Biografija

Guns N' Roses is an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band, led by frontman and co-founder Axl Rose, has gone through numerous line-up changes and controversies since their formation. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs and one live album during their career.

The band has sold an estimated 100 million albums worldwide,[2][3] including over 43 million in the United States.[4] The band's 1987 major label debut album Appetite for Destruction has sold in excess of 28 million copies and reached number one on the United States Billboard 200. In addition, the album charted three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including "Sweet Child O' Mine" which reached number one.[5] The 1991 albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II debuted on the two highest spots on the Billboard 200 and have sold a combined 14 million copies in the United States alone and 35 million worldwide. After over a decade of work, the band released their follow-up album, Chinese Democracy, in 2008.

Their mid-to-late eighties and early nineties years have been described by individuals in the music industry as the period in which "they brought forth a hedonistic rebelliousness and revived the punk attitude-driven hard rock scene, reminiscent of the early Rolling Stones."[6]
The group was formed in early 1985 by Hollywood Rose members Axl Rose (vocals) and Izzy Stradlin (rhythm guitar), and L.A. Guns members Tracii Guns (lead guitar), Ole Beich (bass) and Rob Gardner (drums).[7] The band created its name by combining two of the group members' names. A short time later, bassist Ole Beich was fired and replaced by Duff McKagan. After a short while Tracii Guns was replaced by Slash; after Tracii didn't show up to rehearsal. Slash had played with McKagan in Road Crew and Stradlin during a short stint in Hollywood Rose. The new line-up came together quickly, but after deciding to go on a "tour" from Sacramento, California to Duff's home town of Seattle, drummer Rob Gardner quit and was replaced by Slash's close friend Steven Adler.[8] The band, which continued to be called Guns N' Roses even after the departure of Tracii Guns, established its first stable line up on this so-called "Hell Tour". In an interview, Slash stated, "That [trip to Seattle] is really what cemented the band" and established its chemistry.[9]

[edit] Discovery

After witnessing a Guns N' Roses show at the Troubadour, Tom Zutaut, a Geffen Records A&R executive, falsely warned other scouts "they suck" so he could have more time and leeway to try to sign them.[10] Axl Rose demanded, and received, a $75,000 advance from Zutaut before revealing that he had promised an A&R executive from Chrysalis Records that the band would sign with her if she walked naked down the Sunset Strip. For five days, Zutaut nervously watched from his office window for a naked A&R executive before he could close the deal.[11] Alan Niven was subsequently hired as the band's manager, and the team set out to record the band's full-length debut album.

[edit] Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide

Geffen Records released an EP in late 1986 to keep the interest in the band alive while the band withdrew from the club scene to work in the studio. The four song EP Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide came out on the ostensibly independent "Uzi Suicide Records" label (which was actually a Geffen subsidiary.) Only 10,000 vinyl copies of the EP were produced. On Halloween night 1986 Guns N' Roses performed at UCLA's Ackerman Ballroom as the opening act to Thelonious Monster, The Dickies, and the headlining Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The record was billed as a live recording, although Rose would reveal, years later, that it was simulated. The EP consisted of four songs from the band's demo tapes with crowd noise overdubbed. It contained covers of Rose Tattoo's "Nice Boys" and Aerosmith's "Mama Kin", along with two original compositions: the punk anthem "Reckless Life" and the classic rock inspired "Move to the City", both of which were co-written by Hollywood Rose's founding member Chris Weber.[12]

The original vinyl Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP has become a valuable and sought after collector's item, even though the tracks were re-issued two years later on the GN'R Lies album.

