The band has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, including 46 million in the United States. The band's 1987 major label debut album, Appetite for Destruction, has sold in excess of 28 million copies worldwide and reached No. 1 on the United States Billboard 200. In addition, the album charted three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including "Sweet Child o' Mine" which reached No. 1. The 1991 albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II debuted on the two highest spots on the Billboard 200 and have sold a combined 14 million copies in the United States alone and 35 million worldwide. After over a decade of work, the band released their follow-up album, Chinese Democracy.
Guns N' Roses (sometimes abbreviated as GN'R or GNR) is an American Hard rock band. The band formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California in 1985. Led by frontman and co-founder Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose, Jr.), the band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album while going through numerous line-up changes and controversies since its formation.
The current lineup comprises lead vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarists Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and DJ Ashba, rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus, bassist Tommy Stinson, keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman and drummer Frank Ferrer.
W. Axl Rose
| Birth name | William Bruce Rose |
| Born | February 6, 1962
Lafayette, Indiana, United States |
| Genres | Hard rock, heavy metal |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano, percussion, synthesizers, guitar |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Labels | Geffen Records |
| Associated acts | Guns N' Roses, Hollywood Rose, L.A. Guns, Rapidfire |
| Website | www.gunsnroses.com |
W. Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose; February 6, 1962 in Lafayette, Indiana) is an American musician, and the lead vocalist of hard rock band Guns N' Roses.
As the lead singer for Guns N' Roses, Rose enjoyed tremendous success, recognition, and record and concert ticket sales in the late 1980s and early 1990s before dropping out of the public eye for several years. In 2001, he resurfaced with a new line-up of Guns N' Roses in the third edition of Rock In Rio festival, and has since played periodic concert tours, finally releasing the long delayed album Chinese Democracy in 2008. This album was recorded over many years before finally being released.
He was ranked 11 in the Hit Parader's Top Metal Vocalist of All Time and 64 in Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and also #4 in Roadrunner's 50 Best Frontmen in Metal History.
After Guns N' Roses became successful, Rose noted that he had stopped using any sort of hard drugs. He did not disavow the use of illicit substances, stating in a 1989 interview "I have a different physical constitution and different mindset about drugs than anybody I've known in Hollywood, because I don't abstain from doing drugs, but I won't allow myself to have a fuckin' habit. I won't allow it".
Although Rose has not been known for alcohol abuse, on June 26, 2006, he was arrested in Stockholm, Sweden, after an early morning altercation in his hotel lobby with hotel security. Rose is alleged to have bitten a security guard's leg and shattered an antique lobby mirror while in a drunken rage. Rose later commented in a press release: "We had a great gig in Stockholm and I am not going to let this incident spoil that. My assistant Beta and I were talking in the lobby of the hotel when security started to give us a hard time. My only concern was to make sure she was okay". After spending the next several hours in a Stockholm drunk tank, Rose pleaded guilty to all charges and paid roughly $6,000 in fines and was released. The Summer European tour continued as scheduled.
Rose and his L.A. Guns bandmate Tracii Guns formed Guns N' Roses in March 1985. The band was a merger of L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, and featured musicians who had played for one or both groups, including Ole Beich and Duff McKagan. The band debuted at the Troubadour in Hollywood and proceeded to play the L.A. circuit, eventually building a fan following and attracting the attention of several record companies. Following a dispute with Tracii Guns, and his departure from the band, Axl then called Slash (having met him from the time Slash spent in Hollywood Rose.) So with Rose on vocals, Slash on lead guitar, Izzy Stradlin on rhythm guitar. Guns N' Roses was signed to Geffen Records in 1986 and released a four-song EP, Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, on their own label, UZI Suicide, in December of that year.
The band's major label debut album, entitled Appetite for Destruction, was released in the United States on July 21, 1987. The record had a slow start, selling only 500,000 copies in the first year of its release. However, fueled by relentless touring, constant MTV video rotation of "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Welcome to the Jungle", and the mainstream success of "Sweet Child o' Mine", Appetite for Destruction rose to the #1 position on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States in the fall of 1988, and again in February 1989. To date, Appetite for Destruction ranks as the best-selling debut album in the United States, has been certified 18x platinum by the RIAA, and has sold over 28 million copies worldwide. Late in 1989, Rose stated -
Slash
| Birth name | Saul Hudson (Also known as Slash) |
| Born | July 23, 1965
Hampstead, England
Origin London, England,
United Kingdom |
| Genres | Hard rock, blues-rock, heavy metal, jazz rock |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter, record producer |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1983–present |
| Labels | UZI Suicide, Geffen, Koch, RCA |
| Associated acts | Guns N' Roses, Slash's Snakepit, Michael Jackson ,Slash's Blues Ball, Velvet Revolver, Hollywood Rose, Lenny Kravitz, Derek Sherinian, Poison, Myles Kennedy, Cypress Hill, Ozzy Osbourne, Avenged Sevenfold, Kid Rock |
| Website | |
Saul Hudson (born 23 July 1965), better known by his stage name Slash, is a American-British musician. He is the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he performed and recorded between 1985 and 1996. He later formed Slash's Snakepit and co-founded Velvet Revolver with his former bandmates Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum, and his debut solo album, Slash, was released in April 2010.
