Foto retirada daqui.
You can think that you don’t know one of the most strident and wonderful voices of Hard Rock, but you’re wrong. Everybody knows Axl Rose of “Guns n’ Roses”. At the beginning I heard talking about Axl Rose and I don’t know who he was, and I heard songs like “November Rain”, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” or “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”(original of Bob Dylan) and I didn’t know who that strident voice belong to. Now instead of the strident voice I hear Axl Rose.
Axl was born William Bruce Bailey on 6 February of 1962 (on February he will be 49) in Lafayette (Indiana, USA). At present Axl belongs to Guns N’ Roses, band that he found with some lead members, band where he plays piano and sings. He sings Hard Rock.
Axl is known for his controversial attitudes, for his lyrics, his strident voice and good disposition on stage. Axl is considered one of the big front men of rock’s history.
William (Axl) had a hard childhood. His parents divorced when Axl was two years old. This is the reason why Axl’s name is William Bruce Bailey (Bailey from his stepfather).
When we was sixteen years old, after he discovered that his biologic father’s name was Rose he changed his name for W. Axl Rose, W. from William. Axl formed the band’s name where his friend played, and Rose from his biologic father.
Throughout his childhood his stepfather beat him and his mother, and molested Axl’s sister. As his family was very rigorous and religious, Axl was compelled to go to church. Sometime afterwords he said: “The church that I attended was always crowded with hypocrites, cretins that abuse sexually and molest children. Were these people finding God?”
W. Axl ran away from his parent’s home, when he was seventeen years old, to Los Angeles, where he formed the band “LA Guns”. Later he formed another band, “Guns N’ Roses”, then he released the EP “Live Like a Suicide” (1986), in 1987 he released (with “Guns N’ Roses”) “Appetite for Destruction”, album that sold forty million copies, Axl and “Guns N’ Roses” reached fame this way.
Axl married Erin Everly and, after a suicide threat, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” song (in 1988) was written for Erin. Erin got pregnant (in 1990), but she suffered miscarry. Axl and Erin’s marriage ended legally in 1991.
After that Axl devoted himself to “Guns N’ Roses” tour and while recording the video clip of “Don’t Cry” he met Stephanie Seymour. The relationship between both lasted until 1993.
In 1988 “Guns N’ Roses” released “GN’R Lies” and in 1991 they released the albums “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II” simultaneously. Both sold 500 millions copies on a single day.
In 1992, Axl Rose was elected by “Peoples” magazine the most beautiful man in the world.
In January 1994, Erin Everly, first wife’s Axl, and the greatest love of his life (it was for her that he wrote “Sweet Child O’ Mine” “November Rain” and “Estranged”) accused the musician of aggression, and Axl lost the case and had to pay a fine to Erin.
Today, Axl faces problems with “Guns N’ Roses” brand. Now that “Guns N’ Roses” released their album promised ten years ago, we can see a much more mature Axl.
It was the remarkable work and dedication of Axl in the early work of the band, where a music with a perfect harmony to the rock let Slash (former lead guitarist of “Guns N’ Roses) put his feeling in the best blue solos ever heard after the 80’s while they were still singing covers of bands like “Led Zeppelin”, one of the bands that influenced the “Guns N’ Roses phenomenon.
Eduarda Charneca, 10ºA
