The Tragedy Of Guns N' Roses Gets Sadder And Sadder
Fans of Guns N' Roses know that they play from the heart, pulling lyrics from experiences rooted in addiction, pain, poverty, and abuse. This is the tragic, real-life story of one of history's greatest rock bands.
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00:00Fans of Guns N' Roses know that they play from the heart, pulling lyrics from experiences
00:04rooted in addiction, pain, poverty, and abuse. This is the tragic real-life story of one
00:09of history's greatest rock bands.
00:11This one is perhaps as unsurprising as it is tragic, but each and every single one of
00:15the Appetite for Destruction-era band members came from a broken home. Drummer Steven Adler's
00:19father left the family when he was a kid. His resulting problematic behavior forced
00:23his mother to send him to his grandparents in Hollywood, where he met Saul Hudson. Hudson,
00:27popularly known as Slash, was also the child of divorced parents. They'd split in 1974
00:33after years of trying to hold a marriage together while in separate countries. Like Adler, Slash
00:37neglected school and indulged in substance abuse. Also like Slash, Adler fell in love
00:41with rock music.
00:42Naturally, the two decided to form a band. It never materialized, but they did search
00:46for a basis long enough to meet one Michael Duff McKagan, a Seattle punk transplant with
00:51a passion for music and an addiction to alcohol. Duff's parents were also divorced. Meanwhile,
00:55Indiana natives Jeffrey Isbell, known as Izzy Stradlin, and childhood friend William
01:00Bailey, better known as Axl Rose, were also the products of broken homes. Stradlin's parents
01:04divorced when he was eight, while Axl's parents split when he was still two. Axl has since
01:08described his childhood home as intensely religious, and he claims he and his siblings
01:12endured regular physical abuse as children.
01:15L.A.'s Sunset Strip was, in the mid-'80s, a scene of both ascendant rock and roll glory
01:19and shattered dreams. For every rat or poison that went on to multi-platinum success, there
01:24were countless bands that called it a day after getting nowhere. Guns N' Roses is arguably
01:28the most legendary band to break out of the scene, but its constituent members were in
01:32multiple failed bands before forming their most famous group. For example, the band Road
01:36Crew, consisting of Slash, Steven Adler, and Duff, briefly sought a singer but disbanded
01:40in less than a year with no releases. Slash and Adler would later join Hollywood Rose,
01:45in which both Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin were playing.
01:47However, despite having four of Guns' later five classic members, this group would also
01:51fall apart before achieving any notable success. Then, Rose and Stradlin would go on to join
01:56L.A. Guns. Unlike Road Crew and Hollywood Rose, L.A. Guns would, in fact, get a record
02:00deal and achieve moderate success at the tail end of the decade, without either Rose or
02:05Stradlin. However, like Road Crew and Hollywood Rose, they're far more famous for being the
02:08band that contained future members of Guns N' Roses.
02:12After forming Guns N' Roses in 1985 and having a few practice sessions, the boys decided
02:16to launch their first West Coast tour. However, the absence of a working vehicle, money, ticket
02:21sales, or any reputation made for a rough time. The car the band did have, into which
02:25they packed all their gear, broke down a few hours north of L.A. and left them stranded.
02:30Unwilling to wait for repairs, they decided to abandon their heavier equipment and hitchhike
02:33to as many gigs as they could get to. When they got to Seattle, none of the very few
02:37patrons present in the bars they played in were interested in the scrappy, no-name outfit
02:41that reeked of beer and sweat. Unimpressed with the lack of business the band drew in,
02:45at least one club owner refused to pay until the boys cornered him in the back office and
02:49threatened significant bodily harm.
02:50The band then had to hitchhike back to L.A., with barely enough money for gas station food
02:54to get them there. However, several members have since cited the challenges of the so-called
02:58Hell Tour as what cemented their friendship.
03:01The Hell Tour may have been a brief baptism of fire for the band, but it wasn't exactly
03:05smooth sailing upon their return to L.A. They had each other's backs, but no reputation,
03:09no money, and few connections. In short, they had to build a following from scratch. In
03:13his autobiography, Slash explains that Guns had to pay for club slots, exhausting much
03:17of the funds the band did collect at various odd jobs and forcing them to turn elsewhere
03:21for food and shelter. The group did manage to later rent a number of tiny spaces in which
03:25to crash and practice, but these places quickly became neighborhood hubs for out-of-control
03:29depravity and filth. Parties raged on into the wee hours of the morning and spilled into
03:33the surrounding streets, attracting frequent police attention. Still, the band's financial
03:37problems persisted until they signed a lucrative deal with Geffen Records.
