Guns N' Roses History

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Guns N' Roses are an American hard rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. Having sold an estimated 90 million albums worldwide, they are one of America's most successful hard rock bands. Their 1987 major label debut, Appetite for Destruction, produced by Mike Clink, went on to sell 20 million copies worldwide and reached number 1 in the USA a year after its release date. The band's musical style, onstage presence, and image helped usher in a new era within the dominant hard rock and heavy metal scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While glam metal was the leading genre in record sales, video charts, and radio airplay, Guns N' Roses offered a grittier, more traditionalist take on rock music, which helped to popularize the sub-genre known as sleaze rock and won many fans who admired their apparent authenticity. The band enjoyed worldwide success from 1987 through 1993, but clashing personalities of different band members brought about the end of the original line-up. Today, frontman Axl Rose is the only original member in the band's current lineup. Rise to fame (1985–1989)[edit] Early history Guns N' Roses was founded in Los Angeles in March 1985 by Axl Rose and guitarist Tracii Guns, as an informal merger of Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns, both of which Axl Rose had been a member, and the second of which Tracii Guns had been a member. The name Guns N' Roses was derived from the names of two bands: Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns. The original Guns N' Roses lineup included other members from both bands: From Hollywood Rose, Rose's longtime friend rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, and from L.A. Guns, Guns's former bandmates bassist Ole Beich (later replaced by bassist Duff McKagan) and drummer Rob Gardner. The band's unique style integrated rock, hard rock, blues, punk and other genres of music into the popular heavy metal music of the time. When Tracii Guns and Rob Gardner could not appear at one of the first Guns N' Roses shows in Seattle, Rose recruited guitarist Slash and drummer Steven Adler for the performance. In early 1986, the pair joined full-time, with the lineup being as follows: Axl Rose (lead vocals), Slash (lead guitar), Izzy Stradlin (rhythm guitar), Duff McKagan (bass) and Steven Adler (drums). On the way back to Los Angeles, they wrote the lyrics for "Welcome to the Jungle", which became one of their signature songs.[edit] Discovery Tom Zutaut, a Geffen Records A&R executive, witnessed a Guns N' Roses show at the Troubadour, then falsely warned other scouts that "they suck" so he could have more time and leeway to sign them. Axl Rose demanded and received a $75,000 advance from Zutaut before revealing that he promised an A&R from Chrysalis that the band would sign with her if she walked naked down Sunset Boulevard. For three days, Zutaut nervously watched from his Sunset office window for a naked A&R executive before he could close the deal.[1] Alan Niven was subsequently hired as the band's manager, and the team then set out to record the band's full-length debut album.[edit] Live?!*@ Like a Suicide Live?!*@ Like a Suicide Live?!*@ Like a Suicide In December 1986, the band released a four song self-produced EP titled Live?!*@ Like a Suicide on GN'R's own Uzi Suicide label. It starts off with a roadie screaming "Hey fuc . kers, su . ck on Guns and fu . cking Roses!". Designed to gauge public opinion of the band outside of Los Angeles, the record contained covers of Rose Tattoo's "Nice Boys" and Aerosmith's "Mama Kin", along with two original compositions: the punk anthem "Reckless Life" and the classic rock inspired "Move to the City" both of which were co-written by Hollywood Rose founding member Chris Weber. Despite having the look and sound of a live album, band members have admitted that the tracks were actually studio recordings with a live audience overdubbed.[2] Only 10,000 vinyl copies of the album were produced, and even though the tracks were re-issued verbatim two years later as part of the GN'R Lies EP, the original Live?!*@ Like a Suicide has been a valuable and sought after collector's item among fans since the late 1980s.[edit] Appetite for Destruction Appetite for Destruction (revised) Appetite for Destruction (revised) Appetite for Destruction was released on July 21, 1987. In the US, "Welcome to the Jungle" was issued as its first single with an accompanying music video. Initially, the album and single did not perform well, but when Geffen Records founder David Geffen was asked to lend support to the band, he obliged by personally convincing MTV executives to add "Welcome to the Jungle" to their after hours rotation. Even though the video was played at inopportune times like 5am, rock fans took notice and began requesting the video and song en masse. In the United Kingdom, "It's So Easy" was released prior to the album itself. The band quickly gained popularity through radio airplay and via a