W. Axl Rose was born William Bruce Rose on February 6th 1962.
Although a far cry from the hard rocking antics of Guns N' Roses, Axl's musical
aspirations were certainly fed early on - he took classical piano lessons and also
sang in the Pentecostal church choir. He began thinking about getting a band together
when he was 17 and joined a succession of local Lafayette bands on vocals. One of
these was called Axl and after the band broke up the name stuck. 17 was also the age
at which the young Axl discovered that his real father was not, as he had been led to
believe, stepfather Stephen but William Rose. This prompted a name change with William
being replaced simply by W because "William" Axl explained, "was an asshole."
Axl's
upbringing was not the most peaceful you could imagine. In fact, some of the stories
that Axl would recount in later years were really quite disturbing. With these in mind
it is perhaps not surprising that Axl had a brush with the law on more than one
occasion. Sensing that Lafayette had little to offer, Axl made tracks for LA. Arriving
on a Greyhound bus, the experience of life in LA would directly influence more
than one
future Guns N' Roses song. Axl quickly found that LA was a very different place to his
hometown and wasted no time in hooking up with fellow Lafayette exile Izzy Stradlin'.
Axl knew Izzy from his schooldays; indeed it was Izzy, along
with future GN'R
collaborator Chris Weber, that had joined Axl in the band from which Rose derived his
name. With time [the band] Axl became Rose, which in turn became
Hollywood Rose.
Hollywood Rose survived for a short period of time before splitting after a gig in
Santa Monica.
Axl moved on to another local band, LA Guns but with nothing much going
on Hollywood Rose staged a reunion on New Years Eve 1984. Weber left after this and
Tracii Guns from LA Guns joined the band. With Rob Gardner on drums the band was
arguably a club-scene "supergroup" by now and the very first foundations of Guns N'
Roses were in place. As 1985 moved onwards Hollywood Rose became first Guns & Roses,
combining elements from the two bands that gave it its members (Hollywood Rose and LA
Guns) and then Guns N' Roses. The band continued to gig and were joined by Michael
"Duff" McKagan on bass.
McKagan managed to book a tour for his new band but, at the
last minute, Tracii Guns and Rob Gardner pulled out. This opened the door for Steven
Adler and Saul "Slash" Hudson, the only two members of a band named Road Crew, to join
on drums and guitar respectively. With the line-up complete, Axl embarked on his first
tour with Guns N' Roses. One prominent feature of the songs that Guns N' Roses, and
Axl in particular, have written in their basis on real-life events or people. Once
such song is "Sweet Child O' Mine", a song about Axl's then girlfriend Erin Everly.
They finally got married in 1990...before Everly demanded that the marriage be
annulled 48 hours later! Since then, Axl's most notable relationship has been with
Stephanie Seymour but despite his affection for her son Dylan, this ended after she
was spotted out and about with Warren Beatty.
