Even in the crazy world of rock and roll, Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose has got a reputation for being a bit of a wild man: fighting, showing up late – or failing to show up at all, and much, much more.
And it can be revealed that the latest chapter in a big book of bad behaviour came when he insisted, bizarrely, on spending the night at Tottenham Hotspur’s £1billion football stadium in North London.
Rose was booked to play consecutive nights with GNR at the 62,850-seater stadium – then brand spanking new.
But he ended up staying, and sleeping on an IKEA bed in the away dressing room, after throwing a wobbly and refusing to go back to his five-star hotel in Mayfair.
A perfectly placed source says: ‘Axl said he didn’t want to go back to the Dorchester between his two consecutive nights at Spurs’ stadium.
‘He said, ”Find me a nice suite in the stadium’. You don’t really say no to him when he is insisting.
In the world of rock and roll, Axl Rose has a reputation for being a wild man, and his latest bad behaviour came when he insisted on spending the night at Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium
Rose was booked to play consecutive nights at the 62,850-seater stadium – then brand spanking new, and ended up staying, and sleeping on an IKEA bed in the away dressing room
‘This was the first music gig in a brand new stadium, but the problem was that there is no such thing as a suite in it.
‘So someone was sent out to the Ikea on the North Circular to buy him a bed and bedding.
‘They weren’t sure where to set it up and thought about one of the hospitality boxes, but that felt like a bad idea.
‘In the end, they put him in the away dressing room. Apparently he was really happy with it.
‘The next day, the roadies packed the bed and the bedding and everything away into one of their vans, and off they went with it.’
The stranger than fiction eventshappened in July 2022, during the band’s Covid-delayed UK tour.
And he’s coming back! Earlier his month it was announced that Guns N’ Roses – whose hits include Sweet Child O’Mine, Welcome To The Jungle and Paradise City – will headline the Download festival at Donington in June 2026; their only UK gig.
Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit are the other headliners. Presumably he won’t be wanting to kip backstage this time around.
AXL, whose real name is William, has fallen out with pretty much everyone in his time. He reportedly had a fist fight with David Bowie in 1989, after Bowie showed too much interest in Rose’s then-girlfriend Erin Everly.
He also had a brawl with fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger in a nightclub in 2006, which was captured on camera.
The band’s lead guitarist Slash quit in 1996, saying: ‘Axl and I have not been capable of seeing eye to eye on Guns N’ Roses for some time.
‘I’d like to think we could work together in the future, if we were able to work out our differences.’
That took some time — he returned in 2016.
The box office on Sydney Sweeney’s latest film – the boxing drama Christy – may have disappointed, but you can’t fault the girl for her efforts to hype up an audience.
After learning to box for the film, Sweeney, 28, has told a sports website that she fancies stepping into the ring for a charity fight – perhaps even a pay per view bout.
In an interview with SportsCasting she said: ‘There was a moment in the middle of filming where I was like, ”Should I give it all up and fight? Because I love this”.
The box office on Sydney Sweeney’s film – the boxing drama Christy – may have disappointed, but the actress has said that she fancies stepping into the ring for a charity fight
Christy [boxer Christy Martin, on whose life the film is based] said she’d sign me up. So, this isn’t as hypothetical as you actually think it is.
‘Yeah, I’d totally do a charity bout. That’d be so sick.’
She added: ‘It’s a surprise, you’ll have to wait, I’m serious. You gotta stay tuned for the pay-per-view and you’ll see it.’
Christy Martin, who trained with Sweeney and says she will promote the fight, added: ‘I have some names that we can’t throw out yet.’
GARY OLDMAN says that he is preparing for the day when his great role as slobbish spy chief Jackson Lamb in Apple TV’s Slow Horses comes to an end.
Oldman said: ‘For the past five years, I’ve had to sort of carry around whiskers and long hair. When I’m not being Jackson Lamb, I’ll tie up my hair.
