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W.A.R: Just A Small Town White Boy  
Disclaimer:
This page contains what I believe to be the TRUTH about W. Axl Rose.
It is my reply to all of the twisted bullshit that the press writes about him. If I have
any of the information wrong, please let me know. I do not knowingly wish ANY harm upon
Axl by writing this page. In fact, I hope it clears up many misconceptions people have
about him. I used to have sound links to anything I had Axl say himself on tape. I will be
changing the format. Come this fall, if Axl says it and I have it on tape, I'll be citing
it soon.
Choose Your Illusion: Table of Contents
W. Axl Rose was not always known by this
name. In fact, his name evolved in a way. Many people STILL get it wrong though. This is what the
correct order of his name changes are:
Interesting and Appropriate Facts
Remember that Axl has no E! Use this little
device:
God is three letters long and has no E: just like AXL!!
"I wasn't told I had a real father until I was
17. My real father was my stepdad, as far as I knew. But I found some insurance
papers,
then I found my mom's diploma with the last name Rose. I was never born Bill
Bailey. I was
born William Rose. I am W. Rose because William was an asshole." His first name is
truly and legally just W.!!!
Axl was born on FEBRUARY 6TH 1962 in
Lafayette Indiana where he grew up. His mother is Sharon E. Bailey. His
stepfather was L. Stephen Bailey. Axl's mother always picked him over Axl which
left Axl with a sense of rejection. Axl's real dad was no model citizen either.
"I remember being sexually abused by this man and watching something
horrible happen to my mother when she came to get me. ... I got a lot of violent,
abusive thoughts towards women out of watching my mom with this man."
"I've always felt this urge to go back and help my mom. I felt obligated to,
but I don't anymore. She fed me and put clothes on my back, but she wasn't there
for me."
Axl isn't completely unforgiving. He sent a stretched limo for his family to
bring them to the Indianopolis concert in May '91. Axl's Grandmother is
apparently a female version of him and sang along to all the words at the show.
There was a family reunion after the gig and apparently something went wrong
because Axl trashed his hotel suite that night, which he has almost never done
before. At least he tried!!
Axl's mother died on May 28, 1996. Axl, Amy, and Stuart did visit her before she
passed away.
Other Family Members
Axl went to Pentecostal Church where he sang and taught
Sunday School! (I might actually START going to church if he still did that!) The Bible
was "shoved down [his] throat, and it really distorted [his] point of view."
"Nothing ever happened to me. I watched my father
speak in tongues and people interpret it. I watched him sing in perfect Japanese - and my
dad doesn't know Japanese - and sing every note right on key with his eyes
closed, driving
100 miles an hour down the freeway and not hitting a car. I don't know how that
happened.
I've seen people healed... I've seen people with no eyes read. It was very
strang, but
nothing ever happened to me. I always won all the bible contests. I taught Sunday
school.
I played piano. I knew more gospel songs than anybody I knew."
"My teacher had ears like a bat, so in order to
get away with singing someone else's part, you'd really have to get it down. He used to
wonder how come he's hearing a soprano in the bass section."
"When I was in the first grade, I wasn't allowed
to cross the street until I sang two Elvis Presley songs. And then, when I was in the
third grade, at recess, I would have to get up on top of a trees stump and the teachers
would make me sing all the Top-40 Elvis tunes for the younger kids."
"I had to go to church anywhere from three to
eight times a week. I even taught Bible school while I was beaten and my sister was being
molested. We'd have televisions one week, then my stepdad would throw them out because
they were satanic. I wasn't allowed to listen to music. Women were evil. Everything was
evil. I had a really distorted view of sexuality and women. I remember the first time I
got smacked for looking at a woman. I didn't kow what I was looking at, and I don't
remember how old I was, but it was a cigarette advertisement with two girsl coming out of
the water in bikinis. I was just staring at the TV - not thinking, just watching - and my
dad smacked me in the mouth and I went flying across the floor."
Axl had an abover average IQ and he was a loner in
school. He dropped out of Jefferson High School in his junior year. His bad attitude soon
became bigger than Indiana could handle. When Axl was 17, he had some troubles with the
juevinile officials and decided to get the fuck out of dodge. He left Indiana on a
Greyhound, destination L.A.
