1992.04.11/16 - Chicago Tribune/AP/The St. Louis Post Dispatch - Reports (Axl)

Chicago Tribune, April 11, 1992:



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Guns N' Roses cancels show after lead singer skips town

Michael Kates & Angela Bradbery

It was the perfect wedding gift: two tickets to the young couple's idea of paradise, Friday night's Guns N' Roses concert at the Rosemont Horizon.

But the controversial Los Angeles rock 'n' roll band postponed the sold-out show just 15 minutes before the doors were scheduled to open-lead singer Axl Rose had to skip town ahead of the law, according to the band's record company.

"Can I cry?" Ursula Sandoval asked her new husband Ray as they stood outside the Horizon Friday night. The two 26-year-olds, who married April 1, stood in line for 2 1/2 hours for the tickets.

The Cook County sheriff's office might be upset too. Officials had a warrant for Rose's arrest on four misdemeanor charges stemming from a riot last July during a concert in a St. Louis suburb, according to Geffen Records.

According to a Geffen spokeswoman, the Cook County sheriff's office planned to arrest Rose and extradite him to St. Louis to enforce a bench warrant obtained by the St Louis prosecutor's office.

"Rather than go to jail, Rose left the sheriff's jurisdiction," said Bryn Bridenthal of Geffen.

A Guns N' Roses management representative apologized to fans and blamed "celebrity persecution" by St. Louis authorities.

Neither St. Louis officials nor Cook County sheriff's police could be reached for comment.

The group performed here Thursday night without incident. The Friday show was added several months ago, after the first show sold out quickly.

Hundreds of disappointed and disgusted fans were notified by megaphone at 7:30 p.m. that the show was canceled.

The switchboard at the Horizon headquarters was lit up for hours by fans. Some callers asked for reimbursements for their limousines; others wanted to know if they would be refunded the price they paid scalpers-$125 in one case.

They were told no.

Tickets will be refunded Monday at Ticketmaster outlets for their $25 face value, Bridenthal said.

Rosemont Horizon officials received a phone call from the band's local promoter, Jam Productions, at 7:15 p.m. Doors were to open at 7:30 p.m. and the opening band was in the building, preparing to take the stage at 8:30 p.m.

"The group decided they did not want to perform," said Harry Pappas, executive director of the Horizon. "They gave no reason."

No one at Jam Productions could be reached for comment.

According to Horizon officials, up to 400 fans were outside when the show was canceled. Guards, ushers and other security personnel broke the news to them.

Teenagers who were dropped off by their parents were allowed to make phone calls so they "wouldn't be wandering the street," said a Horizon official.

That was of little good to Steve Stasney, 15, and his three friends from Highland, Ind. The group had been dropped off by one of the boy's fathers at 7 p.m. and told, "see you at midnight."

After the announcement was made, "Everybody was cussing like crazy," Stasney said. "They're good, but not when they do that."

The last Horizon show canceled on short notice was the Madonna show in May 1990. The singer had a sore throat and gave Horizon officials 24 hours' notice.

Tom Nigut, who came from Wilmette with a friend and seven youngsters, said the band's actions were not surprising.

"It's typical of the image they try to give," Nigut said, "punky, cocky, do whatever they want to do."

Guns N' Roses also canceled shows Monday and Tuesday in Auburn Hills, Mich.

The Associated Press via The Northwest Herald, April 11, 1992:



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Guns N' Roses put on a real showstopper

By MICHAEL GOUGIS
The Associated Press

CHICAGO — Guns N’ Roses canceled a concert Friday night after lead singer W. Axl Rose fled town to avoid arrest on charges filed after a riot at the band’s show last year in St. Louis, his record company said.

“He wasn’t anxious to spend any time in jail without reason,” said Bryn Bridenthal, spokeswoman for Geffen Records, the label for Guns N’ Roses. “To suddenly extradite him over a misdemeanor charge, there’s no cause.”

Friday’s concert was canceled about 30 minutes before the band was scheduled to take the stage at the 18,000-seat Horizon in northwest suburban Rosemont.

Geffen also said the band canceled shows scheduled for April 13 and 14 in Auburn Hills, Mich. Plans for ticket refunds or exchanges are still under consideration.

Rose was charged with assault and property damage over a riot that followed an aborted Guns N’ Roses concert July 2, in which about 40 concertgoers and 25 police officers were hurt.

Cook County Sheriffs spokeswoman Sally Daly said the department was asked to enforce a bench warrant posted by the St. Louis City prosecutor’s office. Daly said officers had contacted the band’s management, told them Rose would face arrest and gave Rose the option of surrendering before or after the show.

“Apparently, they chose not only not to take that option, but not to fulfill their obligations to their fans,” Daly said.

Fans who had gathered before the show dispersed peacefully, the band’s management and Daly said.

