Song:Sweet Child O' Mine
Album:Appetite For Destruction
Guns N' Roses had a strong run in the late 80s. Sweet Child O' Mine was their only number one hit. They were pretty big anyway but it's likely they could have been much bigger without all the internal bickering. Guns N' Roses was a merger of two bands. Guitarist Izzy Stradlin of Hollywood Rose formed the band with Tracii Guns of L.A. Guns. L.A. Guns were looking for a new lead singer and Stradlin suggested Axl Rose. The members of L.A. Guns were replaced by bassist Duff McKagan, guitarist Slash and drummer Steven Adler. All these guys knew each other from other bands. After making their mark on the Los Angeles club scene, Guns N' Roses signed with Geffen Records. Their debut album Appetite For Destruction was released July 1987 produced by recording engineer Mike Clink. The album sold 30 million copies worldwide even after the album cover was changed because some stores refused to stock the album. Sweet Child O' Mine was the first single and it topped the charts. The main thing the song has going for it is a great guitar riff. The song was written at a jam session. Rose wrote the lyrics after listening to the band play the song. He was inspired by then girlfriend Erin Everly (Don Everly's daughter). She's in the video. Welcome To The Jungle and Paradise City were also top ten hits. Appetite For Destruction is available as a budget CD. Their 1988 album G N' R Lies wasn't as successful. Patience was the only top ten hit from the album. They took a shortcut by including songs from a 1986 EP. We also started hearing about bad behaviour on tour mostly by Rose. Steven Adler was fired for heroin use but was rehired when he agreed to quit taking drugs. He wasn't able to stick to that and he was fired again. Adler went on to sue for back royalties. He was replaced by Matt Sorum of The Cult. The band was very close to splitting up. But instead they released Use Your Illusion 1 and Use Your Illusion 2 in 1991. Both albums did very well and November Rain was Guns N' Roses final top five hit. There were continuing problems with Rose' behaviour while on tour. Stradlin quit and was replaced by Gilby Clarke. After the 1993 album of covers The Spaghetti Incident? was poorly received, Guns N' Roses went on hiatus. They started working on an album in 1996 but Rose didn't think it was good enough and it was scrapped. Geffen got so frustrated with them that a Greatest Hits CD followed by a live CD was released. Rose sued Geffen. The album Chinese Democracy was supposed to be released in 2000. But it wasn't released until 2008. Rose continued to use the Guns N' Roses name when he probably should have just gone solo. He hired musicians for Guns N' Roses tours. They reunited for their 2012 induction into the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame. Rose, Slash and McKagan are part of the current touring Guns N' Roses. It doesn't look like they plan to record right now. It's amazing that Guns N' Roses are still around. Here's the video for Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses.
I still remember when the song "Welcome to the Jungle" first came out. It got heavy play on MTV. It was big at the time because it was a hard rock song during a time when Hard Rock was supposed to be on the decline. It is surprising they are still around after all the infighting that has gone on.
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