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Home , Axl Rose, Buckethead, Izzy Stradlin, Nightrain, Slash (autobiography), Slash (musician)

Sex, Drugs, Violence, More Sex & Rock & Roll The 20 wildest GNR moments – from Axl punching to ’s mountain lion to multiple riots

sleeping loft, we’d ransack DummyMan’s best the girl’s purse while he was Leadin Fill Guns N’ Roses Turn friend: Slash doing her.” herein L.A., with 1986 a Alley dummy here Into a Den of Sin fill here Summer 1985 Axl Sees Red n the band’s earli- March 26th, 1986 est, rawest years, the I members of Guns N’ xl rose didn’t Roses slept in a $400-a- wait to get famous be- month storage space and A fore he started throw- threw raucous parties in the ing tantrums. On GNR’s sign- alley outside (which the city ing day with , of Los Angeles designat- the singer misplaced his con- ed Lot Number 619). It soon tact lenses – and stormed out developed a reputation for of his apartment sure someone all kinds of mayhem – mug- had stolen them so he couldn’t gings, fights, prostitution, read his contract. Slash and bogus drugs and overdos- manager es. “We sold drugs. We sold found the lenses, then discov- girls,” Izzy Strad- ered Rose down the street, sit- lin recalled in the 2008 book ting meditatively cross-legged DUMMY TK Watch You Bleed: The Saga of atop the . “It TKLEATHER LEADIN  Guns N’ Roses. “If one of the was kind of the status quo,” Fill MESSIAHhere with guys was fucking a girl in our Hamilton recalled. dummyRose captionin 1986

