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Axl Boots Eagles of Death Metal Off Tour

Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse "The Devil" Hughes was pretty excited when he learned that his band had been picked to open a series of dates on the long-awaited Guns N' Roses arena tour. But he quickly learned that no one, not even The Devil, is safe from Axl Rose's wrath. After one unsuccessful show, the Eagles got their walking papers.

After some GNR fans booed Eagles of Death Metal at their debut performance in Cleveland last Friday (November 24th), Axl repeatedly referred to his invited guests as "Pigeons of Sh*t Metal" during his own set. Taking it a step further, he assured the Clevelanders that the "Pigeons" would no longer be part of the tour. This bomb was felt especially hard online, where GNR and EODM fans raced to their respective message boards and MySpace pages to proclaim that the other band totally sucked.

As for Hughes, who had told Billboard several days earlier that the invitation from the GNR camp had caused him to giggle for almost 15 minutes, the mustachioed merrymaker did his best to take the early dismissal in stride.

"At first the audience refused to welcome us to the jungle," he said in a statement, "but by the time we took our final bow, it had become paradise city. Although Axl tried to November rain on our parade, no sweet child o' mine can derail the EODM night train. We say live and let die."

The GNR camp responded by cancelling their show Tuesday night (November 28th) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, citing illness.

Later, Hughes claimed that Rose "went nuts" during GNR's set and that his management later called to apologize and invite Eagles of Death Metal to rejoin the tour -- an offer Hughes flatly refused. "I just said, 'You can tell that motherf**ker to go and f**k himself because I will never go through that again.'"

Axl and GNR have yet to name a replacement. Sebastian Bach of Skid Row fame is continuing to play in the first opening slot -- and also serves as an understudy of sorts for the unlikely event that Mr. Rose is unable (or unwilling) to finish a show.

--The ARTISTdirect Staff
11.29.06