Axl Rose
W. Axl Rose (/ˈæksəl/ AK-səl; born William Bruce Rose Jr., February 6, 1962)[3] is an American singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses. He has been the band's only constant member since its formation in 1985.[4] Renowned for his wide-ranging, powerful voice,[5] Rose has been ranked among the greatest singers of all time by outlets such as Rolling Stone, NME and Billboard.[6][7][8] Born in Lafayette, Indiana, Rose moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980s, joining bands like Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns before co-founding Guns N' Roses. The band's debut album, Appetite for Destruction (1987), sold over 30 million copies worldwide[9][10] and remains the best-selling U.S. debut. Rose's relationships with Erin Everly and Stephanie Seymour inspired multiple songs, including the chart-topping "Sweet Child o' Mine", though allegations of abuse,[11] and controversial lyrics on the band's next release G N' R Lies (1988) drew criticism.[12] The twin albums Use Your Illusion I and II (1991), debuted at No. 2 and No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 35 million copies combined.[13] Rose's volatile behavior during the Use Your Illusion Tour, with riots (including his arrest for inciting the Riverport Riot), media rants, and feuds with Metallica and Nirvana, fueled further controversy.[14][15][16] The follow-up, "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993), was less successful and drew backlash for including a Charles Manson cover. After the tour, Rose disappeared from the public eye while Guns N' Roses stalled on making a new album. Rose reemerged in 2001 with a new version of Guns N' Roses, eventually releasing Chinese Democracy (2008), the most expensive rock album ever produced.[17] Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, Rose declined to attend. In 2016, he reconciled with Slash and Duff McKagan for the record-breaking Not in This Lifetime... Tour, and also toured with AC/DC as a fill-in vocalist for two dozen shows. The band continued touring and releasing singles into the 2020s. Early lifeAxl Rose was born William Bruce Rose Jr. in Lafayette, Indiana, the eldest child of Sharon Elizabeth (née Lintner), then 16, and William Bruce Rose, age 20.[18][19][20] His father has been described as "a troubled and charismatic local delinquent," and the pregnancy was unplanned.[18] The couple separated when Rose was around two years old.[18] His father abducted and allegedly molested him before disappearing from Lafayette.[18] Rose's mother later married Stephen L. Bailey and changed her son's name to William Bruce Bailey.[20][21] He has two younger siblings: a sister, Amy, and a half-brother, Stuart.[22][23] Stuart Bailey later played guitar in several Los Angeles bands and worked as a music supervisor in Hollywood.[24][25] Until age 17, Rose believed Bailey was his biological father.[26] He never met William Rose Sr. as an adult; Rose Sr. was murdered in 1984 in Marion, Illinois, by a criminal acquaintance.[27] Rose learned of the murder years later.[28] Rose accused his stepfather of physically abusing the family and sexually abusing his sister.[29][20][26] The Bailey household was deeply religious. Rose attended a Pentecostal church multiple times per week and taught Sunday school.[30] He later described the environment as oppressive, recalling: "We'd have televisions one week, then my stepdad would throw them out because they were Satanic... Women were evil. Everything was evil".[30] Music became a refuge.[31] Rose sang in the church choir from age five and performed with his siblings as the Bailey Trio.[32] At Jefferson High School, he joined the chorus and studied piano.[32] A second baritone, he developed "different voices" during practice to confuse his teacher.[33][31][33][34] He later formed a band with friends, including Jeff Isbell (later Izzy Stradlin),[35] and befriended future musicians Shannon Hoon (Blind Melon) and Paul Tobias, who would co-write songs with Rose and join Guns N' Roses in the mid-1990s.[36][37][38][39] At 17, Rose discovered his birth name while reviewing insurance papers and began using W. Rose, avoiding "William" to distance himself from his biological father.[21][26] The revelation marked a turning point. He became involved in delinquent behavior in Lafayette, was arrested more than 20 times, and served jail terms of up to three months.[21][40] After being threatened with habitual offender charges,[32] he moved to Los Angeles in December 1982.[40] In Los Angeles, Rose immersed himself in the band AXL, prompting friends to suggest the name "Axl Rose".[21][41] He legally adopted the name W. Axl Rose prior to signing with Geffen Records in March 1986.