Axl Beats Down a Pap at LAX (...and the Media Scuttlebutt)

So much Guns N' Roses news ... so little time ...

Regarding the Axl/Paparazzi incident at LAX on December 10:

The first account came via LiveDaily (owned by Ticketmaster/Irving Azoff BTW),

At Los Angeles International Airport, Rose got into a scuffle with a paparazzo that ended up with a few bloodied participants. Even with Rose flying to Taiwan there is still concern about whether he will be in the mood to perform, a question that had been raised earlier in the week when the rest of the band flew to the gig without the singer.

TMZ picked up the story the next day, and they followed-it-up the next day with this video which proved that the whole thing was true:



Interestingly, a guy named "Tom" posted the following comment on page 2 of the TMZ article,

They'll probably delete this but this whole thing is a scam. I was at the airport that night and I'm actually in the video ... The paparazzi were taunting Axl for ages and the whole thing kicked off when one of the paparazzi knocked into his mom. This video looks as if it were shot by somebody at the airport but was in fact shot by one of the paparazzi team. We saw them all standing together laughing about this afterwards. So they basically MADE this news knowing that taunting him and shouting swears at him would piss him off. I think this is disgusting behavior from the press, shouting insults and curse words around families to elicit a response from a celebrity. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Also, if this is disputed I am prepared to go on record to expose the lengths this reporters will go to.

Posted at 12:11PM on Dec 11th 2009 by Tom

Guns N' Roses official(?) Facebook page issued a statement regarding the fracas,

Axl Rose Accosted by Belligerent Paparazzi at LAX

Lead singer of Guns N' Roses unhurt in encounter with unruly photographers


(Los Angeles) December 10, 2009 –
Axl Rose, lead singer for the legendary rock group Guns N' Roses, was unhurt last evening when he was accosted by an unruly group of paparazzi at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

At the time of the incident, Mr. Rose was en-route to Taipei, Taiwan, to kick-off Guns N' Roses’ tour of Southeast Asia including shows in Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

Mr. Rose, who was about to enter a security checkpoint at LAX when the altercation took place, was approached by a group of unchecked and unruly photographers who became aggressive with the singer and female members of the traveling group.

Mr. Rose was not injured during the unprovoked attack and was able to board his flight without further incident.

Next up, Rolling Stone published these awesome pictures of the scuffle:





If you're unfamiliar with the members of Axl's entourage, the young man in the leather jacket is Fernando Lebeis, son of Axl's personal assistant, Beta Lebeis (not pictured) who was apparently struck by the paparazzo "They hit our moother." The beautiful young woman restraining Mr. Rose in none other than Sasha Volkova, a model who has been linked to Axl for man years. Her artwork appears in the Chinese Democracy booklet.

But wait - there's more! This morning at 2:30 AM, Axl Rose released a statement via the band's official Facebook page. In it, he denies releasing the initial statement (above), "calls-out" manager(?) Irving Azoff, the press, and Kim Jong-il:

Axl Rose denies releasing press statement regarding rumored LAX incident. "I did not release any statement or authorize either any statement or anyone to release a statement regarding anything at any airport anywhere.

We had recently began working with newer individuals in management in relation to our current Asian tour in support of our Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" in addition to Irving Azoff's though as it happens we are once again touring Asia without management of any kind.

Imo this non sense may be some type of manufactured or publicity stunt.

We're looking forward to performing in Osaka and Tokyo Japan doubling our pyro show and with our "new" full stage as local requirement have limited us on its use in our last performances.

Thanks to everyone who's come out to see us. It's been really fun so far and the addition of our new guitarist Dj Ashba joining us along w/ guitarists Ron Bumblefoot Thal and Richard Fortus, gives the night a kick in the pants.

Hope to see the rest of you soon!!

And to any publications running this; please feel free to tack on whatever negative agenda supporting nonsense you generally do (You know who you are!!). After all it's only someone else's livelihood you media police state, no fun, spoil sport, communist bastards.

Peace!!"

The band's currently in Seoul, South Korea where the promote was "sorry" to inform them they would not be able to use a helicopter from the airport to the venue as North Korea would "wonder" what it is!!

CLASSIC AXL ROSE!

This stuff is too good.

Slash: "Why I Chose Not To Continue On With GN'R"

There isn't anything new here. The following comes from Slash's 2007 autobiography. For those of you who haven't read it, and for those of you who've forgotten, I've reproduced it here.


"I'd like to make one more thing pretty clear, because this is another question that haunts me almost every day, usually because it's asked by people who don't know me at all. I'd like to state, very simply once more why I chose not to continue on with Guns N' Roses so that no one feels the need to ask me this ever again when they see me on the street.

Here it goes:

1) the constant disrespect for all involved by going on late for no good reason night after night after night,

2) the legal manipulation that Axl forced on us, from demanding ownership of the name to downgrading us, contractually, to hired hands, and

3) losing Izzy and Steven, who were such an integral part of the band's sound and personality ... without them, the band no longer had its original chemistry.

My departure had nothing to do with artistic differences, as many people claim to know. It was not as simple as "Axl wanted synths and Slash was old-school." It had nothing to do with Axl wanting to go digital and Slash staying analog. To think that dissolving the kind of band and the kind of musical chemistry we had over something so trivial is just asinine.

It's true, I am old-school, and I do like keeping it simple — but I've never been close-minded. If anything, I was more than flexible and willing to try any kind of recording technique or explore any new sound, so long as I was doing so on an equal playing field with musicians that worked together toward a common goal. I would have hung in there with Axl through an industrial record or whatever else he wanted to try if the creative vibe between us was positive. My flexibility is the only thing that kept me in the band as long as it did — that's how a team works.

Unfortunately, we stopped being a team somewhere along the way.

As for the rest of how it all played out, I learned, looking back on it all, that the people Axl hired to "represent his interests" through all of the band's undoing could have been a bit smarter than they were. Maybe intelligence has nothing to do with it: had they cared enough about him and about Guns N' Roses as a band to have advised him to pursue any other path than the one he did this story may have had a different ending. Anyone could have foreseen the lack of positive outcome that lay ahead on the road Axl chose to go down. But then again, maybe that is how he wanted it."



Related: Axl Rose Sets the Record Straight