rousing performance at London's famous Marquee Club on June 28, 1987. A 12-inch single for "It's So Easy" included Marquee Club performances of "Shadow of Your Love" and "Move to the City". Countries overseas were often treated to Guns N' Roses material that never saw release in the US market and went unexposed to US fans: the original UK "Welcome to the Jungle" single was backed with the Marquee performance of AC/DC's classic "Whole Lotta Rosie" and a 12-inch single included live renditions of "It's So Easy" and the Bob Dylan classic "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". In Japan, an entire EP entitled Live from the Jungle was issued, which contained the album version of "Sweet Child O' Mine" and most of the Marquee Club recordings. European and Asian single releases were often peppered with Slash or Axl Rose interviews, which was common practice in those countries. Appetite for Destruction (original) Appetite for Destruction (original) The album underwent an artwork change after the original Robert Williams cover design (a surrealist scene in which a dagger-toothed monster is vengefully attacking a robot rapist) spawned complaints from religious groups and caused some record stores to brown bag, obscure, or refuse to sell the album. The revised cover was gleaned from a tattoo that Axl had recently commissioned featuring skeleton faces of the five musicians arranged on a cross. Rose later insisted that the Gold and Platinum plaques issued by the RIAA be set using the original Williams cover. Copies of the LP with its original artwork are now rare collectors items. The artwork from the original cover can be found in the booklet of the CD release."Sweet Child O' Mine" was the album's second US single. Due to the growing grassroots success of the band and the cross-gender appeal of the tune, the song and its accompanying music video received heavy airplay on both radio and MTV, and became a smash hit during the summer of 1988. "Welcome to the Jungle" was then re-issued as a single, with new pressings of records and tapes and new artwork. The UK re-release was backed with an acoustic version of "You're Crazy", recorded much earlier than the one featured on the 1988 EP G N' R Lies. By the time "Paradise City" and its video reached the airwaves, the band's touring success and fame had catapulted the album to #1 on the Billboard charts. "Welcome to the Jungle", "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Paradise City" were each US top ten singles. To date, Appetite For Destruction has sold over twenty million copies.[edit] Touring success and controversy Guns N' Roses logo, 1988-1999 Guns N' Roses logo, 1988-1999 Guns N' Roses began opening shows for major rock acts, but as their fame began to take hold, a world tour in support of Appetite for Destruction was scheduled. The band traveled across the United States, and in spring of 1988 were invited to the notorious Monsters of Rock Festival at Castle Donington in the UK, where they shared the stage with groups like KISS, and Iron Maiden. At the start of the Guns N' Roses set, the capacity crowd of over 100,000 began jumping and surging forward. Despite Axl's requests that the crowd move away from the stage, two fans were trampled to death. Without knowledge of the extent of fan injuries, the band continued playing, and was largely blamed by the media for the tragedy. Events such as these during the Appetite for Destruction tour earned the group their title of "world's most dangerous band". In addition, the behavior of the band was also garnering negative attention from the media. McKagan, Slash and Adler were often seen intoxicated both on and off stage. Members of the crew at the time stated that Slash often had to be carried onstage by a group of people and would sometimes pass out after the concert ended. When touring in England in 1987 the bandmembers were treated poorly by the press with Slash being referred to as 'Slosh', 'Slug' and 'Slush'.[edit] GN'R Lies GN'R Lies GN'R Lies Guns N' Roses' next release was the LP G N' R Lies in 1988, which reached #2 on the Billboard music charts. The album included the four Live?!*@ Like a Suicide recordings on one side, and four acoustic songs on the other. The song "One in a Million", which included the words "nig . gers", "fa g . gots", and other such profanities led to controversy in which critics accused both the band and Axl Rose of racism and homophobia. Rose responded by saying the claims are unfounded, particularly when considering Slash himself is half black and half Jewish. He explained that by the term "nig . ger" he meant low lives and meant no offense to anyone. He also went on to explain that the song reflected racial and prejudicial problems of society, rather than promoting them. Rose also cited that he was a fan of homosexual singers like Freddie Mercury and Elton John. The band had played gigs alongside the all-black group Body Count, and lead singer Ice-T said in his book The Ice Opinion that Axl had been "a victim of the press the same way I am". After Slash and Duff ap