"Chicanery" is truly a word that's not used enough. Dictionary.com defines it as "trickery or deception by quibbling or sophistry." And it's a word Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose recently used when talking about Guitar Hero publisher Activision Blizzard.
In a ridiculous 4,000-plus-word rant on Guns N' Roses' online message boards, Rose calls out Activision for not properly obtaining the rights to use the band's name in relation to Guitar Hero III. Their classic song, "Welcome to the Jungle" apppeared as a playable song in the title, as did a digital-likeness of the band's former guitarist Slash.
The rant is kind of all over the place, but Rose is clearly bothered by Activision's use of the band's name, as well as how it handled its relationship with Slash.
"[Slash] being in Guitar Hero is fine," writes Rose, "but not when Activision is using 'Jungle,' having Yahoo! use 'Sweet Child' unauthorized, claims no involvement with Slash, his or anyone's image or VR or anyone or anyone's music in either camp in promotion or commercials, etc."
"I read about it as it moved along, but Activision continually denied it right up to the releases," he continues. "That's some low life chicanery on all their parts."
OK, so I have no idea what the hell he's talking about, exactly. But Rose obviously isn't a huge fan of the folks behind Guitar Hero. With him already convinced that the entirety of Guns' new album Chinese Democracy is coming to Rock Band at some point, it's probably not long until Appetite for Destruction follows.
Please.
[Via Stage Select]
Contest:
1:40 PM on 12.17.2008
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Stop being a Bitch Axl Rose.
Why don't you put your stress to good use else where rather than ranting whenever it's that time of the month.
Not as good as "Use Your Illusion II", but still ok.
Sure, it would have helped to, I don't know, post the questions, but still it's unfair to label the thing as a 4,000-word rant. It's not something where he just decided to amuse himself by typing this long diatribe, it appears to be responses to questions that the fans wanted to ask.
I have no opinion on the Axl-Slash controversy though, and as a guy who was never a huge GnR fan and hasn't listened to the new album, this is actually the first I heard about most of it.
I agree. It definitely doesn't sound like GnR, but it definitely has some epic stuff on it. I've been enjoying it quite a bit to be honest.
/applause