2016.04.26 - Indianapolis Monthly - Axl Rose: “I’m a %$@# Hoosier rocker, too!”

Axl Rose: “I’m a %$@# Hoosier rocker, too!”

By Jeff Vrabel

Axl Rose is making a comeback of sorts, performing a handful of shows with recently reunited Guns N’ Roses this month (most notably at Coachella), and signing on as the replacement singer for AC/DC for that band’s upcoming tour.

As part of a celebration of Indiana’s 2016 bicentennial, IM included Rose, a product of Lafayette, in a roundup of greatest-ever Hoosier musicians. Contacted about Rose, noted Indiana University rock-music professor Glenn Gass shared the following anecdote.

“I think people forget how huge that band was. I went to the last night of the Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels tour in December 1989, when Axl and Izzy [Stradlin, GNR guitarist] performed ‘Salt of the Earth’ with the Stones. I snuck into the Trump Club in Atlantic City afterwards, and Axl and Izzy showed up a few minutes later (they were not, apparently, invited to the Stones’ end-of-tour party). I yelled, ‘Axl, Indiana!’ which brought him to our table for a couple of hours of hanging out. He was utterly charming, drank only orange juice, and agreed to come guest-lecture in my rock-history class at IU. He also seemed obsessed with the fact that everybody called Mellencamp ‘the Hoosier Rocker’ — ‘even though I’m a fucking Hoosier rocker, too! NO ONE ever says that!’ He was angry and hurt that his home state had not embraced him. It was actually kind of sad and sweet.”

https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/arts-and-culture/axl-rose-im-a-hoosier-rocker-too