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Young Gunners: Why do you love GN'R?


Vincent Vega

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For fellow Young Gunners (let's say people who were below the age of 13 between 1987 and 1993, so people born after 1980):

What makes GN'R (any version) so appealing to you? What first got you into GN'R? What made you love GN'R so much that you joined this forum?

I ask because I'm 21. Most people I know who are around my age like Hip Hop, some form of Modern Rock or Dance/Electronic music. For most casual music listeners my age, GN'R is either something they've never heard of, or something they know of as an "80s band" that made some cool songs called Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O' Mine, and Paradise City--A novelty from a kinda cheesy era full of hairspray and makeup. Something that might be mentioned on TV sparingly or heard on a radio once in a while--Basically, not a band on their musical radar. Not really "relevent" or important at all with people of our age group.

In fact, Guns is in many ways music that doesn't really belong to our generation. It's not the music of our time or age. It belonged to either the generation of our big brothers and sisters, who were teenagers in the 80s/90s, or to our parents/uncles/aunts who got into GN'R as adults in the 80s/90s. A product of a brief time in history--the late 80s to early 90s. A time when those here who were born after 1980 were either in Junior High School, were kids, were in diapers, or not even born yet. Music born out of a world utterly different from our time--an age before the internet, cell phones, when the world was still in the Cold War, when mullets, shoulder pads and acid washed jeans. An age where some subgenre of rock music was the most popular form of music.

It's not music of our generation and yet here we are--Loving GN'R probably more than any other band. I mean, you don't tend to join a forum unless you REALLY love a band (in my case I've been a member of the community for 10 years so for me it's more about the community than the band at this point).

So, what brings you to a forum of a band who belongs to a different time than we do? What made you love GN'R so much, instead of say Nickleback, Creed or Avenged Sevenfold? If you're a Young Gunner, why is Guns so beloved by you?

Edited by Clark Gable
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I'm 27 and I like GnR because Axl re-activated it with Bumblefoot, Buckethead, Robin Finck and Brain who happened to be some of my favorite musicians back in 2002.

I was very into Primus, NIN, and Bumblefoot ( because he had played in my city in France and had a following cult at the time ).

I also always loved Slash's Snakepit.

First listened to GnR back in 94. Was nine years old but I was also aware of Slash because of Michael Jackson's Dangerous which my dad used to listen to all the time.

Love the music of the old band, absolutely love Chinese Democracy and loved seeing the current lineup live.

I don't consider NuGnR to be the same band but I still think they are one of the best touring band right now.

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Well I'm 18 and when I first heard Guns I have no idea when but they played three straight Guns songs I believe PC,WTTJ,and SCOM forgot the order. Then the same week I heard November Rain and that was when I got there Greatest Hits Cd then I bought Lies,UY1,and AFD then I just brought them all.

Edited by Haters Gonna Hate
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I'm 18 and always knew the hits of the band as my friend growing up was a pretty keen GN'R fan but I never took any interest, I was only really into Queen growing up. But there was a TV show in the UK called 'Dream Team', which was about a fictitious football club playing in England that had a player that was depressed and ended up killing himself. The scene where he killed himself blew my mind, he played amazing in a Champions League game, manager took him off and he walked straight through the tunnel and started climbing stairs to go to the top of the roof on the stadium to jump off and become flying mince when he impacted with the ground. Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door was the tune that was being played when he was making his way up to the roof, and I was curious to hear this version in it's entirety. The version I ended up getting was GN'R's and I thought it was good. This was at the end of 2006, and I remembered the early days of 2007 when I thought I'd follow up my interest in GN'R, I stumbled across 'Better'. It blew my fucking mind, I overplayed it until I lost the connection I had with it for a while but it was really mind-blowing stuff. From there it stemmed, I got into all the albums and read into the history and shit and became hooked. Seen them live for the first time in Glasgow 3 days ago too. Good times.

Favourite line-up would probably be anyone that had Robin Finck in it, so either with the partnership of Bucket or Bumble on lead with him. 'Better' is one of the best songs I've heard from any artist and the mystique that line-up had really is interesting. That's my rather odd story of how I became a GN'R fan.

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Well I'm 19, at college, and completely agree with you about GnR's relevance in our age group, it's essentially zilch and nada other than kids who are musicians.

