WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.399 I want to start today's deep dive with a specific 00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:04.660 piece of data. It's a statistic that, honestly, 00:00:04.780 --> 00:00:06.419 I read three times just to make sure I wasn't 00:00:06.419 --> 00:00:08.839 hallucinating. Okay. We are looking at a vocal 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:12.519 range that spans five full octaves, specifically 00:00:12.519 --> 00:00:18.699 from F1 to BB6. It is. It's a... staggering physical 00:00:18.699 --> 00:00:21.019 capability yeah and to put that into perspective 00:00:21.019 --> 00:00:23.399 for everyone listening most professional singers 00:00:23.399 --> 00:00:25.420 i mean even the legends they operate comfortably 00:00:25.420 --> 00:00:28.859 within two maybe two and a half octaves f1 is 00:00:28.859 --> 00:00:31.960 a frequency that is so low it's arguably more 00:00:31.960 --> 00:00:33.820 of a vibration in the floorboards than a musical 00:00:33.820 --> 00:00:36.460 note it's this deep guttural bass that you feel 00:00:36.460 --> 00:00:38.759 in your chest and then on the other end The BB 00:00:38.759 --> 00:00:41.799 -6. BB -6 is stratospheric. Yeah. I mean, that 00:00:41.799 --> 00:00:44.219 is soprano territory. Wow. That's the frequency 00:00:44.219 --> 00:00:46.420 of a tea kettle whistling or like a high -end 00:00:46.420 --> 00:00:48.719 dog whistle. It is higher than almost any other 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:50.759 male rock singer in history has ever recorded. 00:00:50.939 --> 00:00:53.640 And the fact that one human being possesses the 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:56.600 biology to hit both of those extremes is, frankly, 00:00:56.740 --> 00:00:59.399 an anomaly. Right. And we aren't talking about 00:00:59.399 --> 00:01:01.840 some classically trained opera singer in a tuxedo 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:04.239 who spent 20 years at a conservatory. We are 00:01:04.239 --> 00:01:07.959 talking about a man who is arguably the definition 00:01:07.959 --> 00:01:11.579 of the volatile, chaotic rock star. We're talking 00:01:11.579 --> 00:01:14.599 about Axl Rose. Exactly. And it creates this 00:01:14.599 --> 00:01:16.439 incredible paradox right from the start. You 00:01:16.439 --> 00:01:19.560 have this undeniable biological gift, a technical 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:22.239 genius in terms of vocal ability, and it's housed 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:25.180 within a personality that has become famous for, 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:29.590 you know, tardiness. riots, reclusive disappearances, 00:01:29.730 --> 00:01:32.269 aggressive feuds. It's like putting a Ferrari 00:01:32.269 --> 00:01:35.189 engine inside a demolition derby car. That's 00:01:35.189 --> 00:01:37.090 a perfect analogy. It really is. The machine 00:01:37.090 --> 00:01:39.650 is incredible, but the chassis is built for chaos. 00:01:39.890 --> 00:01:41.590 And that's really the hook for me today. For 00:01:41.590 --> 00:01:43.549 you, the learner tuning in, this isn't just a 00:01:43.549 --> 00:01:45.849 biography of the guy from Guns N' Roses. It feels 00:01:45.849 --> 00:01:48.109 more like a study in extremes. Absolutely. You 00:01:48.109 --> 00:01:49.870 have the musical genius on one side, and then 00:01:49.870 --> 00:01:51.569 you have this personal chaos on the other. You 00:01:51.569 --> 00:01:53.329 have one of the best -selling debut albums of 00:01:53.329 --> 00:01:55.370 all time, and then you have the most expensive, 00:01:55.510 --> 00:01:58.290 most delayed album. in history. It is a story 00:01:58.290 --> 00:02:01.310 of polarization. There's no middle ground. You 00:02:01.310 --> 00:02:03.810 either love him or you hate him. And often it 00:02:03.810 --> 00:02:06.189 seems like Axel feels the same way about himself. 00:02:06.450 --> 00:02:08.710 So just to set the table, we're pulling from 00:02:08.710 --> 00:02:12.620 a massive stack of sources today. We have Biographical 00:02:12.620 --> 00:02:16.060 records, discography notes, extensive legal histories, 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:19.539 and a lot of documentation from Wikipedia. Yeah, 00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:21.500 a huge amount of material to sift through. And 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:23.939 our mission today is pretty specific. We want 00:02:23.939 --> 00:02:26.740 to unpack how a choir boy from Indiana, because 00:02:26.740 --> 00:02:29.139 yes, he was a choir boy. He was. Became one of 00:02:29.139 --> 00:02:31.340 the most polarizing figures in music history. 00:02:31.620 --> 00:02:33.939 We really need to look at the why. You know, 00:02:33.939 --> 00:02:35.740 it's easy to just look at the headlines about 00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:38.219 the riots or the late shows and write them off 00:02:38.219 --> 00:02:41.240 as a diva. Sure. But... We want to examine the 00:02:41.240 --> 00:02:43.319 psychological and environmental factors from 00:02:43.319 --> 00:02:46.199 that really strict religious upbringing in the 00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:49.819 Midwest to the sheer debauchery of the Sunset 00:02:49.819 --> 00:02:52.259 Strip. All the things that actually shaped these 00:02:52.259 --> 00:02:54.319 behaviors. We're going to dig into the riots, 00:02:54.439 --> 00:02:57.219 the breakups and the eventual redemption arc 00:02:57.219 --> 00:02:59.560 that, frankly, I did not see coming. Neither. 00:02:59.699 --> 00:03:02.020 So let's go back to the very beginning. Section 00:03:02.020 --> 00:03:06.000 one, the origin story. Before he was Axl Rose, 00:03:06.199 --> 00:03:09.379 he was William Bruce Rose Jr., born in Lafayette, 00:03:09.419 --> 00:03:11.819 Indiana. And right away, the circumstances are 00:03:11.819 --> 00:03:15.520 difficult. He was born in 1962. His mother, Sharon, 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:18.639 was only 16 years old. Just a kid herself. Exactly. 00:03:18.939 --> 00:03:23.020 And his father, William Bruce Rose, was 20. The 00:03:23.020 --> 00:03:24.939 descriptions we have of his biological father 00:03:24.939 --> 00:03:27.780 are, well, they're pretty telling. He was described 00:03:27.780 --> 00:03:31.599 as a troubled and charismatic local delinquent. 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:34.550 Charismatic and troubled. That sounds a little 00:03:34.550 --> 00:03:36.330 familiar, doesn't it? It almost feels like the 00:03:36.330 --> 00:03:38.289 blueprint was written right there in the DNA. 00:03:38.469 --> 00:03:40.710 It certainly foreshadows what's to come. But 00:03:40.710 --> 00:03:43.150 that family dynamic, it fractured almost immediately. 00:03:43.490 --> 00:03:45.650 The couple separated when Axel was only about 00:03:45.650 --> 00:03:47.530 two years old. And this is where it gets really 00:03:47.530 --> 00:03:50.009 dark. It does. The records state that his father 00:03:50.009 --> 00:03:52.629 abducted him and allegedly molested him before 00:03:52.629 --> 00:03:54.949 completely disappearing from Lafayette. That 00:03:54.949 --> 00:03:57.150 is just a horrific start to a life. Pure trauma 00:03:57.150 --> 00:03:59.469 before you can even form sentences to describe 00:03:59.469 --> 00:04:02.469 it. It is. And you have to think it sets up this 00:04:02.469 --> 00:04:06.289 lifelong battle with trust and with safety. But 00:04:06.289 --> 00:04:09.729 then his mother remarries a man named Stephen 00:04:09.729 --> 00:04:13.449 L. Bailey and they change his name. So he becomes 00:04:13.449 --> 00:04:17.629 William Bruce Bailey. Yes. His identity is effectively 00:04:17.629 --> 00:04:20.000 wiped clean. And this is where the environment 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:22.220 shifts, right? It goes from this sort of chaotic 00:04:22.220 --> 00:04:25.779 abandonment to something else entirely oppressively 00:04:25.779 --> 00:04:27.860 restrictive. That's exactly right. The Bailey 00:04:27.860 --> 00:04:30.399 household was deeply, deeply religious. We are 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:32.480 talking about a Pentecostal environment that 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:35.600 Axel later described as oppressive. This wasn't 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:38.000 just go to church on Sundays. No, not at all. 00:04:38.019 --> 00:04:39.959 This was a binary worldview where everything 00:04:39.959 --> 00:04:42.779 was either of God or Satan. There was no in between. 