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Guns N Roses

Guns N’ Roses (GN’R) are the Legendary American hard rock band whose dangerous reputation, controversial front man, and technical prowess have made them one of the most popular rock and roll bands ever. The band’s defiant 1987 major label debut, Appetite for Destruction, gained them worldwide notoriety while their 1991 second major effort, the simultaneous releases of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, and subsequent tour cemented the band’s place as a heavily influential member of rock and roll history. Their rapid fall from these heights, continuous personnel changes and a long period of inactivity has contributed to an aura of legendary mystique.

Albums: Live Like A Suicide | Appetite For Destruction | G N R Lies | Use Your Illusion I | Use Your Illusion II | The Spaghetti Incident? | Live Era: 87-93 | Greatest Hits | Chinese Democracy

Current Members
Axl Rose
Dizzy Reed
Robin Finck
Tommy Stinson
Chris Pitman
Bryan Mantia
Richard Fortus
Bumblefoot
Frank Ferrer

Former Members
Duff McKagan | Slash | Steven Adler | Matt Sorum | Josh Freese | Gilby Clarke | Paul Tobias |Tracii Guns |Buckethead | Rob Gardner | Izzy Stradlin

Guns N Roses Biography

Guns N Roses was founded in Los Angeles in June 1985. Their unique style incorporated punk, blues, thrash, and other genres of music into the popular heavy metal music of the time. The band was formed by singer Axl Rose, guitarist Tracii Guns, guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Rob Gardner. The name was derived from a combination of the last names of Guns and Rose, as well as making reference to members’ affiliation with their previous bands: Hollywood Rose and LA Guns.

When Tracii Guns and Robbie Gardner could not attend the first Guns N Roses show in Seattle, Rose called guitarist Slash and drummer Steven Adler, whom he had met recently, and asked if they would join the band on stage for the show. The two agreed and the bands most famous line-up was finalized. On the way back to Los Angeles, the five members wrote the lyrics for the song “Welcome to the Jungle”, which eventually became their signature song.

The band released a self-produced EP, Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, in 1986. As of 2005, Appetite For Destruction remains the best selling debut album of all time.

Guns N Roses next release was the acoustic CD G N R Lies in 1988, which hit #2 on the music charts.

Shortly after the release of Lies, drummer Steve Adler was dismissed from the band, reportedly due to his unwillingness to address his heroin addiction. Other members took further steps to deal with their addictions after Rose spoke up about them “dancing with Mr. Brownstone” during an opening set for the Rolling Stones. “Mr. Brownstone” is a common nickname for heroin

The Use Your Illusion Tour (1991-1993)
In 1990 Guns N Roses returned to the studio with new drummer Matt Sorum and keyboardist Dizzy Reed to begin work on the bands most ambitious undertaking yet. With enough music for a double album, the band instead chose to release Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II as two separate albums on September 17, 1991. The tactic paid off when the albums debuted as #2 and #1 on the Billboard Music charts

After the release of the Use Your Illusion albums, Guns N Roses went on a 28-month-long world tour which was notorious both for its success and for many controversial incidents along the way. During this time, guitarist Izzy Stradlin quit the band due to differences with Rose. He was replaced by Los Angeles-based guitarist Gilby Clarke.

In 1993, Guns N Roses released a collection of mostly punk covers entitled The Spaghetti Incident?. This album did not match the success of the Illusion albums and tensions continued to increase within the band. In 1994, Rose fired Gilby Clarke, replacing him with Paul Tobias. The addition of Tobias seemed to be the spark that set off the final disintegration of the band’s original line up.

The next member to quit was Slash in 1996, citing creative differences with Rose. A year later, Sorum was fired from the group after having a serious verbal dispute with Rose in the studio. Months later, McKagan opted out of his contract. This left Axl Rose as the sole original member of the band.

In 1998 Axl Rose returned to the studio accompanied by drummer Josh Freese (of the Vandals), bassist Tommy Stinson (formerly of The Replacements), guitarist Robin Finck (formerly of Nine Inch Nails), guitarist Paul Tobias (aka Paul Huge), and keyboardist Dizzy Reed.

In 1999, the band released one new song, “Oh My God”, which was included on the soundtrack of End of Days. Later that year, Finck returned to Nine Inch Nails. In 2000, avant garde guitarist Buckethead joined Guns N Roses, and drummer Josh Freese was replaced with Brian Mantia.

The revised lineup returned to the stage in a public appearance in January 2001, with two well-received concerts, one in Las Vegas and one at the Rock in Rio Festival in Rio de Janeiro. The band played a mixture of old hits as well as new songs from their forthcoming album.

