2001.05.11 - New York Daily News - Axl Hits A Pothole: Band's Tour Called Off

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RUSH & MOLLOY
BY GEORGE RUSH AND JOANNA MOLLOY

Axl hits a pothole: Band’s tour called off

More disappointment for Guns N’ Roses fans. The band’s label has canceled its European tour.
A Guns N’ Roses spokeswoman insists that the tour is just being rescheduled, because guitarist Buckethead “is ill and hasn’t been able to make rehearsals.” But some insiders claim the real reason is that Guns frontman Axl Rose is at odds with the label, Interscope Geffen A & M.

Word is the moody musician has refused to promote the group’s long-awaited CD, “Chinese Democracy,” unless he can tweak it some more in the studio.

The LP, the band’s first since '93, is said to have cost in the neighborhood of $10 million.

“The album has been finished to everybody else’s satisfaction for over a year now,” says an insider. “But Axl keeps going back to remix it and add vocals.”

The delay also owes something to Rose’s split from the band’s original members, Slash, Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin.

“He sees the album as his vision,” says a source. “He treats everybody like an employee. It’s either his way or hit the highway.”

The reconstituted Guns N’ Roses was to open the European tour in Germany on June 1.

The group’s spokeswoman, Laurie Earl, denied that the price tag on “Chinese Democracy” was approaching $10 million or that Interscope honcho Jimmy Iovine had hoped to release the album this month.

“There was never a scheduled release date,” says Earl. “The tour wasn’t meant to support the album.

“Jimmy and Axl are completely in sync on this album. When it’s ready, it will come out.”

The band’s first record, 1985’s “Appetite for Destruction,” remains the biggest rock album in history.