Oh glad we got that resolved. I haven't listen to a single minute of any leaked Guns material, it's sort of a protest against Axl. But if the album sees the light of day, I'll probably give it a shot.
Hmm...it's strange that you would say Page is your all time favourite guitarist, mine too when I take in consideration everything, and I know you like Clapton as well. So not liking Hendrix doesn't fit the "profile". You should listen to some Hendrix, I wasn't a fan not too long ago either, but man, could he play. You need to experience it, there's no other way you can understand his impact on rock music and how much it lost when he died. Freddie's death simply didn't have such an impact because everyone knew him, knew what he did and what he could do. Hendrix died practically as soon as he hit his peak, I can only imagine what he would have recorded had he lived a few more years. And Mercury'd death got a lot more medie exposure because it was the 90's and he was gay and he died of AIDS, etc. Scandals, scandals, scandals whereas Hendrix died at the start of the 70's where his death was known only among rock musicians and fans.
Let me put it this way; Freddie had little or nothing left to show to RNR, he already done it all, Hendrix had a ton of things in front of him, a genius which we were stripped off too soon. Rock simply lost more with Hendrix then it did with Freddie.
I wasn't questioning Waters' creative influence, he's a genius, no doubt about it but it's his own decision and his musical direction he wanted to take that got him out of Floyd. That's what frustrates me with Waters fans, they think he was the core of the band when he simply wasn't. I don't know if you're much of a Maiden fan, but Steve Harris is (coincendantallly) the bassist and main songwriter(wrote probably 90% of the songs) of the band whereas everyone knows the band is not half as good without the gentleman in my avatar. It's the same with Waters and Gilmour, neither was more important, songwriting is no less important than singing those songs or playing some of the most amazing guitar solos on them. And in the end Gilmour, with the rest of the band, recorded some great stuff without Waters so..just don't call it fake Pink Floyd and that will be enough.