There are always a lot of hustles and scandals around him because he can not do without them...
There is no doubt that he is a hopeless Diva...
But he is a huge performer and one of the best singers with the widest vocal range...
So let's get to know Axl Rose a little better:
(Photo: KMazur)
= His first name was William Bruce Rose Jr. and he was born on February 6, 1962, in Lafayette, Indiana.
= His birth was unexpected, he was born when his mother was only 16 and his father 20, his parents separated when he was only two years old.
= His mother remarried and changed his name to William Bruce Bailey, only at the age of 17 did he discover that his stepfather was not his biological father. His biological father was murdered in 1984.
= He and his two brothers were physically and verbally abused by their stepfather when they were kids.
= The education they received was devout Christianity and anything other than Christianity like television, radio, and music was considered in the family as satanic.
= He and his two brothers sang in the choir and at events, they were called the "Bailey Trio", then Axl discovered his love for music and singing in particular.
= The first band he formed was with his friend Jeff Isbell and Izzy Stradlin.
= While he was 17, he discovered his real father and he changed his name to W.Rose, this is when the troubles started too.
= Axl took out all the rage, and anger, that has accumulated all these years to the streets of Lafayette.
He used to walk around drunk and destroy everything in his path. He was arrested several times and even spent 3 months in jail.
(Photo: Indiana Police Dept.)
= After he was released from prison, the police threatened to declare him a criminal and as a result, he decided to leave for the city of Angels - L.A.
= Axl landed in L.A. in May and joined a band called "Rapidfire" with whom he recorded a demo of five songs that came out as an EP called "Ready to Rumble" only in 2014 in light of legal disputes (which have been Axl share all his life).
= That same year he left the band and co-founded with Izzy (who also moved to L.A) and Chris Weber the band AXL, they wrote materials and appeared in a number of small clubs as they replaced a number of other musicians in the band and their name eventually became "Hollywood Rose".
(Photo: Discogs)
= Axl who fell in love with the band, the music, and the name AXL decided to change his name to W. Axl Rose.
= In January 1984 they recorded a demo of 5 songs that was only released in 2004 under the name "The Roots of Guns N 'Roses" and featured songs that were later released on Guns albums.
= At one of the shows, Axl got hit in the head by Chris (the guitar player) so he decided to fire him from the band. He replaced him with Slash and the drummer was replaced with Steven Adler, but following Chris' dismissal, Izzy decided he was also leaving (a real telenovela).
= The band continued for a number of shows with the new lineup but very quickly disbanded and Axl joined a band called "L.A. Guns".
(Photo: Last.fm)
= They also appeared several times until they disbanded but then a miraculous thing happened...
= On March 18, 1985, by the advice of their manager, Axl, and guitarist Tracii Guns, who was with him in "L.A. Guns", decided to form a band called "Guns N 'Roses".
= They added Izzy, drummer Rob Gardner and bassist Ole Beich (both from L.A. Guns), the band lasted only three months until Slash replaced Tracy, Steven Adler replaced Rob and Duff McKagan replaced Oli. The "Guns N' Roses" first classical lineup was formed.
(Photo: Ross Marino)
= Two years later, in July 1987, the band released their debut album "Appetite for Destruction" which became the best-selling debut album of all time in the United States.
= During the band's performance in London in 1988, Axl saw that a number of people in the audience were crushed and began giving instructions to the security personnel which did not help when he finally stopped the show until the audience calmed down.
= During his career Axl continued his involvement with the audience and with what happens in front of the stage. The most famous case was at the band's show in St. Louis in July 1991, in which Axl identified a fan in the audience who filmed the show with a video camera. He made a head-first jump as he dived into the crowd and broke the camera. After he got out of there he decided to stop the show which led to violent outbursts of vandalism on the part of the audience.
= In November 1988, the band released the album "G N 'R Lies", which also reached the top of the charts and took 2nd place.
= After the release of the album there was a big storm around the lyrics of the song "One in a Million" where Axl treats blatantly and uses words like niggers and fagots. To this day he has not really apologized or given a convincing explanation for the lyrics.
= At the forefront of one of the most successful bands of the time, Axl was given the status of a superstar and a real celebrity (already then began to develop the diva in him), he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in August 1989.
= In the early 1990s Guns began to work on their next album in a rather jarring tone. Axl decided to fire Steven Adler because he could not function due to his drug use and replaced him with drummer Matt Sorum. In addition he decided to add keyboardist Dizzy Reed despite the opposition of the rest of the band.
= Three years later Steven Adler sued Axl for illegal dismissals, he won the lawsuit and received from Axl $2.5 million in damages and royalties at the rate of 15%.
