Brain has been pretty open in the recent years about why he stopped touring and it's clear that the kid was not the real reason. It was that he was tired of having to play the songs in a certain way, unlike in Primus where he could improvise. E.g.:

I: With Primus, I would imagine you would have the freedom to be able to improvise. You know, you could wander a bit with the songs. And that's OK. People appreciate it. People expect that. But if people showing up for a Guns N' Roses concert, they want to hear Welcome to the Jungle exactly as it is on the record. You know, fill for fill, note for note. So all of a sudden, you had to learn this whole different discipline, it sounds like.

Brain: That's exactly it and yep, you nailed it, that's exactly what was taking me out, because I was like, "Wow, I get it." Like with Primus it was kind of like jazz, it was like, "Here's the song," and every night it would be different, it would be couple BTMs slower, couple, you know, it would... "Oh, I changed the high hat parts"-

I: It's part of the charm.

Brain: Yes, it's part of the charm. And it was like every show - you know, this was before people were like recording the shows and selling them - but yeah, Primus would have been great as one of those band is like, "Oh, I got!" you know, "did you check out the way they played," you know, "blah blah blah on Saturday night instead of Sunday? Oh, it's so different!" That's kind of cool that they take, you know, that was like the charm like you said. But with Guns, yeah, if I didn't do, you know, [hums the fill] in November Rain... People are air drumming it better than I'm doing it, you know. I'm just like, "Oh shit, that's what I think took Buckethead out in the end," you know. I haven't told a lot of people this but that's sort of when I knew I was done, we were playing the rock show, KROQ show, I think, at the Verizon Amphitheater. I remember I was up there and I was playing the cowbell part to Nightrain and I was like, "I can't do this again." Like my body actually was stopping me from playing the cowbell. Like I couldn't physically do it cause I was like, I just had done it so many times and it wasn't a part that I would normally play either. And my body was rejecting it. And I just, that was the last time I ever played with them.

https://www.a-4-d.com/t6360-2018-08-20- … with-brain

The kid just gave him a good excuse, combined with Frank doing well as his temporary replacement, to not go back.

The site has been launched by Live Nation and is operated by them:

https://www.officialaxlrose.com/privacy-policy

And it's been set up by this marketing company:

https://theskylineagency.com/

Yeah, he's had the IG account since 2012, but hasn't used it. The website links to a TikTok account, too (I guess that one was created recently, probably by the same company that set up the website).

We don't even know IF GN'R owes any albums to the label, because we don't know what exactly their current deal with UMG is. In the credits of the recent releases it looks like Geffen/UMG acts only as distributor for GN'R and not as a record label.

As for Axl's publishing deal with Sanctuary, here is the document:

https://www.a-4-d.com/t8176-2004-09-20- … -sanctuary

But it's completely irrelevant to now, because: 1) Sanctuary was no more in 2007 (was bought out); 2) The agreement would have expired by now anyway, as it was for 12-15 years (not for 20 years like we thought) starting from March 2004 (although the deal became public in early 2005, it had been signed in 2004); 3) It didn't cover songs that would be written after the release of Chinese Democracy, and it also doesn't seem that it covered songs that were written during the Chinese Democracy sessions but would not be on CD (it says it would be in Axl's discretion to include such songs in the agreement). The Sanctuary agreement covered Axl's share in a) all released GN'R songs from the "historic catalogue", b) other old songs Axl has a writing credit for, like Crash Diet and the Hollywood Rose songs, c) Oh My God, Madagascar and The Blues and d) whatever other original songs would eventually be on Chinese Democracy.

All we know for the current state re: publishing is that UMG Publishing has Axl's publishing. We don't know what the UMG publishing deal covers and when it expires.

He has also talked about Catcher In The Rye and the title track (and ofc Rhiad).

Not specifically, but the way he talked about it during a show points at her:

Axl: The person I wrote that song [=This I Love] for said, "Thank you for the gift of your soul." Well, it took a while, but I got that fucker back. [Telia Parken, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 27, 2017]

We also have what Dave Dominguez said about it being a "Stephanie" song.

There has been no development in Axl's case, except that the lawsuit seems to have been served and it's likely that there will be some kind of response from Axl's side later this month.

There have been some developments in the Fernando case. Updates and court documents can be found here:

https://www.a-4-d.com/t8097-katarina-be … fringement