[edit] Appetite for Destruction, G N' R Lies (1987–1989)
Main articles: Appetite for Destruction and G N' R Lies

The band's first album, Appetite for Destruction was released on July 21, 1987. The album underwent an artwork change after the original Robert Williams cover design (a surrealist scene in which a dagger-toothed monster vengefully attacks a robot rapist) spawned complaints from religious groups and caused some record stores to brown bag, obscure, or refuse to sell the album.[13] The revised cover was a design by Bill White, a tattoo artist, who had originally designed it for a tattoo Rose had got the previous year. The design featured each of the five band members' skulls layered on a cross. Rose later insisted that the Gold and Platinum plaques issued by the RIAA be set using the original cover. The artwork from the original cover can be found in the booklet of the CD release. In the US, "Welcome to the Jungle" was issued as its first single with an accompanying music video. Initially, the album and single lingered for almost a year without performing well, but when Geffen Records founder David Geffen was asked to lend support to the band, he obliged by personally convincing MTV executives to play "Welcome to the Jungle" during their after hours rotation. Even though the video was initially only played one time at 4 a.m. on a Sunday, rock and punk fans took notice and soon began requesting the video and song en masse.[11] In Japan, an entire EP entitled Live from the Jungle was issued, containing the album version of "Sweet Child o' Mine" along with a selection of numerous Marquee Club recordings.

"Sweet Child O' Mine" was the album's second US single co-written by Axl Rose as a poem for his girlfriend and future wife, Erin Everly. Due to the growing grassroots success of the band and the cross-gender appeal of the tune, the song and its accompanying music video received heavy airplay on both radio and MTV, and became a smash hit during the summer of 1988, reaching the top of the charts in the U.S. Slash stated on VH1's 100 Greatest songs of the 80's, "It was actually my least favorite song we ever wrote...I hate it, but it turns out to be our greatest song ever". "Welcome to the Jungle" was then re-issued as a single, with new pressings of records and tapes and new artwork. It was a successful re-release, as the single reached #7 in the U.S. The UK re-release was backed with an acoustic version of "You're Crazy", recorded much earlier than the one featured on the G N' R Lies EP.

By the time "Paradise City" and its video reached the airwaves and peaked at #5 in the U.S., the band's touring success and fame had catapulted the album to #1 on the Billboard charts. "Welcome to the Jungle", "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Paradise City" were all top ten singles in the U.S. To date, Appetite for Destruction has sold over 28 million copies.[14]

Guns N' Roses began opening shows for major acts, but as their fame began to take hold, a world tour in support of Appetite for Destruction was scheduled. The band traveled across the United States, and in spring 1988 were invited to the notorious Monsters of Rock Festival at Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England, where they shared the bill with groups like KISS and Iron Maiden. At the start of the Guns N' Roses set, the capacity crowd of over 100,000 began jumping and surging forward. Despite Rose's requests that the crowd move away from the stage, two fans were trampled to death. The media largely blamed the band for the tragedy, and reported that the band had continued playing even when there were dangerous crowd conditions. In fact, the final report on the Donington incident filed by the head of security at the venue noted that the band had not been aware of the extent of fan injuries, had immediately halted their set when requested to do so, and had attempted to calm the crowd.[15] Nonetheless, events such as these during the Appetite for Destruction tour earned the group the title of "the world's most dangerous band". In addition, the behavior of the band members also garnered negative attention from the media. Duff, Slash, Izzy and Adler were often seen intoxicated both on and off stage.[16]

The band's next release was G N' R Lies in 1988, which reached #2 in the Billboard music charts. The album included the four Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide recordings on one side and four acoustic songs on the other. The song "One in a Million", which included the words "niggers" and "faggots" among other such obscenities, led to controversy in which critics accused the band, and specifically Axl Rose, of racism and homophobia.[17] Rose responded (in a 1990 interview with MTV) by saying the claims were unfounded, particularly considering Slash himself is half black. He went on to explain that the words were those of a protagonist and not a personal statement, and that the lyrics reflected racial and prejudicial problems within society rather than promoting them. Rose also cited that he idolized gay/bisexual singers like Freddie Mercury and Elton John. The band had played gigs alongside the all-black metal band Body Count, and lead singer Ice T wrote in his book, The Ice Opinion, that Axl had been "a victim of the press the same way I am".[18]

Even after the release of GN'R Lies, Appetite for Destruction continued to be popular for the rest of 1988 and 1989, which resulted in them winning both Favorite Heavy Metal Artist and Favorite Heavy Metal Album (Appetite for Destruction) at the nationally televised 1990 American Music Awards, where Slash and McKagan appeared visibly intoxicated and used profanities on the air. The members finally took steps to deal with their addictions after Rose threatened to end the band if they continued with their heavy drug abuse. He even spoke publicly about the situation, specifically the heroin addictions, while opening for The Rolling Stones at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 1989 by stating that if certain members of the band don't stop "dancing with Mr. Brownstone", Guns N' Roses was finished -- mainly referring to Slash and Adler.[19]

I jos jedna na srpskom!

