Blackstar

There is also an update in the lawsuit about Axl's mic. This case had gone to mediation (with an independent person as mediator). The mediator has now reported that the case has not been resolved.

I have posted all the new documents here, for those who couldn't open @volxluvr's link (it opens for me only with US VPN):

https://www.a-4-d.com/t8102-axl-sued-for-sexual-assault-that-allegedly-took-place-in-1989#35352

13 minutes ago, Georgina Arriaga said:

@Blackstar what happened with Kat Benzova lawsuits?

It's where it was when I posted the last update:

The only thing that happened after that is that Kat filed a motion to dismiss GN'R's lawsuit and the court ruling for that is expected around April 25.

Kat's lawsuit is seemingly gone, Fernando is off the hook and the sexual harassment allegations are out of the picture.

41 minutes ago, themadcaplaughs said:

Never knew that Fernando directly addressed the Chinese Democracy follow-up rumors. I remember Axl obliquely referenced in a tweet when that supposed PowerPoint about the Chinese Democracy re-release/DJ Ashba version of "Better" was going to leak. What exactly did Fernando say? It's entirely possible Fernando is telling the truth. We know a lot of the rumors from that era of the band were b.s. by certain individuals trying to seek attention, but at the same time, the whole rumor about Axl wanting a new album to drop in 2010/11 always seemed very plausible to me. Also, Fernando is Axl's cheerleader, so even if the label did reject an album, the chances of Fernando openly admitting it seem slim. 

To be fair, it very well also could have been a situation where the label just did not want to release a record so soon after Chinese Democracy. Chinese Democracy dropped the end of 2008, and the band did not even start touring it until over a year later at the tail end of 2009. Even during 2010, the band's touring schedule was somewhat sporadic and we did not get a true North American tour until the end of 2011. Point being, if Axl really did approach the label in 2010 about a new record, it would not have been unfair for them to say they felt the band was still promoting Chinese Democracy and the sales of Chinese Democracy probably didn't justify rushing a second album into market quickly like with Radiohead and Kid A/Amnesiac or Metallica with Load/ReLoad. 

He said it during the voice chat on the War Room discord in May 2020 (the audio can be found on youtube - around 1:50:00 minute mark):

Fan: Someone in chat asked this question that I think is pretty interesting. There was a rumor that Chinese Democracy 2 was supposed to be released in 2010 and it got turned down by the label. What's the deal with that?

Fernando: That's fake. The label never turned down anything that Axl says “I want to put this out”.

Fan: There was no Chinese Democracy 2 that was supposed to come out in 2010?

Fernando: No, the label never turned down anything. Not saying…  The one thing I can tell you for sure is that label would never turn anything down that Axl creates. That kind of answers… I mean, it answers the question, right? Without me telling you something that I can't tell you.

Fan: You basically confirm that rumor is false.

Fernando: Yeah, rumor is way false. There's no way. It’s like, you know - and that was before even [?] came about. That was when Jimmy Iovine was still there.

[...]

Fan: So what you just said about the label not turning down anything, so the reason we haven't get any music for 12 years is just because Axl wasn't interested on releasing anything?

Fernando: I can't comment on what Axl was willing or not willing to do. You know what I mean? It's up to him to do so. I'm just telling you that whatever you just said to me, it never happened. Because I know that that never happened.

Also earlier on Reddit (there being the usual Fernando), although that was about CD and the label in general:

1 hour ago, volxluvr said:

https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/DocumentList?docketId=R85Db/YNG1iqWjYMsL/tGw==&display=all&courtType=New York County Supreme Court

 

All's attorneys have filed a formal motion to dismiss Kennedy's lawsuit. Documents were filed yesterday. 

It's on the grounds that the documents were not served properly (and additionally about dismissing some of Kennedy's causes of action). It is accompanied by declarations from Beta, Vanessa's husband, another member of TB and Bernie Githuly (Axl's business manager) saying that they have not been served on Axl's behalf, as well as a picture of the gate the documents were affixed the second time as evidence that the gate is not the "door" at Axl's house.

5 minutes ago, Uncle Bob said:

This whole conversation is pretty interesting. Where does this leave the rest of the tracks of CDII (or III) if they don't drop any more of these as singles? can they release them in an album with marketing on the discography's behalf?

If marketing is not part of the distribution deal (and even if it is, as @themadcaplaughs explained, it would only be about the label covering some minor marketing costs), it doesn't make a difference whether it's singles or an album as far as promotion from the label is concerned.

