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Axl Rose's Top 5 On-Stage Rants


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So I was watching this really lame Josh Homme on-stage rant about The Grammys, and that got me thinking about the on-stage rant as an art form, and that got me thinking about the Pablo Picasso of on-stage rants, W. Axl Rose, and that sent me down the YouTube rabbit hole.
(Of course, having great on-stage banter is an important part of being a front man — but banter is different from a rant. What Frank Mullen and Valient Himself do is wwwaaaaayyyy different from what dudes like Homme and Rose do, which is ostensibly get the audience to cheer on their rage, presumably so that they feel like they’re the “good guy” in whatever situation they’re pissed off about.)
Now selecting just five to include here was actually quite a task, because you’re talking about a guy who goes off on a fairly regular basis. I mean, just do a Google video search for “Axl Rose Rant.” You will get literally dozens of pages of video and audio of Axl Rose over the years just endlessly bitching about whatever was bothering him that day. These rants should bother GN’R fans — many of them last so long that the band easily could fit another song into the setlist if Axl had just kept his pie hole shut — but Axl admirers actually look forward to these things. They’re, like, part of the evening’s entertainment. It actually speaks a lot to the fact that Guns fans are masochists; Axl Rose’s illogical and unbridled vitriol is part of his appeal.
ANYWAY, I did manage to narrow this down to five rants. I hope you find them as amusing as I do. Here they are, in chronological order:
Axl Rose Hates Parking Attendants
“Axl Rose hated parking attendants way before it was cool, bruh.” In 1988, decades before Nicko McBrain and Vince Neil’s own run-ins with parking attendants, Rose turned what sounds like a fairly basic misunderstanding into an epic civil rights battle. So strong. So brave.
Axl Rose Hates Warren Beatty
In 1992, Guns N’ Roses did a pay-per-view concert live from Paris, and prior to launching into “Double Talkin’ Jive,” Rose decided to take out some time to offer some constructive criticism to the Oscar winning actor/filmmaker. The source of Rose’s beef, we can assume, was that his then-girlfriend, Stephanie Seymour, had previously been involved with Beatty. What Beatty did at this juncture to make Rose so cranky, though, remains a mystery. Funny enough, Rose is now almost as old as Beatty was then.
Axl Rose Hates Kurt Cobain
Although Axl Rose was walking around in Nirvana merch telling anyone who would listen how much he loved the band, they refused to open the GN’R/Metallica tour of ’92, solely because they hated Guns so much. The fact that any band would turn down this massive, massive tour was unfathomable at the time, and the fact that doing so didn’t hurt Nirvana’s success one iota clearly triggered some fear in Rose that his band was about to be phased out along with the Poisons and Warrants of the world. So Rose decided to make sure everyone knew that Guns N’ Roses and Metallica were “alternative,” too.
Axl Rose Hates Metallica
Yup: just a year after Guns N’ Roses toured with Metallica, Axl Rose decided he didn’t like Metallica anymore. I assume the initial source of frustration was ‘Tallica’s A Year and a Half in the Life Of… video, in which James Hetfield openly talks smack about Rose. In any case, here Rose calls the kettle black, accusing Hetfield of being a racist, and asserting that Metallica are overpaid egomaniacs who behave like pricks to their crew.
Axl Rose Hates His Stage Crew
Okay, so, I’m actually cheating with this 2006 rant, in which Axl chews out his crew while the band attempts to continue to play “You Could Be Mine” on the last night of that year’s Download Festival. But it’s so great, I just couldn’t leave it out. Rose obviously didn’t realize that anyone was recording him, so you get a sense that, yes, this really is how Axl treats the help. He must threaten to cut the show short on a nightly basis. Oy.
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I take issue with the description of the rants as "illogical" saw many of them live and they were all pretty focused and to the point...

Did not leave any doubt to the imagination...

Some of these "entertaining descriptions" are clearly biased as well..


Metal Sucks does suck...

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The rants are interesting although I was never a big fan of them. I think they made Axl look pretty crazy and took attention away from the music. I do like the fact that he called Kurt and Courtney out on the fact that they were junkies and should be responsible if the baby comes out deformed.

Edited by yourcrazy
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I actually enjoy the rants. I enjoy them because it is like living vicariously through him. There are many times that I would love to flip someone off. There have been plenty of times I wanted to go on an obscenity laced tirade aimed at the person who has been pissing me off. There have been times I wanted to tell a manager, a supervisor, a director to go fuck themselves. Once or twice, I've done all these things. Most of the time, I am your average, upstanding citizen who just grinds her teeth and bites her tongue and seeths silently. The part of me that is still 21 years old, 10 feet tall, and bulletproof LOVES every second of these rants because my inner rocker roars with delight at the prospect of some poor dipshit who had the bad luck to draw Axl's ire. Yes, I'm sure many instances were of his own making, but he is unapologetically honest. He lays it out there for the world to see, in all his furious glory and I, in my suburban home, with my "normal" family, my Monday-Friday job, and my repressed wild side, bask in the ferocity of all the things that he is free to say, shout, or shriek in front of tens of thousands of people. Oh, to be so free.

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I actually enjoy the rants. I enjoy them because it is like living vicariously through him. There are many times that I would love to flip someone off. There have been plenty of times I wanted to go on an obscenity laced tirade aimed at the person who has been pissing me off. There have been times I wanted to tell a manager, a supervisor, a director to go fuck themselves. Once or twice, I've done all these things. Most of the time, I am your average, upstanding citizen who just grinds her teeth and bites her tongue and seeths silently. The part of me that is still 21 years old, 10 feet tall, and bulletproof LOVES every second of these rants because my inner rocker roars with delight at the prospect of some poor dipshit who had the bad luck to draw Axl's ire. Yes, I'm sure many instances were of his own making, but he is unapologetically honest. He lays it out there for the world to see, in all his furious glory and I, in my suburban home, with my "normal" family, my Monday-Friday job, and my repressed wild side, bask in the ferocity of all the things that he is free to say, shout, or shriek in front of tens of thousands of people. Oh, to be so free.

