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Guns N' Roses |
Biography |
Early in 1985, Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin formed Guns N' Roses. The band brought with them Rob Gardner from their former band, Hollywood Rose, and added Tracii Guns on guitar and Duff McKagan on bass. Shortly after guitarist Slash and drummer Steven Adler were brought in to replace Tracii and Rob. Guns N' Roses released their debut album, "Appetite For Destruction", in July, 1987. Despite selling bad at first, the album went on to be the best selling debut album by any band at the time, with a total around 30 million sold. The album also featured the major hit singles "Sweet Child O' Mine", "Paradise City" and "Welcome To The Jungle". After releasing the double EP "G N' R Lies" in 1988 and "Use Your Illusion" 1 and 2 in 1991, GnR started falling apart, just like many had predicted. The first member to leave was drummer Steven Adler (who left before "Use Your Illusion"), due to heavy drug abuse. Within the next years, Adler was followed by guitarist Izzy Stradlin, and Izzy's replacement Gilby Clarke. By 1997, Axl Rose was the only original member left of the band (after Duff McKagan and Slash left, while Adler's replacement, Matt Sorum, was fired). Rose started rebuilding the band, adding Robin Finck, Josh Freese, Chris Pitman and Tommy Stinson to the line-up that already featured Dizzy Read and Paul Tobias. Over the next years, the band both worked on "Chinese Democracy" - one of the most anticipated albums of all time - and dealt with line-up changes: Freese and Tobias left and in came Buckethead, Brain and Richard Fortus. Buckethead also left, and in came Ron Thal. In the summer of 2006, the band completed a successful tour in Europe. Original guitarist Izzy Stradlin travelled with the band and joined them on stage several times. Izzy who has previously said that he never truly quit the band, may bring the band back where it started once again. Over the summer, the release of the album was also reported to be closer than ever. |
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