“Each to their own”: The element Axl Rose said destroyed Guns N’ Roses
Guns N’ Roses received a lot of stick when they headlined Glastonbury a few years ago. Sure, they might have been a last-minute booking, and they don’t sound as good as they used to, but compared to the Arctic Monkeys, who played the night before them, at least the band looked like they wanted to be there and brought a lot of energy. Mind you, I will say that I was very frustrated when they began their set and didn’t open with ‘Welcome To The Jungle’.
As the lights came on and the roar of Slash’s distortion pierced the Pyramid Stage, Guns N’ Roses opened their set with ‘It’s So Easy’. Granted, this is a good song, but there were a lot of pessimistic punters in that crowd, and if you have the greatest opening song of all time in your catalogue, why not use it? Stood in an audience and hearing the repetitive 4 – 0 plucking that ushers in ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ makes for an opening that most bands would kill for, but Guns N’ Roses decided not to use it.
The song opens a gig well, and it also acts as the opening track for the band’s debut album Appetite For Destruction. The power of it as an opener transcends time, as while it works great at a gig now, it also worked great for first-time listeners back when the record was initially released in 1987.
The rock scene, particularly in LA, had grown relatively stagnant at the time, and Guns N’ Roses were necessary to inject a bit of much-needed venom into the scene. Their debut album was an entire record of killer rock music and screeching vocals, something that took rock music and perfected the sound that many were trying to accomplish at the time. Nothing said “we’ve arrived” better than ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ as the opening track.
That being said, the album wasn’t easy to put together. Even on a record where the tone of it is relatively one-note, there were plenty of disagreements between band members on how they wanted the album to come across. For instance, Slash, despite being responsible for one of the most famous riffs of all time when writing it, despised the song ‘Sweet Child O Mine’ because he thought it was too soft.
The band were running on borrowed time after the release of their debut. If the band were able to find space to argue with one another when making an album like Appetite For Destruction, when the creative direction they could go in was opened up even wider on their albums Use Your Illusion I and II, heated arguments between disagreeing members was inevitable. Axl Rose has confirmed that he believes the band’s inability to decide on a creative direction is what led to them breaking up in the first place, as each band member wanted to take control of the music they were making.
“I simply wanted to make another record and have it be as good or better,” said Rose, “If you don’t think I would’ve liked to have five Appetites and been living like the Stones at the time, you’re high. With that, any other avenue I hoped to pursue musically would more than likely been available as well. This was something I could never get through to the others with. Personal need to dominate in Guns was very important to them. Izzy has to be in charge or he’s not comfortable, same with Slash. Duff [McKagan] tries convincing himself he’s equal partners with Slash. Each to their own.”
