When did you become a fan of Guns n' Roses

[maxpax]

my cousins were fans in the early 90s but i only liked their triology vids back then. as a kid i knew about their huge world tour between 91-93 and i read that they were "the most dangerous band in the world" in the 90s. then, between 98 and 01, i saw their music video of kohd from the freddie tribute a few times on vh1 and mtv. i think a lot of post 93 fans refer to that performance as a magical moment. i always thought it was a live recording of their use your illusion tour and was really impressed by the amount of people at wembley. i never saw so many people at a stadium concert....and gnr's performance was fuckin A.

then in 2002 i saw NuGnr at the VMAs and was amused, shocked and interested in the development of the band and finally became a fan. i was always contra nugnr but i really liked the leak experience, which started 10 years ago on April 1st.

[robin2002]

For me it was around 1995, I was aware of GNR (my Auntie was a fan and I remember being slightly fascinated by TSI cassette cover). A friend gave me a rock/metal tape mix tape that had Metallica. Iron Maiden and GNR on it, GNR blew the other bands away. Hooked straight away. Been a fan since, was excited for Axls new band, supported it strongly for a long time, not as much any more, but I wish I'd been a couple of years older and could've seen a lineup from 87-93.

[Thin White Duke]

1988, the first time I heard Welcome To The Jungle on MTV, probably on Headbangers Ball.

I was just a teenager and young adult back then so thankfully I've got NGOG here to tell me what "really happened" back in the 88-93 era.

You just got Gn'R-educated

Are you telling me you wouldn't go on say a Led Zeppelin board and tell the older fans on there what the band was like back in the day since you weren't around then?!

I do like that we have people on here who became fans during different eras. There are probably just as many people who discovered the band through a video game soundtrack as there are those who found them on MTV.

Dude, I haven't been in the WWII but I probably know more about it than the average American back then. They didn't have the Discovery Channel. If you know what I mean.

Early 00s, early teens for me.

[t-p-d-a]

It was 2004, I was 9 years old, and I was playing GTA: San Andreas. This song kept coming on the radio that made me extra-inclined to crash whatever car as I was driving.

That song was 'Welcome to the Jungle'.

same with me

[Subtle Signs]

1988, the first time I heard Welcome To The Jungle on MTV, probably on Headbangers Ball.

I was just a teenager and young adult back then so thankfully I've got NGOG here to tell me what "really happened" back in the 88-93 era.

You just got Gn'R-educated

Are you telling me you wouldn't go on say a Led Zeppelin board and tell the older fans on there what the band was like back in the day since you weren't around then?!

I do like that we have people on here who became fans during different eras. There are probably just as many people who discovered the band through a video game soundtrack as there are those who found them on MTV.

Dude, I haven't been in the WWII but I probably know more about it than the average American back then. They didn't have the Discovery Channel. If you know what I mean.

Early 00s, early teens for me.

They'd still have a different perspective since they actually lived through it and didn't gain their knowledge on the subject through textbooks and tv shows or in the case of Gn'R magazine articles and youtube.

[Thin White Duke]

1988, the first time I heard Welcome To The Jungle on MTV, probably on Headbangers Ball.

I was just a teenager and young adult back then so thankfully I've got NGOG here to tell me what "really happened" back in the 88-93 era.

You just got Gn'R-educated

Are you telling me you wouldn't go on say a Led Zeppelin board and tell the older fans on there what the band was like back in the day since you weren't around then?!

I do like that we have people on here who became fans during different eras. There are probably just as many people who discovered the band through a video game soundtrack as there are those who found them on MTV.

Dude, I haven't been in the WWII but I probably know more about it than the average American back then. They didn't have the Discovery Channel. If you know what I mean.

Early 00s, early teens for me.

They'd still have a different perspective since they actually lived through it and didn't gain their knowledge on the subject through textbooks and tv shows or in the case of Gn'R magazine articles and youtube.

