Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy finally has a release date

Guns N' Roses' long-awaited, endlessly delayed new album, Chinese Democracy, finally has a release date.

According to the music industry site Hits Daily Double, the CD will drop at all Best Buy stores, where it is an exclusive, on the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving, November 23. This will give the album a full seven days on sale before entering the chart on December 2. Best Buy's sales week runs from Sunday through Saturday night.

As MusicRadar previously reported, Gun N' Roses' co-manager Andy Gould reportedly told 900 Best Buy employees at vendor convention held by Best Buy last month in Dallas that a new Guns song called If The World will play under the closing credits of the new Leonardo DiCaprio-Russell Crowe film Body of Lies, due out tomorrow (Oct. 10).

If The World features the guitar work of Robin Finck and Buckethead, both of whom have since departed Guns N' Roses.

Another new GN'R song, Shackler's Revenge, appears on the Rock Band 2 video game.

But is it really coming out?

However, is everything as it seems, or has been announced? MusicRadar checked Best Buy's Guns N' Roses page, and nowhere does it list Chinese Democracy as being on the release schedule or available for pre-order. The album, as it appears on the site, doesn't even exist.

Does Best Buy simply plan on springing the album out of the blue? Seems like a weird way of selling an album that is over a dozen years in the making and has cost untold millions. But hey, that's the world of Axl Rose.

What about the Dr Pepper?

It should also be noted that this past spring, soft drink manufacturer Dr Pepper offered to send a free can of the beverage to "everyone in America" (excluding ex-GN'R members Slash and Buckethead) if Chinese Democracy were to arrive anytime during the calendar year 2008. So far, the good folks at Dr Pepper have yet to announce how this distribution system will take effect, if at all.