Dr Pepper won favor with a bemused music audience earlier this year when the brand announced that it would give every American a free soda if Guns N' Roses released 'Chinese Democracy' by the end of 2008. The catch? There wasn't any, although it did stipulate that the offer was not valid for anyone named Slash or Buckethead.

Careful to say that neither the band nor their record label had any involvement in the promotion, Axl Rose did joke that he'd be happy to share his free Dr Pepper with Buckethead. Slash, however, would be on his own.

But now it seems the band's original guitarist has company. Lots of it. A week after 'Chinese Democracy' hit the shelves of every Best Buy in America, only a tiny percentage of Americans had a free Dr Pepper coming their way.

Those lucky few went on Dr Pepper's Web site on November 23 (the day of the album release) and signed up to receive a voucher in the mail. The problem -- besides the fact that nobody knew you had to jump through that hoop -- is that the server crashed, leaving countless would-be freeloaders without a voucher. A day-long extension (er, until 6 PM EST anyway) failed to remedy the situation as the website was still down for a long enough time that you could listen to the entire GN'R back catalog and still be left in the cold without a cold beverage.

Injustice? Fraud? Another great rock 'n' roll swindle? Never fear, Axl Rose is here! According to Billboard, his lawyer Alan Gutman has already sent a written letter to Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. president Larry Young demanding that he remedy the situation. "Now is the time to clean up the mess," he said.

Accusing Dr Pepper of exploiting GN'R's good name and reputation, Gutman demanded an "appropriate payment," as well as full-page apologies in newspapers including the New York Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal.

A statement from Dr Pepper is expected soon and the promotion may, in fact, be extended a second time, per Gutman's request. Somewhere, somehow, Slash should be smiling. As for the rest of us, sorry for the interruption -- you can now go back to your regular brand of soda.