Guns N' Roses sued over 'sample'

Axl Rose is the only original member of Guns n Roses left in the band.

Guns N' Roses are being sued for $1m (£630,000) over claims they sampled two tracks by German musician Ulrich Schnauss on their Chinese Democracy CD.

Schnauss's UK and US record labels claim the song Riad N' the Bedouins borrowed from his compositions Wherever You Are and A Strangely Isolated Place.

Guns N' Roses band members, producers and record label Interscope-Geffen are included in the lawsuit.

Chinese Democracy, released 2008, was Guns N' Roses first album in 17 years.

Electronic musician Schnauss released his tracks in 2001 and 2003.

Band members named

The lawsuit has been issued by lawyers representing Independiente and Domino Records USA.

After a 17 year wait, there was huge anticipation for Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy, but it suffered from disappointing sales.

Singer Axl Rose is the only original member of the band but other current and former band members are named in the suit. They include guitarist Brian Carroll, bassist Tommy Stinson, and Robin Finck.

"The band vigorously contests these claims and intends to respond accordingly," said manager Irving Azoff in response to the claims.

"The band believed when the record came out and still believes that there are no unauthorised samples on the track. The snippets of 'ambient noise' in question were provided by a member of the album's production team who has assured us that these few seconds of sound were obtained legitimately.

"Artists these days can't read the minds of those they collaborate with and therefore are unfortunately vulnerable to claims like this one.

"While the band resents the implication that they would ever use another artist's work improperly and are assessing possible counterclaims, they are confident this situation will be satisfactorily resolved," he added.