I enjoyed reading this- great post :thumbsup:

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The Serpico one has got to be noted -

"They are the bad cops" :)

If any rant will be included in any worthy future GN'R movie it will be this one.

And while watching it you just know Axl knew it when he ranted. He was well prepared.

The Serpico one has got to be noted - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1x2YH0xubk

Pathetic.

Oh really? If you can't laugh about it there's something wrong with you.

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As a 12 year old I thought the rants were mighty cool. Then I grew up and realized they were rather pathetic and lame.,

That's kind of how I feel. Most of the rants now make me feel sorry for the guy. To be in the situation he was......but yet to still be filled with so much anger and negativity that you had to explode for the world to see.......seems kind of sad.

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As a 12 year old I thought the rants were mighty cool. Then I grew up and realized they were rather pathetic and lame.,

That's kind of how I feel. Most of the rants now make me feel sorry for the guy. To be in the situation he was......but yet to still be filled with so much anger and negativity that you had to explode for the world to see.......seems kind of sad.

Through some you can hear the band tuning up as if they want to get on with the show, & the audience are noisy enough for him to tell them to shut up which shows they weren't really interested in the rants about what the media had to say about him anyway.

Guess he's not so full of anger now that he needs to rant, he's told some funny stories over the last few years. Remember Montezuma's revenge?

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As a 12 year old I thought the rants were mighty cool. Then I grew up and realized they were rather pathetic and lame.,

That's kind of how I feel. Most of the rants now make me feel sorry for the guy. To be in the situation he was......but yet to still be filled with so much anger and negativity that you had to explode for the world to see.......seems kind of sad.

Through some you can hear the band tuning up as if they want to get on with the show, & the audience are noisy enough for him to tell them to shut up which shows they weren't really interested in the rants about what the media had to say about him anyway.

Guess he's not so full of anger now that he needs to rant, he's told some funny stories over the last few years. Remember Montezuma's revenge?

Curse U Montezuma haha!!

Seriously, how much revenge does one guy need??

:rofl-lol:

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As a 12 year old I thought the rants were mighty cool. Then I grew up and realized they were rather pathetic and lame.,

That's kind of how I feel. Most of the rants now make me feel sorry for the guy. To be in the situation he was......but yet to still be filled with so much anger and negativity that you had to explode for the world to see.......seems kind of sad.

Through some you can hear the band tuning up as if they want to get on with the show, & the audience are noisy enough for him to tell them to shut up which shows they weren't really interested in the rants about what the media had to say about him anyway.

Guess he's not so full of anger now that he needs to rant, he's told some funny stories over the last few years. Remember Montezuma's revenge?

Curse U Montezuma haha!!

Seriously, how much revenge does one guy need??

:rofl-lol:

Plus telling the audience that if Steven Tyler had Montezuma's revenge then he won't know which end to put on the toilet - he did apologise after the groaning from audience members like me who really don't want to have that picture in mind during the concert. :o

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I actually enjoy the rants. I enjoy them because it is like living vicariously through him. There are many times that I would love to flip someone off. There have been plenty of times I wanted to go on an obscenity laced tirade aimed at the person who has been pissing me off. There have been times I wanted to tell a manager, a supervisor, a director to go fuck themselves. Once or twice, I've done all these things. Most of the time, I am your average, upstanding citizen who just grinds her teeth and bites her tongue and seeths silently. The part of me that is still 21 years old, 10 feet tall, and bulletproof LOVES every second of these rants because my inner rocker roars with delight at the prospect of some poor dipshit who had the bad luck to draw Axl's ire. Yes, I'm sure many instances were of his own making, but he is unapologetically honest. He lays it out there for the world to see, in all his furious glory and I, in my suburban home, with my "normal" family, my Monday-Friday job, and my repressed wild side, bask in the ferocity of all the things that he is free to say, shout, or shriek in front of tens of thousands of people. Oh, to be so free.

The thing is that he "lays it out there" when the other party can't really respond. He's ranting when he's relatively safe, which differs a lot from the average Joe ranting to his manager.

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As a 12 year old I thought the rants were mighty cool. Then I grew up and realized they were rather pathetic and lame, especially considering what a pussy he is when he's not on stage.

This is exactly what I was going to say.

The Serpico one has got to be noted - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1x2YH0xubk

Pathetic.

Agree.

Watching a young Axl in his 20's ranting was pretty cool at the time. It came off legit, you know they had worked so hard and paid their dues to get to where they were. He had shit to say and an audience who he could finally say it to. They were putting out great music and were one of the most popular bands in the world. He was demanding respect because he had earned it.

Watching an old Axl pushing 50 at the time and ranting about his old bandmates is sad. Pacing the stage out of breath, looking nothing like his old self, and trying hard to play the victim comes off awkward and forced. There was nothing cool about a guy that age telling people to suck his dick, it really does come off ridiculous.

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Guest Len B'stard

My favorite one is the one where, see, i ain't heard these in years but he's having a go at someone, saying something like 'you're a dumb motherfucker, you just got the shit beat out of you and keep coming back for more' and in the middle the guy obviously must've made a gesture that irked Axl a bit cuz he suddenly actually sounds REALLY pissed and he's like 'HEY, YOU WANNA FUCKIN' FLIP ME OFF YOU PIECE O SHIT?!?! COME UP HERE!' :lol: Classic!

Funny how he never seems to flip at someone who looks like he can have it though eh? I wonder whyyyyy..

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