‘I’ve got a bit of a tummy. I carry him around with me a little. It will be a mix of sadness and joy to finally let him go. I hope to get my boyish figure back!
‘But it’ll be a sad day. He’s been really good company.’
Fans need not panic – yet. Next week Oldman starts filming Slow Horses series seven in London, which will be based on Mick Herron’s book Bad Actors.
GARY OLDMAN says that he is preparing for the day when his great role as slobbish spy chief Jackson Lamb in Apple TV’s Slow Horses comes to an end
Herron published a further book in the Slough House series, Clown Town, in September this year, which looks likely to form the basis of an eighth series. But after that, who knows?
After a career in which he has played (among others) Dracula, Harry Potter’s godfather Sirius Black and Winston Churchill, the Oscar-winning actor has found that Jackson Lamb has become a part of him, too.
‘I loved him when I first met him – and I still love him,’ he said, adding: ‘The more I find out about him, the more fascinating and kind of intriguing he is.
‘In season three, I had my shirt off, and I think it was a critic that said that I looked like a garlic bulb that had learned to walk.
‘And you may think that people would be insulted by that comment. But I laughed, and I was actually rather chuffed, because it’s sort of what I’ve been going for.’
He said becoming Lamb was now ‘second nature’ to him. ‘I put the glasses on, and the clothes, and you sort of fall directly back into him. I just feel like he’s really part of me now.’
Oldman reflected that he would love to be as thick-skinned as Lamb, who seems to actually enjoy being insulted. ‘You can’t judge him, because he doesn’t care!’ he marvelled. ‘You know, the shell is impenetrable… In a sense, it’s his spy craft.’
He added that it would be fun to introduce Lamb to Dracula, who he played in 1992. ‘I think Lamb and Dracula would be an interesting match. Dracula would come to him and say:, ”I have crossed oceans of time”.
‘And Lamb would say, ”I couldn’t give a s*** what you’ve crossed”.’
SHE was criminally underused in the first series of Landman, but Demi Moore has a bigger role in the second series, which starts streaming on Paramount+ from Sunday.
The show, which is set in West Texas, stars Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris, the titular ‘landman’ whose job it is to find, and set up, potential new oil fields.
Fans may remember that Moore’s character Cami Miller was widowed at the end of the first series.
Now, though, she is stepping up to run her husband’s oil company.
SHE was criminally underused in the first series of Landman, but Demi Moore has a bigger role in the second series, which starts streaming on Paramount+ from Sunday
In real life, Moore is far removed from the dog-eatdog world of the oil business, and her favourite piece of land is her ten-and-a-half acre plot in Aspen Lakes, Idaho – the holiday home where she spent most of Covid with her daughters and their partners.
‘This land, for me, is like a grounding of my soul,’ she said. ‘It is home in the deepest sense of the word. As somebody who moved around a lot as a kid, [it’s] truly a sanctuary to me.
‘I rescued baby ducks before the summer started, released those ducks – and now I have 36 coming to be fed on a daily basis.’
Introducing the banknote which is also an Easter Egg: an Arnold Schwarzenegger $100 bill.
The money features in the remake of The Running Man, which is out this week, and is a neat reference to Arnie, who starred in the 1987 movie of the Stephen King book.
Director Edgar Wright said: ‘We called before we started filming, because he had given his permission to put him on the money, and I told him on the call, ”Oh, we made you the hundred”.
Introducing the banknote which is also an Easter Egg: an Arnold Schwarzenegger $100 bill
‘And he goes, ”I’m very happy about that”. He got the highest denomination of the money.’
Wright even handed over a giant version of the note to actor and politician Schwarzenegger in an Instagram video this week.
Superstar author Richard Osman may have found his next big idea. The Thursday Murder Club writer told Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast that he’s a big fan of the hotel breakfast buffet.
‘I always think it could be a great restaurant: a hotel breakfast restaurant… but in the evening. People would go nuts for it.’
