* BannedInChina: The album ''Music/ChineseDemocracy'' is banned in China thanks to these lyrics in the title track: "Blame it on the Falun Gong, They've seen the end and you can't hold on now".[[note]]Falun Gong is a banned religious sect in China and naturally any mention of them is sure to be censored by the government.[[/note]]
* BreakthroughHit: "Welcome to the Jungle" on rock radio, "Sweet Child o’ Mine" on pop radio.
* CanonDiscontinuity: The band grew to regret "One in a Million", an extremely controversial song on their ''GNR Lies'' EP that featured racist and homophobic language. The band included the entirety of the EP on their extensive 2018 box set for ''Music/AppetiteForDestruction'', but "One in a Million" was nowhere to be found.
* ChartDisplacement: While their best performers in the Hot 100 are the expected ones ("Sweet Child O'Mine", "November Rain", "Patience", "Paradise City", "Welcome to the Jungle", and "Don't Cry": the first a chart-topper, the next two Top 5, and the rest Top 10), only "Don't Cry" is one of their four top 5 hits on Mainstream Rock - "You Could Be Mine" and "Civil War" are still well-known and regarded, but "Chinese Democracy" came out long after their heyday and in a quite divisive era.
* FakeBrit: "Down on the Farm" has Axl attempt an English accent so dire, it makes him a prime contender for the Creator/DickVanDyke of hard rock. Ironically, Slash was born in England, but most people have no clue about that since he grew up in California and doesn't even have the slightest hint of an English accent.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Good luck trying to acquire an authentic record of their ''Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide'' EP, and that goes ''triple'' for the cassette release; count yourself lucky if you pick up an authentic copy (especially of the cassette) for less than a hundredth of what they usually go for (usually triple digits for the vinyl record and ''quadruple digits'' for the cassette). The EP was eventually reissued in 2018 as part of the ''Locked N' Loaded'' box set, but the set itself is expensive.
* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: The 2018 ''Locked N' Loaded'' [[https://www.revolvermag.com/music/inside-guns-n-roses-insane-appetite-destruction-locked-n-loaded-box-set box set]]. Limited to 10000 copies, housed in a ''cabinet'' and initially priced at US$1000, it includes a 2 LP reissue of ''Appetite For Destruction'', the long sought-after ''Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide'', various singles, demos and all sorts of memorabilia.
* ThePeteBest: The original line-up was Axl, Tracii Guns, Izzy, Ole Beich and Rob Gardner. Yes, only two of them are in the image atop of the main page.
** After being thrown out of Guns N' Roses, Tracii Guns restarted his band L.A. Guns (Ole and Rob are also examples of this trope for L.A. Guns in and of themselves). They actually didn't do too badly for themselves: Their first two albums went gold and their song "The Ballad Of Jayne" made the Top 40. But once the curtain fell on hair metal, they were one of the first bands to be quickly forgotten. They're now better remembered as a footnote in Guns N' Roses history than for their perfectly decent career back in the day. These days they might also be known for the weird fact that they've had 2 different instances of former members starting their own version of the band while the main one still runs due to the rights to the name being shared by several of the classic lineup.
* RarelyPerformedSong: "Anything Goes" hasn't been played since 1988, and "Think About You" had most of its plays between 2001 and 2006 (meaning Slash hasn't performed it since 1987!).
* ReferencedBy: [[ReferencedBy/GunsNRoses They have their own page]].
* RevivalByCommercialization: Word has it that the one big push for the release of ''Chinese Democracy'' was the [[EarlyBirdCameo inclusion of "Shackler's Revenge"]] in ''VideoGame/RockBand 2''. And then later the rest of the album was put up for DownloadableContent. This opens space for some WhatCouldHaveBeen if Harmonix had not considered them.
* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: As Creator/DennisMiller once said about Steven Adler, "What in the fuck do you have to do get kicked out of Guns n' Roses?" The answer: dance with Mr. Brownstone ''just'' enough. Everyone in the band except for Axl was a junkie and/or alcoholic, but they were still able to keep it together on stage. Steven's abuse, however, was so extreme that it began to seriously mess with his playing ability, and eventually led to his being fired. He has struggled with his addictions ever since, and if you have seen him on ''Series/ThatMetalShow'', it is clear that he has been permanently damaged.