 Young
Gun, Billy
the Kid, front and center.
"When I came to L.A. five years ago [1982] from some
hellhole in the Midwest, I was wearing cowboy boots and everyone said I looked like I just
came off the boat. All of a sudden, it's become a fashion, so now I guess I drive the
boat."
 As soon as Axl had thumbed it to
L.A., history was in the making. He wasted
no time reaching for his dreams, but it wasn't easy. "When I was in Indiana I was
labeled a punk... a punk rocker. When I moved to L.A., the punks called me a hippy and
didn't want anything to do with me. The Hollywood rock scene was a war-zone back
then. I
tried out for a punk band and I didn't make it because they said I sounded too much like
Robert Plant." He looked for Izzy (who had previously left Indiana) for 2 days but
didn't find him right away. But eventually he caught up with Izzy. All of the members of
GN'R migrated from band to band before the Fab Five got together. Axl was part of
L.A.
Guns before fusing with Holly wood Rose to become Guns N' Roses. "I left Hollywood
Rose and joined L.A. Guns and the drummer and bass player freaked out and we kinda broke
up. In the meantime, Izzy had booked a gig for Hollywood Rose and there was no band
left,
then Tracii booked a gig for L.A. Guns and there was no band there either. We mixed what
was left of the two band together and we got Guns N' Roses. Then Tracii left and went back
to L.A. Guns and we got Duff. This line up was finalized on June 6th, 1985."
(More
celebrated by some than Christmas!)
Aerosmith
 "Aerosmith
are a tradition that I grew up with. They were the only band that people who lived in my
city in Indiana would accept wearing make-up and dressed cool."
Nazareth
"It was 'Love Hurts', the Nazareth version that got me singing in my high
voice..."
Thin Lizzy
The Black Rose album was very influential on Axl. Just look at his black rose tattoo on
his right shoulder!
Hanoi Rocks (Michael Monroe)
"The only reason I put my hair up is because Izzy had these pictures of Hanoi Rocks
and they were cool, and because we hung out with this guy who studied Vogue magazine hair
styles and he was really into doing my hair.."
Elton John
"When we did 'Bohemian Rhapsody' that was totally unrehearsed. Brian asked me to do
it that day, and it felt right. I spoke to Elton before the show and he was kind of uneasy
about meeting me - you know, I"m supposed to be the most homophobic guy on
earth.
WHen we talked, I was excited but serious, telling him how much his music meant to
me. By
the end he was like 'Whoa'!"
Jim Morrison
Showing up late to shows, problems with the press, I can see a parallel. Thank god Axl is
still alive!! I think he once said (about the press) "They killed Jim Morrison and
now they're trying to kill me!!" LEMME SEE YA TRY!!
It wasn't always Roses for Axl. At times he barely got
by.
"We tried to live on $3.75 a day, which was enough to buy biscuits and gravy at
Denny's for a buck and a quarter. ... That's it. We survived." He lived in the
"Hellhouse" with the restof the band for many months. It was pretty much a just
a studio with beds. "It didn't even have a shower."
"Every weekend, the biggest party in L.A. was down at
our place. We'd have 500 people packed in an alley and our old roadie was selling beers
for a buck out of his trunk. It was like a bar and everyone had their whiskey. We could
get away with whatever we wanted, except when the cops came... If there was a problem we'd
escort them out. By 'escort' I mean we'd drag 'em out by their hair down the
alley, naked."
"I remember for two years standing at the Troubador
and people wouldn't talk to me."
Axl held several odd jobs before Guns made it. He did
telephone sales, was a night manager at a Tower Video, and smoked cigarettes with Slash
for $8 an hour for a UCLA medical test.
"Up until we got signed, I lived on the streets for
five years. I never lived in one place for more than two month, always crashing at
people's houses. My parents would say, 'Come back home and go to college and we'll pay for
it' but I would reply, 'No, I have to do this now'."
"We were all sitting around with bits of paper trying
to figure it out. Everyone came up with different numbers, but basically we stopped
counting after we got past $100 million."