The new lineup played a further two shows in Las Vegas at the end of 2001. In 2002, rhythm guitarist Paul Tobias left the band because of his frustrations with life on the road. He was replaced by Richard Fortus (formerly of The Psychedelic Furs and Love Spit Love). The band then played several shows in August 2002, headlining festivals and concerts throughout Asia and Europe. They made their way to New York for a surprise appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards in September.

In 2002, the band’s first North American tour since 1993 was organized to support Chinese Democracy, with CKY and Mix Master Mike supporting. However, the opening show in Vancouver was cancelled by the venue when Rose failed to turn up (having remained in Los Angeles), and a riot ensued. This tour was met with mixed results. Some concerts did not sell well, while shows in larger markets such as New York sold out in minutes. Due to a second riot by fans in Philadelphia when the band failed to show up again, tour promoter Clear Channel cancelled the remainder of the tour.

The band went on hiatus until they were scheduled to play at Rock in Rio IV in May 2004. However, Buckethead left the band in March of that year, causing the band to cancel. Also in March 2004, Geffen released Guns N’ Roses’ Greatest Hits, since Rose had failed to deliver a new studio album in more than ten years. Rose expressed his displeasure with this album as its track listing was established without his consent and went as far as trying to block its release by suing Geffen. This failed, however, and the album went triple platinum in the USA.

In February 2006, demos of the songs “Better”, “Catcher in the Rye”, “I.R.S.”, and “There Was a Time” were leaked on the internet through a Guns N’ Roses fan site. The band’s management requested that all links to the MP3 files and all lyrics to the songs be removed from forums and websites. Despite this, radio stations began adding “I.R.S.” to playlists, and the song actually reached #49 on the Radio & Records Active Rock National Airplay chart in the final week of February—the first time an internet leak has done so.

On May 5, 2006, Axl Rose appeared on the Friday Night Rocks with Eddie Trunk radio show (during an interview with Sebastian Bach) and said that the new Guns N’ Roses album would be released before the end of the year. Later in May, the band launched a European tour, headlining both the Download Festival and Rock In Rio – Lisbon. Four warm-up shows preceded the tour at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City and became the band’s first live concert dates since the aborted 2002 tour. The shows also marked the debut of guitarist and composer Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, replacing Buckethead. During the tour, former bandmate Izzy Stradlin and ex-Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach made frequent guest appearances.

Five warm-up shows before a 2006 North American tour were held in September 2006. The tour officially commenced on October 24 in Miami. Drummer Frank Ferrer replaced Bryan Mantia, who took a leave of absence to be with his wife and newborn child. Coinciding with the tour, the song “Better” was featured in an internet advertisement for Harley-Davidson beginning in October 2006. That same month, Rolling Stone published an article revealing that Andy Wallace would be mixing the final album.

In December 2006, Axl Rose released an open letter to fans announcing that Merck Mercuriadis had been fired as the band’s manager. He revealed that the last four dates of the North American tour would be cut so the band could work on postproduction for Chinese Democracy. He also set a tentative release date for the album for the first time since the album’s announcement: March 6, 2007.

On February 8, 2007, the band played a two-song set at the Rodeo Drive’s Walk of Style ceremony, held in Beverly Hills, California. The band, with Chris Pitman on bass, blazed through “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and “Sweet Child o’ Mine” to close the event, which honored Gianni and Donatella Versace.

On February 23, 2007, Del James announced that Chinese Democracy’s recording stage was finished, and the band had now moved onto mixing the album. However, this proved that the March 6 release date would be impossible to achieve, and the album once again had no scheduled release date

On May 4, 2007 three more tracks leaked from Chinese Democracy; an updated version of “I.R.S.”, “The Blues” and the title track. All three tracks had previously been played live. Guns N’ Roses embarked on the 2007 leg of the Chinese Democracy World Tour in Mexico on June, followed by dates on Australia and Japan. The songs “Nice Boys” and “Don’t Cry” were played for the first time since the Use Your Illusion Tour. The tour ended on the twentieth anniversary of Appetite for Destruction’s release date, in Osaka. During this tour, the band featured Axl Rose, Robin Finck, Ron Thal and Richard Fortus on guitars, Tommy Stinson on bass, Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman on keyboards and Frank Ferrer on drums.

Chinese Democracy was released on November 22, 2008 in Germany and Australia, in North America on November 23, 2008 and in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2008[48], becoming the band’s sixth studio album and their first since 1993’s “The Spaghetti Incident?”.