Axl Rose learned the hard way last Thursday night that Tommy Hilfiger has a real "appetite for destruction" when the fashion god went crazy and bitch-slapped the rocker in a bar. In what sounds like an unprovoked attack, the Guns N' Roses frontman was about to take the stage to do an accoustic set for Rosario Dawson's birthday bash when he moved a drink belonging to Hilfiger's girlfriend so that it wouldn't get accidentally knocked over. Hilfiger went ballistic - cursing and slapping and karate chopping. "He wouldn't stop smacking me!" Axl later said.
Page Six was reporting that Hilfiger has it out for Axl who has been dating Diane O'Connor, the ex-wife of Hilfiger's adopted brother, denim designer Michael H.
Axl told told Page Six in an exclusive interview after the brawl that Hilfiger was "foaming at the mouth" after he had been told to move to make room for the rocker and his entourage. Hilfiger threw punches - landing one under Axl's eye. "A bunch of security ran over - but Tommy would not back down. He was just out to take him down," a witness said. "Kid Rock got trampled by people running over. It was unbelievable."
Eventually, the designer's bodyguard pulled the snarling fashionista out of the club.
When Axl finally took to the stage he dedicated song 'You're Crazy' to "my good friend Tommy Hilfiger" and also invited birthday girl Dawson on stage to serenade her with 'Sweet Child O' Mine' - while sporting a small red mark under his eye.
Plumm owner Noel Ashman added: "Axl was a gentleman and had the good sense not to retaliate, as he would have done some serious damage to Hilfiger."
During an interview on Los Angeles radio station KROQ on Friday, the 44-year-old frontman explained what happened: "I moved [the drink] so it wouldn't spill. He just kept smacking me. It was the most surreal thing, I think, that's ever happened to me in my life."
Days after, Axl was still trying to sooth things over. "I don't hold any grudge against him," he said over the weekend. "I just don't understand him. I loved the way the photo in The New York Post made it look like [Hilfiger] was doing karate chops!"
