He is the frontman for Guns n' Roses. The only orginal bandmember left, and one of only 2 members from GNR's heyday left, the other one being
keyboardist dizzy reed. He is right behind Robert Plant and Ozzy Osbourne for the title of greatest metal frontman ever, and had he produced more music, I'm sure he'd be on top. He is known for his high, powerful voice, his stage presence, his trademark tights and bandana, his wildness, and his occasional sentimental side.
He was born in Indiana in 1962 as
William Bruce Rose Jr. When he was a baby, his abusive birth father left the family and he was renamed
William Bruce Bailley for his stepfather, who beat up him & his mom and molested him at 2. As a teenager, he got tired of his stepfather, his town, and his
fundamentalist christian upbringing, and left for LA. He wanted to drop his stepfather's name, but didn't want his dad's name (apparently his dad beat his mom while she was pregnant with him) so he became W. Axl Rose.
In LA, while in Hollywood Rose (a band) he met up with childhood friend Izzy Stradlin, who was in LA Guns. There were various lineup shuffles, and eventually Izzy and Axl formed Guns n' Roses. After several more lineup changes, GNR emerged with Duff McKagan, Steven Adler, and Slash. They became local fav's, and soon signed a contract for Appetite for Destruction. This album was a huge hit, going multi-platinum. The next album, GNR Lies, was big too, despite controversy over One in a Million. The band's hugeness reached a peak with the Use Your Illusion albums. However, conflicts were tearing them appart, 5th album "The Spaghetti Incident" was pretty weak, and eventually Axl was kicked out by duff and slash.
3 days later he sued to get the band's name, and won, then kicked out everyone except dizzy reed. He's brought in countless
replacements to work on Chinese Democracy, and play shows when he feels like it. He recently made the news for a barfight with Tommy Hilfiger at Rosario Dawson's
birthday party. He has quit drugs, after the experience of being clinically dead for 10 minutes. He likes live concerts, supermodels, and the quest for inner peace.