Why Axl Rose thought Tipper Gore “hindered” his career
Out of everyone he’s encountered throughout his lengthy career, Axl Rose has an unlikely enemy. While admitting that he has no regrets about how he navigated the rough waters of rock and roll, he does, however, hold some bitterness towards one woman: Tipper Gore, the activist and presidential wife that Rose blames for damaging Guns N’ Roses’ record sales.
The year was 1985 when Gore heard her young daughter listening to ‘Darling Nikki’, one of Prince’s more suggestive songs. It shocked her to her core, to the point where she took the issue to the courts by founding the Parents Music Resource Center. The aim was to get content warnings on the front of album covers, much like there are on films. What ensured was then a lengthy legal battle where artists from all genres, including Frank Zappa, Joey Ramone, John Denver and members of Twisted Sister, spoke up against Gore’s attempts. However, their protesting was futile as, in the end, her efforts were successful, resulting in an agreement where record labels put warnings on music with violent or sexually explicit lyrics.
As the action took place, Guns N’ Roses were busy working on their most adventurous release to date. In 1991, they dropped a massive double album. Between the two parts of Use Your Illusion, they released 30 new tracks. “We didn’t know that it would include quite as many songs, but we knew we had to bury Appetite [For Destruction] in some way,” Rose explained as they set out on a mission to finally get out of the shadow cast by the beloved debut.
“There was no way to out-do that album, and if we didn’t out-do Appetite in one way or another it was going to take away from our success and the amount of power we had gained to do what we wanted,” he continued.
In terms of the record, the band are more than happy with how it all went, looking back with pride on the creation and release. “There’s no way we regret it. We’re very proud of what we’ve done,” Rose said. But when discussing the record, the name of his seeming nemesis comes up as he added, “The only drawback we’ve had is due to Tipper Gore and her work to have stickers placed on albums. That really hindered us, I believe.”
Even the interviewer from the 2005 career retrospective with The Hit Parade seems taken aback. “It’s hard to believe that Mrs. Vice President has actually had an impact on Guns N’ Roses,” they said, but Rose quickly proved them wrong, suggesting that Gore, in fact, had a significant impact on them.
“Her efforts really hurt our sales in the States. The whole stickering thing took its effect because major record chains like K-Mart and Walmart, which are 50 per cent of a band’s sales, won’t even carry our albums,” he explained. To him, Gore’s actions isolated the band from a major market. In particular, it seemed to especially upset Rose as the actions alienated precisely the kind of social and economic background that he had come from.
“You’ve got to realize that certain income families don’t let their kids shop just anywhere. When I was growing up, we were a K-Mart family, so I speak from experience,” he said, “You bought things at K-Mart because it’s a little cheaper.” In his mind, the fact that his albums were no longer available at the kinds of stores he had access to felt like the group was being cut off from a new generation of future Axl Rose types. It held the band back from touching the lives of the people that he wanted to reach.
It was a cause of genuine worry for Rose, who saw this as merely the first step down a line of real censorship. “I think the fact that Tipper Gore is closer to power is something that we’ll have to deal with,” he continued. “I think the Gores toned down their act in order to get the vote, but I haven’t forgotten what she’s done. She did achieve her goal – first albums had to be stickered, then stores wouldn’t carry stickered albums.”
But in the big picture, not even Tipper Gore could hold Guns N’ Roses back as they remain one of the biggest rock outfits in history, in spite of some stickers on their album covers.
