Axl Rose Is Trying To Erase The ‘Fat Axl Rose’ Meme From The Internet

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2016 has been a good year for Axl Rose.

Thanks to Fred Durst, he and Slash have momentarily stopped squabbling and reunited Guns N’ Roses for a sold-out tour. Rose is also filling in for AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, who had to bow out due to hearing loss, for select shows. Not even a broken foot can stop Rose right now. But the “Fat Axl” meme can.

Back in 2011, during one of many dark days in the band’s history, Guns N’ Roses — minus Slash and Duff McKagan — kicked off a world tour in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The show itself wasn’t anything special (few in the DJ Ashba-era were), but Axl’s outfit was. He looked like April O’Neil in a zoot suit, with a few extra (dozen) pounds thrown on for good measure. Thus, a meme was born.

It wasn’t just that concert, either.

Truly one of the finest moments in Internet history. But now, according to Torrent Freak, Axl and his team of high-priced lawyers want to remove the “Fat Axl” meme from existence, asserting copyright ownership of the photos.

[There was] a wave of copyright claims sent to Blogspot and GoogleUserContent on May 31, 2016 demanding the removal of pictures depicting Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose. “Copyright image of Axl Rose. Please be advised that no permission has been granted to publish the copyright image so we cannot direct you to an authorized example of it,” the notices sent by Web Sheriff read. (Via)

Apparently no one involved has heard of the Streisand effect.

They can delete Fat Axl from Google, but not our hearts.

“Here I am, and we’re both ordering seconds at the Dairy Queen.”

(Via Torrent Freak)

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