Witnesses said the St. Louis melee began when Rose leaped from the stage to snatch a camera from a fan and then stormed off, abruptly ending the show. Rose has said he jumped into the crowd to stop a fight and that the band was willing to go back on but was told to leave. He blamed security for the riot.

Damage to the theater was estimated at up to $300,000. The misdemeanor charges carry a combined penalty of up to 4 1/2 years in jail and $4,500 in fines.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 12, 1992:



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Rock Star Evades Long Arm Of Law

By Fred W. Lindecke
Missouri Political Correspondent

St. Louis County Police say Axl Rose can keep running, but they will catch up with him sooner or later.

Rose, lead singer of the Guns N’ Roses rock group, ducked out of town in Chicago Friday night to avoid being arrested on charges stemming from a disturbance last July 2 at the Riverport Amphitheatre in northwest St. Louis County. The band canceled the Friday night concert and shows scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Auburn Hills, Mich.

Robert McCulloch, St. Louis County prosecuting attorney, said Rose "is easy to find. Wherever he goes, we’ll be waiting for him. If he wants to cancel his whole schedule, fine. If he leaves the country, we’ll notify Customs to get him when he comes back."

McCulloch said he had given Rose time to answer the charges voluntarily, but now that time had run out.

Bryn Bridenthal, a spokeswoman for Geffen Records, the label for Guns N’ Roses, said Chicago police had told Rose "they were coming to arrest him, so the band acted accordingly. Axl has always been where he had to, and this seemed extreme. Why arrest and extradite someone on a misdemeanor charge?"

Rose was charged with assault and property damage after a disturbance that followed a Guns Ν' Roses concert at Rlverport. He is accused of hitting a security guard, hurting three concert-goers and damaging a dressing room.

Cook County Sheriff's spokeswoman Sally Daly said the department had been asked to enforce a bench warrant posted by the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office. Daly said officers had contacted the band's management, told them Rose would face arrest and gave Rose the option of surrendering before or after the show.

Instead, the band canceled Friday’s concert about 30 minutes before it was set to start in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont. Fans dispersed peacefully, band management and police said.

The Associated Press provided information for this story.

Chicago Sun-Times, April 12, 1992:
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Axl Rose a fugitive after show canceled

By Jae-Ha Kim and Scott Fornek
Chicago Sun-Times
April 12, 1992

Rowdy heavy metal rocker Axl Rose cancelled a concert at the Rosemont Horizon and skipped town to escape the long arms of persecuting prosecutors, a representative for the singer says.

Leaving thousands of fans waiting outside the Rosemont Horizon, Rose’s band, Guns N’ Roses, canceled a Friday night show half an hour before doors were to open so that Rose could avoid being served with
misdemeanor arrest warrants for his alleged role in a Missouri riot last year.

“It smacks of celebrity persecution,” said a management representative for the band in a press release. “We understood they planned to arrest Axl imminently, thus preventing the show anyway.”

Not so, says a representative for the Cook County sheriff’s police, who were asked by St. Louis County police to serve the warrants. All Rose needed was a little “Patience.”

“We did not want to cause any riots or disruptions,” said Sally Daly, spokeswoman for the Cook County sheriff’s office. “Our plan was to effect the arrest of Mr. Rose after the concert.”

Sources said St. Louis County prosecutors had issued a $100,000 bond against Rose for four misdemeanor charges stemming from a riot that erupted at the Riverport Performing Arts Center after Rose leapt from the stage and allegedly traded blows with a fan who was snapping photos.

Cook County sheriff’s police officers contacted concert promoter Jam Productions so Rose could either be served before or after the concert. But Rose and the other five band members apparently fled the county early in the evening, Daly said.

Fans turned away from the Horizon apparently had no “Appetite for Destruction,” and police reported no problems.

The Horizon dates were makeup concerts for a July 4 concert that was canceled after the Missouri riot. Guns N’ Roses concerts Monday and Tuesday in Auburn Hills, Mich., also were canceled.

The band is expected to decide in the next few days whether to reschedule the show or refund the $25 tickets.

“Apparently Mr. Rose and the band chose not to fulfill their obligations, not only to the law but to the fans,” Daly said. “He chose to go out in a blaze of glory.”

Oh, Axl, there’s one last thing.

“If he is determined to be in Cook County, he is a fugitive at this point,” Daly said. “These warrants will be outstanding.”

https://tinyurl.com/y7cvvhkb

Chicago Tribune, April 16, 1992:



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Don’t look for W. Axl Rose and Guns N’ Roses in concert again anytime soon.

Those disappointed when Guns N’ Roses canceled its show last Friday at the Rosemont Horizon probably won’t get a chance to see the band anywhere anytime soon.

