Axl Rose is a sociopath, Chapter 623

Maybe my favorite celebrity profile written while I was able to read, by John Jeremiah Sullivan in GQ on Axl Rose in 2006: http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/200609/final-comeback-axl-rose

It's 8,834 words, but if you loved Guns N' Roses, you will enjoy all of them.

Best band of the 1980s.

 

Steven Tyler on GnR circa late-80s:

"They're drinking way too much. They're going to wind up just like we did."

 

That was quite good. Thanks for posting. I felt the same way watching the 2011 version of the band.

 

I remember when this happened and thought it was strange. I believe CCR had a similar deal.

 

GnR was on track to become one of the top three bands in the history of music.
Smack is a powerful drug that derails even the best of 'em. Fuck you Axl for taking that away from me.

 

You know he's serious because he capitalized five letters in that post. (Also, he made three fine points.)

 

Yeah, but all of the drama happened off stage with CCR.

 

"Appetite for Destruction" was by such a wide margin the best rock 'n' roll album of the '80s that I can't even think of what No. 2 might be.

I read "Watch You Bleed," the Stephen Davis biography of G'nR, and I'm pretty sure I remember that by '87 or '88, Axl was off the smack completely. I don't think it was smack that made Axl weird. I don't think "sociopath" is far off, frankly. I think the rest of the world should thank the deity that Bill Bailey could sing, 'cause otherwise he would probably have been a monster criminal.

 

Probably "The Joshua Tree" or "1984."

 

Nobody knows I'm a lesbian.

I thought Watch You Bleed was lousy, a rehash of old interviews and mistakes. I was much more impressed with W.A.R., a bio of Axl by Mick Wall, notoriously name-checked (with others) in "Get In The Ring", that chronicles the band's rampant dysfunction and Axl's complete batshit insanity.

Still, Axl was one of the greatest frontmen ever, often imitated, never duplicated. His appearance with with Elton John at the Freddie Mercury tribute was one of the last "Holy shit!" rock moments for this kid.

 

He also contributed a great backing vocal to Don Henley's "I Will Not Go Quietly".

 

See, and I saw that post and immediately thought Thriller or Purple Rain.