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Dizzy Reed

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Dizzy Reed
Dizzy Reed, 2006
Dizzy Reed, 2006
Background information
Birth name Darren Arthur Reed
Born June 18, 1963 (1963-06-18) (age 45)
Hinsdale, Illinois
Genre(s) Hard rock
Occupation(s) Musician
Instrument(s) Keyboards, Piano, Guitar, Organ, Bass, Mellotron, Calliope, Hammond organ, Percussion
Years active 1990-Present
Label(s) Geffen
Associated acts Guns N' Roses, Slash's Snakepit, Gilby Clarke, Tommy Stinson, Hookers N' Blow
Website www.gunsnroses.com

Dizzy Reed (born Darren Arthur Reed, June 18, 1963 in Hinsdale, Illinois) is a contemporary rock musician. He is best known for his tenure as the keyboardist for the rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he has played, toured and recorded since 1990. Aside from frontman Axl Rose, Reed is the only member of Guns N' Roses to remain from the band's Use Your Illusion era.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Early life
* 2 Music career
o 2.1 Work outside Guns N' Roses
* 3 Personal life
* 4 Discography
o 4.1 With Guns N' Roses
o 4.2 Guest appearances
* 5 References
o 5.1 Footnotes
o 5.2 External links

[edit] Early life

Reed was born as Darren Arthur Reed on June 18, 1963 in Hinsdale, Illinois, and was raised in Colorado.[1] As a child, Reed was described as reclusive and introverted. His grandmother began teaching him to play the organ when he was a young child, and before he was out of elementary school, he formed small local bands.[2][1] At the age of fifteen, he took up keyboard playing as a release from the constant bullying he endured at school.

[edit] Music career

As an adult, Reed pursued a music career in Los Angeles. He was a founding member of the club band The Wild in the late 1980s, with whom he spent five years[3]. He also replaced August Worchell as the guitarist of the group Johnny Crash although the band split up shortly after he joined.

Reed met the original lineup of Guns N' Roses in 1985; his band, The Wild, rehearsed in a neighboring studio.[1] He kept in touch, and in 1990 was invited by friend Axl Rose to join the group for the recording of the two Use Your Illusion albums. His induction into GN'R was far from smooth: former bandmates Slash and Izzy have said that no one in the band but Axl talked to Reed for the first two weeks.[4]

In spite of the rough start, Reed soon became an accepted member of the group. As a member of Guns N' Roses, Reed has become well-known for his keyboard work on such songs as November Rain, Estranged and Civil War, as well his contributions to some of the band's new tracks, including "I.R.S", "Madagascar", "Silkworms" and "Street of Dreams". When not playing keyboards, Reed frequently provides backup on percussion during live Guns N' Roses performances.

Dizzy continues to record and play live with the current Guns N' Roses line-up, and has now been a member of Guns N' Roses longer than any other member besides Axl Rose. Since he joined the band in 1990, five years after its formation in 1985, he cannot be described as an original member. However, apart from Rose, he remains the only remaining link to the Use Your Illusion era and Guns N' Roses's heyday in the early 1990s.

[edit] Work outside Guns N' Roses

Outside of Guns N' Roses, Reed played on albums for his former bandmates Slash, Duff McKagan, and Gilby Clarke. He also guested on current Guns N' Roses bassist Tommy Stinson's 2004 solo effort Village Gorilla Head. Reed is additionally a fan of Larry Norman, a pioneer of Christian Music, and played on Norman's Copper Wires album. Most recently, he has composed music for the film scores The Still Life, released in August 2007, and Celebrity Art Show (2008).

When he is not touring or recording with Guns N' Roses, Reed frequently tours with his hard rock cover band Hookers N' Blow, in which he plays keyboard and guitar and occasionally sings lead vocals. For his work with Hookers N' Blow, Reed was named Outstanding Keyboardist of the Year at the 2007 Rock City Awards ("Rockies"). Hookers N' Blow was also named Best Cover Band.[5]

Reed has also dabbled in acting, appearing as 'Mumbles' in the 2005 film Charlie's Death Wish.[6][7]

Before Guns he was in a band called Wild and release an album called Wild 1, featuring great rock songs like Motor Angel, High Rider, She drew blood, Hot 4 love and Mean Dream Queen.

[edit] Personal life

Reed has been married to Lisa, an author and teacher, since 1991. They have two children. When not touring, he likes to unwind by spending time with his wife, describing himself as very faithful to her and his children.

In 2005, Reed took the unusual step of seeking admission to a college fraternity well after the traditional age of inductees, and on January 22, 2006 was admitted to the Cornell University chapter of Zeta Psi.[8][6]

[edit] Discography

[edit] With Guns N' Roses
Title Release Date Label
Use Your Illusion I 1991 Geffen
Use Your Illusion II 1991 Geffen
"The Spaghetti Incident?" 1993 Geffen
Use Your Illusion 1998 Geffen
Live Era: '87-'93 1999 Geffen
Greatest Hits 2004 Geffen
Chinese Democracy 2008 Geffen

[edit] Guest appearances
Title Artist Release Date Label
Coneheads soundtrack Various Artists 1993 Warner Bros.
Believe In Me Duff McKagan 1993 Geffen Records
Pawnshop Guitars Gilby Clarke 1994 Virgin
It's Five O'Clock Somewhere Slash's Snakepit 1995 Fontana Records
Playtime Michael Zentner 1995 Warped Disc
Not What I Had Planned Maissa 1996 Sonic
Steinway to Heaven Various Artists 1997 Magna Carta
Copper Wires Larry Norman 1996 Solid Rock Records
Electrovision Doug Aldrich 2001 Pony Canyon
Hammered Motörhead 2002 Castle
Ready To Go Bang Tango 2004 Shrapnel
Village Gorilla Head Tommy Stinson 2004 EMI
Strangeland Court Jester 2006 Cellar Records
Gilby Clarke Gilby Clarke 2007 Spitfire
Backyard Babies Backyard Babies 2008 Universal

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ a b c "This week in local music: Dizzy Reed's Hollywood Bulldozer: Interview with Kate Bredimus.". Richmond.com. September 16, 2004. http://www.richmond.com/music/output.aspx?Article_ID=3249415&Vertical_ID=2&tier=1&position=3. Retrieved on 2007-02-22.
2. ^ "Dizzy up the Girl": Interview with Debbie Rao.". glammetal.com. May 9, 2004. http://www.glam-metal.com/dizzyreed.html. Retrieved on 2007-02-22.
3. ^ "Dizzy Interviewed". Rock Journal. July 11, 2004. http://www.gnrlies.com/dizzyinterview.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-30.
4. ^ "Interview in Vox". Vox. 1991. http://www.heretodaygonetohell.com/articles/showarticle.php?articleid=71. Retrieved on 2008-06-16.
5. ^ "Rockies 2007 list of winners". Rock City News. December 2007. http://www.rockcitynews.com/awards/awards07.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-30.
6. ^ a b "Dizzy Reed does marathon interview". Metal Sludge. January 29, 2006. http://www.metalsludge.tv/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1152&Itemid=42. Retrieved on 2007-12-30.
7. ^ Dizzy Reed at the IMDB
8. ^ "Famous Zetes". Zeta Psi Fraternity website. http://alpha.zetasite.com/about-famous.php. Retrieved on 2007-12-30.

[edit] External links

* gunsnroses.com - Official Guns N' Roses website
* Dizzy Reed at the IMDB

Matt Sorum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Matthew William Sorum (born November 19, 1960, in Mission Viejo, California) is an American hard rock drummer and percussionist. Sorum is most famous for his 7-year stint in Guns N' Roses (1990-1997). Matt currently is playing drums for supergroup Velvet Revolver (2002-present), which features former GN'R members Duff McKagan (bass) and Slash (lead guitar).
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Biography
o 1.1 Early career (1960-1989)
o 1.2 Guns N' Roses (1990-1997)
o 1.3 Velvet Revolver (2002-present)
o 1.4 Other ventures
* 2 Endorsements
* 3 Discography
o 3.1 With Hawk
o 3.2 With Jeff Paris
o 3.3 With Y Kant Tori Read
o 3.4 With Johnny Crash
o 3.5 With Guns N' Roses
o 3.6 With Slash's Snakepit
o 3.7 With Neurotic Outsiders
o 3.8 With The Cult
o 3.9 With Velvet Revolver
o 3.10 Solo
* 4 References
* 5 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early career (1960-1989)

Matt Sorum was born Matthew William Sorum (Norwegian spelling Sørum), on November 19, 1960, in Mission Viejo, California. His parents were of English and Norwegian descent. In his first couple of years in high school, Sorum was part of the Mission Viejo Marching Bands drum section. Sorum started out in Mission Viejo as a local hot musician in 1975. Wearing trademark "Union Flag" shorts and nothing else, he used to pound a huge acrylic drumset and overpower his first band "Prophecy", where he and lead singer / guitarist, Jeff Paris, stood out and the rest of the band just disappeared. A local songwriter, Stephen Douglas, pulled him from the band and joined him with other talented musicians in the area to form "Chateau", a wall-of-sound band with grandiose themes and sounds in their songs. Chateau played the Hollywood circuit, appearing at Gazzarri's and almost getting into a fight with the original members of the band Ratt, which at the time was known as "Mickey Ratt".[citation needed]

Sorum's work with Chateau produced a four song set that was covered by local radio stations for a short time, but the music scene changed from grandiose rock to punk and alternative new wave music. Sorum left and went to Hollywood to play with a series of bands, including "Population Five", with the bassist Prescott Niles from The Knack, . He then left on a tour around the country with a blues guitarist, playing nightclubs and bars.

In 1988, he was recruited to play on the debut album of Y Kant Tori Read, a band fronted by a then unknown Tori Amos. In the wake of that project, he joined The Cult as their live drummer for the 1989 tour in support of Sonic Temple.

[edit] Guns N' Roses (1990-1997)

In 1989, after Slash saw Sorum live with The Cult on their Sonic Temple tour, he was impressed and shortly after Sorum joined Guns N' Roses in 1990 as Steven Adler's replacement.

Sorum with Guns N' Roses can be heard on Use Your Illusion I, Use Your Illusion II (excluding the track "Civil War"), "The Spaghetti Incident?", the 1994 cover of the Rolling Stones track "Sympathy for the Devil" and the majority of Live Era: '87-'93. Sorum featured fully on the lengthy Use Your Illusion Tour, drumming on all of the 192 shows, 8 legs and to over 7 million fans.

In 1995 with Slash and Gilby Clarke he formed Slash's Snakepit and drummed on their debut album It's Five O'Clock Somewhere. Sorum also lent his drumming skills in the theme song for the 1995 20th Century Fox film, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. In the same year Matt formed the supergroup Neurotic Outsiders, which featured fellow bandmate Duff McKagan where they released their only album, self titled Neurotic Outsiders. John Taylor (Duran Duran) and Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) also participated on this album, and toured. Early performances featured guest spots by Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran), Slash, and Billy Idol.

In 1997 he was fired from Guns N' Roses by Axl Rose after defending departed lead guitarist Slash in an argument with Rose and Paul Tobias. In 1998, he released his first and only drum instructional video (Drum Licks and Tricks from the Rock n Roll Jungle) demonstrating his techniques. In 2001 Matt joined The Cult once again and featured on their album, Beyond Good And Evil, which he spent most of 2001 touring in support of the album.

In April 2006, nine years after leaving Guns N' Roses, Sorum re-established his friendship with the band's frontman Axl Rose.[1]

[edit] Velvet Revolver (2002-present)

In 2002, Sorum reunited with Slash and bassist Duff McKagan for a charity benefit. Realizing that they still had chemistry together, they formed a new band called Velvet Revolver with former STP frontman, Scott Weiland and rhythm guitarist Dave Kushner. After the 2004 release of their debut album Contraband, they embarked on a worldwide tour that continued through December 2005. In August 2005, Sorum broke his wrist in a boating accident, stalling the tour temporarily. While recovering from the wrist injury the drummer Brian Tichy and Mark Schulman filled in for him.

