Front Line Denies Rose Charges

Irving Azoff’s Front Line Management filed its response Oct. 4 to the latest legal broadside from former client Axl Rose, who was sued by the management company in March for allegedly failing to pay $1.87 million in commissions.

Rose counter-sued in May, accusing Azoff of trying to force a reunion of the original Guns N’ Roses lineup, setting up Rose and the band’s current configuration for failure by refusing to properly market and support tour efforts and botching the release of Chinese Democracy, according to court papers.

In the latest volley of responses, attorneys for Azoff and Rose declare numerous defenses, essentially issuing blanket denials of all charges leveled. Rose’s first response is that the Front Line suit is filed against “William Bill Bailey” who is “not a properly named defendant.”

Each invokes doctrines against fraud and “unclean hands,” and one of Azoff’s defenses claims that “cross-complainants are barred from any recovery because they consented to all of the alleged acts and omissions that allegedly give rise to cross-complainants’ causes of action.”

A further hearing date was yet to be set at press time.