Great Bands History: Guns and Roses

At a time when pop was dominated by dance music and pop-metal, Guns N' Roses brought raw, ugly rock & roll crashing back into the charts. They were not nice boys; nice boys don't play rock & roll. They were ugly, misogynist, and violent; they were also funny, vulnerable, and occasionally sensitive, as their breakthrough hit, "Sweet Child O' Mine," showed.While Slash and Izzy Stradlin ferociously spit out dueling guitar riffs worthy of Aerosmith or the Stones, Axl Rose screeched out his tales of sex, drugs, and apathy in the big city. Meanwhile, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steven Adler were a limber rhythm section who kept the music loose and powerful.

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.

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, they agreed and creating band's most famous line-up. 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 began opening shows for major bands in the rock industry.

Guns N' Roses released its first EP in 1986, which led to a contract with Geffen. The following year, the band released their debut album, Appetite for Destruction. They started to build a following with their numerous live shows, but the album didn't start selling until almost a year later, when MTV started playing "Sweet Child O' Mine." Soon, both the album and single shot to number one, and Guns N' Roses became one of the biggest bands in the world. Their debut single, "Welcome to the Jungle," was re-released and shot into the Top Ten, and "Paradise City" followed in its footsteps. By the end of 1988, they released G N' R Lies, which paired four new, acoustic-based songs (including the Top Five hit "Patience") with their first EP. G N' R Lies' inflammatory closer, "One in a Million," sparked intense controversy, as Rose slipped into misogyny, bigotry, and pure violence; essentially, he somehow managed to distill every form of prejudice and hatred into one five-minute tune.
Guns N' Roses' next release was the half-acoustic CD G N' R Lies in 1988, which hit #2 on the music charts. The song "One In A Million", which used the words "niggers" and "faggots", led to controversy that accused the band (or Axl) of racism and homophobia. Axl denied these allegations, pointing out that he was a fan of homosexual singers like Freddie Mercury and Elton John and that his then lead guitarist was half black.

Guns´N Roses formal Members

Tracii Guns - guitar

Rob Gardner - drums

Slash - guitar

Steven Adler - drums

Izzy Stradlin - guitar

Duff McKagan - bass

Matt Sorum - drums

Gilby Clarke - guitar

Paul Tobias - guitar

Josh Freese - drums

Buckethead - guitar