meadsoap

I don't know if you were aware, but it's possible to have other family members besides your mother, father, brother, and sister... And someone else already pointed out that neither his mother or his stepfather ever attended any concert, much less in the 90s when Axl was done with them for good.

What does Axl's stepdad have to do with that quote? It didn't say he invited him, or which family members he invited at all besides his grandmother. He can't spend time with his maternal grandmother if he's angry with a man who is completely unrelated to her?

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.

She's obviously trying to position herself as some sort of savior or advocate for other women. The problem here is that she only seems to open her mouth when there's a promise she'll get paid for her time (her book deal, her paid documentary appearance, this lawsuit, and there's a good chance she was paid for her time at this press conference too) with a story whose details change to better fit whatever she's getting paid for at the moment. When I compare her to women like Evan Rachel Wood or Julia Holcomb, it's no comparison at all. Whether you believe those women or not, they actually do a lot of advocacy in their spare time and you can tell that they are on a mission that goes beyond the scope of what a mere lawsuit can cover. If Sheila wants to have that kind of image, she'll have to prove that she gives a damn about these issues when there's no money involved.

This is so disingenuous. Saying he needs "to be stopped" as if whatever (alleged) experience she had with Axl didn't happen nearly 40 years ago. It's also been at least 3 decades since any other "prior history" she accused him of having has been relevant. What exactly is she stopping him from? Who is she helping?

I'm pretty sure the documentary does mention the time period, but I'll check myself. Anyway, Axl's rant in Dayton Ohio confirms a significant aspect of Tom Zutaut's recollection of what Axl said. The Air Force museum. Axl started regression therapy shortly before or on the UYI tour in 1991, which is after Axl's interactions with Zutaut. So if the timeline matches, then Axl's recollections of his stepfathers abuse predates the regression therapy, unlike the recollection of his biological father.

The source for the abuse by Axl's stepfather comes from two different sources. The first is two different interviews with Beta Lebeis (Bolsa De Mulher and O Globo), where she states that Axl's stepfather abused him sexually. \-[Bolsa De Mulher](https://www.a-4-d.com/t4758-2001-01-22-bolsa-de-mulher-interview-with-beta-lebeis): >! "He left home very young. His stepfather used to beat him a lot and he even abused him sexually. This has made him timid. I’m not quite sure, but I think he left Lafayette when he was 14 or 15 years old. Now he’s 38." !< \- [O Globo](https://www.a-4-d.com/t4741-2001-01-16-o-globo-interview-with-doug-goldstein-and-beta-lebeis): >! "...If we fight and he gets mad, I know that it doesn't mean he doesn't love me. But most people just walk away. He was raped (by his stepfather as a child), abused, beaten. He never really had a family. He sees my relationship with my children and it’s something he never had,” she says, referring to the well-known dramas in Axl's life. !< The second source is the BBC documentary on GN'R called *The Most Dangerous Band In The World*. In the doc, Tom Zutaut reads back a message Axl privately sent him in 1990, which details (pretty graphically) what Axl's stepfather was doing to him and his sister. Tom Zutaut quoting Axl: >! "I know I've said no... but I wanna do this Rolling Stone interview and expose my stepfather for the monster he is and was. You know, he used to take me to an airforce museum and rape me in the toilets there. In the toilet stalls. You know, my mom wouldn't believe me and I used to get beaten for making up lies. I wanna use Rolling Stone because they've been bugging me to do this interview for so long, but I don't want them to put a white-wash on the story, I want it to come out as ugly and harsh as it is," because it was happening to his sister as well and he said "If even one kid reads this interview and it spares them this pain, I wanna help them." !< Axl mentioned the Air Force Museum (Wright Brothers Museum) from the stage in Dayton, OH, in January 1992: Axl: *I’m gonna ask some questions, especially since we’re in the Midwest. And you all know how that’s just one of my “favorite” places. No offense, but if you believe that – I mean, my stepdad is from here in Dayton and I used to come here when I was a kid. This is not a pleasant place for me to be. But I got to realize that it doesn’t have anything to do with you who came to see the show. I know all about the Wilbur and Orville Wright Museum - I’ve been there too many times.* [Source](https://www.a-4-d.com/t1880-1992-01-13-erwin-nutter-center-dayton-usa#14197)

Yeah exactly. Beta is like a mother figure to him,and Beta has said it in every interview in which she's been asked. She's said that he even calls her "Mama" sometimes. There's also a video of Axl throwing a punch at paparazzi cameraman because they pushed Beta to the side, and Axl's says something like "He hit our Mom" or whatever https://youtu.be/Q6fPH3_SJg0?si=rUQo6aBvI8lEboGc

So, according to you, Axl lied to multiple people about being sexually abused by his stepfather? That's basically what you're saying. If so...Why do you think that?