[33][40][42] Career1983–1986: early yearsShortly after his arrival in Los Angeles, Rose met guitarist Kevin Lawrence outside The Troubadour in West Hollywood in March 1983 and joined his band Rapidfire. They recorded a five-song demo in May 1983 at Telstar Studios in Burbank,[43] which, after years of legal action, was released as an EP, Ready to Rumble, in 2014.[44][45][46] After parting ways with Lawrence, he formed the band Hollywood Rose with his childhood friend Izzy Stradlin,[47] who had moved to Los Angeles in 1980,[35] and 16-year-old guitarist Chris Weber.[48] In January 1984, the band recorded a five-song demo featuring the tracks "Anything Goes", "Rocker", "Shadow of Your Love", and "Reckless Life", which was released in 2004 as The Roots of Guns N' Roses.[49] Guitarist Slash and drummer Steven Adler, future members of Guns N' Roses, joined Hollywood Rose before the band's dissolution.[50] Rose then joined L.A. Guns.[48] While struggling to make an impact on the Hollywood music scene, Rose held down a variety of jobs, including the position of night manager at the Tower Records/Video location on Sunset Boulevard. Rose and Stradlin also smoked cigarettes for a scientific study at UCLA for the reported wages of $8 per hour (equivalent to $24 in 2024).[42] In March 1985, Rose and his former L.A. Guns bandmate Tracii Guns formed Guns N' Roses by merging their respective bands Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns with Stradlin, drummer Rob Gardner and bassist Ole Beich.[51] By June, after several lineup changes, the band consisted of Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler. The lineup debuted at The Troubadour and proceeded to play the L.A. club circuit, eventually building a devoted fan following.[51] The band attracted the attention of several major record labels,[51] before signing with Geffen Records in March 1986.[32] The following December, they released the four-song EP Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide on the Geffen imprint UZI Suicide.[20] 1987–1989: breakthrough with Appetite for Destruction In July 1987, Guns N' Roses released their debut album Appetite for Destruction. Although the record received critical acclaim, it experienced a modest commercial start, selling as many as 500,000 copies in its first year of release.[52] However, fueled by the band's relentless touring, a grassroots campaign for the "Welcome to the Jungle" music video,[53] and the mainstream success of the single "Sweet Child o' Mine", the album rose to the No. 1 position. To date, Appetite for Destruction has sold over 30 million copies worldwide,[9][10] 18 million of which sold in the United States, making it the best-selling debut album of all time in the U.S.[54] During the band's performance at the Monsters of Rock festival in Castle Donington, England, in August 1988, two fans were crushed to death when many in the crowd of 107,000 began slam-dancing to "It's So Easy". Rose had halted the show several times to calm the audience.[21] From then on, he became known for personally addressing disruptive fans and giving instructions to security personnel from the stage, at times stopping concerts to deal with issues in the crowd. In 1992, Rose stated, "Most performers would go to a security person in their organization, and it would just be done very quietly. I'll confront the person, stop the song: 'Guess what: You wasted your money, you get to leave.'"[26] As a result of the deaths at Monsters of Rock, the festival was canceled the following year.[55] In November 1988, Guns N' Roses released the stopgap album G N' R Lies, which sold more than five million copies in the U.S. alone.[54] The band – and Rose in particular – were accused homophobia, nativism, and racism for the song "One in a Million",[56] which featured Rose using the slurs "nigger" and "faggots".[57] During the controversy, Rose defended his use of the racial slur by referencing the rap group N.W.A and the John Lennon song "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" saying, "it's a word to describe somebody that is basically a pain in your life, a problem. The word nigger doesn't necessarily mean black."[32] In 1992, however, he conceded that "I used a word that was taboo. And I used that word because it was taboo. I was pissed off about some black people that were trying to rob me. I wanted to insult those particular black people. I didn't want to support racism. When I used the word faggots, I wasn't coming down on gays."[26] In response to the allegations of homophobia, Rose said he considered himself "pro-heterosexual" but is "not against [homosexuals] doing what they want to do as long as it's not hurting anybody else and they're not forcing it upon [him]".[26] He blamed this attitude on "bad experiences" with gay men, citing an attempted rape in his late teens and the alleged molestation by his biological father.[26][32][58] The controversy led to Guns N' Roses being dropped from the roster of an AIDS benefit show in New York organized by the Gay Men's Health Crisis.