** Chris Pitman was fired for both blowing the whistle early on the reunion tour, and drunkenly complaining on Twitter about the hype it had suddenly gotten compared to 20 years or so of busting his ass for the band before that.
* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: ''Chinese Democracy'' was infamous for this in the musical medium. See TroubledProduction for more details.
* ThrowItIn: Producer Spencer Proffer suggested adding a breakdown after Slash's solo in "Sweet Child o' Mine". The band agreed, but didn't know what they wanted to do. Axl started saying to himself "Where do we go, where do we go now?" while listening to the demo in a loop. Proffer said he should sing that, and the rest is history.
* TroubledProduction: ''Chinese Democracy''. Eleven years of development, millions of dollars spent, at least eleven musicians involved, and much pressure on getting the album released. The joke for much of that time was that ''actual'' Chinese democracy would likely come before the album was released.
** Music videos during the band's heyday were also prone to be this, given the band was prone to not being helpful (Axl in particular - if he's always late for concerts, what would make shoots any different?).
* {{Vaporware}}
** ''Chinese Democracy'', the musical equivalent of ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'', took 15 years to be released.
** The music video for the second single, "Better".
** The constant delays for ''Chinese Democracy'' eventually led to the fans joking about when the next album will be released. At a clinic in 2013, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, one of the current guitarists, even made fun of this himself!
---> '''Bumblefoot:''' So yeah, the funny thing about making an album, 'cause we were just talking about it before, 'cause people always ask me: "When's the next Guns N' Roses album coming out?" I'm like "2095"! (Proceeds to talk about the process of making an album).
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: If the band hadn't essentially disappeared off the face of the planet in the mid-'90s despite being one of music's biggest rock bands at the time, there's no telling just how much bigger they could have become. Gene Simmons from Music/{{Kiss}} once commented "If it wasn't for Axl's ego, Guns 'N' Roses could have been the American Music/LedZeppelin." [[note]]And Gene should know about ego.[[/note]]
** According to Axl, ''Chinese Democracy'' was done and ready to be released in 1999/2000. They even had enough for a double album. However, when a new producer was brought in, he told Axl that it all needed to be rerecorded. In 2006, Rose remarked that the band had thirty two songs in the works. Come 2008, when the record is finally released, we end up with only fourteen. One has to wonder how the "lost tracks" would have affected the album, especially since there are anywhere from 30-40.
** Additionally, one has to wonder how much more successful the record would have been if it was released when it was intended to be. If the album was released in 2000-2002, the market for it would have been much better, especially with all of the hype. Then you have to consider how different it may have sounded. The final product is the combined work of around a dozen musicians, but how would it have sounded if they had released it in 2001, with the lineup of Rose, Buckethead, Finck, Tobias, Stinson, Brain, Pitman and Reed? Or in 1999/2000, with Rose, Finck, Tobias, Stinson, Freese, Reed and Pitman?
** Also, if the record had been released in a timely manner, Buckethead may have stayed on board. One has to wonder what Guns N' Roses with Buckethead as a mainstay would resulted in.
** Forget Buckethead; when Slash left the band, guitarists who were auditioned or spoken to about replacing him included [[Music/OzzyOsbourne Zakk]] [[Music/BlackLabelSociety Wylde]], [[Music/PearlJam Dave Abruzzese]] and [[Music/JanesAddiction Dave]] [[Music/RedHotChiliPeppers Navarro]]. Just imagining a Guns N' Roses line-up with Zakk Wylde is amazing.
** Steven Adler's involvement with the Not In This Lifetime Tour was supposed to be much larger, but an ill timed back injury during his second rehearsal with the band messed things up for him. The original plan was for Steven to play during the first third of the shows, Frank Ferrer to play the middle (the songs Steven was never involved with), and finally Steven coming back out to do the rest.
** Izzy Stradlin was apparently going to make a guest appearance during the Not In This Lifetime Tour... only to storm out before soundcheck was finished.
