GN'R Controversy

[31illusions]

GN'R used to be the most dangerous band in the world, Not so much nowadays. I wanted to discuss how bad-ass

the band used to be. The drugs, the antics, the blatant disregard for the law, the things that make Rock stars famous!

Izzy pissing on a plane, one in a million lyrics, Axl's arrests, canceled shows, the riots!!!! All things controversial. GO!

[DieselDaisy]

GN'R were as 'bad ass' as The Carpenters.

[love&hates]

when i read the tittle i thought "what happenned now" . I preffer no news than more of the typical controversies we are having these years ...

[bran]

its hard to be "dangerous and badass" when you are in your 50's worth millions of dollars and living in mansions.

Edited August 7, 2014 by bran

[31illusions]

Hmm? didn't you read I said "used to be".

[ChineseIRS]

Axls still good at drudging up a little controversy even now, when he wants to. Kind of like when he wants to rasp ha.

[hellobeatle]

I remember them in the late 80s but I wasn't a huge fan - at least like I am now. I remember the Jungle video, Sweet Child on the radio, and (oddly not discussed as much as other things but was a big deal) the Rolling Stones gigs in 89'.

What I remember was being at the late pre-teen age and just the name Guns N Roses was like a bad word - or at least carried weight. It was the first (and really only) experience with a legit rock n roll band and carried mystic.

Then UYI came out and November Rain hit big in 1992, plus the Paris PPV always on MTV & MuchMusic and I became a huge fan like very other teen from 1991-1993.

I also remember a real weird but cool vibe about them when Don't Cry came out (video and extended vocal at end) and with the UYI art work.

[jbhutto]

I remember reading up on early GnR a few years ago and just being like "whoa, these guys are cool"

But yeah, as I've often seen repeated, given how intense everything was it's surprising they all made it

out alive (unless they didn't, dun dun dun).

[RandallFlagg]

Jason Newsted said when Axl was forced to go onstage early after Hetfield roasted his arm by pyro (Montreal 92 was it?), Axl decided he had throat issues and cut the set, thus ensued a riot and what was Axl doing? Chilling backstage with a cigar and a bottle of champagne lol. I don't really think that's a bad ass thing to do, like most of his antics aren't particularly bad ass except his talent, he was never a cardboard cut out though, he certainly lived by his convictions that largely rotated on 'if Axl isn't happy, Axl isn't doing it regardless of the morality or big picture.'

Edited August 7, 2014 by RandallFlagg

[fantomas]

Being a bad ass and being a dick are two different things.

[Not An FSB Agent]

Being disappointed in having wait through that spring and summer of 91 waiting for the Illusions albums to be finally be released. LOL... if I had only known. They put on one hell of a show a couple of days before the St Louis riots, though.

[Val22]

Axl is now 52 years old. I would have hoped he's grown up and doesn't feel the need to carry on like he did when he was 25.

As far as dangerous, I think GNR were more a danger to themselves than anyone else back in the 80's and 90's.

[Chris 55]

GN'R were as 'bad ass' as The Carpenters.

You're too young to have been around back then

[31illusions]

Perhaps a lot of you are too young to remember a lot of the things that happened? here's a few of my favorites.

Slash and Duff show up at the 1990 AMA's drunk and curse live on air, thus they were cut

off and went to commercial. Forcing the network to adopt the 7 second delay on live TV.

While on a flight drunk and most likely on drugs Izzy Stradlin' was impatient waiting for the restroom

and decided to relieve himself in the galley. He was subsequently arrested for his indiscretions.

With the release of UYI GN'R had several issues with censorship and decided to add a custom

warning label to their albums which read, "This album contains language which some listeners

may find objectionable, they can fuck off and buy something from the new age section"

In St. Louis (1991) Axl decides a fan should not be taking pictures and jumps in the crowd, assaults

the photographer, leaves and subsequently causes a riot. In Montreal (1992) James Hatfield is burned

onstage and taken to the hospital. GN'R eventually take the stage, The singer decides he cannot hear

himself through the onstage monitors, chooses to leave, the crowd feeling short changed starts a riot.

