1992.02.01 - Compton Terrace, Chandler, USA

Dean Rhodes wrote:LOOSE GUNS STRIKE IRREVERENT CHORD ROSES RESURRECT ANGER, ENERGY OF ROCK

Taking pot shots at Guns N' Roses is easy.

The ruling bad boys of rock 'n' roll have supplied critics with enough ammunition to rearm the Iraqi army.

Some of their headline-grabbing antics include, but certainly are not limited to:

--> Lead singer Axl Rose jumps into the audience at the Riverport Amphitheatre in Maryland Heights, Mo., in July 1991. An ensuing riot causes $200,000 damage to the brand-new facility.

--> In November 1990, Rose argues with a female neighbor, eventually bopping her over the head with a wine bottle. He's arrested. After passing a lie detector test, charges are dropped.

--> Guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan appear on the January 1990 American Music Awards and utter the ultimate obscenity several times during an acceptance speech. It's a live telecast.

--> In August 1989, guitarist Izzy Stradlin loses his patience while waiting in a long bathroom line aboard a plane. He urinates in the galley and is arrested when the plane lands in Phoenix.

--> On the 1988 release ''Lies,'' Guns N' Roses perform ''One In A Million,'' which rails against blacks and homosexuals, using inflammatory slang. Rose is labeled homophobic and racist.

Criticizing Guns N' Roses is easy; explaining the band's success isn't.

Like much of today's superficial style (or lack thereof) over substance coverage, Guns N' Roses' controversial run-ins overshadow the band's ultimate achievement.

In three albums and one EP -- 1987's ''Appetite for Destruction,'' ''Lies,'' and 1991's ''Use Your Illusion I'' and ''II'' -- Guns N' Roses resurrects the passionate defiance of convention that has been missing in rock since the Sex Pistols self-destructed.

Guns N' Roses have established themselves as inheritors of rock's rebellious spirit started by Elvis Presley in the 1950s and continued by the Rolling Stones in the '60s and the Sex Pistols in the '70s.

''The best rock 'n' roll encapsulates a certain high energy, an angriness,'' Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger once said. ''Rock 'n' roll is only rock 'n' roll if it's not safe. Violence and energy -- that's what rock 'n' roll is all about.''

Energy and anger -- an apt description of Guns N' Roses.

Real, real, real

Unlike many rock bands that crawled out of the gritty talent pool that is the crowded, cutthroat Los Angeles club scene, Guns N' Roses feels authentic. Real. Believable.

Although band members sport hackneyed tough-guy accouterments -- tattoos, bandanas, black leather pants and cowboy boots -- Guns N' Roses aren't poseurs who have adopted a burn-the-candle-at-both-ends machismo merely for commercial gain.

''Their lifestyles are reflected in so many of their songs -- not necessarily celebrated, but presented without apology still the same,'' writes Danny Sugerman in his unofficial biography, ''Appetite for Destruction: The Days of Guns N' Roses.'' ''They walk it like they talk it.''

Guns N' Roses' songs, love 'em or hate 'em, are honestly autobiographical, inspired by band members' experiences growing up in broken homes, moving West to throw off restrictive Midwestern values and battling drug and alcohol addiction.

''Guns N' Roses are the bruised angry heart howl of a generation malled-in, cinemaplexed, media-manipulated, undereducated, spiritually undernourished, self-disgusted and cut off from the wellspring of a dynamic inner life,'' Sugerman writes.

And Guns N' Roses' appeal cuts a wide swath.

The debut ''Appetite for Destruction'' sold more than 14 million copies. ''Lies'' notched sales of 6 million and the ''Use Your Illusion'' albums debuted at No. 1 and 2 on the Billboard album chart in October, selling a combined 1.5 million copies in their first week. To date, both ''Use Your Illusion'' albums have sold more than 3 million copies.

Fans worrying Guns N' Roses might lose its firepower during a three-year hiatus were bolstered by the ''Use Your Illusion'' albums, which remained defiantly empowered, rebelling against the fishbowl examination their lives became subject to, telling the press in particular to ''get in the ring.''

Out of the abyss

Guns N' Roses coalesced in 1985 when former Pentecostal Sunday school teacher Axl Rose (born Bill B. Bailey in Lafayette, Ind.) hooked up with guitarist Slash (Saul Hudson), bassist Duff McKagan (Michael McKagan), guitarist Izzy Stradlin (Jeff Isabelle) and drummer Steven Adler.

