Former Guns N’ Roses manager Alan Niven has taken a swing at Axl Rose, again. This time he’s claiming the frontman now takes half of the band’s income and “wants to be in control of everything.”
Speaking on the Appetite for Distortion podcast to promote his upcoming book Sound N’ Fury: Rock N’ Roll Stories, Niven certainly didn’t hold back. “Axl takes 50 per cent of the income of Guns N’ Roses now. 50 per cent, OK? That, to me, is anathema,” he said. “He is not Guns N’ Roses.”
According to Niven, what made the band work in the first place was the chemistry between all five original members, not one guy running the show. “They were five individuals. It was a chemistry. It was a moment,” he added. “But Axl wants to be in control of everything all the time. And look what that gets you. A boring solo record and a shitty thing of punk covers.”
This isn’t Niven’s first time taking aim at Rose. In a 2012 interview, he recalled the singer trying to pull out of their support slot with Aerosmith in the late ’80s due to stage fright. And in a 2022 interview with Classic Rock, he described the band as “creatively impotent since 1991.”
Axl hasn’t stayed silent though. In 2013, he claimed he was pressured into the Use Your Illusion tour by Niven and Slash, saying his safety wasn’t their concern. “Alan wanted money and Slash wanted the touring to get the better of me,” he said at the time.
Now, with Niven promoting a memoir, it’s open season again. Whether you take it as insider truth or ex-manager bitterness depends on where your loyalties lie. Either way, it’s more proof that behind the reunion tours and legacy merch, Guns N’ Roses is still a band built on tension.
No word from Guns N’ Roses camp on the 50% claim. But if true, it does explain why new music’s been slow. Perhaps a little less band and a bit more business.
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