2020.02.09 - IndyStar - Whether Axl Rose lashes out or shows love, expect him to share his thoughts about Indiana

Whether Axl Rose lashes out or shows love, expect him to share his thoughts about Indiana
David Lindquist Indianapolis Star
Published 10:01 AM EST Feb 7, 2020

By any definition of "gentleman," Axl Rose behaved like one the last time he performed in Indianapolis.

Playing a show with Guns N' Roses — in a lineup that lacked guitarist Slash and bass player Duff McKagan — Rose thanked a 2011 audience at Bankers Life Fieldhouse for its "warm and welcoming" nature.

He described the arena as a "great building" and Rose said Guns N' Roses would try to make it back to Indiana before too many years passed.

It took nearly a decade, but Guns N' Roses is heading back to the state where Rose grew up. The singer hasn't always been complimentary toward Indiana, and his onstage banter is guaranteed to be scrutinized when the band performs Aug. 21 at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Axl Rose firing verbal shots at Indiana was all the rage in the early 1990s, when the Lafayette native told a local audience the state "tries to break you down every step of the (expletive) way" and he compared Indiana to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Did Rose mellow with age? We'll have a chance to check his demeanor at Lucas Oil Stadium, where Slash and McKagan will be back in the fold to revisit the glory days of GNR's "Appetite for Destruction" and "Use Your Illusion" albums. Tickets go on sale today at noon.

A look back at Rose's often-contentious relationship with Indiana:

Before the Sunset Strip

Born Feb. 6, 1962, the singer was known as William Bailey when attending Oakland Elementary and Jefferson High School in Lafayette.

Led to believe his stepfather was his biological father, he started using his birth name, William Rose, at age 17. He changed his name to W. Axl Rose around the time Guns N' Roses released debut EP "Live Like a Suicide" in 1986.

Rose's mother, Sharon Lintner Bailey, died in 1996 at age 51. His maternal grandmother, Anna Lintner, died in 2011 at age 96.

IndyStar interviewed Anna Lintner in 1991, when she talked about Rose living at her home in the 1970s.

She recalled him practicing a "hammering" style of piano, helping around the house and generally being enjoyable company.

Billy Johnson, Rose's fifth grade teacher, told IndyStar that Rose was "very intelligent, very personable, always had a smile. He was always a step or two ahead of you in class. If you weren't careful, he'd take the class away from you."

Rose ran on the cross-country team in eighth grade, and he sang in sophomore ensemble in high school.

He encountered problems with the Lafayette police, however, including five arrests from June 1980 to March 1981. All charges brought against Rose were misdemeanors. Early in his career, Rose said police harassed him as a teenager.

"That's probably what's bugging him," Anna Lintner said in 1991. "Any of the accusations against him were all very minor. I've always had a feeling that (his anger toward Indiana) would dwindle down. But ... they did pick on him."

Educator Johnson said specific people fueled Rose's anti-Indiana sentiments.

"He is very loyal to those people who liked him and were loyal to him," Johnson said. "The people that criticized him and found fault with him and were always looking for the bad things that he did, those are the people that he's angry with."

Angry and otherwise in Indiana

Los Angeles-based Guns N' Roses made its Indianapolis debut on Aug. 2, 1988, serving as the supporting act for Aerosmith at Market Square Arena.

A recap of the show published in The Indianapolis News cites "Hoosier-bashing" from Rose, who mentioned bad memories of law enforcement and teachers in Lafayette.

He also talked about fulfilling a dream of singing at Market Square Arena and the audience being "the most responsive we've ever played to."

Rose also displayed good-natured confidence when telling fans to party responsibly: "We’d like you to be careful, because I’d like to see you again when we headline this arena."

Guns N' Roses never made it back to Market Square Arena, which was razed in 2001. The band's next three visits to Indianapolis included performances at the RCA Dome and Ruoff Music Center (known then as Deer Creek):

April 7, 1990, Farm Aid, RCA Dome: Rose dedicated Guns N' Roses' performance to his uncle, Bob Rosenbrock, a farmer in Illinois. Rose apologized that the closest thing to a rural song in GNR's repertoire was a cover of "Down on the Farm" by punk band UK Subs. This Farm Aid appearance proved to be the final time drummer Steven Adler appeared with Guns N' Roses.