03:42Appetite for Destruction, the band's 1987 debut, took the world by storm when monster
03:46hits like Sweet Child O' Mine and Welcome to the Jungle began getting regular radio
03:51and MTV video rotation roughly a year after the album's release. In Mick Wall's War, the
03:55unauthorized biography of Axl Rose, Tim Collins, the manager of Aerosmith, for whom Guns was
04:00opening for in 1988 when Appetite topped the charts, said,
04:03"...they basically just exploded."
04:05Rolling Stone magazine showed up to do a story on Aerosmith, but Guns N' Roses ended up on
04:09the cover of the magazine. Suddenly, the opening act was bigger than we were. Months later,
04:13Guns N' Roses co-headlined England's Monsters of Rock Festival. During Guns' performance,
04:18a moshing crowd of more than 100,000 repeatedly rushed the gate near the stage, risking a
04:22human crush. Axl repeatedly stopped the set to demand that they take several steps back.
04:26However, the music ultimately continued, and so did the chaos. After their set, the band
04:31learned two fans had indeed been killed. The group was devastated, but the media blamed
04:35them for the tragedy and slapped them with the moniker of, quote, "...the most dangerous
04:38band in the world."
04:39By the end of 1988, Guns N' Roses was one of the most popular bands on the planet, but
04:47with limitless money and fame came just as much, and often unwanted, media attention.
04:51The group released GNRLies at the end of the year, an acoustic EP featuring the top ten
04:55single, Patience, which is still a staple of the band's live sets. However, it also
04:59featured One in a Million, a song with lyrics considered shocking and bigoted even at the
05:03time. Axl spent years dodging numerous accusations about his character in the aftermath of the
05:08album's release.
05:09Guess what? I changed my point of view. For me now, it's kind of like, live and let die.
05:16In early 1990, Guns N' Roses won twice at the American Music Awards, with Slash and
05:20Duff accepting both awards. The bandmates were also thoroughly drunk, and dropped so
05:24many curse words on live TV that their mics had to be cut.
05:27This was all in addition to ongoing coverage of the Monsters of Rock disaster, as well
05:31as bar fights, assaults, arrests, and even a proposed parking lot brawl between Axl and
05:36Motley Crue's Vince Neil over an allegation that Stradlin had hit on Neil's wife at a
05:40party. The fight never happened, according to Ultimate Classic Rock, but it got plenty
05:43of coverage.
05:45Even in a group as notoriously wild and permissive as Guns N' Roses, firings really did happen.
05:50The band had been alarmed at Steven Adler's deteriorating condition for some time before
05:53they pulled the trigger and released him. In 1990, the group returned to the stage after
05:57a break for what was supposed to be the warm-up show for a tour promoting their upcoming albums,
06:01Use Your Illusion I and II. Adler, high, stumbled on the way to the drum riser in front of the
06:06whole crowd, humiliating and enraging a band that was quickly losing patience with him.
06:10It was the last show he'd ever play with Guns. In July 1990, he was formally fired, with
06:14Matt Sorum, then the drummer for the cult, replacing him. In 1991, Adler sued the band
06:19for misleading him in various contracts, and he was awarded a substantial out-of-court
06:23sum.
06:24The Use Your Illusion albums were released in 1991 to immediate success and enormous
06:29fanfare. According to The New York Times, industry expectations put it on the same level
06:33as Michael Jackson. They largely delivered, too, selling 500,000 copies in two hours
06:37and having since sold a combined $14 million in the U.S. alone.
06:41With Matt Sorum on drums and keyboardist Dizzy Reed added to the roster at Axl's insistence,
06:45the band embarked on a two-and-a-half-year-long world tour that was fraught with controversy.
06:49For example, there were riots, including the 1991 Riverport Riot and another one in Montreal,
06:54where the band shared a bill with Metallica that were spectacularly expensive and fully
06:58the fault of Axl Rose. Then there were the late starts, where Rose often enraged the
07:02crowd by taking the stage hours after the band was scheduled to perform. And then there
07:06were the mid-set storm-offs by, you guessed it, Axl Rose.
07:09But things only got crazier from there. Izzy Stradlin, newly sober and unable to take the
07:14pressure and unending madness, left the band in 1991, while Duff, Matt, and Slash sank
07:19further and further into an abyss of alcohol abuse. Behind the scenes, late fees, police
07:23coverage, and excessive partying ensured the tour stayed heavily over budget and barely
07:27profitable for its duration.
