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Did Axl ever have a drug problem?


Drifter

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I know the rest of the band had drug and drink problems but did Axl ever have any addictions?

I've read Slash, Stevens and Duffs books and they all talk about their and the rest of the bands battle with addiction but never Axl.

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Never got the impression that he had a "problem" as such. He certainly dabbled in stuff during the earlier years of the band. I'm sure I read a quote a few years back where he described having "lost weekends on smack". I think he maybe still enjoys the occasional jazz woodbine and has a bevvy although he'll obviously not go too mental with it as he'll want to keep in good shape for touring.

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I'm sure there's a quote floating around somewhere (I think it might have been a secondhand comment) but Axl intimated that once he was through recording Appetite For Destruction, he was going to lock himself in a room with a chick and shoot dope for a week straight, all to the soundtrack of Led Zeppelin records.

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as he'll want to keep in good shape for touring.

lol

Whilst it does seem does seem that he doesn't bother his arse before the tour starts (i.e. Rio) he's obviously going to feel seriously knackered every night if he doesn't take care of his diet.

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"... 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 f_u_c_k_i_n' habit. I won't allow it"

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A guy that I used to work with in Lafayette, who was a former coke dealer, showed me a pic of Axl and him wit a rather large pile of coke on a table in front of them after the 1988 Danville. iL show. He also said that he took a large bag of blow backstage when guns opened for aerosmith in indy.

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Axl had more willpower than the rest of them. There's a live show, forget which one it is, where he talks about cocaine. In it, he seems like he's telling the audience why the whole "do drugs" mantra is bad news bears.

Did he ever have a "problem" per say? Maybe. But it was less than the rest of the band, that's for sure.

I love Steven Adler, but godamn I watched the 180day followup episode to Celebrity Rehab 5, and all I could think of were Slash's and Axl's quotes about him from years ago: "couldn't leave his drugs," "hiding drugs behind the toilet." In the vh1 follow-up, steve is trying to be slick by sneaking alcohol into a cup, and having his friends guard the door while he smokes a doob, but it's RIGHT in front of the bob-whatever-his-name-is guy from the show who was checking on him. It was kinda sad. I mean, I don't think it's bad if Steve smokes pot or drinks (let's be honest, that's a victory in light of his other drug problems), but just fuckin be honest about it, yknow?

I used to hold out hope Axl would let him play one or two gigs with the band, like he did Duff and Izzy. But more and more, I realize Steve will never, ever play with GnR again.

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He prob. did more drugs as a teenager more than he did with GNR. I'm sure all of them did. When he had dreams of being a rock star and just starting out... all he knew was getting in trouble, so I'm sure if you've watched Breaking Away (which was set in Bloomington IN), Over the Edge, and Dazed and Confused, that's kind of his high school experience.

Then he just let his bandmates get high and fucked their girls.

But he also knew if he became addicted, he'd go through money and be in debt to some asshole who would start playing games with him. And going back to Indiana being broke wasn't an option.

Doubt he injected heroin, maybe a one time deal - prob. snorted it. Just the stuff in the news about IV drug users getting AIDS or hepatitis at the time was enough to avoid it. He didn't have to go through that to write "Mr Brownstone", he witnessed plenty, which is what songwriters do - witness things. They don't always have to write from firsthand experience.

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Axl had more willpower than the rest of them. There's a live show, forget which one it is, where he talks about cocaine. In it, he seems like he's telling the audience why the whole "do drugs" mantra is bad news bears.

Did he ever have a "problem" per say? Maybe. But it was less than the rest of the band, that's for sure.

I love Steven Adler, but godamn I watched the 180day followup episode to Celebrity Rehab 5, and all I could think of were Slash's and Axl's quotes about him from years ago: "couldn't leave his drugs," "hiding drugs behind the toilet." In the vh1 follow-up, steve is trying to be slick by sneaking alcohol into a cup, and having his friends guard the door while he smokes a doob, but it's RIGHT in front of the bob-whatever-his-name-is guy from the show who was checking on him. It was kinda sad. I mean, I don't think it's bad if Steve smokes pot or drinks (let's be honest, that's a victory in light of his other drug problems), but just fuckin be honest about it, yknow?

I used to hold out hope Axl would let him play one or two gigs with the band, like he did Duff and Izzy. But more and more, I realize Steve will never, ever play with GnR again.

There's drugs that fuel creativity and drugs that destroy it. I think a one time shroom or acid trip in the name of research and expanding your mind is fine, but if you start trying to rely on it because you think it's going to make you talented? It's going to be a losing battle. People hear about the Hendrix stories about him doing acid at Monterey or Woodstock, but the guy was immensely talented and put tons of hours in for playing, that he could get away with it. Otherwise you get into Brian Wilson/Syd Barrett territory and if you had any past mental issues, are going to rise to the surface. Lennon and Harrison said they took tons of it, and just decided to stop.But again,they put tons of hours in as musicians that by the time they got into it, they were more than proficient musicians. Jimmy Page spent tons of hours in UK studio sessions prior to Zep, but damn he was a mess at the end of the 70s. Black Sabbath's drug use wound up eclipsing the music. Keith Richards wrote his book about his drug use, so did Steven Tyler. And none of the drugs were a catalyst for the talent.

Pink Floyd and Genesis got more high off the audience than they did backstage or on their off time. Peter Gabriel said he had an overactive imagination that he felt if he did try acid, he wouldn't come back from it.

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i always figured he was a casual users....ya know like the guy who only smokes a joint if someone offers or his buddy has some. he doesn't do it every day and rarely buys it.

It's a little worse than that, or atleast use to be anyway because I remember reading a quote with him talking about how he and Erin would get some Heroine, shoot up all week end and fuck. He said he would start getting addicted but then he would tell himself "fuck off" and abstain until the cravings went away.

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In a writen interview Axl said that he and a "girl" he wanted to be with at that time stayed in a hotelroom doing heroin, listening to ledzep and having sex for over a week.He said he would never forget it

When he arrived from Indiana, on stage, he says he arrived with half a joint and smoked it

In a interview his girlfriend Gina from Indiana said that they use to do hallucinogens and paint on a friends walls.Also she said that when she came back to L.A for the last vist that they fought all weekend about his heroin use.

In one of his courtcases he was asked about the bands and his use of drugs,exspecially heroin,I which he admitted to under oath.

He is quoted in saying that he would not allow himself to be addicted,That he would realize he was doing to much and would stop and go through the sickness,and also that doing a line would fuck his voice up for days.Most of his girlfriends had drug use problems or at least participated in doing them.He let a band member shoot up Erin with a drug mixture that she

said under oath that it almost killed her.

I my opinion Axl himself admitts to dancing with the devil.Was it ever a problem of great magnatude I dont believe so.But there is those missing years that no one but him and his own can say.Booze most likely

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