GUNS N’ ROSES were labelled the most dangerous group in the world thanks to
their wild, drug-fuelled lives and concert brawls.
But now they have lost their appetite for self-destruction.
This week it was announced that singer Axl Rose and lead guitarist Slash will
play together for the first time in more than 20 years — and plan to reunite
the rest of the original line-up.
The heavy rockers will headline California’s Coachella festival in April and
could follow that up with a 25-stadium tour, earning £2million per show.
It is the most unlikely musical comeback — after Axl and Slash turned on each
other in a bitter break-up two decades ago.
The pair’s feud included Axl declaring that Brit-born Slash was a “cancer,
better removed and avoided” and that they would both be dead before a
reunion took place.
But last year the duo finally picked up the phone to talk.
Slash, 50, originally from Stoke, said: “It was probably way overdue. But it’s
very cool to dispel some of that negative stuff that was going on for so
long.”
Guns N’ Roses’ 1987 album Appetite for Destruction is the biggest-selling
debut for a band in the US, shifting more than 18million copies. It heralded
an era of excess and explosive rows.
Axl, 53, attacked fans and was blamed for starting a riot at a gig.
After Slash quit in 1996, Axl spent nine years on the band’s last album,
Chinese Democracy, becoming a virtual recluse.
Fans will be desperate to see one of the wildest acts back in action. But the
truth is their days of hard living are well behind them.
Slash is teetotal, Axl is into homeopathy, bassist Duff McKagan writes about
the joys of fatherhood, drummer Steven Adler makes art and second guitarist
Izzy Stradlin shuns the limelight.
So they may even complete the tour without major incident.
Here we look at the difference in lifestyle of how the Guns N’ Roses members
lived then and now.
Axl Rose
THEN
THE fiery singer publicly threatened other stars and disrupted gigs with his
tantrums.
He vowed to “cave in” the “plastic face” of Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil, punched
David Bowie during a video shoot and called support act the Eagles of Death
Metal the Pigeons of S**t Metal.
Axl, who had violent mood swings, was even more unpleasant to the women in his
life.
His former girlfriend, model Stephanie Seymour, claimed that during one of
many rows he grabbed her by the throat and dragged her over broken glass.
And ex-wife Erin Everly, who he wrote big hit Sweet Child O’ Mine about,
accused him of domestic abuse.
Erin, whose 1990 marriage to Axl lasted just a year, alleged in court papers
that he smashed her possessions, hit her and removed all the doors in their
home so he could watch her.
The group’s first manager claims Axl’s unpredictable behaviour meant the other
band members were intimidated.
She described him as a “demon dog from hell” who could fly into violent rages
in a matter of seconds.
His temper has been attributed to a troubled childhood in which he never knew
his father, who he believes was shot dead, and claims he was physically
abused by his stepfather.
NOW
Axl has quit drugs and become interested in new age, hippy ideas such as
homeopathic medicine and past-life regression therapy. He claimed in one of
his rare interviews: “I’m interested in having a personal, first-hand
understanding of spirituality and religion.”
During the making of Chinese Democracy, which was released in 2008, Axl is
said to have asked his now-deceased psychic guru, Sharon Maynard, to assess
potential employees just from their photographs.
Axl owns the legal rights to the Guns N’ Roses name and has continued to
perform as frontman in the band. A variety of musicians have come and gone
from the group over the past two decades.
When original bassist and hell-raiser Duff McKagan briefly played with them a
couple of years ago, Axl said: “The band and crew were doing their yoga
together.”
Slash
THEN
EVEN before Appetite for Destruction was finished, Slash had a drug problem —
and it got a lot worse once he was famous.
The guitarist has admitted that he developed a serious heroin addiction
between 1989 and 1991. He said that one hallucination about “predators” led
him to run naked across a golf course.
His love of the wild life extended to his pets, too.
Slash filled his home with lizards, dangerous snakes and a mountain lion cub
he named Curtis.
When Slash’s home was damaged in an earthquake in 1994 he had to sneak the
lion into the posh hotel where he was staying.
Two years after that, a row over one of his guitar parts being removed from a
song without his knowledge led to the end of his partnership with Axl.
When he quit the band in 1996, Slash said: “Axl and I have not been capable of
seeing eye to eye on Guns N’ Roses for some time.
“We tried to collaborate, but at this point I’m no longer in the band.”
Slash, real name Saul Hudson, grew up in Stoke before moving to the United
States with his parents at the age of five.
NOW
Years of alcohol and drug abuse damaged his body so badly that Slash needed an
operation to insert a defibrillator into his heart.
With the knowledge that any more drink would kill him, the rocker has now been
sober for a decade and has even given up smoking.
The hat-loving guitarist said: “All of the stuff I did excessively I don’t do
any more.”
These days he devotes his spare time to charity work to bring music education
to disadvantaged kids and environmental welfare programmes — often tweeting
his support for protecting animals.
At home he is devoted to his sons, London, 13, and Cash, 11, and has said: “I
love building Lego with my kid.”
But in 2014 he split from their mother, Perla, his second wife, after 13 years
together.
Slash had previously credited Perla with helping him to settle down and live a
healthier life.
Duff McKagan
THEN
THE bassist’s pancreas exploded in 1994 due to years of drug and alcohol abuse
and doctors told him he would be dead in weeks if he didn’t sober up.
The twice-divorced rocker admitted: “When I was 18, what I thought to be ‘a
man’ was whose ass I could kick, how much I could drink . . . really stupid
stuff.”
NOW
The high school drop-out went back to education to study business before
setting up a wealth-management firm to help other musicians make the most of
their earnings.
The 51-year-old married father of two daughters also writes a newspaper column
and praises the joys of being a dad.
Izzy Stradlin
THEN
THE guitarist was arrested after urinating in front of shocked passengers on a
plane in the US in 1989.
And he once fell into a 96-hour coma after taking his entire stash of drugs.
He claims he left the band in 1991 partly because he was sober, saying: “Once
I quit drugs, I couldn’t help looking around and asking myself, ‘Is this all
there is?’.”
NOW
Izzy, 53, became reluctant to tour or do interviews and instead pursued his
love for riding motorcycles.
In 2006 he played a few gigs with Axl’s Guns N’ Roses but said: “It took me
about three weeks to recover from the six weeks of touring.”
Steven Adler
THEN
DRUMMER Steven was first to be kicked out the band.
His addictions were so disruptive he had to sign a contract agreeing not to
take any more heroin.
But he failed to live up to it and was fired in 1990.
In one drunk episode he hit a streetlight and broke his hand.
NOW
Steven has faced a long battle to get clean of drugs and booze.
After a few years sober, the 50-year-old suffered relapses and postponed a
tour for his band Adler due to a spell in rehab.
Steven has turned to art and has been producing work for his own show.
Describing his art, he says: “I’m the canvas and the painter.”