After taking some time off in 2006, Sorum and the rest of the band returned to the studio in December to record Libertad, Velvet Revolver's second album, released July 3, 2007. Sorum toured with the band, until Singer Scott Weiland left the band on April 1, 2008 to reunite with his STP bandmates.

[edit] Other ventures

In addition to those projects Sorum released his first solo album entitled Hollywood Zen, in 2003. The album, available through his website, was a musical statement about his life, touring, relationships, etc. In the same year, Sorum also began playing with newly formed Camp Freddy. In 1994, Sorum was one of many guest drummers on the album, "Burning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich". Playing with the Buddy Rich Big Band, Sorum was able to display his skill and finnesse as a jazz drummer.

In addition, Sorum has endorsed Zildjian cymbals for the past 18 years and has featured in numerous sweepstakes with Zildjian.

In 2006, Sorum began guest recording in his studio with a new project, called Circus Diablo. That year, he also launched a clothing line, SorumNoce.

On June 4, 2008, Sorum revealed Camp Freddy is working on an album.[2]

[edit] Endorsements

Sorum has endorsed a number of drum companies over the last 20 years, with these being Yamaha Drums, Mapex, Drum Workshop and Ludwig. He also has used Zildjian cymbals over the last 20 years.

Sorum was one of the first drummers to endorse the Easton Ahead sticks in the early 90s during the Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion Tour, sticks which are now used by many metal drummers, including Lars Ulrich of Metallica, Joey Jordison of Slipknot and Tico Torres of Bon Jovi. Now, he uses his own Zildjian Matt Sorum Signature wood sticks.

[edit] Discography

[edit] With Hawk

* Hawk (1986)

[edit] With Jeff Paris

* Wired Up (1987)

[edit] With Y Kant Tori Read

* Y Kant Tori Read (1988)

[edit] With Johnny Crash

* Unfinished Business (2008)

[edit] With Guns N' Roses

* Use Your Illusion I (1991)
* Use Your Illusion II (1991)
* "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993)
* Live Era: '87-'93 (1999)
* Greatest Hits (2004)

[edit] With Slash's Snakepit

* It's Five O'Clock Somewhere (1995)

[edit] With Neurotic Outsiders

* Neurotic Outsiders (1996)

[edit] With The Cult

* Beyond Good And Evil (2001)

[edit] With Velvet Revolver

* Contraband (2004)
* Libertad (2007)

[edit] Solo

* Hollywood Zen (2003)

[edit] References

1. ^ "MATT SORUM Hangs Out With AXL ROSE In New York City". Blabbermouth.net. April 14, 2006. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=50974. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
2. ^ Setting Up Camp: Drummer Matt Sorum Tells Buzznet About Camp Freddy's Origins

[edit] External links

* Official website
* Matt Sorum at MySpace

Duff McKagan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Andrew "Duff" McKagan (born February 5, 1964) is an American musician and rock bassist, who is best known for his thirteen-year tenure in the hard rock band Guns N' Roses. He is currently the bassist for the hard rock band Velvet Revolver, lead vocalist and guitarist for his own solo punk rock project Duff McKagan's Loaded, and a weekly columnist for SeattleWeekly.com[1]. He also writes a weekly financial column for Playboy.com called Duffonomics.[2] Duff has recently been granted a one hour radio spot on Seattle rock station KISW. The segment is called "Duff's Radio Loaded" (a spin off of his solo project's name) and will air every tuesday at 10am. Interviews and sit-ins are featured with musicians that Duff has known and worked with, as well as jam sessions. The pilot episode aired on tuesday May 12, 2009.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Biography
o 1.1 Early years (1964-1985)
o 1.2 Guns N' Roses (1985-1998)
o 1.3 Solo years (1993-2002)
o 1.4 Velvet Revolver (2002-Present)
o 1.5 Other appearances
* 2 Equipment
o 2.1 Bass guitars
o 2.2 Amplification
* 3 Discography
o 3.1 With Burden Brothers
o 3.2 With Fastbacks
o 3.3 With The Living
o 3.4 With The Fartz
o 3.5 With Iggy Pop
o 3.6 With Guns N' Roses
o 3.7 Solo
o 3.8 With Teddy Andreadis
o 3.9 With Neurotic Outsiders
o 3.10 With The Outpatience
o 3.11 With Izzy Stradlin
o 3.12 With 10 Minute Warning
o 3.13 With Loaded
o 3.14 With The Racketeers
o 3.15 With Zilch
o 3.16 With Mark Lanegan
o 3.17 With Velvet Revolver
* 4 References

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years (1964-1985)

Michael Andrew McKagan was born in Seattle, Washington, the youngest of eight children born to Elmer (Mac) and Alice (Marie) McKagan. They were a musical family with every member playing at least one instrument. It was his brother Bruce who taught him his first bass lines, though he developed his own skills playing along to 1999 by Prince and Black Flag's Damaged.

Although best known as a bass player, Duff also played drums in several bands, including a stint with Seattle pop-punk band the Fastbacks (which he joined at the age of 16 in 1978)and The Vains with Chris Utting.Between 1979 and 1982 he lead and played guitar in punk band The Living who opened shows for Husker Du and DOA and had a devoted following.Initially the band included Chris Utting (The Vains)and Duff and Chris would switch on drums and guitar to play songs penned by John Conte, Chris and Duff.By 1980, Chris was out of the band so Duff could focus on guitar and newcomer Greg Gilmore was brought in as full time drummer at which point the band became considerably more powerful and focused.The band played numerous shows and recorded as yet unreleased demos.The Living were notable for the presence of future Mother Love Bone drummer Greg Gilmore (as well as Todd Fleischman and charismatic frontman John Conte.) It could be argued that the seed of "grunge" began with the Living as they combined Clash/Bad Brains style punk with more classic rock, midtempo songs and glam covers and were easily the most notorious band in Seattle at the time (besides The Fartz).After the demise of The Living Duff played in The Fartz before both Duff and Greg Gilmore joined up with The Fartz to form 10 Minute Warning, which also included future Skinyard bassist Daniel House. 10 Minute Warning soon replaced Fartz singer Blaine with Steve Verewolf.At the time, Greg Gilmore also played in the heavy psychedelic band Chubby Children before moving on to Mother Love Bone.Besides drums and bass, McKagan also has the ability to play other musical instruments: he plays guitar and even played piano on the song "Misery" from the Loaded album Dark Days.

Answering an ad for a bass player in a local magazine, McKagan headed to California, at age nineteen. In california, he met guitar player Slash and drummer Steven Adler of the band Road Crew at L.A.'s legendary 24-hour deli and rock hangout, Canter's. Duff expected some punk with a penchant for '70s rock, but found two long-haired guys instead.
“ When I met Slash and Steve Adler for the first time", he said, "it was weird, 'cause I'd never met guys like this before — L.A. locals. We went out that night and got drunk, and then we had this ill-fated band. It was Slash's band, Road Crew. ”

He describes his home city as "a rowdy rock 'n' roll town with a hip underground."

[edit] Guns N' Roses (1985-1998)

From the wreckage of the bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin joined Tracii Guns, Ole Beich, and Rob Gardner to form Guns N' Roses. Initially formed to meet booked gigs for the disbanded acts, the new line-up was finalized on June 6, 1985. Duff became the band's bassist, replacing Ole Beich, and after two days of rehearsal, the newly formed group played their debut gig as GN'R on a Thursday night at the Troubadour. As with ex-rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, McKagan also had his crack at handling lead vocals on GN'R songs such as Use Your Illusion II's "So Fine" and a handful of songs off of the cover album The Spaghetti Incident?, including live favorite "Attitude", originally by The Misfits.

He brought his punk rock influences to the group, being a huge fan of Sex Pistols, Ramones, and The Clash; even citing Paul Simonon of the Clash as his favorite bassist. He is also a huge fan of Sid Vicious.

He married for the first time on May 28, 1988 to Mandy Brix, a hostess in an L.A. Japanese restaurant, who also had her own all female rap-trio, "The Lame Flames." They were divorced in 1990. He married again in September 1992 to Linda Johnson, and divorced in September 1996.

Plagued by drug and alcohol addiction, McKagan survived for 13 years in the highly volatile band before finally resigning in early 1998. McKagan's departure left Rose as the sole member left from their classic line-up. He stopped using drugs because of a failing liver.

McKagan is also known for his alcohol induced acceptance at the 1990 American Music Awards. Upon receipt of GN'R's second award, McKagan and Slash stumbled to the stage appearing very drunk, holding drinks, and smoking cigarettes. Within a span of 20 seconds, Slash managed to curse twice in his slurred speech before being interrupted by a music overdub and positioning of a camera on a curtain with the AMA logo. After the first "fucker", an audible gasp was heard from the crowd, prompting Slash to cover his mouth and laughingly utter an "oops." Duff laughed along with him. Since then, many live shows are delayed a few seconds to prevent a similar incident.

Adler and Izzy departed the band in 1990 and 1992, respectively. Meanwhile, in 1990, Duff and Slash co-wrote and played a few songs on Iggy Pop's "Brick by Brick."

[edit] Solo years (1993-2002)

After a half-hearted attempt at drug rehabilitation, he kick-started a solo career with 1993's Believe in Me. In 1994, McKagan's pancreas had swelled to football sized dimensions (due to acute alcohol-induced pancreatitis) and he underwent emergency surgery at Northwest Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle, WA. The doctors told him that if he did not quit drinking, he would be dead within a month, so McKagan quickly became sober.[3] Duff was also one of the last people to see musician Kurt Cobain alive.

In 1995 he collaborated with Slash in his solo project "Slash's Snakepit", co-writing a song called "Beggars and Hangers-On", which he played live at the Palace during a Snakepit show in May of that year. He would go on to form Neurotic Outsiders, an alternative rock super-group consisting of GN'R drummer Matt Sorum, "Sex Pistols" guitarist Steve Jones, and John Taylor of Duran Duran on bass. They played the L.A clubs circuit in the late 90s, and toured the U.S. in 1996. A self-titled album was released in September 1996. After that, he put back together 10 Minute Warning, the band he played in before joining Guns N' Roses. They recorded some of their songs to release an album with the Seattle-based label Sub Pop, published May 5, 1998.

In the years that followed, McKagan became a father and concentrated on his solo career. He recruited Abe Laboriel Jr., Michael Barragan, and Izzy Stradlin to help him record Beautiful Disease, with a 1999 release on Geffen Records. However, this album was never released due to a merger between Geffen and Interscope, which caused McKagan to be dropped from the label. Despite this, he went on tour recruiting former Black Flag's Dez Cadena, ex Twisted Roots' Paul Roessler, and former Morning Glories' Michael Barragan.

Duff also tried an acting career in 1997. He had a part in the TV serial Sliders, which aired in May of that year, as a dead rocker vampire.

On August 27, 1997, he had his first child, Grace, with model/swimsuit designer Susan Holmes. They married on August 28, 1999. On July 16, 2000, they had their second child, another girl, Mae Marie.

Duff was living between Los Angeles and Seattle from 1994 to 1999, because his mother was battling Parkinson's disease and he felt he had to be with her. His mother died in early April 1999 and since then, he has lived in Seattle.

McKagan had turned his royalties from Guns n' Roses into a small fortune after he invested his money into Microsoft and Starbucks, a move which paid huge dividends. Growing more interested in finance, he earned his GED, then enrolled in community college, eventually graduating from Seattle University with a degree in finance.

In 1999, he recruited drummer Geoff Reading (New American Shame), guitarist Dave Dederer (The Presidents of the United States of America), and keyboardist Martin Feveyear to form Loaded. They recorded the album Episode 1999: Live, which was sold only through their web site.

Then, he participated to the album Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper, and helped his former GN'R bandmate Izzy Stradlin with the album Ride On.