It's confirmed by Axl, according to two people who know Axl and said he confessed it to them. I don't think 2 unrelated people would make that up out of thin air. The other person who posted these pictures just said they didn't know. But they made it clear they don't know Axl personally, so they're hardly an authority on it.

Doesn't Beta live with Axl. I wouldn't be surprised if her grandkids were spending the night and the elf went with them (since it's supposed to be "magical" lol) I don't know if this is Axl's house or Vanessa's. It could be either. I think the shoes would be legit though, since you can't really buy these shoes anywhere.

Tell that to Looney Tunes and Michael Schenker. It seems like the only way Axl will work on a new song is if it isn't related to GnR

Being indirect doesn't mean Rikki hasn't made his actual position clear. He doesn't believe her (hence "anyone can say anything post"), he is not invested her case ("who cares"), and he saw nothing (hence the picture of the hands over his eyes). He didn't have to say anything at all, so that fact that he went out of his way to address it is the big thing here.

So if this goes to trial, Rikki is clearly not going to back up Sheila's story. The only other eyewitness they have (the other model that Axl allegedly had sex with and then scared out the room) is a woman that has yet to be indentified. Either because Sheila doesn't know her or because she has refused to become involved. If that woman doesn't come forward and Rikki testifies that he knows nothing about this... Sheila's case is already not in a good state.

So I went back to Rikki's Facebook page to see if he commented anything else about the case. And what I found was very telling. He added this on a few days after his initial post.

Anyway, I apologize for how long that was lol. I just needed somewhere to put my (many) thoughts about this issue. TLDR: If this goes to court, this will be far from an easy time for Sheila Kennedy. Very curious to see how it plays out (if it doesn't settle first).

Finally watched the whole thing. I have a lot of thoughts on this. And before I start, I wanna go thank you for putting this episode out there. None of the opinion that follow are a criticism of the content of the podcast conversation, just adding on. 1. The conversation only did a general sweep of the "prior acts" that Axl was accused of in the lawsuit, but I think a lot of that absolutely will get thrown out. A lot of the things that they list aren't very relevant to Sheila's case (like the original AFD cover that has nothing to do with the actions Sheila accused Axl of) or hinge on knowledge of rumors that are both unprovable and most likely false (as in the part about Axl participating in the group rape of a 15 year old girlfriend that never existed, on the basis of the littlemichellelives woman that was excluded from the Look Away documentary by the creators of it because of how bogus her claims were). To me, the only part of that section that matters is the "Battered Beauties" article in People magazine. But who's to say Erin Everly does not come to his defence on that portion of the suit, considering she defended him a couple times before (for example, in 2012 she sent a cease and desist letter on Axl's behalf to an LA artist that accused Axl of graffiting her house with vile words after an argument, not to mention her history of defending him on social media). 2. As far as Sheila Kennedy's story is concerned, you two talked about how she initially claimed it was consensual in the documentary, but later said it was not. I get the point about it being explained away, saying that she came to some kind of realization in the 2 years since the doc blah blah blah... But what I'm more concerned about is the inconsistencies in the surrounding details. For example, how will she be able to explain that fabricated Howard Stern interview that she said happened? The one where she claimed Axl left her early in the morning to go interview with Stern and directly bragged about being with a Penthouse Pet the night before. None of that ever happened. Axl was woken up out of his sleep completely alone in his hotel room and said nothing about even having sex the night before, let alone as specific as what Sheila said. So how does she reconcile this? Was she sensationalizing details to make the story sound better (which casts doubt on the credibility of the other claims)? Did her brain somehow fabricate words and events that never happened (and if so, what else did her brain fabricate/misremember about the alleged encounter)? And what about Rikki Rachtman, who she claims witnessed it all and that she befriended after the alleged events. Rikki cryptically posted on social media that "anyone can say anything" directly after the lawsuit was made public. It doesn't sound like Rikki is going to back her up on this, if he can even be subpoenaed. I don't see that going down well in court at all. 3. I question the idea that she had a change of heart like people say. This woman knowingly appeared in a documentary specifically about sexual violence in the rock music industry and made direct allegations of assault, criticized Axl for allegedly being violent on increasingly public platforms, says that she's not a fan, that he got what he deserved when his life was falling apart, etc etc. And even after all that, she still went out of her way to emphasize how she wasn't raped and that she was an active participant (like putting a surprise finger up his ass as an experiment without him asking her to do that, which is a really weird thing to say when she also claim she was only lying back letting things happen because you were too afraid to take action) and that she enjoyed the sex after he stopped being in whatever rage state he was in. It seems like she already came to a realization long ago about her bad experiences with the encounter and has been very vocal about it. This whole claim about her being afraid to confront her true feelings or trying to avoid blowback seems very flimsy within that context. 4. The part about Axl's possible mental illness issues (like his struggle with mood swings that are possibly related to bipolar disorder) could come into play imo, depending on the statutes in New York civil law. A large part of the court filing is saying he had an intent to harm her based on her gender. But what she claims in her book (saying he apologized, seemed contrite, says directly and verbally that he didn't mean to hurt her) seems to fly in the face of the claims that he intended to use his celebrity status to harm her. 5. I have other thoughts related to Axl's position of simply not remembering the events that Sheila alleges and how that might be a tricky thing to balance in court. But again, I'm not familiar with the laws in New York to say specifically how his lawyers might manoeuvre around that while arguing in Axl's defence. But on the surface from what I know, I think Axl might be backing himself into a unfortunate corner if he sticks with that.