00:04:43.199 --> 00:04:44.959 I read some of the details about this, and it's 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:47.240 just so intense. He was attending church multiple 00:04:47.240 --> 00:04:49.959 times a week, even teaching Sunday school. But 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:52.620 at home, the rules were draconian. They were 00:04:52.620 --> 00:04:55.220 extreme. Axel recalled that his stepfather would 00:04:55.220 --> 00:04:57.220 physically throw the television sets out of the 00:04:57.220 --> 00:04:59.740 house. Literally throw them out. Yes, because 00:04:59.740 --> 00:05:02.439 he believed the programming commercials, sitcoms, 00:05:02.439 --> 00:05:05.360 anything was satanic. He saw the devil everywhere. 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:08.019 That's such a violent display of control, isn't 00:05:08.019 --> 00:05:10.199 it? It is. And the worldview being enforced there 00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:13.019 was that women were evil, rock music was evil. 00:05:14.139 --> 00:05:15.939 Essentially everything that brought any kind 00:05:15.939 --> 00:05:17.699 of pleasure was evil. It was a completely fear 00:05:17.699 --> 00:05:19.560 -based environment. So you're raising a child 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:21.860 to believe that all of his natural impulses, 00:05:21.860 --> 00:05:25.480 his creativity, are just a ticket to hell. Exactly. 00:05:25.779 --> 00:05:27.920 Imagine growing up in that pressure cooker. You 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:30.019 have this incredible creative energy, this voice, 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:32.180 and you're being told constantly that it's all 00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:35.279 wrong, it's all sinful. But then at age 17, he 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:39.800 has this aha moment that just completely shatters 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:42.079 his entire reality. This is a pivotal psychological 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:45.350 break. It's a huge moment. He's at home and he 00:05:45.350 --> 00:05:47.990 finds some insurance papers. And on those papers, 00:05:48.129 --> 00:05:51.029 he sees the name of his biological father, William 00:05:51.029 --> 00:05:53.550 Rose. And up until that point. Up until that 00:05:53.550 --> 00:05:56.470 exact moment, he believes Stephen Bailey was 00:05:56.470 --> 00:06:00.269 his father. He suddenly realized his entire identity, 00:06:00.449 --> 00:06:03.250 even his own last name, was a lie constructed 00:06:03.250 --> 00:06:05.829 to hide this past. That has to be devastating 00:06:05.829 --> 00:06:07.850 to realize the man who's been enforcing all these 00:06:07.850 --> 00:06:10.050 satanic rules and throwing out the TV isn't even 00:06:10.050 --> 00:06:13.189 your biological dad. It completely delegitimizes 00:06:13.189 --> 00:06:16.050 the authority figure in his life. The foundation 00:06:16.050 --> 00:06:18.810 of his world just crumbles. And that's what triggers 00:06:18.810 --> 00:06:20.970 the rebellion. A massive rebellion. He immediately 00:06:20.970 --> 00:06:24.069 dropped the name Bailey and adopted W. Rose. 00:06:24.709 --> 00:06:28.310 But, and this is a crucial detail, he avoided 00:06:28.310 --> 00:06:31.779 using the name William. Why? Because he wanted 00:06:31.779 --> 00:06:33.899 to distance himself from his biological father, 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:36.600 the man he'd never really known, but who was 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:39.139 associated with that early trauma. So he's stuck. 00:06:39.259 --> 00:06:41.480 He's trapped between two fathers he doesn't want 00:06:41.480 --> 00:06:43.660 to be associated with. He rejects Bailey, but 00:06:43.660 --> 00:06:46.160 he also rejects the full name of Rose. He's carving 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:48.560 out something new for himself. He is trying to 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:50.980 self -create. Yeah. And this is when the delinquency 00:06:50.980 --> 00:06:53.300 starts in earnest. Yeah. After this discovery, 00:06:53.620 --> 00:06:56.420 the rails just came off. In Lafayette, he was 00:06:56.420 --> 00:06:59.319 arrested over 20 times. Over 20 times. What was 00:06:59.319 --> 00:07:01.720 he even doing? Oh, mostly public intoxication, 00:07:01.899 --> 00:07:05.279 party incidents, criminal trespass. Yeah. Typical 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:07.079 teenage acting out, but to an extreme degree. 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:09.959 He ended up serving jail time up to three months 00:07:09.959 --> 00:07:11.800 at one point. And the local police threatened 00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:14.959 to charge him as a habitual offender? They did. 00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:17.699 which is a really heavy label for a teenager 00:07:17.699 --> 00:07:19.980 that carries serious prison time if it sticks. 00:07:20.420 --> 00:07:22.860 He was being backed into a corner in his own 00:07:22.860 --> 00:07:25.680 hometown. But while all this chaos is happening 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:28.959 on the outside, he has this secret weapon, right? 00:07:29.139 --> 00:07:32.779 The muse. He loses his refuge. Absolutely. Despite 00:07:32.779 --> 00:07:35.720 all the satanic fears of his stepfather, Axel 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:37.480 had been singing in the church choir since he 00:07:37.480 --> 00:07:40.079 was five years old. He performed with his siblings 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:42.720 in something called the Bailey Trio. So that's 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:44.819 where the training came from. That church training 00:07:44.819 --> 00:07:47.060 is key. It taught him harmony. It taught him 00:07:47.060 --> 00:07:49.899 projection. And even in high school chorus, he 00:07:49.899 --> 00:07:52.519 was already experimenting. He would develop different 00:07:52.519 --> 00:07:55.860 voices during practice just to confuse his teachers. 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:57.920 What do you mean, different voices? He'd sing 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:00.100 at a deep bass. And then in the next measure, 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:02.819 he'd switch to a high -pitched falsetto screech. 