Former Guns N’ Roses Manager Alan Niven Sues Band For Blocking His Memoir

Former Guns N’ Roses manager Alan Niven is suing the band for blocking his memoir Sound N’ Fury, arguing a 1991 confidentiality agreement is invalid and unenforceable.

The Guns N’ Roses camp is heading back to court, former manager Alan Niven is suing the band, alleging that they’ve used a decades old confidentiality agreement to block the release of his long awaited memoir, Sound N’ Fury: Rock N’ Roll Stories.

According to court documents obtained by Loudwire, Niven claims that the band is preventing publication based on a 1991 confidentiality agreement he signed during his exit from the group. However, the lawsuit argues the agreement shouldn’t be enforceable, mainly because Axl Rose never signed it. Only Slash, Duff McKagan, and Izzy Stradlin reportedly did.

Niven, who managed Guns N’ Roses during their rise to global dominance in the late ’80s, says he was fired over the phone in 1991 after Rose claimed he “could not work with him anymore.” The filing further alleges that Niven was “under severe personal distress” when he signed the buyout deal that included the confidentiality clause, claiming he was “betrayed by his former employee, the band’s lawyer, and his band.”

The suit also accuses the current members of violating the same confidentiality agreement they’re now citing against him. Niven’s filing points to interviews and memoirs by Slash and McKagan that reference him directly, allegedly in “inflammatory or even defamatory” ways.

Adding to the irony, Niven claims a member of the band actually encouraged him between 2015 and 2018 to write about his experiences managing Guns N’ Roses.

Legal Limbo

His memoir, originally slated for release in June 2025 through ECW Press, now sits in legal limbo. The complaint alleges that “[d]ue to GNR’s threats, Sound N’ Fury languishes in a warehouse,” with “thousands of copies” printed but unreleased, each one racking up storage costs.

Niven’s suit seeks damages for interference and a formal judgment declaring the 1991 confidentiality agreement non-enforceable. For now, the book that promises to tell the real story behind one of rock’s most chaotic eras remains sealed, literally.