1991.11.07 - A Current Affair - "Don't You Come Home, Bill Bailey" [VIDEO]

TRANSCRIPTION:
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Voice-over: Before he was the baddest boy of rock ‘n’ roll, Axl Rose was a sweet-faced choirboy.
 
Phil Hurt: Of course I’ve always known him as Bill Bailey.
 
[Intro titles]
 
Voice-over: “Don’t you come home, Bill Bailey.”
 
Host: In Lafayette, Indiana they know him as Bill Bailey, a cute kid who used to sing in the school choir. But he’s grown up to be Axl Rose, one of the wildest stars in rock ‘n’ roll. Now his hometown is singing “Don’t you come home, Bill Bailey”.
 
Voice-over: They sell millions of records and make millions of dollars, but Guns N’ Roses is more famous for the offstage antics of their lead singer than their heavy metal music. Axl Rose has become the undisputed bad boy of rock ‘n’ roll and the tattoo-covered lead singer has done plenty to earn that title.
 
Bob Guccione Jr.: I don’t think Axl Rose sits at home and wonders how he can make himself look more of a bad boy. I think he’s just a bad person.
 
Voice-over: Last year Axl was arrested in Los Angeles, although the charges were dropped. His next-door neighbor insists that he hit her over the head with a wine bottle.
 
[Footage of Axl outside the police station after he was released on bail
 
Axl: I’ll see you in court]
 
Bob Guccione Jr.: That’s not the act of somebody who is completely stable.
 
Voice-over: This past summer in St. Louis dozens of people were injured when a riot broke out at a Guns N’ Roses concert. Several lawsuits were filed accusing Rose of inciting that riot, all because a fan was taking pictures.  
 
Bob Guccione Jr.: Axl Rose is a guy who’s really - he’s a classical bully. He punches out paying customers who want to take a photograph of him.
 
Voice-over: But back in Lafayette, Indiana, where Axl grew up, many were surprised that the sweet-faced kid in the high school choir turned in to the rude rock ‘n’ roller.
 
Ron Campbell (Axl’s former teacher): There was nothing in his particular background here at Jeff High School that would lead you to think that that’s the way his behavior was going to be. He was just a nice young man.
 
Voice-over: But Axl Rose wasn’t always the controversial bad boy. In fact, he wasn’t always Axl Rose. He was plain old Bill Bailey.
 
Phil Hurt (Axl’s high school coach): When I turned on my MTV it stunned me and I really think of it being Bill Bailey, because they said “Axl Rose” and of course I’ve always known him as Bill Bailey.
 
Ron Campbell: There was nothing radical about him, and, when he’d walk in or when I’d see him, I’d say this thing, “Bill Bailey, won’t you please come home?” and things like that. I mean, he was just a personable little redheaded kid.
 
Phil Hurt: And he was like any typical 8^th grader - you know, a little immature. And he used to spout off quite a bit.
 
Voice-over: Axl Rose is now famous for his X-rated lyrics that some would like banned. Back then his buddies had a better way of keeping him quiet.
 
Phil Hurt: They got mad and they taped his mouth shut, because he wouldn’t shut up. And then, also, they stuffed him into a locker and closed the locker on him at that time, because of just his mouth.
 
Voice-over: Even in the 8^th grade there might have been a hint of the man to come.
 
Monica Gregory (Axl’s friend): He was not your normal Lafayette kid. It’s a conservative city, very conservative. Extremely conservative.
 
Voice-over: Monica Gregory says her good friend, Axl, had problems with Lafayette police. Records show that he was arrested several times for minor offenses.
 
Monica Gregory: He got hassled a lot, because he had longer hair, maybe he wore a bandana... Which once again goes right back to the fact that he was different, unique – you know, special.
 
Voice-over: There was no love lost between the angry kid and his hometown. Bill Bailey dropped out of high school and left Lafayette as soon as he was old enough. Axl nowadays refers to Indiana as a concentration camp.
 
Ron Campbell: I’m kind of disappointed, I guess, that he has kind of disavowed himself or disowned the city of Lafayette, as I understand it, and said, “I never want to go back” and things of that sort.
 
Dennis Blind (Axl’s high school principal): At this point, we’ll probably have no reason to invite him back and I don’t know whether or not he would even come back.
 
Voice-over: Lafayette isn’t throwing any parades for their hometown boy gone bad. The only place he’s loved is in the record stores.
 
Monica Gregory: He’s looked up to incredibly by the teenagers. He has given a goal to a lot of young people in this town.
 
Voice-over: But to most people in Lafayette, Axl Rose is anything but a role model.
 
Dennis Blind: He would have a chance to make a great impact on the youth of America if he’d become a positive role model.
 
Voice-over: With his new album setting sales records all over the country, it doesn’t look like Axl Rose will go back to being Bill Bailey anytime soon.

Axl commented on this TV program a few days later (Rockline, Nov. 27, 1991):

Amy: And my question was, recently I was watching the TV show Current Affair...

Axl: Uh-huh.

Amy: ... and they did a segment, “Don’t Come Home, Bill Bailey”, and they showed your old principal, old teachers...

Axl: Yeah.

Amy: ...and school friends. And, basically, they all, I mean, said that you weren’t welcomed back in the town, and...

Axl: Well, everyone except for Ron Campbell. He was the principal of the school and I saw Ron a lot. I was always in his office and he was great to me. He always tried to help me. And Mr. Blind, he didn’t really have much to do with anything except jerking people around. And Mr. Hurt was my coach who, you know, he made me run. You know, I broke my leg and he didn’t believe that I’d hurt myself and I had to run extra miles all the time. And once I mentioned Alice Cooper, and the man almost strangled me. And when he talked about me getting my mouth taped shut, I was at 7th grade, and these guys were in 12th grade, and the only reason they taped my mouth shut is cuz I wouldn’t take their crap. And I don’t miss those people either, you know?

Bob Coburn: Yeah, yeah. Well, maybe if they don’t want your coming back home, then you don’t want to invite them over your house.

Axl: They have some good names. Mr. Hurt and Mr. Blind.

Bob Coburn: Mr. Hurt and Mr. Blind (laughs). What a poetic justice, my, my. Amy, thanks for the call.