On 4/19/2024 at 5:42 PM, themadcaplaughs said:

My understanding, having been present on the message board of certain "insiders" (IYKYK) was that Chinese Democracy, against all odds, set the ledger to zero when it came to production costs. People throw around the $13 million dollar number a lot, but almost all of that was written off over the years through the various mergers and acquisitions of the record labels. Apparently, Universal only footed a small portion of the Chinese Democracy expenses before cutting off Axl in 2004. When Azoff, one of the most powerful managers in the business, negotiated the Best Buy deal, Best Buy covered the portion of the money Universal spent and ordered a million copies of the record. Despite all the money sunk into the project and the jokes made at its expense, Universal essentially went into immediate profit on the album AND got to state that the album debuted as a platinum record. The Azoff thing is tough. I have no doubt Azoff probably used less than truthful tactics with Axl, but at the end of it all, Azoff was probably the only person powerful enough in the business at the time to negotiate the deal he did. I honestly believe, without Azoff, Chinese Democracy would never have been released (at least in a conventional sense). 

Also worth nothing was that the costs of the Chinese Democracy sessions also (per the same "insider") covered the costs of the CD2 material. So beyond the fact that the record company made all their money back on Chinese Democracy, they also had the recording cots of the next album covered as well. The issue, apparently, came from the fact that the record label, in 2009/10 (when Axl wanted to release the next record), would not release anything unless Slash/Duff were back in the band in some capacity. Despite the majority of CD2's costs for recording having been paid back, the label apparently did not want to spend another dime on other costs (like marketing) for "Axl's band" given the muted reception to Chinese Democracy. 

So how did we get to where we are now (as @Blackstar laid out). As a former entertainment attorney, my guess would be one of two things:

1. Unlikely: Axl's contract had some kind of reversion right for masters. This would be very unlikely given that this is not something that really got added to contracts until fairly recently. 

2. More Likely: Given that things were in a "stalemate", the band probably paid a lump sum to acquire the masters back to the remainder of the songs with the record label having a right of first refusal on a distribution deal. In other words, the band would foot the costs for extra recording, mixing, mastering, videos, and the majority of the marketing. Under the distribution deal, the record label would pay to manufacture the physical product, coordinate getting the song on streaming and download platforms, and (possibly depending on the deal) paying some minor marketing costs. The record label would then take a cut of the money made from these sales/streams/downloads (usually 15% for a distribution deal vs the up to 80% a record label can take under a normal record contract). It's also possible, with a band the size of GN'R, they just paid the label a lump sum for these services and GN'R gets to keep all money from streaming/sales/downloads. 

This makes a lot of sense. Considering that there was zero promotion for the "new" songs from the label, I would guess marketing is not part of the distribution deal.

Regarding Azoff, even Fernando has admitted that he did "some really good shit". But he has also denied that CD2 was ever rejected by the label.

8 hours ago, W. Axl Kev said:

I associate Axl with some of the most interesting quotes ever. I've read this back to front 30 times since yesterday and I cannot make any sense of it. It feels satirical because it makes no apparent sense but the way it's displayed on that website makes it look like it's some legendary, celebrated remark. Latest thing in the litany of bizarre things these musicians have done in the last 25 years.

The conclusion of the discussion about this quote on the previous pages is that it's most likely fake, taken from an AI generated "book" site/app (and whoever is working on setting up the Axl website just found it by googling).

8 hours ago, W. Axl Kev said:

This is an interesting observation. He has a pending civil suit in New York and the last think his lawyers would want is him publishing a self evaluation of his, possibly ill-advised, behavior from the early years.

I guess that in the case of an autobiography this would be taken into consideration, and the release date of the book would be set after the lawsuit issue would be resolved.

1 hour ago, lunastar said:

What generally keeps GNR at UMG? If there are any obligations and circumstances that prevent the release of the album, then why not change the label?

UMG still owns the rights to the recordings of old releases (I'm not sure about the current status of AFD and Lies, as GN'R should have retained the rights to the recordings by now due to the time passed), so it probably wouldn't be convenient to move to another label for the distribution of the "new" songs (for which the label acts only as a distributor, as they are owned by GN'R).

And given the latter fact (that GN'R owns the rights to the recordings of the four "new" songs), I don't think there are any obstacles from the label that would prevent the release of a new album.

6 hours ago, downzy said:

It all depends on whether sales of Chinese Democracy repaid the money owed to UMG.  And what kind of album commitments had (or still has) with UMG. 

If Axl repaid his debts and isn't contractually to deliver additional albums, he likely retained rights to unreleased material without payment. 