"I'd like to walk away knowing that, like, I can
support my kids for whatever they want for the rest of their lives off my interest
rates,
you know? I'd like to have that security. I've never known that security in my whole
life,
you know? Some people are like, 'Oh, why don't you give money to this or that you
know,
you have all this money...' I'm like, 'Well, no, I got a certain interest rate and I
bought my security. You bought your house, didn't you? I worked for my livelihood
too, you know?"
"At times I enjoy writing and at other times I
just hate it because it's definitely having to go back and experience some pain and
express how you really feel."
"I think we've come up with a sound that's
pretty interesting. It's got some elements that people will recognize, but we're not
ripping anyone off."
"We're not afraid to go excess with
substances,
sexually and everything else. We know we're always going to be at odds with people on
something. A lot of people are afraid to be that way, we're not. And the reason is that
bands who have made it big have been that way. And Guns N' Roses plan on making it real
big"
"When we started we wanted to be the
coolest, sexiest, meanest, nastiest, loudest, funnest band. There was a group consciousness of
rape, pillage, search, and destroy."
"...The only real rock n' roll band to come out
of L.A. in the last 10 years." -1987
"It's hard to go off and have a thrashing time
when you have to deal with these responsibilities."
"I always believed that the truth about what's
going on in Guns N' Roses' lives is just as exciting and just as dangerous, heavy and real
as people thought the hype scene to be."
"I personally love our songs. The bottom line is
this, if this were all to finish tomorrow then at least I've got 'em on tape. I'm not
writing this for anybody who listens to it. I'm doing it for me."
"I'm sorry, I'm not catering to the
masses.
We're in this band for ourselves, and if everybody else like it, that's cool too, and that
adds to it. But we're playing what we want to hear. That main trick will be to come off
not sounding like pompous assholes."
"We like to express our frustrations with life
through our music. Instead of getting into a fight we put it into our music. That's why I
like to play as much as possible, because it keeps us much calmer and I can deal with
people better that way..."
"We're not the easiest people to work with and
we basically got this 'screw you attitude that gives a lot of people cause to
worry. But
we do know our limits. We stop if we think what we are doing is going to screw our music
up."
"Nothing every really works right for this
band.
Slash once said that God didn't want this to happen, and sometimes I believe
that."
"The EP's a piece of shit
compared to the ablum... that's the most contrived piece of shit we've done yet. It ain't
a live record-if you think it is you're crazy. What we did was go into a room, record
ourselves and put 50,000 screaming people on top."
AXL SPEAKS, PEOPLE DO: "I want this to be the
biggest selling debut album from a rock act ever!"
"The whole album is about someone we've known
and hung out with or something we've done."
"I wrote the words in Seattle. Its a big city, but at the same time, its still a
small city compared to L.A. and the things you're gonna learn... I just wrote how
L.A.
looked to me. If someone comes to town and they want to find something, they can find
whatever they want."
"Like everytime you turn around, someone is trying to screw you over
financially, or
the cops are banging on your door and you didn't do anything. It's just being railroaded
into something and trying to get out from underneath it. You know, parents,
teachers, preachers... everybody. The last verse Slash and I put together as a joke
'cause we were
talking about how we get in fights sometimes, and how some people get pissed off that
you're drunk. But they're the ones that bought the bottle of whiskey to get your drunk
on.
Some people say I got a chip on my shoulder."
"The verses are more about being in the Jungle. The chorus is like being back in the
Midwest or somewhere. It reminds me of when I was a little kid and just looked up at the
blue sky and went 'Wow, what is all this? Its so big out there.' Everything was more
innocent. There are parts of the song that have more of a down home feel and when I
started putting down the over-layers of my vocals (I put five tracks on there), it seemed
that it came out like some Irish or Scottish heritage."
"I know this girl named Michelle and she became a really good friend of the band's
and I was going out with her for a while. It's a true story. Slash and some other members
of the band said that's kinda too heavy to say about poor, sweet Michelle; she'll freak
out. I'd written the nice sweet song about her, and then I looked at it and
thought, 'that
really doesn't touch any basis of reality', so I put down an honest thing. It describes
her life. This girl leads such a crazy life with doing drugs, or whatever she's doing at
the time, you dont' know if she's gonna be there the next day. Everytime I see Michelle
I'm really relieved and glad. I showed her the lyrics after about three weeks of
debating,
and she was so happy that someone didn't paint justa pretty picture. She loves
it. It was
a real song about her."