The Australian movie called "Chopper" The Frank Sinatra biography "His Way", by Kitty Kelly.

Axl didn't go solo because he saw GnR as his band. He was playing theatres and arenas regardless of the GnR name, so it obviously wasn't that. You can disagree with him, but Axl truly sees GnR as his life's work and his place in the world. If you back to the Axl chats from 2008, he explains it pretty well.

This is the real reason I wish Axl would have gone solo. I see the GnR fan base (and their expectations) as the thing that really held him back from fully developing into the kind of artist he wanted and was meant to be. I love Chinese Democracy, but I feel that fight within the album itself. Axl struggling to water down his crazy interesting ideas into something that fits the GnR mold. Too chained to the GnR sound to experiment too much, too experimental to please GnR fans. What a quagmire.

Exactly. The General is very far from the music of the AFD-Lies-UYI part of their catalogue. It's pretty out there, and among the 7 friends that I've played it for, the ones who liked it actually weren't the ones who the AFD-style GnR fans. It was my nu-metal/grunge peeps (and one friend who mostly listens to pop music, shockingly enough). The General is a good song that's just kind of niche. A fan base that's different from the typical GnR people would have appreciated it much more.

True. I wasn't aware of the second comment about them saying there were "no signs" of abuse and that nobody knew about the physical abuse either. I took it as confirmation when I first saw the thread months ago, but now I think this person doesn't know much at all. It just seems like something that's impossible to miss if you were as close to the family as this poster is saying they are. I believe that the poster knows some family members (not Axl himself obviously), but if they're were missing such a big price of the puzzle/story and had to be informed about the physical abuse through the media, than I question the accuracy of their other comments as well. They talk about these events like they got a lot of their info second hand at a much later time then when it all happened.

Basically they never personally witnessed abuse, physical or otherwise. They also claim nobody knew about the kids being abused at all until the interview where they said it publicly. (I'm kind of skeptical about that tbh) They also said they didn't see Axl talk about any sexual abuse from his stepfather, which makes me think that this person (whoever they are) is not actually so close to Axl and his siblings. It seems to be a known thing among Axl's actual social circle judging by how casually both Tom Zutaut and Beta Lebeis referred to it before.

This is it. The poster was commenting under a comment that was describing Axl's life as a kid. He said that everything in the comment was correct, except for the fact that Steven Bailey wasn't a Pastor. As for the comment you're referring to, they just said they didn't know and hadn't seen Axl talk about it (or even any abuse, up until the Rolling Stone interview), but wouldn't be surprised if it happened. "As for the sexual abuse. No one knows for sure. I mean there were zero signs and no one ever witnessed any kind of abuse, but he put on a great front and the kids never let on there was any kind of abuse until The Rolling Stones interview. ... Has Axl ever confirmed the sexual abuse? I’ve never seen him discuss any sexual abuse except by his real dad, but I haven’t read every single thing he’s ever said either. I wouldn’t doubt it though..."

I mean, the same poster confirmed in the comments of another post that Axl's stepfather sexually abused him until he was a teen. It's sad, and I hope Axl didn't have to suffer that from his biological father too.