= Axl continues to execute his desires and decides to fire the band manager Alan Niven also to the opposition of the rest of the band. Axl did not agree to continue recording the album if Allen was not fired and he was replaced by Doug Goldstein who was apparently a close friend of Axl.
= In September 1991, the band released the double album "Use Your Illusion I & II" which reached number one and number two on the Billboard charts together, an achievement that no band has achieved.
(Photo: Robert John)
= With the release of the double album, Axl's relationship with the rest of the band continued to deteriorate...
= He developed the habit of going up late on stage forcing the rest of the band and audience to wait for him, often more than an hour until he got on.
= During the tour to promote the albums, he began to add additional musicians and backing singers to the shows without the knowledge and agreement of the other members of the band.
= The lifestyle he created around the band did not suit the other members and the first to leave was his childhood friend Izzy who was replaced by Gilby Clarke (who was later fired without the knowledge of the other band members).
= Another famous case occurred during Guns' tour with "Metallica" in 1992 when during "Metallica's" show James Hetfield was badly burned and they had to stop performing. Since Axl was not in the area because he was chronically late, the crowd waited more than an hour. The angry crowd began vandalizing the property, causing $ 400,000 in damages. Axl was charged with causing the outbursts and received a $50,000 fine.
= In May 1993 the band made its first show in Israel - Guns N' Roses - Hayarkon Park. Two months later, on July 1993, Axl appeared for the last time with Guns' "second" classic line-up.
= In November 1993, the band released the cover album "The Spaghetti Incident?"
= As he continues to try to dictatorially control everything related to the band, Slash decides to leave the band in October 1996.
(Photo: Peter Still)
= Matt was fired in June 1997 as he objected to Gilby being replaced by Axl's childhood friend.
= Duff left the band in August of that year to concentrate on his family and himself.
= Axl took all the rights to Guns and after almost all the band members left, he stayed with Dizzy and his childhood friend Paul "Huge" Tobias. He appeared at all sorts of festivals here and there, while the band members continued to change almost regularly and he maintained a very low profile.
= In 2004 Axl's character was included in the video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas".
= During 2006 and 2007 Axl with the new Guns, continues a hectic tour but fails to fill out stadiums as before (he even performed with this band in Israel) while at the same time, there were rumors of a new album.
= In November 2008, 15 years after the last album, Axl issued with his new line-up Guns's sixth album "Chinese Democracy".
= Axl did not initiate any marketing activities to promote the album and even disappeared from the media during the first months of the album's release.
= In 2012 Guns was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Axl who refused to attend the ceremony sent a letter to the production announcing that he would not attend as he did not feel valued or wanted by the Hall of Fame institution.
= In April 2016, a wonderful thing happened and... Slash, Duff, Dizzy, and Axl reunited and went on the most anticipated tour in the world "Not in This Lifetime..." tour that continues to this day and of course visited Israel.
= That same year, Axl replaced "AC/DC" singer Brian Johnson with a number of appearances due to Brian's hearing problems and the danger of deafness.
= In 2018, Axl participated in an episode of the cartoon series Looney Tunes with a song he wrote called "Rock the Rock".
= In August 2023, another wonderful thing happened (although we have disagreements), the band released the first single of their current line-up, "Perhaps". A single that might signal that the band is planning to release an new album in the future or maybe it's just a test that checks how they feel together again in the studio.
= He had an interesting collaboration with Don Henley from the "Eagles". He sang background vocals in the song "I Will Not Go Quietly" taken from Henley's excellent album "The End of the Innocence" from 1989. Henley returned a favor to Axl and Guns after performing with them in the song "Patience" at the 1989 Music Awards.
= He was also featured on two songs from Sebastian Bach's third solo album from 2007 called "Angel Down".
= He performed the song "Under My Wheels" with Alice Cooper, Slash and Izzy Stradlin in the soundtrack of the documentary "The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years".
= He is one of the singers who have the greatest vocal range. It reaches over five octaves and extends from F1 to Bb6. By the way, singer Mike Patton is in first place with a range of six and a half octaves.
Feel free to listen to the live performance album which is the peak of Axl and Guns shows "Live Era 87'-93" Spotify, Apple Music
"Hayarkon Park 1993... a promo ticket from a certain bank, I think Bank Discount ?! Waiting for hours upon hours with two good friends... gates opening and... running like crazy to the front row! Many bad comments were about that show, and rightly so. ...but! One guitar pick thrown by Slash, made my heart very happy, and all the way back to Haifa, hitchhiking with my skateboard!
Years passed, and I discovered that it was actually a guitar pick that was printed to Axl.... ah! ".
Glory Days! Those were Da Best days of my Life!"
