Guns N’ Roses: News, History & Updates

Guns N’ Roses Biography by Greg Prato

Excerpts from Greg’s books for Alternative Nation

ALAN NIVEN [ex-Guns N’ Roses manager]: Ever been to Lafayette, Indiana? [Which is where Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin originally hailed from] Oh, that is a one-mule town, I can tell you! Indianapolis is not that – it’s throbbing with vitality and excitement. And then you go, what, 50 miles north to Lafayette…I was out in Lafayette a couple of times with Izzy. The first thing we’d do is go to the local Harley dealer, who would let us borrow a couple of used bikes, and we’d go for a bike ride to get out of the damned place! [Laughs]

MARTIN POPOFF [author, journalist]: In 1987, you get Guns N’ Roses coming onto the scene, but they don’t make a lot of waves in 1987—it’s kind of a slowly gestating album. But you get the rise of what I often call ‘dirty-hair metal.’ That album is going to spawn a lot of dirty-hair metal to come, but in 1987, they’re kind of the first, where people are saying, ‘This is getting ridiculous. Bon Jovi looks ridiculous, KISS looks ridiculous. Poison, Cinderella … whatever. It’s time to clean the slate, and come up with something dangerous again.’ But Guns N’ Roses aren’t that dangerous—they’re actually just a little to the left of hair metal. Metallica are dangerous at this time—not so much Guns N’ Roses.

MIKE CLINK [Appetite for Destruction and Use Your Illusion producer]: With the band becoming more successful, really hyper successful, we were able to experiment and take much more time in the recording studio. When we did ‘Appetite,’ we were under the gun and had a limited amount of money and a limited amount of time to do the record. When ‘Use Your Illusion’ came along, we had none of those restraints. We had the freedom to do what we wanted and the only pressure that we felt – albeit not an insignificant one – was to follow up ‘Appetite’ with a quality record. Additionally, we started to record songs that Axl [Rose] wanted to put on the first record but quite possibly might have been out-voted on. Hence, “November Rain.”

EDDIE TRUNK [radio host, That Metal Show co-host]: When it came to Guns N’ Roses, the ‘Illusion’ records were heavily anticipated and had all the bells and whistles that come with their release – the huge, epic music videos and all that stuff. But I’ve got to tell you, as a fan of that band and having seen them when they first played in New York at the Ritz for the first record, I was a little bit turned off by the ‘Use Your Illusion’ records when I first heard them. Because I just thought that the whole thing had become a little bit too overblown, became a little bit too over-produced, and all of a sudden, there were these ten-minute songs and piano interludes and all this other stuff going on. I kind of was looking for more of a second record of that punk-y, sort of “street,” hard rock band that was on ‘Appetite.’ ‘Illusion’ may have been a huge step forward in terms of production and writing, but what I really liked about Guns N’ Roses was that raw, street, in-your-face approach. And that was gone. And to this day, although I like a lot of songs on the ‘Use Your Illusion’ records, it’s far from my favorite Guns N’ Roses period, because I just think it kind of got too overblown too quickly at that point.

MARTIN POPOFF: Around the same time [as Nirvana’s Nevermind], and on the same label, you get Guns N’ Roses—the last heave of the last guard—and one of the reasons why grunge had to happen, as well. Because Guns N’ Roses were drama queens and divas, and not showing up to gigs on time, and being drunk all the time, and feuding with each other and other bands. Guns N’ Roses are one of the big reasons people just said, I’ve had it with this stuff. Even though they claim they’re not a hair-metal band, I think they’re totally a hair-metal band. They’re almost like the worst kind of hair-metal band—in many ways, they’re worse than the cleaner, squeakier hair-metal bands. I mean, they’re essentially Mötley Crüe all over again.

So here they are in 1991, they finally come out with this follow-up, after all this drama. Now, granted, it’s two records worth or music, so it’s not like they weren’t doing anything. I mean, they didn’t come back with a ten-song, thirty-eight-minute album—they came back with, like, one hundred and fifty minutes of music. So, it’s pretty cool, and it does amazing. I think those things went pretty quickly upward to seven times platinum. They were an instant massive success. But it’s funny that Nevermind comes out around the same time, on the same label, and you have these two competing scenes.

GILBY CLARKE [ex-Guns N’ Roses guitarist]: Guns evolved, where they went from Steven [Adler] to Matt [Sorum], and then from Izzy [Stradlin] to me [Clarke replaced Stradlin in 1991]. So it was kind of like still taking the same idea, but just with better musicians playing it. And I think musician-wise, we definitely were trying tricks to make the songs fun and make them unique.

ALAN NIVEN: Isn’t that [“Don’t Cry”] the one where Axl holds out the note forever at the end? I remember him telling me that’s the longest somebody’s held out a note. And my thinking was, “Well that’s really interesting…but are we looking to enter The Guinness Book of World Records or are we being creatively expressive here?” I thought all of those three songs held over were something I could have a little bit of confidence on that we had something if we had to turn around and make a second record within a year. And “November Rain” was something that Axl had a deep passion about and spent a little more time with it.

RIKI RACHTMAN [Headbangers Ball host]: I think ‘Chinese Democracy’ [Guns N’ Roses’ next studio album, which wasn’t released until 2008, with Rose as the only original member left] should have been released as an “Axl Rose” album. I think it would have been done much better – because the album’s a good album. But it’s not a Guns N’ Roses record. I think it would have done great if it was just the “Axl Rose record.” That’s a band I really think should get back together with the other members. Because that band is the greatest rock n’ roll band ever, in my opinion. [Axl, Slash, and Duff McKagan would reunite in 2016]

QUOTE SOURCES (CLICK LINKS FOR ORDER INFO):

Alan Niven: Shannon
Martin Popoff: Take It Off: Kiss Truly Unmasked
Mike Clink: Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990’s
Eddie Trunk: Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990’s
Martin Popoff: Take It Off: Kiss Truly Unmasked
Gilby Clarke: Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990’s
Alan Niven: Shannon