The band gelled, bonds cemented playing nasty clubs and living together in a west Hollywood hovel measuring 4 feet by 12 feet. Friendships formed from shared survival on Los Angeles' mean streets fostered an in-your-face attitude impossible to feign.

In March 1986, Guns N' Roses' growing reputation garnered a contract with Geffen Records. The band recorded ''Appetite for Destruction,'' which languished in the lower reaches of the album chart for 10 months.

''We thought we'd made a record that might do as well as Motorhead,'' Slash has been quoted as saying. ''As far as we were concerned, it was totally uncommercial. No one wanted to know about it. Really.''

But tours opening for The Cult, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden and Aerosmith helped build a fan base.

And the video for ''Welcome to the Jungle,'' played in heavy rotation by MTV, jump-started Guns N' Roses.

Quickly, ''Welcome to the Jungle'' moved up the singles chart and ''Appetite for Destruction'' leapfrogged to No. 1 on the album chart.

But, as the adage goes, sometimes the gods punish you by giving you what you want. The hard-fought rags-to-riches rise almost killed the band.

Road woes at home

After touring, the quintet returned to Los Angeles. Band members, with new-found fame and burgeoning bank accounts, went their separate ways, each forming drug and alcohol addictions.

'The thing that (expletive) me up personally was not having really lived anywhere for so long, but having been on the road; and a feeling of abandonment once we had all the money, and then we were dropped off at the airport, and I'm like, 'Where do I go now?' '' Slash said in a Geffen Records press release.

Drugs eventually led to Rose's highly publicized stage condemnation during an opening set for the Rolling Stones in Los Angeles. He threatened to quit.

Slash was taking heroin while other band members were addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. In a January 1991 interview with Rolling Stone, Slash says his lowest point occurred in Phoenix.

''I flipped out on coke, destroyed a hotel room and was all bloody, running around the hotel naked,'' Slash says. ''Some people tried to press charges, and the cops and paramedics came, but fortunately I lied my way out of it.''

He also kicked his habit.

Adler wasn't as lucky. In and out of detox centers, he was unable to shake his dependency and became so debilitated that the band replaced him in the summer of 1990 with Matt Sorum.

After conquering their demons and adding keyboardist Dizzy Reed, Guns N' Roses returned to the studio in 1990. The resulting dual ''Use Your Illusion'' releases are a sprawling 30-song effort that cements the band's reputation as a risk well-taken.

The two albums span rock genres effortlessly, ranging from power ballads to radio rock to hyperspeed punk rap to covers of Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan.

''Since we put out 'Appetite for Destruction,' I've watched a lot of bands put out two albums to four albums,'' Rose told Rolling Stone magazine in September. ''And who cares? They went out, they did a big tour, they were big rock stars for that period of time. That's what everybody is used to now -- the record companies push that. But I want no part of that. We weren't just throwing something together to be rock stars. We wanted to put something together that meant everything to us.''

The question now haunting Guns N' Roses, after surviving drugs and alcohol, is can the band survive success? With millions in the bank -- in 1990-91, Guns N' Roses earned $25 million -- can the band retain a street-wise, anti-establishment attitude? It's the ultimate rock 'n' roll paradox.

''We've always done everything in our power to stay away from the norm,'' Slash tells Guitar World in its February issue. ''But then all of a sudden we became the norm. 'Appetite' took off . . . We were real frustrated with being so acceptable. We're not gonna do something that appears a little bit dangerous so we can sell records.''

Guns N' Roses also took a hit, losing tour-weary Stradlin, who contributed substantially to the ''Use Your Illusion'' albums, replacing him with Gilby Clarke.

Guns N' Roses are back where they feel at home, on the road. They play Compton Terrace tonight and Saturday.

Remaining true to their muses, Guns N' Roses instill their concerts with an edgy, spontaneous ambience absent from today's predictable corporate-sponsored tours. The band juggles the playlist nightly and ''What will Axl do?'' is still question No. 1.

Surviving what they have, Guns N' Roses appears poised to dominate the rock scene of the 1990s.

As Slash told Guitar Player in December, ''After everything we've been through -- all the changes, the stress, the drugs -- we managed to put out a record and realize that no matter what happens, we are really into our music and we're not some (expletive) pop band.''

SHOOTING from the HIP

Guns N' Roses riddles rock world as success blooms

STORY BY SALVATORE CAPUTO
THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC

Guns Ν' Roses is (choose one):

□ The last great hope of rock and roll.

□ A threat to Western civilization.

□ A bigger sales success than Garth Brooks.

□ Hypes N’ Poses.

□ A solid rock-and-roll band that’s relatively untried as an arena act.

