Axl Rose

Axl Rose
Rose in 2023
Background information
Birth nameWilliam Bruce Rose Jr.
Also known as
  • W. Axl Rose
  • William Bruce Rose
  • William Bruce Bailey
  • Bill Bailey
Born (1962-02-06) February 6, 1962 (age 62)
Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.
OriginLos Angeles, California
Genres
Occupations
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • musician
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • piano
Years active1983–present
Member of
Formerly of
Spouse
Erin Everly
​
​
(m. 1990; ann. 1991)​
Websiteaxlrose.com
Signature

W. Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose Jr. on February 6, 1962)[3] is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its inception in 1985.[4]

Possessing a distinctive and powerful wide-ranging voice,[5] Rose has been named one of the greatest singers of all time by various media outlets, including Rolling Stone, NME and Billboard.[6][7][8]

Born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana, Rose moved to Los Angeles, California in the early 1980s, where he became active in the local hard rock scene and joined several bands, including Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns. In 1985, he co-founded Guns N' Roses, with whom he had great success and recognition in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their first album, Appetite for Destruction (1987), has sold in excess of 30 million copies worldwide[9][10] and is the best-selling debut album of all time in the U.S. with 18 million units sold. Rose's high-profile relationships with Erin Everly and Stephanie Seymour in the late 1980s and early '90s inspired multiple songs, including the number one hit "Sweet Child o' Mine". However allegations of abuse by Rose caused significant controversy,[11] as did the band's next release G N' R Lies (1988) due to his inclusion of multiple slurs on the song "One in a Million".[12]

Guns N' Roses' next releases, the twin albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II (1991), were widely successful; debuting at No. 2 and No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold a combined 35 million copies worldwide.[13] Controversy followed Rose during the two-and-a-half-year Use Your Illusion Tour, with riots (including his arrest for inciting the Riverport Riot), rants against the media and bandmates between songs, and feuds with other artists including Metallica and Nirvana.[14][15][16] The punk covers album "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993) failed to match the success of previous albums, with Rose's cover of a Charles Manson song gaining notoriety.

After the tour, in 1994, Rose disappeared from public eye while Guns N' Roses stalled on making a new album. The band started to fall apart due to personal and musical differences, primarily between Rose and lead guitarist Slash. By the time work on a new album was underway in 1998, only Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed remained from the previous tour lineup. In 2001, Rose, the only remaining original member, resurfaced alongside the new lineup of Guns N' Roses at Rock in Rio 3, and subsequently played the decade-long Chinese Democracy Tour to promote the long-delayed Chinese Democracy (2008), the most expensive rock album to ever be produced.[17]

In 2012, Rose was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Guns N' Roses, though he requested exclusion from the Hall. Rose's longstanding public feud with Slash ended when Slash and bassist Duff McKagan rejoined Guns N' Roses in 2016 for the record-breaking Not in This Lifetime... Tour. Also in 2016, Rose toured with AC/DC as a fill-in vocalist for two dozen shows. The NITL tour lineup of Guns N' Roses continued touring in 2020, as well as occasionally released new singles.

  1. ^ Slash; Bozza, Anthony (October 30, 2007). Slash. HarperCollins. pp. 110–111. ISBN 978-0-06-135142-6.
  2. ^ Adler, Steven; Lawrence J. Apopei (July 27, 2010). My Appetite for Destruction: Sex, and Drugs, and Guns N' Roses. HarperCollins. pp. 94–95. ISBN 978-0-06-191711-0.
  3. ^ "Monitor". Entertainment Weekly. No. 1245. February 8, 2013. p. 22.
  4. ^ "Guns 'N' Roses Are Officially Coming To Singapore: Super Epic Reactions From The Internet". Popspoken. October 13, 2016. Archived from the original on April 12, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
  5. ^ Grow, Kory (May 28, 2014). "Axl Rose Picks His Favorite Singers". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on June 19, 2017.
  6. ^ Lethem, Jonathan (November 27, 2008). "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012. Retrieved June 3, 2011.
  7. ^ "Michael Jackson tops NME's Greatest Singers poll". NME. June 21, 2011. Archived from the original on June 27, 2011. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  8. ^ Unterberger, Katie Atkinson, Katie Bain, Eric Renner Brown, Kyle Denis, Frank DiGiacomo, Thom Duffy, Ingrid Fajardo, Paul Grein, Lyndsey Havens, Jason Lipshutz, Joe Lynch, Taylor Mims, Melinda Newman, Isabela Raygoza, Andrew; Atkinson, Katie; Bain, Katie; Brown, Eric Renner; Denis, Kyle; DiGiacomo, Frank; Duffy, Thom; Fajardo, Ingrid; Grein, Paul (August 16, 2023). "The 50 Greatest Rock Lead Singers of All Time". Billboard. Retrieved August 18, 2023.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Smith, Sara (November 18, 2012). "'American Masters' highlights David Geffen's influence but only hints at a dark side". The Kansas City Star. Archived from the original on March 9, 2014. Retrieved March 11, 2014.
  10. ^ Havelock, Laurie (August 9, 2012). "Column - Still hungry? 25 years of Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction". Q. Archived from the original on March 11, 2014. Retrieved March 11, 2014.
  11. ^ "Bye Bye Love". Peoplemag.
  12. ^ "Guns N' Roses wrote the most offensive song in popular music". faroutmagazine.co.uk. June 24, 2023.
  13. ^ "Which albums had the highest number of worldwide sales?". TSORT. December 15, 2007. Archived from the original on March 27, 2012. Retrieved March 14, 2012.
  14. ^ "Understanding Axl Rose's feud with Metallica - Far Out Magazine". faroutmagazine.co.uk. October 26, 2022.
  15. ^ Irwin, Corey (May 18, 2022). "Rock Feuds: Axl Rose vs. Kurt Cobain". Ultimate Classic Rock.
  16. ^ "Few Tours Had More Controversy Than The GNR Use Your Illusion Tour". 939X Indy's Rock Station - WNDX-FM. June 21, 2021.
  17. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Guns N' Roses Biography". AllMusic. Archived from the original on December 20, 2011. Retrieved December 18, 2011.