In 1988 at England's Monsters of Rock Festival, 2 fans were crushed to death. Although the band had stopped

playing several times to ask the crowd to relax and back-up, They were unaware of the deaths and continued to play.

Edited August 9, 2014 by 31illusions

[dalsh327]

The Who (Cincinnati, Townshend smashed Abbie Hoffman in the head at Woodstock), Skynyrd (Ronnie brawled way more than Axl) and Led Zeppelin (Bonham and the management in their case putting someone in a coma) were way more dangerous on and off stage.

[RandallFlagg]

A shit ton of folk have taken substances, regularly get blind drunk and partake in fucking other people... most of GNR's danger came from rock n roll cliches and the few riots and Axl going apeshit in public. Really it;s Axl's temper and talent that give this media buzz. Krist Novoselic saying 'remember Joseph Goebbels?' at the mtv music awards, Kurt singing 'I'm so retarded' during Lithium, enraging Axl in public and on the podium, playing Rape Me chords at the start, on Jonathan Ross playing Territorial Pissings instead, refusing to go on tour with GNR, calling Pearl Jam an arena rock band, wearing a dress, standing up for feminism, stealing Boston's More Than A Feeling and transforming it into the ultimate rock anthem, going on Unplugged and refusing to play half your hits, taking the piss out of miming on top of the pops, coming onstage in a wheelchair, berating your own fans... these are some of Cobain's antics, you can argue Nirvana were pretty 'dangerous' if GNR were just less rock n roll clichés surrounding their daily grind. Pissing on a plane is more dumb than anything, Axl diving into the crowd to stop a guy taking pictures then stopping a show, or cutting out large chunks of shows so he can have a rant, a lot of what he did took balls and some of his outfits and the emotions he wore on his sleeves, there's a kinda bad ass aura around his demented and stubborn ways, he's a one off alright and clearly a little loopy but the most dangerous aspect of GNR was 95% about their ability to create fire and ice in the music, the other 5% was that they were real folk hungry from the streets,

[DieselDaisy]

Four fifths of Guns N’ Roses were just a bunch of drugged-up drunks really, a bunch of Keith Richards clones. That does not make one, dangerous. There was nothing inherently threatening about their music a la The Sex Pistols, The Doors or even Elvis (situated, as he was, in 1950s America). As for Axl, he just exhibited prima donna behaviour. That is not exactly, 'dangerous'.

[wasted]

remember Vince Neil suckerpunched izzy as he came off stage for romancing his wife? Then Axl did an interview with Mick Wall about how Vince needed a good ass whipping, guns, knives, anyway you want to go. Izzy was in one interviewing saying how Slash was a messy drug user and would leave his rig in Izzys closet and he couldn't have that as he was on probation. And that time Duff went round to Adlers drug dealers house with a shotgun. Axl backstage at the MTV awards telling Kurt to shut his bitch up or he's taking him down to the pavement. I read one interview where Adler said he slept with 3000 women a year.

[combos]

I remember them in the late 80s but I wasn't a huge fan - at least like I am now. I remember the Jungle video, Sweet Child on the radio, and (oddly not discussed as much as other things but was a big deal) the Rolling Stones gigs in 89'.

What I remember was being at the late pre-teen age and just the name Guns N Roses was like a bad word - or at least carried weight. It was the first (and really only) experience with a legit rock n roll band and carried mystic.

Then UYI came out and November Rain hit big in 1992, plus the Paris PPV always on MTV & MuchMusic and I became a huge fan like very other teen from 1991-1993.

I also remember a real weird but cool vibe about them when Don't Cry came out (video and extended vocal at end) and with the UYI art work.

Then Seattle exploded and all of us with GNR shirts had to hide in the closet and listen to our music lest we be mocked relentlessly. I tried to straddle the fence and listen to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden etc. AND Guns N Roses but it was difficult because as soon as someone found out, you were shit on.

Four fifths of Guns N’ Roses were just a bunch of drugged-up drunks really, a bunch of Keith Richards clones. That does not make one, dangerous. There was nothing inherently threatening about their music a la The Sex Pistols, The Doors or even Elvis (situated, as he was, in 1950s America). As for Axl, he just exhibited prima donna behaviour. That is not exactly, 'dangerous'.

