Guns 'n Roses

Guns and Roses; chronology 1985 - 1993
the forming of; episode ’85 – ‘91 Guns and roses was founded in 1985 by Izzy Stradlin, Tracii Guns, Rob Gardener and W. Axl Rose. Before the group got this name it had several other names before. Like L.A.Guns and Axl. In that time Duff Mckagan, Steven Adler and Slash were playing in another band called roadcrew. After a while Duff left the group and responded to an advertising of Axl Rose for a job in the band. When Rob and Tracii didn’t show up right before a show, Duff decided to get his former band-mates Slash and Steven involved. From 1985 till 1991 the formation of the band was Axl Rose, Slash, Steven Adler, Duff Mckagan and Izzy Stradlin. How to get a recording contract; Appetite for destruction
The band-members really lived like animals in the year 1985. They possessed an old barn in West Hollywood called the Hell-House. Their first concert was in the troubadour Club and went really bad. They started as opening-act en slowly began to rise as real act. Label people began to make appointments with the band and after many lunches they signed for 75.000 dollar with Geffen-Records. Their first work was an EP; called Live?!*@ like a suicide and contained two numbers written by themselves and two covers. Mama kin from Aerosmith and Nice boys (don’t play rock and roll) from Rose Tattoo. The EP was heavily criticised because the swearing. The first song began with a drunk roadie screaming: “Hey fuckers! Suck on guns n’ fuckin’ roses”. At the begin of Mama kin Axl says: “This is a song ‘bout your fucking mother”. On July 31 1987 Geffen distributed the first real work of the gunners called Appetite for destruction. The album was a combination of real quick punk and heavy metal. The songs gave an accurate vision of how the band thought about live in that days, sex, drugs and rock and roll, not always in that line by the way. Not every song was even well performed. The timing of out to get me and nightrain weren’t really precise. The songs Paradise City and sweet child o’ mine proved that the band really showed possibilities for the future. The band actually hoped on a maximal sell rating of 200.000 pieces. The number of 17 million was something nobody expected. The cover of the album caused a river of complains and was ultimately forbidden. Original the cover was a picture of the American fantasy-painter Robert Williams and was a remake of a painting of a naked woman with naked breast. Later a homemade artpiece of Axl was used. A cross with in each corners the skulls of the band-members. At the beginning of autumn 1987 the band began with the Appetite for destruction tour. They played as the supporting programme of the Cult, later with Aerosmith. In October that year the gunners went to England for 5 shows. The shows had mixed effects. The first show in the Rock city, Nottingham, was a great success except for the moment the fans tried to pull over the bus in which the members travelled. The second show in Hammersmith Odeon ended as a disaster. The fans began to throw beer cans on stage. They became outrageous after a boring 7 minutes taking drums solo, “something real seventy’s” Axl responded. The show ended with a bad encore. The next three shows were not really different from the first two. Actually exact the same concerning Axl temper. Often he began swearing and throwing ‘things’ in the crowd. What he told was seldom nice. “I’m gonna eat your goddamn pet”, “your mom isn’t save with me hanging around” were things which made the reputation of the band hideous. When the band entered Great Britain they had an image of dog killing, baby murdering, drunk drugs dealers. When they left they also had the reputation of the world most dangerous rock band, concerning music.
G N’R lies; scandals and rumours No scandals, no Guns and Roses! That was something nobody could and would deny. Even the critics confirmed that. Mick Wall, reporter for among others Rolling stone, Kerrang! and Select, interviewed the most important members of the group, Duff, Slash and Axl. Mick followed the group from the beginning. Perhaps getting a contract was the only smooth event in the history of the band. Finding a manager was almost a war. Tom Zutaut of Geffen-Records arranged some meeting with potential candidates. One of many potential managers was Tim Collins, (ex) manager of Aerosmith. At first they had dinner with the poor man. Every thing went nice at the beginning that evening. Axl got his big mouth shut, Slash wasn’t ‘using’ and Izzy didn’t fell asleep. After dinner they went to Collins hotel room for an informal conversation. Everything seemed great, at least that is what Zutaut thought. When Collins was trying to get some sleep the bandmembers were staying al night drinking. So the next morning a bill arrived of 450 dollar bought on drinks. The little manager from Aerosmith decided to cancel the deal. Eventually the band hired Alan Niven as manager. The most dangerous show ever given by the band was august 20 1988 at the monsters of rock festival in Donington. Guns and Roses together with Helloween, Megadeth, David Lee Roth, Kiss and Iron maiden were part of maybe the biggest rock event of Europe. More than 90.000 fans gathered around on a field to see their heroes. The weather was almost killing the people, covered with mud and dirt the fans were waiting for the gunners to begin. Around two o’clock that day the riff of it’s so easy sounded through the park. Than the group started with your crazy when during the song the crowd began to come forward, towards the stage. Halfway the song Axl stopped singing and the other members stopped playing. Security people began to remove people who where lying on the ground. Axl spoke to the crowd and said the people to calm down, for his likes very controlled, very remarkable. After two other songs, which ended halfway, he stopped again. Without encore the group left after playing a nasty sweet child o’ mine (by the way the only song the crowd cheered for). Ironical were the words Axl spoke before he left, “don’t commit suicide”. A few hours later security confirms two people got killed during the messy show. Two fans called Alan Dick and Landon Siggers were literal walked to death. Their bodies were unrecognisable at first, a dentist had to confirm the victims identities. Next day the papers stormed with the news about accident. The band’s live-reputation was under heavy fire! After the release of Appetite for destruction it became a little quite around the band. At least concerning scandals. But in 1988 a waterfall of scandals and rumours fall down upon the band. The biggest scandal was maybe in October 1988 with the release of their next album: G N’R Lies. Actually it wasn’t an album but an EP. It was a addition to their firs EP, Live?!