"Here's the deal: One more bottle and we go home" - Either it’s the start of a great evening or the end of years of hero worship. Sadly the latter and with Axl Rose’s infamous walking off stage tantrum, another group devout followers were left with a bitter taste of Guns ‘n’ Roses. The hyped Dublin concert, a chance for us fans to bask again in the glory of the legendary rock band shattered any sliver of respect we ever had for the man and tarnished Gun ‘n’ Roses forever in Ireland.
I still remember the first time I saw a Guns ‘n’ Roses album. The Parental Advisory still imprinted in my memory. I remember exactly where I was when I first heard “Get in the Ring” and my father’s reaction when he caught me listening to it. Used to the safety of Bros and Michael Jackson I was thrown into the world of Rock and Roll on a violent journey with idol Axel Rose.
Formally William Bruce Rose, a choir-boy turned rock legend. To millions a worshiped rock music icon, to others hated as a homophobic, sexist, and woefully self-indulgent rock star, has a checkered history of disappointing his fans. The late arrival of the band in Slane in 1992 was forgotten in the hype surrounding Guns ‘n’ Roses recent return to Ireland, until an hour’s wait in the O2 for W. Axl Rose to surface. The Guns ‘n’ Roses inspired riots of Montreal's Olympic Stadium and Vancouver's General Motors Place surfaced in my memory as the crowd grew more and more restless. Finally he emerged, and with no apology or crowd interaction, unleashed the best he had to offer over the boos and taunts of his disillusioned audience. A mere five songs in and Axl was re-enacting the 2006 Chinese Democracy Tour by throwing a strop and walking off stage, leaving a wake of enraged fans behind.
Axl’s appetite for destruction started in 1991 on the “Use your Illusion” tour. In June 1991 he let loose on a fan, challenging him to a fight and getting security to eject him from the Philadelphia venue before continuing with the gig. In July, his temper tantrum caused a full scale riot in Missouri, in which sixty fans were injured, he was charged with inciting a riot and Guns ‘n’ Roses were banned from St Louis for life. In April 1992 he ostracised the gay community with the lyrics of “One in a Million” and caused another riot in Montreal in August when he stormed off stage due to “vocal problems”. The South American leg of the tour ended 1992 on a low note when Axl attacked and injured a camera man before the concert in Santiago, Chile, got drunk and arrived for the gig two hours late. The result, a riot outside the stadium, 50 people arrested and a teenage fan dying.
In a Rolling Stones interview with Kim Neely in 1992 he blamed his antics on his violent upbringing. That the childhood traumas he suffered played a large part in shaping his volatile nature. As a teenager he dropped out of high school and was arrested over twenty times on charges of drunkenness and assault, and nearly charged as a habitual criminal by the Lafayette authorities. By the time he was 17 he left Indiana, on the advice of his lawyer and set out hitchhiking around the States. He finally settled in Los Angeles, and began performing with various local bands, including L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose which ultimately became the successful Guns ‘n’ Roses in 1985.
By 1991, Axl was causing rifts in the band firing their then manager, Alan Niven, in a lovers tiff and refused to complete any albums until he was gone. It was the start of the end and bit by bit the band broke up. Axl demanded sole ownership of the Guns ‘n’ Roses band name and tried to keep the band alive by replacing its members as they dropped off like flies. The final straw for the band was when Axl replaced lead guitarist Slash's guitar parts on the band's cover version of the Rolling Stones' song "Sympathy for the Devil" for the soundtrack of the film Interview with the Vampire. By the time 1997 came around he was the only original member of the band and had turned into a recluse, withdrawing from public scrutiny and worked on Guns ‘n’ Roses next releases himself.
Even though the name of the band is now the sole property of Axl Rose, the band’s back catalogue is not. Former members, Slash and McKagan have had to file several lawsuits against Axl for matters related to control, administration of the songs in the Guns N' Roses catalogue and the denial of royalty checks for Guns ‘n’ Roses’ sales.
Axl’s self destruction also crosses over into his personal life, separating from his wife Erin Everly, the daughter of Don Everly, after only a month. A month that resulted in a civil lawsuit alleging various incidents of physical and emotional domestic violence against Axl. Lawsuits of physical abuse were also filed Axl’s by ex-partner and model Stephanie Seymour and he was arrested for assaulting a neighbour with a wine bottle. In 2006 he was alleged to have bitten a security guard's leg and shattered an antique lobby mirror while in a drunken rage in Stockholm and ended up spending the night in a drunk-tank.
Controversy seems to follow Axl everywhere and it seems that the enigmatic superstar has always had the ability to cause a stir. People are either big fans or really hate him; it’s a love-hate thing. U2 once sent a crate of 40-year-old Irish whiskey and a barrel of Guinness for the band when gigging in Ireland and yet he can still throw all of his toys out of the pram, insulting this memory. His most recent antics in Dublin come on the back of several tantrums on the Chinese Democracy tour. In March he cussed the audience in San Paulo, has turned up late at concerts in Lima, Reading and Leeds and is slowing loosing the cult following Guns ‘n’ Roses once had. The warning signs have been there since the band was formed but we the fans refused to acknowledge them and are witnessing the slow death of our hero worship.
In the darkened Dublin arena, amongst the jeering and bottle throwing, the disappointment of the devoted fans was infectious. Even the opening bars of “Welcome to the Jungle” couldn’t overcome the taunts, Axl had lost the crowd before he ever put a foot on the stage. When he eventually appeared, an older and fatter shadow of his former self, there was nothing he could do to return the shambolic situation to the promised gig. As the lights went on in the O2 arena they went out in the hearts of the thousands of fans gathered there. The blatant refusal to see the warning signs that have been there since the band was formed gave way like a devastating train wreck. The muted masses left the theatre, never again to speak softly of the once legendary rebel frontman.
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