Axl Blames Illegal Downloads For Poor Album Sales

• 19th Dec 2008

Axl Rose, who has got rather chatty in the last week after keeping a low profile around the release of long awaited new album 'Chinese Democracy', has blamed the long player's relatively disappointing sales figures on illegal downloading.

Writing on the forum at chinesedemocracy.com, Rose says pesky illegal downloading was “basically devastating across the board. And when u have such a majority openly justifying their actions and throwing out nonsense such as it's not actually stealing as the original is still with whomever it's unbelievably insane. It [file sharing culture] exists because of the greed of the record industry, the greed of large scale pirating, the ease and common nature now of the act itself and personal motivations such as popularity among certain groups, possible momentary media recognition etc. And it's too rampant and widespread. It's simply too huge a mess for the courts to deal with and in that with those #'s and the expense and manpower involved necessary at this time to curtail it… obviously there are more serious crimes for society to focus on”.

Some industry insiders blamed GnR's poor record sales not on the downloading phenomenon but on Axl's unwillingness to do any promotion around the long, long awaited album release – the star having gone all but AWOL when the record arrived in the shops.

That said, perhaps it's just as well Axl wasn't too active on the promotion trail. Prior to blogging on the Chinese Democracy website, Rose went online to answer fans' questions via gnrevolution.com. When one fan questioned whether it was really Axl on the other end of the ether connection, the singer responded: “You're a little c**t and since you've been posting you've pretty much always been a little c**t. Blind accusations and insults by an anonymous coward and whiny shit stirrer aren't impressive or needed by anyone. Everyone else…talk with your administrator. Who wants to chat?!!” Great PR man that Axl Rose.