The band Axl Rose called the most “pretentious crap” ever
People seem to have a few different images come to mind when they think about Guns N Roses. On the one hand, people enjoy the band’s wide range of music, from the hard rock sound embodied on Appetite For Destruction to the more elongated and diverse songs on the Use Your Illusion albums; however, there is a dark side to the band that a lot of people like to latch on to as well.
Early on in their career, thanks to Axl Rose’s controversial lyrics and wild stage antics, it was always difficult for him to shake the mantel of being anything less than a problem. A lot of what he was singing about was offensive and contained obscenities, and it was hard for people to enjoy Guns ‘N Roses while these aspects of their music existed.
There were a number of instances where Rose tried to clear his name, pointing out that Guns ‘N Roses were giving people something new, which made them uncomfortable, but it wasn’t wrong. He said when you broke down his lyrics, there wasn’t actually a lot of controversy in them.
“I think it’s part of it, and the music, and the controversy around us,” he said, “You know, people think every song on our record has the word ‘fuck’. Four songs have obscenities in them. Four songs. Not twelve. Four. You know? And we’re not asking them to play those four; I’m saying, pick one of the others.”
Rose also thought the guitars used in their sounds put people off because they sounded more aggressive than a lot of other music at the time, and that he thought this might have contributed towards the controversy too. “We have loud guitars, real guitars, real drums. The guitars are not the same on a lot of people’s records… It’s toned down, or in a different way.”
While Rose tended to try to rebuke claims that the sound of the band stopped some radios from playing them and some listeners from enjoying them, he was also more than willing to step into the role of argumentative frontman from time to time, he could try and argue it was people overreacting and that’s why they thought the band were provocative, but the way he spoke about some of his fellow musicians, paired with how he acted on stage, meant it was difficult for people not to come to that conclusion about the band.
One music outfit that found itself at the end of Rose’s wrath at one point was the band Europe. In that same interview, Rose went on to say that some bands out there waste potential by releasing lousy music, and that that should be what people are offended by, not Guns ‘N Roses.
“A band that I don’t care saying anything about, band Europe, that’s the most pretentious crap I’ve ever heard, by people that are talented and they could be doing something a lot more with their lives if you ask me,” he said, “I mean, you can tell me every one of these guys are happy with what they are doing, and I just don’t believe it.”