[32][42] With the success of Appetite for Destruction and G N' R Lies, Rose found himself lauded as one of rock's most prominent frontmen. By the time he appeared solo on the cover of Rolling Stone in August 1989, his celebrity was such that the influential music magazine agreed to his absolute requirement that the interview and accompanying photographs would be provided by two of his friends, writer Del James and photographer Robert John.[59] MTV anchorman Kurt Loder described Rose as "maybe the finest hard rock singer currently on the scene, and certainly the most charismatic".[60] 1990–1993: international success with Use Your IllusionIn early 1990, Guns N' Roses returned to the studio to begin recording the full-length follow-up to Appetite for Destruction. Recording sessions initially proved unproductive due to Steven Adler's struggle with drug addiction, which made him unable to perform and caused sessions to be delayed for several days at a time.[51] Adler was fired the following July and replaced by Matt Sorum of the Cult.[51] Keyboardist Dizzy Reed also joined the band that year at Rose's insistence.[51] Sorum and Reed played their first show with Guns N' Roses at Rock in Rio 2 in January 1991. The group fired its long-time manager, Alan Niven, in May of that year; Rose reportedly forced the dismissal of Niven against the wishes of his bandmates by refusing to complete the new album until Niven was gone.[61] He was replaced by roadie Doug Goldstein, whom Izzy Stradlin described as "the guy who gets to go over to Axl's at six in the morning after he's smashed his $60,000 grand piano out of the picture window".[62] In May 1991, still without an album to promote, the band embarked on the two-and-a-half-year Use Your Illusion Tour, which became known for its financial success and myriad controversial incidents that occurred during shows, including late starts, on-stage rantings and even riots. Rose received much criticism for his late appearances at concerts, sometimes taking the stage hours after the band was scheduled to perform.[26] In July 1991, 90 minutes into a concert at the Riverport Amphitheater near St. Louis, after on-stage requests from Rose for security personnel to confiscate a fan's video camera, Rose himself dived into the crowd to seize it. After being pulled back on stage, he announced, "Well, thanks to the lame-ass security, I'm going home!" and departed, following which some 2,500 fans staged a riot, resulting in an estimated $200,000 in damages.[63]  In September 1991, with enough material completed for two albums, Guns N' Roses released Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, which debuted at No. 2 and No. 1 respectively on the Billboard 200, a feat not achieved by any other group.[42] By the albums' release, however, Rose's relationships with his bandmates had become increasingly strained. His childhood friend Izzy Stradlin abruptly left the group in November 1991; he was replaced by Gilby Clarke of Kill For Thrills.[51][58] Of his reasons for leaving, Stradlin said, "I didn't like the complications that became such a part of daily life in Guns N' Roses,"[64] citing the riot and Rose's chronic lateness as examples, as well as his new-found sobriety making it difficult to be around other bandmates' continued alcohol and substance abuse.[35][64] On April 20, 1992, Rose performed with Elton John at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a duet with John and also sang "We Will Rock You". Another riot occurred in August 1992 at Montreal's Olympic Stadium, during a co-headlining tour with Metallica.[65] Prior to Guns N' Roses' appearance, Metallica's set was cut short after singer-guitarist James Hetfield suffered second-degree burns in a pyrotechnics accident. However, the shortened time between sets did not allow for adequate tuning of stage monitors, and the band members could not hear themselves. In addition, Rose claimed that his throat hurt, causing the band to collectively leave the stage early.[66] The riot resulted in an estimated $400,000 in damages.[51][67][68][69] In November of that year, Rose was convicted of property damage and assault in relation to the Riverport riot; he was fined $50,000 and received two years' probation.[62][70] Guns N' Roses played its final show of the Use Your Illusion Tour on July 17, 1993, at River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires;[71] it proved to be Rose's last live performance with the band for seven and a half years.[72] The following August, Rose testified in court against Steven Adler, who had filed a lawsuit contending that he had been illegitimately fired. When the judge ruled against Rose, he agreed to an out-of-court settlement of $2,500,000 and 15% of the royalties for everything Adler recorded prior to his departure.