00:08:02.899 --> 00:08:04.839 He was playing with the instrument he was born 00:08:04.839 --> 00:08:07.560 with. That is the seed of the Axl Rose we know. 00:08:08.009 --> 00:08:10.449 that ability to shift voices like a chameleon 00:08:10.449 --> 00:08:13.290 so feeling the heat from the law and probably 00:08:13.290 --> 00:08:16.009 just suffocating in indiana he makes the move 00:08:16.009 --> 00:08:20.850 december 1982 he flees to los angeles and he 00:08:20.850 --> 00:08:23.029 didn't go alone metaphorically he brought that 00:08:23.029 --> 00:08:25.649 intensity with him he immerses himself in a band 00:08:25.649 --> 00:08:29.149 called axl right and eventually his friends just 00:08:29.149 --> 00:08:30.949 started suggesting why don't you just call yourself 00:08:30.949 --> 00:08:35.669 axl rose It fit, and by 1986, he legally changed 00:08:35.669 --> 00:08:38.669 his name to W. Axel Rose. So if you track it, 00:08:39.269 --> 00:08:42.750 William Bruce Rose Jr. becomes William Bruce 00:08:42.750 --> 00:08:46.389 Bailey, who becomes W. Rose, who finally becomes 00:08:46.389 --> 00:08:48.870 W. Axel Rose. It's like he was shedding skins 00:08:48.870 --> 00:08:51.029 trying to find a version of himself that he actually 00:08:51.029 --> 00:08:53.509 controlled. That is a very accurate way to view 00:08:53.509 --> 00:08:55.769 it. Control and the loss of it is probably the 00:08:55.769 --> 00:08:58.929 most recurring theme in his entire life. He lost 00:08:58.929 --> 00:09:00.970 control of his childhood, so he was absolutely 00:09:00.970 --> 00:09:03.870 determined to control his adulthood. To an obsessive 00:09:03.870 --> 00:09:05.850 degree. So let's talk about Los Angeles, section 00:09:05.850 --> 00:09:09.190 two, the rocket ride. Because the mythology of 00:09:09.190 --> 00:09:10.850 Duns and Roses is that they just appeared out 00:09:10.850 --> 00:09:13.009 of nowhere and took over the world. But it wasn't 00:09:13.009 --> 00:09:14.850 instant glitz and glamour, was it? Oh, not at 00:09:14.850 --> 00:09:17.509 all. This is the classic Sunset Strip hustle. 00:09:17.690 --> 00:09:19.909 They were living in absolute squalor. They had 00:09:19.909 --> 00:09:21.870 a practice space they called the Hell House, 00:09:22.029 --> 00:09:23.909 which, you know, didn't have running water or 00:09:23.909 --> 00:09:27.139 a bathroom. So how were they surviving? Cheap 00:09:27.139 --> 00:09:30.340 wine and biscuits, mostly. They were starving 00:09:30.340 --> 00:09:32.960 artists in the truest sense. And working these 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:35.440 terrible jobs. I saw Axl was a night manager 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:38.340 at Tower Records on Sunset. He was, which is 00:09:38.340 --> 00:09:40.240 actually a great education for a musician. You 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:42.120 get to see what people are actually buying, what's 00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:44.179 connecting. This is one of my favorite details. 00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:47.899 Yeah. He and Izzy Stratlin, his childhood friend, 00:09:48.100 --> 00:09:50.899 who also moved out there. Yeah. They participated 00:09:50.899 --> 00:09:53.960 in a medical study at UCLA to make money. Wait, 00:09:54.019 --> 00:09:55.519 I saw this in the notes. This can't be real. 00:09:55.659 --> 00:09:58.559 They were paid to smoke cigarettes. Yes. They 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:01.279 were paid $8 an hour to just sit there and smoke 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:03.580 cigarettes for a science study. That is the most 00:10:03.580 --> 00:10:06.539 80s LA thing I have ever heard. It really speaks 00:10:06.539 --> 00:10:09.120 to the gritty reality of trying to survive before 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:11.279 the big break. You were literally selling your 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:14.080 body to science just to eat. Hilarious and grim 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:16.240 all at the same time. Eight bucks an hour to 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:19.440 chain smoke. So he's bouncing between bands, 00:10:19.820 --> 00:10:22.879 Hollywood Rose, L .A. Guns, and eventually these 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:25.679 pieces start to merge. It was a classic shuffling 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:27.759 of lineups involving people like Tracy Guns and 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:31.440 Chris Webber. But by June of 1985, the chemistry 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:33.740 just clicked. You had the classic lineup. Axl 00:10:33.740 --> 00:10:36.399 Rose on vocals, Slash on lead guitar. Izzy Stradlin 00:10:36.399 --> 00:10:39.399 on rhythm guitar, Duff McKagan on bass, and Steven 00:10:39.399 --> 00:10:41.899 Adler on drums. It's such an interesting mix 00:10:41.899 --> 00:10:44.879 of people because you have Slash and Izzy bringing 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:48.649 this sort of... Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, bluesy 00:10:48.649 --> 00:10:52.750 vibe. Duff is a punk rocker from Seattle. Totally 00:10:52.750 --> 00:10:55.649 different background. And Axl is this metal screaming 00:10:55.649 --> 00:10:59.250 choir boy from Indiana. It shouldn't work on 00:10:59.250 --> 00:11:01.669 paper, but it did. It was the volatility that 00:11:01.669 --> 00:11:05.110 made it work. It felt dangerous. And they captured 00:11:05.110 --> 00:11:07.549 that danger perfectly on Appetite for Destruction. 00:11:07.690 --> 00:11:10.730 Released July 1987. Now looking back, we think 00:11:10.730 --> 00:11:13.399 of this album as this instant juggernaut. But 00:11:13.399 --> 00:11:15.259 it didn't explode immediately, did it? No, it 00:11:15.259 --> 00:11:17.500 was actually a slow burn. I think people forget 00:11:17.500 --> 00:11:20.059 this. In its first year, it only sold about 500 00:11:20.059 --> 00:11:22.779 ,000 copies, which is respectable for a debut 00:11:22.779 --> 00:11:24.820 for sure, but it wasn't a phenomenon. It was 00:11:24.820 --> 00:11:27.179 stuck. It was completely stuck. MTV wouldn't 00:11:27.179 --> 00:11:29.679 play the video for Welcome to the Jungle because 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:32.279 they thought Axl looked too intimidating. Seriously? 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:34.799 Yeah. It took David Geffen, the head of the record 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:37.580 label, calling in a massive favor to get it played 00:11:37.580 --> 00:11:41.370 just once at 4 a .m. on a Sunday morning. The 00:11:41.370 --> 00:11:43.730 graveyard slot. The absolute graveyard slot. 00:11:43.909 --> 00:11:47.289 But the switchboards at MTV lit up. Kids who 00:11:47.289 --> 00:11:49.730 were up all night saw this video and just started 00:11:49.730 --> 00:11:52.169 calling in, demanding to see it again. It went 00:11:52.169 --> 00:11:55.049 from 4 a .m. one time to heavy rotation within 00:11:55.049 --> 00:11:58.870 weeks. And once that hit, the album just rocketed 00:11:58.870 --> 00:12:01.460 to number one. And the stats are undeniable. 00:12:01.620 --> 00:12:04.399 It became the best selling U .S. debut album 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:07.240 of all time. 18 million sales in the U .S., 30 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:10.019 million worldwide. Those numbers are just staggering. 00:12:10.279 --> 00:12:12.879 So from an analytical perspective, what does 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:15.360 that kind of success do to someone like Axl? 00:12:15.500 --> 00:12:17.559 Well, it validates everything. It validates that 00:12:17.559 --> 00:12:20.399 intense, aggressive style. But it also likely 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:23.110 laid the groundwork for his ego. When you are 00:12:23.110 --> 00:12:25.269 proven right to the tune of 30 million copies, 00:12:25.450 --> 00:12:27.230 when everyone told you that you were wrong or 00:12:27.230 --> 00:12:29.970 too loud or too rude, it reinforces your desire 00:12:29.970 --> 00:12:32.549 for control. It proves that your way is the winning 00:12:32.549 --> 00:12:34.649 way. Exactly. Why would you listen to anyone 00:12:34.649 --> 00:12:37.110 else ever again? But with that massive success 00:12:37.110 --> 00:12:40.009 came the dark side. And we have to talk about 00:12:40.009 --> 00:12:43.570 the Monsters of Rock Festival in 1988. This is 00:12:43.570 --> 00:12:45.490 a really heavy moment, and I think it's pivotal 00:12:45.490 --> 00:12:47.629 to understanding his later behavior on stage. 