In 2000, he put together another band called Mad for the Racket, also known as The Racketeers, with MC5's Wayne Kramer and Damned's Brian James. For a drummer, they recruited several guest stars, such as Stewart Copeland (Police), Clem Burke (Blondie), and Brock Avery. In 2001, he reunited with Loaded for the club circuit in Seattle. He also ran a marathon in 2001 with bib number "11468."

In August 2001, a new version of Loaded, with Michael James Squires on guitars and Jeff Rouse on bass, toured Japan during his spring breaks while getting his Bachelor's Degree and released the album Dark Days, a mix of new material and re-recorded tracks from the unreleased album Beautiful Disease. Duff also toured Japan with Izzy Stradlin to support Izzy's new album River. Duff also appeared with J, ex-Luna Sea bassist, in a number of magazines and venues during his tour in Japan that J opened for.

Duff produced the controversial debut EP Get Off by Betty Blowtorch and also appeared in the documentary film Betty Blowtorch And Her Amazing True Life Adventures, directed by Anthony Scarpa.

[edit] Velvet Revolver (2002-Present)

Since April 2002, Duff has played bass guitar for the group Velvet Revolver together with ex-Guns N' Roses' members, Slash and Matt Sorum, as well as guitarist Dave Kushner and former Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland. Their debut album Contraband was released in 2004 and peaked at the top of the Billboard 200 chart. The group's second album, entitled Libertad, was released on July 3, 2007. McKagan toured with the band, until Singer Scott Weiland left the band on April 1, 2008, to reunite with Stone Temple Pilots.

[edit] Other appearances

Duff has more recently been seen playing bass with The Presidents of the United States of America.

Duff made an appearance playing guitar for Alice in Chains for VH1 Decades of Rock Live show. He also played some songs on Zilch's album Skyjin, a tribute to hide.

In 2001 Duff appeared on Mark Lanegans fifth solo album Field Songs and in 2004 Duff also appeared on the Mark Lanegan Band album Bubblegum along with Izzy Stradlin.

In 2009 Duff appeared at his daughters school, The Buckley School's benefit charity concert and Loaded members Mike Squires and Jeff Rouse, where they covered Knockin' on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan.

Duff has started doing an occasional hour-long radio show on KISW 99.9FM in Seattle called 'Duff McKagan's Radio-Loaded.'

[edit] Equipment

[edit] Bass guitars

McKagan's longtime main bass was a white mid-'80s Fender Jazz Bass Special, which had been pieced together with an ash body, a maple neck and a rosewood fretboard. Currently McKagan only uses it during recordings. The bass has also been replicated and released as a Duff McKagan signature P Bass[4] model in October 2007 by Fender, several copies of this bass were also built by the Fender Custom Shop in the original and various other finishes to be used during tours. McKagan has also become a fan of the new Fender Aerodyne bass as well as the more expensive Duesenberg Star basses. In the past, he used Kramer basses, most notably in the Sweet Child O' Mine video and a Gibson Les Paul standard bass. He exclusivley uses Seymour Duncan Pickups and Rotosound swingbass strings. In addition to bass McKagan also plays an acoustic Gibson J200 various acoustic songs such as Patience.

[edit] Amplification

McKagan has been using Gallien-Krueger amplifiers throughout his entire career, his first being a GK400RB model. He used up to four Gallien-Krueger 800RB heads with GK 4x10 and 1x15 cabinets with Guns N' Roses. His current set up includes a Gallien-Krueger solid state 2001RB head, however a second head is brought along as a backup. His signal is then fed to four GK 4x10RBH which gives him sixteen speakers being run by one head putting out 2000 watts. For effects he usually only uses a chorus effect most often a Yamaha SPX-90 or occasionally a Boss pedal.[5] Other effect he's been known to use are the Z-vex Wooley Mammoth fuzz and an MXR M-80.

[edit] Discography

[edit] With Burden Brothers

* Queen O' Spades (2002)

[edit] With Fastbacks

* It's Your Birthday (1979)

[edit] With The Living

* 7 song demo (1982) (as yet unreleased)

[edit] With The Fartz

* You We See Crawling (1982)
* Because This Fuckin' World Still Stinks (1998)

[edit] With Iggy Pop

* Brick by Brick (Tracks 1, 5, 11, 12) (1990)

[edit] With Guns N' Roses

* Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide (1986)
* Appetite for Destruction (1987)
* EP (1987)
* G N' R Lies (1988)
* Use Your Illusion I (1991)
* Use Your Illusion II (1991)
* "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993)
* Live Era: '87–'93 (Live) (1999)
* Greatest Hits (2004)

[edit] Solo

* Believe in Me (1993)
* Beautiful Disease (1999)

[edit] With Teddy Andreadis

* Innocent loser (Tracks 8) (1996)

[edit] With Neurotic Outsiders

* Neurotic Outsiders (1996)

[edit] With The Outpatience

* Anxious Disease (1996)

[edit] With Izzy Stradlin

* 117° (1998)
* Ride On (1999)
* River (2001)
* On Down the Road (2002)
* Concrete (2008)

[edit] With 10 Minute Warning

* 10 Minute Warning (1998)

[edit] With Loaded

* Episode 1999: Live (1999)
* Dark Days (2001)
* Wasted Heart EP (2008)
* Sick (2009)

[edit] With The Racketeers

* Mad For The Racket (2000)

[edit] With Zilch

* Sky Jin (Tracks 4, 6, 7, 10) (2001)

[edit] With Mark Lanegan

* Field Songs (Track 12) (2001)
* Bubblegum (Track 7) (2004)

[edit] With Velvet Revolver

* Contraband (2004)
* Melody and the Tyranny (2007)
* Libertad (2007)

Gilby Clarke

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gilby Clarke is a guitarist and record producer, born in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 17, 1962. He spent his childhood playing with musical instruments and neglecting school. He is also married to one of the deans of Rock of Love: Charm School Daniella Clarke.

He is best known for a 3-year tenure as the rhythm guitarist of Guns N' Roses. He joined Guns N' Roses in November 1991, replacing Izzy Stradlin, who quit the band in the middle of a 28-month world tour.

He has also played with Rock Star Supernova, Heart, Nancy Sinatra, Slash's Snakepit, Kathy Valentine (of the Go-Go's) and the reformed MC5 on their 2005 European tour.

Clarke has produced for various types of artists, including L.A. Guns, Bullets and Octane, The Bronx, Girlsplayboys , Vains of Jenna and Ladyjack amongst others.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Pre-Guns N' Roses Era (1985-1991)
* 2 Guns N' Roses (1991-1994)
* 3 Solo career (1994-2006)
* 4 Rockstar: Supernova (2006-Present)
* 5 Discography
o 5.1 Albums and EPs
+ 5.1.1 Solo
+ 5.1.2 With Candy
+ 5.1.3 With Kill For Thrills
+ 5.1.4 With Guns N' Roses
+ 5.1.5 With Slash's Snakepit
+ 5.1.6 With Col. Parker
+ 5.1.7 With Nancy Sinatra
+ 5.1.8 With Rock Star Supernova
* 6 References
* 7 External links

[edit] Pre-Guns N' Roses Era (1985-1991)

Gilby Clarke started his musical career during the first half of the Eighties, replacing Candy's original guitarist, Geoff "Rexx" Siegel. He left them to form Kill For Thrills, a mainstream metal band which released the EP Commercial Suicide and the LP Dynamite from Nightmareland and then disbanded.

[edit] Guns N' Roses (1991-1994)

In November 1991 Clarke joined Guns N' Roses, following the departure of their original rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin. Ironically, Clarke had been friends with Stradlin when he first moved to L.A. In another ironic twist, for years Rose had confused Clarke with another person he had met. When Stradlin brought up forming a band with Clarke, Rose, thinking of the wrong person, said that he was cool enough, but wasn't keen on the idea of forming a band with him. When Stradlin departed after the end of Guns' European tour, Rose finally met Clarke for real. Rose wasn't entirely sure about bringing him into the band, until he heard him jamming on "Coma", which made up his mind.[1]

He toured extensively with the band on their huge Use Your Illusion Tour between 1991 and 1993 and appeared on the Guns N' Roses covers album "The Spaghetti Incident?", Live Era: '87-'93 & Greatest Hits.

Gilby's first video with Guns N' Roses was November Rain. He also appeared in Live in Tokyo 1 & 2, Welcome to the Videos, as well as the Making of November Rain and Making of Estranged.

Gilby received MTV's Video Vanguard award as a member of Guns N' Roses.

Shortly before the band recorded a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" for the film Interview with the Vampire, Clarke was replaced by lead singer Axl Rose's long-time friend Paul Tobias.

In a bizarre twist,[vague] Clarke collaborated with guitarist Tracii Guns on the album The Roots of Guns N' Roses. Issued in 2004, the album featured demo recordings of future Guns N' Roses songs such as "Reckless Life" and "Anything Goes" recorded by Axl's pre-GNR band, Hollywood Rose, in the mid-eighties.

[edit] Solo career (1994-2006)

In 1994, he released his debut solo album Pawnshop Guitars which featured contributions from several of his friends including all the then members of Guns N' Roses. It went gold in Argentina.

Since then he has released another three solo albums, The Hangover, Rubber and 2002's Swag as well as the live album 99 Live. Gilby also featured on Slash's Snakepit's It's Five O'Clock Somewhere, contributing rhythm guitar parts, the song "Monkey Chow" and appearing in Slash's touring band.

He formed the band Col. Parker with ex-Stray Cat Slim Jim Phantom and former touring additional GN'R keybordist Teddy "Zig Zag" Andreadis, releasing the album Rock N Roll Music in 2001.

In addition, he made a guest appearance on the L.A. Guns album Shrinking Violet, which he also produced. Clarke also produced The Bronx's self-titled album released in 2003 and Girlsplayboys debut album From Ritual to Romance in 2006.

In 2002 Clarke worked with Nancy Sinatra on her album California Girl and a year later joined Heart on their national tour.

In 2006, Clarke embarked on a solo tour across America and Europe before joining former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and vocalist Lukas Rossi in the band Rock Star Supernova.

In 2007 he released a best of album featuring tracks from all of his solo albums as well as two songs from the Col. Parker project and a re-recording of the song "Black", featuring vocals by Rock Star: Supernova runner-up Dilana.

[edit] Rockstar: Supernova (2006-Present)

In 2006, Mötley Crüe drummer, Tommy Lee, formed Supernova with Clarke on guitars and former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. The band used the TV show Rockstar to find a new lead singer. Lukas Rossi was chosen as their lead singer (although several fans have believed Toby Rand was his favorite.)

The name Supernova however was already taken; another band from California was touring with the name before the Clarke incarnation. On June 26, 2006, the latter band filed a federal lawsuit.

On Tuesday, September 12, 2006, San Diego Judge John Houston ruled in favor of the original Supernova, granting their request for a preliminary injunction. The injunction keeps the producers of "Rock Star: Supernova" — which concluded September 13 as a television show, but will continue as a recording, touring, and merchandise entity for some time to follow — from "performing rock and roll music, or recording, or selling rock and roll music recordings under the same name, pending a trial of this action on its merits, or until otherwise ordered by the court." As such, the band has renamed itself as Rock Star Supernova, for the moment at least.

He produced a cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" on Rockstar: Supernova runner-up Dilana Robichaux's 2007 album, also released as a single on digital download websites.

