His idol

[rckn]

Check this: http://areena.yle.fi/video/1308398435774

Thouhgs?

Me

[Grayfox]

Wrong section?

[saber_]

Mike Monroe is kind of a caricature of 80's glam rock music. His music is uninspiring.

I've never understood why Axl would respect that guy... at all. Maybe he doesn't anymore.

Uninspiring? You may want to brush up on your rock n roll history, as MANY big names cite Hanoi Rocks as a major influence. Many GnR members have mad respect for him and Hanoi Rocks.

Caricature? It may appear that way now, but at the time, he was the PROTOTYPE glam frontman. He was a trendsetter.

Axl respects him because he can sing, play saxophone, and was part of a kickass band until vince neil killed their drummer.

For those who aren't familiar with Monroe, check out these clips:

[PerthGNR]

Mike Monroe is kind of a caricature of 80's glam rock music. His music is uninspiring.

I've never understood why Axl would respect that guy... at all. Maybe he doesn't anymore.

DoucheLord, go back to school.

[axl8302]

Good thing these guys aren't lumberjacks

[moreblack]

Steve Conte? Nice!

[SR_GR]

I read an interview last week where he said he was inspired by Stiv Bators from The Lords of the New Church. He said that Duff and Slash are still keeping in touch.

He is really passionate about his music and he sounds like an exceptionally nice guy.

I like the way he takes his relationships very seriously. He was married with his first wife for 15 years until she died and now he is married for the second time.

He said he is not into groupies as the intimate moments are too precious to share with just anyone.

[wasted]

No Hanoi Rocks, not the same Guns N Roses? I read that Izzy really influenced the early Hanoi Rocks look of GNR.

[bumblerose]

Michael Monroe is a great guy met him a while back, he'll chat about anything and if ur lucky even buy u a beer lol

[wasted]

and a cigarette.

[YOUCOULDBEMINE.]

god that was awful

[twenty-nine]

I don't think Hanoi Rocks.

[eggers]

New York Dolls > Hanoi Rocks

[Kalervo]

I Kind a like Hanoi Rocks and some of their albums are ok (Two Steps from the Move is better than ok) But I think The mastermind behind the songs was McCoy. Too bad he has melted his brain over the years. I haven't heard inspiring music from Monroe alone... ever. Just that basic punkrock that he has done for years. But nice guy nevertheless.

[Todo Poderoso Timão]

Mike Monroe is kind of a caricature of 80's glam rock music. His music is uninspiring.

I've never understood why Axl would respect that guy... at all. Maybe he doesn't anymore.

matbe because MM is much elder and much more active in the stage.

[Rafał]

I like his singing on Ain't if fun.

[snooze72]

Izzy was totally obsessed with Hanoi Rocks. From the get-go, he was always trying to land a tour with them, calling Finland, etc, trying to put bands together for some pie-in-the-sky Hanoi Rocks tour. He hawked his guitar (to Tracii) to fly to NY to see them, managed to get back stage (he had enough drugs to open that door), planned on continuing on with them, but he passed out at the hotel and when he woke up they were gone. Axl added 'Hollywood' to 'Rose' (note the 'HR') as a shout out to Hanoi Rocks. (And to a lesser extent, the NY Dolls). Tracii added 'LA' to Guns. Most of the references are more about style than music, mind you.

- - -

Todd Crew was the bassist in Jetboy, a San Francisco glam band making frequent visits to Los Angeles on the same circuit as Hollywood Rose and later Guns N’ Roses.

“We used to just all hang out, “ recalls Jetboy guitarist Billy Rowe. “We were all into Hanoi Rocks, Girl … the rock bands that were the underground at the time. When we got our band rolling we started just booking gigs together. We were really the only two bands like that at the time. There was no Faster (Pussycat). There really was no L.A. Guns. There was Poison but they were completely different than what we were doing.”

- - -

Tracii Guns remembers when he first saw Axl Rose: “Izzy was doing Axl's hair like, he was going to make him look like Mike Monroe from Hanoi Rocks.”

Guns was impressed.

