The greatest singer of all time, according to Axl Rose: “Embraced so many different styles”
Given the chance, plenty of people would vote for Axl Rose as the best rock singer of all time. In Guns N’ Roses, it’s his powerful vocals that fuel the group, wailing through their hits like ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and the timeless anthem ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’. But Rose would cast his ballot elsewhere, instead celebrating one of his biggest inspirations and all-time favourites.
If there’s one word to describe Guns N’ Roses, perhaps it should be theatrical. The entire hard rock emergence was built on that, as rock and roll gave way to something else in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. It took the old-school, classic rock swagger but elevated it, mixing in elements of punk and pop, with a good dose of glam rock and nods to the hair metal moment. It was a whole new kind of sound, but especially a whole new type of vocalist.
While rock and roll occasionally saw its leaders growling into the mic, it was nothing compared to the acts that came later. As the genre began to morph into its various subdivisions, it was the singing that seemed to change most as vocalists let themselves go all out, not being shy or afraid to truly push their voices.
They were having fun with it, pushing the limits of where their vocals could go but also leaning heavily into the joy of using their voice in a truly characterful way, adding to the drama and excitement of the track by using their tool. Rose does it all the time, switching styles song by song, even section by section, to deliver the track as a more immersive, engaging beast.
But that’s a trick he learnt elsewhere, looking towards one of his all-time favourite bands for pointers. “For me, it’s easy – Queen is the greatest band,” Rose once told Atlas By Etihad, celebrating the iconic British group.
When we talk about bands who merged styles and had fun with it, Queen are the epitome. Just take their album A Night At The Opera as a singular example. What an utterly mad record as the rock band decided to take inspiration from theatre, sprinkle in rock tracks and pop tracks and then be bold enough to end on a song like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
That one song alone is a perfect example of why Mercury always stood out to Rose as the Queen singer sounds like at least five different people across the course of the track, showing the full range of his register but also using his voice to portray different moods and characters. It’s a one-man-show really, with the band backing him up and elevating it even more. For Rose, listening to the track before starting his own group, it became exactly the type of singer he wanted to be.
“Freddie [Mercury] is the greatest frontman of all time,” he said, truly honouring the Queen leader, and it all comes down to that variety as he added, “The band are the greatest because they embraced so many different styles.”
