Blackstar

8 minutes ago, Voodoochild said:

That's fair. But I wonder if she would rather get Slash and Duff, because Axl would obviously stand by Fernando. 

Well, I'm sure they all (Axl included) would just say that they didn't witness anything regarding the sexual harassment.

On 1/27/2024 at 3:31 PM, Blackstar said:

New update:

Kat refiled her lawsuit on Jan. 5. Yesterday both parties filed motions to dismiss each other's lawsuits.

Another update:

Kat's attorney filed an opposition to GN'R/Gundam's motion to dismiss parts of her lawsuit. GN'R/Gundam responded to Kat's dismiss motion by filing an amended complaint (lawsuit) and as a result Kat's motion to dismiss GN'R/Gundam's lawsuit was denied by the court as "moot".  It looks like both parties' motions have been denied, but it could be a typo, because GN'R/Gundam replied to Kat's opposition yesterday. (Edit to update: GN'R's motion has indeed been denied as well - the judge has probably lost his patience with the motions and wants the case to move on).

Yesterday both parties submitted a joint summary of the case and a proposed schedule (required by the court) for the next stages of the case, according to which the "discovery" stage (pre-trial depositions from witnesses and retrieval of documents) is estimated to last about a year (until February) and the jury trial (if there is one) to take place in May 2025. The main witnesses both parties have agreed to are Kat, Fernando, Bernie Githuly (the business manager in GN'R entities), and unidentified agents and employees. Kat wants the members of GN'R to testify, too. It is also stated in the document that the parties have not discussed a settlement.

The document can be found here:

https://www.a-4-d.com/t8097-katarina-benzova-sues-fernando-and-gn-r-for-copyright-infringement#34767

7 hours ago, cineater said:

I'm  just a little curious, she's been saying shit for years, why Axl hasn't at least sent a cease and desist to her?  I was expecting to see that in his reply even if he hadn't followed up on it at the time.

When she told the story before (her book, the Daily Mail interview promoting her book, and the Look Away documentary) she didn't talk about rape or sexual assault (at least not explicitly). That is mentioned in the preface of Axl's answer.

28 minutes ago, JoJo Bonetto said:

I thought his reply was interesting, particularly about the primary residence. I have heard of him having other properties but was never sure how accurate it was, so that makes sense from a legal standpoint. I did still think Malibu was his primary residence though. That said, it doesn't sound like he has been there much recently so maybe he has been laying low long term elsewhere. Everyone knows the Malibu address, I could understand him wanting a different address that is less well known.

The answer also doesn't admit the jurisdiction of the NY state court, so I'm pretty sure the primary residence issue is for the purpose of transferring the case to another court (the NY federal court). I think that will probably happen in the next days and then the case will continue in the other court. From the answer it also looks like that as soon at it gets to the other court Axl's lawyers will try to have it dismissed on legal grounds.

He has said he likes spending time in Las Vegas, so maybe he has property there, too.

7 hours ago, invisible_rose said:

It hasn't even got to court yet. If it gets there, it'll likely mean there is substantial evidence. I'd suggest that people won't be talking about it too openly as it could affect the trial (should there be one). 

If there's evidence supporting the allegations, the most likely outcome is settlement out of court, so it's highly unlikely it goes to trial either way (if there's evidence debunking the allegations or there are legal holes in the lawsuit, the case will be dismissed). And It's a civil case - hence very different than a case where there would be criminal charges - so the unlikely scenario it went to trial wouldn't necessarily depend on the evidence (it would rather suggest that there wasn't enough evidence one way or the other).

1 hour ago, Voodoochild said:

On a side note, Axl's best friend Jimmy Iovinne is also being sued for similar reasons.

https://pitchfork.com/news/interscope-co-founder-jimmy-iovine-no-longer-facing-sexual-abuse-lawsuit/?utm_brand=p4k&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_social-type=owned&mbid=social_twitter

It looks the lawsuit has been withdrawn and dismissed (most likely, based on the article, there has been some sort of settlement).