But my dad brought me to the Fleetcenter show in Boston in '02 when I was 10, he was about 31 when Appetite came out, so he was on the older edge of their fans, hes more into bands like Zeppelin, Skynyrd, Journey, Foreigner, Allman Brothers, but he wanted to see Axl's come back. I had a great time, but it wasnt until probably 2 years after that when I really got into them as I got deeper into playing guitar as well. I bought Appetite and played it nonstop on my old walkman (remember those things? ..so weird to me now that you could only listen to 12-17 songs unless you wanted to switch CD's haha) then that christmas I asked for the rest of the catalog, Lies, Illusions, the Spaghetti Incident? and Live Era, and I've been hooked, literally obsessed, since then.

One of my best friends Marc is about a year younger than me, we have the exact same tastes in music, Guns, 90's alt rock, some new stuff, lotta old rap and the good rap thats out there now (Kanye, Cudi, Jay-Z and so on) then some country and im also a big drumNbass/dubstep/house fan (not fucking Skrillex.), he's been my concert buddy persay since we were both 15 and 14. We went to Guns in '06 in Worcester MA with my brother in law, then just saw Guns again last time they were around in November in Worcester, waited 5 1/2 hours outside the doors this past time to be front row, best show I've ever been to (Bassnectar a close 2nd.)

But basically, I still listen to everything in the Guns catalog on a reasonably regular basis, actually just listened to Appetite all the way through 2 nights ago on my drive from my moms to my dads house as it's the perfect length for the drive haha.

There's not a time when I see myself not enjoying Guns, they werent from my time but they shaped my teenage years and my personality pretty heavily and I hold them a notch above everyone else in my musical tastes, and music is a pretty big deal to me in my life.

Edited by GunsNRevolvers2
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i was born in 1986, my first music memory was of guns n roses. i was about 5 when my dad and my uncle went and got the illusion albums and my uncle put these big ass headphones on and put in use your illsusion I and basically i was hooked, then it was field trips in school with AFD and UYI on my walkman :tongue2:

here in new england gnr is still big IMO everytime i go to a friends house someone i meet likes it which is cool

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Their riffs and melodies are always so creative and original but the music still doesn't sound "old" to me. Not that I dislike old music, but you usually can't find that original sound when you're dealing with newer music (with GNR being the beginning of "new music" to me). I don't know, a lot of that sounds questionable. GNR just sounds like nothing else to me.

The mystique and drama keeps me around too.

Edited by ItsSuchACrimeUKnowItsJAKE
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I'm 16 (is that allowed? to be 16 on this forum?)

Guns is easily my favorite band, hence the reason I made an account to browse these forums.

I'm just a regular 16 year old, kind of weird that unlike every other kid in my grade who's into rap and top 40 it's basically only me and my best friend who are into rock.

The thing for me about Guns, even though they are WAY behind my time, is they just have this raw energy and "persona" about them that I think no other band has in today's music.

All their songs are my favorites, that's the bottom line. Not that there's anything wrong with the guys in my grade liking Jay-Z and Kanye West, I just find I much prefer listening to stuff like the outro in November Rain compared to Watch the Throne.

I even got to see Guns, on my birthday, last December in Vancouver with my friend. We've also got tickets to see Slash in July too.

I'm also a big fan of the Foo Fighters, same with Arctic Monkeys, A7X, Nirvana, Rolling Stones etc. But there's just something about Guns that makes them my favorite.

I mean after all, it was Slash that inspired me to trade my iPod touch for a guitar in Grade 10.

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Can't say much that hasn't been said already. I was born in '91 and my mom was a big Gn'R fan. When I was in junior high, I got into '80s and early '90s hip hop and rap, but I couldn't relate to the lyrics outside of a fantasy mindset. And then one day, at the age of 14, I heard Welcome to the Jungle, and it summed up all the testosterone-driven angst and rebellion I had inside of me. After being dragged to church one day, I came home to the newly-discovered YouTube and looked up Guns N' Roses and found the video for November Rain. The melodies drove me to tears because they were so beautiful and seemed so familiar. Later I learned that my mother had played it for me as a baby to put me to sleep. My taste in music gradually shifted from rap to '60s and '70s rock and now to death and black metal, but Gn'R has been my favorite since 2006. In 2009, I had my first real, heavy "break-up", and with Chinese Democracy being released just a few months before, I had a soundtrack to all the anti-love and me-against-the-world sentiments I was feeling. Guns' music also inspired me to learn guitar and write my own music. I think it's incredible that songs written before I was born and mostly forgotten by the time I grew old enough to appreciate them were enough to radically change my life and help me find my identity.