My point being, if you didn't follow them from concert to concert, and given that there was no Internet neither more info than what a few magazines and TV channels could have said, I don't see why old fans would know better.

They definitely know more about the impact and how they wer perceived, but not about the band per se. Don't know if you get me.

[Apollo]

1988, the first time I heard Welcome To The Jungle on MTV, probably on Headbangers Ball.

I was just a teenager and young adult back then so thankfully I've got NGOG here to tell me what "really happened" back in the 88-93 era.

You just got Gn'R-educated

Are you telling me you wouldn't go on say a Led Zeppelin board and tell the older fans on there what the band was like back in the day since you weren't around then?!

I do like that we have people on here who became fans during different eras. There are probably just as many people who discovered the band through a video game soundtrack as there are those who found them on MTV.

Dude, I haven't been in the WWII but I probably know more about it than the average American back then. They didn't have the Discovery Channel. If you know what I mean.

Early 00s, early teens for me.

They'd still have a different perspective since they actually lived through it and didn't gain their knowledge on the subject through textbooks and tv shows or in the case of Gn'R magazine articles and youtube.

My point being, if you didn't follow them from concert to concert, and given that there was no Internet neither more info than what a few magazines and TV channels could have said, I don't see why old fans would know better.

They definitely know more about the impact and how they wer perceived, but not about the band per se. Don't know if you get me.

I get what you are saying. But you are sort of taking both sides to an extreme view. You are assuming that the one guy has spent their life studying the issue, and that the one who experienced has not.

In this case, I would bet money that I've invested more time over the past 20 years "learning" about GnR than the guy I mentioned earlier has. Not only did I experience GnR in real time, but I've closely followed their career since 1988. Surely you would agree that somebody who lived through the experience, as well as staying on top of the band's every move, would have a leg up on terms of describing the era better than somebody who wasn't even alive at the time?

Look at yourself and the person you are married to or dating. I can read 100 books on marriage and go to 38 internet sites put up by marriage experts. If somebody wanted information on YOUR marriage, who could give them better insight.....you or me?

To get the most comprehensive information on a subject, obviously the best route to get info from both sides. Historians and those who actually experienced it - get both points of view. They both offer interesting perspectives.

But in terms of just chatting with somebody about music? I'd much rather first talk to the person who experienced the Beatles or Led Zep or GnR in real life than talk with somebody who has read a few books about them.

[tinyrobot]

1991, 13 years old. Watched Don't Cry video and voilá. Got trapped forever!

[Nosaj Thing]

1988, the first time I heard Welcome To The Jungle on MTV, probably on Headbangers Ball.

I was just a teenager and young adult back then so thankfully I've got NGOG here to tell me what "really happened" back in the 88-93 era.

[Thin White Duke]

I get what you are saying. But you are sort of taking both sides to an extreme view. You are assuming that the one guy has spent their life studying the issue, and that the one who experienced has not.

In this case, I would bet money that I've invested more time over the past 20 years "learning" about GnR than the guy I mentioned earlier has. Not only did I experience GnR in real time, but I've closely followed their career since 1988. Surely you would agree that somebody who lived through the experience, as well as staying on top of the band's every move, would have a leg up on terms of describing the era better than somebody who wasn't even alive at the time?

Look at yourself and the person you are married to or dating. I can read 100 books on marriage and go to 38 internet sites put up by marriage experts. If somebody wanted information on YOUR marriage, who could give them better insight.....you or me?

I am not taking both sides to an extreme view. I am just not a fan of belittling one side because they hadn't been born. Maybe they are more of a fan than someone who is a fan since the 80s but has other bands they like and hasn't spent so much time inquiring every detail.

What, someone watched them at the VMAs in 1988 and bought a casette and authomaticlaly they are already experts? What insight did people have back then when all information you had was the MTV and a couple of magazines?

I don't understand the marriage thing. You are not married to the band, all you know about it is from the perspective of a fan, from the outside, as do I. You and other have something that younger fans will never have, and it's the fact that you've lived through the hype and the good old days when GNR was ruling the musical world. We will never have that and we can't really comment on that.

Edit: About the rest? You are not in a better position than the young kids.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Thin White Duke

[Jwalker19]

For me it was 2004 when I was seven. I heard Welcome to the Jungle on the trailer for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I loved the song on the game and eventually started watching G N' R videos on the internet and have been a diehard fan ever since.

[Nosaj Thing]

I get what you are saying. But you are sort of taking both sides to an extreme view. You are assuming that the one guy has spent their life studying the issue, and that the one who experienced has not.

In this case, I would bet money that I've invested more time over the past 20 years "learning" about GnR than the guy I mentioned earlier has. Not only did I experience GnR in real time, but I've closely followed their career since 1988. Surely you would agree that somebody who lived through the experience, as well as staying on top of the band's every move, would have a leg up on terms of describing the era better than somebody who wasn't even alive at the time?

Look at yourself and the person you are married to or dating. I can read 100 books on marriage and go to 38 internet sites put up by marriage experts. If somebody wanted information on YOUR marriage, who could give them better insight.....you or me?

I am not taking both sides to an extreme view. I am just not a fan of belittling one side because they hadn't been born. Maybe they are more of a fan than someone who is a fan since the 80s but has other bands they like and hasn't spent so much time inquiring every detail.

What, someone watched them at the VMAs in 1988 and bought a casette and authomaticlaly they are already experts? What insight did people have back then when all information you had was the MTV and a couple of magazines?

I don't understand the marriage thing. You are not married to the band, all you know about it is from the perspective of a fan, from the outside, as do I. You and other have something that younger fans will never have, and it's the fact that you've lived through the hype and the good old days when GNR was ruling the musical world. We will never have that and we can't really comment on that.

Edit: About the rest? You are not in a better position than the young kids.

I will have to assume that you don't know what Groghan is referring to.

Here: http://www.mygnrforum.com/index.php?/topic/206978-hopefully-very-soon-were-going-to-have-new-stuff-outwell-in-the-next-year-richard-fortus-on-rollingstonecom-42414/?p=3744575

NGOG does not live in the USA. NGOG was not born when Appetite came out. Yet he was trying to tell people who were attending to gigs back then that they were wrong.

I love WWII stuff, I read about it all the time but if I have a conversation with someone who was at the war, and probably killed some Nazis, then no way in hell I can tell him or her "No, it wasn't like that 'cause the book I read says that...".

[Apollo]

I get what you are saying. But you are sort of taking both sides to an extreme view. You are assuming that the one guy has spent their life studying the issue, and that the one who experienced has not.

In this case, I would bet money that I've invested more time over the past 20 years "learning" about GnR than the guy I mentioned earlier has. Not only did I experience GnR in real time, but I've closely followed their career since 1988. Surely you would agree that somebody who lived through the experience, as well as staying on top of the band's every move, would have a leg up on terms of describing the era better than somebody who wasn't even alive at the time?

Look at yourself and the person you are married to or dating. I can read 100 books on marriage and go to 38 internet sites put up by marriage experts. If somebody wanted information on YOUR marriage, who could give them better insight.....you or me?

I am not taking both sides to an extreme view. I am just not a fan of belittling one side because they hadn't been born. Maybe they are more of a fan than someone who is a fan since the 80s but has other bands they like and hasn't spent so much time inquiring every detail.

What, someone watched them at the VMAs in 1988 and bought a casette and authomaticlaly they are already experts? What insight did people have back then when all information you had was the MTV and a couple of magazines?

I don't understand the marriage thing. You are not married to the band, all you know about it is from the perspective of a fan, from the outside, as do I. You and other have something that younger fans will never have, and it's the fact that you've lived through the hype and the good old days when GNR was ruling the musical world. We will never have that and we can't really comment on that.

