GUNS N'ROSES

Steven Adler (drums; born January 22, 1965), Michael Andrew “Duff” McKagan (bass; born February 5, 1964), Darren Arthur “Dizzy” Reed (keyboards; born June 18, 1963), William “Axl” Rose (vocals, piano; born February 6, 1962), Saul Hudson aka Slash (guitar; born July 23, 1965), Matt Sorum drums; born November 19, 1960), Jeff Isbell aka Izzy Stradlin (guitar; born April 8, 1962)

The 1987 release of Guns n’ Roses’ debut album, Appetite for Destruction, was a pivotal moment in rock history. It upended the music world, which had been filled with videogenic synth-pop and hair-metal bands for much of the Eighties. With Guns n’ Roses – vocalist Axl Rose, guitarists Slash and Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steven Adler – rock music rediscovered its edge, rage and sense of danger. Guns n’ Roses rank alongside a handful of hard-rock bands with punk-rock attitudes – beginning with the Rolling Stones and extending through Aerosmith and AC/DC – that shook and shocked the world. They were uncompromising, tempestuous, explosive and controversial – everything but predictable.

The members of Guns n’ Roses were misfits who came together in Los Angeles in the mid-Eighties. William “Axl” Rose grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, as Bill Bailey. He adopted the surname Rose when he discovered his birth father’s identity. He was in a hometown band called Axl, which he took as his first name. After moving to Los Angeles, he legally changed his name to W. Axl Rose. An inveterate troublemaker, he claims to have been arrested more than 20 times in his hometown and to have spent as long as three months in jail. One of his best friends in Lafayette was Jeff Isbell aka Izzy Stradlin, who headed to Los Angeles after graduating high school. Rose hitchhiked west and joined him. British-born Slash, whose real name is Saul Hudson, grew up in L.A. with parents who worked as designers in music and film. Duff McKagan was a multi-instrumentalist who moved down from Seattle, where he’d played in numerous bands. McKagan met Slash via a musician’s ad in a local paper.

The name Guns n’ Roses was coined in 1985, when Tracii Guns (of L.A. Guns) joined Rose and Stradlin’s band, Hollywood Rose. After Guns left, they were joined by Slash, Adler and, finally, McKagan. This completed the classic lineup that recorded Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide – a four-song EP from 1986, issued on the group’s own Uzi Suicide label – and their full-length masterpiece, Appetite for Destruction, released on Geffen Records in July 1987. The group was signed to David Geffen’s namesake label by A&R staffers Tom Zutaut and Teresa Ensenat.

Read More: https://rockhall.com/inductees/guns-n-roses/bio/#sthash.xX4XVdsA.dpuf