In July 2008 Gilby Clarke played at the G-TARanaki Guitar Festival in New Zealand. His solo band included bassist Muddy Stardust and drummer Muddy Stardust. He then toured North America as part of the Rock n' Roll Fantasy Camp.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums and EPs

[edit] Solo


* Pawnshop Guitars (1994)
* Blooze E.P. (1995)
* The Hangover (1997)
* Rubber (1998)
* 99 Live (1999)
* Swag (2002)
* Gilby Clarke (2007)

[edit] With Candy

* Whatever Happened To Fun (1985)
* Teenage Neon Jungle (2003)

[edit] With Kill For Thrills

* Commercial Suicide (1988)
* Dynamite From Nightmareland (1989)

[edit] With Guns N' Roses

* "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993)
* Live Era: '87-'93 (1999)
* Greatest Hits (2004)

[edit] With Slash's Snakepit

* It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere (1995)

[edit] With Col. Parker

* Rock N Roll Music (2001)

[edit] With Nancy Sinatra

* California Girl (2002)

[edit] With Rock Star Supernova

* Rockstar Supernova (2006)

[edit] References

1. ^ Guns N' Roses - The Making of 'November Rain' (part 3) at YouTube

[edit] External links

* Official website
* Gilby Clarke at MySpace
* Official MSN site
* Musicmight detailed history

Slash (musician)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
aul Hudson (born 23 July 1965), better known by the stage name Slash, is a guitarist best known as the former lead guitarist of Guns N' Roses and as the current lead guitarist of Velvet Revolver.[1][2][3][4]
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Biography
o 1.1 Early life
o 1.2 Early career (1983–1985)
o 1.3 Guns N' Roses (1985–1996)
o 1.4 Side projects and session work (1990–2002)
o 1.5 Velvet Revolver and future endeavors (2002–present)
o 1.6 Television
o 1.7 Honors
o 1.8 Personal
o 1.9 Feud with Axl Rose
* 2 Equipment
o 2.1 Guitars
o 2.2 Amplifiers
* 3 Signature equipment
o 3.1 Gibson Custom Shop
o 3.2 Gibson USA
o 3.3 Epiphone
o 3.4 Marshall Amplifiers
* 4 Discography
o 4.1 Guns N' Roses
o 4.2 Slash's Snakepit
o 4.3 Velvet Revolver
o 4.4 Solo
* 5 Guest appearances
* 6 References
* 7 External links

Biography

Early life

Saul Hudson was born on July 23, 1965 in West Hampstead, London, England [5] Slash's African-American mother, Ola Hudson, worked as a costume designer for David Bowie among many other actors and musicians, and his British father, Anthony Hudson, was an artist who contributed live ensembles for famous musicians including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.[6]

Slash was raised in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, until the age of 11, when his parents relocated the family to Los Angeles, California. His parents separated and he lived primarily with his mother. He was given the nickname "Slash" by family friend Seymour Cassel because he "was always in a hurry, zipping around from one thing to another."[7][8]

As a young boy, Slash was influenced by a musical school teacher:
“ Tangerine from Led Zeppelin III was the very first song I mastered. I had a teacher at school who had a Les Paul and he was always playing Cream and [Led] Zeppelin licks and whatever. And when I heard him do that I said "That's what I want to do".[9] ”

After deciding to form a band with friend Steven Adler, Slash decided to pick up the bass guitar. This is due to the fact that Steven had declared himself lead guitarist. Slash stopped in at Fairfax Music School and told the receptionist he wanted to play the bass, and at that time met his teacher Robert Wolin. Robert told him to learn he would need a bass of his own. Slash went home and asked his grandmother and was given a worn-out, single stringed flamenco guitar. After hearing Robert play "Brown Sugar" by ear Slash realized that the guitar was his calling. He subsequently dropped out of high school to focus on music. In a Rolling Stone magazine article, he remarked:

My big awakening happened when I was fourteen. I'd been trying to get into this older girl's pants for a while, and she finally let me come over to her house. We hung out, smoked some pot and listened to Aerosmith's Rocks. It hit me like a fucking ton of bricks. I sat there listening to it over and over, and totally blew off this girl. I remember riding my bike back to my grandma's house knowing that my life had changed. Now I identified with something.[10]

Early career (1983–1985)

In 1983, Slash formed the band Road Crew, a Motörhead tribute band (named for the Motörhead song We Are The Road Crew) with childhood friend Steven Adler. He placed an advertisement in a newspaper for a bassist, and received a response from Duff McKagan.

When Road Crew disbanded, Slash joined a local band known as Black Sheep. Headed by Willie Bass, the band shared an agent with another new group known as Hollywood Rose. In 1984, both bands opened for Christian metal band Stryper. After the show, Slash and lead singer Axl Rose were introduced to one another by a friend. The two quickly became friends, and several months later, Slash and Steven Adler were invited to join with Axl Rose, Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin as the band, Guns N' Roses.

Guns N' Roses (1985–1996)

Guns N' Roses toured bars and opened for larger acts throughout 1985 and 1986. It was during this period that they wrote most of their classic material, including "Welcome to the Jungle", "Sweet Child o' Mine", and "Paradise City." During this time, they were scouted by several major record labels, and signed with Geffen. From the start, they spent half of their advance on clothes, and the other half on alcohol and drugs. It was during this period that the "Most Dangerous Band In The World" tag was first attached to them. In 1988, Slash remarked:

For some strange reason, Guns N' Roses is like the catalyst for controversy, even before we had any kind of record deal.[citation needed]

With 28 million copies in worldwide (18 million only in the US), their album Appetite for Destruction is the highest selling debut album of all time in worldwide and US[11][12]. By 1988, Guns N' Roses scored its first #1 hit with Sweet Child o' Mine, a song spearheaded by Slash's riff and guitar solo.

In 1988, Guns N' Roses released G N' R Lies. Though this album only had eight tracks (four of which had already been released), it sold over 5 million copies. After a four year hiatus, Guns N' Roses returned with Use Your Illusion discs. The albums indicated a change in musical direction for Guns N' Roses, including more artistic and dramatic songs like "November Rain" and "Estranged". As Rose expressed a desire to pursue more progressive genres, Slash and McKagan fought to maintain their traditional sound as a punk/blues-based hard rock band.

In 1991, the band released Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II. In 1991, Guns N' Roses embarked on the 28-month long Use Your Illusion Tour, to promote their new albums. Upon completion of the tour, Slash was naturalized, becoming an American citizen.

In the mid-'90s, Slash wrote several songs for what would have become Guns N' Roses' follow up album to Use Your Illusion I and II. Rose rejected the material, leading Slash to form Slash's Snakepit, a side-project that saw support from Matt Sorum, Gilby Clarke, Dizzy Reed, Mike Inez, and Eric Dover. The band recorded Slash's material and released It's Five O'Clock Somewhere in 1995. Critically, the album was praised for ignoring the conventions of grunge and alternative music. It also fared well on the charts, eventually selling over 1.2 million copies in the United States with little promotion from Geffen Records.

Side projects and session work (1990–2002)

After his departure from Guns N' Roses, Slash focused on his side-project, The Snakepit, playing a few tour dates before disbanding the group in 1998. Over the next decade, Slash became an in-demand session musician, recording music with the likes of Alice Cooper, Sammy Hagar, Insane Clown Posse, Ronnie Wood, Bad Company, Cheap Trick, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.

In 1990, Slash was contacted by Michael Jackson to work on his upcoming album, Dangerous. Slash played guitar on two hit singles, "Black or White" and "Give In to Me"; he also appeared in the music video of the latter. On several occasions, Slash appeared onstage with Jackson, performing "Black or White" during the Dangerous World Tour. Slash and Jackson appeared together at the MTV Video Music Awards of 1992 and 1995.[13] Slash played guitar on "D.S.", a controversial song from the HIStory album of 1995 and "Morphine" from the 1997 remix album Blood on the Dance Floor.[14][15] In 2001, Slash joined Jackson on stage at the Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special playing guitar while Jackson performed his songs, "Black or White" and "Beat It".

In 1995, Quentin Tarantino asked Slash to contribute some songs to the soundtrack of his adaptation of the film Jackie Brown. Several Snakepit compositions can be heard throughout the film. In 1996, Slash collaborated with Marta Sánchez to record the flamenco-inspired song, "Obsession-Confession" for the Curdled soundtrack. The song was received well by Smooth Jazz radio stations. Later that year, Slash also played live with Alice Cooper at Sammy Hagar's club Cabo Wabo in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The show was recorded and released the following year as A Fistful of Alice.

In 1997, Slash (alongside the late Ol' Dirty Bastard and hit alternative rock band Fishbone) appeared on BLACKstreet's rock remix version of their hit single "Fix". In 2003, he participated in the Yardbirds' comeback record Birdland, released on the Favored Nations label. He played lead guitar in the track "Over, Under, Sideways, Down." In early 2003, Slash also made an appearance at a rally to protest the coming War in Iraq called "Peace on the Beach", performing the song "Imagine" by John Lennon. Ed Kowalczyk provided vocals during this performance.

In 2000, he chose to regroup Slash's Snakepit to release his second solo effort, titled Ain't Life Grand. The album did well on the charts, reaching platinum status. To promote it further, Slash embarked on an extensive world tour with AC/DC in the summer of 2000.

In 2002, he reunited with Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum for a benefit/tribute concert for Randy Castillo. Realizing they still had the chemistry of their days in Guns N' Roses, they decided to form a new band together. The band that featured Slash, McKagan, and Sorum also featured former Buckcherry members Keith Nelson and Josh Todd. Later Duff put out a statement that Josh and Keith didn't quite fit with the band, and they added Dave Kushner as rhythm guitar and, after a long search, Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland. In 2006, Slash performed a guest spot on keyboardist Derek Sherinian's solo album Blood of the Snake covering the 1970 Mungo Jerry hit single "In the Summertime", also featuring Billy Idol on vocals. A video was also made featuring Slash, Billy, and Derek for this song.

Velvet Revolver and future endeavors (2002–present)
Slash with Velvet Revolver in 2004

Velvet Revolver began as "The Project", a venture by Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum to find a new lead singer. On rhythm guitar, they initially worked with Izzy Stradlin, and they were offered to open for The Rolling Stones but Slash, Duff and Matt wanted to have a lead singer; after this Izzy became less involved. They would find their second guitarist in the form of Dave Kushner, who had previously played with McKagan in "Loaded" prior to this project. For many months, the four of them listened to demo tapes of potential lead singers, a monotonous process (documented by VH1). After many months, Slash and the others were almost ready to give up. However, Stone Temple Pilots had recently imploded, allowing lead singer Scott Weiland to volunteer to record a song with the band. Realizing there was chemistry between each member, Weiland officially joined the band in 2003.

Velvet Revolver played several concerts in the summer of that year and released their first single, "Set Me Free" as part of the soundtrack for The Hulk. In June 2004, they released their first studio album, Contraband. A 19-month long tour ensued, as the album went double platinum and re-established Slash as a mainstream performer. After the tour concluded, he and his bandmates took a lengthy break before beginning work on their second album. In July 2007, Velvet Revolver released the critically acclaimed Libertad, a follow-up to their multi-platinum debut. Following their second studio album, Velvet Revolver also began a second tour. On March 20, 2008 during a glasgow gig, Weiland announced to their audience that it would be Velvet Revolver's final tour. Matt Sorum posted a message on his website the next day discussing the band's situation and said, "You could tell who was unhappy last night," and "some people in this business don't realize how great of a life they have." Weiland shot back by telling Blabbermouth.net, "Well, first of all, the state of my family affairs is really none of his business, since he is too immature to have a real relationship, let alone children. So don't attempt to stand in a man's shoes when you haven't walked his path." On 1 April 2008, Scott Weiland officially split from Velvet Revolver.

On May 31, 2006, Slash was joined by Rob Zombie on vocals, another former Guns and Roses axeman Gilby Clarke on rhythm guitar, Scott Ian of Anthrax on guitar, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee on drums, and surprise guest Ace Frehley of Kiss for a rendition of God of Thunder. The occasion was a one-time supergroup tribute to Kiss for the VH1 Rock Honors Award Show.
Cover for the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock with Slash in the middle and two other playable characters in the game, Judy Nails (left) and Lars Ümlaüt (right).

