Why do people such as ourselves idolize people like W. Axl Rose?

[saber_]

I think this could be a very interesting topic of discussion. I mean why do we really idolize people like Axl? If we were to strip away the fact that he fronts a band, is famous, and wealthy, would that still cause us to be fanatics?

If you look at the kind of childhood Axl had, I wouldn't envy that or want that.

I am not sure if being super filthy rich would be that great either because you would have to really be able to trust those around you and even those people can fuck you over.

But what makes him have this aura that we are so intrigued with?

I find celebrity worship extremely creepy and pathetic. I think people who idolize and worship celebrities generally have some major insecurities and self-worth issues.

I admire Axl has a singer and musician. One of the greatest of my generation. And an absolutely fascinating career. But unless somebody is a singer, it boggles my mind that people would idolize him.

The fact that four different women have accused him of physically beating them should be enough to keep any other female from idolizing him as a person.

I will pay $100 to go see him in concert and purchase every piece of music he releases. But like I said, celebrity worship is just sad, pathetic and really pretty creepy.

Weren't you a self-proclaimed Axl nutter a while back? That wasn't an insult: just your own words. From your own admission, you were at the sailaway level of worshipping. Then something happened and now you're "mister forum commentator."

[Amir]

Before 2008, I didn't really like him. I was only a casual GNR fan (had their 5 biggest hits on my iPod), I really liked Slash's guitar (esp Nov Rain solos), but I really didn't care for his voice. From playing Buckethead's Jordan in Guitar Hero II, I went on a Wikipedia/Google trail from 2007-8 that led me deep into the story of Chinese Democracy. I loved the whole myth behind it, I'm a sucker for endlessly-delayed passion projects. I hated CD when I first heard it when it was streaming on the MySpace page, but it was a fascinating trainwreck to me. The more I listened to it, and the more I read about the background, the more it grew on me, to becoming possibly my favourite album of all time (that or AfD, which I only bought after buying Chinese along with the Illusions and Lies).

2008-2010/11 were my Axl-worship years. I still love the guy's work, and I still feel that he has been a victim in a few ways of a lot of press bullshit and slander back in the day from other members, but I also see how a lot of it is his own fault and that he does seem to revel in a victim/martyr complex (explains his fascination with Cool Hand Luke). He's a fascinating guy, at the end of the day, and who the fuck else would spend 14 years and $14 million on one album? The music itself on that album is pretty much a combination of my two favourite types of music to listen: hard rock and epic film score music (that's why Madagascar/There Was A Time are my favourite tracks, and I wasn't surprised when Axl said he listens to a lot film scores).

Breaks my heart when I see him fuck up like at Rio '11 and the Bridge School Benefit gig, and it pisses me off when I wait hours at a gig for him, but when he's on fire, there's no one else like him. I was blessed to see the gigs I got to in '10 (esp. L'Arc and the O2 Duff gig), where he was on unbelievable form. And while the gigs I went to last year weren't as good, I was lucky again that they were some of the better ones (Atlantic City, London, though nowhere near as breathtaking as '10 London). I live in hope of seeing something like that incredibly passionate performance of Out ta Get Me that you get a glimpse of in the clip for that '06 doc that was never released.

The Chinese Democracy saga is an incredible tale. Big thanks to sic. at GNREvolution for putting together Chinese Whispers!

There's only one Axl Rose. He is who he is, no bullshit.

[ChristmasFnatic]

I love Axl(no homo), and in a way can understand how hard it is to be emotional about things.

That said, he made a lot of decisions that he could have handled better. And well, his looks lately makes me smh. Its like he isnt even trying anymore.

[Apollo]

I think this could be a very interesting topic of discussion. I mean why do we really idolize people like Axl? If we were to strip away the fact that he fronts a band, is famous, and wealthy, would that still cause us to be fanatics?

If you look at the kind of childhood Axl had, I wouldn't envy that or want that.

I am not sure if being super filthy rich would be that great either because you would have to really be able to trust those around you and even those people can fuck you over.

But what makes him have this aura that we are so intrigued with?

I find celebrity worship extremely creepy and pathetic. I think people who idolize and worship celebrities generally have some major insecurities and self-worth issues.

I admire Axl has a singer and musician. One of the greatest of my generation. And an absolutely fascinating career. But unless somebody is a singer, it boggles my mind that people would idolize him.

The fact that four different women have accused him of physically beating them should be enough to keep any other female from idolizing him as a person.

I will pay $100 to go see him in concert and purchase every piece of music he releases. But like I said, celebrity worship is just sad, pathetic and really pretty creepy.

Weren't you a self-proclaimed Axl nutter a while back? That wasn't an insult: just your own words. From your own admission, you were at the sailaway level of worshipping. Then something happened and now you're "mister forum commentator."

Axl still is my favorite rock singer of all time. And I listen to GnR more than I listen to all other bands combined. So everywhere besides this forum, I'm still pretty much considered a die-hard fan. Or nutter. Whatever you want to call it.

But I don't worship or idolize singers, musicians, athletes, actors, etc. It is weird and creepy. I don't care to meet Axl. I don't have his posters up on my wall. I don't gush about how handsome he is. I don't wish I was am, nor do I wish I was his friend.

Why do I not defend him as much as I used to? Sigh. I've explained it many times on here. In fact, last time I tried to explain it to you, you turned my words around and used them to try and insult me. You must have forgotten about that. But since you bring up WARCHILD, posters like her and a couple others helped reduce my level of fandom on this board. The people that worship Axl's every move make the rest of us fans look bad. Tied to the fact that Axl's running of GnR has been pretty piss-poor in terms of releasing music..........playing weddings, the HOF debacle, forgetting lyrics to songs and things like that also soured my mygnrforum fandom level.

I'm still as big of a fan of Axl Rose music as I have been since 1988.

But in terms of idolizing or worshipping him as a human being? No. Not even close. And it is weird that adults worship 50-year-old singers.

[magisme]

I think this could be a very interesting topic of discussion. I mean why do we really idolize people like Axl? If we were to strip away the fact that he fronts a band, is famous, and wealthy, would that still cause us to be fanatics?

If you look at the kind of childhood Axl had, I wouldn't envy that or want that.

I am not sure if being super filthy rich would be that great either because you would have to really be able to trust those around you and even those people can fuck you over.

But what makes him have this aura that we are so intrigued with?

I find celebrity worship extremely creepy and pathetic. I think people who idolize and worship celebrities generally have some major insecurities and self-worth issues.

I admire Axl has a singer and musician. One of the greatest of my generation. And an absolutely fascinating career. But unless somebody is a singer, it boggles my mind that people would idolize him.

The fact that four different women have accused him of physically beating them should be enough to keep any other female from idolizing him as a person.

I will pay $100 to go see him in concert and purchase every piece of music he releases. But like I said, celebrity worship is just sad, pathetic and really pretty creepy.

Weren't you a self-proclaimed Axl nutter a while back? That wasn't an insult: just your own words. From your own admission, you were at the sailaway level of worshipping. Then something happened and now you're "mister forum commentator."

Axl still is my favorite rock singer of all time. And I listen to GnR more than I listen to all other bands combined. So everywhere besides this forum, I'm still pretty much considered a die-hard fan. Or nutter. Whatever you want to call it.

But I don't worship or idolize singers, musicians, athletes, actors, etc. It is weird and creepy. I don't care to meet Axl. I don't have his posters up on my wall. I don't gush about how handsome he is. I don't wish I was am, nor do I wish I was his friend.

Why do I not defend him as much as I used to? Sigh. I've explained it many times on here. In fact, last time I tried to explain it to you, you turned my words around and used them to try and insult me. You must have forgotten about that. But since you bring up WARCHILD, posters like her and a couple others helped reduce my level of fandom on this board. The people that worship Axl's every move make the rest of us fans look bad. Tied to the fact that Axl's running of GnR has been pretty piss-poor in terms of releasing music..........playing weddings, the HOF debacle, forgetting lyrics to songs and things like that also soured my mygnrforum fandom level.

I'm still as big of a fan of Axl Rose music as I have been since 1988.

But in terms of idolizing or worshipping him as a human being? No. Not even close. And it is weird that adults worship 50-year-old singers.

I commend you for trying to speak sense to nonsense. I hate you for making brainfart show up in threads when I have him on ignore.

Some folks on this forum need to understand that some of us criticize and, sure, even talk shit because we love GNR. We may not love where GNR has gone or what it has become, and we'll be vocal about this when we feel like it, but we love GNR, whatever that band name means to us individually. Brainfart and lolcanos positions are basically if you don't love GNR in the exact same way they do, then you should fuck off and not post on the forum. They give fans a bad name.

[saber_]

commend you for trying to speak sense to nonsense. I hate you for making brainfart show up in threads when I have him on ignore.

Some folks on this forum need to understand that some of us criticize and, sure, even talk shit because we love GNR. We may not love where GNR has gone or what it has become, and we'll be vocal about this when we feel like it, but we love GNR, whatever that band name means to us individually. Brainfart and lolcanos positions are basically if you don't love GNR in the exact same way they do, then you should fuck off and not post on the forum. They give fans a bad name.

