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