SoulMonster

Yes, this is so obvious it shouldn't have to be spelled out. If they were "mailing it in" they'd slash the sets in half and still charge the same amount. Like many other bands do.

It is not necessarily this big mystery. Interests come and go.

Did it last "a while"?

And Dazey's not even a ManU fan, @Eric Cantona! It's a great city.

I think the nickname Moher Goose came earlier - Brain would say Pitman went by that nick when he joined the band in 2000. Brain: Yeah, I mean, Mother Goose was how I first heard his name, you know, it's like Buckets said, "Hey, there's this guy Mother Goose that's pretty rad," you know [...] [Appetite for Distortion, January 11, 2018].

Nor is he Pittman.

Insane on the pitch, insane off the pitch.

Bur eventually Axl only recorded vocals for Heartbreak Hotel: (15) 04. 1984-1985 - THE BEGINNING OF GUNS N' ROSES (a-4-d.com)

I liked the "Nurse, he's out of the bed again!" comment.

That Dizzy wanted to be an archaeologist. That Rob Gardner never misspelled "Axl".

It's definitely a delicate subject and a topic not everyone is comfortable getting engaged in or even reading. That's fine. I think we should all try to be sensitive and careful in all discussions and basically not write anything we wouldn't be comfortable saying to the people involved. That's a rule of thumb I think many people could take to heart, especially since it is not entirely unlikely those we talk about may read this forum. Still, talking about what has been discussed in public by the people themselves (and remember that Axl just released a song that references his abuse), and especially correcting misinformation about Axl's abuse and what has been said by him previously, is okay, in my opinion, and better than to let discussions and rumors fly rampantly. And if we are really interested in the music of Guns N' Roses, or the band itself, it isn't disconnected from the lives of the musicians and what has happened to them and what they have gone through to form them as human beings. If I were to write a biography on Axl, as an example, it would be amiss to not discuss the circumstances of his upbringing and young life. Because what he went through shaped him as a person and his opinions and behavior later. Which is why I have also included this in the history section on A4D. Still, it must be treated respectfully and carefully.

I think an important point here is that Axl himself went public with his childhood abuse. He wanted it to be known, he wanted it to be part of the public discourse. This is not people digging into the secret past of a celebrity or speculating about things that are meant to be secret. And as Axl himself pointed out when he explained why he went public, it might not excuse or totally explain Axl's own violent or abusive behavior, but it certainly adds context and background to it. At the time when he decided to go public (although he had hinted towards it in earlier interviews, too), Axl was getting lots of criticism for the lyrical content of the band's songs and accusations of sexism and misogyny because of their behavior. Axl: I got a lot of violent, abusive thoughts toward women out of watching my mom with this man. I was two years old, very impressionable, and saw this. I figured that's how you treat a woman. And I basically put thoughts together about how sex is power and sex leaves you powerless, and picked up a lot of distorted views that I've had to live my life with. No matter what I was trying to be, there was this other thing telling me how it was, because of what I'd seen [Rolling Stone, April 2, 1992]. As a digression: people scoff when people who abuse point to their own history of being abuse victims as an explanation. The rationale is that as a victim yourself you should know better. But it is not that simple. An abuse victim might not correctly identify the abuser as the problem. A child that is hit because he broke a glass might not see that it is the father who hit him that is the problem and that it is the hit that is the abuse. The child might just be left with feelings of being hurt, shameful and fear and be imprinted that violence is a normal response under certain circumstances in a relationship. That normalization of abuse means that it becomes easier for that person himself to react the same way later on. Violence begets violence, also in families. IT is hard to break the cycle even if you connect hurtful feelings to it. Axl, at the very least, was aware of being damaged and tried to break the pattern of behavior by seeking professional help.

I quickly went through what I have written about this earlier: (14) 13. JULY-NOVEMBER 1991: USE YOUR ILLUSIONS ARE OUT, SO IS IZZY (a-4-d.com) I can't see Axl accusing his stepfather of sexually abusing him. He accuses him of sexually abusing his half-sister (Amy) and of beating himself, and he speaks of a sexually repressed and religiously extreme childhood and a mother that didn't intervene or protect him - but not that his stepfather sexually abused him. He does claim that his biological father sexually abused him when he was 2, though. Personally I doubt how much one can remember from that age. Many of these memories also came out of "regression therapy" which is scientific nonsense. Still, there is no doubt Axl was abused as a child and grew up under terrible circumstances. I just don't see him accusing his stepfather for sexually abusing him and I am wary about accepting memories that result from regression therapy. On this topic, it is my personal opinion that Axl's second trauma stemming from the abuse he experienced as a child came when he opened up about this to the media in 1991-1992, likely in the hope of getting some understanding and sympathy from a media that was becoming increasingly hostile towards him, but if backfired.

Appetite for Destruction.