*@ like a suicide, with four extra acoustic numbers. One in a million is doubtless the most disputed song in de bands discography. The song tells the story of a country boy who meets the problems of society in LA. Police and niggers, get out of my way, no need to buy non of you gold chains today is a refer to the bands point of view about immigrants. But also gays aren’t save in the song. Immigrants and fagots who spread some fucking disease is the most controversial line. Axl denied the essential meaning of the lines. “Nothing more than a joke actually” was his respond. Contradiction with the opinion of Axl is Slash’s opinion. Nevertheless, Slash’s mother was black. These were only a few examples of the reckless life the band members had. Fighting and drinking was not unusual for especially Slash. He just didn’t sleep for three days in combination with not one minute being sober. Being depressive and enslaved were also enemies the gunners had to face. Steven was in a terrible stadium, he was kicked out of the band in may 1990. His substitution was Matt Sorum. From the beginning the gunners had some sort of war with the members of Poison. In the early days poison played before Guns and Roses got on stage. Bret Michaels, voice of the band, calmly said after they played they were going to give a party and the whole club was invited. In that days you didn’t had to say something like that twice. For they realised the whole fucking club began to leave. In no time no more than a dog remained to play for! Also the fact guitar player CC Deville was wearing a same hat Slash was always wearing meant war. After a show Slash walked upon CC and threatened he would cut his throat of and boil his head in stinking oil if CC would ever wear that hat again. And indeed CC never wear that kind of hat again! By the way, Slash looked like a vampire-student these days. Not getting any sleep wasn’t very healthy after all. Use your illusion It took a while, but in 1991, four years after the release of their previous album Appetite for destruction, the band finally came with some new work. Nevertheless, two albums. Called Use your illusion 1 and use your illusion 2. Named after a painting from artist Mark Kostabi. The sorts of music recorded on both albums were very different. Civil war and estranged proved the melodramatic qualities from the band, and of course not to forget the magical November rain. But also quick cheap arranged songs like my world and get in the ring were placed on the record. These two songs were absolutely not Guns and Roses. So the enthusiasm about the album was mixed. Of course the albums contained excellent works like the Bob Dylan cover knockin’ on heavens door, but it also showed the weakness of the band; working together. Practising was something the band didn’t do a lot since early days. The pieces were recorded in different parts. It almost never occurred everyone was at the same time in the studio. The live performances after the release of use your illusion were merely a shadow of what the band used to be. Relations between Axl and the band weren’t very good. Axl even said a few times live on stage he was leaving the band and everyone could eat shit. Like always the impulsive behaviour of Axl didn’t take long and in no time it was ‘cosy’ again within the band. In contrast with the relations within the band, the relation with poison and mötley crüe didn’t really change. In fact, the war was getting worse. With get in the ring, originally called why do you look at me when you hate me, Axl openly responded to the challenge of Vince Neil from mötley crüe. Vince had an old fight with Izzy. Vince once told to the media Izzy had beaten Vince his girlfriend and because of that Vince broke Izzy’s nose, which was totally bullshit according to Axl. A few times before Axl tried to fight with Vince but with no success. Finally, Vince got scared and didn’t show up to ‘get in the ring’. But after all the albums seemed to be very successful. They reached the top of the billboard and stayed there for quite a while. It was remarkable because the band wrote history with two albums, which had both a recording times of 74 minutes, at the same time in the billboard. The band; episode ’91 – ’93 Guns and Roses made one final album which showed the band could not handle its weakness; working together. The result: the spaghetti incident. A weak un-Guns and Roses album. Estranged; the ending In 1990 Steven Adler was forced to leave the band because of drugs problems. Matt Sorum became the new drummer of the band. In 1990 the band also added a sixth member, called Dizzy Reed who was a keyboard player. Very disappointing was the loss of Izzy Stradlin in 1992. Stradlin said he was tired a live full rock. At the beginning sex, drugs and rock, then sex, drugs. And at the end only drugs. He stopped using drugs en made a comeback with the band only a few months later, which only last for a few months before he left again, this time for good! The band hired Gilby Clarke to play till the end of their contract. At the end of 1992 the band has fallen apart, as suspected. Everyone in the band had at least one argue topic with Axl. Slash went solo and played with artist like Lenny Kravitz en Michael Jackson. Izzy Stradlin went sole and founded the Ju Ju Hounds. Steven Adler demanded 28 million dollar from the gunners for ‘unfair treatment’ and began it’s own group, called……..Roadcrew. From than on Guns and Roses existed of Dizzy Reed and Axl Rose. Since nowadays the band has known many members. Guns and roses Discography - 1987 Appetite for destruction - 1988 G N’R lies EP - 1991 Use your illusion 1 - 1991 Use your illusion 2 - 1993 The spaghetti incident - 1995 Live era ’87 – ’93 - 2002 Chinese democracy* This article is an outtake/summary of an original larger article