00:12:48.029 --> 00:12:50.710 It is a tragedy. They were playing in England 00:12:50.710 --> 00:12:53.870 at Donington Park. The crowd was massive, over 00:12:53.870 --> 00:12:56.269 100 ,000 people, and it had been raining, so 00:12:56.269 --> 00:12:58.710 the ground was all mud. A bad combination. A 00:12:58.710 --> 00:13:01.549 terrible combination. During the song, it's so 00:13:01.549 --> 00:13:04.409 easy. The crowd surged forward, the pressure 00:13:04.409 --> 00:13:07.269 was just immense, and two fans were crushed to 00:13:07.269 --> 00:13:10.259 death in the mud. Oh, God. Did the band know 00:13:10.259 --> 00:13:12.620 it was happening? Axl actually stopped the show 00:13:12.620 --> 00:13:14.620 several times to try and calm the audience. You 00:13:14.620 --> 00:13:17.200 can see it in the footage. He saw the crushing 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:19.580 happening. He was yelling at people to take a 00:13:19.580 --> 00:13:21.539 step back, to give each other space. But you 00:13:21.539 --> 00:13:24.659 can't stop that kind of momentum. No. The momentum 00:13:24.659 --> 00:13:26.820 of 100 ,000 people is like a force of nature. 00:13:27.100 --> 00:13:29.440 They finished the set, but when they got backstage 00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:32.200 and found out that people had died, Axl was apparently 00:13:32.200 --> 00:13:34.899 devastated. And this moment, it fundamentally 00:13:34.899 --> 00:13:37.320 changed him as a performer, didn't it? It did. 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:39.940 From that point on, he became hypervigilant. 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:43.139 He became known for stopping shows to personally 00:13:43.139 --> 00:13:46.820 police the crowd. If he saw a fight or someone 00:13:46.820 --> 00:13:49.259 getting crushed or security being too rough with 00:13:49.259 --> 00:13:52.159 a fan, he would stop the music and call it out 00:13:52.159 --> 00:13:54.500 from the stage. You see that in the footage from 00:13:54.500 --> 00:13:56.580 the later years. He's constantly scanning the 00:13:56.580 --> 00:13:58.320 audience, almost like a security guard with a 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:01.000 microphone. Exactly. He felt the security of 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:03.669 venues was inadequate, which... To be fair, in 00:14:03.669 --> 00:14:06.350 the late 80s, it often was. So he took it upon 00:14:06.350 --> 00:14:09.669 himself to be the enforcer. But that hypervigilance 00:14:09.669 --> 00:14:12.370 also led to confrontation. He was on a hair trigger 00:14:12.370 --> 00:14:14.389 because he never wanted anyone else to die on 00:14:14.389 --> 00:14:16.450 his watch. Speaking of confrontation, we have 00:14:16.450 --> 00:14:18.850 to address the controversy around the album GNR 00:14:18.850 --> 00:14:21.330 Lies and specifically the song One in a Million. 00:14:21.830 --> 00:14:24.309 This is probably the biggest stain on his reputation 00:14:24.309 --> 00:14:27.009 from that entire era. Yeah. And we need to look 00:14:27.009 --> 00:14:29.289 at this impartially, just as the sources present 00:14:29.289 --> 00:14:32.240 it. The lyrics contained racial slurs, specifically 00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:35.639 the N -word, and also homophobic slurs. There 00:14:35.639 --> 00:14:37.779 is no getting around that. And the backlash was 00:14:37.779 --> 00:14:41.100 immediate. Oh, yeah. From critics, from the public, 00:14:41.240 --> 00:14:44.460 and even from within the band. Slash, whose mother 00:14:44.460 --> 00:14:47.779 was black, was reportedly furious and mortified 00:14:47.779 --> 00:14:50.620 by the song. What was Axe's defense at the time? 00:14:50.970 --> 00:14:53.649 Because he didn't apologize right away. No. Initially, 00:14:53.710 --> 00:14:56.169 in the late 80s, he really doubled down. He claimed 00:14:56.169 --> 00:14:58.789 he was using the words to define pain or problems 00:14:58.789 --> 00:15:01.769 in his life, regardless of race. He cited bad 00:15:01.769 --> 00:15:03.809 personal experiences he'd had in L .A. being 00:15:03.809 --> 00:15:06.429 hustled or feeling threatened and tried to draw 00:15:06.429 --> 00:15:09.330 a parallel to how bands like N .W .A. use provocative 00:15:09.330 --> 00:15:11.690 language. So he was arguing it was social commentary. 00:15:12.269 --> 00:15:14.450 He argued he was just being honest about his 00:15:14.450 --> 00:15:16.649 anger and his environment. It was a very defensive 00:15:16.649 --> 00:15:19.289 posture. I'm just reporting what I see. It didn't 00:15:19.289 --> 00:15:22.110 hold water for most people. No. But he did eventually 00:15:22.110 --> 00:15:26.070 walk that back. By 1992, he conceded. He admitted 00:15:26.070 --> 00:15:28.210 he used those taboo words specifically because 00:15:28.210 --> 00:15:30.409 he was angry and wanted to insult specific people. 00:15:30.649 --> 00:15:33.289 But he denied supporting racism as an ideology. 00:15:34.109 --> 00:15:36.690 Regarding the homophobic language, he later said 00:15:36.690 --> 00:15:39.070 he wasn't against gay people but had bad experiences, 00:15:39.309 --> 00:15:41.529 including an attempted rape in his teens when 00:15:41.529 --> 00:15:43.950 he first got to L .A., which colored his worldview 00:15:43.950 --> 00:15:46.629 at the time. So it's a really complex mix of 00:15:46.629 --> 00:15:50.389 trauma, anger, and just pure provocation. He 00:15:50.389 --> 00:15:52.789 was lashing out at the world, and he used the 00:15:52.789 --> 00:15:55.210 most hurtful words he could find to do it. It 00:15:55.210 --> 00:15:58.470 seems so. And it absolutely cemented his reputation 00:15:58.470 --> 00:16:01.429 as this volatile, unpredictable figure, just 00:16:01.429 --> 00:16:03.110 as they were heading into their biggest, most 00:16:03.110 --> 00:16:06.470 chaotic era yet. Which brings us to section three, 00:16:06.669 --> 00:16:10.490 the use your illusion era. If appetite was the 00:16:10.490 --> 00:16:12.850 hungry street urchin, use your illusion was the 00:16:12.850 --> 00:16:15.370 bloated king. Talk about excess. This is the 00:16:15.370 --> 00:16:18.529 definition of excess. In September 1991, they 00:16:18.529 --> 00:16:20.429 released Use Your Illusion 20 and The Second 00:16:20.429 --> 00:16:23.070 on the same day. Two double albums. Which is 00:16:23.070 --> 00:16:24.970 just unheard of. Completely. And they debuted 00:16:24.970 --> 00:16:26.710 at number two and number one on the Billboard 00:16:26.710 --> 00:16:29.049 charts simultaneously. That is a historic feat. 00:16:29.129 --> 00:16:30.909 No rock band does that. And the music changed, 00:16:31.009 --> 00:16:33.250 too. It wasn't just the raw street punk of appetite. 00:16:33.370 --> 00:16:36.649 It was bigger. Much bigger. Axl was pushing for 00:16:36.649 --> 00:16:39.070 a massive evolution. He was heavily influenced 00:16:39.070 --> 00:16:41.110 by bands like Queen and Electric Light Orchestra. 00:16:41.370 --> 00:16:43.970 You can hear that. He wanted grand, orchestral 00:16:43.970 --> 00:16:47.419 -style songwriting. November Rain is the prime 00:16:47.419 --> 00:16:50.200 example of this. It's a nine -minute epic with 00:16:50.200 --> 00:16:53.659 a full orchestra, piano solos, a cinematic structure. 00:16:53.919 --> 00:16:56.340 It was a huge departure from the grit, and it 00:16:56.340 --> 00:16:58.299 really showed his artistic ambition. He didn't 00:16:58.299 --> 00:17:00.100 want to just be a rocker. He wanted to be a composer. 