I think that's an easy question: Of course he should have fronted AC/DC. It was great performances, it helped change the public perception of him and made him come across more favorably due to the effort and respect he put in, and I think he felt really good about it himself.

It is really hard to say. Does Axl still have a "hatred for women," as he stated in 1992? Or has he grown out of this, similarly to how his attitude to many other things have changed with age and as he has had more experiences in life? I don't think anyone of us can say for sure. I think he has matured on an intellectual level, but whether his primal nature has changed -- or even can change after what he experienced as a child -- I don't know. He can still act primitively, like when he attacked that paparazzi in 2009 or when he verbally, and scathingly, attached @madisonhere back in 2010, but that is when provoked, and even that may have been straightened out by now.

I still don't get why people think the "pussy full of maggots" line is so bad. It is abrasive, it is vulgar, it is crude, it has a shock factor, yes, but it isn't misogynistic in itself. It is entirely okay to say bad things about a specific woman but It is NOT okay to say bad things about all women. The former is just someone being angry with an individual who happens to be a woman, the latter is someone being misogynistic, which is as bad as any other forms of group discrimination, including racism. Some women, like men, are awful. That's reality, that's just how it is, and it is okay to write and sing about that. Even in utterly vulgar terms. Or for the shock effect. And in art it is entirely okay to be vulgar and crude, some art forms are based on that very principle! Would people here have reacted similarly if the line was "dick full of maggots" or something similarly abrasive about a man? Probably not. Sure, that line is perhaps not as violently abrasive, or works as well from a literary perspective as "pussy full of maggots", but you get my point. I think a double standard has established itself where women are not taken as seriously as men as subjects in literature and art, they are to be protected and put on a pedestal which is nonsense and a disservice to that gender. And I think the #metoo movement -- which was great, btw, because it brought forward a necessary discussion on actual sexual abuse of women and started a process where protected and powerful men got a little less protected -- has muddled the minds of some men who now thinks individual women shouldn't be criticized. We can dislike the sentence for its vulgarity and the pictures that pop into our heads when we hear it, but it is not, in itself, evidence for Axl hating women or anything like that.

Happy new year! May 2024 be a quiet year in GN'R land so I can catch up with the history writing!

It is possible to be a fan of the artist and singer Axl Rose and not a fan of his past behavior.

There are so many funny GN'R moments, most of the bizarre variety or just tragicomic: - Axl insisting they would sign with Chrysalis if Susan Collins would walk naked down Sunset. She didn't, and they had already decided to go with Geffen anyway. - Fargin Bastydges! to get around Geffen's playing ban. Basically GN'R under a new name. - The planted rumor that Axl hated poodles and wanted to kill them. Allegedly, that was Niven's plan to get more press. - "Hurt? He fucking will be if I find him!" Axl's reaction to Andy Hurt's review of one of the Marquee shows. The review itself is hilarious. - Izzy peeing at the manager's desk at the Hammerjacks in Boston. Izzy did quite a bit of controlversial peeing. - Tommy Lee teabagging a passed out Slash. Allegedly, pictures exist. - Izzy's paranoia with banks resulting in him carrying all is money, about $750,000, as a cashier's check in his sock. It also caused him to stock up on guns. - Izzy claiming there are "no chemical de­pendencies in Guns N' Roses" in November 1987, and Slash's "we don’t use drugs, and we really never have" in October 1988. - Steven OD'ing and only barely being able to get to the filming of the funeral scene in Dead Pool, which was about a guy who had died from an OD. - Axl fighting skinheads, David Bowie, parking attendants, paparazzi, neighbors, hotel guards, band members, etc. - Izzy passing out from taking all his drugs when they are to fly to Japan. Allegedly, had to be carried out of the plane and into his hotel. Came to his sense the next day or so and didn't know ehere he was until he saw the small people in the streets. - The failed attempt at staying incognito in Chicago in 1989. In all, the Chicago trip was a huge mess but the half-assed attempt at being anonymous was the only slightly funny about it. - Izzy peeing on the plane earning him the nickname Whizzy. - Axl's feud with Vince Neil which was just pathetic. A lot of media posturing that didn't really result in anything. - Steven resurrecting Road Crew after getting fired from GN'R, then getting fired from Road Crew (because of drugs). It was also a bit funny that he thought he could just take the band name from Slash. - Sam Kinison trying to strangle Slash when Slash didn't come to Las Vegas. Duff came to the rescue and saved Slash. - Axl's wacko beliefs, like "high-tuned vitamins", regression therapy and exorcism. Funny but also sad how he was exploited by schemers around him. - The nadir of Steven's career when he was forced to tour with a GN'R tribute band to finish his Adler's touring dates (after the rest of the band splitting due to Steven's drug use). - The cover to Duff's Believe In Me. It features a skeletal version (of course, always a skeleton) of Duff sitting in a cocktail glass while partying with smokes and drinks. There are some flames in the background, because, you know, flames are cool, and then the title is written in a very ugly, amateurish font. The conception could have been made by a 12 year-old-boy, and also the execution. Did Duff okay this? Did he think it was great in a non-ironic way? Or was he so wasted he didn't care or even see it? - Goldstein's letter to Axl. Basically, everything by Goldstein after he got fired is comedy. Like when he claimed if he had been in charge the Not In This Lifetime tour would have done 5 times better than it did. Anyway, the letter is a scary look into hos his mind operates, or how he thinks Axl minds operates. Just a sopping sycophantic, rambling mess. - Buckethead. Just everything about him. Like when he hid from GN'R and thought they were sending undercover cops after him. And of course the chicken coop. And never taking his mask off in front of his band mates, even sunbathing in Rio with the mask on. You can't really make these things up. - Slash's infidelities causing him to get handcuffed to a bed and needing police assistance. Also the public sex a the Scrap Club involving pasta and Slash's frantic attempts at lying about it to save his relationship with Renee. - Steven getting high during filming of Sober Living, a show to follow ex-addicts road back to society. I don't have time to list more, maybe later.

