Guns N' Roses, or GNR for short, are an American hard rock and heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California when local bands Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns merged.
History[]
Formation[]
Guns N' Roses was formed in March 1985 by Axl Rose, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradin, lead guitarist Tracy Guns, drummer Rob Gardner, and bassist Ole Beich. The band's name originated with combined elements by Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns. Their first concert took place on March 26, 1985. Shortly after the show, Beich was dismissed, and Duff McKagan took over as the new bassist. The band planned to release an EP, but plans did not come about for it. Guns resigned after having an argument with Rose and Slash took over as the next lead guitarist. In addition, Gardner also resigned, and the next drummer was Steven Adler.
With the new lineup, the band played their next concert on June 6, 1985. They went on a brief tour, which turned out to be short and disorganized. At one point, the band's vans broke down, leaving them no choice but to abandoned some of their equipment and hitch-hike their way back to Los Angeles with only their guitars. Despite the loss of their vehicles and equipment, the band eventually rebuilt their usual state and garnered attention to some major record label companies. In March 1986, the band signed with Geffen Records with a $75,000 advance.
The band released their first EP titled Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide on December 16, 1986. The EP contained four tracks, including a cover of "Mama Kin", originally performed by Aerosmith. The EP was recorded at Pasha Studios in Los Angeles and was produced by the band entirely. The EP was released by a subsidiary label known as Uzi Suicide since Geffen Records felt that there were not enough tracks for the recordings to transition to a full-fledged album. In addition, sales were extremely limited, as only 10,000 copies were sold solely in the United States.
Appetite for Destruction[]
In the beginning on 1987, Guns N' Roses began recording material for their first album. The recording took place at four different studios, all in Los Angeles. The band's first album, Appetite for Destruction, was released on July 21, 1987. The album included twelve tracks. Five of those tracks became singles, including "Welcome to the Jungle", "Sweet Child o' Mine", "Paradise City", "Mr. Brownstone", and "Night Train". "Welcome to the Jungle" has become the band's most successful track up to date, receiving great radio play as well as the music video being played on MTV and VH1 at high rates. At first, the album attracted little attention, but later went on to become 18x platinum in 2008, having sold 30 million copies worldwide.
Guns N' Roses went on a 16-month worldwide tour in an effort to promote the album. Around the same time, their self-titled EP was released in 1988, which included six tracks. Two of those tracks were covers, including "Knocking on Heaven's Door", originally by Bob Dylan and "Whole Lotta Rosie", originally by AC/DC.
G N' R Lies[]
On November 29, 1988, Guns N' Roses released their second studio album, G N' R Lies. The album included eight tracks. Four of those tracks were imported from the entire Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP while four new tracks were acoustic. "Patience" became a single two months later. Despite the album's release, "One in a Million" turned out to be controversial due to the lyrics containing racism and homophobia.
During a November 1987 concert in Atlanta, Georgia, Rose attacked a security guard and had to be restrained by police backstage. The band continued on with a roadie helping out. A few incidents and controversies arose during the band's next set of concerts. During the Monsters of Rock festival at England, two people were trampled to death as those in the audience were slam-dancing.
Use Your Illusion[]
In 1990, Guns N' Roses returned to the studio to develop new material for their next album. Recording session took place at six different studios, with two of them in Hollywood, three in Los Angeles, and the last being Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. However, as recording session was in progress, it was revealed that Adler was battling substance abuse. At one part, it took nearly 30 takes to do one of the tracks due to Adler's struggles of cocaine and heroin addiction. On July 11, 1990, Guns N' Roses dismissed Adler. Jussi Tegelman of Havana Black briefly helped out with the drums until Matt Sorum took over full time as the drummer. A few months before the recording took place, Dizzy Reed, a keyboardist, joined the band full-time. In addition, the band dismissed their manager Alan Niven to make way for Doug Goldstein.
On September 17, 1991, Guns N' Roses released their third and fourth studio albums, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II respectively. Use Your Illusion I contained sixteen tracks, including a cover of "Live and Let Die", a theme for the James Bond series film of the same song name originally performed by Paul McCartney & Wings. Other singles included "Don't Cry" and "November Rain". Use Your Illusion II contained fourteen tracks, where five of those tracks would later become singles, especially "Knocking on Heaven's Door". The band's valiant efforts earned them a spot at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards.
Before the albums stocked the shelves on the market, Guns N' Roses went on a 28-month long world tour to promote their latest content. It garnered mass financial success, but there were also a plethora of controversies. The tour contained 192 dates taking place at 27 different countries, with over seven million individuals in attendance in a total of that span.