07:30By 1992, the success of Nirvana had ushered in the grunge era and the end of bloated 80s
07:35glam rock. Guns N' Roses, which was far more popular than most of the bands associated
07:39with the subgenre, had survived the initial hairband winnowing in the early 90s. But by
07:43the time the Use Your Illusion tour finally lumbered to an end in 1993, even GNR couldn't
07:48escape the fact that the music world had changed forever. They released The Spaghetti Incident,
07:52a collection of punk rock covers, in late 1993 to lukewarm success. After that, Clashing
07:57Egos and dwindling relevancy led to intense turmoil in the ranks. Axl, increasingly acting
08:02like a corporate boss, strong-armed the other members into signing over the rights to the
08:06band's name to him.
08:07In 1996, Slash quit the group over increasing frustration with Axl's demands and the band's
08:18inability to record new music. Duff also left the following year, while Axl fired Matt Sorum.
08:23By 1998, he was the only original member remaining.
08:28After leaving Guns N' Roses, Slash, Duff, and Matt Sorum formed Velvet Revolver. Izzy
08:31Stradlin formed the Juju Hounds. Stephen Adler played in several bands like the ongoing Adler's
08:36Appetite. Axl, meanwhile, who'd grown increasingly reclusive, soldiered on with his version of
08:40Guns N' Roses. His constant hiring and firing of various studio musicians like guitar virtuoso
08:45Buckethead and the replacements Tommy Stinson led many to think that the once-triumphant
08:50rock band had been reduced to a never-ending revolving door of hired guns.
08:53The band was also continuing forward with plans to eventually release the long-awaited
08:57follow-up to the Use Your Illusion records, titled Chinese Democracy. However, the album
09:01was constantly being tinkered with and ultimately delayed a number of times. After it was finally
09:06released in 2008, it received fairly positive reviews and sold a few million copies, but
09:11its legacy is far more centered around its outrageous costs, the inexcusable amount of
09:15time it took to release, and the eccentricities of Axl Rose during this period.
09:19Seth McKagan, bloated from years of drinking, nearly died in 1994 when his pancreas effectively
09:25exploded, leaking digestive enzymes into his body. In order to survive, he got sober and
09:30healthy. Slash briefly died from a heroin overdose during the Use Your Illusion tour,
09:34according to the BBC, but he was revived. In 2001, at age 35, he was diagnosed with
09:39congestive heart failure and given a month to live. However, he too sobered up, and with
09:43the help of a surgically implanted defibrillator, his long-sense cleared his expected expiration
09:47date. Years later, after getting pneumonia at a Cher concert he attended and being forced
09:51off cigarettes for several weeks to recover, he decided to ride the momentum and kick that
09:55habit for good, too.
09:56Steven Adler had spent the majority of the 90s plummeting further into drug addiction,
10:00even being arrested in 1995 for felony heroin possession. The next year, he suffered a stroke
10:05that left him with a permanent speech impediment. In the years since, drug-induced depression
10:09led him to attempt suicide on a number of occasions. Thankfully, Adler failed and is
10:12currently doing well.
10:15Guns N' Roses welcomed a number of musicians over the years as the band's lineup turned
10:18into something of a revolving door. One of the often-forgotten members was Danish musician
10:22Ole Byke, who served as the band's first official bassist. Speaking about Byke to Ultimate Guitar,
10:28original GNR guitarist Tracy Guns explained how Byke left Denmark to move to Los Angeles
10:32in 1982, joining L.A. Guns at first. However, as someone who had played with the Merciful
10:37Fate and other heavy metal bands, GNR's music wasn't quite to his taste.
10:41He really wanted to play metal, and we had turned into more of a blues-influenced heavy
10:47rock band."
10:48In 1991, news broke that Byke had died at the age of 36. According to The Music's Over,
10:53Byke drowned in a lake in Copenhagen, Denmark. As Guns reported, the bassist suffered from
10:57depression, but was a great guy with a strong sense of humor.
11:01Time deceives, and while most fans associate Slash with a guitar position in Guns N' Roses,
11:06Richard Fortas has shredded for the act for over two decades now. Joining the band in
11:092002, he is officially one of the longest-serving members of the group after Axl Rose and Dizzy
11:14Reid. While the GNR gigs keep him busy on regular trips to Paradise City, he has still
11:18found the time to lend his six-string talents to other bands, including a long stint in
11:22The Dead Daisies.
11:23However, in September 2015, The Dead Daisies posted the disappointing news that Fortas
11:27wouldn't be joining them for an Australian tour. Hopping onto his Facebook page, Fortas
11:31explained the reasons for his absence, writing,
11:33On September 17, 2015, I was involved in a motorcycle accident. As a result, I broke
11:38my shoulder blade, collarbone, six ribs, and a toe. I have a bruised lung, lacerated liver,
11:43and a concussion.
11:44While the list of injuries sounds horrific and painful, Fortas expressed his surprise
11:47that his physicians told him he was going to make a full recovery. And while he had
11:50to miss shows for the first time in his career, the prognosis was accurate and he recovered
11:54from his injuries and continues to tour with GNR.