May 28-29, 1991, Ruoff Music Center: Rose's reputation for home-state rants kicked into high gear across two shows at the Noblesville amphitheater. Guns N' Roses arrived onstage more than an hour later than expected — a recurring theme in the band's career — on opening night, and Spin magazine reported Rose was reluctant to face a crowd that included friends, family members and former detractors.

Once the show began, Rose accepted flowers and high-five greetings from front-row attendees. He also unleashed the following thoughts: "I grew up in this state for two-thirds of my life and it seems to me there are a lot of (expletive) scared old people in this state," and "I got a lot of (expletive) cool prisoners here in Auschwitz."

In the Spin article titled "Guns N' Neuroses," Dean Kuipers reported Rose appeared to be on a mission "to prove to himself that some piece of America would accept his mind, his obvious talent, and even his rage, without any compromise."

June 22, 1992, RCA Dome: On a stadium tour that featured Metallica as co-headliner, Guns N' Roses returned to Indianapolis for a show that attracted 40,000 attendees. Rose shared fresh observations regarding Indiana, calling it conservative and "backward" for sending Dan Quayle to the office of vice president. He pinpointed the production of corn and drugs as the state's primary contributions to American society.

In a concert review published in The Indianapolis News, Mike Redmond chided Rose for a "whiny, high-school introduction" to the song "Bad Obsession." Rose dedicated the tune to "jocks who drink beer and smoke marijuana but like to think they’re better than the guy who smokes cigarettes and wears an Ozzy Osbourne shirt."

Redmond's retort: "Hey, Axl. Wake up. Study hall’s over."

IndyStar critic Marc Allan characterized Rose's brief walk-out because some audience members weren't standing as "foolishness."

Rose faxed a rebuttal to Allan. The letter, published in 2012 at website lettersofnote.com included this passage:

"I am your Rock N' Roll nightmare. And you ... You're just gonna sit on your wanna be ass and watch me, born a Hoosier, grow larger than you could ever imagine or ever be able to stop. That's not to say I didn't appreciate your anger, hostility and general ignorance. It shows me my so called 'RANTS' are a much needed, missing piece in our puzzle of society."

Rose signed off with a cryptic but evocative bit of advice: "Stay away from microwaves."

What Izzy and Slash said

Rose grew up in Lafayette with Jeff D. Isbell, a guitarist later known as Guns N' Roses co-founder Izzy Stradlin.

After leaving the band in 1991, Stradlin launched a new project known as Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds. In a 1993 IndyStar interview, Stradlin talked about awkward nights onstage with Rose.

“When Guns N’ Roses played Indianapolis, when Axl would start to go off on a tirade, I’d stand there and go, ‘Oh, let’s go. Next song, next song.’ Kind of embarrassing," Stradlin said. "But there’s no shutting him up. Once he gets going, that’s it.”

Slash talked to IndyStar in 2000, when he was on tour with Slash's Snakepit and in the middle of a 20-year estrangement from Rose.

Because of pending litigation in the Guns N' Roses camp, attorneys advised Slash not to make specific references to Rose in interviews.

But the guitarist talked in generalities about shows such as 1992's performance at the RCA Dome, where Guns N' Roses started its set 90 minutes later than expected and finished playing at 2:30 a.m.

"All you have to do is walk up there and do your thing," Slash said, expressing exasperation. "It's what you're supposed to love more than anything else in the world, and it's got to have a hitch in it."

When Rose brought Guns N' Roses to Bankers Life Fieldhouse in 2011, the band played from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m.

According to road reports since Rose, Slash and McKagan reconvened in 2016, Guns N' Roses arrives onstage around 8 p.m. each night and plays music for at least three hours.

Call IndyStar reporter David Lindquist at 317-444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.
Source: https://eu.indystar.com/story/entertainment/music/concerts/2020/02/07/guns-n-roses-axl-rose-something-say-home-state-indiana/4646818002/