Well, their legal fees have increased lately....

That's the spirit! If you have time to travel a bit, I would highly recommend going a bit further south than Heidelberg and visit the Alsace region of France, from Strasbourg and south towards Colmar. Regardless, enjoy the trip!

I think Axl wanted Guns N' Roses to continue to be musically relevant. Not in the sense that he was chasing fads and trends, but release music that was interesting by trying to be innovative or push the envelope a bit. His quote about Navarro is really telling in that regard. Still, Axl had always been interested in musical trends and new bands, like when he wanted Nirvana, Faith No More and Body Count to open during the Use Your Illusion touring. He had also expressed a desire to make Guns N' Roses into more than a one-trick pony hard rock band, but expand upon its musical repertoire, similarly to what Queen had achieved. It is also likely that he realized that to remain hugely popular, as Guns N' Roses had recently achieved, they needed to reinvent themselves for their next album. The music scene had changed and alternative rock bands were taking over. This can help explain why Axl had been dismissive to the music Slash had worked on. In short, Axl wanted to set the trends, rather than follow them, Slash wanted to release the same type of material over and over again. Slash: We look at the music scene in a different way. I see trends come and go and then come back again; that bands today seem to be playing with a 70s flavor a lot of the times. Axl always wants to be a little out there, setting the trends rather than following anything that may already be established. Together, that's how we get the sound of Guns N' Roses. It’s kind of like we try to bring together the best of two worlds [His Parader, August 1995]. Jim Barber (Geffen executive): An artist [like Axl] who's had as much success with Guns N' Roses as he has gets to a point in his career where he can settle into one sound and do it over and over again, usually with diminishing returns. Axl is determined not to do that. There's a sort of ruthlessness about pushing Guns N' Roses to grow, and to find some depth in their music, and to evolve [Rolling Stone, May 2000]. Bringing Zakk Wylde in was probably meant to serve two functions, appease Slash who was a big fan of Wylde and had jammed with him previously and was pissed about the Gilby/Paul situation, and prevent Slash from stagnating as a lead guitarist: Slash: [Axl] was adamant that he didn't want to write with Gilby, and he wanted to explore some other kind of writing approach. He's always had this vision of teaming me up with a guitar player that's going to stretch my boundaries, whereas I still come from the old Guns N' Roses school where I do what I do and he does what he does [Guitar Player, May 1995]. In the end I think all parties agreed that this didn't work out. It became a lead guitar mess. Still, if we are to believe Axl (and again, he claims to have the tapes that prove it), he did eventually compromise and agreed that they should make an album based on Slash songs/riffs: Axl: A lot of people bought that crap and me having gone in other directions seems to many to have verified that. Then you have the mind twisting equally as true horseshit in Slash’s book but I have the rehearsal tapes. There’s nothing but Slash based blues rock and he stopped it to both go solo and try to completely take over Guns. I read all this if Axl would’ve put words and melodies on it could’ve… That was denied and I didn’t walk till several months after having 3 to 4 hour phone conversations nearly every day with Slash trying to reach a compromise. I was specifically told no lyrics, no melodies, no changes to anything and to sing what I was told or fuck off [mygnrforum, December 14, 2008]. Axl would also praise the riffs that Slash brought in, as the meanest and that no one else could have played those riffs the way Slash did. Yet, they weren't even able to get an album based off of these songs released: Slash and Axl were arguing fiercely (with ownership/rights of GN'R likely part of it) and Slash wasn't really interested in Guns anymore: Slash: I sort of made a half-assed attempt at going back to Guns. But at the end of the day it was half-hearted, and I realized it wasn't going to happen […] [Rolling Stone. October 1999].