Former GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Slash has commented on the countersuit filed by his former GN'R bandmate, Axl Rose, against the singer's former manager, Irving Azoff, claiming that Azoff tried to bully Rose into doing a reunion tour with the original GUNS lineup.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rose claims in his suit that Azoff did everything he could to sabotage the current version of GUNS after Rose said no to the reunion idea last year, alleging that Azoff tried "devising and implementing a secret plan to set up Rose and the band for failure so that Rose would have no choice but to reunite with the original GUNS N' ROSES members."

Rose's suit adds, "Upon realizing that he couldn't bully Rose and accomplish his scheme, Azoff resigned and abandoned GUNS N' ROSES on the eve of a major tour, filing suit for commissions he didn't earn and had no right to receive."

The claim also added that Azoff, in his own lawsuit, deliberately used Rose's real name, William Bailey, because it "carries significant emotional damage from Rose's childhood."

Speaking to VH1 Radio Networks' Dave Basner, Slash stated about Rose's countersuit, "I don't even know what that's about. I don't know where Axl is coming from. I mean, I know where Irving is coming from -- he's looking for commissions for a tour that he booked. [It's a] pretty reasonable kind of thing. Axl's countersuing, so I'm not sure exactly what the merit is that he's countersuing, exactly. Anyways, I don't keep up with that, I don't follow it." [Blabbermouth]

alternate headline: Bruce Springsteen fans more mad at Ticketmaster than Phish fans were at Live Nation...

You may have noticed that sometimes when you try to buy a ticket at Ticketmaster, you are instead redirected to TicketsNow which is a scalper site owned by Ticketmaster. In turn, TicketsNow will offer to sell you the same exact tickets for a higher price. Ticketmaster describes it like this...

TicketsNow provides consumers access to live entertainment event tickets, no longer available via primary distribution channels, through its leading online marketplace where buyers and sellers meet in open exchange.

Tickets listed on TicketsNow come from licensed brokers, as well as from individual sellers. All tickets listed on TicketsNow are 100% authentic or your money back.

The potential shadiness involved there is pretty obvious, as a NJ politician pointed out in a letter he wrote to the federal government this week...

A New Jersey congressman has asked the federal government to investigate allegations that tickets to two Bruce Springsteen concerts were diverted to a ticket resale agency moments after they went on sale Monday morning.

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-8th Dist.) said his constituents complained that Ticketmaster, the primary ticket seller for the concerts, said tickets were sold out and directed consumers to its subsidiary, TicketsNow, a secondary marketplace where tickets were being offered for resale at three and four times the cover price.

Pascrell wrote a letter yesterday to the Federal Trade Commission and the antitrust division of the Justice Department asking them to "investigate the relationship between Ticketmaster and TicketsNow to ensure that the procedure for purchasing tickets remains fair to the average consumer."

"There is a significant potential for abuse when one company is able to monopolize the primary market for a product and also directly manipulate and profit from the secondary market," he wrote. "The speed with which tickets were made available on Ticketmaster's official resale site raises questions about whether TicketsNow brokers were given preferential treatment." [NJ.COM]

The Superbowl (halftime show) was Sunday, Bruce tickets went on sale Monday, and the above letter was in the papers on Wednesday (yesterday). In no time, both Ticketmaster and Bruce Springsteen personally responded with letters of their own...

Continue reading "Bruce Springsteen Ticketmaster controversy! letters from the Boss, a congressman & CEO + Live Nation, TicketsNow"