Slash is a playable character in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and his likeness appears on the game cover. Slash did motion capture with RedOctane to record his movements for the game. Beating Slash in a one-on-one competition (playing an original composition he recorded solely for the game), unlocks him as a playable character. Beating him in this challenge leads to the player and Slash playing the master track of "Welcome to the Jungle" as an encore song.[16][17]

In 2007, Slash performed with Paulina Rubio on the hit Latin single "Nada Puede Cambiarme".

On March 12, 2007. Slash and Velvet Revolver paid tribute to Van Halen by inducting the band into the Rock N' Roll hall of fame. The band also played two covers.

Slash appears on the cover of Guitar World magazine for their July 2007 issue, the "20 year salute to Appetite for Destruction". The title is "The Cat In The Hat Is Back" and it pictures him holding his guitar with a snake crawling up the neck.

Slash made numerous contributions to The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star by Nikki Sixx, published September 18, 2007.[18] He also played guitar with them at Crüe Fest.

An autobiography titled simply Slash was published on October 30, 2007.[19] It was co-written with Anthony Bozza. Slash will also be appearing in the HBO book and Documentary The Black List vol.1, he can be seen in a portrait on the cover of the book.

It was announced by Kerrang! Magazine that Slash was going to appear on Ace Frehley's next solo album.[citation needed]

Slash has planned to record a solo album after the third Velvet Revolver album, but after the departure of singer Scott Weiland and time-consuming searches for a new singer for the band, he decided to record a solo album first. On September 30, 2008, he began recording demos for the upcoming album. Slash was quoted saying that the work alone in the studio on the solo album is "cathartic", and that he's really enjoying the work alone in the studio. He also said he plans to bring a different singer for each song on the album, and that he has a list of guests to appear on the album, and most of them are already committed, though he refused to tell who are those guests. Rumored singers for the project include Slash's close friends Lenny Kravitz, Sebastian Bach, Alice Cooper and Vince Neil as well as his past Guns N' Roses pals, Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan.[20]

According to Slash's wife during an interview with Rockerrazzi.com, both Ozzy Osbourne and Fergie will make appearances on Slash's upcoming solo album, saying, "It's going to be Slash and friends, with everyone from Ozzy [Osbourne] to Fergie."[21] Other musicians set to appear on the release include Josh Freese, Chris Chaney, Travis Barker and Jason Bonham.[22]

In 2009, he played the guitar parts on the film score of The Wrestler composed by Clint Mansell.

Television

Slash appeared as a recurring caricature of himself in Robert Evans' animated television series Kid Notorious which aired in 2003 on Comedy Central. As in real life, Slash is Evans' close friend and next-door neighbor.[23] He appeared as the guest mentor for rock n roll week of American Idol (Season 8) on 5 May 2009.

Honors

Slash won the "Best Guitarist" prize in the 2005 Esky Music Awards in Esquire magazine. A write-up in the magazine announced Slash's win read as follows:

He's who we see ourselves as every time we strap on an air guitar. The top hat. The hair. The dangling cigarette. The near-death experiences. He'll always be Slash of Guns N' Roses to us, but we also congratulate him for beating the comeback odds with a surprisingly legitimate and vital outfit, Velvet Revolver."[24]

Slash accepting the award has issued the following statement:

This is my first guitarist award ever. It's very humbling. I'd like to thank my parents, and I'd also like to thank everyone I've ever fucking worked with in the music business from the point I started at up until now - the bands I've been in, the sessions I've done, and the artists I've worked with. My wife is at least half of the reason I'm still walking. I'd also like to thank Robert Wolin; he got me to switch from bass to guitar. Thank you."[25]

In January 2007, Slash was honored with a star on the Rock Walk of Fame; his name being placed alongside Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix.

In 2007, Slash was awarded the coveted title of "Riff Lord" during the fourth annual Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards.[26]

Slash was selected to perform "Hey Joe", a signature song of the late Jimi Hendrix in a posthumous tribute at the UK Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Steve Winwood as vocalist, Billy Cox playing bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums; the latter being the only original member still alive from the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

"Welcome to the Jungle" ranked #2 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs, #467 on the Rolling Stone Magazine list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, #764 on Q Magazine's 1001 Best Songs Ever and #26 on VH1's 100 Greatest 80s Songs. Most recently, the song was named the "Greatest Song About Los Angeles" by a poll in Blender magazine.[citation needed]

"Sweet Child o' Mine" placed #37 on Guitar World's list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos", number three on Blender's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born, number 196 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and in March 2005 Q magazine placed it at number 6 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. The introduction's D-flat based riff was also voted number-one riff of all-time by the readers of Total Guitar magazine. It was also in Rolling Stones 40 Greatest Songs that Changed the World.[citation needed]

"Paradise City" is ranked #21 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs of All Time,[1] #3 in Total Guitar Magazine's list of the 100 greatest solos of all time and #453 on Rolling Stones' "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

"November Rain" holds the record for the longest guitar solo in a U.S. top 10 hit. The song is also listed at number 6 in the "The 100 Greatest Guitar Solos" by Guitar World. Additionally, "November Rain" was voted #1 on the Rock 1000 in 2006, an annual countdown of the top 1000 rock songs by New Zealand radio listeners.

Personal

In 1990, a heavy metal video called "Hard N' Heavy" was released containing music, concert footage and interviews. The video included Slash and McKagan appearing with the band Great White at a "Children of the Night" Benefit concert in LA for abused homeless children, the performance helped raise money for housing to aid the underprivileged.[27] He also performed at an anti-Iraq War festival in 2003.

Slash is married to Perla Ferrar, with whom he has two sons.[28] The family lives in Los Angeles.

Feud with Axl Rose

In 2007, Slash admitted to going to Rose's home with the intention to settle a long-standing legal dispute and make peace with his former band mate. Slash elaborated on the incident in his autobiography, claiming that what actually occurred was that he simply went to Rose's house while intoxicated and left a note asking Rose to contact him to settle a pending lawsuit. He also added that he had not actually spoken to Rose in person since leaving Guns N' Roses in 1996 [29]. Slash further stated that incident's publicity created a rift in Velvet Revolver; as his bandmates were unsure of what Slash had actually done and Slash had confronted Weiland over his scathing reply to Rose, feeling that Weiland did not have the "right" to criticize Rose, not actually knowing him.[30] In March 2009, Slash responded to an interview in which Rose referred to him as "a cancer", saying that "it doesn't really affect me at all. The fact that he has anything to say at all it's like 'Whatever, dude'."[31]

Equipment
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Guitars

Slash owns more than 114 guitars. The guitar he recorded Appetite For Destruction with was a hand made flame-top 1959 Les Paul replica with no pick guard and 2 Seymour Duncan pickups. His main live guitar is a 1987 Les Paul Standard with 3 piece top (Factory Second). It has a cracked neck in 2 places, but he has had it repaired and continues to use it. Most of Slash's electric guitars have Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro pickups which are low output pickups.

His guitars include:

* B.C. Rich Mockingbird
* Fender Stratocaster
* Fender Telecaster
* B.C. Rich Double neck
* Gibson EDS-1275
* Gibson Flying V
* Gibson Explorer
* Gibson Melody Maker (used for slide during "Bad Obsession")
* Slash Custom Les Paul Gold Top Guitar
* At least 30 Les Paul Guitars

Slash's favorite guitar is the aforementioned hand-made Gibson Les Paul Copy. He received it during the recording sessions for Guns N' Roses debut album, "Appetite for Destruction". When he couldn't get the right sound he was looking for, the band's manager found a 1959 Les Paul Standard copy.

He has used that guitar on every album he has recorded with Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver. the guitar was also the basis of the instrument his doppelgänger used in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

He favors Ernie Ball Slinky R.P.S gauge 11-48 strings as well as Dunlop Purple Tortex (1.14 mm) picks and Seymour Duncan APH-1 Alnico II Pro and Vintage Gibson PAF pickups. He keeps his guitars in tune with a Peterson Strobe tuner.

Some of his favorite effects boxes are:

* Dunlop Rack Mounted Crybaby (controlled with an Ernie Ball volume pedal for live shows)
* Rocktron Hush II CX
* DBX 166 Compressor
* Yamaha SPX 900 Multieffect
* Boss DD-3 Delay (for solos)
* MXR 10-band graphic EQ
* Dunlop Heil Talkbox
* Boss GE-7 (for solos)
* Dunlop Q-Zone

Amplifiers

On stage, he only uses Marshall amps. He used a rented vintage 1960s Marshall 1959 modified by Tim Caswell at SIR studios for the recording of Appetite for Destruction. Slash liked the amp so much he tried to keep it, telling the store that it had been stolen, but it was returned accidentally by a roadie. During the 1980s Slash was using a Marshall JCM 2555 Silver Jubilee Anniversary amplifier made in 1987. It featured EL34's power tubes and three ECC83 preamp tubes.

For the recording of Velvet Revolver's debut, he used a Vox AC30 and small Fender tube amps (for "oddball" sounds). For the recording of Velvet Revolver's second album, he used the new Marshall Vintage Modern 2466 amp.

Signature equipment

Gibson Custom Shop

The Gibson Guitar Corporation custom made two guitars for Slash in 1988. The first "Inspired" Slash Les Paul is a replica of one of the two guitars given to Slash by Gibson in 1988. The guitar is finished in a faded Heritage Cherry Sunburst, fitted with Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro pickups and the neck is made to the exact specs of Slash's original Les Paul.

Gibson USA

Slash Les Paul Standard is a recreation of Slash's favorite Les Paul and is made of solid mahogany and is finished with a Antique Vintage Sunburst. Just like the custom shop version the guitar is fitted with Seymor Duncan Alnico II Pro pickups and a neck modeled after Slash's original. The guitar will be made in a limited run of 1600 guitars. He says "It's sort of a trip for me to see it because it looks exactly like the guitar after I had it refinished in 1988. This is what it looked like when it was brand new."

Epiphone

The Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plustop is made to be a more affordable version of the two Gibson versions while still being able to offer a high quality instrument. As the Gibson versions it is equipped with Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro pickups which he says he decided to place in all his guitar models, and is finished in Dark Tobacco Burst.

In 2008, the Slash signature Les Paul "Gold Top" limited edition guitar became available. Epiphone's Les Paul model has a solid mahogany body with a gold top finish, and the standard long neck he came to request on all his guitars, preferring the closest similarity in the neck as his first Les Paul. Again, Seymour Duncan Alnico II pro humbuckers, a standard item on all his guitars. This version also featurs Epiphone's locktone stop tailpiece and tuneamatic bridge system, which Slash feels makes it an easier instrument to play, particularly for newer guitarists.[32]

Marshall Amplifiers

Slash was the first musician to own a signature amplifier created by Marshall for him.[citation needed] In 1996 the Marshall Slash JCM 2555SL was launched, it was built with the specs of Slash's own original 1987 Marshall Silver Jubilee 2555 amplifier. A total of 3000 of these amplifiers were made before it was discontinued.

Discography
Main article: Slash discography

Guns N' Roses
Title Release Date Label RIAA (US) certification
Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide 1986 UZI Suicide —
Appetite for Destruction 1987 Geffen 18x Platinum
EP (Live from the Jungle) 1987 Geffen —
G N' R Lies 1988 Geffen 5x Platinum
Use Your Illusion I 1991 Geffen 7x Platinum
Use Your Illusion II 1991 Geffen 7x Platinum
The Spaghetti Incident? 1993 Geffen Platinum
Use Your Illusion 1998 Geffen —
Live Era: '87–'93 1999 Geffen Gold
Greatest Hits 2004 Geffen 4x Platinum

Slash's Snakepit
Title Release Date Label RIAA (US) certification
It's Five O'Clock Somewhere 1995 Fontana Records —
Ain't Life Grand 2000 Koch Records —

Velvet Revolver
Title Release Date Label RIAA (US) certification
Contraband 2004 RCA Records 2x Platinum
Libertad 2007 RCA Records —

Solo
Title Release Date Label
Slash & Friends 2010

Axl Rose

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Axl Rose
Axl Rose at the Download Festival in 2006.
Axl Rose at the Download Festival in 2006.
Background information
Birth name William Bailey
Born February 6, 1962 (1962-02-06) (age 47)
Lafayette, Indiana, United States
Genre(s) Hard rock
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, musician
Instrument(s) Vocals, Piano, Percussion, Guitar
Voice type(s) Baritone (B1-A5)
Years active 1983 – present
Label(s) Geffen Records
Associated acts Guns N' Roses, Hollywood Rose, L.A. Guns, Rapidfire
Website www.gunsnroses.com

W. Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose, Jr.[1] on February 6, 1962) is an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist of hard rock band Guns N' Roses.