"I had written this poem, reached a dead end with it and put it on the
shelf. Then
Slash and Izzy got working together on songs and I came in, Izzy hit a rythym, and all of
a sudden this poem popped into my head. It just all came together. A lot of rock bands are
too fucking wimpy to have any sentiment or any emotion in any of their stuff unless
they're in pain. It's the first positive love song I've ever written, but I never had
anyone to write anything that positive about, I guess."
"I wrote this song for this girl who was gonna have a band and she was gonna call it
Rocket Queen. She kinda kept me alive for awhile. The last part of the song is my message
to this person, or anybody else who can get something out of it. It's like there's hope
and a friendship note at the end of the song. For that song there is also something I
tried to work out with various people - a recorded sex act. It was somewhat spontaneous
but premeditated; somethign I wanted to put on the record... It was a sexual song and it
was a wild night in the studio. This girl we knew was dancing; everyone was getting really
excited. The night coulda gotten really explosive, lots of trouble for everyone, and I
thought 'wait a minute, how can we make this more prod uctive?"
 GN'R Lies
One In A Million
"I went back and forth from Indiana eight times my first year in Hollywood. I wrote
it about being dropped off at the bus station and everything that was going on... the
black guys trying to sell you drugs is where the line 'Police and niggers, get out of my
way' comes from. I've seen these huge black dudes pull bowie-knives on people for their
boom boxes and shit. It's ugly... When I say 'I'm just a small town white boy' I'm just
saying I'm no better than anyone else I've described. I'm just trying to get through
life,
that's all."
 Use Your Illusion I
Don't Cry
"This was the first song we ever wrote in Guns N' Roses."
All of the following information can be found in Makin' F@*!ing
Videos Part I: Don't Cry.
November Rain
All of the following information can be found in Makin' F@*!ing
Videos Part II: November Rain (except the last one, which is in Part IV).
Coma
"Writing Coma was so heavy I'd start to write and
I'd just pass out. I tried to write that song for a year... I wrote the whole end of that
song of the top of my head. It just poured out."
 Use Your Illusion II
Estranged
Axl does a good job of explaing Estranged and what the videos means to
him in Makin' F@*!ing Videos Part IV:
Estranged.
Check out the trilogy breakdown on the Guns N' Roses Home Page.
Don't Cry (alt lyrics)
Axl explains why there are two versions.
Check out the Musician June 92 interview below.
 "The Spaghetti Incident?"
Look At Your Game Girl
The latest I heard is that Axl heard his brother's band playin the song
and recorded it even before he knew who wrote it!
"Slash is usually thrown out of wherever he
happens to live because he can't handle it. You give him a rehersal place everyday and
he's fine. He's the nicest guy in the world."
"When we hired the plane, Slash was having trouble
justifying our spending that much money. I said, 'But dude, you're a rock n' roll
star!'
He looked at me and said, 'You almost made me throw up'."
"Matt's amazing and it's a real pleasure to
introduce him to the world in teh way he deserves. He's up there with anybody."
"One night when I was bummed Matt came around and put his hand on me and said
'It's alright, man'. Those little things are really special."
"I found out he was going to be put on the
streets... So I called Alan on Monday and I say 'secure this guy, hire him, write up the
contracts. Put him on a salary and give him an advance so he can get an
apartment'."
"...when I got the phone call that Izzy was
leaving the band I was standing there crying... my friend of 15 years was
leaving."
"Izzy's songs were on the record because I wanted
them there, not because he gave a shit either way."
"My personal belief is that Izzy never really
wanted something this big There were responsiblilities that Izzy didn't want to deal
with.
He didn't want to work at the standards that Slash and I set for ourselves."
"He didn't want to do videos. He just wasn't into
it. Getting Izzy to work on his own songs was like pulling teeth. When Izzy had taped them
on a four-track, they were done. I mean, I like tapes and that, but we'd get destroyed if
we came out with a g arage tape."
