Guns n' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American
hard rock band that originated in
Los Angeles in
1985. The original line-up consisted of:
The name was derived from the names of two of the original members, Tracii Guns and Axl Rose. Earlier names of the band\nwere Rose and Hollywood Rose. Although Tracii Guns left by the end of 1986, the Guns N' Roses name stayed. Both Tracii Guns and Robbie Gardner left to start a new band, L.A. Guns.
They were replaced by a former member of the band London\nnamed Slash. and drummer Stephen Adler replaced gardner.
The line-up as above released three albums:
Conributing
Welcome to the Jungle to the soundtrack of movie
The Dead Pool (in the
Dirty Harry series) also gave them a couple of seconds onscreen in the movie.
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 addressed their addiction after Axl Rose spoke up about them "dancing with Mr. Brownstone" during their opening venue for the
Rolling Stones. In
1990 Guns N' Roses returned to the studio with new drummer
Matt Sorum and keyboardist
Dizzy Reed. On September 17,
1991 they released
Use Your Illusion I and
Use Your Illusion II, which debuted as #2 and #1 on the charts.
After the release of the Use Your Illusion albums Guns N' Roses went on a 28-month-long world tour, during which Izzy Stradlin quit the band and was replaced by Gilby Clarke. The tour included
The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. During this time,
November Rain became the most requested video on
MTV, eventually winning a
VMA for best cinematography.
In
1993, Guns n' Roses released a collection of mostly punk covers entitled
The Spaghetti Incident which, because
grunge had started to become ascendant in the
rock and roll world, sold poorly. In 1994 a cover version of
The Rolling Stones'
Sympathy for the Devil was recorded by the band, joined by Paul Huge (replacing Gilby Clarke), for the movie
Interview with the Vampire. Several members started up their side projects (such as Slash with
Slash's Snakepit and Duff McKagan in the Neurotic Boy Outsiders), and over the next several years all the remaining original members were one after another kicked out of the band by Axl Rose, claiming to be the sole owner of the Guns N' Roses name.
In
1998 Axl Rose returned to the studio accompanied by:
In
1999, the band released one new song,
Oh My God, which was included on the soundtrack of the poorly-received
Arnold Schwarzenegger film
End of Days. This song was intended to be a prelude for a new album,
Chinese Democracy; however, that project was delayed for several years, fueling speculation that it and the band were dropped by their record label,
Interscope. Later in 1999, Finck returned to Nine Inch Nails to record
The Fragile; in
2000, he returned once again to Guns N' Roses, along with guitarist
Buckethead.
In
1999 Guns N' Roses released an official live album called
Live Era 1987-93.
Guns N' Roses returned to the stage in January of 2001 with two well-recieved concerts, one in
Las Vegas and one in
Rio de Janiero. Consisting of
Axl Rose, guitarists
Buckethead, Robin Finck, and Paul Huge, bassist Tommy Stinson, keyboard players
Dizzy Reed and Chris Pittman, and drummer
Brain (formerly of
Primus), the band played a mixture of old hits as well as new songs from their forthcoming album. After cancelling two European tours during the year, the new lineup played two shows in Las Vegas at the end of 2001. During 2002, guitarist Paul Huge left the band and was replaced by Richard Fortus, formerly of the band Love Spit Love. The band then played several shows in
August of
2002, headlining festivals and concerts in
Asia and
Europe, and then making their way to New York for a surprise appearance at the
MTV Video Music Awards. A U.S. tour, the band's first since
1993, was then planned. The tour got off to a bad start, with a concert cancellation starting a riot in
Vancouver,
Canada. Shows went on as planned for a month a concert was cancelled in
Philadelphia for undisclosed reasons, causing another riot. After this the tour was cancelled. As of
July 2004 the band has not played a show since their
December 5,
2002 concert at
Madison Square Garden in
New York City.
Reports issued by the band in
2001 and
2002 claimed that
Chinese Democracy was to be released later that year by Interscope/
Geffen Records, with whom they had apparently patched up their differences (if any). It is set to release in
November 2004 and they also released a
greatest hits album on that same year on
March 23rd.
In
March 2004 Buckethead left the band, causing Rose to cancel a concert in Rio and still postpone the release of the album.
Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum have since formed the band
Velvet Revolver with
Scott Weiland.
External links
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Category:American musical groups Category:Heavy metal musical groups