DUFF MCKAGAN Responds To AXL ROSE

VELVET REVOLVER bassist Duff McKagan has responded to a press release issued last week by GUNS N' ROSES frontman W. Axl Rose.

Rose lambasted his former GUNS bandmates, McKagan and VELVET REVOLVER guitarist Slash, claiming that the latter called VELVET REVOLVER singer Scott Weiland a "fraud" and McKagan "spineless" in an early morning meeting at Rose's house last year.

McKagan told Launch that he would rather not get involved in the situation at all. "I think, you know, a lot of it's really unfortunate, very difficult," he said in an interview conducted last Friday (March 10). "I've always just wanted to make great music and that's what I plan on doing. As far as a rebuttal to what he said, or what Slash has said, I won't get involved in a war of words, you know. People say all kinds of stuff and I'm not going to be one of them."

Scott Weiland was not as diplomatic. In a posting at VELVET REVOLVER's official web site, Weiland called Rose a "fat, Botox-faced, wig-wearin' fuck." Weiland wrote that Rose had an "unoriginal, uncreative little mind, the same mind that had to rely on its bandmates to write melodies and lyrics — who's the fraud now?"

Weiland also slammed Rose for taking more than a decade to make the still-unreleased GUNS N' ROSES album "Chinese Democracy", saying, "How many albums have you put out, man, and how long did it take the current configuration of this so-called 'band' to make (the album)?...We toured our album over a year and a half. How many shows have you played over the last 10 years?" The last GUNS N' ROSES tour, in 2002, ended abruptly after just a handful of shows.

Weiland concluded by calling Rose a "frightened little man who once thought he was king."

A VELVET REVOLVER spokesperson told MTV.com that Slash would issue his own response within days.

Rose's initial press release accompanied his countersuit against Slash and McKagan, who have sued Rose over licensing, publishing and royalty issues.

McKagan told Launch that VELVET REVOLVER will enter the studio on April 10 to begin recording its sophomore album.