Formed 1985, U.S.A.
Albums:
1986
Live?!*@ Like A Suicide
1987
Appetite For Destruction
1988
GN'R Lies
1991
Use Your Illusion I
1991
Use Your Illusion II
1993
The Spaghetti Incident?
1999
Live Era '87-'93
2004
Greatest Hits
2008
Chinese Democracy
History:
Guns N'Roses were he most notorious band of the late 80's hard rock era. Sex,
drugs, riots, racism, fights...the band has been involved in anything you can think of.
They gave heavy metal a much needed kick in the ass when they burst upon the scene.
Formed in Los Angeles, California by W. Axl Rose (vocals), Izzy
Stradlin' (guitar), Tracii Guns (guitar), Duff McKagan (bass) and
Steven Adler (drums). Guns would leave to form L.A. Guns
and Slash would take his spot in the band. Their 1986 EP was released on the
bands own independent album, but it wouldn't be long until a major label would pick
these bad boys up. The first full-length album would become the best selling debut
in music history, due in part to the massive publicity their antics received in the press.
The original cover for Appetite For Destruction depicted a woman being raped by
an alien and was promptly banned. During the tour for the G N'R Lies EP,
Rose threatened to leave if some of the members couldn't control their drug use.
Slash would stop his heroin habit within a year, but Alder was unable to
kick his habit and was replaced by ex-Cult drummer Matt Sorum.
Sorum and keyboardist Dizzy Reed would debut in early 1991
and the band began work on the huge Use Your Illusion project. The two
albums would be released on the exact same day, and both shipped platinum as they
occupied the top two spots on Billboard's Top 200 charts. The accompanying tour would
see Rose delaying shows up to three hours, and the stress finally forced
Stradlin' to walk away and pursue a solo career. The group went on with Gilby
Clarke on guitar, but the group was close to the breaking point.
The group would be in the news again with the release of The Spaghetti
Incident? in which they did a cover of a song written by mass murderer Charlie
Manson. In the mid 90's, Slash, McKagan and Clark would all
release solo albums while the future of the band was up in the air. By the time
"My God" was released on a movie soundtrack in 1999, Rose was the only
original member left, as he had either fired or pushed everyone else out of the band.
In 2002 Rose unleashed another version of Guns N'Roses with Reed,
Buckethead (guitar), Paul Tobias (guitar), Robin Finck (guitar),
Tommy Stinson (bass), Brain Mantia (drums) and Chris Pitman
(keyboards). However, just like old days, the comeback tour proved to be a disaster
with riots and late arrivals, before being cancelled midway through. On November 23, 2008 the long
awaited studio album entitled Chinese Democracy was finally released, and showing that people still
cared its preview on social networking site MySpace broke all their records for a treaming album.
Links:
The Official Guns N'Roses Page
Here Today... Gone To Hell!
My GN'R
My Michelle
Guns N'Roses Heaven
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