00:17:00.669 --> 00:17:02.549 But while the music was getting grander and more 00:17:02.549 --> 00:17:05.470 ambitious, the tour was turning into absolute, 00:17:05.670 --> 00:17:08.730 unmitigated chaos. This is when the lateness 00:17:08.730 --> 00:17:11.630 becomes legendary. Yes. Axl became notorious 00:17:11.630 --> 00:17:14.029 for taking the stage hours after the scheduled 00:17:14.029 --> 00:17:17.190 time. 11 p .m., midnight, sometimes 1 a .m. That 00:17:17.190 --> 00:17:19.410 was the reason. He wouldn't go on until he felt 00:17:19.410 --> 00:17:21.690 ready. He viewed the ticket as a contract for 00:17:21.690 --> 00:17:24.069 a performance, not a time slot. He felt if he 00:17:24.069 --> 00:17:26.009 wasn't in the right headspace, he'd be cheating 00:17:26.009 --> 00:17:28.569 the audience. But for the fans waiting and for 00:17:28.569 --> 00:17:30.829 the band waiting backstage, It was torture. And 00:17:30.829 --> 00:17:33.109 this tension, it just boiled over in St. Louis 00:17:33.109 --> 00:17:36.069 in 1991. The Riverport Riot. This is arguably 00:17:36.069 --> 00:17:38.710 the most famous meltdown in rock history. Write 00:17:38.710 --> 00:17:40.910 this down for us. What actually happened? Okay, 00:17:40.970 --> 00:17:44.150 so the band is playing. Axl is on stage. He sees 00:17:44.150 --> 00:17:47.230 a fan in the front row with a camera taking photos 00:17:47.230 --> 00:17:49.950 or video. Now, this was strictly against the 00:17:49.950 --> 00:17:52.329 rules at the time. Axl wanted to control his 00:17:52.329 --> 00:17:54.809 image completely. Right. So he asks security 00:17:54.809 --> 00:17:57.309 to confiscate the camera. He points the guy out. 00:17:57.349 --> 00:18:00.140 Get that guy. Take that. And security. They don't 00:18:00.140 --> 00:18:02.460 move fast enough. They were sluggish. Yeah. Or 00:18:02.460 --> 00:18:04.259 maybe they didn't see who he meant in the chaos. 00:18:04.740 --> 00:18:07.500 So Axl decides to handle it himself. Yells into 00:18:07.500 --> 00:18:09.259 the mic. Well, thanks to the lame -ass security, 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:12.160 I'll take it, goddammit. And he literally dives 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:14.640 off the stage into the crowd. I've seen the clip. 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:17.400 It is absolutely wild. He launches himself like 00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:19.940 a missile. He tackles the fan, reportedly punches 00:18:19.940 --> 00:18:22.630 him. Grabs the camera. Then he gets pulled back 00:18:22.630 --> 00:18:25.130 onto the stage by his road crew. He's panting. 00:18:25.130 --> 00:18:27.990 He's furious. He grabs the microphone, smashes 00:18:27.990 --> 00:18:29.690 it onto the stage floor, and yells, I'm going 00:18:29.690 --> 00:18:33.089 home! And just walks off. Mic drop. And the crowd, 00:18:33.289 --> 00:18:36.630 understandably, did not take that well. No. They 00:18:36.630 --> 00:18:38.670 waited for a bit, thinking maybe he'd come back. 00:18:39.369 --> 00:18:41.750 When the house lights came on, the place just 00:18:41.750 --> 00:18:45.960 exploded. A full -blown riot ensued. Fans were 00:18:45.960 --> 00:18:47.779 tearing the seats out of the floor, smashing 00:18:47.779 --> 00:18:50.200 all the gear on stage. How much damage did they 00:18:50.200 --> 00:18:53.359 do? An estimated $200 ,000 worth of damage to 00:18:53.359 --> 00:18:56.400 the venue. And Axl was eventually convicted of 00:18:56.400 --> 00:18:58.440 property damage and assault for that incident. 00:18:58.680 --> 00:19:00.859 And that wasn't even the only riot. There was 00:19:00.859 --> 00:19:04.000 Montreal in 1992. That was a different context, 00:19:04.039 --> 00:19:07.099 but equally disastrous. There were co -headlining 00:19:07.099 --> 00:19:10.160 with Metallica. Early in the night, James Hetfield 00:19:10.160 --> 00:19:13.440 from Metallica suffered severe burns from a pyrotechnics 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:16.420 accident on stage. A horrific accident. Horrific. 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:19.660 So their set was cut short. The crowd was already 00:19:19.660 --> 00:19:22.180 agitated, worried, and had been waiting for hours. 00:19:22.440 --> 00:19:24.319 And GNR was supposed to be the band to save the 00:19:24.319 --> 00:19:26.740 night? They were. But they took the stage hours 00:19:26.740 --> 00:19:29.940 late. And then, the sound monitors weren't tuned 00:19:29.940 --> 00:19:32.470 correctly because of the rushed schedule. Axl 00:19:32.470 --> 00:19:34.410 claimed he couldn't hear himself and that his 00:19:34.410 --> 00:19:36.630 throat was hurting. So after just a few songs, 00:19:36.730 --> 00:19:39.049 he just said, we can't do this and left the stage. 00:19:39.230 --> 00:19:42.750 And that sparked another riot. $400 ,000 in damages 00:19:42.750 --> 00:19:45.710 this time. Cars were overturned in the streets 00:19:45.710 --> 00:19:47.950 of Montreal. It seemed like wherever they went, 00:19:48.109 --> 00:19:51.329 chaos followed. They were the world's most dangerous 00:19:51.329 --> 00:19:53.890 band. But it was becoming dangerous to the band 00:19:53.890 --> 00:19:56.150 itself. And the band was clearly fracturing under 00:19:56.150 --> 00:19:58.710 all this pressure. Izzy Stradlin leaves during 00:19:58.710 --> 00:20:00.809 this tour, right? Izzy's departure is crucial. 00:20:01.349 --> 00:20:03.630 He was the rhythm guitarist, but also a major 00:20:03.630 --> 00:20:06.450 songwriting force. He wrote or co -wrote a lot 00:20:06.450 --> 00:20:08.410 of the big hits. He was the soul of the dand 00:20:08.410 --> 00:20:11.089 in a way. He was. But more importantly, he had 00:20:11.089 --> 00:20:13.549 gotten sober. He was traveling in a separate 00:20:13.549 --> 00:20:15.690 van just to stay away from the drugs and alcohol 00:20:15.690 --> 00:20:17.769 the rest of the band was still heavily into. 00:20:18.029 --> 00:20:20.369 That's gotta be so hard. Being the sober guy 00:20:20.369 --> 00:20:22.329 in the middle of the biggest, wildest party on 00:20:22.329 --> 00:20:25.539 earth. Imagine. He looked at the riots. The hours 00:20:25.539 --> 00:20:28.400 of just waiting backstage for Axl to decide to 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:32.980 show up, the fines, the endless chaos, and he 00:20:32.980 --> 00:20:35.319 just couldn't do it anymore. He cited the complications 00:20:35.319 --> 00:20:37.960 of life in the band. When Izzy left, the band 00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:40.960 really lost its anchor. He was the cool, quiet 00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:43.720 one who kept things grounded. And Axl also fired 00:20:43.720 --> 00:20:45.960 their manager around this time, didn't he? He 00:20:45.960 --> 00:20:48.440 did. He fired Alan Niven against the rest of 00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:50.920 the band's wishes. He basically held the albums 00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:53.519 hostage, refusing to finish them unless Niven 00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:55.839 was gone. It was another power play. It really 00:20:55.839 --> 00:20:58.220 signaled the beginning of the end for that era. 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:01.740 The final show was in Buenos Aires in 1993. And 00:21:01.740 --> 00:21:05.769 after that. Axl wouldn't perform with Slash or 00:21:05.769 --> 00:21:09.069 Duff again for over two decades. It was a long, 00:21:09.089 --> 00:21:12.309 slow, and very public disintegration. This leads 00:21:12.309 --> 00:21:14.650 us into section four, the wilderness years. This 00:21:14.650 --> 00:21:16.789 is the part of the story where Axl basically 00:21:16.789 --> 00:21:19.569 becomes a ghost. The great hiatus. From 1994 00:21:19.569 --> 00:21:22.529 to roughly 2000, he just retreated. But behind 00:21:22.529 --> 00:21:24.650 the scenes, he was making some major power moves. 00:21:24.890 --> 00:21:27.789 In 1995, he legally left the band partnership. 00:21:27.990 --> 00:21:29.849 What does that even mean? He left his own band. 00:21:30.130 --> 00:21:32.269 It was a legal maneuver to dissolve the old partnership 00:21:32.269 --> 00:21:34.069 so he could create a new one where he had more 00:21:34.069 --> 00:21:36.849 control. Then he reportedly purchased the full 00:21:36.849 --> 00:21:40.910 rights to the name Guns N' Roses in 1997. Slash 00:21:40.910 --> 00:21:42.609 has always disputed how that went down, right? 