Axl Beats Down a Pap at LAX (...and the Media Scuttlebutt)

So much Guns N' Roses news ... so little time ...

Regarding the Axl/Paparazzi incident at LAX on December 10:

The first account came via LiveDaily (owned by Ticketmaster/Irving Azoff BTW),

At Los Angeles International Airport, Rose got into a scuffle with a paparazzo that ended up with a few bloodied participants. Even with Rose flying to Taiwan there is still concern about whether he will be in the mood to perform, a question that had been raised earlier in the week when the rest of the band flew to the gig without the singer.

TMZ picked up the story the next day, and they followed-it-up the next day with this video which proved that the whole thing was true:



Interestingly, a guy named "Tom" posted the following comment on page 2 of the TMZ article,

They'll probably delete this but this whole thing is a scam. I was at the airport that night and I'm actually in the video ... The paparazzi were taunting Axl for ages and the whole thing kicked off when one of the paparazzi knocked into his mom. This video looks as if it were shot by somebody at the airport but was in fact shot by one of the paparazzi team. We saw them all standing together laughing about this afterwards. So they basically MADE this news knowing that taunting him and shouting swears at him would piss him off. I think this is disgusting behavior from the press, shouting insults and curse words around families to elicit a response from a celebrity. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Also, if this is disputed I am prepared to go on record to expose the lengths this reporters will go to.

Posted at 12:11PM on Dec 11th 2009 by Tom

Guns N' Roses official(?) Facebook page issued a statement regarding the fracas,

Axl Rose Accosted by Belligerent Paparazzi at LAX

Lead singer of Guns N' Roses unhurt in encounter with unruly photographers


(Los Angeles) December 10, 2009 –
Axl Rose, lead singer for the legendary rock group Guns N' Roses, was unhurt last evening when he was accosted by an unruly group of paparazzi at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

At the time of the incident, Mr. Rose was en-route to Taipei, Taiwan, to kick-off Guns N' Roses’ tour of Southeast Asia including shows in Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

Mr. Rose, who was about to enter a security checkpoint at LAX when the altercation took place, was approached by a group of unchecked and unruly photographers who became aggressive with the singer and female members of the traveling group.

Mr. Rose was not injured during the unprovoked attack and was able to board his flight without further incident.

Next up, Rolling Stone published these awesome pictures of the scuffle:





If you're unfamiliar with the members of Axl's entourage, the young man in the leather jacket is Fernando Lebeis, son of Axl's personal assistant, Beta Lebeis (not pictured) who was apparently struck by the paparazzo "They hit our moother." The beautiful young woman restraining Mr. Rose in none other than Sasha Volkova, a model who has been linked to Axl for man years. Her artwork appears in the Chinese Democracy booklet.

But wait - there's more! This morning at 2:30 AM, Axl Rose released a statement via the band's official Facebook page. In it, he denies releasing the initial statement (above), "calls-out" manager(?) Irving Azoff, the press, and Kim Jong-il:

Axl Rose denies releasing press statement regarding rumored LAX incident. "I did not release any statement or authorize either any statement or anyone to release a statement regarding anything at any airport anywhere.

We had recently began working with newer individuals in management in relation to our current Asian tour in support of our Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" in addition to Irving Azoff's though as it happens we are once again touring Asia without management of any kind.

Imo this non sense may be some type of manufactured or publicity stunt.

We're looking forward to performing in Osaka and Tokyo Japan doubling our pyro show and with our "new" full stage as local requirement have limited us on its use in our last performances.

Thanks to everyone who's come out to see us. It's been really fun so far and the addition of our new guitarist Dj Ashba joining us along w/ guitarists Ron Bumblefoot Thal and Richard Fortus, gives the night a kick in the pants.

Hope to see the rest of you soon!!

And to any publications running this; please feel free to tack on whatever negative agenda supporting nonsense you generally do (You know who you are!!). After all it's only someone else's livelihood you media police state, no fun, spoil sport, communist bastards.

Peace!!"

The band's currently in Seoul, South Korea where the promote was "sorry" to inform them they would not be able to use a helicopter from the airport to the venue as North Korea would "wonder" what it is!!

CLASSIC AXL ROSE!

This stuff is too good.