Guest slacklet Report post Posted May 4, 2004 Source: Celebrity Justice Former Guns N' Roses Members Fight for Control of Songs May 3, 2004 Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses ruled rock in the '80s with hits like "Sweet Child of Mine" and "Paradise City." The original band members parted ways in 1995, but now, former band mates Slash, whose real name is Saul Hudson, and Duff McKagan are suing Rose, claiming he ripped them off to the tune of at least a million dollars. Duff and Slash now have a new band called Velvet Revolver, and are about to go on tour. But they're bound to have some things on their mind -- mainly the lawsuit against their former front man which pertains to who controls the rights to old Guns N' Roses hits. In the suit, Duff and Slash claim Rose doesn't have any controlling interest in the songs, but they say he killed deals that would have put their tunes in a half dozen movies, including "Just Married," "We Were Soldiers," "Death to Smoochie" and "Old School." And you won't hear the band's huge hit, "Welcome to the Jungle" in the movie "Blackhawk Down," because, according to the lawsuit, Axl wouldn't let the producers use it. Instead, he wanted to re-record it, thereby allegedly cheating his ex-band mates out of the licensing fee. David Powell runs "The Music Bridge," a company that deals with music rights for movies. According to Powell, "Licensing is very important for any band or any artist that gets out there in popular culture." In Powell's business, when the movies come calling, most bands seem eager to participate, since, "There are many income streams that can be generated from the songs, as well as the master recordings, for years and sometimes generations to come." So basically he wanted his band to do the song for "Black Hawk Down" so Slash and Duff wouldn't see any profit. Even though it was their idea in the first place. Axl's such a douchebag. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BUTT 0 Report post Posted May 4, 2004 Well, if Axl is a co-writer of the songs and he doesn't want them in a movie, he should have the right to say "no" whether another co-writer says "yes" or not. Besides which, Slash co-wrote "Welcome to the Jungle", so he'd get paid no matter which version they used. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1234-5678 0 Report post Posted May 5, 2004 Maybe this will give Axl something to write about. Either way, yet ANOTHER excuse for Chinese Democracy's delays. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Black Lushus 0 Report post Posted May 5, 2004 UGH! quit mentioning Chinese Democracy...i always forget about it, then someone brings it up again and i get pissed all over again becuase Axl keeps dicking around Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vern Gagne 0 Report post Posted May 6, 2004 I thought either Duff or Iggy Stradlin wrote all the GnR songs? Related note. Offspring was going to call their newest album Chinese Democracy: You snooze you lose. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1234-5678 0 Report post Posted May 6, 2004 Noteworthy GNR songs and their authors (Lyrically) Welcome To The Jungle (Rose) Paradise City (Rose/McKagan) Sweet Child Of Mine (Rose) Patience (Stradlin) Don't Cry (Stradlin/Rose) November Rain (Rose) Dead Horse (Rose) Civil War (Slash/McKagan/Rose) Yesterdays (West Arkeen/Del James/Rose) Estranged (Rose) You Could Be Mine (Stradlin/Rose) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites