GUNS N' ROSES Guitarist Says READING Festival Promoter Is 'A Selfish, Money-Grubbing Prick'

GUNS N' ROSES guitarist D.J. Ashba has slammed the organizers of the U.K.'s Reading festival for forcing the band to cut its performance short last night (Friday, August 27) at the event, allegedly due to curfew issues. In a Twitter posting, Ashba writes, "Apparently the promoter has had a personal grudge with GUNS N' ROSES stemming from eight years ago [when the band last played the Leeds festival]. If this was the case, why book the band? He knows our show. Let me guess... To take our fans' money and then not allow us to give them a show that they paid for. This was clearly not a curfew thing because after cutting our power like a selfish, money-grubbing prick, he allowed music blasting through out the venue 'till the early morning. For us this was all about the fans, the show and the music. For the promoter it was all about the money and not about the fans or the music. The promoter was already being a cocky f$#k in the press before we arrived. So yes, we went on a little late, and for this we apologize. However, our fans paid to see a show, and that's why we showed up, to give them just that. Sad that this promoter's music festival has little to do with the fans or the love for music." He added, "Last night was insane! They pulled the power, but failed to kill the connection as 90,000 people sang 'Paradise City'."

Ashba's GN'R bandmate Richard Fortus (guitar) echoed D.J.'s sentiments, writing on his Twitter profile, "I don't think there is another band out right now that has the balls to do what we did last night. Axl insists on doing things his way and not playing by the fucking rules. You can love him or hate him for it, but the fact of the matter is.... he's the real fucking deal. skin, blood and soul. Deal with it or not, but it won't ever change."

GUNS N' ROSES reportedly started its Reading festival performance at 10:30 p.m. — more than an hour later than scheduled — and was given an extra half hour to play, until roughly midnight.

In a statement to BBC News, the Reading festival organizers said, "GUNS N' ROSES wanted to 'extend' the new agreed curfew but were prevented from doing so in order to comply with the entertainment licence issued by Reading Council."

GUNS N' ROSES played the final song of its set, "Paradise City", with no guitars and the crowd shouting along despite the lack of sound with Axl Rose singing through a megaphone, according to BBC News.

Eight years ago the Axl Rose-fronted band was over two hours late at Leeds, and it landed the festival in hot water with the local council.

As previously reported, GN'R's late start at the Rock 'N Rev Festival in Sturgis, South Dakota on August 13 — where the band came on at around 1:00 a.m., nearly two hours after previous act ALICE IN CHAINS — was apparently due to a technical issue and not Axl Rose's well-known tendency to start shows hours behind schedule.

According to the Rapid City Journal, festival official Dan Catullo said that a switchover from festival sound equipment to GUNS' own gear took longer than anticipated and also caused complications with the festival's video crew, who were filming the event.

Catullo said that Rose, who is notorious for showing up late or not at all for concerts, was "the most insanely professional gentleman that I ever met. He came and did his job exactly as contracted."

The long delay led to a large portion of the crowd leaving before GUNS came on, while others hurled beer cans and other objects at the stage.