TESLA Working On 'Acoustic-Style' Album

Vocalist Jeff Keith and guitarist Frank Hannon of California rockers TESLA have been working in the studio recording some tracks for the "acoustic"-style album that the band has been planning to release for the 20th anniversary of its multi-platinum "Five Man Acoustic Jam" LP. There is no tentative title for the new release yet, but expect to hear some never-before-released versions of TESLA classics such as "Changes", "Paradise", as well as some recordings of studio versions from the 2004 acoustic tour. Also featured will be a brand new song called "2nd Street", and the infamous "Better Off Without You" recorded acoustically.

During a recent appearance on VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show", Hannon accused GUNS N' ROSES of ripping off the early TESLA track "Better Off Without You" for the GN'R classic "Patience". He said, "Let me tell you something: 'Patience'... We were labelmates with GUNS N' ROSES on Geffen. There's a demo of a song that we wrote called 'Better Off Without You'. It is 'Patience' note for note . . . I don't know if they ripped us off or Tom Zutaut or Geffen or somebody passed them the tape."

In response, former GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Slash wrote on his Facebook page, "I heard that one of the guys from TESLA claimed GN'R stole 'Patience' from them. I'm assuming he's smoking super crack. Or dreaming out loud . . . I didn't hear the actual interview so I won't jump to conclusions based on hearsay. I'll just make emotiphants!"

In the meantime, Hannon took to TESLA's official forum to clarify the comments he made on "That Metal Show", explaining, "The demo of 'Better Off Without You' I was talking about is an acoustic guitar version we did live at the Oasis Ballroom in 1985 that Geffen Records had on a 'live' cassette tape of a show we played. They did make some copies of it with labels on them and handed them out to people before we made our first album. If anyone can find one, that would be awesome. I was not talking about the piano version that's floating around on a bootleg.

"Also, for the record: 'Better Off Without You' is a song in 'D' and it does the 'D/F#-to-G' chord change in it. This is also the same type of change that GN'R used at the end of 'Patience' and also the same change that John Lennon uses in 'Imagine'...

"I do not seriously feel that we wrote 'Patience' in ANY WAY.

"The song 'Patience' is a great song that they [GUNS N' ROSES] wrote themselves, and it is only the end part that has any similar part to the guitar chords we used.

"I apologize for any controversy or disrespect I may have projected in my joking around with Eddie Trunk ['That Metal Show' co-host] about this."