Slash has received critical recognition as a guitarist. In August 2009, Time Magazine ranked him #2 on its list of the "10 Best Electric Guitar Players of All-Time". He was also ranked #21 on Gigwise's list of the "50 Greatest Guitarists Ever"
In 1983, Slash formed the band Road Crew, a Motörhead tribute band (named for the Motörhead song "We Are The Road Crew") with childhood friend Steven Adler. He placed an advertisement in a newspaper for a bassist, and received a response from Duff McKagan.
When Road Crew disbanded, Slash joined a local band known as Black Sheep. Headed by Willie Bass, the band shared an agent with another new group known as Hollywood Rose. In 1984, both bands opened for Christian metal band Stryper. After the show, Slash and lead singer Axl Rose were introduced to one another by a friend. The two quickly became friends, and several months later, Slash and Steven Adler were invited to join with Axl Rose, Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin as the band Guns N' Roses.
In 1990, a heavy metal video called "Hard N' Heavy" was released containing music, concert footage and interviews. The video included Slash and McKagan appearing with the band Great White at a "Children of the Night" Benefit concert in LA for abused homeless children, the performance helped raise money for housing to aid the underprivileged. He also performed at an anti-Iraq War festival in 2003.
In 2007, Slash admitted to going to Rose's home with the intention to settle a long standing legal dispute and make peace with his former band mate. Slash elaborated on the incident in his autobiography, claiming that what actually occurred was that he simply went to Rose's house while intoxicated and left a note asking Rose to contact him to settle a pending lawsuit. He also added that he has not spoken to Rose in person since his departure from Guns N' Roses in 1996. Slash further stated that incident's publicity created a rift in Velvet Revolver; as his bandmates were unsure of what Slash had actually done and Slash had confronted Weiland over his scathing reply to Rose, feeling that Weiland did not have the "right" to criticize Rose, not actually knowing him. In March 2009, Slash responded to an interview in which Rose referred to him as "a cancer", saying that "it doesn't really affect me at all. The fact that he has anything to say at all it's like 'Whatever, dude.
Slash appeared as a recurring caricature of himself in Robert Evans' animated television series Kid Notorious which aired in 2003 on Comedy Central. As in real life, Slash is Evans' close friend and next-door neighbor. He appeared as the guest mentor for rock n roll week of American Idol (Season 8) on May 5, 2009. He has also had spots on the Drew Carey Show and South Park.
Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal
| Birth name | Ronald Jay Blumenthal |
| Born | September 25, 1969
New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | Hard rock, heavy metal |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter, producer |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals, bass, drums |
| Years active | 1989 - present |
| Labels | Bumblefoot Music LLC |
| Associated acts | Guns N' Roses |
| Website | |
Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal (born Ronald Jay Blumenthal[1], September 25, 1969 in Brooklyn, New York City), is an American guitarist, songwriter and producer best known for being one of two current lead guitarists in the hard rock band Guns N' Roses. Ron Thal got the name "Bumblefoot" from the bacterial infection, which he learned about while helping his wife review for her veterinary exams.
Thal joined Guns N' Roses before they embarked on a world tour in 2006, filling the position vacated by departed guitarist Buckethead. He made his live debut with the band at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on May 12, 2006. Thal performs some degree of guitar work on every track of the band's 2008 album Chinese Democracy.
In 2008, Thal released his latest solo album, Abnormal, whose sales exceeded his previous solo efforts due to his exposure with Guns N' Roses. On December 23, 2008, Bumblefoot released an acoustic EP called Barefoot, where he took songs from his previous albums and made stripped-down acoustic versions of them.
