1993.04.15 - Roanoke Civic Center, Roanoke, USA

No Southern hospitality for Axl Rose’s return to Atlanta

ATLANTA (AP) — Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose is coming to Atlanta for the first time since 1987, but officials don’t plan to give him a key to the city. They haven’t forgotten his last appearance here.

The heavy metal band is to perform April 15 before a sellout crowd at The Omni.

Apparently, the promoters thought it would be entertaining to give him a key, or at least a piece of paper signed by the mayor.

But official city image protector Joel Babbit said no way.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate that you give a key to the city to a guy who hits a policeman on his last visit here,” Babbit said Monday.

On the group’s last trip to Atlanta, Rose was arrested for brawling with security personnel at The Omni.

“I think he ought to be the one giving something to us — maybe 1,000 bulletproof vests for police,” said Babbit, Mayor Maynard Jackson’s spokesman. “Plus, I don't like his music.”

Gunning on empty: Rose may cancel

There was no shortage of tongue-in-cheek reaction Wednesday when it became apparent Guns N’ Roses plans to cancel its April 15 concert at The Omni because vocalist Axl Rose isn’t getting a key to the city. “We’re not going to lower our flags to half-mast over this,” said Joel Babbit, the mayor’s director of marketing and communication. Babbit had rebuffed Rose’s request for either a key to the city or an apology for his arrest during a never-finished show here in 1987. “I guess this means my request for the band to play my daughter’s birthday party won’t go through either,” Babbit said. A spokesman for concert promoter Cellar Door acknowledged that it appears the Gunners will perform in Roanoke, Va., on April 15, but added, “For the record, they’re good fellows.” A formal announcement is expected today.

► THE BALLAD OF GUNS N’ REFUNDS: Another chapter in the five-year saga of Guns N’ Roses and Atlanta ended Thursday. The band’s April 15 show at The Omni, originally scheduled for Feb. 28, was officially canceled and fans were told to obtain refunds at the point of purchase (249-6400.)

The principals, meanwhile, set off on different tangents to explain why the Gunners, who have never played a full set in Atlanta, won’t be coming.

Lead singer Axl Rose said, “I suppose the mayor will say I’m some [bleep] who doesn’t care for his fans... but I'm not willing to be a sitting duck for the police.”

The band’s manager, Doug Blackstein of BFD Entertainment, said he was calling off the show because of the possibility that Mr. Rose, who’s on parole in St. Louis for one of his several brushes with the law, might run afoul of authorities. He was arrested here shortly after starting an opening-act set at The Omni in 1987.

Guitarist Slash, speaking in a statement released by Geffen Records publicist Bryn Bridenthal about 1 a.m. Thursday, tried to inject some humor, saying “We’d love to play there. After all, they have great strip bars."

The promoter of the Atlanta show, Cellar Door of Florida, finds itself in a Catch-22 situation. While its Atlanta office oversees refunds for the Atlanta show, its Virginia office will be promoting the Guns N’ Roses concert in Roanoke on April 15.

Cellar Door spokesmen declined to comment on Mr. Blackstein’s statement that the Atlanta show would not have been agreed to if the band had not been promised that, as far as the city was concerned, “bygones would be bygones.”

The city earlier rejected requests for a key to the city for the band.