diego ayala

Guns N' Roses' reunion tour grossed $584.2 million, with Axl Rose and Slash back on one stage for the first time since 1993. Izzy Stradlin, Axl's old friend from Indiana who co-wrote Sweet Child o' Mine and Paradise City, was reportedly offered a five-figure fee per show to come out for a few songs. He said no, because they "didn't want to split the loot equally." In the video below, from 1992, months after he walked out at the band's peak, Izzy says touring was never the problem. Then he gives the real story: "I had a bus, they had a plane, and I beat 'em to the gig." He and Axl started the band together, and Izzy wrote or co-wrote most of Appetite for Destruction, the best-selling debut album in US history. In 1991, by his account, the band put a new contract in front of him. "They were gonna cut my percentage of royalties down," he said later. That November he quit. The case for Axl and Slash: Izzy left in the middle of a world tour, they finished it without him, and the songs he co-wrote still pay him when the band plays them. Slash says they just "couldn't seem to meet eye to eye." If you walk away from a partnership, get in writing what you are owed if it ever comes back, because a reunion is new money and nobody has to save you a seat. So did Izzy price himself out of a $584 million tour, or did Axl and Slash offer the man who co-wrote their biggest songs a session player's fee? I post one famous deal like this every day, with who got paid, who got played, and the numbers that never made the poster.