In February 2009, Ron produced an instrumental metal guitar compilation disc entitled Guitars That Ate My Brain. He oversaw writing, recording and mixing for half the album (co- writing, engineering and mixing as well as guitar and bass playing by Jeremy Krull, drums by Dennis Leeflang), contributed his playing to the song "Disengaged" and mastered the album. Other artists on the album include Devin Townsend, Chris Poland, Shane Gibson, Dave Martone, Paul Waggoner, James Murphy and others.
In June 2009, Thal began touring the US and Europe playing guitar for Lita Ford.
In December 2009, Thal began touring with Guns N' Roses' on the Chinese Democracy World Tour.
Richard Fortus
| Born | November 17, 1966
St. Louis |
| Genres | Hard rock, Alternative rock, Post-punk, Heavy metal, New Wave |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 2002–present |
| Labels | Geffen |
| Associated acts | Guns N' Roses, Love Spit Love, The Psychedelic Furs, Nena, X Japan, Rihanna |
| Website | www.gunsnroses.com |
Richard Fortus (born November 17, 1966) is a professional guitarist who is most famous for being rhythm guitarist in Guns N' Roses.
Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Fortus cut his teeth throughout the Midwest with his band, The Eyes. The four-piece alternative band independently released "Freedom in a Cage", which was produced by David Probst. After signing with Atlantic Records, they changed their name to Pale Divine. They subsequently toured the U.S. in support of their only album, Straight to Goodbye, opening for The Psychedelic Furs.
After The Psychedelic Furs split up, Fortus formed Love Spit Love with Richard Butler and Tim Butler. When The Furs reformed in 2000, Fortus joined the group as second guitarist and played on the live album 'Beautiful Chaos: Greatest Hits Live'.
Fortus has since left Love Spit Love and is now a member of Guns N' Roses, replacing Axl Rose's childhood friend Paul Tobias. In Guns N' Roses, Richard plays both rhythm and lead guitar. Axl is very pleased with Richard's work and has said, "He's an amazing lead player and very technically skilled. He really likes the pocket that Brain sets and the two of them click with Tommy so we finally have the real deal rhythm section, as Richard is a proven professional. Basically, Richard's the guy that we always were looking for."
On November 5, 2005, Richard's wife, Jen Fortus, gave birth to a daughter. Her name is Paisley Piper Fortus.
On March 2008 it was announced that Richard was one of the guest guitarist on the upcoming shows of X Japan at the Tokyo Dome.
Richard performed with Rihanna on her Good Girl Gone Bad world tour in 2007
In 2008 he also contributed as guitar player on the debut cd of Paramount Styles
Tommy Stinson
| Birth name | Thomas Eugene Stinson |
| Born | October 6, 1966 (age 43)
Origin Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Genres | Pop rock, hard rock, alternative rock |
Occupations
| Musician, songwriter
|
| Instruments | Bass, guitar, vocals
|
| Years active | 1979–present
|
| Labels | Twin/Tone, Sire, Reprise, Medium Cool, Restless, Rykodisc, Santuary, Legacy, Geffen
|
| Associated acts | The Replacements, Bash & Pop, Perfect, Guns N' Roses, Soul Asylum, Alien Crime Syndicate
|
| Website | tommystinson.com
|
After beginning to learn the bass at the age of 11, Stinson began playing and covering songs with his brother, Bob Stinson, and drummer Chris Mars under the name "Dogbreath" without a singer. After recruiting singer Paul Westerberg, Dogbreath changed their name to The Impediments and played a drunken performance, without Tommy, at a church hall gig in June 1980. After being banned from the venue for disorderly behaviour, they changed their name to The Replacements.
After signing to Twin/Tone Records, by label owner Peter Jesperson who also became the group's manager, they released their debut album, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, in 1981 with an EP, Stink, following in 1982. The Replacements began to distance themselves from the hardcore punk scene after the release of Stink and, inspired by other rock subgenres, released their second album, Hootenanny, in April 1983. Hootenanny was played on over two hundred radio stations across the country, with critics acclaiming the album; The Village Voice's Robert Christgau deemed it "the most critically independent album of 1983". The band embarked on their first tour of the U.S. in April 1983, during this time Tommy dropped out of tenth grade to join the rest of the band on tour. The band toured cities such as Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia, but their intended destination was New York City, where they played at Gerde's Folk City and Maxwell's.
