1989 or so, familiar with songs like Welcome to the Jungle, Patience, SCOM and they were just cooler and sounded better than the other hair metal bands MTV was playing, got my first GNR album in summer camp as someone threw a Appetite cassette tape away as they thought it was dysfunctional as their cassette player ate their tape as they sometimes did, picked it up wheeled the tape back in and it worked fine, instantly got hooked on Appetite and they were my new favorite band.