This weekend Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame is supposed to welcome its new members: The Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Donovan, The Small Faces/The Faces and Guns N’ Roses. But lead singer of Guns N’ Roses Axl Rose will not be there. He strongly declines to become a member of the Hall.
In an open letter Rose (50) wrote: “I won’t be attending The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction 2012 Ceremony and I respectfully decline my induction as a member of Guns N’ Roses to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.”
Since the early 1990’s one original band member after the other has left Guns N’ Roses, partly due to tensions. Over the years Rose has replaced all former band members which included Slash, Steven Adler, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum. Rose retained the rights to the band’s name and has been touring with the “new” version of Guns N’ Roses since.
It seems like the hope, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony would bring together the original line-up of Guns N’ Roses will probably not be fulfilled. “There’s a seemingly endless amount of revisionism and fantasies out there for the sake of self-promotion and business opportunities masking the actual realities” Rose states in his letter. “So let sleeping dogs lie or lying dogs sleep or whatever. Time to move on. People get divorced. Life doesn’t owe you your own personal happy ending especially at another’s, or in this case several others’, expense.”
The tensions, especially between Slash and Axl Rose are obviously not forgotten. “He hates my guts,” Slash, 46, told Rolling Stone magazine in early April. “It’s over a lot of different stuff; I don’t even know. There’s just no communication between us. I talk to Duff and Steven, but when it comes to old Guns N’ Roses, there really isn’t anybody that makes decisions.”
Who of the original Guns N’ Roses will attend the ceremony is still a mystery. But one thing is for sure, Axl Rose will not be there. He will be truly missed in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
The only other band who ever declined to become a member of the Hall were The Sex Pistols.