00:21:42.650 --> 00:21:46.250 He has. Slash claimed he was coerced, that Axl 00:21:46.250 --> 00:21:48.849 refused to go on stage for a New Year's Eve show 00:21:48.849 --> 00:21:51.349 unless they signed over the rights right there 00:21:51.349 --> 00:21:53.509 and then in the dressing room. Axl, of course, 00:21:53.569 --> 00:21:55.630 has denied that any coercive tactics were used. 00:21:55.690 --> 00:21:58.269 But the result was legal and final. Axl Rose 00:21:58.269 --> 00:22:02.200 became Guns N' Roses. Everyone else? Slash, Duff, 00:22:02.380 --> 00:22:05.740 Matt Sorum, they either left or were fired over 00:22:05.740 --> 00:22:07.740 the next couple of years. He was the sole remaining 00:22:07.740 --> 00:22:09.839 original member. And he became the Howard Hughes 00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:12.259 of rock. That was the nickname. He retreated 00:22:12.259 --> 00:22:14.640 to his mansion in Malibu. He was rarely seen 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:17.539 in public for years. But he was working on what 00:22:17.539 --> 00:22:19.599 would become this almost mythological album, 00:22:19.960 --> 00:22:22.700 Chinese Democracy. The most expensive rock album 00:22:22.700 --> 00:22:25.640 ever produced. A reported $13 million in production 00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:29.039 costs. And it took 15 years to release. It didn't 00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:31.900 finally come out until November of 2008. 15 years? 00:22:32.019 --> 00:22:34.819 Why? Why did it take so long? Was he just procrastinating? 00:22:35.140 --> 00:22:37.720 Well, it's more complex than that. I think perfectionism 00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:39.900 is the main driver. He's trying to follow up 00:22:39.900 --> 00:22:41.779 appetite and illusion without the original team. 00:22:42.140 --> 00:22:44.000 The pressure must have been immense. He wanted 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:46.680 to prove he could do it all by himself. And the 00:22:46.680 --> 00:22:51.059 methods were also a little unusual. That's putting 00:22:51.059 --> 00:22:53.960 it mildly. I read about the psychic. This feels 00:22:53.960 --> 00:22:55.779 like a Hollywood legend, but it's in the sources. 00:22:56.119 --> 00:22:58.839 It is. During the recording sessions, Axl employed 00:22:58.839 --> 00:23:01.000 a psychic that he called his spiritual advisor, 00:23:01.240 --> 00:23:04.519 and she would read the auras of potential staff 00:23:04.519 --> 00:23:07.819 and band members. You're king. No. If your aura 00:23:07.819 --> 00:23:09.900 wasn't right, or if the psychic saw something 00:23:09.900 --> 00:23:12.319 dark in your photograph, you weren't getting 00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:15.059 hired to work on the album. That is absolutely 00:23:15.059 --> 00:23:17.900 incredible. It speaks to that deep paranoia and 00:23:17.900 --> 00:23:20.480 the need to create a safe environment around 00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:24.039 him. Completely. And musically, he was shifting 00:23:24.039 --> 00:23:26.240 again. He was listening to a lot of industrial 00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:28.680 music at the time, specifically Nine Inch Nails. 00:23:28.819 --> 00:23:30.740 You can hear that influence on the album. Definitely. 00:23:30.940 --> 00:23:32.920 He wanted to blend that electronic industrial 00:23:32.920 --> 00:23:35.740 sound with the hard rock of GNR. He was trying 00:23:35.740 --> 00:23:38.180 to modernize the sound to make something that 00:23:38.180 --> 00:23:41.079 sounded like the future, not the past. And when 00:23:41.079 --> 00:23:44.059 it finally came out in 2008, was it worth the 00:23:44.059 --> 00:23:46.759 wait? You know, the reception was generally favorable 00:23:46.759 --> 00:23:50.859 from critics. It's a very dense, complex, layered 00:23:50.859 --> 00:23:53.500 record. There's some incredible music on there. 00:23:53.740 --> 00:23:56.359 But commercially, it undersold expectations. 00:23:56.940 --> 00:23:59.759 And part of that was Axl himself. A huge part 00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:02.599 of it. He did almost no promotion for it. Around 00:24:02.599 --> 00:24:04.180 the time of the release, he went missing for 00:24:04.180 --> 00:24:06.799 two months. The record label couldn't even find 00:24:06.799 --> 00:24:08.500 him to shoot a music video or do an interview. 00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:11.200 It's like he spent 15 years building the car, 00:24:11.319 --> 00:24:13.599 and then when it was finally done, he just didn't 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:15.660 want to drive it. Or maybe the creation was the 00:24:15.660 --> 00:24:18.200 point, not the release. Or perhaps he just couldn't 00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:20.660 face the scrutiny after so much buildup. It's 00:24:20.660 --> 00:24:23.400 hard to say. I want to pivot now to Section 5, 00:24:23.740 --> 00:24:26.099 the man behind the mic. We've talked about the 00:24:26.099 --> 00:24:29.160 rock star, the riots, the recluse. But let's 00:24:29.160 --> 00:24:30.940 talk about the human being. We touched on the 00:24:30.940 --> 00:24:33.019 vocals, but let's re -emphasize that technique. 00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:36.460 It is worth repeating. That F1 to BB6 range. 00:24:36.779 --> 00:24:39.799 He credits listening to singers like Dan McCafferty 00:24:39.799 --> 00:24:42.839 from Nazareth and Freddie Mercury as major influences. 00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:45.720 Two incredible vocalists. Some of the best. Yeah. 00:24:45.859 --> 00:24:48.019 But he also used that technique he learned in 00:24:48.019 --> 00:24:50.119 his high school chorus using different voices. 00:24:50.500 --> 00:24:52.400 If you listen to a song like Sweet Child of Mine. 00:24:52.750 --> 00:24:55.809 He has a clean, lower, almost sweet voice in 00:24:55.809 --> 00:24:59.609 the verses, and then that high, raspy screech 00:24:59.609 --> 00:25:02.089 in the chorus. He treats his voice like an instrument 00:25:02.089 --> 00:25:04.450 with different settings and textures. But underneath 00:25:04.450 --> 00:25:06.970 that incredible talent, there was a lot of mental 00:25:06.970 --> 00:25:09.690 anguish. We know about the diagnosis he received. 00:25:10.049 --> 00:25:12.990 Right. Axl was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 00:25:12.990 --> 00:25:15.829 in his late teens and was prescribed lithium. 00:25:16.069 --> 00:25:18.670 Did he accept that diagnosis? Not really. He 00:25:18.670 --> 00:25:21.319 was very skeptical of it. He later questioned 00:25:21.319 --> 00:25:23.220 it, believing his behavior was just a reaction 00:25:23.220 --> 00:25:25.660 to the extreme stress and trauma of his childhood. 00:25:26.259 --> 00:25:28.940 He felt the diagnosis was based on a standardized 00:25:28.940 --> 00:25:32.000 test rather than a real understanding of him. 00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:34.339 He said something like, I just filled out a questionnaire. 00:25:34.660 --> 00:25:37.220 Exactly. He said, I went to a clinic, answered 00:25:37.220 --> 00:25:39.579 a 500 -question test, and suddenly I'm bipolar. 00:25:40.380 --> 00:25:42.740 He felt it was a label they put on him without 00:25:42.740 --> 00:25:45.000 understanding the cause of the behavior. So he 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:47.799 looked for other ways to heal. He did. In the 00:25:47.799 --> 00:25:51.180 90s, during that hiatus, he really embraced homeopathic 00:25:51.180 --> 00:25:54.420 medicine and, very interestingly, past -life 00:25:54.420 --> 00:25:56.539 regression therapy. This is where the recovered 00:25:56.539 --> 00:25:59.200 memories come in, right? Yes. Through therapy, 00:25:59.339 --> 00:26:01.559 he publicly shared that he had recovered memories 00:26:01.559 --> 00:26:04.319 of being abused by his biological father at age 00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:08.259 two. He claimed this abuse stunted his emotional 00:26:08.259 --> 00:26:10.859 development, and he famously said he was emotionally 00:26:10.859 --> 00:26:13.980 stuck at that age. He said, when they talk about 00:26:13.980 --> 00:26:16.480 Axl Rose being a screaming two -year -old, they're 00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:19.000 right. Which is a heartbreaking level of self 00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:21.500 -awareness. He knows he's acting out, but he 00:26:21.500 --> 00:26:24.259 feels trapped in that trauma response. It's like 00:26:24.259 --> 00:26:26.819 he's watching himself destroy things but can't 00:26:26.819 --> 00:26:29.019 stop the impulse. And you can see how that trauma 00:26:29.019 --> 00:26:31.180 played out in his romantic relationships, too. 00:26:31.400 --> 00:26:34.440 His relationships were incredibly volatile. His 00:26:34.440 --> 00:26:36.779 marriage to Erin Everly, the daughter of Don 00:26:36.779 --> 00:26:39.339 Everly, and the inspiration for Sweet Child of 00:26:39.339 --> 00:26:42.519 Mine. was explosive they got married in vegas 00:26:42.519 --> 00:26:45.460 they did but axel filed for divorce less than 00:26:45.460 --> 00:26:48.220 a month later they reconciled she became pregnant 00:26:48.220 --> 00:26:50.259 but then suffered a miscarriage which devastated 00:26:50.259 --> 00:26:53.519 him deeply he had even picked out a name for 00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:57.319 the child shiloh blue that loss was a major blow 00:26:57.319 --> 00:27:00.779 to his psyche it just reinforced this idea that 00:27:00.779 --> 00:27:03.400 any happiness he found was fleeting and would 00:27:03.400 --> 00:27:06.400 be taken away The marriage was eventually annulled 00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:08.579 amidst allegations of domestic abuse from both 00:27:08.579 --> 00:27:11.000 sides. Then there was Stephanie Seymour. The 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:13.559 supermodel. She starred in the iconic November 00:27:13.559 --> 00:27:16.880 Rain video. They were the it couple of the early 00:27:16.880 --> 00:27:20.460 90s. High glamour, high profile. But that also 00:27:20.460 --> 00:27:22.420 ended in lawsuits and allegations of assault. 00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:25.019 It seems he just kept repeating this cycle of 00:27:25.019 --> 00:27:27.490 intensity followed by destruction. But he did 00:27:27.490 --> 00:27:29.730 find a different kind of partner in Beta Lobis. 00:27:29.730 --> 00:27:31.849 This is a really important relationship. This 00:27:31.849 --> 00:27:33.609 is a very important relationship to understand 00:27:33.609 --> 00:27:36.829 modern Axel Rose. Beta Lobis was originally a 00:27:36.829 --> 00:27:39.609 nanny for Stephanie Seymour's son. When Axel 00:27:39.609 --> 00:27:41.769 and Stephanie had their big split, Beta took 00:27:41.769 --> 00:27:44.329 Axel's side. And she stayed. She stayed. She 00:27:44.329 --> 00:27:46.450 became his assistant and eventually a kind of 00:27:46.450 --> 00:27:49.029 mother figure to him. Calls her mom, right? He 00:27:49.029 --> 00:27:50.809 has referred to her as the mother he never had. 00:27:51.349 --> 00:27:53.769 She and her family... who became known as Team 00:27:53.769 --> 00:27:57.069 Brazil, became the de facto managers of Guns 00:27:57.069 --> 00:28:00.269 N' Roses. When everyone else left, Slash, Duff, 00:28:00.470 --> 00:28:04.589 the managers, the lawyers, Beta stayed. She provided 00:28:04.589 --> 00:28:06.930 the loyalty and stability he desperately needed. 00:28:07.250 --> 00:28:09.569 Loyalty seems to be the currency he values most. 00:28:09.890 --> 00:28:12.349 I think so. Considering his father left and his 00:28:12.349 --> 00:28:15.170 stepfather was abusive, loyalty is likely the 00:28:15.170 --> 00:28:17.690 only thing that makes him feel safe. If you are 00:28:17.690 --> 00:28:20.750 loyal to Axel, he will protect you. If you cross 00:28:20.750 --> 00:28:23.130 him, you are dead to him. It's that simple. Now, 00:28:23.210 --> 00:28:25.529 we can't do a deep dive on Axel without addressing 00:28:25.529 --> 00:28:27.970 the legal battles, Section 6. It really feels 00:28:27.970 --> 00:28:29.849 like he spent as much time in court as he did 00:28:29.849 --> 00:28:31.769 in the studio. It's a very long list. You have 00:28:31.769 --> 00:28:34.069 the assault allegations. Michelle Rhodes, who 00:28:34.069 --> 00:28:36.009 was involved in a statutory rape charge back 00:28:36.009 --> 00:28:38.910 in 1985 that was dropped, recently came forward 00:28:38.910 --> 00:28:41.809 in 2024 with new allegations regarding assault 00:28:41.809 --> 00:28:43.670 and a miscarriage. And there was another one 00:28:43.670 --> 00:28:47.470 recently, Sheila Kennedy. Yes. She sued in 2023 00:28:47.470 --> 00:28:50.289 under the Adult Survivors Act for an incident 00:28:50.289 --> 00:28:53.890 that allegedly happened. in 1989. Axel denied 00:28:53.890 --> 00:28:56.410 all these allegations vehemently, and that case 00:28:56.410 --> 00:28:59.950 was settled earlier in 2024. These are very serious 00:28:59.950 --> 00:29:02.369 accusations that track with the volatility we 00:29:02.369 --> 00:29:04.609 know existed in that era. Then there's the famous 00:29:04.609 --> 00:29:07.849 wine bottle incident. This one is almost rock 00:29:07.849 --> 00:29:10.849 and roll folklore. The neighbor dispute in 1990. 00:29:11.730 --> 00:29:14.210 Axel lived in a condo complex. He was playing 00:29:14.210 --> 00:29:17.390 loud music. His neighbor complained. Words were 00:29:17.390 --> 00:29:19.930 exchanged, and Axel allegedly hit her over the 00:29:19.930 --> 00:29:22.130 head with a wine bottle. He claimed she swung 00:29:22.130 --> 00:29:24.529 first. And this inspired a song. Of course it 00:29:24.529 --> 00:29:26.470 did. It inspired the song Right Next Door to 00:29:26.470 --> 00:29:28.450 Hell. He really does turn everything into art. 00:29:28.509 --> 00:29:31.089 Even a condo dispute becomes a track on a platinum 00:29:31.089 --> 00:29:32.990 album. What about the professional lawsuits? 00:29:33.170 --> 00:29:35.450 The one with Activision is kind of funny to me, 00:29:35.490 --> 00:29:38.170 but also very revealing. It highlights his protectiveness 00:29:38.170 --> 00:29:41.269 over the band's image and legacy. In 2010, he 00:29:41.269 --> 00:29:44.029 sued Activision for $20 million. Why? Because 00:29:44.029 --> 00:29:45.730 they put an image of Slash in the Guitar Hero 00:29:45.730 --> 00:29:48.349 III video game. He was that petty about it. It 00:29:48.349 --> 00:29:51.500 wasn't just pettiness. It was contractual. Axl 00:29:51.500 --> 00:29:53.799 had licensed Welcome to the Jungle for the game, 00:29:53.920 --> 00:29:56.599 but he specifically made it a condition that 00:29:56.599 --> 00:29:58.859 Slash, who was long out of the band and whom 00:29:58.859 --> 00:30:01.500 Axl was feuding with, was not to be featured 00:30:01.500 --> 00:30:03.539 in the game in any way. And they did it anyway. 00:30:03.740 --> 00:30:06.420 They put a digital Slash on the cover and in 00:30:06.420 --> 00:30:10.140 the game playing his song. So he sued. He didn't 00:30:10.140 --> 00:30:12.359 want the virtual Slash playing with the virtual 00:30:12.359 --> 00:30:15.400 Axl. Not at all. The case was eventually dismissed, 00:30:15.619 --> 00:30:18.500 but it shows how deep that rift was. Yeah. He 00:30:18.500 --> 00:30:21.160 also had massive legal battles with Irving Azoff, 00:30:21.220 --> 00:30:24.680 his former manager, over unpaid fees and counterclaims 00:30:24.680 --> 00:30:27.299 of sabotage. It was a pattern of either settling 00:30:27.299 --> 00:30:29.799 out of court or engaging in these long, drawn 00:30:29.799 --> 00:30:32.660 -out battles. He fights for every inch. He is 00:30:32.660 --> 00:30:34.819 litigious because he refuses to be taken advantage 00:30:34.819 --> 00:30:36.480 of ever again. Which makes what happened next 00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:39.500 so surprising. Section 7, the reunion in the 00:30:39.500 --> 00:30:42.220 modern era. For the longest time, a reunion seemed 00:30:42.220 --> 00:30:44.539 completely impossible, like hell freezes over. 00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:49.529 Impossible. It did. In 2012, Guns N' Roses was 00:30:49.529 --> 00:30:51.349 inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 00:30:52.029 --> 00:30:55.329 Axl declined to attend. He wrote this long, open 00:30:55.329 --> 00:30:57.890 letter saying he didn't feel wanted or respected. 