Only hours before show time, singer W. Axl Rose skipped town when he found that he was about to be arrested by Cook County sheriffs officers and extradited to Missouri in connection with a riot-inducing fight at a concert there last summer.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch says he will try to have Rose arrested and extradited wherever the band plays next, which effectively prevents it from playing anywhere until Rose turns himself in. The Gunners canceled two shows this week in Auburn Hills, Mich., and a major summer tour, reportedly with Metallica as an opening act, is now in limbo.

“We’ve given him eight months to turn himself in at his convenience, and he’s ignored us,” McCulloch says.

The charges facing Rose are misdemeanors, involving four counts of battery against three fans and a security guard, and property damage of less than $1,000 to Rose’s dressing room at the Riverport Performing Arts Center near St.
Louis. After Rose jumped into the crowd to thwart an unauthorized photographer, a riot broke out and most of the band’s equipment was destroyed by fans.

Rose would face a maximum one-year prison sentence and $1,000 fine on each of the charges if convicted.

McCulloch says it is not unusual to extradite a “fugitive” on misdemeanor charges. “It doesn’t happen often but it does happen,” he says, adding that all it took was about 15 minutes’ worth of phone calls to Cook County officials.

The officials were on their way to the Horizon when Rose was tipped off by the concert promoter, Jam Productions, and the show was canceled.

A spokeswoman for the band, Bryn Bridenthal of Geffen Records in California, says McCulloch’s actions are “a personal vendetta against what he thinks Axl stands for,” but the prosecutor says Rose’s notoriety has nothing to do with it.

“On the contrary, this is an effort to show him he has to play by the same rules as everyone else," McCulloch says.

McCulloch confirms that the band has offered to play a free show in the St. Louis area and that Rose has volunteered to do community work, but McCulloch said he wouldn’t discuss the case with the band’s attorneys until Rose turns himself in.

“All he needs to do is come in, get booked and bonded, and he’d be out in two to three hours,” McCulloch says.

But Jam President Jerry Mickel-son says the members of Guns N’ Roses “maybe are thinking twice about trusting any law enforcement official.” He recalls that several band members “were arrested and thrown in jail without cause or provocation” after a fight several years ago in a Chicago hotel instigated by some hecklers.

Mickelson also says the band forfeited $1 million in guarantees by canceling the Rosemont show and the two Detroit area performances.

And while the 15,000-plus ticket-holders for the Rosemont date are entitled to refunds of $22.50 each, they stand to lose $3.50 to $4.50 each in Ticketmaster service charges.

At this point, the only winner in this mess appears to be McCulloch, whose name surfaced in major daily newspapers throughout the country this week as well as music-industry publications such as Billboard. The prosecutor is up for re-election in 1994.

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Host: Axl Rose, the bad boy of rock ‘n’ roll stirs up trouble wherever he goes in keeping with his image. Most of his antics are part of the act, but now he’s a real-life fugitive from justice, being hunted by the law.

Voice-over: Singer Axl Rose and Guns N’ Roses are always out on the edge of rock ‘n’ roll. But now what happened during one of their concerts caused problems that won’t go away. The band cancelled three shows, in Chicago and Detroit in the past week. Bryn Bridenthal of the band’s record company says Axl Rose didn’t want to be arrested.

Bryn Bridenthal: The idea of being disappeared into the jail system for the weekend was a pretty frightening prospect.

Voice-over: The trouble started in St. Louis last July. A riot broke out during a Guns N’ Roses concert after Axl Rose dove into the crowd at the Riverport Amphitheater trying to stop a fan from videotaping him. More than 60 fans and police were injured. Rose is accused of assaulting three fans and with hitting a security guard, as well as with tearing up a dressing room. The man who’s hunting for Axl Rose is County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch.

McCulloch: I consider the charges serious. Obviously he considers the charges serious. He’s gone to such drastic steps to avoid answering the charges.

Voice-over: Rose’s record company blames inadequate security for the riot; and they say the prosecutor is going to an awful lot of trouble when the charges are only misdemeanors.

Bryn Bridenthal: There was no reason to precipitate this kind of drastic move. These are definitely extraordinary measures and they really feel malicious.

Voice-over: There is no love lost between the band and St. Louis. On their new album there’s a greeting to the city in the liner notes. Prosecutor McCulloch says he’s going to keep pursuing Axl Rose and that he’s not that hard to find.

McCulloch: The only difference between Rose and any other fugitive is that Rose publishes his schedule. If every other fugitive did that, we wouldn’t have too many fugitives.

Host: And the latest published schedule is the European tour beginning Monday in London and including stops in Dublin, Prague, Budapest, Vienna and Berlin.

Another report on the cancelled Rosemont Horizon show, from Daily Herald Suburban Chicago on April 12, 1992: