I want to start today's deep dive with a specific
piece of data. It's a statistic that, honestly,
I read three times just to make sure I wasn't
hallucinating. Okay. We are looking at a vocal
range that spans five full octaves, specifically
from F1 to BB6. It is. It's a... staggering physical
capability yeah and to put that into perspective
for everyone listening most professional singers
i mean even the legends they operate comfortably
within two maybe two and a half octaves f1 is
a frequency that is so low it's arguably more
of a vibration in the floorboards than a musical
note it's this deep guttural bass that you feel
in your chest and then on the other end The BB
-6. BB -6 is stratospheric. Yeah. I mean, that
is soprano territory. Wow. That's the frequency
of a tea kettle whistling or like a high -end
dog whistle. It is higher than almost any other
male rock singer in history has ever recorded.
And the fact that one human being possesses the
biology to hit both of those extremes is, frankly,
an anomaly. Right. And we aren't talking about
some classically trained opera singer in a tuxedo
who spent 20 years at a conservatory. We are
talking about a man who is arguably the definition
of the volatile, chaotic rock star. We're talking
about Axl Rose. Exactly. And it creates this
incredible paradox right from the start. You
have this undeniable biological gift, a technical
genius in terms of vocal ability, and it's housed
within a personality that has become famous for,
you know, tardiness. riots, reclusive disappearances,
aggressive feuds. It's like putting a Ferrari
engine inside a demolition derby car. That's
a perfect analogy. It really is. The machine
is incredible, but the chassis is built for chaos.
And that's really the hook for me today. For
you, the learner tuning in, this isn't just a
biography of the guy from Guns N' Roses. It feels
more like a study in extremes. Absolutely. You
have the musical genius on one side, and then
you have this personal chaos on the other. You
have one of the best -selling debut albums of
all time, and then you have the most expensive,
most delayed album. in history. It is a story
of polarization. There's no middle ground. You
either love him or you hate him. And often it
seems like Axel feels the same way about himself.
So just to set the table, we're pulling from
a massive stack of sources today. We have Biographical
records, discography notes, extensive legal histories,
and a lot of documentation from Wikipedia. Yeah,
a huge amount of material to sift through. And
our mission today is pretty specific. We want
to unpack how a choir boy from Indiana, because
yes, he was a choir boy. He was. Became one of
the most polarizing figures in music history.
We really need to look at the why. You know,
it's easy to just look at the headlines about
the riots or the late shows and write them off
as a diva. Sure. But... We want to examine the
psychological and environmental factors from
that really strict religious upbringing in the
Midwest to the sheer debauchery of the Sunset
Strip. All the things that actually shaped these
behaviors. We're going to dig into the riots,
the breakups and the eventual redemption arc
that, frankly, I did not see coming. Neither.
So let's go back to the very beginning. Section
one, the origin story. Before he was Axl Rose,
he was William Bruce Rose Jr., born in Lafayette,
Indiana. And right away, the circumstances are
difficult. He was born in 1962. His mother, Sharon,
was only 16 years old. Just a kid herself. Exactly.
And his father, William Bruce Rose, was 20. The
descriptions we have of his biological father
are, well, they're pretty telling. He was described
as a troubled and charismatic local delinquent.
Charismatic and troubled. That sounds a little
familiar, doesn't it? It almost feels like the
blueprint was written right there in the DNA.
It certainly foreshadows what's to come. But
that family dynamic, it fractured almost immediately.
The couple separated when Axel was only about
two years old. And this is where it gets really
dark. It does. The records state that his father
abducted him and allegedly molested him before
completely disappearing from Lafayette. That
is just a horrific start to a life. Pure trauma
before you can even form sentences to describe
it. It is. And you have to think it sets up this
lifelong battle with trust and with safety. But
then his mother remarries a man named Stephen
L. Bailey and they change his name. So he becomes
William Bruce Bailey. Yes. His identity is effectively
wiped clean. And this is where the environment
shifts, right? It goes from this sort of chaotic
abandonment to something else entirely oppressively
restrictive. That's exactly right. The Bailey
household was deeply, deeply religious. We are
talking about a Pentecostal environment that
Axel later described as oppressive. This wasn't
just go to church on Sundays. No, not at all.
This was a binary worldview where everything
was either of God or Satan. There was no in between.
I read some of the details about this, and it's
just so intense. He was attending church multiple
times a week, even teaching Sunday school. But
at home, the rules were draconian. They were
extreme. Axel recalled that his stepfather would
physically throw the television sets out of the
house. Literally throw them out. Yes, because
he believed the programming commercials, sitcoms,
anything was satanic. He saw the devil everywhere.
That's such a violent display of control, isn't
it? It is. And the worldview being enforced there
was that women were evil, rock music was evil.
Essentially everything that brought any kind
of pleasure was evil. It was a completely fear
-based environment. So you're raising a child
to believe that all of his natural impulses,
his creativity, are just a ticket to hell. Exactly.
Imagine growing up in that pressure cooker. You
have this incredible creative energy, this voice,
and you're being told constantly that it's all
wrong, it's all sinful. But then at age 17, he
has this aha moment that just completely shatters
his entire reality. This is a pivotal psychological
break. It's a huge moment. He's at home and he
finds some insurance papers. And on those papers,
he sees the name of his biological father, William
Rose. And up until that point. Up until that
exact moment, he believes Stephen Bailey was
his father. He suddenly realized his entire identity,
even his own last name, was a lie constructed
to hide this past. That has to be devastating
to realize the man who's been enforcing all these
satanic rules and throwing out the TV isn't even
your biological dad. It completely delegitimizes
the authority figure in his life. The foundation
of his world just crumbles. And that's what triggers
the rebellion. A massive rebellion. He immediately
dropped the name Bailey and adopted W. Rose.
But, and this is a crucial detail, he avoided
using the name William. Why? Because he wanted
to distance himself from his biological father,
the man he'd never really known, but who was
associated with that early trauma. So he's stuck.
He's trapped between two fathers he doesn't want
to be associated with. He rejects Bailey, but
he also rejects the full name of Rose. He's carving
out something new for himself. He is trying to
self -create. Yeah. And this is when the delinquency
starts in earnest. Yeah. After this discovery,
the rails just came off. In Lafayette, he was
arrested over 20 times. Over 20 times. What was
he even doing? Oh, mostly public intoxication,
party incidents, criminal trespass. Yeah. Typical
teenage acting out, but to an extreme degree.
He ended up serving jail time up to three months
at one point. And the local police threatened
to charge him as a habitual offender? They did.
which is a really heavy label for a teenager
that carries serious prison time if it sticks.
He was being backed into a corner in his own
hometown. But while all this chaos is happening
on the outside, he has this secret weapon, right?
The muse. He loses his refuge. Absolutely. Despite
all the satanic fears of his stepfather, Axel
had been singing in the church choir since he
was five years old. He performed with his siblings
in something called the Bailey Trio. So that's
where the training came from. That church training
is key. It taught him harmony. It taught him
projection. And even in high school chorus, he
was already experimenting. He would develop different
voices during practice just to confuse his teachers.
What do you mean, different voices? He'd sing
at a deep bass. And then in the next measure,
he'd switch to a high -pitched falsetto screech.
He was playing with the instrument he was born
with. That is the seed of the Axl Rose we know.
that ability to shift voices like a chameleon
so feeling the heat from the law and probably
just suffocating in indiana he makes the move
december 1982 he flees to los angeles and he
didn't go alone metaphorically he brought that
intensity with him he immerses himself in a band
called axl right and eventually his friends just
started suggesting why don't you just call yourself
axl rose It fit, and by 1986, he legally changed
his name to W. Axel Rose. So if you track it,
William Bruce Rose Jr. becomes William Bruce
Bailey, who becomes W. Rose, who finally becomes
W. Axel Rose. It's like he was shedding skins
trying to find a version of himself that he actually
controlled. That is a very accurate way to view
it. Control and the loss of it is probably the
most recurring theme in his entire life. He lost
control of his childhood, so he was absolutely
determined to control his adulthood. To an obsessive
degree. So let's talk about Los Angeles, section
two, the rocket ride. Because the mythology of
Duns and Roses is that they just appeared out
of nowhere and took over the world. But it wasn't
instant glitz and glamour, was it? Oh, not at
all. This is the classic Sunset Strip hustle.
They were living in absolute squalor. They had
a practice space they called the Hell House,
which, you know, didn't have running water or
a bathroom. So how were they surviving? Cheap
wine and biscuits, mostly. They were starving
artists in the truest sense. And working these
terrible jobs. I saw Axl was a night manager
at Tower Records on Sunset. He was, which is
actually a great education for a musician. You
get to see what people are actually buying, what's
connecting. This is one of my favorite details.
Yeah. He and Izzy Stratlin, his childhood friend,
who also moved out there. Yeah. They participated
in a medical study at UCLA to make money. Wait,
I saw this in the notes. This can't be real.
They were paid to smoke cigarettes. Yes. They
were paid $8 an hour to just sit there and smoke
cigarettes for a science study. That is the most
80s LA thing I have ever heard. It really speaks
to the gritty reality of trying to survive before
the big break. You were literally selling your
body to science just to eat. Hilarious and grim
all at the same time. Eight bucks an hour to
chain smoke. So he's bouncing between bands,
Hollywood Rose, L .A. Guns, and eventually these
pieces start to merge. It was a classic shuffling
of lineups involving people like Tracy Guns and
Chris Webber. But by June of 1985, the chemistry
just clicked. You had the classic lineup. Axl
Rose on vocals, Slash on lead guitar. Izzy Stradlin
on rhythm guitar, Duff McKagan on bass, and Steven
Adler on drums. It's such an interesting mix
of people because you have Slash and Izzy bringing
this sort of... Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, bluesy
vibe. Duff is a punk rocker from Seattle. Totally
different background. And Axl is this metal screaming
choir boy from Indiana. It shouldn't work on
paper, but it did. It was the volatility that
made it work. It felt dangerous. And they captured
that danger perfectly on Appetite for Destruction.
Released July 1987. Now looking back, we think
of this album as this instant juggernaut. But
it didn't explode immediately, did it? No, it
was actually a slow burn. I think people forget
this. In its first year, it only sold about 500
,000 copies, which is respectable for a debut
for sure, but it wasn't a phenomenon. It was
stuck. It was completely stuck. MTV wouldn't
play the video for Welcome to the Jungle because
they thought Axl looked too intimidating. Seriously?
Yeah. It took David Geffen, the head of the record
label, calling in a massive favor to get it played
just once at 4 a .m. on a Sunday morning. The
graveyard slot. The absolute graveyard slot.
But the switchboards at MTV lit up. Kids who
were up all night saw this video and just started
calling in, demanding to see it again. It went
from 4 a .m. one time to heavy rotation within
weeks. And once that hit, the album just rocketed
to number one. And the stats are undeniable.
It became the best selling U .S. debut album
of all time. 18 million sales in the U .S., 30
million worldwide. Those numbers are just staggering.
So from an analytical perspective, what does
that kind of success do to someone like Axl?
Well, it validates everything. It validates that
intense, aggressive style. But it also likely
laid the groundwork for his ego. When you are
proven right to the tune of 30 million copies,
when everyone told you that you were wrong or
too loud or too rude, it reinforces your desire
for control. It proves that your way is the winning
way. Exactly. Why would you listen to anyone
else ever again? But with that massive success
came the dark side. And we have to talk about
the Monsters of Rock Festival in 1988. This is
a really heavy moment, and I think it's pivotal
to understanding his later behavior on stage.
It is a tragedy. They were playing in England
at Donington Park. The crowd was massive, over
100 ,000 people, and it had been raining, so
the ground was all mud. A bad combination. A
terrible combination. During the song, it's so
easy. The crowd surged forward, the pressure
was just immense, and two fans were crushed to
death in the mud. Oh, God. Did the band know
it was happening? Axl actually stopped the show
several times to try and calm the audience. You
can see it in the footage. He saw the crushing
happening. He was yelling at people to take a
step back, to give each other space. But you
can't stop that kind of momentum. No. The momentum
of 100 ,000 people is like a force of nature.
They finished the set, but when they got backstage
and found out that people had died, Axl was apparently
devastated. And this moment, it fundamentally
changed him as a performer, didn't it? It did.
From that point on, he became hypervigilant.
He became known for stopping shows to personally
police the crowd. If he saw a fight or someone
getting crushed or security being too rough with
a fan, he would stop the music and call it out
from the stage. You see that in the footage from
the later years. He's constantly scanning the
audience, almost like a security guard with a
microphone. Exactly. He felt the security of
venues was inadequate, which... To be fair, in
the late 80s, it often was. So he took it upon
himself to be the enforcer. But that hypervigilance
also led to confrontation. He was on a hair trigger
because he never wanted anyone else to die on
his watch. Speaking of confrontation, we have
to address the controversy around the album GNR
Lies and specifically the song One in a Million.
This is probably the biggest stain on his reputation
from that entire era. Yeah. And we need to look
at this impartially, just as the sources present
it. The lyrics contained racial slurs, specifically
the N -word, and also homophobic slurs. There
is no getting around that. And the backlash was
immediate. Oh, yeah. From critics, from the public,
and even from within the band. Slash, whose mother
was black, was reportedly furious and mortified
by the song. What was Axe's defense at the time?
Because he didn't apologize right away. No. Initially,
in the late 80s, he really doubled down. He claimed
he was using the words to define pain or problems
in his life, regardless of race. He cited bad
personal experiences he'd had in L .A. being
hustled or feeling threatened and tried to draw
a parallel to how bands like N .W .A. use provocative
language. So he was arguing it was social commentary.
He argued he was just being honest about his
anger and his environment. It was a very defensive
posture. I'm just reporting what I see. It didn't
hold water for most people. No. But he did eventually
walk that back. By 1992, he conceded. He admitted
he used those taboo words specifically because
he was angry and wanted to insult specific people.
But he denied supporting racism as an ideology.
Regarding the homophobic language, he later said
he wasn't against gay people but had bad experiences,
including an attempted rape in his teens when
he first got to L .A., which colored his worldview
at the time. So it's a really complex mix of
trauma, anger, and just pure provocation. He
was lashing out at the world, and he used the
most hurtful words he could find to do it. It
seems so. And it absolutely cemented his reputation
as this volatile, unpredictable figure, just
as they were heading into their biggest, most
chaotic era yet. Which brings us to section three,
the use your illusion era. If appetite was the
hungry street urchin, use your illusion was the
bloated king. Talk about excess. This is the
definition of excess. In September 1991, they
released Use Your Illusion 20 and The Second
on the same day. Two double albums. Which is
just unheard of. Completely. And they debuted
at number two and number one on the Billboard
charts simultaneously. That is a historic feat.
No rock band does that. And the music changed,
too. It wasn't just the raw street punk of appetite.
It was bigger. Much bigger. Axl was pushing for
a massive evolution. He was heavily influenced
by bands like Queen and Electric Light Orchestra.
You can hear that. He wanted grand, orchestral
-style songwriting. November Rain is the prime
example of this. It's a nine -minute epic with
a full orchestra, piano solos, a cinematic structure.
It was a huge departure from the grit, and it
really showed his artistic ambition. He didn't
want to just be a rocker. He wanted to be a composer.
But while the music was getting grander and more
ambitious, the tour was turning into absolute,
unmitigated chaos. This is when the lateness
becomes legendary. Yes. Axl became notorious
for taking the stage hours after the scheduled
time. 11 p .m., midnight, sometimes 1 a .m. That
was the reason. He wouldn't go on until he felt
ready. He viewed the ticket as a contract for
a performance, not a time slot. He felt if he
wasn't in the right headspace, he'd be cheating
the audience. But for the fans waiting and for
the band waiting backstage, It was torture. And
this tension, it just boiled over in St. Louis
in 1991. The Riverport Riot. This is arguably
the most famous meltdown in rock history. Write
this down for us. What actually happened? Okay,
so the band is playing. Axl is on stage. He sees
a fan in the front row with a camera taking photos
or video. Now, this was strictly against the
rules at the time. Axl wanted to control his
image completely. Right. So he asks security
to confiscate the camera. He points the guy out.
Get that guy. Take that. And security. They don't
move fast enough. They were sluggish. Yeah. Or
maybe they didn't see who he meant in the chaos.
So Axl decides to handle it himself. Yells into
the mic. Well, thanks to the lame -ass security,
I'll take it, goddammit. And he literally dives
off the stage into the crowd. I've seen the clip.
It is absolutely wild. He launches himself like
a missile. He tackles the fan, reportedly punches
him. Grabs the camera. Then he gets pulled back
onto the stage by his road crew. He's panting.
He's furious. He grabs the microphone, smashes
it onto the stage floor, and yells, I'm going
home! And just walks off. Mic drop. And the crowd,
understandably, did not take that well. No. They
waited for a bit, thinking maybe he'd come back.
When the house lights came on, the place just
exploded. A full -blown riot ensued. Fans were
tearing the seats out of the floor, smashing
all the gear on stage. How much damage did they
do? An estimated $200 ,000 worth of damage to
the venue. And Axl was eventually convicted of
property damage and assault for that incident.
And that wasn't even the only riot. There was
Montreal in 1992. That was a different context,
but equally disastrous. There were co -headlining
with Metallica. Early in the night, James Hetfield
from Metallica suffered severe burns from a pyrotechnics
accident on stage. A horrific accident. Horrific.
So their set was cut short. The crowd was already
agitated, worried, and had been waiting for hours.
And GNR was supposed to be the band to save the
night? They were. But they took the stage hours
late. And then, the sound monitors weren't tuned
correctly because of the rushed schedule. Axl
claimed he couldn't hear himself and that his
throat was hurting. So after just a few songs,
he just said, we can't do this and left the stage.
And that sparked another riot. $400 ,000 in damages
this time. Cars were overturned in the streets
of Montreal. It seemed like wherever they went,
chaos followed. They were the world's most dangerous
band. But it was becoming dangerous to the band
itself. And the band was clearly fracturing under
all this pressure. Izzy Stradlin leaves during
this tour, right? Izzy's departure is crucial.
He was the rhythm guitarist, but also a major
songwriting force. He wrote or co -wrote a lot
of the big hits. He was the soul of the dand
in a way. He was. But more importantly, he had
gotten sober. He was traveling in a separate
van just to stay away from the drugs and alcohol
the rest of the band was still heavily into.
That's gotta be so hard. Being the sober guy
in the middle of the biggest, wildest party on
earth. Imagine. He looked at the riots. The hours
of just waiting backstage for Axl to decide to
show up, the fines, the endless chaos, and he
just couldn't do it anymore. He cited the complications
of life in the band. When Izzy left, the band
really lost its anchor. He was the cool, quiet
one who kept things grounded. And Axl also fired
their manager around this time, didn't he? He
did. He fired Alan Niven against the rest of
the band's wishes. He basically held the albums
hostage, refusing to finish them unless Niven
was gone. It was another power play. It really
signaled the beginning of the end for that era.
The final show was in Buenos Aires in 1993. And
after that. Axl wouldn't perform with Slash or
Duff again for over two decades. It was a long,
slow, and very public disintegration. This leads
us into section four, the wilderness years. This
is the part of the story where Axl basically
becomes a ghost. The great hiatus. From 1994
to roughly 2000, he just retreated. But behind
the scenes, he was making some major power moves.
In 1995, he legally left the band partnership.
What does that even mean? He left his own band.
It was a legal maneuver to dissolve the old partnership
so he could create a new one where he had more
control. Then he reportedly purchased the full
rights to the name Guns N' Roses in 1997. Slash
has always disputed how that went down, right?
He has. Slash claimed he was coerced, that Axl
refused to go on stage for a New Year's Eve show
unless they signed over the rights right there
and then in the dressing room. Axl, of course,
has denied that any coercive tactics were used.
But the result was legal and final. Axl Rose
became Guns N' Roses. Everyone else? Slash, Duff,
Matt Sorum, they either left or were fired over
the next couple of years. He was the sole remaining
original member. And he became the Howard Hughes
of rock. That was the nickname. He retreated
to his mansion in Malibu. He was rarely seen
in public for years. But he was working on what
would become this almost mythological album,
Chinese Democracy. The most expensive rock album
ever produced. A reported $13 million in production
costs. And it took 15 years to release. It didn't
finally come out until November of 2008. 15 years?
Why? Why did it take so long? Was he just procrastinating?
Well, it's more complex than that. I think perfectionism
is the main driver. He's trying to follow up
appetite and illusion without the original team.
The pressure must have been immense. He wanted
to prove he could do it all by himself. And the
methods were also a little unusual. That's putting
it mildly. I read about the psychic. This feels
like a Hollywood legend, but it's in the sources.
It is. During the recording sessions, Axl employed
a psychic that he called his spiritual advisor,
and she would read the auras of potential staff
and band members. You're king. No. If your aura
wasn't right, or if the psychic saw something
dark in your photograph, you weren't getting
hired to work on the album. That is absolutely
incredible. It speaks to that deep paranoia and
the need to create a safe environment around
him. Completely. And musically, he was shifting
again. He was listening to a lot of industrial
music at the time, specifically Nine Inch Nails.
You can hear that influence on the album. Definitely.
He wanted to blend that electronic industrial
sound with the hard rock of GNR. He was trying
to modernize the sound to make something that
sounded like the future, not the past. And when
it finally came out in 2008, was it worth the
wait? You know, the reception was generally favorable
from critics. It's a very dense, complex, layered
record. There's some incredible music on there.
But commercially, it undersold expectations.
And part of that was Axl himself. A huge part
of it. He did almost no promotion for it. Around
the time of the release, he went missing for
two months. The record label couldn't even find
him to shoot a music video or do an interview.
It's like he spent 15 years building the car,
and then when it was finally done, he just didn't
want to drive it. Or maybe the creation was the
point, not the release. Or perhaps he just couldn't
face the scrutiny after so much buildup. It's
hard to say. I want to pivot now to Section 5,
the man behind the mic. We've talked about the
rock star, the riots, the recluse. But let's
talk about the human being. We touched on the
vocals, but let's re -emphasize that technique.
It is worth repeating. That F1 to BB6 range.
He credits listening to singers like Dan McCafferty
from Nazareth and Freddie Mercury as major influences.
Two incredible vocalists. Some of the best. Yeah.
But he also used that technique he learned in
his high school chorus using different voices.
If you listen to a song like Sweet Child of Mine.
He has a clean, lower, almost sweet voice in
the verses, and then that high, raspy screech
in the chorus. He treats his voice like an instrument
with different settings and textures. But underneath
that incredible talent, there was a lot of mental
anguish. We know about the diagnosis he received.
Right. Axl was diagnosed with bipolar disorder
in his late teens and was prescribed lithium.
Did he accept that diagnosis? Not really. He
was very skeptical of it. He later questioned
it, believing his behavior was just a reaction
to the extreme stress and trauma of his childhood.
He felt the diagnosis was based on a standardized
test rather than a real understanding of him.
He said something like, I just filled out a questionnaire.
Exactly. He said, I went to a clinic, answered
a 500 -question test, and suddenly I'm bipolar.
He felt it was a label they put on him without
understanding the cause of the behavior. So he
looked for other ways to heal. He did. In the
90s, during that hiatus, he really embraced homeopathic
medicine and, very interestingly, past -life
regression therapy. This is where the recovered
memories come in, right? Yes. Through therapy,
he publicly shared that he had recovered memories
of being abused by his biological father at age
two. He claimed this abuse stunted his emotional
development, and he famously said he was emotionally
stuck at that age. He said, when they talk about
Axl Rose being a screaming two -year -old, they're
right. Which is a heartbreaking level of self
-awareness. He knows he's acting out, but he
feels trapped in that trauma response. It's like
he's watching himself destroy things but can't
stop the impulse. And you can see how that trauma
played out in his romantic relationships, too.
His relationships were incredibly volatile. His
marriage to Erin Everly, the daughter of Don
Everly, and the inspiration for Sweet Child of
Mine. was explosive they got married in vegas
they did but axel filed for divorce less than
a month later they reconciled she became pregnant
but then suffered a miscarriage which devastated
him deeply he had even picked out a name for
the child shiloh blue that loss was a major blow
to his psyche it just reinforced this idea that
any happiness he found was fleeting and would
be taken away The marriage was eventually annulled
amidst allegations of domestic abuse from both
sides. Then there was Stephanie Seymour. The
supermodel. She starred in the iconic November
Rain video. They were the it couple of the early
90s. High glamour, high profile. But that also
ended in lawsuits and allegations of assault.
It seems he just kept repeating this cycle of
intensity followed by destruction. But he did
find a different kind of partner in Beta Lobis.
This is a really important relationship. This
is a very important relationship to understand
modern Axel Rose. Beta Lobis was originally a
nanny for Stephanie Seymour's son. When Axel
and Stephanie had their big split, Beta took
Axel's side. And she stayed. She stayed. She
became his assistant and eventually a kind of
mother figure to him. Calls her mom, right? He
has referred to her as the mother he never had.
She and her family... who became known as Team
Brazil, became the de facto managers of Guns
N' Roses. When everyone else left, Slash, Duff,
the managers, the lawyers, Beta stayed. She provided
the loyalty and stability he desperately needed.
Loyalty seems to be the currency he values most.
I think so. Considering his father left and his
stepfather was abusive, loyalty is likely the
only thing that makes him feel safe. If you are
loyal to Axel, he will protect you. If you cross
him, you are dead to him. It's that simple. Now,
we can't do a deep dive on Axel without addressing
the legal battles, Section 6. It really feels
like he spent as much time in court as he did
in the studio. It's a very long list. You have
the assault allegations. Michelle Rhodes, who
was involved in a statutory rape charge back
in 1985 that was dropped, recently came forward
in 2024 with new allegations regarding assault
and a miscarriage. And there was another one
recently, Sheila Kennedy. Yes. She sued in 2023
under the Adult Survivors Act for an incident
that allegedly happened. in 1989. Axel denied
all these allegations vehemently, and that case
was settled earlier in 2024. These are very serious
accusations that track with the volatility we
know existed in that era. Then there's the famous
wine bottle incident. This one is almost rock
and roll folklore. The neighbor dispute in 1990.
Axel lived in a condo complex. He was playing
loud music. His neighbor complained. Words were
exchanged, and Axel allegedly hit her over the
head with a wine bottle. He claimed she swung
first. And this inspired a song. Of course it
did. It inspired the song Right Next Door to
Hell. He really does turn everything into art.
Even a condo dispute becomes a track on a platinum
album. What about the professional lawsuits?
The one with Activision is kind of funny to me,
but also very revealing. It highlights his protectiveness
over the band's image and legacy. In 2010, he
sued Activision for $20 million. Why? Because
they put an image of Slash in the Guitar Hero
III video game. He was that petty about it. It
wasn't just pettiness. It was contractual. Axl
had licensed Welcome to the Jungle for the game,
but he specifically made it a condition that
Slash, who was long out of the band and whom
Axl was feuding with, was not to be featured
in the game in any way. And they did it anyway.
They put a digital Slash on the cover and in
the game playing his song. So he sued. He didn't
want the virtual Slash playing with the virtual
Axl. Not at all. The case was eventually dismissed,
but it shows how deep that rift was. Yeah. He
also had massive legal battles with Irving Azoff,
his former manager, over unpaid fees and counterclaims
of sabotage. It was a pattern of either settling
out of court or engaging in these long, drawn
-out battles. He fights for every inch. He is
litigious because he refuses to be taken advantage
of ever again. Which makes what happened next
so surprising. Section 7, the reunion in the
modern era. For the longest time, a reunion seemed
completely impossible, like hell freezes over.
Impossible. It did. In 2012, Guns N' Roses was
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Axl declined to attend. He wrote this long, open
letter saying he didn't feel wanted or respected.