Rose grew up in Indiana in a troubled family environment. His love of music was fostered by singing in church, participating in school chorus and studying piano, but his numerous run-ins with the police and activities as a teenager led to his leaving home at a young age. After moving to Los Angeles in 1982, Rose fronted various local bands, eventually forming Guns N' Roses with former L.A. Guns bandmate Tracii Guns.

As lead singer for Guns N' Roses, Rose enjoyed tremendous success, recognition, record and concert ticket sales in the late 1980s and early 1990s before dropping out of the public eye for several years. In 2001, he resurfaced with a new line-up of Guns N' Roses, and has since played periodic concert tours, finally releasing the long delayed Chinese Democracy in 2008.

The only original member still part of the band's line-up, Rose still places high in numerous polls as one of hard rock's all-time greatest frontmen, but is also infamous for his onstage antics and high-profile disputes with former bandmates and others in the entertainment business.

He was ranked 11 in the Hit Parader's Top Metal Vocalist of All Time.[2]
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Biography
o 1.1 Early years
o 1.2 Pre-Guns N' Roses years (1983–1984)
o 1.3 Success with Guns N' Roses (1985–1994)
o 1.4 The New Guns N' Roses (1995–present)
* 2 Controversy
o 2.1 Drug use
o 2.2 "One in a Million"
o 2.3 Riots and rants
o 2.4 Events Surrounding Chinese Democracy
* 3 Work outside of music
* 4 Discography
o 4.1 Pre-Guns N' Roses
o 4.2 With Guns N' Roses
o 4.3 Guest appearances
* 5 Personal life
o 5.1 Relationships
o 5.2 Feuds
+ 5.2.1 Vince Neil
+ 5.2.2 Kurt Cobain
+ 5.2.3 Velvet Revolver
+ 5.2.4 Tommy Hilfiger
+ 5.2.5 Eagles of Death Metal
+ 5.2.6 Bon Jovi
+ 5.2.7 Dexter Holland
* 6 References
* 7 External links
o 7.1 Interviews

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years

Rose was born as William Bruce Rose, Jr. in Lafayette, Indiana,[1] the son of Sharon E. Lintner, then 16 years old, and William Bruce Rose, then 20 years old.[3] Rose is of Scottish, Irish, and German descent. His father left the family when Rose was two years old. As an adult, after recovering repressed memories in therapy, Rose publicly stated that he was sexually abused by his biological father.[1][4]

Rose's mother remarried in 1965. She changed his name to William Bailey, using the last name of her new husband, Stephen L. Bailey. He has two younger half-siblings – sister Amy and brother Stuart. Rose has stated that he, and his siblings were often beaten by Bailey, sometimes for no reason. Growing up, Rose believed that Bailey was his biological father.[1]

Because of his turbulent upbringing and his mother's reluctance to leave the abusive Bailey, Rose is said to have issues with women. He claimed in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in April 1992, that during his childhood, he was made to believe that women and sexuality were evil and that due to the violent treatment of his mother by his stepfather he witnessed as an impressionable child, he had been led to think that domestic violence was the normal way of doing things.[1][5]

The Bailey household was deeply religious, and Rose grew up attending a Pentecostal church, where he was required to attend services three to eight times per week.[5] He sang in church from the age of five, and also performed at services with his brother and sister in the "Bailey Trio".[6] Rose was so involved with the church that he even taught Sunday School. Later, he spoke of his upbringing:

My particular church was filled with self-righteous hypocrites who were child abusers and child molesters. These were people who'd been damaged in their own childhoods and in their lives. These were people who were finding God but still living with their damage and inflicting it upon their children. I had to go to church anywhere from three to eight times a week. l even taught Bible school while l was being beaten and my sister was being molested.[5]
—Axl Rose

Church did provide an outlet for Rose's musical interests. In addition to singing in church, he also participated in his high school chorus and studied piano.[7]

Rose speaks in the baritone register, for he originally sang in the baritone range in his choir. However, his singing voice is of a tenor[8] range. He can sing parts ranging from bass, to baritone, and to a high falsetto/soprano, and has several different recognized "voices" used in his songs. He has stated that he originally started to develop his range to confuse his chorus teacher in school.[9][6][10]

He attended Jefferson High School in Lafayette.[11] At age 17, while going through papers in his parents' home, Rose learned of his biological father's existence and his own origins, and readopted his birth name, William Rose (although he was still legally William Bailey). He referred to himself as W. Rose only, however, as he did not wish to share a name with his biological father.[1]

After discovering the truth of his background, Rose began "acting out" in earnest. He was in trouble numerous times with the police and was arrested over twenty times on charges such as public drunkenness and assault. At age 16, he was kicked out of his house for not cutting his hair. At this age, Rose also met Izzy Stradlin in a driver's education class.[12] The two bonded over their love of rock music and eventually started playing in bands together. Stradlin eventually left Rose, and Indiana, to go to Los Angeles and focus on music.

Lafayette authorities threatened to charge Rose as a habitual criminal in his late teenage years.[7] When he was 17, on the advice of his lawyer, he left Indiana and began hitchhiking and taking buses across the country.[13] Although he returned to Indiana to visit family from time to time, he left for good in December 1982 and moved to Los Angeles, accompanied by a girlfriend.[14]

Rose eventually adopted the name W. Axl Rose ("Axl" after a band in which he once played [15]), and set out to re-unite with Stradlin. Rose legally changed his name to "W. Axl Rose" in 1986,[9][16] and had the moniker tattooed on his arm.[14]

[edit] Pre-Guns N' Roses years (1983–1984)

Once in Los Angeles, Rose began performing with various local bands, including Rapidfire, Rose, L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose.[17][18] While struggling to make an impact on the Hollywood music scene, Rose held down a variety of survival jobs, including the position of night manager at the Tower Records location on Sunset Boulevard. In an attempt to earn money, Slash and Stradlin even smoked cigarettes for a scientific study at UCLA for the reported wages of $800/hour.[16]

[edit] Success with Guns N' Roses (1985–1994)
Main article: Guns N' Roses

Rose and his L.A. Guns bandmate Tracii Guns formed Guns N' Roses in March 1985. The band was a merger of L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, and featured musicians who had played for one or both groups, including Ole Beich and Duff McKagan. The band debuted at the Troubadour in Hollywood and proceeded to play the L.A. circuit, eventually building a fan following and attracting the attention of several record companies.[19][20] The lineup eventually solidified with Rose on vocals, Slash on lead guitar, Izzy Stradlin on rhythm guitar, Duff McKagan on bass and Steven Adler on drums. Guns N' Roses was signed to Geffen Records in 1986 and released a four-song EP, Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide, on their own label, UZI Suicide, in December of that year.

The band's major label debut album, entitled Appetite for Destruction, was released in the United States on July 21, 1987. The record had a slow start, selling only 500,000 copies in the first year of its release.[21] However, fueled by relentless touring and the mainstream success of the single "Sweet Child o' Mine", Appetite for Destruction rose to the #1 position on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States in the fall of 1988. To date, Appetite for Destruction ranks as the best-selling debut album in the United States, has been certified 18x platinum by the RIAA, and has sold over 28 million copies.<[22][23]

With the success of Appetite for Destruction and its follow-up EP, GN'R Lies, Rose found himself lauded as one of rock's most prominent frontmen. In a 1990 interview with MTV, journalist Kurt Loder referred to Rose as "maybe the finest hard rock singer currently on the scene, and certainly the most charismatic."[24] He was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in August 1989 and again in April 1992.[7][1]
Rose performing with Guns N' Roses on the Use Your Illusion Tour in Tel Aviv, Israel, 1993

In 1990, Guns N' Roses returned to the studio to begin recording the full-length follow-up to Appetite for Destruction. Recording sessions were temporarily scuttled when Steven Adler, battling drug and alcohol addiction, was fired in July 1990 and replaced by former Cult drummer Matt Sorum.[20] The band fired their manager, Alan Niven, in May 1991, replacing him with Doug Goldstein. According to a 1991 cover story by Rolling Stone magazine, Rose forced the dismissal of Niven, against the wishes of some of his bandmates, by refusing to complete the albums until he was replaced.[25]

With enough music for two albums, the band released Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II on September 17, 1991. The tactic paid off when the albums debuted at #2 and #1 respectively on the Billboard chart, setting a record as Guns N' Roses became the only group to date to achieve this feat. The albums spent 108 weeks on the chart.[16]

In the late spring of 1991, before the Illusion albums were released, Guns N' Roses embarked on the 28-month-long Use Your Illusion World Tour. It became famous for both its financial success and the many controversial incidents that occurred at the shows.

During the tour it was alleged, and long accepted that Rose demanded, and received, sole ownership of the Guns N' Roses name from bandmates Slash and McKagan.[26] However, this story was recently disputed by Rose, who claimed it would have been legally impossible for him to do such a thing [27] His relationships with his bandmates became increasingly strained: Izzy Stradlin left the group voluntarily on November 7, 1991, and was replaced by former Kill For Thrills guitarist Gilby Clarke for the remainder of the two-year tour.[4][20] Clarke himself left in 1994, and was replaced by Rose's childhood friend Paul Tobias. When Rose replaced Slash's guitar parts with those of Tobias on the band's cover version of the Rolling Stones' song "Sympathy for the Devil" for the soundtrack of the film Interview with the Vampire, tension increased further. Slash, McKagan and Sorum all left Guns N' Roses at various points between 1996 and 1997, leaving Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed as the only remaining Illusion-era members of the band.[26]

While the Guns N' Roses name is owned solely by Rose, the band's back catalog is controlled jointly by Rose, Slash and McKagan. In 2004, the three presented a united front in a joint lawsuit against Universal and Geffen, in which they unsuccessfully attempted to block the release of the Greatest Hits compilation album.[28]

Slash and McKagan have also filed several lawsuits against Rose for matters related to control and administration of the songs in the Guns N' Roses catalog. One of the cases, in which McKagan and Slash stated that they had been denied royalty checks for Guns N' Roses's sales in 2005, was determined to be the result of a clerical error by ASCAP and was resolved.[29][30][31]

[edit] The New Guns N' Roses (1995–present)

As the stability of Guns N' Roses collapsed, Rose began to withdraw from public view. The band never actually broke up, although it did not tour for several years and no new material was released. Rose continued to recruit new musicians to replace the charter members as they gradually defected. The last charter member of the band (aside from Rose himself) to go was Duff McKagan.

By the late 1990s, he was considered to be a recluse, rarely making public appearances and spending most of his time holed up in his mansion in Malibu. In various reports in the press, he was referred to as the "Howard Hughes of rock" and "rock's greatest recluse".[32][20] Rose was said to spend his nights rehearsing and writing with the various new lineups of Guns N' Roses, working on the band's next album, Chinese Democracy.[26]

In a rare interview with Rolling Stone in 2006, Rose shed more light on his long awaited Chinese Democracy album. "We're working on 32 songs, and 26 are nearly done," he said in the interview. "People will hear music this year," he said. "It's a very complex record, I'm trying to do something different. Some of the arrangements are kind of like Queen. Some people are going to say, 'It doesn't sound like Axl Rose, it doesn't sound like Guns N' Roses.' But you'll like at least a few songs on there."[33]
Rose (second from right) on the Chinese Democracy Tour in 2007

Guns N' Roses resurfaced with concert tours in 2002 and again in 2006. The band, now consisting of Rose, Dizzy Reed, Robin Finck, Tommy Stinson, Chris Pitman, Richard Fortus, Frank Ferrer and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal (replacing Buckethead), performed their first live concerts in the United States in over three years on May 12, May 14, May 15, and May 17, 2006 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.[34] They also performed in Madrid on May 25 and in Lisbon (Rock in Rio) on May 27 to an audience of over 50,000.

On May 6, 2006, Rose appeared on the Eddie Trunk radio show and promised that the album would be released sometime in the fall or late fall 2006.[35]

On August 31, 2006, Rose presented The Killers at the MTV Video Music Awards by coming out onto the stage and screaming his trademark, "Do you know where the fuck you are?!" In an interview backstage, Rose revealed that the official Chinese Democracy tour would begin "around October 24th", and that the album would be out that year.[36]

On December 15, 2006, Rose issued an open letter to Guns N' Roses fans, discussing, among other things, the reasons why Chinese Democracy had not been released yet. In it, Axl stated that he hoped the album would appear in 2007, and named March 6 as a tentative release date.[37] However, the album's release date was pushed back once again.

In 2007, Rose collaborated with longtime friend Sebastian Bach on his solo album Angel Down, doing a duet with Bach on a cover of the Aerosmith song "Back in the Saddle". Rose also performed backing vocals on "(Love is) a Bitchslap" and "Stuck Inside", for which he was credited as a co-writer.

On October 22, 2008, a new release date was officially announced for Chinese Democracy: November 23, 2008 (the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day). The album was exclusively released through North America's largest chain of electronics stores, Best Buy. [38]

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Drug use

Rose was not a regular drug user.[39] He did not disavow the use of illicit substances, stating in a 1989 interview "I have a different physical constitution and different mindset about drugs than anybody I've known in Hollywood, because I don't abstain from doing drugs, but I won't allow myself to have a fuckin' habit. I won't allow it".[40] After Guns N' Roses became successful, Rose noted that he had stopped using any sort of hard drugs.[16]

Although Rose has not been known for alcohol abuse, on June 27, 2006, he was arrested in Stockholm, Sweden, after an early morning altercation in his hotel lobby with hotel security. Rose is alleged to have bitten a security guard's leg and shattered an antique lobby mirror while in a drunken rage. Rose later commented in a press release: "We had a great gig in Stockholm and I am not going to let this incident spoil that. My assistant Beta and I were talking in the lobby of the hotel when security started to give us a hard time. My only concern was to make sure she was okay". After spending the next several hours in a Stockholm drunk tank, Rose plead guilty to all charges and paid roughly $6,000 in fines and was released. The Summer European tour continued as scheduled.[41]

[edit] "One in a Million"
Main article: One in a Million (Guns N' Roses song)

In 1988, Guns N' Roses released the EP G N' R Lies. Although the album had strong sales, there was outrage among some members of the public over the lyrics of the song "One in a Million", which included the words "niggers" and "faggots". As Rose was the lyricist of the piece and the song was composed about his personal experiences, he was labeled racist and homophobic, charges he strenuously denied.[42][7] The lyrics led to Guns N' Roses being removed from the schedule at a 1989 concert benefiting the Gay Men's Health Crisis at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.[16] When Guns N' Roses and Living Colour supported The Rolling Stones for a concert in Los Angeles in 1989, Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid publicly commented on "One in a Million" during an interview the day before the concert.[20]

Rose denied allegations of homophobia, however, he claimed that he had had bad experiences with homosexuals, and, as such, he did not understand their way of life.[7] He also pointed out that many of his musical idols, including Elton John and Freddie Mercury, as well as the head of his record company, were gay or bisexual. Following this, in a surprising move, Rose performed "November Rain" with Elton John at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. John (along with Bernie Taupin) was a big influence on his musical and lyrical outlook. He also paid tribute to Freddie Mercury, another huge influence, at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, where he again performed with John, this time singing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Rose has maintained his friendship with John to the current day and inducted him into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.[43][44]

In addressing the accusations of racism, Rose gave several explanations. In one 1989 interview, he stated that he had used the word to signify "somebody that is basically a pain in your life, a problem. The word nigger doesn't necessarily mean black", and referenced the rap group Niggaz with Attitude (NWA) as using the word in a positive context.[7] Rose was occasionally photographed wearing an NWA hat from then on. By 1992, however, Rose seemed to have gained new perspective on the song and its lyrics. In one interview, he conceded that the word had been used as an insult, but added: "I was pissed off about some black people that were trying to rob me. I wanted to insult those particular black people. I didn't want to support racism".[1]

Rose was consistent in strongly denying accusations that he was racist. He also expressed concern and disapproval at those who used "One in a Million" to promote their own racist views, noting: "There's a lot of people who have chosen to use that song. However that song makes them feel, they think that must be what the song means. If they hate blacks, and they hear my lines and hate blacks even more, I'm sorry, but that's not how I meant it".[5]

[edit] Riots and rants

Throughout Guns N' Roses' career, Rose has been notorious for personally addressing disruptive fans and giving instructions to security guards from the stage, at times stopping concerts to deal with issues in the crowd. In his 1992 Rolling Stone interview Rose explained, "Most performers would go to a security person in their organization, and it would just be done very quietly. I'll confront the person, stop the song: "Guess what: You wasted your money, you get to leave."[1] He has also been noted for his late appearances at concerts, sometimes taking the stage hours after the opening acts.[45][46][1]

In many instances, Rose's actions have seemed to be based in concern for the safety of the band and audience members. At the 1988 Monsters of Rock concert at Castle Donington, England during which two fans were crushed, Rose stopped the show several times when the audience rushed the stage. The final report into the Donington tragedy noted that Rose had immediately cooperated with venue security when advised of the dangerous crowd conditions, and had attempted to calm the crowd.[47] In a more recent incident, during a concert in 2006 in Birmingham, Rose stopped the show and had a security guard ejected for assaulting a fan in the audience.[48]

In July 1991, during the early stages of the 28-month-long Use Your Illusion Tour, Rose jumped off stage during a concert in St. Louis to take a video camera away from a fan. The concert was aborted as Rose threw his microphone down and walked off stage saying "Thanks to the lame-ass security, I'm going home!" The other band members followed and the house lights came on, sparking an intense riot that caused significant damage to both the newly-constructed arena and Guns N' Roses' equipment and instruments.[49] Rose was blamed for the melee, and was charged with four counts of misdemeanor assault and one charge of property damage, for which he was arrested in 1992.[50] The case eventually went to trial in late 1992, and resulted in a conviction, two years' probation and a US $50,000 fine for Rose.[39]

Another riot occurred on August 8, 1992 at Montreal's Olympic Stadium, during Guns N' Roses' summer concert co-headlining tour with Metallica. During the performance, Metallica's set was cut short when the band's lead singer, James Hetfield, was burned in a pyrotechnics accident. Guns N' Roses was unable to take the stage early to make up for Metallica's abbreviated performance, as Rose was once again late arriving at the venue. Further compounding the situation, Rose walked off stage and left the stadium after playing nine songs (only about 50 minutes), claiming he had problems with his voice. Before "Double Talkin' Jive", Rose said this will be “our last show for a long time”, and at the end of "Civil War", their last song, Rose said “Thank you, your money will be refunded” and walked offstage. A riot ensued, which spilled out into the streets. Authorities were barely able to bring the chaos under control.[20]

Problems have also occurred at several of Guns N' Roses's more recent concert events. On June 11, 2006, Guns N' Roses headlined the Download Festival in Donington Park, England. Within the first half hour of the show; Rose had become annoyed with the quality of the sound and had also lost his footing, nearly causing him to fall due to the "slippery stage". After briefly leaving and returning the set mid song, throwing the microphone on the floor and exiting the stage citing technical difficulties while leaving Bumblefoot to play an instrumental of the song "Don't Cry", he returned on stage with tennis shoes on (he was previously wearing boots), announced that he had some old friends to bring out, and was joined by Izzy Stradlin to play "Used to Love Her". Stradlin left and returned on stage multiple times, for "Patience", and the final number "Paradise City". During the night, Rose was also joined by Sebastian Bach and together they sang "My Michelle".[51]

On July 19, 2006, at a show in Newcastle, England, Rose walked off-stage during the performance of "Nightrain" after what was alleged to be a £1 coin was thrown on to the stage directly at him. Rose addressed the crowd off-stage and informed them that any person caught throwing objects at him or any other members of the band must be ejected from the auditorium. The band returned to the stage to finish the song after which Rose declared "The show is over", the band departed and the house lights were resumed. They did not play the usual "Paradise City" encore.[52]

[edit] Events Surrounding Chinese Democracy

Record execs at Geffen were reported to be furious with Rose for not doing any promotion or publicity for 'Chinese Democracy'. AOL Canada Entertainment reported that, as of December 2, 2008, he had been missing for at least two months and had not returned any phone calls or other requests.[53]

On December 11, 2008, Rose finally broke his silence, answering questions in person on three Guns N' Roses discussion boards and mentioning an upcoming music video for "Better".[54] A far more comprehensive view of Axl Rose's interpretation of the controversy regarding the release of Chinese Democracy was published on Feb 6, 2009 in both Billboard and on Reuters. In the interview, Rose speaks with disdain towards Interscope Records and in particular the chief of Interscope, Jimmy Iovine. He states that he never really received the support from them that he expected. The interview, technical in nature, reveals Rose's susbstantial knowledge of the inside workings of the music business, and how the rapid transformation of the music industry has worked against Guns n' Roses release of Chinese Democracy. Axl was coy about the internet legend that two more albums of material are ready to be rolled out, only saying that he is focusing now on Chinese Democracy.[55]

On December 16th, Axl Rose made public an open letter posted on the official Guns N' Roses' website.

[edit] Work outside of music

Axl plays the voice of Tommy "The Nightmare" Smith, former lead singer of the fictional 1970s rock band Crystal Ship, which in fact is reference to the song by The Doors, and radio DJ of Classic rock radio K-DST, in the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.[56]

In addition, Rose appeared as an uncredited background performer in a funeral scene in Clint Eastwood's 1988 film The Dead Pool.[57]

In 2009, it was confirmed that Rose will be producing the film adaptation of the novel "Almost Home".[58]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Pre-Guns N' Roses
Title Release Date Label
Hollywood Rose: The Roots of Guns N' Roses 2004 (Recorded in 1983) Cleopatra

[edit] With Guns N' Roses

See Guns N' Roses discography
Title Release Date Label
Appetite for Destruction 1987 Geffen
G N' R Lies 1988 Geffen
Use Your Illusion I 1991 Geffen
Use Your Illusion II 1991 Geffen
"The Spaghetti Incident?" 1993 Geffen
Chinese Democracy 2008 Geffen

[edit] Guest appearances
Title Artist Release Date Label
The End of the Innocence Don Henley 1989 Geffen
Fire and Gasoline Steve Jones 1989 Gold Mountain
Pawnshop Guitars Gilby Clarke 1994 Virgin
Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits Don Henley 1995 Geffen
Anxious Disease The Outpatience 1996 Musikitchen
The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper Alice Cooper 1999 Rhino
Angel Down Sebastian Bach 2007 EMI

[edit] Personal life

[edit] Relationships

Throughout the mid eighties and into the early nineties, Rose was involved in a turbulent relationship with Erin Everly, the daughter of singer Don Everly. Rose wrote the lyrics of "Sweet Child o' Mine", and she appeared in the video for the song.[59] Rose and Everly were wed in late April 1990 in Las Vegas,[60] albeit under duress: according to Everly, Rose showed up at her home, told her he had a gun in his car, and that he would kill himself if she did not marry him.[61] Rose wanted one of his heroes, Dan McCafferty frontman of Nazareth, to perform at his wedding. McCafferty commenting in 2004 said "I laughed when Axl asked me to sing "Love Hurts" at his wedding, because the song seemed to last for longer than the marriage! Around 18 people from their management kept phoning me to ask – 18 people! – but I eventually told them I was busy, which I probably was.”[62]

The couple separated after less than a month of marriage,[16] but later reconciled for several months, during which time Everly became pregnant. She suffered a miscarriage in October 1990. This deeply affected Rose, who had wanted to have children of his own. The day after Everly's miscarriage, Rose was arrested after allegedly assaulting a neighbor with a wine bottle after the neighbor threatened to call the police because of Rose's loud music. The marriage between Everly and Rose was annulled in January 1991.[16][61] Rose has never re-married and has no children.

