Axl Rose lawyer: Unpaid royalties a mistake

The lawyer for Guns N' Roses vocalist W. Axl Rose told the Los Angeles Times that a "clerical error" was responsible for all the band's recent publishing royalties being sent to Axl, with none going to former Guns guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan. Slash, whose real name is Saul Hudson, and McKagan sued Rose last year, claiming that the singer changed the publisher of Guns N' Roses' music without their consent and withheld royalties as a result.

Axl's lawyer told the Times that the frontman was overpaid due to a clerical error by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), which administers payments. The lawyer said that Rose has since returned the extra money to ASCAP.

Rose sold the rights to the Guns N' Roses catalog earlier this year to the publishing arm of Sanctuary Music, the same company that currently manages him.

Hudson and McKagan have also claimed that Rose has blocked them from licensing Guns N' Roses songs for use in movies, "costing the Guns N' Roses partnership millions of dollars to date."