It was the eighties, it was all about hair.

Hair had been growing out, down and up since the Beatles, but in the early to mid-eighties, it was really on the rise. As traditional metalheads flung their ever-longer locks around the stage, poodle cuts were cropping up all over on the pop side. With the advent of punk rock in the late seventies had come hair discord -- razor cuts and hair dye.

Along came the ill-fated Hanoi Rocks with glam god Monroe adding a punkish glamour to the metal mix.

That was Jeff “Izzy” Isbell’s vision.

When Isbell left Indiana, says friend Jim Grenat, he was clean-cut. When he saw him later in Los Angeles, “he looked like a mangy dog.” His hair was dyed black hair, spiked out and sprayed.

Izzy’s Indiana friend, Bill Bailey, wasn’t so glad about the glam, but he was a willing participant in whatever Izzy wanted. Izzy was ‘cool.’

Later, Axl would tell Kerrang!: “The only reason I put my hair up is because Izzy had these pictures of Hanoi Rocks and they were cool, and because we hung out with this guy who studied Vogue magazine hairstyles and was really into doing hair..."

Musician Steve Darrow recalls calling about an audition. "They wouldn’t even let me come over until I passed the image audition on the phone. Izzy says, ‘well, uh, what do you look like? How long’s your hair?."

Drummer Steven Adler was a shoo-in. “He had great hair,” recalls Guns.. “Me and Izzy really wanted just the front man to be light-haired. But we were like: Okay. You know, this guy could almost be in Aerosmith.”

Duff McKagan came within a hair’s breadth of not joining Guns N’ Roses. His predecessor, Ole Beich, was a tough act to follow. “Ole had the best hair out of anybody we knew,” recall Guns. “As soon as we saw him, ‘we were like: ‘Oh, okay -- you're great! When Duff’s name came up, Izzy said, ‘well, this guy's got short hair. But he’s into the New York dolls, and he plays really good,’” recalls Guns. “So he was in.”

Guns’ own replacement was downright problematic. Slash’s refusal – and inability – to get spiffed up was an issue. His response to fashion tips was, ‘Hey, that’s my favorite flannel shirt, what’s wrong with it?’ His perennial 5:00 shadow (albeit 5 AM in his case) and his uncontrollable corkscrew hair were also issues. But both were resolved in one felled swoop: a tophat that scrunched his hair over his face. Slash embodied ‘cool’.

It soon became a moot point – ‘glam’ was destined to become a four letter word in the GNR camp.

- - -

Bill was working a day job in an adult movie house, recalls Kevin Lawrence. He was still with Gina in those days, although she was moving out and Izzy was moving in.

Lawrence figures that Izzy was the ultimate instigator of Bill’s split with the band. Izzy was either no longer in Shire or about to no longer be in Shire, and he was turning his attention to starting a band with his willing buddy Bill.

“Izzy really didn’t like that Bill was in Rapidfire,” muses Lawrence. “And he really didn’t like the idea of Bill being in a band when Izzy wasn’t in a band.”

Rapidfire’s metal rock wasn’t Izzy’s thing – by that point, he was totally enamored with the Hanoi Rocks-style glam – and he told Bill he was wasting his time. He had a vision for a band, and his Indiana friend was a big part of the vision. It sparked a tug-o-war for the singer’s attention. It became immediately apparent that Rapidfire had lost when Bill arrived for what would be his last show.

“He showed up at the last minute at the club, which was unusual,” recalls Lawrence. “And he had his hair teased way out, the white powder cake up, lipstick, etcetera. He had on this leather jacket that they had spray-painted pink. He obviously wanted to do something else. We never really argued about it, it was amicable.

“I said, ‘I guess this is your last gig, huh.’”

NOTE: YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO COPY, REPOST or REDISTRIBUTE ANY PART OF THIS TEXT.

Edited July 4, 2011 by snooze72

[LTD]

Holy shit, I didn'tr realize Monroe still sounds that good. Haven't seen him live in ages,listening this here vid makes one ponder if it was unwise to look another way when he was performing in the hood.