THE BEAST

AXL ROSE Takes 50% Of GUNS N’ ROSES’ Income: "He Wants To Be In Control Of Everything"

In the chaotic world of rock ‘n’ roll, power can be as addictive as the limelight—and no one may embody that more than GUNS N’ ROSES frontman Axl Rose. According to fresh revelations from former band manager Alan Niven, the mercurial singer is now taking home a staggering 50% of the legendary band’s income—solidifying his iron grip on the GN’R empire.

Speaking on a recent episode of the Appetite For Distortion podcast, Niven painted a picture of a frontman obsessed with control.

“It’s a control thing with Axl,” Niven claimed. “Here’s another little snapshot that is illuminating and goes to forming a correct perception. Axl takes 50% of the income of GUNS N’ ROSES now. 50%, okay? That, to me, is anathema. He is not GUNS N’ ROSES.”

Niven emphasized that the band was never about one individual, but rather a unique alchemy between five musicians whose chemistry defined a generation of rock.

“They were five individuals. It was a chemistry. It was a moment. But Axl wants to be in control of everything all the time. And look what that gets you. A boring solo record and a sh**ty thing of punk covers. And that’s it.”

Niven was likely referencing the band’s divisive 1993 punk covers album The Spaghetti Incident? and the polarizing Chinese Democracy, the 2008 opus that took over a decade to see the light of day.

The interview also pulled the curtain back on GN’R’s early struggles, revealing that the band’s breakthrough wasn’t always a sure thing. In fact, their record label, Geffen, was close to dropping them entirely before the release of Appetite for Destruction, one of the best-selling debut albums of all time.

“They were a bunch of f**kups whom Geffen wanted to drop,” Niven recalled. “Eddie Rosenblatt [former head of Geffen] wanted to drop the band before Appetite ever got recorded.”

Niven said he was given a mere three months to make the band “look productive” or they were gone.

“Tom Zutaut didn’t tell me that until years later,” he added. “But when I came on board, as far as Geffen was concerned, if I didn’t make it look real within three months, they were going to get dropped.”

Ironically, it was not Axl, but Slash, who ultimately convinced Niven to manage the group.

“No one wanted to manage them. Why was I managing them? Because everybody else said no… I didn’t want to do it to start with, either. The seduction, for me, was actually Slash, when I realized, ‘Oh, he’s really intelligent and charming.’ There’s a little bit.”

The revelations shine a harsh light on the inner workings of one of rock’s most explosive bands. While Axl Rose remains the defining voice of GUNS N’ ROSES, the question persists: at what cost does control come—and how much is left of the band that once changed the face of hard rock?

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