his beer and trying to shake the fact that they had won something, the new line-up of Guns had won something and not the classic line-up, not the line-up that people associated with Guns N' Roses. The one that he was hated world-wide for. He put his nearly empty beer can down on the glass table with a dull clink before he got up and went directly to the phone, dialling in a number that he knew well.

"Hi Mike it's Axl, listen I was wondering if you could do me a favour, and call the press and tell them that...." He went on to tell Mike his plan.

"Of course Axl that sounds like a great idea, I'll get right on that, now go get some sleep it's nearly midnight." Mike said nodding to himself on the other end of the phone, this was a good idea, perhaps one of the best that Axl had ever come up with, yes that included his song writing.

"Alright, I'll keep my part of the bargain if you keep yours." Axl said, that being his farewell before disconnecting leaving Mike chuckling to himself with no idea what he had just done, he had just set the wheels turning.