It really seemed like the door was closed and
bolted forever. He was still so bitter. But then
2016 happens. The Not In This Lifetime tour.
The tour name itself was a joke about the likelihood
of it ever happening, but it did. Slash and Duff
McKagan returned to the band. How? What changed
after all that time? You know, Slash stated in
interviews that it was just overdue. It seems
that once they got rid of the middlemen, the
managers, the agents who whisper in your ear
and stoke the flames and just spoke to each other
man to man, they realized they missed the chemistry.
They missed the music. And the fans showed up.
In droves. It became the third highest grossing
tour of all time at that point. Seeing Axl and
Slash share a stage after 23 years apart was
a huge cultural moment. It was closure for an
entire generation of rock fans. And Axl was.
Was he on time? He was professional. He was on
time. He was singing great. He was smiling on
stage. The anger seemed to have dissipated. And
then he did something that really proved his
professionalism to the whole world. He joined
ACDC. That was surreal. Rian Johnson had to stop
touring because of severe hearing issues, and
Axl, of all people, stepped in. He filled in
for the Rock or Bust tour. Yeah. And honestly,
he surprised all the critics. ACDC has a notoriously
rigorous high -register vocal catalog. It shreds...
Most singers' vocal cords. And he handled it?
He handled it with incredible respect and power.
He had broken his foot at the start of the tour,
so he sat on this custom -made throne and he
just wailed. It showed that underneath all the
diva reputation, there is a serious, hard -working
musician who deeply respects the history of rock
and roll. That brings us to right now. 2025 and
2026. The machine is fully back up and running.
It's fully active. They released new material
in December 2025, a couple of singles called
Nothing and Atlas. And he's doing a graphic novel
that seems out of left field. Axl Rose, Appetite
for Destruction. It was announced in September
2025. It's described as having a cyberpunk noir
theme. It fits his interest in industrial and
sci -fi aesthetics perfectly. He's expanding
his artistic footprint beyond just music. And
there's a 2026 world tour being promoted. He's
seemingly busier and more stable than ever. And
in what is perhaps the biggest sign of maturity,
he stopped throwing his microphone into the crowd
at the end of shows. Really? That was his signature
move for decades. It was. But in 2022, a fan
was injured by the mic toss in Australia. And
Axl released a statement saying he didn't want
anyone getting hurt. And so he was ending the
tradition. Wow. It's a small detail, but for
a guy who used to dive into crowds to punch people,
realizing that his actions have consequences
and changing his behavior to protect his fans,
that shows a significant shift in how he views
his relationship with the audience. So we've
covered the trauma, the rise, the chaos, the
long hiatus, and the return. How do we sum up
Axl Rose? What's the final analysis? I think
Axl represents the ultimate archetype of the
tortured artist. His perfectionism and his deep
-seated trauma were the very fuel for the greatest
debut album ever made. But that same fuel caused
the fire that burned the band down and led to
decades of delay and conflict. So you can't have
one without the other. You cannot have the genius
of appetite without the chaos of the illusion
years. They come from the exact same place in
his psyche. He is a man who refused to compromise,
even when it cost him everything. Here is my
final thought for everyone listening. We spent
years making jokes about Chinese democracy, about
the 15 -year, wait, the $13 million price tag.
Right. It was a punchline. But considering his
obsession with control, his deep distrust of
the industry, and his history of being abused
and manipulated, was that delay a failure of
management? Or was it the ultimate act of artistic
rebellion? He refused to release anything until
he was ready, no matter what the world demanded.
In a way, she held the entire music industry
hostage for over a decade because he would not
let them own him or his art. That's a fascinating
question. In a world of fast food and fast content,
Axl Rose made us wait. And now, watching him
tour in 2026, seemingly at peace with Slash and
Duff, releasing comics and new songs, have we
finally seen the real Axl Rose? The one who,
stripped of the need to fight everyone all the
time, just wants to sing. I think we might be.
And that five octave range is still something
to behold. It certainly is. Thanks for diving
deep with us today. We'll catch you on the next
one. Take care.