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It was a bit of a snowball effect and kind of a long story. Props to you if you actually read all this. :lol:

I've always had a little bit of rock roots since I was little. My parents were mad into Black Sabbath. When I was little, my mom would play Don't Cry and November Rain to calm me down. So I've always liked 'em. But I wasn't that into music until I was ten-years-old and my dad put on Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East in the car. I was absolutely blown away. I still remember the feeling. I don't think I've ever had that feeling since. So then I was hardcore into Priest, and I was teased a little in junior high over it, but I didn't give a fuck. Then I started straying from my rock roots when I got to high school in favor of country music, specifically Carrie Underwood. See, I was watching some game show because I'd heard there was a question about Judas Priest, and while I was watching, they played a song of hers, and that song got me hooked. For a while, she was all I listened to. Then I don't know how it happened, but I got into Iron Maiden, and I was all in love with Bruce Dickinson. I used to promote the shit out of him to other Carrie fans, and the more I promoted, the more obsessed I got. So I joined a Maiden site where someone recommended one Bruce song to me. Which made me try another song and so forth until Bruce became my favorite artist ever. But, see, he wasn't very popular, his solo work, so I spent a lot of time on Google trying to find mention of Bruce.

I ended up finding a web site that discussed his best vocal moments, so I started reading through it. It was called DigitalDreamDoor, and at that point, the site was most famous for discussing vocalists. I was intrigued by this and started reading all the threads about vocalists. One guy named Curiosity started raving about how Axl Rose's voice was amazing on the Chinese Democracy record. I was surprised because I just assumed he sounded like shit. I was dumb and hated Axl for no reason really. According to that web site, Street of Dreams was Axl's technically best vocal performance. I looked it up and really liked it, so I downloaded it and decided that maybe CD wasn't so bad.

There's a swap meet that lets cover bands play sets while you shop. I only go to the swap meet for those bands, tbh. :xmasssanta: I went to go see the Iron Maidens, but I mistook the dates, and ended up seeing a GN'R cover band called Dust N' Bones. I was really surprised by how my eyes were absolutely glued to this band. The music and the performance had a lot of swagger, swagger I'd never before seen. I heard people shouting, "PLAY ESTRANGED. PLAY COMA." Dunno why that stuck out to me, but it was embedded into my memory. When I got home, I looked up Coma and Estranged, and blew me away, almost the way Judas Priest blew me away with Unleashed. I was amazed. To this day, they're my top two favorite GN'R songs. So I just went crazy and started looking up everything and, well, here I am.

I joined this site because, on DDD, that Curiosity guy was making fun of you guys and of Axl for creating an account named Dexter. :P I wanted to see for myself.

Anyway, I'm seventeen-years-old, and I'm proud to say I'm a Guns N' Roses fan. What attracts me the most to GN'R is the quality of their music, their attitude, and the perfect performances. Up until then, I'd valued more polished music. Now I love the rawness of Guns N' Roses. I've been staying up 'til four in the morning watching old bootlegs because, I dunno, I can't get enough. It's hard to describe. They're just a magical band, as fruity as it sounds. They've taught me a lot, too, in terms of, y'know, opening my mind, not judging others, and all that shit, since Appetite is, like, an anti-me, y'know? I don't know. It's hard to describe. They're the opposite of how I feel and yet exactly as I feel at the same time. And I used to hate Axl's guts just because of what people say about him, but this GN'R experience has taught me that there's more to things than meets the eye.

I don't know. I just really love the band. They're just exactly what I need.

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Glad to see other people my age having similar experiences with GnR, not all hope is lost!

And I strongly agree with those saying how GnR's sound, especially on Appetite just isnt "old" sounding ..I can't put my finger on it, but there's nothing else like it, and nothing else coming out like it, and I love it, and all of Guns catalog, especially ChiDem.

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im 25 and to sum it up quickly i think axl is a lyrical genius. while he may be crazy at times i think his writing ability is amazing and as far as the whole band afd was the only thing coming out of that period that was just raw and badass and that still holds up today.

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I'm 22. I used to listen to hiphop all the time, never took the time to listen to any bands since I didn't care much about that kind of music.

What got me into GN'R was when I saw ''The Blues'' and ''Madagascar'' from Rio 2001, I remember watching 2 or 3 more songs but those 2 got me into GN'R.

That version of The Blues is still the best one I ever heard.

This is also the reason why I really don't care much about the old band since it were pretty much the ''new'' songs that got me into GN'R.

Short after that my dad took me to my first concert in 2002. One of the few shows where they played Riad. Since then I bought all their records, but when I noticed that the band on those albums was a different band I was kinda disappointed. Sure, those albums are all great (TSI not so much) but it still wasn't the band that I saw and got to love. Since then I've been following the band on message boards, reading about CD (which eventually came out many years later). When they started touring again I was disappointed with Ron replacing Buckethead but the guy won me over eventually after I saw them live again. When CD got released I listened to it over and over again, I think it's a pretty good album but some of the songs sound really overproduced and sounded way better on the old demo's (TWAT, Catcher for example). Since then I only listen to 7-8 songs from time to time, same goes with songs from other GN'R albums.

