Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band has sold an estimated 90 million albums worldwide, including 39 million in the United States. Their 1987 major label debut, Appetite for Destruction, sold over 26 million copies worldwide and reached #1 in the United States.
The band's musical style, onstage presence and bad boy rock image helped usher in a new era of the dominant hard rock and heavy metal scene of 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 traditional take on rock music, and won many fans who admired their apparent authenticity.
The band enjoyed worldwide success from 1988 to 1993, but clashing personalities of different band members led to the end of the core lineup. Today, frontman Axl Rose is the only original member left in the current Guns N' Roses line-up, having served as lead singer for twenty-two years since 1985.
Music style
The music of Guns N' Roses is a fusion of punk rock, heavy metal and classic rock and roll, presented in a layered fashion. More recently, Guns N' Roses have showed industrial influences, similar in style to bands such as Nine Inch Nails (former Nine Inch Nails Live guitarist Robin Finck plays with the band).
In the 1990s, the band integrated keyed instruments (played by either Rose or Reed, and accompanied on tour by Teddy Andreadis) into the band, and for roughly half of the Use Your Illusion tour, added a horn section to the stage. While Reed has remained on some of the Chinese Democracy demos, tours since 2002 have not included wind instruments, though the band has employed synthesized horns on some of their new songs.
A heavy influence on both the image and sound of the band was Finnish band Hanoi Rocks (singer Michael Monroe and Rose have collaborated on various occasions). Rose has stated that the band was massively inspired by bands like Queen, The Rolling Stones, Rose Tattoo and AC/DC, and also that the sound of Appetite for Destruction was influenced by Aerosmith and AC/DC. The stage moves and vocal stylings of Rose have been attributed to Shark Island lead singer Richard Black.
Legacy
In the late 1980s, Guns N' Roses brought a more serious, emotional and sometimes political edge to hard rock, in stark contrast to the carefree themes of glam metal bands. The band's rock and roll style from the 1980s became out of step with the tastes of American youth culture in the 1990s, as grunge, alternative rock, electronica, and then hip hop became popular.
Guns N' Roses signed with a major label within nine months of their inception and topped national sales charts weeks after garnering late hours airplay on MTV. Appetite for Destruction was the second highest-selling debut album of all time, behind Boston's self-titled debut album.
Their peers in the music industry often spoke highly of the band: Ozzy Osbourne called Guns N' Roses "the next Rolling Stones." In 2002, Q magazine named Guns N' Roses in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die". Also, the television network VH1 ranked Guns N' Roses ninth in its "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" special, and also ranked 11th on "Top 50 bands". Appetite for Destruction appeared in the Rolling Stone Magazine special issue "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Guns N' Roses #92 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".
The band has not been free of criticism by the media. The flagrant alcohol and drug abuse by some members of the group, and Axl's fondness of Charles Manson T-shirts, were used by the media to portray Guns N' Roses as a poor example and negative influence on their young fans. The long periods of time that the band took to release albums were also a source of heavy criticism.
Frontman Axl Rose has become a source of both controversy and criticism since the other founding members left the group. His constant elusiveness, such as the fact that he has not held a press conference since 1994, has led to several stories claiming he is suffering from bipolar disorder. Music critics have blamed Rose for the break-up of the original group, have criticized him for continuing the band after the original members had departed and have questioned the constant change in band members. They also cite his neurotic behavior and sense of perfectionism as a cause of personal conflict and the long delays between albums. However, Rose still has fans who view him as a sort of musical anti-hero.
Guns N' Roses will be eligible for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame beginning in 2012. Critics and fans alike view this as an opportunity for the band's original lineup to reunite.[citation needed] On the VH1 special Behind the Music, Slash was questioned about the possibility of such a reunion, stating that "no matter how much money they throw in our faces, there's no reason for us to get together. Unless there's a mutual respect or understanding, and we're way far from that." In January 2007, former drummer Steven Adler claimed that he had been talking with Axl, Izzy, and Slash about a "classic" line-up reunion.
In April 2007, ex-lead guitarist Slash said, on the Brazilian format of MTV, that he was open to a reunion of the "old" Guns N' Roses: "And I'm not saying never. I would say it would be a good idea to get, just for a couple of shows, to get the original STP (Stone Temple Pilots) and the original Guns N' Roses just to do a couple of shows for the fun of it". However, in another interview from the same year, Slash stated: "I’ve obviously moved on and have a lot to do with Velvet Revolver, so that’s where my head is. Obviously it’s not an idea that I’m entertaining in any way, shape, or form at this point. I think the more time that passes, the less likely it will happen—and it was pretty unlikely five years ago."
On July 28, 2007, Adler's Appetite played the Key Club in Los Angeles to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Appetite for Destruction. The evening featured former Guns N' Roses member Tracii Guns' band LA Guns opening for Adler's Appetite, and original members Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan joined Adler's band on stage for several songs. While Adler touted the event to the press as a "reunion," the show was not advertised as such, and was not considered as such by the other former members.
In a 2007 interview, former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash admitted to visiting Axl Rose's house in 2005, a rumor which he had initially denied.
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