: Axl RoseAxl Rose performing live at Download 2006BornFebruary 6, 1962Lafayette, Indiana, USAYears active1985—presentInstrument(s)vocals, piano, guitarGenre(s)RockAxl Rose (born William Bruce Rose, Jr.
Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose, Jr. on February 6, 1962) is an American hard rock singer and songwriter best known as the lead singer of Guns N' Roses, and is the only original member still part of the band's line-up. Placing high in numerous polls as one of hard rock's all-time greatest frontmen, Rose is also infamous for his onstage antics, disputes with former bandmates, and for his constant rewriting of the still-unreleased Chinese Democracy album.
Biography
Childhood
Born in Lafayette, Indiana to William and Sharon E. Rose, Axl Rose was brought up in a deeply religious Pentecostal family, singing in church and teaching Sunday school. William Rose left the family when Axl was two years old, bringing the start of a troubled childhood for Axl who, as an adult, has stated that repressed memories had revealed to him that his biological father, William Rose, had sexually abused him as a small child. His mother remarried when he was a small child, and changed Axl's name to William Bailey, using the last name of her new husband, L. Stephen Bailey, a man whom Rose has also stated physically abused him.
Growing up, Rose thought Bailey was his biological father; his name had been "William Bailey" since his father had left. At age seventeen, he learned of his biological father's existence and readopted his birth name, William Rose. He referred to himself as "W. Rose" only, however, as he did not wish to share a name with his biological father.
Because of his turbulent upbringing and his mother's reluctance to leave the abusive Bailey, Rose is said to have issues with women. He claimed in a Rolling Stone interview in 1992 that during his childhood, he was made to believe that women and sexuality were evil and that due to the violent treatment of his mother by his stepfather he witnessed as an impressionable child, he had been led to think that domestic violence was the normal way of things 1.
Youth in Indiana
Throughout his youth, Rose was in trouble numerous times with the police and was arrested over twenty times on charges such as public drunkenness and assault. In his late teenage years Lafayette authorities attempted to have him locked up as a habitual criminal [1]. When he was 17, on the advice of his lawyer, he left Indiana and headed to Los Angeles in the early 1980s to pursue a rock music career. He adopted the name W. Axl Rose ('Axl' after a band in which he once played [2]), and set out to re-unite with close childhood friend, and former Indiana bandmate, Izzy Stradlin.
The rise and fall of Guns N' Roses
The early 1980s music scene in Los Angeles featured both punk and heavy metal bands. Rose wanted to meld the two styles into a unique musical form. He moved through a number of bands, including Hollywood Rose, L.A. Guns, and Rapidfire. After bringing in his former L.A. Guns bandmates, Tracii Guns (who was soon replaced by Slash), and Rob Gardner (who was soon replaced by Steven Adler), Guns N' Roses were formed in the summer of 1985.
Desperately poor, the fledgling band struggled to survive in the streets of LA. Rose and Stradlin sold drugs for petty cash [3], and according to Rose, they manipulated women for their money, an example being when, at a party at an unnamed woman's house, one band member had sex with the woman, while the others would raid her wallet for the little cash they could salvage [4].
They eventually rented a small apartment, dubbed "The Hell House", which quickly became a den for sex, drugs and rock n' roll. L.A. promoter Vicky Hamilton managed the band and got them their first gigs.
Guns N' Roses; Axl Rose (vocals), Izzy Stradlin (rhythm guitar), Slash (lead guitar), Duff McKagan (bass), and Steven Adler (drums), signed a recording contract with Geffen Records in 1986. The band released its first full-length album, Appetite for Destruction, in 1987. Mixing blazing power chords with Rose's distinctive vocals, the album was not an immediate success, but soon grew in popularity. By 1988, Guns N' Roses had shot to the top of the rock music charts, helped by the surge in popularity of the songs "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City" and "Sweet Child O' Mine".
