Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose has issued another statement aimed squarely at the promoters of the U.K.'s Reading and Leeds festivals, which the band headlined on Friday (August 27th) and Sunday (August 29th). Guns N' Roses was an hour late on Friday and 30 minutes late on Sunday, with both shows cut short due to venue curfews.
Rose wrote at Twitlonger.com, "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.
Whatever other nonsense anyone's choosing to write would appear intentionally false.
Having the fans or 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 [in my opinion] 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? [In my opinion] 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!!"
