1992.01.31 - 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.''

Dean Rhodes wrote:GUNS N' ROSES OFFERS ENERGETIC BUT UNIMAGINATIVE PERFORMANCE

On the band's first headlining tour, Guns N' Roses has proven themselves worthy inheritors of some of rock 'n' roll's finest traditions.

Guns N' Roses defies behavioral expectations much the same way the Sex Pistols threw predictability out the window during the mid-70s.

And Guns N' Roses' sound is derivative of the Rolling Stones (Slash and guitarist Clark Gilby played a snippet of the Stones' ''Wild Horses'').

But live, Guns N' Roses have yet to formulate their own spin on the rock concert ceremony.

Friday night's show at Compton Terrace could have been a set by any of more than a dozen rock bands on tour.

The light show during ''Live and Let Die'' was unspectacular, lead singer Axl Rose racing to and from over the multileveled stage became tiresome and the set list, for all its supposed spontaneity, seemed pat.

Even the witty preshow introduction to Frank Sinatra's ''My Way'' wasn't new. In November, Queensryche played Ethel Merman singing ''There's No Business Like Show Business'' before taking the stage.

Yet Guns N' Roses, through sheer force of energy, warmed up a chilly evening.

Taking the stage at 11:40 p.m., Rose broke into ''It's So Easy'' from ''Appetite For Destruction.'' He was dressed in a blood red suit coat and matching briefs.

(Later, Rose would make his most controversial move of the night, changing into a T-shirt that read ''St. Louis sucks,'' referring the July 1991 riot at the Riverport Amphitheater in Maryland Heights, Mo.)

Rose is a devilish imp of a frontman, his nasal screech embellishing many Guns N' Roses songs with just the right touch of defiance.

Slash, while not the most disciplined guitarist in the world, has an amazing ability to draw myriad tones from his guitars.

And the rest of the band -- bassist Duff McKagan, drummer Matt Sorum, Clarke and keyboardist Dizzy Reed -- are solid, if not top-of-the-line, players.

During the first few songs, Rose's untrained wail was lost in the mix, hindering much of the message in the drug-oriented ''Mr. Brownstone.''

For fans, Guns N' Roses ran through a good sampling of the band's three albums, including the dual releases of ''Use Your Illusion I'' and ''II.'' The hits, from ''Welcome to the Jungle'' to ''You Could Be Mine,'' were there.

''Bad Obsession'' from ''Use Your Illusion I'' was the main benefactor of a live interpretation. Accented with Slash's bluesier lines and a harmonica intro, the anguished salute to drug addiction took on deeper meaning.

However, ''Civil War'' lost much of its impact in light of current events. With confederate, U.S. and Soviet flags draped behind him, Rose wore a rebel jacket and donned a Mao cap, trying to reinforce the anti-war lyrics.

With defense budgets being slashed in the United States and the former Soviet Union, ''Civil War'' felt terribly out-of-date.

And, surprisingly, the numerous cameras on hand to feed images to Compton Terrace's two giant video screens revealed that Rose is the Johnny Carson of rock, using a TelePrompter for assistance in remembering the lyrics. The cribbing was most noticeable while Rose played piano during ''November Rain.''

At 1:30 a.m., Guns N' Roses had just wrapped up their No. 1 hit, ''Sweet Child O' Mine,'' and I had to leave to meet deadline. No end was in sight, although some unprepared fans were leaving before hypothermia set in.

If Guns N' Roses re-enacts the same show tonight at Compton Terrace (show time is ''around 9 p.m.'' and tickets are still available), expect an energetic, but hardly revelatory performance.

Perhaps next time out on the road Guns N' Roses will be as innovative as when they released two separate albums at once. Then, Guns N' Roses will have earned every cent of their rock 'n' roll inheritance.

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.

Guns Ν’ Roses claim throne

MUSIC REVIEW
Guns n' Roses
With Soundgarden.
Compton Terrace, Friday.

Compton show the stuff of legends

By Salvatore Caputo
The Arizona Republic

In the first of a two-night stint Friday at Compton Terrace, Guns Ν’ Roses gave the kind of performance
that makes rock legends.

The sextet — at times augmented by two backup singers, a three-piece horn section and an organist — offered a polished amphitheater show that was nothing like the rough-hewn image the band cultivates.

The roughness instead was in the lyrics, the stage patter and the group’s aggressive attack on its instruments.

The crowd of about 22,000 — equal parts junior-high, high-school and college-age people, with a smattering of their elders — was appreciative but a bit subdued. Maybe the night air — the band took the stage after 11:30 p.m. — put a chill in the proceedings.

The group got off to a rocky start, making caustic remarks about a problem with the stage floor. Stagehands soon brought up two huge pieces of plywood that apparently solved the problem.

As a front man, Axl Rose was not the psycho that news accounts have made him out to be. Instead, he mixed Mick Jagger showmanship and the Indiana-bred sincerity of John Mellencamp. It may have been a slick show, but Rose came off as a rock-and-roll Everyman instead of a pampered showman.

A dervish while singing. Rose ran from side to side of the stage without losing his breath as he screeched and spat out the lyrics to such hard-hitting rockers as Bad Obsession, Welcome to the Jungle and Paradise City.

He danced with a snakelike sway, and when he accepted applause, there often was a mad glint in his eyes (visible on huge video screens at stage side). Was it real or just the affected look that pro wrestlers use?