Relationships
Throughout the mid eighties and into the early nineties, Rose was involved in a turbulent relationship with Erin Everly, the daughter of singer Don Everly, and the person for whom "Sweet Child O' Mine" was written. He eventually married Everly in 1990, but the next month, filed for a divorce. The couple reconciled for some time, during which Everly became pregnant but suffered a miscarriage in October 1990. This deeply affected Rose, who had wanted to have children of his own. The day after Everly's miscarriage, Rose was arrested after allegedly assaulting a neighbor with a wine bottle after the neighbor threatened to call the police because of Rose's loud music. The marriage between Everly and Rose was annulled in January 1991. By mid 1991, Rose had become involved with model Stephanie Seymour. Accounts state that Rose was crazy about Seymour, and considered her to be the one [citationneeded]. Rose became deeply attached to Seymour's son, Dylan, and tried to be a good father figure for the child, as there had been none in his own life. Seymour and Rose parted ways in 1993, and Rose fell into a deep depression.
Living on the edge
Although at first famous for its music, Guns N' Roses soon gained notoriety for a wild lifestyle fueled by heavy use of alcohol and drugs. Because of this, the group was dogged by concert cancellations and rumours of a breakup. In 1988, the band released G N' R Lies, which also was hugely popular. Criticism fell on the lyrics of the song "One in a Million", which was interpreted as insulting to gays, blacks, and immigrants. Rose was labelled racist and homophobic, charges he heavily denied. However, he did claim he had had bad experiences with homosexuals, and, as such, he did not understand their way of life. Following this, in a surprising move, Rose performed "November Rain" with Elton John at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. He claimed John was a big influence on his musical and lyrical outlook. He also paid tribute to Freddie Mercury, another huge influence, at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, where he again performed with John.
After a string of delays, the group released two albums called Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II in 1991. These albums were also huge hits, but the band soon ran into trouble because of Rose's increasingly erratic behaviour. In July 1991, during the early stages of the 28-month-long Use Your Illusion Tour, Rose jumped off stage during a concert in St. Louis to take a video camera away from a fan. The concert was aborted as Rose and the other band members left the stage, sparking an intense riot, for which he was later arrested in 1992. A judge later ruled that he was not responsible for the riot and dismissed the charges against him. During a show on August 8, 1992 at the Montreal Stade Olympique during a summer concert co-headlining tour with Metallica, James Hetfield, lead singer of Metallica, was burned in a pyrotechnics accident, which cut short the previous set. This Guns N' Roses needed to take to the stage early, however, Rose, already late for the band's appearance, walked off stage and left the stadium after playing 9 songs, claiming he had problems with his voice and deciding to cancel the band's set. Before "Double Talkin' Jive", Rose said that this will be “our last show for a long time”, and at the end of "Civil War", their last song, Rose said “Thank you, your money will be refunded, we're outta here.” This led to another riot, which authorities were barely able to bring under control. Metallica stated on its Behind the Music that they were disappointed Guns N' Roses did not play an extended set to mollify disappointed fans. These incidents, along with the appearance of a new stripped-down musical style known as grunge, led to a growing impression of Guns N' Roses as a self-indulgent and out-of-date act.
Feuds
Rose had been a big fan of Nirvana and twice asked singer Kurt Cobain to have Nirvana open for Guns N' Roses for the second leg of the Use Your Illusion Tour, which Cobain declined. After declining Rose's offer, Cobain began to talk about Guns N' Roses and Rose to numerous media sources, claiming that they were untalented [5] and that Rose was a homophobic loser. Rose challenged Cobain to a fight during the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards after Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, jokingly asked Rose to be the godfather to their daughter, Frances Bean. Rose commented later of Nirvana that "They would rather sit home and shoot heroin with their bitch wives than tour with us".
In an interview with Michael Azerrad in the unofficial biography Come As You Are, Cobain admitted there was one thing he did like about Guns N' Roses: "They totally mess things up and then they sit back and look at what they messed up and then try to figure out how they can fix it, whereas we mess things up and just dwell on it and make it even worse."
Cobain further commented on Rose's rock star persona, claiming, "His role has been played for years. Ever since the beginning of rock and roll, there's been an Axl Rose. And it's just boring. It's totally boring to me. Why it's such a fresh and new thing in his eyes is obviously because it's happening to him personally and he's such an egotistical person that he thinks that the whole world owes him something." [6]
Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan was one of the last people to see Kurt Cobain alive before his death in 1994. Over time, however, some of the bad blood has subsided. Courtney Love has privately apologized to former Guns bassist Duff McKagan for their heated past. In addition, the two have performed "It's So Easy", live together, and Velvet Revolver, the current band of McKagan and original Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, have played Nirvana's "Negative Creep" in concert.
