GN’R Rip-Off Artists? Post by: Eddie Ruckus - Rockin' Blogger 7 October, 2009 - 6:29 AM

Did Guns N' Roses rip off a German techno act on Chinese Democracy?

Yes, the latest from the Planet Bizarro that is modern-day GN'R suggests Axl Rose and his buddies [does he have any of those left?] sampled two songs from a German electro act with the catchy name of Ulrich Schnauss, without the artist’s permission.

The alleged plagiarism happens at the start of the track “Riad N’ the Bedouins” from GN'R’s best-selling Chinese Democracy [ha! – obviously we’re joking about the ‘best seller’ bit].

A $1 million lawsuit filed against the Gunners in the US claims the ambient sounds used at the start of “Riad N’ the Bedouins” were lifted from two Schnauss songs, “Wherever You Are” and “A Strangely Isolated Place”.

The Gunners’ manager Irving Azoff came out yesterday and made a half-arsed denial of the charge, saying if there was any copying that went down, it wasn’t Axl’s fault.

“The band believed when the record came out and still believes that there are no unauthorised samples on the track,” said Azoff. “The snippets of ‘ambient noise’ in question were provided by a member of the album’s production team who has assured us that these few seconds of sound were obtained legitimately.

“While the band resents the implication that they would ever use another artist’s work improperly and are assessing possible counterclaims, they are confident this situation will be satisfactorily resolved.”

Sounds like some poor studio lacky is gonna burn.

Should Axl get off that lightly?

Leave your comment

• gerry says

  If Axl did rip-off this German dude good luck to him getting any money off him.

  Posted Wednesday 7 October, 2009 9:25 AM