74 | Guns N’ Roses | Special Collectors Edition Plaza hotel two days before what they do as long as they’re tack: “I was still high enough legedly assaulted the wife No Axl, No Problem? Christmas in 1987. According not forcing it upon me.” that I told the story without a of Crüe singer Vince Neil. October 23rd, 1986 to Adler’s memoir, My Appe- shred of self-consciousness.” After GNR’s performance of tite for Destruction, the drum- “Heartbreak Hotel” with Tom hen guns open- mer left the room to shoot up, Axl Won’t Come Out Petty at the 1989 VMAs, Neil ed for Alice Coo- and when he came back, the of His Room ’s jumped out of the crowd in W per in 1986, they door would hardly budge – December 1988 Mile-High Mishap an attempt to punch Stradlin performed entirely without Sixx’s purple, unconscious August 27th, 1989 in the face. Stradlin walked Rose: He arrived late to the body was blocking it. Adler’s n 1988, while on tour away with a cut from Neil’s Arlington Theatre in Santa hand was still in a cast, but in Japan, Rose locked was drunk in the ring, but more beef ensued. Barbara, , and was with one arm he dragged Sixx I himself in his hotel room middle of this bunch of Neil challenged the band turned away by secu­rity. Stra- into the shower. When cold for days and refused to speak ‘I senior-citizen types. I to a public fight, and Rose dlin took over vocals, impro- water didn’t revive him, Adler to anyone. He finally request- was smoking, and the stew- bragged in the press, “Vince, vising lyrics like “elephant smashed the OD’d bassist in ed a wake-up call, but fired ardess came over. I told her whichever way you want it, dick under my arms” in the face with his cast. The next the staffer who delivered it. As to fuck herself,” Stradlin said man: Guns, knives or fists, “,” and Slash asked day, while laid-up in the hospi- Slash told , in Vox magazine, recalling a whatever you want to do. I the audience if anyone could tal, Sixx called Adler, wonder- “Axl’s craziness drives me cra- flight from Indianapolis to don’t care.” come up and sing. “Basically, ing, “Dude, what happened? zier that it drives Axl.” L.A. “I was drinking so much that set was a drunken jam fit My face is killing me.” I had to take a piss. Man, it for a bar – except we were in seemed like I waited an hour. Smacked Actor an arena,” Slash recalled. “We Naked and Afraid So I pissed in the trash can October 10th, 1989 were friends with the crowd “One in a Million” 1989 instead.” The severity of the for a minute, but that quick- Offends Millions guitarist’s poor judgment be- n 1989, david bowie ly changed.” November 1988 n his memoir, slash came clear when the plane showed up on the video details “a long and night- made a stopover in Phoenix. I set of “It’s So Easy,” where ublic figures from I marish obsession with “Next thing I know, we’ve he showed a little too much in- Say Hi to the New Tipper Gore to Ar­senio heroin that lasted from 1989 landed, I’m walking out and I terest in Rose’s girlfriend Erin Backup Singer P Hall lined up to con- through 1991.” Perhaps the see 10 policemen. . . . And I re- Everly. Rose handled the sit- Spring 1987 demn Rose’s acoustic screed darkest episode of his addic- member thinking, ‘Uh-oh! I uation in the expected fash- “One in a Million” and its use tion took place at an Arizo- think I fucked up again.’ ” ion, punching the Thin White n 1987, adriana smith of words like “niggers” and na golf resort, when a drug Duke and throwing him off caught her boyfriend – “faggots.” Rose’s attempts to bender devolved into a hal- the set. Bowie quickly apolo- I GNR drummer Steven explain the song’s meaning lucinatory spree in which he Theatre of Pain gized, and the two patched up Adler – cheating. So when only added to the problem: believed he was being pur- September 6th, 1989 their differences. “We talked Rose invited the 19-year-old “Why can black people go up sued by “predators” with “rub- and went out to dinner, and into the studio to help with to each other and say ‘nigger,’ bery-looking dreadlocks.” A he beef between then went down to the China some last-minute overdubs on but when a white guy does it, naked Slash punched through Guns N’ Roses and Club,” Rose said. “Rocket Queen,” Smith didn’t all of a sudden it’s a big put- a glass door in order to flee T Mö t l e y mind that her contribution down?” The f-word? “I’ve had his room, then proceeded to Crüe dates to would be to moan as loud as some very bad experiences use a hotel maid as a “human a 1989 inci- Farm Accident possible while she and the with homosexuals. . . . [But] shield.” Later, he gave police dent when April 7th, 1990 singer had sex. “I didn’t want Loaded I’m not against them doing an account of the predator at- Stradlin al- to be around for recording gun: Rose, uns n’ roses’ a girl getting fucked,” mixer from the performance at Michael Barbiero told Spin. “Lot 619” G the Farm Aid IV “So I set up the mics and had days in benefit concert in Indi- my assistant record it.” Smith, L.A., 1985 ana was a train wreck who was drunk at the time, of epic propor- came to regret the incident, artist Robert Williams, which sounded just awful,” Strad- tions. “Steven saying the “shame and guilt” depicted a robot looming over lin told . “[Ad ler’s] [Adler] took a contributed to a struggle with a rape victim before being at- Decks a Streetlight . . . sense of swing . . . gave the run up to the addiction. She later became a tacked by a larger predator. “I December 1987 songs their feel.” drum riser, drug and alcohol counselor. suggested that they come over which is a pret- to my house and look through ne night in 1987, ty big platform some slides and pick some- Adler got into a that’s hard to . . . And Then Saves The Cover thing [else] for the cover, be- O drunken fistfight Nikki Sixx’s Life Controversy cause I knew they were gonna where he swung, missed, hit December 23rd, 1987 get in trouble with it,” the art- a streetlight and broke his The party July 21st, 1987 never ends: ist told Revolver. After multi- hand. To replace him on tour, lash, his girfriend GNR in he original cover ple retailers refused to carry Guns N’ Roses enlisted Cin- and Adler were inhal- L.A., 1985 art for Appetite for De- the product, Williams’ art was derella drummer . S ing a mountain of co- T struction features a eventually moved inside the “Fred played technically good caine with Mötley Crüe’s painting of the same name by ’s packaging. and steady, but the songs Nikki Sixx at L.A.’s Franklin