Steven Tyler likewise transferred the NY lawsuit against him from NY state court to NY federal court and then filed a motion to dismiss the case based on certain legal grounds, and the court granted the motion, so the lawsuit is now dismissed (unless Jeanne Bellino, the woman who sued him, files an amended complaint that can stand legally):

https://ksenam.com/ixp/295/p/steven-tyler-sexual-assault-dismissed/

I think the residence thing might be a legal manoeuvre. This lawsuit has been filed in NY state court. Defendants in lawsuits have the option to transfer a lawsuit from state to federal court (in the same area the state court is in) if certain criteria are met, and from what I've seen in other cases, most defendants prefer to do that, I guess because federal courts are considered, for various reasons, a better venue to litigate at . One of the criteria is that the two parties are citizens/residents of different states. In Axl's case, both he and Sheila Kennedy live in California, so that doesn't apply. But I wonder if Axl will present a citizenship/residence in a different state (I guess he has property in other states which he pays taxes for) so that he'll be able to transfer the case to a federal court.

39 minutes ago, Scream of the Butterfly said:

I wonder where and when this picture was taken. Was it an earlier family reunion or could it have been taken in 1991?

I assume it was taken in 1989, because of Axl's hair and also because in another picture from the same batch, his mother looks the same as in the recently shared photo in front of the BMW.

On 2/20/2024 at 11:36 AM, jacdaniel said:

I’m pretty sure Todd auditioned for VR frontman back in the day?

Yes.

19 hours ago, MaskingApathy said:

No I don't think so.

18 hours ago, Free Bird said:

Me neither. Didn't Fitzy introduced him to Slash?

He did audition (or at least asked to try out) before they got Scott:

https://www.a-4-d.com/t4932-2003-01-03-chart-attack-can-todd-kerns-fill-axl-roses-leather-pants

13 hours ago, Scream of the Butterfly said:

This quote is from George Chin and he's talking about the show at the Deer Creek Music Center, Indiana, in May 1991. It appears that Axl was still on good terms with his family (at least superficially) at that point in time, which is kind of surprising, even more so if he had already told Zutaut that he was going to expose his stepfather for the monster he was. I think it's more likely that the interaction with Zutaut happened at some point later that year, but who knows.

George Chin: "Indianapolis is where Axl and Izzy grew up. At this gig, Axl sent a stretch to collect his granny and family from Lafayette, to come to the gig. The driver had orders to bring back ice-cream and pizzas from this one store in Lafayette where Axl used to hang out when he was a kid, and after the show, Axl and his family had a real homely reunion. Axl's granny was an older female version of him. She knew all the words to all the Guns N' Roses songs and she sang along at the gig."

I don't seem to remember this quote or its source (is it from a book?)

But there's also this account of a journalist who had attended the shows at the Deer Creek as a young fan:

Jake Query: [...] And it was only years later that two different people that worked on that tour from the Indianapolis side, that had worked in the promotion of it, have told me the reason that was delayed was because Axl Rose was sitting in his hotel room in Indianapolis, and all of the things of his childhood, you know, the evil stepfather – I’m not saying this flippantly... [...] Some of the, you know, alleged and apparent very bad things that happened to him as a young person came back to him, and he was sitting in his hotel room, on his bed with his legs folded, saying, “I can’t do it. I can’t go out there, I can’t go in front of... I can’t do it again.” And it took a team of people to convince him and rally him to go out there. And I remember when Axl Rose came out on the stage in that particular night, night two of that tour, he started out with kind of a diatribe against Indiana and authority in Indiana [...]

Source:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX3tghRo6RY

https://www.a-4-d.com/t4611-2000-08-25-indianapolis-star-guns-free-zone-slash#18156

5 hours ago, Lethalis said:

If the band would release new music on a regular basis nobody would care about leaks.

GNR is the only band I have ever listened to the leaks... and I listen to a lot of music.

Well, of course it all ultimately stems from the fact that GN'R has had very little output, I'm not denying that. I'm also not denying that people may genuinely like a leaked version more for various reasons, myself included (for example, I think that the leaked versions of Cather in the Rye, The Blues and CD title track, which were pretty much finished songs in 2000, were superior than the final versions).

But I was specifically talking about leaks Vs. official releases of the same songs a while later. And there I think that the sense of enjoyment at the thought of hearing something against GN'R's will, which feels like taking something away from the band, is part of the reason for some people's preference of the leaks. Take Hard School/Hard Skool, for example, and how overwhelmingly positively the leak was received as opposed to many fans' disdain for the released version.  And whatever flaws the released version may have (the drums, the mix, the school bell, etc.) just don't justify the extent of the disdain for it.

