Axl Rose- Guns N' Roses Was Sabotaged Countersues Azoff! NEW SLASH COMMENT

[seely]

SLASH COMMENTS ON PAGE 11

http://www.chinesedemocracy.com/forum/index.php/topic,46042.150.html

EXCLUSIVE: Axl Rose says his former manager tried to implement a scheme to force him to reunite with the original Guns N' Roses band members and, as part of the plot, failed to properly promote the "Chinese Democracy" album, lied about a prospective Van Halen super tour and mishandled the band's tour dates.

The claims are part of a bombshell countersuit filed yesterday against Irving Azoff's Front Line Management. In March, Azoff sued Rose, claiming the rocker violated an oral agreement to pay 15% of earnings, or nearly $2 million, from a lucrative concert tour.

Not since the G'N'R song "Get in the Ring" has Rose struck back at a foe so forcefully, alleging antitrust concerns about Front Line's parent company, Ticketmaster, to drive home a major claim that his former manager is up to no good in the music business.
 Azoff is CEO, director and majority shareholder of Front Line, whose roster of artists include the Eagles, Neil Diamond, Jimmy Buffett, Christina Aguilera and John Mayer. In 2008, Front Line was acquired by Ticketmaster.

Rose claims that through Azoff's control of the "trifecta" of artist management, concert and touring promotion, and ticket sales, Azoff has been able to gain wide influence and power in the music industry. Azoff allegedly decides what artists he wants to promote through favorable touring deals and uses his power to punish artists and harm their careers if they don't follow his orders.

When informed of the myriad allegations in the countersuit, Azoff's lawyer Howard King quipped to us: "He didn't accuse Irving of being on the grassy knoll in Dallas on November 22, 1963?"

The countersuit invokes the U.S. Justice Department's recent antitrust lawsuit that sought to stop a proposed merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation over concerns about the new entity having too much control over artists and venues. Afterwards, Ticketmaster entered into a consent decree with government regulators to allow the merger to continue under certain operating provisions.

Axl's counter-complaint says that Azoff is violating the consent decree by coercing and bullying artists to do what he wants.

What Azoff wanted, the rocker says, was the reunion of Guns N' Roses. To execute this, he would sabotage Rose and his new band so that Rose would have no option but to reunite.

According to the filing, "Upon realizing that he couldn't bully Rose and accomplish his scheme, Azoff resigned and abandoned Guns N' Roses on the eve of a major tour, filing suit for commissions he didn't earn and had no right to receive."

Further, Axl says the botched tour cost him money in production startup and rehearsal expenses. Claiming breach of fiduciary duty, constructive fraud and breach of contract, the singer wants at least $5 million in damages.

The cross-complaint was filed by Skip Miller and Sasha Frid at L.A.'s Miller Barondess.
*******************

http://thresq.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/05/guns-n-roses-reunion-.html


And from TMZ:

http://www.tmz.com/2010/05/18/axl-rose-guns-n-roses-lawsuit-irving-azoff-irving-azoff-countersuit-band-chinese-democracy/


Rose just filed a countersuit against Azoff -- his former manager -- claiming Azoff tried to strong-arm Rose into a reunion tour with the original members of GNR.   When Rose nixed the idea on the heels of the Chinese Democracy tour last year, Azoff did everything he could to screw Axl ... so he claims.

Among other things, Rose claims Azoff tried "devising and implementing a secret plan to set up Rose and the band for failure so that Rose would have no choice but to reunite with the original Guns N' Roses' members."

Rose believes Azoff was so vicious he even used Axl's childhood name -- something that carries heavy emotional baggage -- when he filed the initial lawsuit for commissions.  Rose says the name William Bailey "carries significant emotional damage from Rose's childhood" and that Azoff knew it because of numerous personal and confidential conversations.

Rose is countersuing for $5 mil minimum
*****



Holy shit! This explains a lot about last years non activity, and Axl's comments at Tokyo abou 2009 being the worst year of his life...

[BarryTheBastard]

Hope this doesn't stop the train rolling on through! Also hope it doesn't hinder any plans for a new record!

[anythinggoes]

Cool thanks for posting very interesting, explains a lot.

[mooney]

Interesting stuff.

Axl should get on the phone to bbf. we all know bbf's stance on major labels, the music business etc... and he said what he'd love to do with Guns in an interview a while back.

[AxlRoseCalifornia]

Axl is right, if you have been noticing, the band went to tour alone until they found Doc, with no help from anybody but themselves.
Also the only thing Azoff did was making sure the album would come out, but he didnt do any promotion or promoted any tours.

Maybe he thought... maybe if i let this guy put out the album once and for all... he will be ready to join the new band and forget about all of this.

I hope Axl wins the 5 million... i hate monopolies... and this guy cant control the musicians

[BarryTheBastard]

What was it BBF was saying, go it alone? I say why the fuck not! Big record companies are balls these days!

[MHC]

Oh, Axl...

[Robbie]

Very interesting read, lets hope Axl wins and moves forward with the tour

[GNRSUCKS_SUCKS]

azoff is a douche!! ..... hope axl wins

[mooney]

What was it BBF was saying, go it alone? I say why the fuck not! Big record companies are balls these days!

yep. and i couldnt agree more!

[madison]

Well, I can see both sides on this.
On the one hand, Azoff has a huge rep for being able to reunite bands, such as the Eagles.  Axl had to know this when he signed up with Azoff.  He would have to have been living under a rock if he didn't think Azoff would try to get him to reunite with his former bandmates.  If he didn't want that pressure, he should have stayed with Merck.

On the other hand, I can understand Axl's frustration if Azoff resigned on the eve of the tour.  Seems strange, and definitely not cool.

However, I think it's a bit of a stretch to accuse Azoff of being solely responsible for the album's weaker-than-expected sales.  I don't think Azoff put a gun to Axl's head, telling him not to do a single interview or lift a single finger to promote the album after it was released.   Axl could have promoted the album, which would have increased sales, but he chose not to.

Anyway, it would appear that this could make a U.S. tour difficult to set up - at least until the suits are settled.

[2NaFish]

according to the logic of some on here, axl wouldnt file this suit unless he was sure he'd win, therefore everything he says is true. If it had been me that said that i'd feel really stupid now.

will be interesting if either suit makes it to court. dont think they will though.

[madison]

according to the logic of some on here, axl wouldnt file this suit unless he was sure he'd win ..

Axl has a rep for spending more time on litigation than he does making records.  So, I would hardly consider this a slam-dunk for him.  Whereas, Azoff is the most powerful man in the music industry and wouldn't waste his time with frivilous suits he didn't think he'd win. 

But the countersuit will be interesting, especially if Axl can convince a judge that Azoff has violated antitrust covenants.  That would be very interesting - not just for Axl's case - but from a business perspective given all the antitrust issues involved in the Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger.

[MrSnake]

Anyone who sues the guy that dreamed up Project Showtime deserves a round of applause.

http://www.ticketnews.com/Project-Showtime-scheme-by-Ticketmasters-Azoff-angers-Rep-Pascrell809281