[23][62] In November of that year, Guns N' Roses released "The Spaghetti Incident?", a cover album of mostly punk songs, which proved less successful than its predecessors. Rose had included the hidden track "Look at Your Game, Girl", a song written by convicted murderer Charles Manson, which he intended as a personal message to his ex-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour.[62][73][74] Controversy ensued, and the band subsequently pledged to donate any royalties to the son of one of Manson's victims.[23][75] 1994–2000: hiatusWithout consultation from his bandmates, Rose did not renew Gilby Clarke's contract with the band in June 1994,[23] as he claimed Clarke to be only a "hired hand".[76] Tension between Rose and Slash reached a breaking point after the latter discovered that Rose had hired his childhood friend Paul "Huge" Tobias as Clarke's replacement.[23] Although the band recorded material during this time, it was ultimately not used because, according to Rose, their lack of collaboration prevented them from producing their best work.[77] Roses's final public performance until 2001 was covering The Beatles song "Come Together" alongside Bruce Springsteen in January 1994 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.[78][79] In August 1995, Rose legally left the band and created a new partnership under the band's name, a step he said he took "to salvage Guns not steal it".[80] Rose reportedly purchased the full rights to the Guns N' Roses name in 1997.[81][82] Slash claimed he and other bandmates signed away rights to the name before the July 5, 1993, show in Barcelona, Spain with Axl delivering an ultimatum: they had to sign the name over to him or he would not perform.[22] (In 2008, however, Rose said Slash's claims were false and that the alleged coercion would have rendered the contract legally untenable.[83]) Slash finally left Guns N' Roses in October 1996 due to his differences with Rose,[84] while Matt Sorum was fired in June 1997 after an argument over Tobias's involvement in the band.[85] Duff McKagan departed the band in August of that year, leaving Rose and Dizzy Reed as the only remaining band members of the Use Your Illusion era.[22] As the stability of Guns N' Roses collapsed, Rose withdrew from public view. The band never officially broke up as Rose continued to recruit new musicians to replace band members who either left or were fired. By the late 1990s, he was considered to be a recluse, rarely making public appearances and spending most of his time in his mansion in Malibu. In various media reports, he was referred to as the "Howard Hughes of rock" and "rock's greatest recluse".[51][86] Rose was said to spend his nights writing and rehearsing with the various new lineups of Guns N' Roses, working on the band's next album, Chinese Democracy.[22] 2001–2011: touring in support of Chinese Democracy After a warmup show in Las Vegas a few weeks earlier, Rose resurfaced with Guns N' Roses at Rock in Rio 3 on January 14, 2001, to commence the decade-long Chinese Democracy Tour.[87] A surprise appearance at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards was followed by an incident in November when a riot erupted at Vancouver's General Motors Place after Rose failed to show up for a scheduled concert. When venue staff announced the cancellation, a riot broke out, resulting in an estimated $100,000 in damages.[72][88][89] The riot led to the tour's cancelation by the promoter Clear Channel.[90] After the promoter canceled the tour, Rose again withdrew from the public view. During this time, he joined Slash and Duff McKagan in a lawsuit against Geffen Records in an unsuccessful attempt to block the release of the Greatest Hits compilation album,[91] and lent his voice to the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, as the DJ for the radio station, K-DST.[92] In a rare interview in January 2006, Rose said "people will hear music this year."[93] While Guns N' Roses toured extensively throughout 2006 and 2007, with several guest appearances by Izzy Stradlin, Chinese Democracy again failed to materialize.[94] As the band's lineup continued to evolve, his constant bandmates were guitarist Richard Fortus, bassist Tommy Stinson, and keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman. Rose collaborated with his friend Sebastian Bach on his album Angel Down in 2007.[95] Fifteen years after its last album, in November 2008, Guns N' Roses released Chinese Democracy.[96] The protracted development of the album cost $13 million, making it the most expensive rock album of all time.[97] It received generally favorable reviews but undersold industry expectations. Rose did not contribute to the album's promotion; by December, he had reportedly been missing for at least two months and had not returned phone calls or other requests from his record label.[98] In a subsequent interview, Rose said he felt he had not received the necessary support from Interscope Records.