"Guns n" Roses", legendarna hard rok grupa, pojavila se u javnosti 1987. godine albumom "Appetite for Destruction". Veliki uspeh i široka prihvaćenost albuma, izbacili su ovu grupu gotovo odmah u red najboljih. Pesme "Paradise city", "Welcome to the jungle", "Sweet child O" mine", ali i mnoge druge sa tog albuma, ostale su veliki hitovi sve do današnjih dana. I sledeća izdanja ove grupe samo su povećavala njenu popularnost. Mnoge pesme postale su "himne" u ovoj vrsti muzike, a mnoge su se pojavljivale i u hit filmovima. Grupa je postojala do 1993. godine, kada se raspala, zbog različitih stavova članova oko daljeg rada grupe. Naime, dok je Aksl Rouz (Axl Rose) želeo da se pređe na mekšu varijantu roka, gitarista Sleš (Slash) bio je protiv toga.

Grupa se ponovo okupila 2000. godine, ali je to okupljanje prošlo prilično nezapaženo. Danas grupa više ne postoji. Članovi grupe su mnogobrojni i svi su na svoj način ostavili vlastiti pečat na njen rad.

Aksl Rouz (Axl Rose), klavir i vokal, rođen je kao Vilijam Bejli (William Bailey), 6. februara 1962. godine, u Americi. Kao dete je pevao u crkvi. Imao je veoma teško detinjstvo. Najpre ga je zlostavljao otac, a kasnije i očuh, koji je bio pijanica i često tukao i njega i majku. Prezime Rouz (Rose) uzima sa 17 godina, kada saznaje ko mu je pravi otac, a umetničko ime Aksl (Axl) sebi stvara da bi kombinacijom slova imena i prezimena dobio frazu "oral sex".

Sleš (Slash), ritam gitara, rođen je 1965. u Britaniji. U Los Anđeles se doselio sa majkom, koja se bavila modnim dizajnom. Imao je prilike da svira sa mnogim velikim imenima rok scene: Bobom Dilanom, Dejvidom Bouijem, Igi Popom, Leni Kravicom, Alisom Kuperom, Majklom Džeksonom... Bio je poznat kao veliki zavisnik od droga u grupi, ali se na vrhuncu karijere opak odrekao ovog poroka.

Daf Makejgan (Duff McKagan), bas gitara, pre ove grupe svirao je u 30 uglavnom lokalnih bendova iz Sijetla. Svojevremeno je bio najveći korisnik alkohola u grupi, ali se, kao i većina članova grupe, na vrhuncu karijere odrekao svih svojih poroka, pa i alkohola. Veoma često svira i bubnjeve, ali je pravi virtuoz na bas gitari.

Matt Sorum je najpoznatiji bubnjar u bendu. Pre "Gansa", Met je bio bubnjar u bendu "The Cult".

U ovom bendu bilo je još puno članova koji su se povremeno pojavljivali. Najpoznatiji je Izi Stradlin (Izzy Stradlin), ritam gitara, koji je bend napustio 1991. godine; bio je autor najboljih pesama ove grupe. Stiven Adler (Steven Adler) i Dizi Rid (Dizzy Reed) - samo su još neki od povremenih članova grupe.

Veliki je broj hitova ove grupe i teško je izabrati manji broj najboljih. "November Rain", "Don"t Cry", "You Could be Mine" i mnoge druge pesme - izborile su ovoj grupi mesto u istoriji svetskog roka.