W. Axl Rose

Axl Rose was brought up in a deeply religious Pentecostal family. He had a troubled childhood and, as an adult, stated that repressed memories had revealed to him that his biological father, William Rose, had sexually abused him as a small child. William Rose left the family when Axl was two years old. He also suffered physical abuse at the hands of his stepfather, Stephen Bailey.

Growing up, Axl thought Bailey was his biological father; Axl's name had been "William Bailey" since his father had left. At age seventeen however, he learned of his biological father's existence and readopted his birth name, William Rose. He would only refer to himself as "W. Rose", however, as he did not wish to share a name with his biological father. The strict discipline and Pentecostal education he endured as a child led to his rebellion as an adolescent against both Indiana and society in general.

Because of his turbulent upbringing and his mother's reluctance to leave the abusive Bailey, Axl is said to have issues with women. He himself claimed in a Rolling Stone interview in 1992 that during his childhood he was made to believe that women and sexuality were evil and that due to the violent treatment of his mother by his stepfather he witnessed as an impressionable child, he had been led to think that domestic violence was the normal way of things.
Youth
Rose showed strong interest in music, singing in the choir at church and studying piano. As a teenager he formed a band called Axl. He kept the band's name as his own, and adopted the name Axl as his own legal name.

Throughout his youth, Axl Rose was in trouble numerous times with the police and was arrested over twenty times on charges such as public drunkenness and assault. In his late teenage years Lafayette authorities attempted to have him [1] locked up as a habitual criminal and on the advice of his lawyer, he left Indiana and headed to Los Angeles in the early 1980s to pursue a rock music career where he was re-united with close childhood friend and former Indiana bandmate, Izzy Stradlin.
The Rise Of Guns N' Roses
The early 1980s music scene in Los Angeles featured both punk and heavy metal bands. Axl wanted to meld the two styles into a unique musical form. Rose moved through a number of bands, including Hollywood Rose, L.A. Guns, Rapidfire, A.X.L., and Rose. Then, after bringing in his former L.A. Guns bandmates, Tracii Guns (who was soon replaced by Slash, real name Saul Hudson) and Rob Gardner (who was soon replaced by Steven Adler), Guns N' Roses were formed in the summer of 1985.

Desperately poor, the fledgling band struggled to survive in the streets of LA. Allegedly, Rose and Stradlin even sold drugs for petty cash.[2] According to Rose, they manipulated women for their money, an example being at a party at an unnamed woman's house and while one band member had sex with the woman, the others would raid her wallet for the little cash they could salvage. [3]

They eventually rented a small apartment, dubbed the Hell House, which quickly became a den for sex, drugs and rock n' roll. L.A. promoter Vicky Hamilton allegedly managed the band and got them their first gigs.

With Axl Rose (vocals), Izzy Stradlin (rhythm guitar), Slash (lead guitar), Duff McKagan (bass), and Steven Adler (drums), Guns N' Roses signed a recording contract with Geffen Records in 1986. The band released its first full-length album, Appetite for Destruction, in 1987. Mixing blazing power chords with Axl's shrieking vocals, the album was not an immediate success, but soon grew in popularity with the release of several singles from the album. By 1988, Guns N' Roses shot to the top of rock music, helped by the massive popularity of the songs "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City" and "Sweet Child O' Mine". "Sweet Child O' Mine" was written for Rose's then-girlfriend Erin Everly .



Posted by totalizzyness on 02/02/2007 2:05 PM Visits: 249
villeswife1992: 02/02/2007 2:47 PM
wow interesting
gunsnrosesluver12: 02/03/2007 2:17 PM
wow i cant believe all that! wow!
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