** Duff ran into Music/KurtCobain mere ''days'' before the latter wound up committing suicide, and [[YouAreNotAlone was going to ask Kurt if he wanted to hang out]], noticing something was wrong with Kurt. Unfortunately, Cobain left before Duff had a chance to ask him.
** After Izzy left the band, one of the people asked to replace him before Gilby was Marc Ford, formerly of LA club stalwarts Burning Tree. Unfortunately, he had just accepted the lead guitar position in Music/TheBlackCrowes. Ford explained in an interview in 2017, "Of course, I was very flattered and my life would be a whole lot different now. I’d probably be dead, to be honest with you. I think it was probably the best decision and Slash agreed. He said, ‘Man, that’s really cool. That’s probably a better fit for you anyway and good luck.’” Ironically, around this same time, Ford did uncredited work on Izzy's first solo single, Shuffle It All.
** That wasn't the last time Ford was offered a spot in GNR. Quoted from a 2017 interview with AlabamaLife.com:
*** "Around 2002 or so, Ford received a second offer to join Guns N’ Roses,, he revealed during a 2021 interview with the Black Crowes-themed podcast State of Amorica. This was during the elongated recording sessions for GN’R’s “Chinese Democracy” album, which was eventually released in 2008. “I didn’t want to have any part of it,” Ford tells AL.com. “And with the nightmare stories I’d heard about it, forget it. I’d already went through something that I didn’t want to repeat, and to imagine an even worse scenario …” He says another reason he turned down a job with Guns N’ Roses was to make his first solo album, released in 2003 as “It’s About Time.” (Which was, coincidentally, recorded at the house of Slash, who’d by then split from GN’R years ago)."
** According to Matt Sorum, ''It's Five O'Clock Somewhere'', the 1995 debut by Slash's Snakepit, could have been a Guns 'N' Roses album, but Axl didn't think the material was "good enough" [[note]]on the 1994 documentary video ''The Making of Estranged: Part IV of the Trilogy'', GN'R can briefly be heard working on a new song, which later became “Back and Forth Again” by Slash's Snakepit instead[[/note]] . As it was, the lineup for the album could be considered TheBandMinusTheFace for GN'R - the main band consisted of Slash, Matt, ''Use Your Illusion'' tour / ''Spaghetti Incident'' era rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke, bassist [[Music/AliceInChains Mike Inez]] and vocalist Mike Dover, with some guest contributions from GN'R keyboardist Dizzy Reed.
* WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings: Axl has been known to threaten this on misbehaving fans.
** One time he ''did'' follow through on his threat, it didn't end well. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverport_Riot Just ask the people of St. Louis.]]
** An early case of physical projectile-based abuse during a show in Argentina caused him to stop the show twice and threaten to go home if it persisted.
-->'''Axl''': ''[first time around, during "Nightrain"]'' We have some really fucking stupid people here tonight, who think that throwing stuff at the stage will relate into a better show! It won't happen that way, because we will fucking go home! Don't try me. Now, shall we continue, or shall we go home? OK.\\
'''Axl''': ''[second time around, during "You Could Be Mine"]'' Do you think...? ''[to the videographer]'' Camera on this fucker.\\
''[the camera zooms in on the stone Axl is holding while the interpreter offers a TactfulTranslation]''\\
'''Axl''': Do you think that this is funny? If you see somebody beside you throwing something, ''beat the fucking shit out of them!'' All they are going to do is ''rip every one of you off!'' If one of us gets hit by something like this, or if I see someone in the crowd get hit by someone... something like this, unfortunately the show will be over. We want to have a nice time tonight. We don't want anyone to get hurt--any of you, any of our crew, any of the people working the show, or ourselves. This... could hurt someone real fucking bad. This will be the last time I talk about this. We'll try one more time. Thank you.\\
'''Interpreter''': Somos amigos, no enemigos.\\
''[Axl gives the stone to a crewman]''\\
'''Axl''': ''[to the crewman]'' Save that.
* WriteWhoYouKnow: Three in their debut, "My Michelle" (a friend of Axl), "Sweet Child o' Mine" (his then-girlfriend) and "Rocket Queen" (a girl who Axl knew and wanted to have a band by this name).
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