GNR leader Axl Rose took to twitter today to offer his side of the story.
“Our start times at the Reading and Leeds festivals factually had nothing to do with us, as the previous bands (who were great by the way) came off stage when they did, and we went on within' our contracted and documented changeover time period.Meanwhile....Britian’s Daily Star is reporting today that Axl fired his entire road crew – not once, but twice – after GNR's late starts, at both Reading and Leeds, left the band out of time to finish their set each night.
Whatever other nonsense anyone's choosing to write would appear intentionally false.
Having the fans of our show penalized for how the event was ran, or simply the natural flow of events those evenings, and for such minimal amount of overtime along with distortions and falsehoods by media, the promoter and or event organizers regarding the events seems a bit draconian and more than unfair to the fans.
A simple question: If you are aware of our changeover time, the average length of our show and the general nature of how these types of festivals run all of which are no big secrets...why book us?
Is it simply because the lineup on our nights at both festivals sold well? So it's a cash grab with no respect for the fans or the band and somehow an unwanted inconvenience for the cities and law enforcement? If we're not wanted and just being used to line someone else's pockets or for fictitious tabloid fodder at the fans and our expense we're fine with going elsewhere. God forbid we would force ourselves on anyone. It's not that kinda party.
I didn't organize, arrange, authorize, have knowledge of or was even consulted about our being booked for these shows till after the fact nor did I choose to work with anyone I'm aware of other than our manager who was involved in arranging these dates. Yet it would appear we're amazingly often legally obligated to honor such arrangements whether against our will or better judgment. That's simply and unfortunately how this business often works with the artist and imo seems is legally supported to benefit managers, agents, promoters and ticket vendors.
With how the fans and we were treated in the past I had what I feel were legitimate and now proven justified apprehensions. Yet we gave 100% and from where we stood it seemed as if the both the fans (who rocked!) and our camp were having fun and making the most of things.
Why (and what would appear intentionally) risk having it go bad for everyone? Imo that's where true recklessness and negligence at both the fans and our expense would seem to be.
Anyway...thanks again to all the fans who made our nights!!
Peace!!"
Axl-
Following Fridays’ debacle at Reading, the Daily Star reports that Rose was asleep backstage at the time he was due onstage; with strict orders for Axl not to be disturbed, GNR was an hour late starting their show. A source told the paper, “Axl was furious. He refused to take responsibility and blamed his team, so he sacked them. Then he realized it was too late to fly in anyone else from America, so he had to rehire them for Leeds.”
At Leeds on Sunday, GNR were only a half-hour late, but still ran out of time trying to finish their set before local curfews kicked in.
We’ll see if the Daily Star report holds up, as GNR are due to play a show at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast tonight, and will, naturally, need a road crew on site.
Guns N’ Roses - Welcome To The Jungle - Appetite For Destruction Guns N’ Roses - Welcome To The Jungle
The Reading Festival - Reading, UK – August 27, 2010
