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The worst year of Axl's Life

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By Guest Gunns
in 2012

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dalsh327 LEGEND

dalsh327

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It's pretty obvious what this is about as far as I can see, Azoff came in and was heavily involved in the CD release but his intention was always a reunion once that elephant was out of the room. He got it to happen with the Eagles and Van Halen so why not Guns N Roses? Therefore (and I'm speculating a little here) doing a lot of publicity surrounding the current band would have been counterproductive to the overall aim of the project and once Axl caught the drift of what Azoff really wanted, he wanted nothing more to do with it and spent his time dragging his feet. Cue early 2009 becoming an absolute legal minefield/battle of wills during which the band could do nothing productive or conventional like embarking on a tour to support an album less than a year after its release.

Azoff was offered the CEO of Ticketmaster in 2008, it wasn't him dragging feet - he was preoccupied. I think he gave Axl the impression he was going to be hands on, actively involved, and fell through on his word, but legally, he had Axl bound.

Azoff shouldn't have agreed to do business with GNR. It wasn't about him dragging his feet, Azoff had to deal with a bigger situation regarding live concerts in America at the time.

He got into hot water with Springsteen and his manager though. This happened because a fan happened to also be a Congressman who was trying to get tickets and wound up on a resale site, and fired off a letter to the Dept of Justice Antitrust Division. Whoops.... good thing it wasn't Chris Christie.

http://idolator.com/5146920/bruce-springsteen-makes-ticketmaster-ceo-grovel-apologize-and-generally-feel-like-crap

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Graeme LEGEND

Graeme

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It's pretty obvious what this is about as far as I can see, Azoff came in and was heavily involved in the CD release but his intention was always a reunion once that elephant was out of the room. He got it to happen with the Eagles and Van Halen so why not Guns N Roses? Therefore (and I'm speculating a little here) doing a lot of publicity surrounding the current band would have been counterproductive to the overall aim of the project and once Axl caught the drift of what Azoff really wanted, he wanted nothing more to do with it and spent his time dragging his feet. Cue early 2009 becoming an absolute legal minefield/battle of wills during which the band could do nothing productive or conventional like embarking on a tour to support an album less than a year after its release.

Azoff was offered the CEO of Ticketmaster in 2008, it wasn't him dragging feet - he was preoccupied. I think he gave Axl the impression he was going to be hands on, actively involved, and fell through on his word, but legally, he had Axl bound.

Azoff shouldn't have agreed to do business with GNR. It wasn't about him dragging his feet, Azoff had to deal with a bigger situation regarding live concerts in America at the time.

He got into hot water with Springsteen and his manager though. This happened because a fan happened to also be a Congressman who was trying to get tickets and wound up on a resale site, and fired off a letter to the Dept of Justice Antitrust Division. Whoops.... good thing it wasn't Chris Christie.

http://idolator.com/5146920/bruce-springsteen-makes-ticketmaster-ceo-grovel-apologize-and-generally-feel-like-crap

I meant Axl going AWOL after the CD release and the general year of silence before the tour began in 2009 was Axl dragging his feet against the reunion which Azoff was trying to force him into, which is why (with all that internal strife) the band couldn't just behave like a normal band and go out and tour straight after the album's release.

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GivenToFly FRONTMAN

GivenToFly

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The impression that I keep getting is that he can't be fucked going through all the legal and business part of releasing new music. After all the lawsuit and contract shit that happened with the former members in the 90s, changing producers like socks, being kicked around from one record company to another and Axl's insistence to have full control, GNR's legal status is probably a lot more complicated than other bands' and Axl has way more on his head in this respect than other musicians do. He partially brought this on his own head, granted, but you can't pretend it's a non-issue and Axl's just being lazy and giving excuses.

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AxlRose14 DEMI-GOD

AxlRose14

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"this is pretty much the worst fucking year of my life,

you get a lot of corporate shit where people go "you gotta man up about this business bullshit thing and that business bullshit thing, anything that makes them money and fucks you and fucks me. "

from osaka 2009

http://www.sendspace.com/file/bh08r6

(thanks TAY)

Does anyone want to speculate further about this? obviously its about the record company screwing Axl over, however do you think maybe the same reasons are occuring now and that's why CD II hasn't been released yet?

Because after all the years, money spent and hype put towards Chinese, it was probably extremely dissapointing to see it fail. Azoff and management may have wanted to help chinese at one point, but clearly after Axl refused to promote the record, the label wanted to sabotage him. It goes both ways, whether people just wanna bitch about Axl or not, it's just as much his fault as it is the labels.

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deepfreeze Senior

deepfreeze

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LOL at blaming Azoff. Still can't believe people believe everything they read. Axl could have walked outside and promoted his album but he knew it was going to be failure so he tried to pre-empt the blame.

Azoff negotiated the huge Best Buy deal that would never have happened without him. I bet Azoff burned bridges and lost friendships after the "success" of that deal.

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Graeme LEGEND

Graeme

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LOL at blaming Azoff. Still can't believe people believe everything they read. Axl could have walked outside and promoted his album but he knew it was going to be failure so he tried to pre-empt the blame.

Azoff negotiated the huge Best Buy deal that would never have happened without him. I bet Azoff burned bridges and lost friendships after the "success" of that deal.

So, you think that Azoff stepped in, sorted the deal with Best Buy for Chinese Democracy's release and then wanted to do all he could to ensure the record was as big a success as it could be and to promote the CD-era line-up of the band with absolutely no intentions of a reunion and all of the money that would bring? Just looking at his track record and what Axl has come out and said subsequently it seems glaringly obvious that it was the only reason Azoff was interested in Guns N Roses in the first place...

