Guns N' Roses - Criticism

Criticism

The band has also received criticism throughout the years. The flagrant alcohol and drug abuse by some members of the group, and Axl's fondness for Charles Manson T-shirts, were used by the media to portray Guns N' Roses as a poor example and negative influence on their young fans. Lyrical content of songs such as "One in a Million" stirred controversy. The long periods of time that the band took to release albums were also a source of criticism: the band's second album, G N' R Lies, was actually an EP packaged with another older EP, and one of the songs was an acoustic version of a song from their debut album. It took four years for the band to release a proper follow-up to Appetite for Destruction, and it took Rose another 15 years after The Spaghetti Incident to release Chinese Democracy. Their controversial late appearances and "war" with Reading and Leeds festival have been criticized by artists and their peers in the industry. In October 2009, Ulrich Schnauss's record labels Independiente and Domino sued Guns N' Roses, alleging that the band had committed copyright infringement by using portions of Schnauss's compositions in the track "Riad N' the Bedouins" on the album Chinese Democracy.