Axl Rose \nW. Axl Rose (born February 6, 1962) is an American hard rock singer and songwriter, born as William Bruce Rose in Lafayette, Indiana. According to his account, Rose had a deeply troubled family life, with abuse at the hands of his father and stepfather. His biological father, William Rose, left the family when Axl was two. His mother later married Stephen Bailey. The strict discipline and religious education Rose underwent as a child was followed by numerous brushes with law enforcement as an adolescent. Rose had a strong interest in music and as a teenager is said to have formed a band named Axl. Around the age of 17 Rose made two important choices. First, he changed his name to W. Axl Rose ("Axl Rose" is also an anagram for "oral sex"). Second, he left home and eventually ended up in Los Angeles, California, where he joined childhood friend Izzy Stradlin (born Jeff Isabelle) to pursue a rock music career.
The music scene in Los Angeles during the early 1980s featured both punk and "big hair"/heavy metal bands. Rose wanted to meld the two styles into a unique musical form. Along with Stradlin, Rose moved through a number of bands, including Hollywood Rose. Then, after bringing in a member of LA Guns, Rose formed Guns N' Roses around 1985. With Rose (vocals), Stradlin (guitar), Slash (real name Saul Hudson/lead guitar) Duff McKagan (bass), and Steven Adler (drums), Guns N' Roses 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 shrieking vocals, the album represented a new musical style that took some time to catch on. But catch on it did, and by 1988 Guns N' Roses shot to the top of rock music, helped by the massive popularity (as radio singles and as MTV videos) of the songs "Welcome to the Jungle, "Paradise City" and "Sweet Child O' Mine."
Famous first for its music, the band soon gained notoriety for a wild lifestyle fueled by prodigious use of drugs and alcohol. Instability followed, with concert cancellations and rumors of a breakup. In 1988, the band released G N' R Lies, which also was hugely popular. But criticism also came for the song "One in a Million," which insulted gays, blacks, and immigrants. After a string of delays, the group released a two-disc album called Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II in 1991. This album was also a huge hit, but the band soon ran into trouble. Rose jumped off stage to attack a fan in St. Louis, Missouri and sparked a riot. This incident, 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. Rose himself came to be seen as erratic and strange when he caused long performance delays and challenged Kurt Cobain to fight during the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. In 1993 Guns N' Roses issued an album of cover tunes, The Spaghetti Incident, which received mixed reviews.
After this point, most original members of the band quit or were fired by Rose. He dropped out of sight until 1999, when he put together a new Guns N' Roses lineup to issue a cut for the End of Days movie soundtrack. Rose claimed to be working on a new album known as Chinese Democracy, and it was set for release in 2002. But things deteriorated after a weak performance on that year's MTV Video Music Awards. Rose was described as tired, distracted, and overweight. A concert tour was cancelled after Rose failed to appear for the first two shows. The Chinese Democracy album was not released.
These events have led some to regard Rose as a preposterous figure ripe for ridicule. A musical entitled "White Trash Wins Lotto" has been written about his life. He has a listing under the "Awful Plastic Surgery" web site. He was parodied on Saturday Night Live. Ben Folds Five performed a song whose lyrics include "I met this girl, she looked like Axl Rose...." But in spite of all this, Rose made an indelible impact on the music and the culture of the late twentieth century.
External links\n*Breakdown with W. Axl Rose - Biography \n\n Category:Male singers |
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"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake." - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956) |