This would seem like a MASSIVE slap in the face to Axl, given that he's pretty much made the current band his life.

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deepfreeze Senior

deepfreeze

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The Best Buy deal was like $15M no? Azoff is business man and his reputation was tarnished with CDs failure. Billy Bailey's band in 2009 didn't have Buckethead, Finck, or Brain. The CD-era line up was gone. Should Bill Bailey have asked Finck to do promos? Yeah, blame Azoff because his idea of a reunion is outlandish and was the reason for no activity for 2009.

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deepfreeze Senior

deepfreeze

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Graeme is taking forever to reply. His name has been in italics for like 20 minutes.

I'm just going to add that I think Axl wanted a reunion too, that's why he chose Azoff. After the failure of CD, he just didn't want to be the weaker hand. Some of MSLs documents allegedly had some references to possible reunions.

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Graeme LEGEND

Graeme

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I'm sure, given he pretty much owns the music business in the US, Azoff will live with the fallout from the Best Buy deal... your mention of which is the first I've ever heard of there being any business backlash, can you back that up?

As for the idea of a reunion being outlandish, it's pretty obvious and has been for years to anyone with half a brain that it will NEVER happen. It's a boneheaded whimsy, there has been no hint of anything of the sort, nor of any desire for anything of the sort from the man with the ability to make it happen for at least the last twelve years. Anyone who wants to take the Guns N Roses management job should take that as golden rule number one, no matter how great the public demand it is not going to happen... If you decide to manage Guns N Roses, then embrace the line-up Axl has at that moment, roll with it and try and get as much out of it as possible, you'll probably keep your job for a while in that instance.

Having said that, I don't know why I'm bothering trying to construct a coherent discussion with a guy that thinks referring repeatedly to Axl as "Billy Bailey" is in some way cool/fun/impressive...

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AxlRose14 DEMI-GOD

AxlRose14

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Graeme is taking forever to reply. His name has been in italics for like 20 minutes.

I'm just going to add that I think Axl wanted a reunion too, that's why he chose Azoff. After the failure of CD, he just didn't want to be the weaker hand. Some of MSLs documents allegedly had some references to possible reunions.

I don't think Axl wants a reunion, I doubt he ever did tbh.

The original bands not reuniting axl would rather sink with this band

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AxlRose14 DEMI-GOD

AxlRose14

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Maybe Azoff thought he was the reunion miracle worker and it went to his head, but I don't think he had it on his agenda to intentionally sabotage an album and tour.

Agreed. I think Azoff wanted to help Axl but when he realized Axl didn't give a shit or care and he was on his own with this band, he moved forward with an agenda to do a reunion tour. It goes both ways...Axl should have wanted to promote the album more, Azoff wanted to reunite the old lineup.

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dalsh327 LEGEND

dalsh327

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Maybe Azoff thought he was the reunion miracle worker and it went to his head, but I don't think he had it on his agenda to intentionally sabotage an album and tour.

Agreed. I think Azoff wanted to help Axl but when he realized Axl didn't give a shit or care and he was on his own with this band, he moved forward with an agenda to do a reunion tour. It goes both ways...Axl should have wanted to promote the album more, Azoff wanted to reunite the old lineup.

March 27, 2008, Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose announced that Azoff and Andy Gould are the new management for Guns N' Roses.

October 2008, ticketing and marketing company Ticketmaster announced that they would acquire artist management company Front Line Management Group Inc.. As part of the deal, Irving Azoff, founder and chief executive officer of Front Line, became Chief Executive Officer of Ticketmaster.

Nov 22, 2008 - Chinese Democracy's released.

Feb 2009, keep in mind Azoff's now in charge of Ticketmaster

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bruce-springsteen-furious-at-ticketmaster-rails-against-live-nation-merger-20090204

Azoff issues apology - Azoff is still "managing" GNR.

http://www.thelicensingplate.com/ticketmaster-ceo-irving-azoff-apologizes-to-springsteen-and-fans/

(no specific date mentioned )2009, Azoff tells Axl about stadium tour with Van Halen, and told him not to do a European tour in the summer. "...told Rose not to go forward with the summer European tour because they were afraid that Guns N' Roses would not return in time for the Van Halen stadium tour".

Summer 2009 - Wolfgang VH graduates HS, Eddie Van Halen gets married. Van Halen were on a break.

(did Irving Azoff try to get Van Halen to do a summer tour, and plans fell through, knowing full well he told Axl to not book Europe? Was it intentional or was he just busy running Ticketmaster?)

Fall 2009 - see "Asia, Canada, and South America dates" pg 9 Cross Complaint

http://images.eonline.com/static/news/pdf/axlrose.pdf

Oct 23 2009 - Azoff stops managing GNR.

Nov 2009 - Azoff wants his commission money.

Jan 2010 - Department of Justice files antitrust lawsuit to stop the Ticketmaster and Live Nation merger.

May 2010 - Lawsuit and countersuit filed.

Aug 2010 - (NY Post) During a deposition, court papers recently filed by Rose's lawyer say, Azoff threw a stack of papers at lawyer Skip Miller, ripped off his own microphone and stormed out of the room when questioned about the merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation and how it would concentrate power in the music industry.

Jul 2011 - Mar 2012 Axl works the debt off with the Fall 2011 tour.

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