Axl Rose Close to Losing $20M Lawsuit Against Activision for Featuring Slash

The GnR frontman alleged he was duped into licensing "Welcome to the Jungle," but his failure to sing to a judge sooner appears to have doomed him.

Axl Rose might not like that Guitar Hero III featured his former Guns N' Roses band-mate Slash on the front cover, but he might have objected too late.

At a summary judgment hearing today, Los Angeles Superior Court judge Charles Palmer reportedly indicated that he is inclined to dismiss Rose's $20 million lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for fraudulently inducing him into authorizing "Welcome to the Jungle" for use in the popular game. At the conclusion of the hearing, according to an attorney involved in the case, the judge took the matter under submission.

Originally, Rose sued for fraud and breach of contract, and last August, the judge struck the fraud claim because of the statute of limitations issue. That ruling came despite arguments by Rose's lawyer that the claims did not accrue until he discovered that "Activision had been intentionally concealing its plans to use [Velvet Revolver] and Slash in the game all along."

What was left was deciding the contract issue -- and the parties disputed the form that contract took.

Rose's attorneys pointed to emails to Activision by Wayne Milligan, a licensing administrator at Sussman & Associates who does work for GNR Music, which administers publishing rights to the band's songs. The rock star's position was that there was a written agreement not to have Velvet Revolver -- Slash's band -- and that as a result, Rose had four years to file a lawsuit.

But Judge Palmer is inclined to rule that the agreement relied at least on oral promises and was subject to a two-year statute of limitations. "The only extrinsic evidence supports Activision's interpretation and does not support Rose's interpretation," the judge ruled in a tentative order that was recorded by a legal newswire.

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