Guns n Roses Biography

In the News: Rocker Axl Rose and his band, Guns N’ Roses, are furious after a Dr. Pepper promotion for their new album fell apart this week. The soft drink company announced in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in the country if the Guns N’ Roses album, Chinese Democracy was released this year. Recording for the album began in 1994, and faced multiple delays. It finally went on sale Sunday (November 23rd, 2008).

But while the band held true to its promise, Dr. Pepper did not, said Guns N’ Roses lawyer, Alan Gutman, in a letter to Dr Pepper dated Tuesday (November 25, 2008). According to his note, the soda’s Web site malfunctioned during the 24-hour period it offered the free soda. Gutman called the incident "an unmitigated disaster which defrauded consumers" claiming it ruined the album release.

The lawyer demanded a full-page apology in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal; an expanded time period for customers to redeem their soda; and "an appropriate payment to our clients for the unauthorized use and abuse of their publicity and intellectual property rights." He did not specify how much compensation was being sought.

Biography: Rock group. While the band has gone through several different line-ups, the most famous version included Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Slash, Duff McKagan, and Steven Adler. Known for their raw heavy metal sound on stage and their rebellious, wild lives off stage, Guns N’ Roses exploded on the music scene in the late 1980s.

Formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, Guns N’ Roses took its name from several groups that some of its members had played in previously, including L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. Rose and Stradlin had known each other from Lafayette, Indiana, where they both lived before Stradlin moved to California as a teenager. Rose came to his rebellious bad boy attitude naturally, having run into trouble numerous times growing up. Other band members shared connections, too. Stradlin and Slash had attended the same Los Angeles high school, and Slash and Adler were friends. The group was part of the L. A. heavy metal scene, which included Motley Crue and Poison. Unlike these other groups, however, Guns N’ Roses avoided the popular trappings of big hair, tight pants, and heavy make-up. Gritty and grungy, they appeared to be as reckless and rambunctious as their music and made no excuses for their hard-partying ways.

Before landing a recording contract, Guns N’ Roses released an EP entitled Live Like a Suicide. It contained four songs, two of which were covers of songs by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. They signed a deal with Geffen Records in 1986 and the following year released their first full album, Appetite for Destruction (1987). Initially, the album failed to make much of a splash with its first single “Welcome to the Jungle.”

The second single, “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” showcased a softer side to Guns N’ Roses. Featuring tender, sentimental lyrics, the song’s video received heavy play from MTV and helped push their album up the charts. Both the song and the album reached number one in 1988. “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Paradise City” also made the charts. Guns N’ Roses became one of the most popular rock acts of the time.

To capitalize on their success, G N’ R Lies was released in 1989. It featured the four songs from their earlier EP and four new tracks. While the ballad, “Patience,” struck a chord with listeners, many people were outraged by the lyrics in some of the other songs. With its cavalier tone about killing a woman, “Used to Love Her” has been found offensive by many. And “One in Million” seemed to go out of its way to offend nearly everyone by including derogatory comments about African Americans, immigrants, and homosexuals.

Guns N’ Roses was no less controversial on stage. Volative and unpredictable, lead singer Axl Rose became as famous for his tantrums as he was for his rough-sounding vocals. In 1991, he jumped into the crowd to get a camera away from a fan at a concert, and then he returned to the stage, only to storm off. A fight broke out in the audience, resulting in 60 people becoming injured.

That same year, Guns N’ Roses released two albums simultaneously, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. By this time, the group had become such a popular phenomenon that some record stores stayed open late so that fans could buy them as soon as released. As part of the band’s efforts to expand their sound, Dizzy Reed joined the group on keyboards during the recording sessions for these albums. Besides such hits as “Don’t Cry,” “November Rain,” and “Live and Let Die,” the albums also included some interesting experiments, including the piano-driven “Breakdown” and the more-than-10-minutes-long epic “Coma.” Both albums spent some time near or at the top of the charts.

Despite this success, Guns N’ Roses was going some upheaval internally. Longtime member Izzy Stradlin departed around the end of 1991. With his exit, the group lost an important songwriting talent. Stradlin was replaced by guitarist Gilby Clarke, formerly of Kills for Thrills. This was not the first major departure. The band had previously fired Steven Adler in 1990, allegedly for his drug problem, and replaced him with Matt Sorum from the Cult.

While touring with Metallica in 1992, another on-stage tantrum by Rose helped fuel a riot in Montreal. Guns N’ Roses took the stage after Metallica ended their set early because their lead singer had been injured by a prop that exploded. But Rose began complaining about voice problems and stopped performing after less than an hour. Fans were outraged, and some attacked the stadium, stole souvenirs, and started fires. It took several hundred police officers to quell the disturbance.

As a tribute to the influence of punk rock on their music, the group released The Spaghetti Incident? (1993), a collection of punk cover songs. Guns N’ Roses again stirred up controversy by including a song written by cult leader and convicted murderer Charles Manson. At the time of the album’s release, the popular music scene was changing. With the breakthrough of such grunge acts as Nirvana, alternative rock was increasing in popularity with the teenage market and making more conventional acts seem a bit stale and outdated. Rose seemed to respond to this shift by becoming more controlling over the group and its creative direction.

During the mid to late 1990s, Guns N’ Roses began to falling apart. Axl Rose became a virtual recluse, staying out of the public eye to work on the group’s next album. During this time, Slash, Clarke, McKagan, and Sorum all left the group, leaving Rose as its remaining original member. Rose reportedly continued to press on with the band’s next album, bringing in new musicians and a number of producers over the years.

The first taste of the music produced Rose’s Guns N’ Roses surfaced in 1999 with “Oh My God.” The song was featured on the soundtrack to the film End of Days and had a more industrial sound than the group’s earlier work. Beginning in 2000, stories surfaced on the impending release of Guns N’ Roses’ long awaited new album, reportedly titled Chinese Democracy. At first, it was supposed to be ready in 2001. But that and several other release dates have come and gone without Rose delivering the album. A story about it appeared in The New York Times in 2005, calling it the most expensive album never made. The article stated that $13 million had been spent on the record so far. Most recently, Rose told Rolling Stone magazine in 2006 that the album would be out that year. There is still no indication of when Chinese Democracy might see the light of day.

Fans, however, have had a chance to hear some of the new material during some of Guns N’ Roses concerts and appearances. In recent years, the band has resurfaced, playing gigs around the world, including a tour of Japan in 2007. The most recent line-up includes Axl Rose, Dizzy Reed, Robin Finck, Tommy Stinson, Chris Pitman, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, and Frank Ferrer.

In addition to touring and recording, Rose has had to contend with legal battles with former bandmates Slash and McKagan. They sued him twice—in 2004 and 2005—over music royalties, rights, and licensing. Slash and McKagan, along with former Guns N’ Roses drummer Sorum, are now members of the band Velvet Revolver, which also includes former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland and guitarist Dave Kushner. The group formed in the early 2000s and has released two successful albums, Contraband (2004) and Libertad (2007). Slash also had his memoir published in 2007, which details his life as a member of Guns N’ Roses along with other aspects of his life and musical career.

© 2007 A&E Television Networks. All rights reserved.