Lead guitarist Slash, the obvious musical director of the operation, was on fire. His guitar leads didn’t break any new ground, yet they still displayed a high degree of musicianship, especially during the cover of the Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses and an appropriately melodramatic version of the theme from The Godfather.

Other members also took the spotlight. Bass player Duff McKagan delivered a furiously punky vocal on Attitude and drummer Matt Sorum had a bombastic solo spot. The two newest members, pianist Dizzy Reed and rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke, didn’t get the spotlight as much, but they held up their end as supporting players well.

When it was all over — after 22 tunes and a number of instrumental interludes that lasted about 2 1/2 hours — there was no question that Guns N’ Roses, heir apparent to the Rolling Stones, was the best rock band on Earth — at least for one night.

38 seized in concert drug sweep

By David Cannella
The Arizona Republic

In another sweeping operation targeting casual drug users, 38 people were arrested at Friday night’s Guns N’ Roses concert at Compton Terrace, south of Phoenix.

Also arrested was a prosecutor from the Pinal County Attorney’s Office. He was accused of interfering with arresting officers.

Sixty officers from agencies throughout the Valley joined to work the Compton Terrace parking lot as
part of Maricopa County’s Do Drugs, Do Time program.

The attorney, John A. Canby, 31, was taken into custody and accused of disorderly conduct after interfering with undercover officers, said Lt. David Gonzales of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Canby was yelling at law-enforcement agents and pointing out undercover officers. Gonzales said. He was not charged with a drug offense.

Gonzales, who supervised Friday’s sweep, said it was the largest number
of arrests of casual drug users at any one event since the program for reducing drug demand began in 1989.

Task-force agents have worked undercover in similar operations at the Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion in west Phoenix and Veterans Memorial Coliseum, and at events at Arizona State University.

“We consider it a success when we have few arrests,” Gonzales said. “We want the word to get out so people will think twice about drug use.”

Those arrested were accused of a variety of drug offenses, mostly involving marijuana or cocaine. But what most startled officials was widespread use of the hallucinogen LSD.

“LSD is re-emerging as a popular drug,” Gonzales said. “It certainly was evident at the concert.”

Officers seized 7,500 doses of LSD. which were being peddled openly for $2 each, he said.

“It’s a cheap drug.” he said. “For $2 a hit, someone can get a 12-hour high.”

Guns N’ Roses’ extravaganza shows more pose than soul

REVIEW
Guns N’ Roses in concert, with Soundgarden, Friday night at Compton Terrace.

By Gene Armstrong
The Arizona Daily Star

CHANDLER — After witnessing 2 1/2 hours of Guns Ν’ Roses’ rock ’n’ roll excess, it’s easy to understand why so many listeners, and critics, have a love-hate relationship with the group.

The Los Angeles-based hard-rock band completed a two-night stand at Compton Terrace early this morning. They played to something more than 40,000 people during the two appearances.

The Friday night show was alternately engrossing and grossly self-indulgent. The band seemed at different times friendly and misanthropic. There were moments of genuine abandon as well as a pretentious aspiration toward some sort of fin de siecle rock ’n’ roll circus.

It was nearly midnight when Guns Ν’ Roses emerged on the Compton stage, preceded with the strains of sometime punk avatar Sid Vicious singing “My Way.” They launched into “It’s So Easy,” a cynical song about manipulation.

The band’s 1987 debut album supplied some tunes, but most of the material came from the band’s recent simultaneous releases, "Use Your Illusion” I and II.

Early on, it seemed the musicians were going through the motions, even during a rendition of their hit retooling of “Live and Let Die.”

Often the band overloaded the stage with a coterie of two back-up vocalists, a three-woman horn section, and a harmonica player and organist. Clumsy appropriations of the blues, such as “Bad Obsession,” were invariably overblown.

Lead guitarist Slash proved a decent player, but he seemed to lack soul. Sometimes he was pretty sloppy, but more often he simply aped the styles of others.

We heard him play endless solos and leads, borrowing licks from flamenco, blues, Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and “The Godfather” theme.

Rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke, a replacement for the departed Izzy Stradlin’, stepped in nicely, avoiding Slash’s tendency for overkill.

Drummer Matt Sorum added concise jackhammer rhythms and keyboards player Dizzy Reed, some much-needed musical expertise.

The band seemed to pick up steam as its set wore on. Hits such as “Civil Wars” and “Don’t Cry’’ were well-received and seemed more dynamic. “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” the band’s breakthrough single, by comparison, was tedious.

Nodding to their forebears, Guns N’ Roses played many cover versions. An abbreviated take on The Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses’’ did away with all but the song’s chorus, and bass player Duff McKagan sang the punky Misfits tune, “Attitude.”

Of course, Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” was stretched into an interminable bore. This seemed to be a popular time to visit the portable toilets.

Employing more costume changes than Diana Ross, lead singer W. Axl Rose was a focal point. He’s a perfect combination of a fire-and-brimstone preacher and a snotty teenager.

Rose also displayed his sensitive side, making like Elton John during “November Rain,” a maudlin solo turn at a baby grand piano.

The concert ended on a punchy note, with two encores: the pomp-rock tour de force, “Estranged,” and the anthemic “Paradise City.”

Although these guys can give an energetic show, they’ll never be as dangerous as Elvis’ hips, Jagger’s lips or Johnny Rotten’s snarl.

We’ve seen the danger in rock before, and Guns N’ Roses ain’t it.