15 hours ago, allwaystired said:

Nah, the more leaks the better. 

We could do with some leaks now I think- just get some more stuff out there. They don't want to commercially release this stuff, so it might as well get out there for people to hear if they want to as rot away unheard. 

I'm very much against piracy but the leaks have been nothing but positive for GNR fans in the absence of anything else going on. 

The thing is that some of the leaked stuff was commercially released eventually. Some people would say that that happened exactly because of the leaks. But, although the leaks may have played a role, to an extent, in which songs were released and in what order, in reality the band had started reworking those CD era songs before the leaks happened. 

I was glad that I got to hear the leaks, mostly because they were a snapshot from a time we didn't know much about. But I think the reason some fans enjoy the leaks more than the official releases is because it's something that the band didn't want us to hear, like they take pleasure at the thought of hearing something that's "forbidden".

22 minutes ago, Stiven.DxN.10 said:

Michael Voss posted on his Facebook page that the mix for all 3 new Schenker projects is over (New MSG album, UFO cover album and live album). IMO I think Axl and Slash possibly will be on the UFO cover album rather than the new MSG album. Either way I think it's cool to have a track with totally new Axl vocals after all these years. 

Yeah, this also aligns with what Eddie Trunk said about it a while back. I'm curious if it's the UFO song Vanessa randomly posted on IG a while ago (Love to Love).

TWAT / Prostitute / Madagascar

Monsters

Catcher In The Rye (the demo would be higher)

Perhaps (would be higher if it had a different second verse)

Hard Skool

Sorry

Chinese Democracy

Street Of Dreams

Better

Absurd

The General

I.R.S.

If The World

This I Love (beautiful melody, but the lyrics...)

Oh My God

Shackler's Revenge

Rhiad

Scraped

1 hour ago, evilfacelessturtle said:

Good point. Do we know when/if Axl stopped smoking? He was obviously never a smoker quite like Slash or Brian Johnson.

We don't know exactly when he quit smoking (cigarettes), but it was somewhere between 1994/95 and 2000. He was smoking cigars after that, not sure if/when he stopped that.

Served again, in the same way (by affixing to door) :

01/19/2024 at 5:31 PM - Attempt to serve, unsuccessful. No entry, gated residence. I pressed the available call-button but no response. I spoke with a neighbor who informed me that a resident by the name of Beta resides there, I asked about the subject "Rose" and they did not want to disclose further information.

https://smallpdf.com/file#s=cdad326e-c372-4d3d-a739-faa44f523bd3

31 minutes ago, allwaystired said:

I think a lot of people (myself included) have no idea what the WNBA was, and assumed it was linked with the SuperBowl, as the thread was started right after the SuperBowl. 

Out of touch and uninformed about  American sporting organisations - yes. 

Misogynistic - no. 

 

He's just trolling.

3 hours ago, jimisbatman said:

Didn't know that. Thought they left. 

At the time they said they left, but they were actually dropped.

6 hours ago, meadsoap said:

Velvet Revolver profited off the success of GnR for the first album, failed to create an organic fanbase of loyal fans, and then their second album bombed so hard they got dropped from their record label and the band broke up. If people are using that as a mold for how GnR would have done without Axl, that's not much of a compliment. 

It was an absolutely stupid idea to fire their frontman from the album that was just starting to blow up. If they had done that, they would have failed and deserved every bit of that failure.

VR were dropped from the label after they fired Scott Weiland.

4 hours ago, BluegrassBlues said:

Wasn't Axl actually fired for like three days back in 88 or 89? I'm probably getting my dates mixed up, but it was after a no show of his. I think to come back he had to agree to a clinic or something, but it was shocking to me they thought they could get rid of their frontman at the time. Even if it was less than a week, what were they thinking? There's no way they would have been as successful without him imo 

Yes, it was in early 1988:

8 minutes ago, AXL_N_DIZZY said:

Fortus is on Tommy's first two solo records. Possible IMHO he was just throwing shade at the other Leads (i.e. Bucket/Bumble/DJ)...

Yes, that's what I think, too.