Has Axl Rose been studying How to Lose Friends and Alienate People?
The famously reclusive rocker signed a multimillion-dollar publishing last week with the Sanctuary Group--much to the chagrin of former Guns N' Roses bandmates not in on the deal.
Valued at nearly $20 million, the deal with Sanctuary spans GNR's entire back catalog, including such megahits as "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Welcome to the Jungle."
Sanctuary Group, which is currently expanding its publishing arm, also works with artists such as KISS, Morrissey and Lou Reed. Rose's deal with the company's publishing unit, Sanctuary Group PLC, will also cover potential future royalties from forthcoming material, should his comically long-delayed GNR record, Chinese Democracy, ever receive airplay upon its theoretical release.
Warner/Chappell previously looked after the band's publishing interests.
The original members making up Guns N' Roses drifted apart in the mid-1990s--leaving the band's legacy perennially in dispute between former members Slash, Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin (Slash and Duff now play in Velvet Revolver) and Rose, who continues to play (or not play, as is more often the case) under the GNR banner.
Slash and McKagan filed a still-pending lawsuit against Rose in 2004 over who controls the rights to GNR's money-generating back catalog. The band's studio albums have all gone multiplatinum and its songs are among the most-requested in the publishing biz. GNR tunes recently turned up--along with Axl's vocal acting talents--in 2004's biggest videogame release, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
McKagan's lawyer, Glen Miskel, was caught unaware of the deal, per an Associated Press report Tuesday.
Miskel claims Rose, Slash and Duff are part of a partnership and "neither Sanctuary nor Axl Rose have provided the remaining partners with a copy of that agreement."
Although Rose seems to be acting on his own in signing the new GNR deal, Miskel says the "November Rain" singer has no authority to do so.
However, it's possible the singer was only signing a deal for his portion of GNR publishing, according to music publishing sources.
Meanwhile, Tommy Stinson, sometime GNR bassist and former member of Minneapolis rock legends the Replacements, told the New York Daily News last week that the revamped GNR is nearly finished with Chinese Democracy.
But fans of the band long ago learned not to hold their breath regarding news of an imminent release of any new GNR studio set.
Despite the band's open feuding, Duff, Slash and Rose joined up last year to sue Universal to block the release of Greatest Hits. The band lost, and the album wound up debuting at number three on the Billboard 200 and going platinum.