In another short lived feud, Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil and Rose traded insults and challenges for confrontations for a number of months. The animosity stemmed from another unseen and controversial incident, where Izzy Stradlin allegedly assaulted Sharice Neil, Vince's wife, leading Vince to run off stage at the MTV Video Music Awards to confront him. Axl helped break up the fight and later Vince publicly challenged Axl to a one-on-one brawl. The fight never happened, even though Rose responded that he would like to on several occasions. [7]
Decline of Guns N' Roses
After their recent success, Axl gave the following Guns n Roses members a choice: either sell the rights of Guns N' Roses over to Axl or Axl would leave the band. They ended up signing the rights over. In 1993, Guns N' Roses released The Spaghetti Incident?, an album of cover tunes, which received mixed reviews. The album sparked a minor controversy due to the inclusion of a hidden track, "Look At Your Game, Girl”, a song that was written by Charles Manson, supposedly after Marilyn Manson had spoken to him about writing another song similarly inspired by Charles Manson, entitled "My Monkey". [citationneeded]
In 1994, Rose fired guitarist Gilby Clarke and hired old friend (and fellow Hoosier) Paul Tobias. Together with the rest of the band (at this point: Slash, McKagan, Sorum and keyboardist Dizzy Reed), Rose and Tobias recorded a cover of the Rolling Stones song "Sympathy for the Devil" for the Interview with the Vampire movie soundtrack. Unknown to Slash and Clarke, Rose had Tobias re-record some of Clarke's guitar parts. When Slash found out, he was upset; this is one of the things that fuelled his desire to leave the band [citationneeded].
The band returned to the studio and allegedly recorded 13 tracks for a new album. These tracks may still exist today but have never been released. McKagan has variously said in different interviews that the album either does or does not feature some soft ballads and acoustic-style songs [citationneeded].
Slash left the band while the "new album" was being recorded in the autumn of 1996. In late 1997, Sorum was fired from the band after an argument with Rose at the recording studio. In early 1998, McKagan became the final charter member, other than Rose, to leave the band. The last Guns N' Roses album was never released.
After Slash's and McKagan's departures, Rose continued under the "Guns N' Roses" moniker. Hired during the Use Your Illusion-era, keyboardist Dizzy Reed stayed on with Axl, and is still with the band. Many notable musicians have passed through the band over the years. Arguably the most famous of these musicians are lead guitarist Robin Finck (formerly of Nine Inch Nails), and bassist Tommy Stinson (formerly of the American punk rock band The Replacements), who have been in the band since 1997 and 1998 respectively.
1999 passed without a new album, and the original title of "Chinese Democracy", "2000 Intentions", lost its relevance at the turn of the millennium. A song recorded for "Chinese Democracy", entitled "Oh My God", was included on the soundtrack for the 1999 movie End of Days. The lineup on this recording consisted of Rose, Reed, bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Josh Freese, effects man Chris Pitman, rhythm guitarist Paul Tobias, as well as Dave Navarro and Gary Sunshine guesting on lead guitar duties, due to the brief departure of Finck to tour with Nine Inch Nails with their album "The Fragile". As of October 2006, this is the only work that Rose has officially released in 10 years.
In 2000, with Freese having departing the project, and Finck away touring with Nine Inch Nails, avant-garde virtuoso guitarist Buckethead and drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia were added to the group. Finck returned to the band in late 2000, joining Buckethead on lead guitar.
In 2001, the new incarnation of GN'R appeared at Las Vegas and Rio de Janeiro, where Rose and his new band played in front of 250,000 fans at Rock In Rio III. It was here that he introduced new songs "Chinese Democracy", "Madagascar", "The Blues", "Silkworms" and "Rhiad and The Bedouins".
In the summer of 2002, Rose's childhood friend and rhythm guitarist, Paul Tobias, left the band and was replaced by former Psychedelic Furs and Love Spit Love guitarist, Richard Fortus.
In August 2002, Guns N' Roses performed six shows (Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka, London, Leeds and the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium). Rose also made a surprise appearance at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, officially unveiling the new line-up of Guns N' Roses. It was one of the highest rated musical performances in MTV history, and Ozzy Osbourne said that in terms of the energy alone, it was one of the greatest performances ever [citationneeded]. A North American tour including 16 shows followed, but it fell apart halfway through after, in December 2002, Rose did not appear for shows in Philadelphia. Blaming the ensuing riot, Clear Channel, the tour's promoter, cancelled all remaining shows.
