The Offspring: Their April Fools Day Guns N' Roses Axl Rose Joke About Chinese Democracy/Splint

The Offspring's April Fool's Day prank against Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses over their album 'Chinese Democracy'

SIGN UP for 10 of the Craziest Stories in Rock N' Roll [Secret Playlist]: https://bit.ly/3vVPAEF

Have a video request or a topic you'd like to see us cover? Fill out our google form!
https://bit.ly/3stnXlN

-----CONNECT ON SOCIAL-----
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rocknrolltruestories
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RNRTrueStories
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rocktruestories
Blog: www.rockandrolltruestories.com

#theoffspring #axlrose #gunsnroses

I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

Back in December of 2003 The Offspring would be releasing their seventh studio album named Splinter. But going back to April of the same year the band was getting ready to announce the name of the album and as an april fools joke got on the nerves of Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose. So much so, it resulted in the threat of legal action. Let’s explore what happened in today’s video.

Guns N’ Roses classic early 90’s lineup of frontman Axl Rose, Guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan, Gilby Clarke and keyboardist Dizzy Reed would slowly fall apart by the mid 90’s. While there was no big explosion or nasty breakup, members with the exception Rose and Reed left the group or were fired by 1997. This resulted in frontman Axl Rose owning the Guns n’ Roses name and being at the helm of their new album. Years had passed since the band’s last studio album and by 1998 it appeared that Rose had assembled a new lineup of Guns N’ Roses. The following year the album had a name Chinese Democracy after Rose was interviewed by Kurt Loder over the phone and said the following “There's a lot of Chinese democracy movements, and it's something that there's a lot of talk about, and it's something that will be nice to see,” “It could also just be like an ironic statement. I don't know, I just like the sound of it.” Years would go by and while Rose and his new lineup of Guns N’ Roses would play some live shows and tour there new album was a no show. By 2003 The Offspring decided to have some fun with the whole situation when it came time to name their seventh studio record.

Frontman Dexter Holland would tell Spinner what happened saying “When the record’s coming together, you try to seriously think of a title for ten minutes and then everyone in the band jokes around for the next two hours with ideas like Offspring Bloody Offspring," "One day, somebody suggested Chinese Democracy and we couldn’t stop laughing about it." Frontman Dexter Holland would issue a statement to commemorate the Offspring’s seventh album being announced saying

You snooze, you lose,”“Axl ripped-off my braids, so I ripped-off his album title.” Some news stories claimed the offspring’s seventh album would be called chinese democracy while other stories claimed it was chinese democracy and in parentheses you snooze you lose)

So was the whole stunt legal? Well Rolling Stone Magazine would cite Greg Victoroff who is a co0yright lawyer who stated at the time “Trademark law does not come into existence
unless the title is used in interstate commerce,” adding that copyright law
does not extend to titles.

“[Right now], they’re just two ordinary words,”.
“Under that analysis, it would seem that Guns n’ Roses have no
right to that title and the Offspring are free to use it in any
purpose they wish.”

The lawyer would go on to tell Rolling Stone that while Guns N’ Roses had referred to the name CHinese Democracy in press releases and part of their failed 2002 tour it never had an official release date. Even then Victoroff would tell Rolling Stone that if both albums shared the same name as long as the name of each band was clearly labeled on the album there wouldn’t be an issue for the Offspring. In fact it’s pretty common to see albums share same names in the past and songs.

It was reported at the time that Guns N’ Roses lawyers had sent the OffSpring a cease and desist letter, something which was disputed by the Offspring’s camp.

Coincidentally, Josh Freese, would play with the Offspring in 2003 and had originally worked and wrote some of the material on Chinese Democracy from 1998-2000.

Sources:
https://vermilioncountyfirst.c....om/2021/04/15/the-of

https://www.mygnrforum.com/top....ic/207158-offspring-

https://www.mtv.com/news/14708....91/guns-n-roses-chin

https://loudwire.com/offspring....-nearly-stole-chines