"If people think I don't respect Izzy or
acknowledge his talent, they're sadly mistaken. He was my friend. I haven't always been
right. Sometimes I've been massively wrong, and Izzy's been the one to help steer me back
to the things that were right. B ut I know that I wanted to get as big as we possibly
could from Day One, and that wasn't Izzy's intentions at all."
"Izzy wanted the financial rewards and power
rewards of my vision."
"That's OK, but when the guy's getting up at six
thirty in the morning and riding bicycles and motorcycles and buying toy
airplanes, and
he's donating all this energy to something else, and it's taking 100 per cent of our
energy to do what we're doing on the stage, we were getting ripped off."
"I have nothing against the guy except for the
things he said about me in the press."
Steven: "I want peace of mind."
Axl: "He really needs peace of mind because when he was young he had to go to the
hospital and they took a piece of it."
"I never wanted 'Steven Adler's on
vacation,' I
wanted 'Steven Adler's in fucking rehab'."
"The misconception is that we kicked him out for
the hell of it and I was the dictator behind it. The truth is, I probably fought a little
harder to keep him in the band, because I wasnt' working with him on a daily basis like
the other guys were. They grew tired of not being able to get their work done because
Steven wasn't capable of it... At one point, in order to keep this band together, it was
necessary for me to give him a portion of my publishing rights. That was one of the
biggest mistakes I've made in my life, but he threw such a fit, saying he wasn't going to
stay in the band. We were worried about not being able to record our first album (without
him), so I did waht I felt I had to do. In the long run I paid very extensively for
keeping St even n Guns N' Roses. I paid $1.5 million by giving him 15% of my publishing
off 'Appetite For Destrucion'. He didn't write one goddamn note, but he calls me a selfish
dick! He's been able to live off that money, but a shitload of drugs and hire lawyer s to
sue me. If and when he loses the lawsuit he has against us, and he has to pay those
lawyers, if he has any money left, it'll be the money that came from Guns N' Roses and
myself." Check out his suit against the band in Axl's Suits.
"At this point I really don't care what happens to
Steven Adler, because he's taken himself out of my life, out of my care and concern,
completely. I feel bad for him in some ways because he's a real damaged person, but he's
making choices to keep himsel f damaged. There's nothing we can do at this point. We took
him to rehabs, we threatened his drug dealers [the might Duff confronted them with his
gun...Check out the picture in the Guns N' Roses section of the picture pages], we helped
him when he sl ashed his wrists. I even forgave him after he nearly killed my wife... I
kept the man from being killed by members of her family. I saved him from having to go to
court because her mother wanted him held responsible for his actions. And the so of a bit
ch turns on me?! I mean, yeah, I'm a difficult person to deal with, and I'm a pain in the
ass to understand, and I've had my share of problems, but Steven benefited greatly from
his involvement with me - more than I did from knowing him. Steven had a lo t of fans, but
he was a real pain in the ass."
"Everything about [Axl] as a performer and singer
comes from his personality, so the shit that makes him crazy or the shit that he finds
hard to deal with is, at the same time, what makes his talent."
"Axl is not a person who wants to spend even one
second in a police station if he can avoid it."
"Some of Axl's lyrics are fucking hilarious!"
"Axl is just another version of the
Ayatollah."
"The biggest fights are between me and Axl. But
that's also what makes it happen."
"Axl might seem like a pain in the ass to everybody
in volved, but at the same time he's as dedicated to it as I am... even more so in many
ways."
"THAT'S JUST THE WAY HE IS, ALRIGHT!!?"
"I must say that Axl has fucking balls."
"In the press Axl gets all this shit which I feel
sorry for him about. Sometimes he asks for it, but a lot of the time he doesn't... there
are times when I can't believe the shit he does, and a lot of the time he can't believe
the shit that Slash or myse lf do, or Izzy does."
"In a lot of ways he's the most normal guy in the
band."
"He ain't EVER gonna lost this anger!"
"Axl, lyrically, is brilliant in my eyes. Some of
the shit that goes through his head is like, WHOAH!" (I bet you can just picture Duff
saying that)
Found in MFV.