After the breakup, Rose allegedly continued to try to contact Everly for more than a year, sending her flowers, letters, and even caged birds.[61] In 1994, Everly filed a civil lawsuit against Rose, alleging various incidents of physical and emotional domestic violence had occurred before and during the marriage; the suit was eventually settled out of court.[20][26]

By mid 1991, Rose had become involved with model Stephanie Seymour. While they were together, Seymour appeared in two Guns N' Roses videos, "November Rain" and "Don't Cry". Rose became deeply attached to Seymour's son, Dylan, and tried to be a good father figure for the child, as there had been none in his own life. Seymour and Rose parted ways in early 1993, [20][39] Rose and Seymour then filed lawsuits against each other, each claiming that the other was physically abusive. In support of her case, Seymour subpoenaed Erin Everly, Rose's ex-wife, so Everly would testify that she was also abused by Rose. The lawsuits were settled out of court.[61][26]

[edit] Feuds

[edit] Vince Neil

In 1989, a feud erupted between Rose and Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil after Neil punched Guns N' Roses rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards. The punch was said to be in retaliation for a prior incident at the Cathouse, a Los Angeles rock nightclub, in which Stradlin allegedly harassed and assaulted Neil's wife, Sharise.[63]

Following the Video Music Awards, Neil and Rose traded insults and challenges for confrontations through the press for a number of months. The duel never happened; each singer accused the other of backing out.[63][24] In an interview with Larry King Live in 2008, when asked about the feud, Neil stated, "...it's like if somebody pulls your hair when you're in third grade, are you still going to beat them up?...I don't think so." He also noted that he had not spoken to Rose in more than 20 years.[64]

[edit] Kurt Cobain

Rose had been a big fan of the band Nirvana, who were signed to the same record label as Guns N' Roses, Geffen. He twice asked singer Kurt Cobain and Nirvana to open for Guns N' Roses for the second leg of the Use Your Illusion Tour, which Cobain declined. After declining Rose's offer, Cobain began to talk about Guns N' Roses and Rose to numerous media sources, claiming that they were "so obviously pathetic and untalented".[65] At the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, jokingly asked Rose to be the godfather to their daughter Frances Bean, to which Axl replied "Why don't you shut your bitch up." Kurt then allegedly turned to Courtney, and jokingly said "Shut up bitch!" .. prompting Rose to challenge Cobain to a fight.[66][67]

In an interview with Michael Azerrad in the unofficial biography Come as You Are, Cobain admitted there was one thing he did like about Guns N' Roses: "They totally fuck things up and then they sit back and look at what they fucked up and then try to figure out how they can fix it, whereas we fuck things up and just dwell on it and make it even worse."[68]

Cobain further commented on Rose's rock star persona, claiming, "His role has been played for years. Ever since the beginning of rock and roll, there's been an Axl Rose. And it's just boring. It's totally boring to me. Why it's such a fresh and new thing in his eyes is obviously because it's happening to him personally and he's such an egotistical person that he thinks that the whole world owes him something."[66][67]

Then-Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan was one of the last people to see Kurt Cobain alive before his death in 1994,[69] and the other former members of Guns N' Roses are now getting along with the Cobain estate. Courtney Love has privately apologized to Duff McKagan for their criticism of the band. In addition, the two have performed "It's So Easy" live together,[70] and Velvet Revolver, the current band of McKagan and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, have played Nirvana's song "Negative Creep" in concert and released a version of it as the B-side of their CD-single for "Slither". Slash also appeared in a VH1 documentary where he spoke about his respect for Cobain.

[edit] Velvet Revolver

In March 2006, Rose's lawyer released the following statement: "In October of 2005, Slash made an unannounced 5:30 AM visit to Axl Rose's house. Not appearing to be under the influence, Slash came to inform Axl (about his new band Velvet Revolver) that: 'Duff was spineless,' 'Scott Weiland was a fraud,' that he 'hates Matt Sorum' and that in this ingoing war, contest or whatever anyone wants to call it that Slash has waged against Axl for the better part of 20 years, that Axl has proven himself 'the stronger.' Based on his conduct in showing up at Rose's home, Axl was hopeful that Slash would live up to his pronouncements that he wanted to end the war and move on with life. Unfortunately that did not prove to be the case."[71]

Slash did not comment on Rose's press release, but a Velvet Revolver spokeswoman did promise that he would be heard from "within days". Slash never released an official statement on the matter, but on May 13, 2006, during an interview on the Camp Freddy Show on Invicta 103.1 FM, he denied ever having visited Rose's house, noting that he had neither seen nor spoken to the singer since the mid 1990s. In his 2007 autobiography, Slash changed his version of events slightly, saying he had dropped off a note at Rose's house asking for a meeting, but that Rose had never responded directly.[72][73] Vocalist Scott Weiland posted an inflammatory letter, addressed to Rose, on the Velvet Revolver official website, but it was quickly removed.[74]

In 2008, after parting ways with Velvet Revolver, Scott Weiland stated that his opinion of Rose had changed. Speaking with Rolling Stone, he said, "Everyone has made Axl out to be this horrendously crazy person, this bad guy, and I don't know him very well at all. He and I for whatever reason got almost tricked into this little media spat for a moment because one of our band members happened to run into him and said that he said something. So, my point being that having been in a band with Velvet Revolver now for five and a half years, I'm not quite so sure that it was all Axl's fault."[75]

On February 6, 2009, a story was posted on the official NME website that denied rumors of a reunion between the original members of Guns N' Roses. Axl Rose said that there is no chance that he and his former Guns N' Roses bandmate Slash will reunite – saying that one of the pair will "die" before such an event could occur.

The frontman told Billboard that the dispute between the pair would never be healed. He went on to say that Guns N' Roses, in its current guise, could tour in the near future.

"In regards to Slash," he said, "I read a desperate fan's message about, 'What if one of us were to die, and looking back I had the possibility of a reunion now'. My thoughts are, 'Yeah, and while you're at the show your baby accidentally kicks a candle and burns your house down, killing himself and the rest of your family.'

"Give me a fucking break. What's clear is that one of the two of us will die before a reunion and however sad, ugly or unfortunate anyone views it, it is how it is. Those decisions were made a long time ago and reiterated year after year by one man.

"There are acts that, once committed between individuals, they are what they are. To add insult to injury almost day after day, lapsing into year after year, for more than a decade, is a nightmare. Anyone putting his own personal entertainment above everything else is sickening." In an interview with Spin magazine, Rose also stated that "Slash should not have been in Guns N Roses to begin with or should have left after G N' R Lies". He also stated that he considered Slash "a cancer, better removed and avoided-- the less anyone heard of him and his supporters, the better."[76]

Speaking about a possible Guns N' Roses tour, he added, "No plans, but there's talk. Management and our promoters are really excited with the offers coming in both here and worldwide."

[edit] Tommy Hilfiger

In May 2006, Rose had a close encounter with Tommy Hilfiger at the Plumm nightclub in New York City. Hilfiger reportedly took a couple of swings at Rose, hitting him on the arm and face, before being carried away by his own security guards and ejected from the club. Rose made the claim that the attack began when he moved a drink belonging to Hilfiger's girlfriend so that it would not spill.[77]

Club owner Noel Ashman stated "Axl was a gentleman and had the good sense not to retaliate as he would have done some serious damage to Hilfiger."... Guns N' Roses were playing an acoustic set at Rosario Dawson's birthday party. Later that night Rose dedicated the song "You're Crazy" to "my good friend Tommy Hilfiger."[78] It was rumored on several celebrity gossip chat boards that Rose and Hilfiger (who was wearing a Guns N' Roses t-shirt under a blazer) were seen "hugging" and "burying the hatchet" backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards in late August 2006, although this has not been confirmed by either side.[79]

[edit] Eagles of Death Metal

On November 24, 2006 at Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena, Rose referred to opening act the Eagles of Death Metal as the "Pigeons of Shit Metal". He then said, "I'm sorry to say that this will be their last night with us." The Eagles of Death Metal later claimed that Tommy Stinson took his bass off and threw it on the floor saying "Fuck you, that's it".[80]

However, on December 2, 2006, Stinson posted a message: "As a matter of fact, Eagles of Death Metal were a suggestion of mine a while ago. Turns out they were the wrong band for our crowd. They were booed and did not play for as long as they were scheduled to. ... In the past I have thrown my bass. I have never thrown it at Axl or anyone else in the band nor has anyone thrown my bass back at me... yet. Axl has been a dear friend to me for nine years. We have no problem communicating and wish that people would stay the fuck out of shit they don't know anything about."[81]

[edit] Bon Jovi

Rose has had a long time feud with the members of the rock band Bon Jovi, especially with the lead singer, Jon Bon Jovi. At a 1987 show opening for Alice Cooper, Rose said "Now last night, what happened was, five guys in suits decided in the Hyatt Regency Hotel that we were scumbags. They were right, we're scumbags but that don't mean we're gonna take their shit. So first off, this guy grabs me and calls me Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi can suck my dick. Second off he tried to hit me. That's when Steven cracked him in the head with his cast. And his words were 'You never try to hit one of the family'". The audio of this speech is often referred to as "Axl's Blues" as the rest of the band play a blues jam as he speaks.[82][83][84] Incidentally, Bon Jovi had planned to name their 1986 album Guns N' Roses after Jon read an article about the band in a newspaper.[85]

In a 2006 interview, Jon Bon Jovi was critical of the public and media attention Rose received, despite not having released an album for years: "You know what pisses me off? I was reading this British rock magazine this month and there was a story about Axl Rose and the $13 million Guns N' Roses record that was never made. That motherfucker hasn't made a record in 13 years and he gets all that attention. You know what I've done in 13 years? A lot. But they have continued to write about the freak show aspect of him. Because he's a recluse. That makes him interesting, right?".[86] In addition, Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan publicly criticized Rose and his late arrivals at concerts in another 2006 interview.[87]

[edit] Dexter Holland

The Offspring frontman Dexter Holland openly implied his dislike for Rose in a 2003 interview regarding The Offspring's then-upcoming album. On April Fools' Day 2003, The Offspring jokingly announced the album's title as Chinese Democracy (You Snooze You Lose) (now known as Splinter), Holland stated: "You snooze, you lose. Axl ripped off my braids, so I ripped off his album title"[88], referring to his wearing of long braids during and prior to The Offspring's Smash tour in 1994 and 1995.[89] The Offspring thought that the name would be funny, since the Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy had at that time been in the works for years and still did not have a release date.[90] However, Rose was apparently not as amused when he was informed that The Offspring were throwing around this idea and subsequently requested his lawyers to issue a "cease and desist" notice to The Offspring.[91]

While it was proclaimed that The Offspring were on pretty solid legal ground despite having openly admitted to taking the title,[92] the band decided to use Splinter instead of Chinese Democracy. Holland explained that when the decision to title the album Chinese Democracy was announced, production was essentially brought to a halt.[93] Holland later explained that naming the album Chinese Democracy was just a joke and that it wouldn't have had anything to do with the record (Splinter). Holland stated that musically and lyrically Splinter more adequately described the flow and direction of the album.[94] Considering the large amount of publicity given to Dexter Holland and The Offspring when it was announced that the band would use Chinese Democracy as the album's title, it is likely that this was all simply a well-crafted publicity stunt at the expense of Rose.[95]

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