AXL ROSE Slams SLASH And DUFF For Filing 'Baseless Lawsuits' And 'Spreading Untruths'

August 29, 2005

MTV.com is reporting that GUNS N' ROSES frontman Axl Rose has fired back at his former bandmates Slash and Duff McKagan, through his attorney. Last week, Slash and Duff filed a federal lawsuit against the singer, charging that Rose transferred the publishing rights to the band's back catalog without their permission and knowingly pocketed royalty payments which were owed to the rest of the band. But on Monday morning (August 29) Axl's attorney, Howard Weitzman, issued a statement characterizing the lawsuit as "frivolous" and "premature." Weitzman's statement reads as follows:

"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."

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