"He's a bit eccentric, one of a kind. You've just
got to kind of go with it. We get along really well. He's, you know, a different kind of
cat."
"Axl's so fucking great. Anything he does or says,
it's just because that's the way he really is. He's beyond real, you know. I've never seen
anyone dare to talk shit to him, ever. I love that."
"Axl has never been one to stand by and watch an
injustice being done to his fans." (Reffering to the St. Louis Riot)
"Axl was like a serious lunatic when I met
him. He
was just really bent on fighting and destroying things. Somebody'd look at him wrong and
he'd just like start a fight."
"The first thing I remember about Axl - before I
really knew him - is the first day of class, eight or ninth grade, I'm sitting in class
and I hear this noise going on in the front... then there's this scuffle and I see
him, Axl, and this teacher bouncing off a door jamb. And then Axl was gone down the hall with
all these teachers running after him."
"I expressed my feelings to Axl and they very next
night on MTV I saw that I was going to be replaced by the guy in Jane's
Addiction. So I
took that as an indication that I'd really pissed him off."
"Axl wants to do stuff his way, at his
pace, in his time."
"If Axl was the nicest, quitest guy in the world
he'd never sell any records."
 These pretty boys claimed that GN'R was stealing their glam
appeal, such as make-up, Slash's top hat (which Slash made CLEAR was HIS
trademark), and
the spandex/leather outfits. Never again would the band wear l ipstick, or Axl poof his
"Jungle" hair out. But GN'R still made it big, bigger than Poison could ever
hope. So scratch that thought. "I used to fluff up my hair and tease it out, but I
don't really do that anymore. It's not that I don't like it but I don't
do it well unless I take a long time at it and I don't bring someone on the road with me
to do it. Also, after our falling out with Poison - even though it's been patched up - I
just want to get away from anything glam until such a tie I can go out and do it if I want
to and not get hassled. It's not so much I'm worried about what other people
think, but I
know me. If someone walks up to me and says, 'Oh, you're a glam faggot like
Poison,' I'm
gonna go to jail, 'cuase I'm gonna break somebody's jaw."
After Steven and Slash save Nikki Sixx from
DEATH,
Motley's record company stabs GN'R in the back and blames the event on them.
Also, Vince's
wife accused Izzy of making a pass at her, when in actuality she made the pass at him and
was denied! Vince pun ches Izzy. Vince and Axl have words. Axl challenged Vince to a fight
to the death, but Vince declined.
 Despite all attemps to calm the
crowd, 2 fans were crushed in
a crowd surge at the Monsters of Rock Festival. Of course, the papers reported it as Axl's
fault. His departing words were "Have a good fucking day and don't kill
yourselves." So obviously, Axl had planned the entire event out!! Yes yes, it's ALL
Axl's fault. Actually, the band didn't even know about the two deaths until they were well
on their way home.
 Living Colour as you might know is a black rock
group. There
was all sorts of controversy about the song One In A Million at this time. The
singer for Living Colour, Vernon Reid, had the crowd chant against racism in an attempt to
stage up the Gu ns N' Roses performance following their show. (It was a failed attempt
since 86% of the audience decided to MISS the Living Colour show. The Coliseum was PACKED
by the time Guns hit stage. Not to mention that two more shows, for a total of
four, were
b ooked in L.A. after Guns N' Roses joined the bill.) The day before the first show Reid
expressed his problems with Axl's lyrics. Axl confronted their bassist and said "I
heard on the radio that you guys got a problem with some of the things I got to sa
y." Axl also addressed the issue before their show on 10-18-89: "...If you got a
problem and you think I'm a racist, shove your head up your FUCKIN' ass!"
Axl allegedly punched David Bowie for hitting on Erin
Everly (his current girlfriend). Bowie later approached Axl with a humble
apology. Stay
away from Axl's women!
Leader of a local biker gang, Stump of The Saddle
Tramps, wass harassing fans in the front rows. Axl instructs the security to remove
him.