Edit: About the rest? You are not in a better position than the young kids.

Well, I'm not belittling young people, young fans or the younger generation. My reference was specifically to ONE person on here who constantly tries to educate others on what it used to be like when GnR was in their prime period. And you are taking an extreme view of both sides dude - you just did it again in your response!!!!

As for the GnR reference. No, along with MTV and rock magazines, I also experienced GnR as they were breaking and becoming the biggest band in the world. I saw the impact they had on my fellow rock fans, on mainstream music and all of mainstream, on my high school, on our local radio station, on local bands who were influenced by the band. Hell, the impact they had on MY life. You are bagging me because I only had mtv and a magazine, but praising the younger fan because they had.....the internet?

I saw first hand.....this guy read about it on the internet. I'm actually flabbergasted that you would take the side that reading about something is more valuable than actually experiencing it life. Who do you think would give you a better perspective of a concert.....a group of people who attended the show, or somebody who didn't attend the show but read a few online reviews about it?

I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. I'll always first prefer to talk to the person who experience an event, rather than talking to the guy who read about it on the internet. And no offense, but your belittling and "you are not better than the kids" comments are just stupid. I'm sure there are a thousand things that this kid knows more about than I do. I certainly don't get my feelings hurt if somebody says Len knows more about Punk music, Red knows more about fashion, Lithium knows more about working out and Dazey knows more about eating sandwiches than I do. I'm not going to start crying and calling foul because somebody says they know more about a subject than I do.

******

Great post Nosaj.

This forum is weird in that some people get really angry if you ever make that argument.

I have a teenage son and if I want my home theatre set up, my new laptop set up with wireless - I have him do it. I just put a deck in my back yard, and you know who did it? My teenage son and my father-in-law. Why? Because I don't have the skills to do any of that stuff. But if you want to talk about the impact GnR made when they hit the music scene in the 80s and early 90s, you'd be better off coming to me than my son, even though he is a die-hard GnR fan.

Should he be butthurt (hate that word) because I know more about GnR than he does? Nope. Should I be butthurt because he can walk circles around me in building a deck or installing a home theatre? Nope. Would either one of us be mad in either situation? Nope. It's weird to me how people get offended in those situations.

Or I suppose I could have gotten mad and offended that my father-in-law was being a real ageist because he said he knew more about home construction work than I did. The fact that he has build probably 1000 decks in his life doesn't hold a candle to the fact that I just watched a youtube video on how to do it.

I love talking to old people and hearing their wisdom. And I love talking to young people and gleaning their wisdom. The young minds out there are the ones who are shaping and changing the world. Both those groups can teach us all a TON. And like I originally said, the best way to inform yourself on an issue like music or war is to talk to people who experienced it, and talk to people who have studied it - get both their sides.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Groghan

[Thin White Duke]

Ok. I don't pay attention to all the soap oper-ish stuff that's going on here. My bad.

I love WWII stuff, I read about it all the time but if I have a conversation with someone who was at the war, and probably killed some Nazis, then no way in hell I can tell him or her "No, it wasn't like that 'cause the book I read says that...".

I was more talking about all those Americans who were alive during the war but didn't go to war. They don't really know more about it. If it makes sense.

[Nosaj Thing]

I was more talking about all those Americans who were alive during the war but didn't go to war. They don't really know more about it. If it makes sense.

Well, you're missing the point then. We can assume that most young fans (me included) know more than those Americans that were in their 20s back then, right? But how is that possible? Because they weren't interested in the band, and the same can be applied to those Americans that were alive during WWII but didn't go to war or simply ignored what was happening.

I can assure you that if you have the opportunity to have a conversation with someone who was alive during 1939-1945 and at the same time, old enough to be interested in the war, let's say a reporter? No way you can know more than them. No way you can tell them what was or was not on TV or how the media reported the atrocity of that event.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Nosaj Thing

[Thin White Duke]

I saw first hand.....this guy read about it on the internet. I'm actually flabbergasted that you would take the side that reading about something is more valuable than actually experiencing it life. Who do you think would give you a better perspective of a concert.....a group of people who attended the show, or somebody who didn't attend the show but read a few online reviews about it?