With a name selected from a contest hosted by New York radio station WDRE, Stinson, on guitar and lead vocals, formed his first post-Replacements group Bash & Pop in 1992 with drummer Steve Foley being added to the group, also formerly of The Replacements, along with his brother Kevin on bass and guitarist Steve Brantseg. Rumors were that Bash & Pop were a band in name only with Stinson recording the album, Friday Night Is Killing Me, mostly by himself along with a number of guest musicians. Steve, Kevin and Brantseg all contributed to the album, Friday Night Is Killing Me, along with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers members Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell, Wire Train's Jeff Trott as well as other musicians Greg Leisz, Brian McCloud, Phil Jones and Tommy Steel with the album being released in January 1993, through Sire/Reprise Records, to mainly mixed reviews.
Also in 1998, Stinson joined Guns N' Roses, and he has been their bass player ever since. His bass playing is featured prominently on the track Oh My God, featured on the soundtrack to the movie End Of Days, as well as their long-delayed Chinese Democracy album which was eventually released in 2008.
On November 24, 2006 at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena, Axl Rose called the Eagles of Death Metal (one of Guns N' Roses' opening acts) the "Pigeons of Shit Metal." Jesse Hughes, the Eagles of Death Metal's lead singer, told the New Musical Express that Stinson took his bass off and threw it on the floor saying "Fuck you, that's it" and threatened to leave the band. Stinson did not leave Guns N' Roses; however, the Eagles of Death Metal were fired from the tour. On December 2, 2006, Stinson issued a statement reading, in part: "Eagles of Death Metal were a suggestion of mine a while ago. Turns out they were the wrong band for our crowd. They were booed and did not play for as long as they were scheduled to. ... In the past I have thrown my bass. I have never thrown it at Axl or anyone else in the band nor has anyone thrown my bass back at me... yet. Axl has been a dear friend to me for nine years. We have no problem communicating and wish that people would stay the fuck out of shit they don't know anything about
Guns N Rosses
Guns N' Roses' mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s years have been described by individuals in the music industry as the period in which "they brought forth a hedonistic rebelliousness and revived the punk attitude-driven hard rock scene, reminiscent of the early Rolling Stones."
Rock group. While the band has gone through several different line-ups, the most famous version included Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Slash, Duff McKagan, and Steven Adler. Known for their raw heavy metal sound on stage and their rebellious, wild lives off stage, Guns N' Roses exploded on the music scene in the late 1980s.
| Origin | Los Angeles, California, USA |
| Genres | Hard rock, heavy metal |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Labels | Geffen, UZI Suicide |
| Associated acts | Hollywood Rose, L.A. Guns, Slash's Snakepit, Velvet Revolver |
| Website | www.gunsnroses.com |
Formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, Guns N' Roses took its name from several groups that some of its members had played in previously, including L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. Rose and Stradlin had known each other from Lafayette, Indiana, where they both lived before Stradlin moved to California as a teenager. Rose came to his rebellious bad boy attitude naturally, having run into trouble numerous times growing up. Other band members shared connections, too. Stradlin and Slash had attended the same Los Angeles high school, and Slash and Adler were friends. The group was part of the L. A. heavy metal scene, which included Motley Crue and Poison. Unlike these other groups, however, Guns N' Roses avoided the popular trappings of big hair, tight pants, and heavy make-up. Gritty and grungy, they appeared to be as reckless and rambunctious as their music and made no excuses for their hard-partying ways.
Before landing a recording contract, Guns N' Roses released an EP entitled Live Like a Suicide. It contained four songs, two of which were covers of songs by Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. They signed a deal with Geffen Records in 1986 and the following year released their first full album, Appetite for Destruction (1987). Initially, the album failed to make much of a splash with its first single "Welcome to the Jungle."
The second single, "Sweet Child O' Mine," showcased a softer side to Guns N' Roses. Featuring tender, sentimental lyrics, the song's video received heavy play from MTV and helped push their album up the charts. Both the song and the album reached number one in 1988. "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Paradise City" also made the charts. Guns N' Roses became one of the most popular rock acts of the time.
To capitalize on their success, G N' R Lies was released in 1989. It featured the four songs from their earlier EP and four new tracks. While the ballad, "Patience," struck a chord with listeners, many people were outraged by the lyrics in some of the other songs. With its cavalier tone about killing a woman, "Used to Love Her" has been found offensive by many. And "One in Million" seemed to go out of its way to offend nearly everyone by including derogatory comments about African Americans, immigrants, and homosexuals.
Guns N' Roses was no less controversial on stage. Volative and unpredictable, lead singer Axl Rose became as famous for his tantrums as he was for his rough-sounding vocals. In 1991, he jumped into the crowd to get a camera away from a fan at a concert, and then he returned to the stage, only to storm off. A fight broke out in the audience, resulting in 60 people becoming injured.