[99] A year after the album's release, in December 2009, Guns N' Roses embarked on another two-and-a-half years of touring, including a headlining performance at Rock in Rio 4.[100] 2012–present: Hall of Fame and regrouping; AC/DC.jpg) Together with the other members of Guns N' Roses' classic lineup, Rose was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, their first year of eligibility.[101] He did not attend the induction ceremony in April, however,[102] as he had announced in an open letter three days prior.[103] Rose, who had long been on bad terms with several of his former bandmates, wrote that the ceremony "doesn't appear to be somewhere I'm actually wanted or respected".[103] He subsequently joined his band in residencies at The Joint in Las Vegas in 2012 and 2014, as part of the Appetite for Democracy Tour celebrating the anniversaries of Appetite for Destruction and Chinese Democracy.[104][105] By mid-2014, the group's new album, recorded concurrently with Chinese Democracy, and a remix album were completed and pending release, but no new material emerged.[106]  Rose and Slash reunited for the Not in This Lifetime... Tour, one of the most-anticipated reunion tours in rock history.[107] Alongside Dizzy Reed and returning member Duff McKagan, who had previously made guest appearances with the band, they comprised two-thirds of the band's Use Your Illusion-era lineup, with Chinese Democracy-era members Richard Fortus and Frank Ferrer joining new member Melissa Reese to fill in the rest of the lineup.[108][109] Rose shared a stage with Slash for the first time in nearly 23 years during the group's surprise performance at The Troubadour in April 2016, ahead of its headlining shows at Coachella.[107][110] The tour was a massive success, and became the third highest-grossing concert tour of all time at the time of its conclusion.[111]  On April 16, 2016, Australian hard rock band AC/DC announced that Rose would be joining them and performing as the lead singer for the remainder of the band's Rock or Bust World Tour, after long-time lead vocalist Brian Johnson had to stop touring due to hearing problems.[112] Subsequent reports indicated that guitarist Angus Young would be continuing the band with Rose as its official lead singer.[113] This did not happen however; on September 30, 2020, AC/DC officially announced that Brian Johnson, along with Phil Rudd and Cliff Williams had returned to the band in 2018 and recorded an album, showing that Rose only stepped in to help finish the tour and that he was never brought in to replace Johnson.[114] In 2018, Rose appeared in an episode of New Looney Tunes as himself, singing an original song "Rock the Rock".[115] In 2021, Rose again appeared as himself in a cartoon, this time Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?.[116] Rose and Guns N' Roses continued touring after the Not In This Lifetime... Tour, with the Guns N' Roses 2020 Tour.[117] The group released two singles in 2021, "Absurd" and "Hard Skool", the first release of newly recorded material since 2008. Hard Skool was heavily praised in comparison to Absurd, both songs feature vocals recorded in 1999.[118][119] In 2023, Rose and the band would release the two singles "Perhaps" and "The General", the latter having a music video uploaded to YouTube on January 24.[120][121] In addition, they performed live in Indio, California at Coachella in October as part of the 2023 tour and had their first headlining slot at Glastonbury Festival.[122] The band continued touring in 2025.[123] ArtistryInfluencesAn early influence on Rose was Dan McCafferty of Nazareth. He stated in a 1988 interview, "If it wasn't for Dan McCafferty and Nazareth I wouldn't be singing. I used to lock myself in the bathroom and try to hit those notes in "Love Hurts", ya know?".[124] Rose was also influenced by Hanoi Rocks,[125] Queen,[126] AC/DC,[127] the Rolling Stones,[128][129] Aerosmith,[129] Rose Tattoo,[130][131] Led Zeppelin, the Who, Cheap Trick (particularly the live album Cheap Trick at Budokan), Judas Priest (Unleashed in the East),[132] Aerosmith, Van Halen, the New York Dolls,[133] T. Rex,[134] the Sex Pistols,[135] Black Sabbath,[136] and Nirvana.[137] Rose's orchestral-style songwriting on the Illusion albums was influenced by the Electric Light Orchestra, Elton John, and Queen, particularly their album Queen II.[138] Rose cited the Rolling Stones songs "Far Away Eyes" and "Miss You" as favorites.[132] In the early 90's, Rose became a fan of electronica and industrial music, particularly the works of Nine Inch Nails, influencing Rose during the development of Chinese Democracy.[139][140] He also cited the U2 and Brian Eno collaboration Original Soundtracks 1 as a major influence.[141] In a 2016 interview, Rose cited Freddie Mercury, Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney, Dan McCafferty, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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