No, I'm pretty sure you give fans a bad name. It was people like you who disrespected Axl and Bumblefoot in the chats. I was there for the Bumblefoot chat. It was a disgrace and an embarrassment. Remember how he said he was never coming back here after that? Yeah, that's because fans like you ran your mouths to bandmembers. Congratulations, fans like you repelled members of both new and old GnR! Whoopieee! Yiipy Skippy! Hooray! Make frenetic bird gestures with your hands now! I'm sure you're very proud of your achievement and are gloating over me because of it. Axl and Bumble are never coming back. You win. I lose.

Yeah, yer a real fan, aintchya?

¯

Edited February 6, 2013 by brainsaber

[wasted]

Its just fun to be a fan. Idolize is a bit strong. Its like supporting a football team. Hes an entertainer.

[ManetsBR]

Before 2008, I didn't really like him. I was only a casual GNR fan (had their 5 biggest hits on my iPod), I really liked Slash's guitar (esp Nov Rain solos), but I really didn't care for his voice. From playing Buckethead's Jordan in Guitar Hero II, I went on a Wikipedia/Google trail from 2007-8 that led me deep into the story of Chinese Democracy. I loved the whole myth behind it, I'm a sucker for endlessly-delayed passion projects. I hated CD when I first heard it when it was streaming on the MySpace page, but it was a fascinating trainwreck to me. The more I listened to it, and the more I read about the background, the more it grew on me, to becoming possibly my favourite album of all time (that or AfD, which I only bought after buying Chinese along with the Illusions and Lies).

2008-2010/11 were my Axl-worship years. I still love the guy's work, and I still feel that he has been a victim in a few ways of a lot of press bullshit and slander back in the day from other members, but I also see how a lot of it is his own fault and that he does seem to revel in a victim/martyr complex (explains his fascination with Cool Hand Luke). He's a fascinating guy, at the end of the day, and who the fuck else would spend 14 years and $14 million on one album? The music itself on that album is pretty much a combination of my two favourite types of music to listen: hard rock and epic film score music (that's why Madagascar/There Was A Time are my favourite tracks, and I wasn't surprised when Axl said he listens to a lot film scores).

Breaks my heart when I see him fuck up like at Rio '11 and the Bridge School Benefit gig, and it pisses me off when I wait hours at a gig for him, but when he's on fire, there's no one else like him. I was blessed to see the gigs I got to in '10 (esp. L'Arc and the O2 Duff gig), where he was on unbelievable form. And while the gigs I went to last year weren't as good, I was lucky again that they were some of the better ones (Atlantic City, London, though nowhere near as breathtaking as '10 London). I live in hope of seeing something like that incredibly passionate performance of Out ta Get Me that you get a glimpse of in the clip for that '06 doc that was never released.

The Chinese Democracy saga is an incredible tale. Big thanks to sic. at GNREvolution for putting together Chinese Whispers!

There's only one Axl Rose. He is who he is, no bullshit.

Where do I sign?

[Ragnar]

I don`t idiolize Axl never did, never will I respect him who he once was and still have confidence in him that he can pull it off if he puts his mind in it and stops hating Slash anger and hatred got the best out of him

[vaida]

'such as ourselves'..

I don't..

[GN'R Lies]

I may have idolised him back in 1989. He's an interesting character now.

[wasted]

I admire him like I do Jack Nicholson. I could never be this cool.

[DieselDaisy]

I do not know. He is a woman beater with serious mental health problems who has grievences with just about everyone he has ever worked with. From Chris Weber to Tracie Guns; from the 1986-1993 band (all seven members sans Dizzy), to Buckethead; from Alan Niven, Azoff, Doug Goldstein and Merck, Axl has worked with probably two-hundred people in a professional capacity during his career and had a falling out with about 90% of them! It is astonishing. Yet it is never Axl's fault!!!

[NicoRourke]

Axl is one of my heroes not because he is famous or wealthy, that would be fucking stupid.

He is because he was a voice for me when I was a teen, he could put inton words and songs what I was feeling.

Because he has a unique voice.

Because he is conflicted.

Because he doesn't give a fuck.

No matter what the assholes here say, he is talented and to can't go away.

[November_rain]

Well I guess that idolizing happens when we admire someone so much that we tend to idealize them and try to imagine how they are in real life since we probably won´t get the chance to meet and know that person. Although some people take that idol status too far by praising them to a blind degree.

Idolizing someone is not really that band as long as it has some common sense in it.

[Nosaj Thing]

I never idolized him, he once was - in my book - the best frontman of all time but that was -- loooooong time ago.