11:57The Buckethead was only in GNR for four years. The KFC bucket-wearing shredder certainly
12:01left a mark on the band. For most of his career, few people knew who the person under the Bucket
12:05was. However, in 2017, Buckethead peeled back the layers to reveal more of the man
12:10behind the act, Brian Carroll.
12:12Speaking on the Coming Alive podcast, Buckethead discussed a medical matter related to his
12:16heart. The musician explained how he had dealt with a condition that caused his heart to
12:19beat out of rhythm. And while he expressed it wasn't something new, it became progressively
12:23more noticeable and, quote, really intense.
12:26So I went to the doctor and they said, oh, you're on the verge of having a stroke.
12:31Buckethead underwent a treatment called cardiac ablation and received medication. However,
12:34he still felt the effects of the condition. He expressed that living with the illness
12:37was scary and it could make even walking through a room difficult. Despite the challenge, the
12:41musician expressed how the experience was an eye-opener about how precious time is and
12:45spurred him on to do all the things he wanted to do.
12:48Ron Bumblefoot Thal served as a guitarist in Guns N' Roses from 2006 to 2014. Sadly,
12:54while speaking with journalist Mikkel Elbeck, Bumblefoot explained he was involved in a
12:57car accident that left him with significant injuries in 2011. He recalled how he had nerve
13:02damage in both arms and dealt with severe amounts of pain, but he made the decision
13:05to get back in the saddle and tour with GNR. He added that he wasn't in the best space
13:09physically or mentally at the time, and attempted suicide while on tour in 2011. He explained,
13:14I'm not a drinker, but I tried to drink myself to death — in the hotel room in New York
13:18— and just didn't tell anybody that my goal was to die.
13:21Bumblefoot explained how the period after the accident proved to be tumultuous and life-changing
13:24for him, but he eventually found help. He recalled,
13:27After a year, I had to go through a 112-day, very strict cleanse to get all the drugs and
13:31residue and everything out of my body. And I had to start reading, as part of that cleanse,
13:35a lot of books from Indian gurus. And Richard Fortis would actually recommend lots of books
13:39for me and all kinds of things to help.
13:41No matter the time or era, Guns N' Roses never struggles to sell out shows across the globe.
13:46However, the return of the beloved Slash and Duff McKagan to the fold in 2016 ensured that
13:50any gig would be simply unmissable now. The gang was back together, and fans traveled
13:54from far and wide to catch the rock and roll legends live and in the flesh.
13:58In April 2016, GNR performed in Mexico City, Mexico, as the audience descended on the capital
14:03city for a special show. Tragedy struck, though, when a bus crash claimed the life of one fan
14:08and injured many others on the way to the concert. According to Excelsior, a bus driver
14:12lost control of the vehicle and overturned it on the Mexico-Quieto Highway. A 35-year-old
14:16passenger named Mauricio Ballesteros Zamora died, while nearly 30 others were injured
14:21in the accident.
14:22In response to the accident, the band posted a sentimental message to Axe, formerly known
14:26as Twitter. It read,
14:28We in Guns N' Roses are shocked and extremely saddened to hear of the horrifying bus crash
14:31en route to our Mexico City show yesterday. Our thoughts and hearts are with the family
14:35of Mauricio Ballesteros Zamora. We are so very sorry for your loss. We hope for a speedy
14:40recovery to the 29 other injured fans. Godspeed.
14:44Slash and Megan Hodges dated in the late 80s before finding their way back to each other
14:48in the mid-2010s. During their time apart, Hodges had a daughter with Mark Knight, named
14:53On July 21, 2024, tragic news broke on both Slash and Hodges' Instagram accounts when
14:58they announced Lucy Blue had passed away on July 19. The family asked for privacy and
15:03space to cope with their loss.
15:05Speculation about the cause of death mounted after what appeared to be a scheduled post
15:08was published to Lucy Blue's Instagram account three days after her death. The message read,
15:12Whether I made you feel excluded, manipulated, controlled you, told you to quit your day
15:16job from the comfort of being financially supported by my parents, or drowned real issues
15:20in toxic positivity, I am sorry. Countless missed opportunities and connections due
15:24to a disgustingly big ego, insecure hearts, and fear of being vulnerable. She concluded
15:29the statement with the haunting words,
15:31May my soul learn to evolve from my poor job at being Lucy Blue. Peace.
15:35In the comments section of the post, Lucy Blue's mother replied, professing her love
15:38for her daughter and saying,
15:39I am so sorry.
15:40A press release sent by the Prime PR group on behalf of the family requested people donate
15:45to the National Alliance of Mental Illness in lieu of flowers.