Oh and I'm happy that DJ replaced Robin, Robin was way to sloppy imho.

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Guest Satanisk_Slakt

My family was always big fans of rock and when GNR was big, they were the most played banned in my family. It was the most played banned in my childhood, together with Thin Lizzy, The Doors, AC/DC Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones, who all funny enough are among my favourite bands today. I guess I just grew up on them and always loved them.

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Just turned 19 today! I first heard welcome to the jungle on the simpsons when i was young and loved it.. but never knew where to look or find the song. GTA San Andreas then came out and i found out about GNR, i then later discovered i had cousins who were crazy into GNR, from that moment i recieved every CD from Gnr i fell in love with the muisc. Chinese democracy just fascinated me and it is now my favourite album of all time. I just think anything that Axl Rose touches in absolute gold. i was lucky enough to see GNR in syd in 2007 when i was at the ripe age of 14. i listen to Gnr everyday and they are just such a massive part of my life, its like there is a gnr song to match every mood of mine. from going through some really rough shit gnr has helped me in ways words cannot describe. this is the reason i beg Axl to please release more tunes.

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I was born in 1982. Got used to Gn'R because my brother used to listen to Appetite and Illusions a lot during the late 80's/early 90's. Then when I started to listen to music on my own, I got into Nirvana. I never really understood the people who were divided between these two bands. There were many who had chosen sides and bashed the other. I didn't. I really loved Nirvana, still do, but I also love Gn'R. Appetite is a classic but I prefer the Illusion era stuff. Not the overblown tours (Skin and bones tour was the best) but the music itself. I love the epics, Estranged, Locomotive, Breakdown, Coma etc. I waited for Chinese like most of you, but eventually I was dissappointed. There were some good songs there, but it just wasn't the same. I've also listened the Slash solo stuff, but it's just like with Chinese. Some good stuff there, but overall pretty meh. Gn'R was a huge band with huge songs. And I will always keep on listening to those songs. That's why I'm here.

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I'm 20 and what got me into GNR were the MTV Video Music Awards in 2002. Though it was kinda weird,

it had something very special to me. That was pretty much all. Bought the albums, started "waiting" for

Chinese Democracy and now I'll see them life for the first time soon.

Seeing what a pain in the ass the "new GNR" is to some of the older people is, I'm glad that I didn't grow up

with the old band. I wonder if I would also be so crazy about it like some people here. I probably couldn't even

like Chinese Democracy, which to me is the best album ever now.

Edited by chorrada
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I'm 19 and started listening to Guns about four years ago. Believe it or not, I started listening to GN'R because they came to me in a dream. They were playing Welcome to the Jungle (only Axl and Slash though, as they were the only members I was somewhat familiar with) and so the next day I looked them up. After I found out Axl and Izzy were from the same state as me, I knew why I fell in love with the band. I just connect with the music. I love it.

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I'm 15, I got into Guns N' Roses through Iron Maiden I suppose. In 2008 I heard run to the hills and was blown away by it, that weekend I went to HMV and got maidens greatest hits, next to that I saw Appetite for Destruction reduced to £3 as an offer, I picked it up, I thought the cover looked cool and recognized some of the song titles (Jungle, Sweet Child, Paradise City) I got AFD as well as the Maiden album and my love for GN'R and rock music went on from there. None of my family like this sort of music although my dad doesn't mind a bit of Thin Lizzy but they don't really have a problem with me listening to them.

Another thing I wanted to say was that Maiden are my favorite band, I'm literally obsessed with them and I saw them live last year and I saw GN'R on Saturday in Birmingham and even though I love Maiden so so so much, Gn'r is the best concert i've been to, out of the 10 or so i've been to so far and seeing Axl actually there in front of me just seemed ridiculous like it wasn't even happening :D

It took me a while to get into Guns properly though, at first I only listened to the 3 songs I already knew of but then I listened to the rest of the album and just loved it. I then went on to get Lies, UYI 1 and 2, I was to afraid to listen to CD at first as all I had heard was negative things. However I finally bought it and just wow, without doubt CD is my favorite album, just everything about it is amazing.

I've been looking at the forum for a few weeks just to see what people have been saying about the shows so far in preparation from Birmingham and then joined a couple of days before the gig, pretty good forum and it seems that there's always a thread going on compared to some of the other forums I used to be on

Edited by izzyisgod
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