The founder members of the most controversial heavy rock band 
of the late 80s included Axl Rose (an anagram of oral sex) 
(b. William Bailey, 6 February 1962,Lafayette, Indiana, USA) 
and Izzy Straddlin (b. Jeffrey Isabelle, 8 April 1962,
Lafayette, Indiana, USA). Vocalist Rose, who had first sung 
at the age of five in a church choir, met guitarist Straddlin 
in Los Angeles in 1984. He changed his name to rose at the age 
of 17 when he discovered who his real father was, the Axl prefix 
coming from the band he had rehearsed in Indiana with Traci Guns 
(guitar) and rob garner (drums), they formed a rock band called, 
in turn, Rose, Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns. Soon afterwards, 
Guns and Garner left, to be replaced by two members of local 
band Road Crew, drummer Steven Adler (b. 22 January 1965, 
Cleveland, Ohio, USA) and guitarist Slash (b. Saul Hudson, 
23 July 1965, Stroke-On-Trent, Stafford shire, England), the 
sun of a clothes designer and an album cover artist. With bass 
player Duff Mc.Kaggan (b. Michael Mc.Kaggan, 5 February 1965,
seattle, Washington, USA; ex-Fartz; Fastbacks; Ten minute warning 
and approximately thirty other north-west bands), the band was 
renamed Guns N' Roses. 
Following the disastrous US hell tour '85, Guns N' Roses released 
an EP, Live?!*@ Like A Suicide, on the independent Uzi/Suicide 
label. This brought intense interest from critics and record 
companies and in 1986, the band signed to Geffen records, who 
reissued the EP the following year. During 1987, they toured 
extensively, though the band's appetite for self-destruction 
became readily apparent when Fred Coury of Cinderella was recruited 
to replace Adler temporarily after the latter had broken his hand 
in brawl. February 1988 also saw the first internal rift when Rose 
was kicked out, then reinstated, within three days. Their debut, 
Appetite For Destruction, produced by Mike Clink went on to sell 
20 million copies worldwide and reached number 1 in the USA a year 
after its release date. "Welcome To The Jungle" was used on the 
soundtrack of the Clint Eastwood movie Deadpool, and reached the 
top 30 in the UK. The band's regular live shows in the USA and 
Europe brought frequent controversy, notably when two fans died 
during crowd disturbances at the Monsters Of Rock show at the 
Donington Festival in 1988. In 1989, the eight-track album 
Gnr-lies was issued, beckoning a bi hit on both sides of the 
Atlantic as were the singles "sweet child o' mine" (written about 
Rose's girlfriend and later wife Erin Everly, daughter of singer 
Don Everley), "Paradise City" and "Patience". However, Rose's 
lyrics for "One In A Million" were widely criticized for their 
homophobic sentiments. 
Although Guns N' Roses appeared at the Farm Aid IV charity concert, 
their career was littered with incidents involving drugs, drunkenness 
and public disturbance offences in 1989/90. At times their excesses 
made the band seem like a caricature of the 60s super group, with 
headlines screaming Stradlin urinating on public on an aero plane, 
Slash and Mc.Kaggan swearing live on television while collecting 
trophies at the American Music Awards and Rose's on-off relationship 
with Everly. In September 1990, Adler was replaced by Matt Sorum 
(b. 19 November, 1960,Mission Viejo, California, USA) from The Cult. 
Apparently more restrained in their private life, Guns N' Roses 
added Dizzy Reed (b. Darren Reed; keyboards) for a 1991 world tour, 
where their exciting and unpredictable performances brought favorable 
comparisons with the heyday of The Rolling Stones. In September the 
band released the highly publicized pair of albums, Use Your 
Illusion-1 and Use Your Illusion-2, preceded by a version of Bob 
Dylan's "knockin' on heaven's doors" from the soundtrack of Days Of 
Thunder. Further hit singles, "you could be mine"(featured in the 
movie Terminator-2) and Don't Cry, followed. The Illusion brace 
immediately sat astride the top 2 album positions in the Billboard 
chart, the first occasion on which they had been thus dominated 
since Jim Croce in 1974. 
Izzy stradlin found the pressure too much and left late in 1991, 
going on to form the Juju Hounds. He was replaced by Gilby Clarke 
(b.1962; ex-Kill for Thrills). Meanwhile, Slash's growing reputation 
brought guest appearances on recordings by Dylan and Michael Jackson. 
He also contributed to tribute albums to Muddy Waters and Les Paul, 
and subsequently established his own spin-off band, Slash's Snakepit. 
Guns N' Roses' appearance at the 1992 Freddie Mercury AIDS benefit 
concert prompted the reissue of "knockin' on heaven's doors", and 
while Dylan fans groaned with disbelief, the band's vast following 
was happy to see its heroes scale the charts shortly after the 
single's release.
While both of their previous albums remained on the US chart, having 
sold more than four million copies each, it was not until the end of 
1993 that any new material emerged. When it arrived, it came in the 
form of The Spaghetti Incidents, a much-vaunted collection of cover 
versions with a punk foundation. A perfunctory affair, it was mainly 
notable for lining the pockets of several long-forgotten musicians 
(UK Subs, Nazareth, Misfits, Fear, etc.), and for including a song 
written by mass murderer Charles Manson. The main inspiration behind 
the project, Duff Mc.Kaggan had his solo album released at the same 
time.  However, reports of an unhappy camp continued to filter through 
in 1994, leading to the dismissal of Gilby Clarke towards the end of 
the year, following his own, highly public, outbursts about Rose. 
His replacement was Paul Huge, a former flat-mate of Rose from his 
Indiana days. Huge's first recording with the band was a cover 
version of The Rolling Stones "sympathy for the devil" for the 
soundtrack to Interview With The Vampire. However, Huge stayed 
only briefly with the band, as did his replacement Zakk Wylde, who 
failed to record a single note with the band before falling out 
irreconcilably with Rose. 
In may 1995, Izzy Straddlin was reinstated as second guitarist, but 
by the end of the year Rose and Slash were again at loggerheads and 
no new album was eminent. Sorum and Mc.Kaggan, meanwhile, teamed up 
with guitarist Steve Jones for the spin-off band "The Neurotic 
Outsiders". Slash confirmed Rose's departure in November 1996, 
although this situation was reversed in February 1997 when Rose 
allegedly purchased the rights to the Guns N' Roses. Later in the 
year, this was seemingly confirmed by the recruitment of Robin Finck, 
formerly of nine-inch-nails, to replace Slash. In November 1999, Rose 
surprised everyone by contributing the industrial metal track 
"oh my god" to the sound track of End of Days. Backed by new 
personnel, he embarked on the Chinese Democracy Tour and claimed to 
have finally finished the band's long-awaited new album. The band 
undertook their first tour in nine years during November 2002. Their 
popularity seemed undiminished, as Madison Square Garden sold every 
ticket within a few minutes of putting them on sale. Sadly, the 
entire tour was scrapped after only nine performances, Mr. Rose 
did not show up and the tour company pulled out.