Axl Rose has seemingly shut down Guns’N’Roses upcoming tour including heavily anticipated headlining appearances at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in the U.K.
“All upcoming Guns N’ Roses dates are officially canceled,” Rose posted on his Twitter account Sunday afternoon. “Please contact your place of purchase for any refunds.”
The notoriously fickle frontman’s decision, which was posted via mobile web, looks to have come as much a surprise to his band as to fans. “We are looking into this tweet,” it was posted on the Guns’N’Roses official Twitter account a bit later in the day. “Keep with us here for official word. TY”
Real or the result of a hack, Rose’s announcement comes one day after G’N’R’s first U.S. show in almost four years, at the Rock ‘N Rev motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. As has become common to many G’N’R fans over the years, both with this incarnation of the band and back when guitarist Slash, who went on to form Velvet Revolver and is currently on a solo tour, and bassist Duff McKagan still played with Rose, the band took the stage in front of the frustrated biker crowd hours late.
The Sturgis show was to kick off a series of concerts including several anticipated in the U.S. this year and in 2011.
Rose, the only remaining original member of the once hugely successful G’N’R, has never been far from the headlines, even during the 13-year making of his “Chinese Democracy.” The album, which finally came out to weak reviews and sales in late 2008, is part of the singer’s $5 million countersuit against former manager and Live Nation Entertainment chairman Irving Azoff, who sued Rose for $1.8 million in lost commissions in March 2010.
In the suit, Rose, represented by Louis “Skip” Miller, alleges Azoff was trying to manipulate him into agreeing to a Guns’N’Roses reunion tour.
The current G’N’R, which has toured sporadically in the last decade, was scheduled to play the Reading Festival on Aug. 27 and Leeds on Aug. 29 with a slew of dates in the U.K. and across Europe to follow in the fall. There has been no statement yet from either festival as to who will now headline those shows.