00:30:58.250 --> 00:31:00.109 It really seemed like the door was closed and 00:31:00.109 --> 00:31:02.650 bolted forever. He was still so bitter. But then 00:31:02.650 --> 00:31:06.509 2016 happens. The Not In This Lifetime tour. 00:31:06.890 --> 00:31:09.470 The tour name itself was a joke about the likelihood 00:31:09.470 --> 00:31:12.569 of it ever happening, but it did. Slash and Duff 00:31:12.569 --> 00:31:15.819 McKagan returned to the band. How? What changed 00:31:15.819 --> 00:31:17.799 after all that time? You know, Slash stated in 00:31:17.799 --> 00:31:20.160 interviews that it was just overdue. It seems 00:31:20.160 --> 00:31:22.039 that once they got rid of the middlemen, the 00:31:22.039 --> 00:31:24.079 managers, the agents who whisper in your ear 00:31:24.079 --> 00:31:26.799 and stoke the flames and just spoke to each other 00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:29.180 man to man, they realized they missed the chemistry. 00:31:29.259 --> 00:31:31.380 They missed the music. And the fans showed up. 00:31:31.500 --> 00:31:33.539 In droves. It became the third highest grossing 00:31:33.539 --> 00:31:35.940 tour of all time at that point. Seeing Axl and 00:31:35.940 --> 00:31:38.200 Slash share a stage after 23 years apart was 00:31:38.200 --> 00:31:40.619 a huge cultural moment. It was closure for an 00:31:40.619 --> 00:31:42.460 entire generation of rock fans. And Axl was. 00:31:42.519 --> 00:31:45.259 Was he on time? He was professional. He was on 00:31:45.259 --> 00:31:47.700 time. He was singing great. He was smiling on 00:31:47.700 --> 00:31:50.700 stage. The anger seemed to have dissipated. And 00:31:50.700 --> 00:31:52.980 then he did something that really proved his 00:31:52.980 --> 00:31:55.460 professionalism to the whole world. He joined 00:31:55.460 --> 00:31:58.799 ACDC. That was surreal. Rian Johnson had to stop 00:31:58.799 --> 00:32:00.839 touring because of severe hearing issues, and 00:32:00.839 --> 00:32:03.220 Axl, of all people, stepped in. He filled in 00:32:03.220 --> 00:32:05.400 for the Rock or Bust tour. Yeah. And honestly, 00:32:05.519 --> 00:32:09.079 he surprised all the critics. ACDC has a notoriously 00:32:09.079 --> 00:32:12.779 rigorous high -register vocal catalog. It shreds... 00:32:12.910 --> 00:32:15.289 Most singers' vocal cords. And he handled it? 00:32:15.329 --> 00:32:17.750 He handled it with incredible respect and power. 00:32:17.930 --> 00:32:20.089 He had broken his foot at the start of the tour, 00:32:20.190 --> 00:32:22.609 so he sat on this custom -made throne and he 00:32:22.609 --> 00:32:25.529 just wailed. It showed that underneath all the 00:32:25.529 --> 00:32:28.569 diva reputation, there is a serious, hard -working 00:32:28.569 --> 00:32:30.990 musician who deeply respects the history of rock 00:32:30.990 --> 00:32:34.119 and roll. That brings us to right now. 2025 and 00:32:34.119 --> 00:32:36.940 2026. The machine is fully back up and running. 00:32:37.059 --> 00:32:38.859 It's fully active. They released new material 00:32:38.859 --> 00:32:41.559 in December 2025, a couple of singles called 00:32:41.559 --> 00:32:44.339 Nothing and Atlas. And he's doing a graphic novel 00:32:44.339 --> 00:32:47.700 that seems out of left field. Axl Rose, Appetite 00:32:47.700 --> 00:32:49.599 for Destruction. It was announced in September 00:32:49.599 --> 00:32:53.500 2025. It's described as having a cyberpunk noir 00:32:53.500 --> 00:32:56.380 theme. It fits his interest in industrial and 00:32:56.380 --> 00:32:58.960 sci -fi aesthetics perfectly. He's expanding 00:32:58.960 --> 00:33:01.690 his artistic footprint beyond just music. And 00:33:01.690 --> 00:33:04.269 there's a 2026 world tour being promoted. He's 00:33:04.269 --> 00:33:06.849 seemingly busier and more stable than ever. And 00:33:06.849 --> 00:33:08.950 in what is perhaps the biggest sign of maturity, 00:33:09.190 --> 00:33:11.410 he stopped throwing his microphone into the crowd 00:33:11.410 --> 00:33:13.950 at the end of shows. Really? That was his signature 00:33:13.950 --> 00:33:17.829 move for decades. It was. But in 2022, a fan 00:33:17.829 --> 00:33:20.630 was injured by the mic toss in Australia. And 00:33:20.630 --> 00:33:22.410 Axl released a statement saying he didn't want 00:33:22.410 --> 00:33:24.430 anyone getting hurt. And so he was ending the 00:33:24.430 --> 00:33:27.170 tradition. Wow. It's a small detail, but for 00:33:27.170 --> 00:33:29.289 a guy who used to dive into crowds to punch people, 00:33:29.430 --> 00:33:31.609 realizing that his actions have consequences 00:33:31.609 --> 00:33:34.049 and changing his behavior to protect his fans, 00:33:34.230 --> 00:33:36.549 that shows a significant shift in how he views 00:33:36.549 --> 00:33:38.569 his relationship with the audience. So we've 00:33:38.569 --> 00:33:40.869 covered the trauma, the rise, the chaos, the 00:33:40.869 --> 00:33:43.890 long hiatus, and the return. How do we sum up 00:33:43.890 --> 00:33:46.690 Axl Rose? What's the final analysis? I think 00:33:46.690 --> 00:33:49.029 Axl represents the ultimate archetype of the 00:33:49.029 --> 00:33:52.089 tortured artist. His perfectionism and his deep 00:33:52.089 --> 00:33:54.910 -seated trauma were the very fuel for the greatest 00:33:54.910 --> 00:33:58.349 debut album ever made. But that same fuel caused 00:33:58.349 --> 00:34:01.089 the fire that burned the band down and led to 00:34:01.089 --> 00:34:03.690 decades of delay and conflict. So you can't have 00:34:03.690 --> 00:34:05.990 one without the other. You cannot have the genius 00:34:05.990 --> 00:34:08.130 of appetite without the chaos of the illusion 00:34:08.130 --> 00:34:11.250 years. They come from the exact same place in 00:34:11.250 --> 00:34:13.969 his psyche. He is a man who refused to compromise, 00:34:14.309 --> 00:34:17.389 even when it cost him everything. Here is my 00:34:17.389 --> 00:34:19.690 final thought for everyone listening. We spent 00:34:19.690 --> 00:34:23.230 years making jokes about Chinese democracy, about 00:34:23.230 --> 00:34:26.230 the 15 -year, wait, the $13 million price tag. 00:34:26.329 --> 00:34:28.369 Right. It was a punchline. But considering his 00:34:28.369 --> 00:34:30.889 obsession with control, his deep distrust of 00:34:30.889 --> 00:34:33.250 the industry, and his history of being abused 00:34:33.250 --> 00:34:36.090 and manipulated, was that delay a failure of 00:34:36.090 --> 00:34:38.889 management? Or was it the ultimate act of artistic 00:34:38.889 --> 00:34:41.909 rebellion? He refused to release anything until 00:34:41.909 --> 00:34:43.949 he was ready, no matter what the world demanded. 00:34:44.590 --> 00:34:46.610 In a way, she held the entire music industry 00:34:46.610 --> 00:34:49.530 hostage for over a decade because he would not 00:34:49.530 --> 00:34:51.809 let them own him or his art. That's a fascinating 00:34:51.809 --> 00:34:54.690 question. In a world of fast food and fast content, 00:34:55.219 --> 00:34:59.000 Axl Rose made us wait. And now, watching him 00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:02.599 tour in 2026, seemingly at peace with Slash and 00:35:02.599 --> 00:35:05.659 Duff, releasing comics and new songs, have we 00:35:05.659 --> 00:35:08.420 finally seen the real Axl Rose? The one who, 00:35:08.539 --> 00:35:10.679 stripped of the need to fight everyone all the 00:35:10.679 --> 00:35:12.820 time, just wants to sing. I think we might be. 00:35:12.920 --> 00:35:15.260 And that five octave range is still something 00:35:15.260 --> 00:35:17.719 to behold. It certainly is. Thanks for diving 00:35:17.719 --> 00:35:19.380 deep with us today. We'll catch you on the next 00:35:19.380 --> 00:35:20.019 one. Take care.