The security were friends with the biker gang and refused to act. The biker then taunted
Axl by waving a camera. Axl asked the security to get him again. Finally, Axl has just
about had it with the security. Too many fans were able to grab his ankles (one of which
was recently injured) and two bottles managed to hit Duff. Axl jumped into the crowd in
the middle of Rocket Queen to get the biker's camera. "Thanks to the lame ass
security, I'm going home!" Axl lost a contact lens, goes back stage to find
one, with
full intention of coming back. "I went backstage and found a new lens. It was getting
crazy, and we decided we were going to go back out and try to play, because we didn't
want' people to get hurt..." Before he got his lens back in, the crowd had destroyed
the drum set. Sixty fans managed to injure themselves and 16 were arrested. They caused a
good $200,000 worth of damage. The venue sued Axl.
Nirvana (1992 MTV Music Awards?)
10-96 Guitar World
GW: Maybe this would be a good time to address some of the
rumors that have plagued you. When Nevermind hit, there were
reports that you were anarcoleptic.
Cobain: No, no...that was just a story I made up to explain
why I slept so much. I used to find myself sleeping a lot
before shows. A lot of times the backstage area is such a
gross scene, I don't want to talk to anybody. So I just fall
asleep. There are so many people that we know now, so many
friends and stuff that I can't ask them to leave. I don't
want to act like Axl Rose and have my own bus or my own
back room area.
GW: Speaking of Axl, what is the story behind your
altercation with him backstage at the 1992 MTV Music
Awards?
Cobain: Well, apparently Axl was in a really bad mood.
Something set him off, probably just minutes before our
encounter with him. We were in the food tent and I was
holding my daughter, Frances, and he came strutting by
with five of his huge bodyguards and a person with a
video camera. Courtney jokingly screamed out at him
"Axl, will you be the godfather of out child?" Everyone
laughed. We had a few friends around us, and he just
stopped dead in his tracks and started screaming all
these abusive words at us. He told me to shut my
bitch up, so I looked at Courtney and said "Shut up,
bitch, heh!" Everyone started howling with laughter
and Axl just kind of blushed and went away. Afterward,
we heard that Duff [Mckagan, GNR bassist] wanted to
beat Chris up. Later on, it says:
Cobain:........But other than that, I've never thought
of the Guns N' Roses,Metallica and U2 offers as any
kind of legitimate offer. They just were never a
reality to me.
Q: Didn't Axl Rose say something nasty to you
at the MTV Video Music Awards in September?
A: They actually tried to beat us up. Courtney
and I were with the baby in the eating area
backstage, and Axl walked by. So Courtney yelled,
"Axl! Axl, come over here!" We just wanted to
say hi to him--we think he's a joke, but we
just wanted to say something to him. So I said,
"Will you be the godfather of our child?"
I don't know what had happened before that
to piss him off, but he took his aggressions
out on us and began screaming bloody murder.
These were his words: "You shut your
bitch up, or I'm taking you down
to the pavement." [laughs] Everyone around
us just burst out into tears of
laughter. She wasn't even saying anything mean,
you know? So I turned to Courtney and said,
"Sh ut up, bitch!" And everyone laughed and
he left.So I guess I did what he wanted me to
do--be a man. [laughs]
Kurt told this story to the crowd at the
Portland OR 9/10/92 concert, try
to get it if you can.
--------------------------------------------------
Q: Is there anything about Guns N' Roses'
music you like?
A: I can't think of a damn thing. I can't
even waste my time on that band,
because they're so obviously pathetic and untalented.
I used to think that everything in the mainstrteam
pop world was crap, but now that some
underground bands have been signed with majors, I
take Guns N' Roses as more of an offense. I
have to look into it more: They're really
talentless people, and they write crap music,
and they're the most popular
rock band on the earth right now. I can't believe it.
Big words for a man with no head. If they're the biggest rock band on
the earth then the majority of the planet must disagree with you, Mr. Nobrain.
GUNS/Metallica Tour, 8 August 1992
James Hetfeild mocks Axl's list of items for backstage comfort.
Mysteriously James catches fire in the Guns N' Roses/Metallica Tour. James catches fire
heheh... Axl cuts show short because of sound problems (no doubt from Metallica's screw
up). Metallica fans create a riot, destroying a cool $1,000,000 in property. Supposedly
Axl verbally attacked Metallica at a San Francisco concert in 1992. For more info on
Metallica, check out their homepage in Axl's Links. Don't fuck with the bad side.