If I had to bet, all of this was renegotiated at some point since the reunion.  It's just a matter of whether any recording during the CD sessions remains the property of UMG if Axl repaid UMG of all recording costs. 

The label appears to still own the rights to the songs that are on the Chinese Democracy album, whereas the rights to the "NITL" singles are registered with the US Copyright Office as owned by Gundam (the GN'R business entity).

12 hours ago, volxluvr said:

It was a conference between the attorneys and a judge to determine if Axl is declared served or not. The result of the conference hasn't been filed yet. They wanted the issue resolved before Axl's depo which I assume will still take place( unless something comes up to change it) Friday of next week. 

The next conference/hearing (which will be the compliance conference about the progress/status of the case) is set for Sept. 24, 2024, and the NOI due date (= the filing date of the form affirming that the depositions phase is completed and the case is ready for trial or other type of judgement) has been moved from Feb. 22, 2025 to Oct. 21, 2024.

So I guess there are no service issues. The purpose of the preliminary conference was the setting of the schedule and the case is proceeding with discovery (witness depositions etc.) which should be completed by September.

42 minutes ago, megaguns1982 said:

Personally if I was Axl I would be mortified at writing my own biography. 
He would have to address so much pompous bullshit he did in the 90s.

it would be embarrassing.

He wouldn't have to address everything. An autobiography doesn't have to be a tell-all.

7 minutes ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

Interesting. Could it be that he only bought the rights to those songs, though?

Yeah, it's possible that he has bought the rights to certain songs he wants to release.

2 minutes ago, colonizedmind said:

What's going on with Axl's one? Any updates? Perhaps he's got the website ready to do press releases and rebuttals...ready to do a Neverland ranch style MJ direct to cam innocent profession....😸

No updates on the Axl one since his answer was filed.

5 minutes ago, colonizedmind said:

For now at least....

Is he....I've not checked in on that one for weeks...is this fairly recent? 

It was about 6 weeks ago. I tried to explain it in the lawsuit thread here (and since then everything has pointed to the answer to both 1) and 2) being yes):

11 minutes ago, colonizedmind said:

No offence to Nandos life..

 

But the lawsuit going south for him, could certainly make our fortunes go NORTH! Every rockstar slags them to shit but there's a reason credible management get shit done....mild competence 

It's not happening. He's seemingly off the hook in the lawsuit.

1 hour ago, gavgnr said:

Please clarify 

I have a few times. In short:

According to the liner notes of the recent singles, GN'R owns the rights to the recordings, which means that GN'R, and not the label, paid for the re-recording and production. Which, in turn, may also mean that Axl has bought the rights to the original masters from the label.

1 hour ago, kiwiguns said:

The creation of this website, has nothing to do with releasing any music from the past. Universal Music via the Geffen Label own the music created by Guns N Roses including the CD era material.  Universal Music poured millions in the CD era material and unless they have sold the rights to that material, you aren't going to get anyone else releasing that material apart from Universal Music themselves. 

You keep saying this, but as I have pointed out to you before, there's indication that Axl has bought the rights to the CD era material.

(I know It's probably pointless to respond to any of your posts as I reckon that, like you always do, you'll once again ignore it and just keep saying your thing without engaging into a conversation).

19 hours ago, BucketEgg said:

Interestingly, someone noticed this site before us in late March, and tried (and failed, the archiving website  couldn't get the page) at archiving it.

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20240000000000*/www.officialaxlrose.com/

 

Yeah, I saw that.

Also when the homepage comes up in google search, it has the introduction from the wikipedia article on Axl (so it seems that the developers originally used wikipedia as a source).

13 minutes ago, Illusion1987 said:

Yep! The world throws out a single breadcrumb about something/anything that could possibly be GNR related, on a very minor scale, and this site creates 500 pages to discuss.

Remember the Spotify "algorithms" and the album that HAD to be right around the corner ?

Now, we have an Axl Rose poorly constructed website, that could be real...or fake, and we are thinking its a lead to a solo album or an autobiography!

 

 

Whatever its purpose is, the website is not fake. It's real, and it's been launched and is operated by Live Nation, so naturally there's been speculation about what that may mean.

Just now, Ratam said:

The post of JanRichmond posted about Live Nation said 3/2/2024.

Yes, the privacy policy page on the website.

But I was talking about when the TikTok account was created.

The company that set up the website:

https://theskylineagency.com/

5 minutes ago, lunastar said:

Live nation. What does it mean? Has Axl finally sold out to the corporation?

Didn't you know that Live Nation is the promoter of the GN'R tours?