Axl Rose Tweets Apology To Cleveland Fans For Rock Hall Of Fame Snub

'Cleveland does in fact Rock!!' Rose writes to his Ohio fans.
By Gil Kaufman

Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose
Photo: Getty Images

Axl Rose clearly has no interest in resurrecting the classic lineup of Guns N' Roses, but the enigmatic hard rocker may just be on the cusp of bringing back another classic: the long-form letter.

After dashing off a scathing note
 last week in which he rejected the induction of GNR into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
, Rose typed up another wordy missive to his fans in Cleveland, apologizing to them for not visiting their city while expressing his continued confusion about just what the RRHOF is really all about
.

"To: Cleveland, Ohio, Guns N' Roses Fans and everyone who's shown support for my decision regarding the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame," read the letter Rose tweeted out on Tuesday. "I seriously didn't plan on or expect the overwhelmingly positive response and public support for my decision regarding the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

To: Cleveland, Ohio, Guns N' Roses Fans and everyone who's shown support for my decision regarding the Rock And (cont) tl.gd/h15648

— Axl Rose (@axlrose) April 17, 2012

With such a generous outpouring of solidarity from fans, media outlets, writers and other artists, I'm truly humbled, blown away and unbelievably relieved! To be honest, I thought it would go the other way and was just hoping to weather the storm. As I said, I sincerely didn't want to disappoint anyone. It gets old being the outlaw even if 'it's only rock and roll.'"

Rose said it took a lot of "focus and soul searching" to be sincere and informative in his original letter while still being diplomatic. In fact, Rose said he made honest efforts to learn everything he could about the Hall of Fame, including speaking to its president and some members.

"Though I inducted Elton John and Bernie Taupin in '94 saying something to the effect of 'I'm learning what the Hall's about...' 

I still don't exactly know or understand what the Hall is or how or why it makes money, where the money goes, who chooses the voters and why anyone or this board decides who, out of all the artists in the world that have contributed to this genre, officially 'rock' enough to be in the Hall?

," he wrote.

"This isn't an attack. These are genuine issues I don't have enough verified information on to have more than rough ideas. Certainly not enough information to make any judgments about.
"

The main point of the note, it seems, was Rose's desire to apologize to the fine folks of Cleveland for not attending the ceremony in their city. "I think they know how much I genuinely love performing there," he said. "Cleveland does in fact Rock!!
 Now that the smoke's cleared a little, any desperate, misguided attacks have been just that, a pathetic stab at gossip, some lame vindictiveness, the usual entitlement crap, he's obsessed, crazy, volatile, a hater. I once bought a homeless woman a slice of pizza who yelled at me she wanted soup. We got her the soup. You can get your own
 Again: HUGE thanks to the fans and to everyone for the incredible public support. My congratulations to the other artists inducted. And my apologies to the city and people of Cleveland, Ohio. I hope you'll forgive me and we hope to see you again soon!"

The note ended with a request that, unlike the previous communiqué, this second note posted on the official GNR website, Facebook account and Rose's personal Twitter feed is not intended as a press release. "If anyone does choose to pick this up as has been done previously I'd appreciate if you'd run in full including this paragraph so as not to give a partial picture, have things taken out of context or to imply or inadvertently give the impression this was intended for other outlets."

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