AKA: Axl Rose and FriendsGuns N' Roses is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band, led by frontman and co-founder Axl Rose, has gone through numerous line-up changes and controversies since their formation. The band has released six studio albums, two EPs and one live album during their career.Guns N' Roses has sold an estimated 90 million albums worldwide, including over 42 million in the United States. The band's 1987 major label debut album, Appetite for Destruction, has sold in excess of 28 million copies and reached number one on the United States Billboard 200. In addition, the album charted three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including "Sweet Child O' Mine" which reached number one. The 1991 albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II debuted on the two highest spots on the Billboard 200 and have sold a combined 14 million copies in the United States alone. After over a decade of work, the band released their follow-up album, Chinese Democracy, on November 23, 2008, a date to be remembered throughout history as the day when (non Pink Floyd-affliated) pigs actually flew.The group is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.Discography
The Band Minus the Face: Velvet Revolver, 75% composed of former Gunners. As of 2009, they're still having a hard time getting a new vocalist, thus going back to 60% composed of former Gunners.
An audience member at the infamous St. Louis concert in 1991 aimed his camera at the band. Axl Rose then proceeded, after security failed to eject the idiot, to dive off the stage and take matters into his own hands, taking the poor sap to school for trying to bootleg his concert.
Guns n' Roses once played a double-bill with Metallica in Montreal. Early in his set, James Hetfield got confused about his stage cues and accidentally stepped into a column of phosphorous, nearly burning to death on stage. Naturally, he went to the hospital and Metallica apologized that they couldn't finish their set. GNR's roadies weren't prepared to switch over so early, so it took an exceptionally long time to set up Guns' stage apparatus. When they finally appeared, Axl threw a hissy fit over the quality of the sound and stormed off only a few minutes into his set. This pushed the audience'sBerserk Button, and they tore apart the arena in rage.
Apparently it's a new tradition on the current Chinese Democracy tour for audience members to infuriate Axl by throwing bottles and stuff at him. It's not a show without Axl yelling "STOP THE SHOW! STOP!"
Carpet of Virility: Dear God, STEVEN. A quick Google image search proves it.
Cool Shades: As you see up there, nearly everyone in the band liked them.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: Axl gets this the most, but pretty much every member besides Slash qualifies to a certain extent.
'80s Hair: Many people there, as the page image shows.
Fiery Redhead: Axl Rose is a male example of the trope.
His sunglasses are so iconic that some people wonder if he's blind or if he even has eyes. Neither of these claims are true, but his playing would somehow be even more epic if he was blind/eyeless.He has been seen once without his hat or his sunglasses, when he played with Joe Elliot and members of Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. But even so, you don't really see his eyes past his hair, to the point where you wouldn't even know it was him if Joe Elliot didn't shout, "Slash!" when he takes to the stage. And aside of this, have you ever seen him without his sunglasses? He can be seen occasionally without his signature top hat, but without the glasses? Not so much.
Man in a Kilt: Axl, most notably during live performances.
Man of a Thousand Voices: Axl has one hell of a vocal range. If you listen to their music not knowing that, you'd think the band has at least three different singers.
Persona Non Grata: The group is banned from performing in St. Louis after the infamous Riverport Riot that started when a fan pressed Axl Rose's Berserk Button. Their music, however, is not banned in St. Louis. Ironically, their current rhythm guitarist, Richard Fortus, is from St. Louis.
A radio commercial that ran on the St. Louis classic rock station KSHE 95 (their actual frequency number is 94.7) in the summer of 2011 referenced this; 2011 was the 20th anniversary of Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, previously known as Riverport. The riot occurred there. Guns N' Roses' Paradise City started playing in the background of the commercial, then there was high-pitched mic feedback as the music stopped, footsteps in the background, and the voiceover said "Sorry... he's still a little sore about that" referencing the riot and the band's subsequent ban from St. Louis.
Revolving Door Band: One of the most glorious examples. (only two people remain since the Use Your Illusion era, Axl and keyboardist Dizzy Reed)
Smoking Is Cool: Most of them used this look, but Izzy used it the most.
A few in the liner notes of Appetite for Destruction. Gotta love Victor Deyglio being credited as "the fucking engineer".
The hidden message "Fuck You St. Louis!" in the liner notes of Use Your Illusion I.
Early-Bird Cameo: The liner notes of Appetite have an excerpt of "You Could Be Mine", and Use Your Illusion I has "Ain't It Fun?" (one of the songs in The Spaghetti Incident?).
Epic Rocking: Over the 7-minute mark: "November Rain", (8:57) "Coma", (10:13) "Civil War", (7:42) "Breakdown", (7:05) "Locomotive", (8:42) and "Estranged". (9:23) All of them from both volumes of Use Your Illusion.
Epic Riff: "Sweet Child o' Mine". "Welcome to the Jungle" as well.
Somewhat subverted for "Sweet Child". The riff was just Slash messing around and Axl had happened to hear it and write lyrics to it. The fans love of the song made it epic when the band thought it was just going to be album filler.
Evil Laugh: Appears toward the end of "Get in the Ring," in the opening of "Back Off Bitch," and after the first verse in "Sympathy for the Devil"
The Immodest Orgasm: "Rocket Queen" features a woman having sex with Axl in the studio. It was Steven Adler's girlfriend, and he happened to be out of town at the time while she wanted to have revenge.
Incredibly Long Note: Axl does them quite well, mostly to end a song (the most extreme being "Don't Cry", where the guitars stop as he start screaming "toniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight" but play again after some time)
Inspired By: "November Rain", "Don't Cry" and "Estranged" are inspired by Del James's short story Without You.
Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: Every one of the original six (and later, Matt Sorum) liked a different rock style, and it led to a distinctive sound.
Numbered Sequels: Though both Use Your Illusions came simultaneously.
Power Ballad: "Patience", "November Rain", and "Don't Cry", among others. Chinese Democracy has a lot of these too.
Precision F-Strike: Chinese Democracy has an extremely low amount of F words compared to other albums.
From previous albums, "It's So Easy". "Since I Don't Have You" is notable in that it originally didn't have ANY swearing (given the fact that it's a '50s song, you wouldn't be surprised). There are two versions: the album version, which is on "The Spaghetti Incident?" and Greatest Hits, and the radio edit that omits the line "Yep, we're fucked", which was used for the music video.
Rated M for Manly: Take away the ballads (and deconsider the hair/clothes of some members), and it's pure macho.
Step Up to the Microphone: "So Fine" and a few covers on "The Spaghetti Incident?" are sung by Duff, "14 Years", "Dust N' Bones", "You Ain't the First" and "Double Talkin' Jive" by Izzy, and "Buick Mackane/Big Dumb Sex" by Slash.
Take That, Critics!: Axl called critics out by name in "Get in the Ring." Arguably the only message this sent was "Axl is thin skinned."
The Bet: Dr. Pepper bet that if they released Chinese Democracy before the end of 2008, they'd give away free coupons for a free can of soda. They were fully prepared to go through with it, but problems cropped up with the online distribution of coupons...
Concept Video: The superproduced videos of "November Rain", "Estranged" and "Don't Cry"
In Name Only: This has happened to the band twice: first when Axl fired all the former L.A. Guns members and replaced them with Slash, Adler, and McKagan, and secondly when those members left and the band's style changed.
Notable Music Videos: Besides the three Concept Videos, "You Could Be Mine", which was part of Terminator 2's OST. It even features Arnie himself.
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