Guns N’ Roses has been making headlines for so long (since 1988) that it’s hard to believe that the tour that brings the band to Compton Terrace on Friday and Saturday is the group’s first as a big-venue headliner.

Since the tour started in May, the sextet has had mixed success and blundered as easily as it mixed the images in its name.

The reviews of the shows have been mixed, but by all reports, when Guns N’ Roses is really on — which usually means when front man Axl Rose is focused — there is no greater band on Earth. Many of the shows have sold out. The band’s first night at Compton Terrace sold out quickly, prompting the addition of a second date. This is a band people want to see.

On the down side, the band sparked a riot that left 60 people hurt and destroyed a new amphitheater outside St. Louis in July.

Also during the tour, the band either bounced or mutually split with Izzy Stradlin, a founding member and a friend of Axl Rose’s since they were teenagers. This is a major development for a band that’s on tour. Stradlin wrote a good deal of the band’s material.

He has been replaced in concert by Gilby Clarke, formerly of Kill for Thrills.

Although the band’s first album, Appetite for Destruction, wasn’t a success right out of the box, it sold steadily as the band toured as an opening act for such established acts as Aerosmith. Ten months after its release, the album was certified gold (representing sales of 500,000 copies).

That’s when things started snowballing. The album went to No. 1 and eventually sold 14 million copies worldwide. That’s more separate units of a single album than the combined sales of all three albums by country’s Garth Brooks, currently the hottest sales property in the music business.

The band’s second big-label release, an extended-play single called GN'R Lies (it repackaged the group’s independently released recording debut Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide with new tunes including One in a Million), went on to sell 6 million copies.

The politically incorrect lyrics of One in a Million evoked shouts that the band was racist and homophobic: “Police and niggers, that’s right, get out of my way ... Immigrants and faggots, they make no sense to me.’’

Guns N’ Roses was scheduled to play at an AIDS benefit at Radio City Music Hall in June 1989, but the furor over One in a Million got the band bounced from that bill.

You have to wonder what the atmosphere was like backstage when Guns N’ Roses and politically correct Living Colour, whose members are black, opened for the Rolling Stones in the last days of 1989.

After GN'R Lies, the band was fairly silent musically, adding a track to the Nobody's Angel album, which was a benefit for Romanian orphans, doing Knockin' on Heaven's Door for a movie sound track and playing two songs at Farm Aid IV.

Bad-boy antics

Meanwhile, band members kept showing up in headlines usually doing typical bad-boy stuff. The kind of stuff that has hyped up performers’ images since Chuck Berry was arrested for transporting a woman across state lines for “immoral purposes.’’

Notably, Izzy Stradlin urinated in the galley of an airplane and was arrested in Phoenix. (Didn’t something like this happen to Jim Morrison a few decades ago?)

Lead guitarist Slash had his microphone cut off twice while accepting awards during the American Music Awards in 1990. His profanities got on the air before the sound was cut.

The band bounced drummer Steven Adler in 1990, claiming that his heroin use was crippling it. He was replaced by former Cult drummer Matt Sorum. Adler is suing the group.

Rose had a series of well-publicized run-ins, too.

He challenged David Bowie to a fight over a woman.

He married Erin Everly, daughter of Don, in April 1990, and in May filed for divorce, saying the couple had spent only 26 days together after they were married. Then by August, they reconciled.

In Feb. 1991, divorce papers were filed again. Rose reportedly said, “She had no intention of complying with her promise to raise a family and be involved in a well-adjusted marital situation.’’

During his married period, Rose allegedly whacked a female neighbor over the head with a wine bottle during an argument about the volume of his stereo. The charges were filed and later dropped.

(Bass player Duff McKagan and recently added keyboardist Dizzy Reed have avoided the spotlight.)

Shaded attitudes

All this apparently colored the group’s mood when it went into the studios to record Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, the two albums the band released simultaneously on Sept. 17, 1991.

While the hype machine for the two albums geared up, the band reportedly offered prospective interviewers contracts giving members pre-publication approval of what was written. After taking some flak for it, the band said that hadn’t been done.

The band is freaky for control. No local press photographers have access to the concerts here.

And running through its tunes is an ugly streak of self-pity about the travails of rock stars. It’s hard to feel sympathy for the woes of a group that’s made millions.

Yet when Guns N’ Roses is singing about the state of the union rather than about itself, it taps into the free-floating anger that so many people feel as opportunities evaporate in the land of milk and honey.

Presidential candidates will exploit that anger too, but it’s a good bet they won’t rock as well.