AXL ROSE Says He Was 'Accosted By Belligerent Paparazzi' At LAX

Levine Communications Office, the Los Angeles public-relations firm which represents Axl Rose and GUNS N' ROSES, has released the following statement:

"Axl Rose, lead singer for the legendary rock group GUNS N' ROSES, was unhurt last evening when he was accosted by an unruly group of paparazzi at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

"At the time of the incident, Mr. Rose was en-route to Taipei, Taiwan, to kick off GUNS N' ROSES' tour of Southeast Asia including shows in Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

"Mr. Rose, who was about to enter a security checkpoint at LAX when the altercation took place, was approached by a group of unchecked and unruly photographers who became aggressive with the singer and female members of the traveling group.

"Mr. Rose was not injured during the unprovoked attack and was able to board his flight without further incident."

The rest of the current GUNS N' ROSES band — Tommy Stinson, Dizzy Reed, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, Chris Pittman, Frank Ferrer, Richard Fortus and new member DJ Ashba — traveled to Taipei earlier in the week.

After Taipei, GUNS N' ROSES is scheduled to play Seoul, Korea on Dec. 13 then Osaka, Japan (Dec. 16) and Tokyo (Dec. 19). The 16-date Canadian tour starts in Winnipeg on Jan. 13.

According to the official GUNS N' ROSESweb site, the band will be touring South America between March 10, 2010 and April 10, 2010. Exact cities/countries and dates have not yet been announced.

The upcoming worldwide tour promotes the band's latest album, "Chinese Democracy", which debuted at #1 on the charts in thirteen countries including Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, as well as the European Top 100 Albums survey.

"Chinese Democracy" was released on Black Frog/Geffen Records in November 2008 and reached three times platinum in Canada, platinum in Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, U.K., Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa. The album is gold in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Holland, Sweden, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil and Colombia. In the U.S., the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on February 3, 2009.

GUNS N' ROSES last toured the world in 2006-2007, performing 60 concerts in 26 countries, playing to more than a million fans.

"Chinese Democracy", the sixth and most recent album from GUNS N' ROSES, was released in its entirety to the Rock Band Music Store catalog of downloadable content on April 14.

The tracks are available for purchase as an album or individual tracks for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system. The tracks are available for purchase as individual tracks only for Wii.

Aside from Billboard and Spinner interviews and answering a number of fan questions at a GUNS N' ROSES message board, Rose has done no promotion of any kind for "Chinese Democracy".