Guns N' Roses were scheduled to perform at Rock In Rio Lisbo in early 2004, but this appearance was cancelled in an official message by Rose, who apologized to the fans and blamed the no-show on the departure of Buckethead.
Return to the spotlight
On April 1, 2005, a new GN'R track, titled "I.R.S." was leaked onto the internet by an anonymous source. It was described as being an authentic poor quality demo tape, obtained through the radio program, Friday Night Rocks with Eddie Trunk, a New York City-based program airing on Q104.3. It was on this program where the song originally had aired earlier. Trunk had received a copy of the track from his close friend Mike Piazza, who had received it anonymously in the mail. Piazza is allegedly a friend of Axl Rose, which led some fans to believe Rose had given him the album himself.
In September 2005, an internet rumour surfaced that Axl met fans in Malibu and told them the album would be out by early 2006 and a song would be featured on the soundtrack for the Tom Hanks/Ron Howard movie The Da Vinci Code. Although this rumour was never verified, GN'R manager Merck Mercuriadis refused to say if it was true or false. Also, as of December 2005, there were unconfirmed rumours that Sanctuary Music Publishing was beginning to take the early steps of release for the album and was planning on spreading news to reintroduce the band to the world. Most recently, former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, said of Chinese Democracy in a radio interview that "it definitely sounds like it's coming out in March". Some tracks from Chinese Democracy leaked onto the internet, and by 2006, an enhanced version of "I.R.S". was on the internet as well as a song called "Better." Axl has recently played these songs in New York in addition to "T.W.A.T" (There Was A Time), "Chinese Democracy", "Madagascar" and many others.
"We're working on 32 songs, and 26 are nearly done," he said at the party in an interview with Rolling Stone. Thirteen of these will be included on the first album, and the rest on two subsequent "sequels." According to Rolling Stone, Rose's favorites so far are "Better," "There Was a Time" and "The Blues."
"People will hear music this year," he said. "It's a very complex record, I'm trying to do something different. Some of the arrangements are kind of like Queen. Some people are going to say, 'It doesn't sound like Axl Rose, it doesn't sound like Guns N' Roses.' But you'll like at least a few songs on there."[8]
On February 15, 2006, a higher quality version of I.R.S. was released, as well as a 1:20 second long demo version of "Better." Just a few hours later, an extended version of "Better" was leaked along with another track, "There Was A Time." A few days after that, the full version of "Better," along with a 9-second long clip from the song "Catcher in the Rye" was released. The full version of "Catcher" found its way to the internet not long after, when an anonymous German woman began emailing members of GN'R message board forums with the song. The band's management has tried to prevent the tracks from being posted or traded on the internet with some success. Management later made it known that they were working to find the source of the leaks, with the co-operation of various fan forums and websites.
Since the release of these tracks, Axl began making more public appearances, showing up at various parties all around Los Angeles, seemingly to change the public perception that he's a recluse. He also performed at Rock in Rio in Lisbon. This has led many fans to believe that the release of Chinese Democracy is indeed imminent. On the other side of the coin, it has been said to be "coming out soon" for nearly ten years.
The band, now consisting of Axl, Dizzy Reed, Robin Finck, Tommy Stinson, Chris Pitman, Bryan "Brain" Mantia, Richard Fortus and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal (replacing Buckethead), performed their first live concerts in the United States in over three years on May 12, May 14, May 15, and May 17, 2006 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.[9]. They also performed in Madrid on May 25 and in Lisbon (Rock in Rio) on May 27 - this concert was attended by 50,000.
On May 6, 2006 Axl Rose appeared on the Eddie Trunk radio show and promised that the album would be released sometime in the fall or late fall 2006. Axl has said that "it will come out this year (2006)."
Many fans and critics are touting the European 2006 summer tour to be a major return to form for a noticeably slimmer Axl Rose, with many of the gigs viewed as some of the best Rose has performed since the early days of the band. Many shows were sold out and well-received by critics.
It is noted that Axl's voice has improved significantly during the mid part of 2006. Performing at the Leeds Festival in 2002, Axl's voice was weak and somewhat out of tune. This was also the case at the 2002 Video Music Awards performance. However subsequent performances in the 2006 tour have shown a clear improvement in his vocal abilities, and Axl now has skills comparable to those he possessed during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the original Guns N' Roses were operational.
