It was The Stones in the 60s and Led Zeppelin in the 70s, but at the end of the 80s the Biggest and Baddest rock band on the planet were L.A.’s finest, Guns N’ Roses. With multi-million selling albums and tours, super-model girlfriends, drug habits, riots at gigs and constant band in-fighting, Axl, Slash and their gang lived out every rock and roll cliché but were no less loveable for it. At a time when pop was dominated by dance music and pop-metal, Guns N’ Roses brought raw, ugly rock & roll crashing back into the charts. They were not nice boys; nice boys don’t play rock & roll. They were ugly, misogynist, and violent; they were also funny, vulnerable, and occasionally sensitive, as their breakthrough hit, “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” showed. While Slash and Izzy Stradlin ferociously spit out dueling guitar riffs worthy of Aerosmith and The Stones, Axl Rose screeched out his tales of sex, drugs, and apathy in the big city. Meanwhile, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steven Adler were a limber rhythm section who kept the music loose and powerful. Guns N’ Roses’ music was basic and gritty, with a solid hard, bluesy base; they were dark, sleazy, dirty, and honest --everything that good hard rock and heavy metal should be.

Guns N’ Roses released their first EP in 1986, which led to a contract with Geffen. The following year, the band released their debut album, Appetite for Destruction which shot to number one and Guns N’ Roses became the biggest band in the world. Their debut single, “Welcome to the Jungle,” was re-released and shot into the Top Ten, and “Par-adise City” followed in its footsteps. By the end of 1988, they released G N’ R Lies, which paired four new, acoustic-based songs (including the Top Five hit “Patience”) with their first EP. Guns N’ Roses began work on the long-awaited follow-up to Appetite for Destruction at the end of 1990 and by the time the sessions were finished, the new album had become two new albums.

After being delayed for nearly a year, the albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II were released in September 1991. Messy but fascinating, the albums showcased a more ambitious band; while there were still a fair number of full-throttle guitar rockers, there were stabs at acoustic blues, horn sections, female backup singers, ten-minute art rock epics with several different sections, and a good number of introspective, soul-searching lyrics. In short, they were now making art; amazingly, they were successful at it. The albums sold very well initially, but while they had seemed destined to set the pace for the rest of the decade to come, that turned out not to be as the band imploded and more than a decade later Guns N’ Roses fans are still waiting to see how the story ends.

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