While performing at the Riverport Amphitheater in Maryland Heights, Missouri on July 2, 1991, Rose discovered that a fan was filming the concert with a camera. He ordered event security to confiscate the camera, but to no avail, and instead, Rose dove into the audience in an effort to confront the fan manning the camera and attacked it. This sparked a riot where others in the audience began hurling bottles at the other band members, although the event security did not enforce a drinking limit. The fan who was filming the concert was identified to be Robert John, who was seemingly documenting the tour. The tour went on as planned as Rose faced charges for his assault on the fan, but a judge reversed the decision, stating that there were no words Rose said that triggered the riot.
On November 7, 1991, Stradlin resigned after a concert in Germany, stating that he was not too pleased about Rose's recent behavior, mismanagement of the band, and difficulties being around his fellow band members. Clarke briefly took over as the rhythm guitarist for a few shows, but later fractured his arm in a motorcycle accident. Stradlin rejoined the band several weeks later.
In 1992, Guns N' Roses performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Meanwhile, while performing at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Québec, Canada, a similar site where Metallica performed, Guns N' Roses performed in front of restless fans after Metallica dropped out due to James Hetfield being burned by a pyrotechnics malfunction. During the performance, stage monitors were tuned down, and the performance was cut short. This led to another riot, where thirteen people were injured, and dozen of arrests were made.
While on tour, two home videos were released, containing the band's performance at the Tokyo Dome. Those videos were Use Your Illusion World Tour - 1992 in Tokyo I and Use Your Illusion World Tour - 1992 in Tokyo II, released on December 8, 1992. Later, The "Civil War" EP was released on May 24, 1993. The EP contained four tracks. The included tracks were different as it had multiple versions released in the United States, Germany, and Japan.
"The Spaghetti Incident?"[]
In late 1992, after the tour concluded, Guns N' Roses returned to the studio to develop material for their next album. Recording took place at eight different studios, all of which were at Los Angeles. The band's fifth studio album, titled "The Spaghetti Incident?", was released on November 23, 1993. The album included thirteen tracks, all of which were covers by various artists. Despite its release, it did not receive a good reception, but it sold 190,000 copies in the first week since its release. The band embarked on another tour to promote its latest release.
Changes and compilations[]
Between 1994 and 1996, the band began recording new material, but an album was hard to come by. In January 1994, Guns N' Roses performed with Bruce Springsteen after Elton John was introduced in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition, the band entirely contributed to Clarke's solo debut album, Pawnshop Guitars. In December 1994, the band did a cover of "Sympathy for the Devil" originally by The Rolling Stones, which was released as a single. Clarke left the band in 1995 as his contract was not renewed by the band.
In August 1995, Rose left the band and created a new partnership under the same name. It was later revealed that there was tension between Rose and Slash during the recording of "Sympathy for the Devil". Rose returned with the band, and Slash stepped down in October 1996. Robin Finck, who played for Nine Inch Nails, was hired as the next lead guitarist. Paul Tobias also joined as the third guitarist. In April 1997, Sorum also resigned. With no new material released in a four-year span, many speculated that Gun N' Roses would be on the verge of disbanding. Josh Freese was hired as the next drummer in the summer of 1997, while Tommy Stinson was hired as the next bassist several months later. In addition, Chris Pitman, a multi-instrumentalist was hired as well.
The compilation album, Use Your Illusion, was released on August 25, 1998. The compilation included twelve tracks, including an alternative version of "Don't Cry". A home video, Welcome to the Videos, was released for the VHS on October 27, 1998. The home video featured thirteen music videos that were taken from the band's notable single tracks. On November 23, 1999, a double live album titled Live Era '87–'93 was released. The double live album contained 22 total tracks with a two-disc set having eleven tracks a piece, all consisting of live performances. On March 23, 2004, the compilation album, Greatest Hits, was released. The compilation album contained fourteen tracks.
Discography[]
- Appetite for Destruction (1987)
- G N' R Lies (1988)
- Use Your Illusion I (1991)
- Use Your Illusion II (1991)
- "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993)
- Chinese Democracy (2008)
Tours[]
- The Early Days of Guns N' Roses (1985–1987)
- Appetite for Destruction Tour (1987–1988)
- Use Your Illusion Tour (1991–1993)
- Chinese Democracy Tour (2001–2011)
- Up Close and Personal Tour (2012)
- Appetite for Democracy (2012–2014)
- Not in This Lifetime... Tour (2016–2019)
- We're F'N' Back! Tour (2021–2022)
- 2023 Tour (2023)
- Because What You Want and What You Get Are Two Completely Different Things World Tour (2025)