On August 31, 2006, Axl presented The Killers at the MTV Video Music Awards by coming out onto the stage and screaming his trademark, "Do you know where the fuck you are?!" In an interview backstage, Axl revealed that the official Chinese Democracy tour will begin "around October 24th," and that the album will be out this year.[10]
After several "warm up" shows in September 2006, on October 24, 2006, Guns N' Roses embarked on its first North American arena tour since 2002. The tour has already been notable in that it has marked the promotion of understudy drummer Frank Ferrer, formerly of Love Spit Love and current member of The Psychedelic Furs to an official member. Band management however maintains that drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia, who is away on personal leave to be with his wife and newborn child, remains an official member as well.
2006 controversies
In March 2006 Axl Rose's lawyer released the following statement: "In October of 2005 Slash made an unannounced 5:30 AM visit to Axl Rose's house. Not appearing to be under the influence, Slash came to inform Axl that: 'Duff was spineless,' 'Scott Weiland was a fraud,' that he 'hates Matt Sorum' and that in this ongoing war, contest, or whatever anyone wants to call it, that Slash has waged against Axl for the better part of 20 years, that Axl has proven himself 'the stronger.' Based on his conduct in showing up at Rose's home, Axl was hopeful that Slash would live up to his pronouncements that he wanted to end the war and move on with life. Unfortunately that did not prove to be the case."
Slash on May 13, 2006 appeared on Camp Freddy Show on Indie 1031 FM and denied having visited Axl's house or saying anything that Axl claimed.
Slash said: "I'm not gonna go into the whole long thing. It was just something that he [Axl] decided he was going to… It was a lot of this stuff was built to promote the next Guns record and the tour and all that kind of stuff, 'cause there was this blatantly fabricated thing in there that I'd gone to his house and that he and I had a conversation in which I said all this stuff about my bandmates. And it's just blatantly untrue. For one, I have not talked to the guy in any way, shape or form since 1996, so it's going on 11 years. [Laughs] So that's basically it. There's just no truth to it. And all things considered, it put lot of whatever in people's minds that I was that kind of a guy, so it's… there you have it. So it's not true."
In May 2006, Rose had a close encounter with Tommy Hilfiger at the Plumm in New York City. Hilfiger reportedly took a couple of swings at Rose, before being carried away by his own security guards. Rose made the claim that the attack began when Rose moved the drink of Hilfiger's girlfriend so that it wouldn't spill. [11]
Club owner Noel Ashman stated "Axl was a gentleman and had the good sense not to retaliate as he would have done some serious damage to Hilfiger."... Guns N' Roses were playing an acoustic set at Rosario Dawson's birthday party. Later that night Rose dedicated the song "You're Crazy".. to "My good friend Tommy Hilfiger." [12] It has been rumoured on several celebrity gossip chat boards that Rose and Hilfiger were seen "hugging" and "burying the hatchet" backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards in late August 2006.
On June 11, 2006, Guns N' Roses headlined the Download Festival in Donington Park, England. Within the first half hour of the show; Axl had become annoyed with the quality of the sound and had also lost his footing almost causing him to fall due to the "slippery stage". After briefly leaving and returning the set mid song, throwing the microphone on the floor, yelling at the crowd for throwing a waterbottle at him, insulting a security guard and then finally exiting the stage citing technical difficulties while leaving Bumblefoot to play an instrumental of the song 'Don't Cry', he returned on stage with tennis shoes on (he was previously wearing boots), announced that he had some old friends to bring out, and was joined by Izzy Stradlin to play "Used to Love Her". Stradlin left and returned on stage multiple times, for "Patience", and the final number "Paradise City". During the night, Axl was also joined by Sebastian Bach and together they sang "My Michelle".
On June 27, 2006, Axl was arrested in Stockholm, Sweden, after an early morning altercation in his hotel lobby with hotel security. Axl is alleged to have bitten a security guard's leg and shattered an antique lobby mirror while in a drunken rage. Axl later commented in a press release: "We had a great gig in Stockholm and I am not going to let this incident spoil that. My assistant Beta and I were talking in the lobby of the hotel when security started to give us a hard time. My only concern was to make sure she was ok." After spending the next several hours in a Stockholm drunk tank, Axl admitted to all charges and paid roughly $6,000 in fines and was released and the Summer European tour continued as scheduled.