This is Axl's mug shot from the most infamous of all arrests, the St. Louis riot. He is
listed as being 5'10" 170lbs brown hair and blue eyes. Date of birth 2-6-62. Download
a larger version is Axl's Pics. Look at that shot! He's a pro!
"...we were headed to a Roxy show and got pulled over
by four cops. They picked a bag off the street; said we threw it out the window and there
were drugs in it. There were no drugs in it. And they were just trying to hassle
us,
saying our advance mone y in our pockets was drug money. They searched
everything, pushed
us around, and we were late for the show."
The only thing I've seen in print about the outcome of Axl & Steph's
legal battles was in the Q & A section of the May 14, 1995 issue of Parade
Magazine. I went a diggin' in my rat's nest to find it and here's what
it said:
Q: Not too long ago, Stephanie Seymour was suing Axl Rose for allegedly
beating her up. Whatever happened to her lawsuit?--C.C., Portland, Ore.
A: A source close to Rose, 33, told PARADE that the insurance company
representing the rock star agreed to pay $400,000 to supermodel Seymour,
26, to settle the 2-year-old case out of court. "The papers still aren't
signed," said our source, "but Axl won't do any talking. He's concentrating
on his work." Rose's lawyers told us: "Both parties agreed to dismiss their
claims against each other. The litigation has been resolved." But they
vehemently denied that there had been a payoff.
"I'm very sensitive and emotional and things upset me and make me feel like not functioning or
dealing with people... I went to a clinic thinking
it would help my moods. The only thing I did was to take one 500 question test - ya know, filling
in the lit tle black dots. All of a sudden I'm diagnosed manic depressive. 'Let's put Axl on
medication.'
Well, the medication doesn't help me deal with the stress. The only think it does is keep people
off my back."
"Well, as you can see, being a
fucking psycho basket-case like me does have it's advantages."
"In some ways I hate the way I was
raised... the lack for supporting anything I was into or good at. But in a way,
I can't hate it because this sense of drive... this mission to do something with
my life."
"Sometimes there's these girls
backstage going 'I love you'. I feel like telling them, 'Honey, if you knew me,
you would hate my fucking guts.'"
"People say how wrong it was to doing
drugs. Mabye they were the only tools I could find then..."
"I remember when I was in junior high
and they talked about finding a goal - 'Yeah, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do
that' - all just trying to impress the teacher to get a grade. If they get a
good grade, they get an allowance. I was like, "No. I wanna be in a band
and I wanna do [great things]. So I got an F for thinking grandiose thoughts."
"I don't want to go solo, but there
are areas I'd like to explore - maybe movies - where I might not be able to stay
in the band to do it."
"When I was in school there were all
these stereotypes. If you liked The Rolling Stones you were a faggot because of
the time Mick Jagger kissed Keith Richards on Saturday Night Live. If you like
the Grateful Dead you were a hippie. If you like the Sex Pistols you were a
punker. I guess that would make me a faggot hippie punk rocker."
"A lot of people hold their anger
back for a few days. I just explode right away."
"I've always wanted to have it
written in my will that when I die, the coffin shows up an hour and a half late
and says on the side, like in gold, 'Sorry I'm Late'."
Axl has taken great measures to arrive as on time as possible. One time he even
chartered a helicopter to bypass traffic en route to a show at Nassau Colliseum
in New York. I believe he was held up by Geffen or Rolling Stone.
"If I didn't care about [the fans],
I'd come out and do a shitty show. I'd come out and tell them to fuck off. I'd
sit down, sing the songs off key, and just not care. But I do care, and I also
care too much about myself to do that."
Axl had the stage monitors placed in so the band could keep better track of
where they were in the song. With such a huge stage it was harder for the band
to communicate so the monitors were implemented. This also enabled the band to
move around more fr eely. Also, you ever try to remember ALL the lyrics to ALL
those songs!?
"They don't like it when I let them
know they don't own me. Sometimes I don't even own myself!"
"How the fuck did I get so fucking
important!?"
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Live
?!@* Like A Suicide
Appetite For Destruction
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Duff
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