1998.02.05 - Los Angeles Daily News - [Guns N' Lawsuits]

Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose is working on new songs, and that's about all that's going on musically with the erstwhile megaband as you read this. But that isn't keeping GNR from having to deal with legal trouble. A royalty dispute over the songs "Shadow of Your Love'' and "Back Off, B----'' has now erupted into a lawsuit.

Musician-songwriter Chris Weber, who played with Rose in a band that was a precursor to GNR, and his manager, Gregory Ehrlich, started the civil action aimed against Rose two weeks ago.

"I'm not overly concerned about it,'' says Doug Goldstein, manager of Rose and Guns N' Roses, the legal entity. "Basically, it's a nuisance lawsuit. I checked with all the clients I represent, and they vehemently deny his (Weber's) writing those two songs. In fact, one of the songs was written before he was even in the band, according to Axl.'' Not according to Ehrlich, who claims to have a 1983 videotape of Rose and Weber performing the song together. Says Goldstein, "I've been hearing about that video for four years and have yet to see it.''