User:Charles Sandberg/sandbox

(CC) Photo: dave1968
Guns N' Roses, in it's current line-up, playing at Download Festival in 2006. From left-to-right: Robin Finck, Tommy Stinson, Axl Rose and Richard Fortus.

Guns N' Roses is an American rock band from Los Angeles known for their gritty, sleazy, and hard-driving heavy metal style. Their sleazy style is illustrated by their lyrical content, which describes liquor, sex, drugs, and city life. The band gained much popularity in the late 1980s with the release of their breakthrough album Appetite for Destruction, which featured the chart-topping hit "Sweet Child o' Mine".

Origins

Guns N' Roses sprung out of the L.A. underground in 1985 after it was formed by the members of two separate hair metal bands: guitarist Tracii Guns, bassist Ole Beich, and drummer Rob Gardner of L.A. Guns and singer Axl Rose and rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin of Hollywood Rose. Rose had been a former singer of L.A. Guns for a short time before quitting to form Hollywood Rose. Beich later left the band and was replaced by Duff McKagan. Their first performance with their original line up took place on March 26th, 1985 at The Troubadour in Los Angeles with a flyer that read "L.A Guns and Hollywood Rose presents the band Guns N' Roses". After Guns left the band to attempt to reform L.A. Guns, the band hired a new guitarist: Slash. Slash had been previously acquainted with both Rose and Stradlin before joining the band. Steven Adler was hired as a new drummer and the band now had it's first stable line-up.

Early years and breakthrough album

Appetite for Destruction, Guns N' Roses' breakthrough album.

Guns N' Roses released their first extended play album in 1986, dubbed Live?!*@ Like A Suicide under "independedent label" Uzi Suicide. The record contained four songs: two covers of Rose Tattoo's "Nice Boys" and Aerosmith's "Mama Kin", the hard-driving punk of "Reckless Life" and the rock n' roll of "Move to the City". The EP had the sound of a live album, but was actually a studio recording with a live audience overdubbed. Says Rose: "It ain't a live record-if you think it is you're crazy. What we did was go into a room, record ourselves and put 50,000 screaming people on top."

Only 10,000 vinyl copies of the album were produced, but this EP led to a contract with Geffen Records and the release otheir first and most famous album: Appetite for Destruction. The album brought about a new sound that reinvented hard rock. The rhythm section of Duff McKagan and Steven Adler played furiously under the heavy guitar riffs of Slash and Izzy Stradlin, while Axl Rose defined the band with his punk/metal influenced wails. The high-energy riffs of songs such as "Welcome to the Jungle" and "It's So Easy", the catchy boogie of "Mr. Brownstone", a song about heroin addicts, and Axl' s love-hate song to a prostitute; "Rocket Queen", defined Guns N' Roses as one of the greatest songwriters of the era.

The massive power ballad "Sweet Child o' Mine", Axl's love song to Erin Everly , became their breakthrough hit. After Appetite had not been selling well for over a year, MTV began putting the video of the song in heavy rotation and both the single and album instantly shot into the top ten. "Welcome to the Jungle" was re-released and also became a top-ten hit. The anthemic "Paradise City" soon followed. Guns N' Roses soon became one of the biggest bands in the world.

Their innovative music had influence from artists farther back than many thought. Rod Stewart's early Seventies band the Faces and the Keith Richards and Mick Taylor guitar combo of The Rolling Stones, that greatly influenced the duo of Izzy Stradlin and Slash. Nazareth also influenced Axl's singing style greatly.

After several tours across the country with the likes of bands such as Motley Crue, The Cult, and Aeromsith in 1988, they released their second album, G N' R Lies, at the end of the year. The album was a double EP that featured four new acoustic based songs (including the top-five hit "Patience") and a re-release of Live?!@* Like a Suicide!. Among these acoustic songs was the jokey murder ballad "Used to Love Her" and the albums closer, "One In a Million", which sparked much controversy among the press. The song featured Rose slipping into bigotry, misogyny, and violence; insulting every minority from homosexuals to blacks to immigrants. African-American rockers Living Colour took their revenge on Axl when they played with Guns N' Roses on a tour opening for The Rolling Stones in 1989. Guitarist Vernon Reid publicly commented on the song during their performance. Slash, the child of mixed-race parents, was understandably upset by the song, but more so at Axl himself: “I said I didn’t think it was really cool, but Axl gets very adamant... I don’t regret doing “One in A Million”, I just regret what we’ve been through because of it and the way people have perceived our personal feelings."

G N' R Lies soared up the charts to number 2 in the United States to join the six million-selling Appetite in the Top Five. This made Guns N' Roses the first band in the 1980s to have two albums in the Top Five at the same time. Only five other bands have accomplished this feat.

Later years

(CC) Photo: Ed Vill
Slash, former guitarist of Guns N' Roses, playing with his new band, Velvet Revolver.

Guns N' Roses began working on the follow-up album to Appetite for Destruction towards the end of 1990. The band fired Steven Adler after he the band claimed that he was playing poorly due to a drug dependency. The record label soon became concerned as the recording sessions for the new album were plagued by reliability problems. “Steven is about as much a rock ‘n’ roll personality as you can get. All he lived for was sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll – in that order, maybe drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll. Then it was drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Then it was just drugs," commented Slash about the loss of his friend. Adam Maples of Sea Hags temporarily filled his place as drummer.

However, Matt Sorum became the answer to their prayers. The drummer for the British metal band The Cult, whom Guns N' Roses had previously toured with, Matt was discovered by Slash after he had been to the local Universal Amphitheater to see the band and put in a transfer bid for their drummer. A sixth member was also added to the band, keyboardist Dizzy Reed. After calling Axl for advice after being evicted from his home, he soon found himself with a new job. Sorum's drum solo soon became a live highlight after he had improvised it to get the band out of the corner.

Discography

• Live?!@* Like a Suicide (Uzi Suicide, 1986)
• Appetite for Destruction (Geffen, 1987)
• G N' R Lies (Geffen, 1988)
• Use Your Illusion I (Geffen, 1991)
• Use Your Illusion II (Geffen, 1991)
• The Spaghetti Incident (Geffen, 1993)
• Live Era: '87-'93 (Geffen, 1999)
• Greatest Hits (Geffen, 2004)
• Chinese Democracy (Geffen, TBA)

Bibliography

• Mich St. Michael, Guns N' Roses, Magna Books, 1993.
• Slash, Saul Hudson, Anthony Bozza, Slash: The Autobiography, HarperCollins Publishers Limited, 2007, ISBN 0007257767
• Daniel Sugarman, Danny Sugarman, Appetite for Destruction: The Days of Guns N' Roses, Arrow, 1992, ISBN 0099970503
• Mick Wall, Guns N' Roses, The Most Dangerous Band in the World, Hyperion, 1991, ISBN 0283060867