Gn’R Lose Compilation Lawsuit
A California judge has derailed Axl Rose’s attempts to block the release of Guns n’ Roses’ Greatest Hits next week.
Rose filed suit against Geffen hoping to stop the release of the compilation, an album he maintains was assembled without his input. Former Guns guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan (who now play with Velvet Revolver) joined the suit. But U.S. district Judge Dale Fischer refused to grant a restraining order against Geffen, clearing the path for the label to release the album next Tuesday.
A lengthy Gn’R draught might be one factor in the label’s decision to issue the hits package. The group hasn’t recorded an album of new, original material since 1991’s two Use Your Illusion records, and its last studio set was the 1993 covers record The Spaghetti Incident.
Rose has long been at work on Guns’ next album, Chinese Democracy, though no word has been given as to a possible release date. Hits would be the second recording to dig through Gn’R’s vaults; in 1999 the label released the two-CD concert compilation Live Era: 1987-1993. The new fourteen-song collection includes hits from Gn’R’s 1987 debut Appetite for Destruction (“Sweet Child o’ Mine,” “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Paradise City”), the 1989 GN’R Lies EP (“Patience”), the Illusion albums (“Don’t Cry,” “November Rain”) and various covers, including the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and Wings’ “Live and Let Die.”