Of course the people who attended the show but my point was towards the people who were in their teens or so at that time and they just know what they could read on magazines or see on the MTV. Do they really have a wider knowledge about what's going on inside? I never denied you will obviously know way better about the environment, how people received the band, how they influenced other bands and the whole music scene or the trends they created. That would be stupid.I am talking about objective data such as the amount of albums they have released in those years, etc.

[Thin White Duke]

I was more talking about all those Americans who were alive during the war but didn't go to war. They don't really know more about it. If it makes sense.

Well, you're missing the point then. We can assume that most young fans (me included) know more than those Americans that were in their 20s back then, right? But how is that possible? Because they weren't interested in the band, and the same can be applied to those Americans that were alive during WWII but didn't go to war or simply ignored what was happening.

I can assure you that if you have the opportunity to have a conversation with someone who was alive during 1939-1945 and at the same time, old enough to be interested in the war, let's say a reporter? No way you can know more than them. No way you can tell them what was or was not on TV or how the media reported the atrocity of that event.

Exactly... but, how good was the access to information back then? Even if you were really interested in what's going on in the war, the limited means wouldn't allow you to have all the information you would liek to have and you should have to make an accurate depiction of what was really happening. Howeverm if you were in the war, I would never question you will always know more than me even if I spend my whole life researching about it.

[Apollo]

I saw first hand.....this guy read about it on the internet. I'm actually flabbergasted that you would take the side that reading about something is more valuable than actually experiencing it life. Who do you think would give you a better perspective of a concert.....a group of people who attended the show, or somebody who didn't attend the show but read a few online reviews about it?

Of course the people who attended the show but my point was towards the people who were in their teens or so at that time and they just know what they could read on magazines or see on the MTV. Do they really have a wider knowledge about what's going on inside? I never denied you will obviously know way better about the environment, how people received the band, how they influenced other bands and the whole music scene or the trends they created. That would be stupid.I am talking about objective data such as the amount of albums they have released in those years, etc.

OK, fair enough.

My initial post was directed at somebody who is very vocal and forceful in letting people know that they know more than the rest of us. Which would be somewhat fine.....if that person wasn't continually wrong. If you are going to portray yourself as an expert and constantly chide and bash people, then you should make sure you actually know the facts beforehand!!!

If I want to know what it was like to hide in a bunker while somebody was stalking and trying to kill you, and then you had to actually shoot another human or you'd be killed - I'd rather talk to somebody who actually experienced it first hand.

If I want history on everything that happened - who was involved, what years, how many causalities, what the strategies were, ect - I'd rather talk to a historian.

[Thin White Duke]

Have I been NGOG'ed?

[Apollo]

Have I been NGOG'ed?

Naw, I think everybody loves and respects you as a poster. You are one of the legendary guys on here.

(I was going to say "I think everybody loves and respects you as a long-time poster" but I didn't want you to get mad and say I was insulting "new" posters )

[hellobeatle]

I remember when Sweet Child & Jungle were on the radio 24/7 in 1988 and liking it like everyone else. By 1990-91 I was a pretty big fan.

[GUNNER PT]

1992

[Spirit]

Summer of '92.

Don't Cry (alt. lyrics) was the first song I heard when a friend of mine turned me on to them. I suppose that's why I always prefer that version to the original.

[H454NLFC]

2009 was playing burnout on ps3 and paradise city was on it. Searched them up on YouTube and after hearing some songs founds out about the breakup.

[AndyM]

1988 - I was 14 - listening to SCOM on the radio and my older brother bought AFD (with original artwork) album. Been hooked ever since! Saw them in '92 + '93 (with Izzy).