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Now Playing: Some of Hair's biggest stars now find their way to the court...
Topic: Hair Metal
Gun N' Roses was once at the top of the charts, with huge hits and record-breaking album sales. Then, in 1995, Axl Rose, lead vocals and the heart of GN'R'R, quit the band. Then, when GN'R reunited in 2002 to do another tour, Axl showed to very few of the concerts, riots took place when he didn't show, and the fan base of Guns N' Roses has steadily decreased since then.
Guns N' Roses was supposed to reunite for one last album---however, it now seems that they are not going to do so.
Slash (Ex-lead guitarist, now of Velvet Revolver) and Duff McKagen (bassist, also of Velvet Revolver)are now suing their former frontman, accusing him of changing the publisher rights for GN'R'R without consent of the band, and therefore collecting all royalties.
This is because of Rose's multimillion-dollar publishing deal with Sanctuary earlier this year, in which he sold the publishing rights to the GN'R'R catalog. Even though it was well reported by the press, Saul Hudson (Slash's real name) and Michael McKagan (Duff) say that Axl " and concealed" what he was doing---and they had no clue about it until their ASCAP (music industry's) royalties were supposed to arrive in the first quarter of 2005. Slash's and Duff's attorney said, "Suffering an apparent attack of arrogance and ego ... Rose recently decided that he is no longer willing to acknowledge the contributions of his former partners and in having created some of rock's greatest hits."
Then, as tension started to grow between the former legends, Axl's attorney replied, "This is a classic case of premature accusation. If someone had taken the time to investigate or ask about this situation before rushing to judgment they would have learned that ASCAP (the entity that collects money for songwriters) made a clerical error and failed to appropriately divide and distribute the royalty's owed for the first quarter of 2005 to Axl and the former GUNS N' ROSES musicians. The amount ASCAP mistakenly sent to Axl's publisher was never received by Axl nor was he ever made aware of the error. The publisher alerted ASCAP to the error, returned the money immediately and asked ASCAP to remedy the situation by distributing the funds appropriately.
"Rather than pick up the telephone and contact Axl or his representatives, his former partners scurried to file a lawsuit that contained false statements about Axl rather then making an effort to learn the truth regarding ASCAP's mistake. Slash and Duff have an unfortunate pattern over the past few years of filing sensational but baseless lawsuits for the purpose of generating anti-Axl propaganda. It is clear that Slash and Duff are looking for another opportunity to spread untruths about Axl in an effort to hurt his reputation and to alienate his fans while at the same time creating a profile for themselves.
"Contrary to allegations in the lawsuit, Axl has never denied that others made substantial contributions towards the success of GUNS N' ROSES, but there is little doubt as to who was the creative catalyst behind the group's success."
Whatever happened, be sure to check back for more updates, as we will be posting the news as soon as we get it. If you know something that we haven't reported, post a comment by clicking on the "Post Comment" button below this article.
Written By The Rock News Blog
at 12:01 AM EDT