Revisit David Lee Roth’s honest critique of Axl Rose: ‘He imitates Robert Plant pretty good’
It was easy to see the influence that David Lee Roth had over rock music by 1988. The former Van Halen member was in his mid-30s and still very much active as a contemporary pop force. That year, he released his second solo album Skyscraper featuring the top ten hit ‘Just Like Paradise’. With upstart guitar virtuoso Steve Vai as his main creative partner, Roth was also rubbing elbows with a new generation of singers who shamelessly borrowed from his performance style, especially in the genre of glam metal.
After a full decade of commanding the Los Angeles rock scene, Roth now had to compete with bands like Mötley Crüe, Warrant, Poison, and more. He was also competing with his former employers, who now had Sammy Hagar and a string of number one albums under the belt without Roth. While sitting down with journalist Steve Harris shortly after the release of Skyscraper, Roth was asked about his views on artists like Ozzy Osbourne and Brian Wilson. Another singer who came up in that conversation was Axl Rose, the then-26-year-old singer for LA’s hottest new band, Guns N’ Roses.
“I don’t know much about Axl,” Roth admitted. “Axl’s a beginner. Axl’s starting out, and it’s really hard to tell potential early in the game. Axl imitates [Led Zeppelin lead vocalist Robert] Plant pretty good.” When pushed on whether he thinks that Axl is relying on imitating Plant, Roth believed that he was, but also thought that Rose’s lyrics had some promise as well.
“I do notice that some of his lyrics, although a bit ‘moon in June rhymes with spoon’ – what’s the sweet gal o’ mine – it’s a pretty sensitive lyric there,” Roth said. “If you really read the lyric there, there’s a real human being inside there. That dog will hunt.”
Guns N’ Roses had released Appetite For Destruction roughly six months before Skyscraper. By the time Roth was being interviewed, the band had already released two singles from the album – the double A-side of ‘It’s So Easy’ and ‘Mr. Brownstone’, followed by ‘Welcome to the Jungle’. It’s interesting that Roth highlights ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, the album’s major ballad, as the song wouldn’t be released as a single until June of 1988.
Roth’s instincts regarding ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ would prove to be right. More than a year after Appetite for Destruction first hit record store shelves, ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ would hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, solidifying Guns N’ Roses as one of the biggest bands in the world. Roth was seeing a new generation of artists run with the blueprint that he helped create, but at least he could acknowledge the changing of the guard.
Listen to Roth discuss Axl Rose down below.