On July 19, 2006, At a show in Newcastle, England, Axl walked off-stage during the performance of "Nightrain" after what was alleged to be a £1 coin was thrown on to the stage directly at him. Rose addressed the crowd off-stage and informed them that any person caught throwing objects at him or any other members of the band must be ejected from the auditorium. The band returned to the stage to finish the song after which Rose declared "The show is over", the band departed and the house lights were resumed. They did not play the traditional Paradise City encore. [13]
On November 29, 2006 at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena Axl Rose called the Eagles of Death Metal the "Pigeons of Shit Metal." Tommy Stinson took his bass off and threw it on the floor saying "Fuck you, that's it". ["Eagles of Death Metal Lash Out at Guns and Roses", nme.com, November 29, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.] After refusing to play four songs Stinson went back on stage, and officially stayed with the band two days later.
A message was later posted on Guns N' Roses myspace.com page stating, "Regarding the Eagles Of Death Metal and their recent bogus claims Guns N' Roses bass guitarist Tommy Stinson had this to say, "As a matter of fact, Eagles of Death Metal were a suggestion of mine a while ago. Turns out they were the wrong band for our crowd. They were booed and did not play for as long as they were scheduled to. As for all of the inaccuracies that have been said since, I would like to say that's all they are - inaccuracies. In the past I have thrown my bass. I have never thrown it at Axl or anyone else in the band nor has anyone thrown my bass back at me… yet. Axl has been a dear friend to me for nine years. We have no problem communicating and wish that people would stay the fuck out of shit they don't know anything about. There was no GN'R mutiny or any such thing after the Cleveland gig and as far as I'm
concerned this tour has been the most fun yet. The band is playing great and getting along better than we ever have. With that said, either get on board or
fuck off."
References
Trivia
- Axl plays the voice of Tommy "The Nightmare" Smith, former lead singer of the (made-up) 1970's rock band Crystal Ship, and radio DJ of Classic Rock radio K-DST in the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. [14]
- The song "Nightrain" is inspired by a special strong wine the band bought in a liquerstore for a dollar a bottle.
- The character Axl Low in the Guilty Gear series of fighting games is clearly named and designed from Rose, as is the Fighting Vipers character Raxel, who wields a guitar. In addition, one of the enemies in Final Fight is named after him (another is named and patterned after Slash). [15]
- Axl plays acoustic guitar on the Guns N' Roses song "Dead Horse" and rhythm guitar on "Shotgun Blues", on the albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II respectively.
- Inducted Elton John into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. [16]
- The house in the "Estranged" music video is Axl's real-life Malibu home. [17]
- "Welcome to the Jungle" features a line that was originally directed to Rose while hitchhiking in New York: "Do you know where you are? You're in the jungle baby. You're gonna die!". [Said repeatedly in interviews, most recently Eddie Trunk interview, May 2006]
- His left nipple is pierced. [18]
- Izzy Stradlin and Axl first met in driver's education. [19]
- Axl Rose and the other Guns N' Roses members were influenced by the Finnish band Hanoi Rocks in their early years and Axl also appeared on Michael Monroe's music video called Dead, Jail or Rock N' Roll in 1989. [20]
- Axl Rose and the other Guns N' Roses members, were the source of the names of the Mavericks in the American version of Mega Man X5, Axl parallel being named "Axl the Red". [21]
- Guns N' Roses played in Caracas the night before one of the Venezuelan coup attempts of 1992.[22]
- "Axl Rose" is an anagram of "Oral Sex", but it is unknown whether this is intentional or not.
- In 2005, Mike Shinoda released a track on the DJ Green Lantern Presents Fort Minor: We Major mixtape, titled "S.C.O.M.", which uses samples from the Guns N' Roses song, "Sweet Child O' Mine".[23]
- It was recently reported that Axl Rose was in a relationship with British model and celebrity Sophie Anderton, but this was denied by Anderton in the September 2006 issue of Maxim magazine. [24]
- Was a background singer on Don Henley's song "I Will Not Go Quietly".[25]
- The Florida folk-punk band, Against Me!, released an album in 2002 called "Reinventing Axl Rose".
- The character Pickles the Drummer from the Adult Swim late night show Metalocalypse is likely to have been based off of Rose.
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