I'd say jumping into a crowd, punching someone for taking your photo and then causing a fucking riot is pretty "dangerous." They got that name for a reason.

[DieselDaisy]

I remember them in the late 80s but I wasn't a huge fan - at least like I am now. I remember the Jungle video, Sweet Child on the radio, and (oddly not discussed as much as other things but was a big deal) the Rolling Stones gigs in 89'.

What I remember was being at the late pre-teen age and just the name Guns N Roses was like a bad word - or at least carried weight. It was the first (and really only) experience with a legit rock n roll band and carried mystic.

Then UYI came out and November Rain hit big in 1992, plus the Paris PPV always on MTV & MuchMusic and I became a huge fan like very other teen from 1991-1993.

I also remember a real weird but cool vibe about them when Don't Cry came out (video and extended vocal at end) and with the UYI art work.

Then Seattle exploded and all of us with GNR shirts had to hide in the closet and listen to our music lest we be mocked relentlessly. I tried to straddle the fence and listen to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden etc. AND Guns N Roses but it was difficult because as soon as someone found out, you were shit on.

Four fifths of Guns N’ Roses were just a bunch of drugged-up drunks really, a bunch of Keith Richards clones. That does not make one, dangerous. There was nothing inherently threatening about their music a la The Sex Pistols, The Doors or even Elvis (situated, as he was, in 1950s America). As for Axl, he just exhibited prima donna behaviour. That is not exactly, 'dangerous'.

I'd say jumping into a crowd, punching someone for taking your photo and then causing a fucking riot is pretty "dangerous." They got that name for a reason.

Nah. That is just, being a dick (which Axl excels at by the way). Not dangerous in the sense of, the Sex Pistols targeting the institutional fabric of the United Kingdom and singing about abortion etc., or Lennon's flirtation with left wing American politics, or even Jagger on Street Fighting Man, or Elvis creating a sexual revolution with those hips. GN'R could not even handle their liquor properly, peeing their pants after three Budweiser and watching their pancreases explode. Botham used to drink more than Guns N’ Roses at night and then go and make a century and take five wickets the following morning.

[combos]

I remember them in the late 80s but I wasn't a huge fan - at least like I am now. I remember the Jungle video, Sweet Child on the radio, and (oddly not discussed as much as other things but was a big deal) the Rolling Stones gigs in 89'.

What I remember was being at the late pre-teen age and just the name Guns N Roses was like a bad word - or at least carried weight. It was the first (and really only) experience with a legit rock n roll band and carried mystic.

Then UYI came out and November Rain hit big in 1992, plus the Paris PPV always on MTV & MuchMusic and I became a huge fan like very other teen from 1991-1993.

I also remember a real weird but cool vibe about them when Don't Cry came out (video and extended vocal at end) and with the UYI art work.

Then Seattle exploded and all of us with GNR shirts had to hide in the closet and listen to our music lest we be mocked relentlessly. I tried to straddle the fence and listen to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden etc. AND Guns N Roses but it was difficult because as soon as someone found out, you were shit on.

Four fifths of Guns N’ Roses were just a bunch of drugged-up drunks really, a bunch of Keith Richards clones. That does not make one, dangerous. There was nothing inherently threatening about their music a la The Sex Pistols, The Doors or even Elvis (situated, as he was, in 1950s America). As for Axl, he just exhibited prima donna behaviour. That is not exactly, 'dangerous'.

I'd say jumping into a crowd, punching someone for taking your photo and then causing a fucking riot is pretty "dangerous." They got that name for a reason.

Nah. That is just, being a dick (which Axl excels at by the way). Not dangerous in the sense of, the Sex Pistols targeting the institutional fabric of the United Kingdom and singing about abortion etc., or Lennon's flirtation with left wing American politics, or even Jagger on Street Fighting Man, or Elvis creating a sexual revolution with those hips. GN'R could not even handle their liquor properly, peeing their pants after three Budweiser and watching their pancreases explode. Botham used to drink more than Guns N’ Roses at night and then go and make a century and take five wickets the following morning.

We have two different definitions of what a "dangerous band" means.

[ChineseIRS]

Yeah and Bonham also choked on his own vomit and died so...