76 | Guns N’ Roses | Special Collectors Edition miss, and took flight,” Slash Your Illusion I and II: “Fuck in Los Angeles and filled it could watch porn while rec­ wrote in his memoir. Adler you, St. Louis!” with venomous snakes, liz- ording, a proclivity Rose re- later claimed he wasn’t pre- ards, eight cats and a moun- portedly found offensive. pared to play Rose’s choice of tain lion cub named Curtis. “I songs – the brand-new “Civil Oh, Canada installed a full-on reptile zoo War” and a cover of the U.K. August 8th, 1992 over there,” he recounts in his Guns N’ Roses’ Subs’ “Down on the Farm,” autobiography. “Just a gazil- Very Special which he didn’t even know. omethi ng w ick ed lion snakes and all kinds of Christmas Riot The band soldiered through, must have been in the stuff.” When an earthquake December 6th, 2002 however, with Rose bidding S air on this hot August hit California in 1994, his the crowd “Good fuckin’ night in Montreal. First, home was severely damaged, olstered by suc- night!” on live TV. It would be , of opening but all his animals survived. cessful comeback gigs the final live appearance of the act , suffered a py- Slash then retreated to the B in and Bra- classic GNR lineup. rotechnics accident, forcing Marina del Rey Four Seasons zil’s , Rose set out on a North American tour in 2002. But the trek Adler and Slash crashed and burned in Phil- snuggle down. adelphia, when Rose pulled one of his infamous no-shows and fans rioted. As rumors swirled throughout the arena that Rose was in New York watching a Knicks game, de- bris began to fly toward the stage – from seat cushions to metal chairs. In 2012, Rose would half-apologize during a redemptive show at Philly’s Electric Factory: “I got real- ly sick; it had nothing to do with fur coats or basketball games,” he said, adding, “I’m not saying I’m innocent.”

Axl Branches Out Into Fashion May 18th, 2006 the band to truncate its set. where he secretly holed up St. Louis Given the opportunity to save with Curtis. n perhaps the silli- July 2nd, 1991 the show, Guns waited for est punch-up in Rose’s more than three hours to take I combative career, the uring a show at st. the stage, then bailed due to Avoid the New Guy singer got whomped by Louis’ Riverport Am- sound problems – and Rose’s 2000 Tommy Hilfiger – a fashion D phitheatre, Rose be- sore throat – after nine songs. designer 11 years his senior – at came enraged when he spied A riot quickly broke out, in n 2000, rose hired the Plumm nightclub in New an unauthorized photogra- which more than 2,000 fans Brian Patrick Carroll – York, during a birthday party pher in the front row – and caused $400,000 in dam­ I a.k.a. – to fill for actress Rosario Dawson. grew more apoplectic when ages to the stadium, then con- the band’s vacant lead- Angered that Rose had moved security guards failed to con- tinued to wreak havoc in the spot. Buckethead, who wears his girlfriend’s drink without fiscate his camera. Rose dived area outside the arena. a KFC container on his nog- asking, Hilfiger decided the into the crowd and rained gin, insisted on recording his best defense was a good of- blows upon the photographer parts in a specially built chick- fense, and pummeled Rose be- before returning to the stage. en coop decorated with rubber fore security intervened. “He “Thanks to the lame-ass secu- January 1994 chicken parts. When Rose’s had a huge ring on,” Hilfiger rity, I’m going home!” he an- pet wolf puppy pooped in the recalled in 2010. “He wears all nounced before permanent- n the early nineties, cage, the guitarist refused to this jewelry. [I’m thinking], ly exiting the stage. Dozens of Slash worked on kicking let anyone clean it, claiming ‘If I get hit, it’s over. No teeth, fans were injured in the ensu- I his drug habit and trying that he loved the scent. For a no eye.’ So I hit him before he YOU’RE ing melee. Rose offered his re- to adapt to a quieter domes- while, Buckethead also kept a hit me. It was self-protection. HIRED  Rose with sponse in the liner notes of Use tic life. He bought a new home TV monitor in his coop so he Now we’re friends.” Pamela Manning in contributors: Dan Epstein, Keith Harris, Joseph Hudak, Maura Johnston, Katherine Love and Wallace Morgan L.A., 1986

78 | Guns N’ Roses | Special Collectors Edition