2000.01.04 - MTV News - GN'R Management Sues Slash, Duff

GUNS N' ROSES MANAGEMENT SUES FORMER MEMBERS SLASH, DUFF

ARCHIVE-SORELLE-SAIDMAN
01/04/2000

Guns N' Roses has seen more courtrooms than concert halls the past seven years, and the dawning of a new century hasn't changed matters much.

GN'R's management company, Big F D Entertainment (headed up by Doug Goldstein) is suing former bandmembers Slash (Saul Hudson) and Duff McKagan (Michael McKagan) for what Big F D says are monies owed, according to papers dated December 14 and filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. The suit claims that the pair is in debt to the company to the tune of at least $400,000.

Slash's lawyer, Zia Modabber, told MTV News that the guitarist's contract with Goldstein ended some time ago and that the manager isn't owed anything. The lawyer added that Slash intends to vigorously defend himself in court.

The filed documents include a copy of Goldstein's contract, which covers not only the bandmembers' work with GN'R, but also the individual members' solo projects. The contract appears to be valid for either a term of three-years or until the last day of the next GN'R tour cycle, which ever comes last. The three-year period appears to have started in October of 1992 and ended in October of 1995.

GN'R released its last original product, the "Use Your Illusion" album set, in 1991, and the group last toured in 1993.

The key issue apparently lies with the definition and timeline of the term "tour cycle." Big F D legal counsel Bert Deixler told MTV News there's a new Guns N' Roses record on the way (presumably "Chinese Democracy," the project Axl Rose first mentioned to MTV News' Kurt Loder in November of last year) that will give rise to a GN'R tour, and that when that tour is over, the contract will expire.

Slash left the group in 1996 and was followed by McKagan in 1998. Rose retained the rights to the Guns N' Roses name and has assembled a new band that will be using that moniker. According to the documents filed last month, the band is expected to finish recording this spring and will start touring in the summer or fall.

McKagan is also accused of breaching the management contract by hiring independent managers in 1997 and again in 1999, although Slash's manager, Tom Maher, is not referenced in the documents. Maher declined to comment for this story, and McKagan's current manager, Katrina Sirdofsky, was not immediately available.

Calls to the band's label, Interscope, were not returned.

https://tinyurl.com/y8s3utfz

Allstarmag, January 4, 2000:

Big F D Files Lawsuit Against Slash, Duff McKagan

Guns N' Roses' management firm, Big F D Entertainment, has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against the band's former guitarist and bassist, Slash and Duff McKagan, respectively. The complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, is for breach of written contract, accounting, and quantum meruit and is seeking no less than $400,000 and costs of the suit.

One of Big F D's complaints is that Slash (born Saul Hudson) and McKagan (born Michael McKagan) have refused to pay the firm monies earned from the recently-released live album, Live Era 1987-93, which the two appear on. The suit reads, in part, "Not only do these defendants refuse to pay for current efforts undertaken by Big F D, but they also now refuse to pay Big F D in conjunction with past services for which income continues and to which commission Big F D is unequivocally entitled ... [The live album] is among the work for which the defendants wish not to pay Big F D and for which they intend and have already kept the money owed to Big F D."

The suit also claims that Slash and McKagan breached the management contract they signed in 1991 (and amended in 1992) while in GNR -- which they are no longer members of -- by hiring independent managers in 1997 and again in 1999. According to the suit, the two were also to pay a percentage of earnings from their non-GNR work, which has not been paid.

"Big F D was to be paid pursuant to the management agreement a commission equal to 15%, excepting certain exclusions, of the gross earnings of the defendants annually received during the term of the management agreement," reads the suit. "Such gross earnings included moneys [sic] received by the defendants from any activities throughout the entertainment industry whether received as a member of Guns N' Roses or as a member of any other group or as a solo artist."

Big F D and Slash declined to comment on the suit, and McKagan was unreachable at press time.

-- Carrie Borzillo

Entertainment Weekly, January 5, 2000:

GUNS TROUBLE The management company for the intermittently defunct Guns N’ Roses is suing former members Slash and Duff McKagan, claiming the duo owes it $400,000 in album royalties. However, Slash’s lawyer told MTV News that the company, Big F D, no longer represents the two, and presented their contract that says it expires either three years after the signature, or three years after the last tour, whichever comes last; the contract was drawn up in 1992, and the last GN’R tour ended in 1993, so either way it seems moot. But the Big F D lawyers claim that the last tour date still hasn’t happened, since Axl Rose, the sole remaining member of the band, is currently finishing a new album under the GN’R name and plans to tour, so even though Duff and Slash are no longer in it, the band’s contract still holds. Looks like Y2K hasn’t affected loophole technology.

https://ew.com/article/2000/01/05/ted-turner-and-jane-fonda-separate/

The Age, January 7, 2000: