The frontman Axl Rose said had the most energy: “One of the greatest athletes”
It takes a lot more than proper vocal technique to be able to do what Axl Rose could in his prime.
As much as people like the idea of a singer going up onstage with little rehearsal and wowing everyone, there’s a lot more that goes into making sure that their larynx is ready to be torn to shreds whenever they get onstage to perform. And while Rose has put a lot of wear and tear on his voice throughout the years, he marvelled at how some of the greatest rock stars of all time have been able to keep up their energy for that long.
Then again, it’s not like anyone is expecting Rose to be delivering as he could back then. It’s unfortunate that he doesn’t have the same massive range as he used to when delivering ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, but expecting someone to scream like that for the rest of their lives and still find time to write the best rock and roll ever made really isn’t fair. No one needs to be subjected to that, but Mick Jagger was out there making the whole thing look easy.
If you look at the way that Guns N’ Roses and The Rolling Stones work, though, they’re a lot more similar than you would think. Guns was a lot more rough around the edges when they burst out of Los Angeles in the late 1980s, but when listening to a lot of their records, you can hear the echoes of everyone from Keith Richards to Mick Taylor in the way that Slash constructed a lot of his guitar parts.
But for as long as Jagger has been moving, he virtually has everyone in rock and roll beat in terms of endurance. He has made a habit out of delivering stunning shows every single time he’s onstage, and while he and Keith Richards should be considered lucky that they’re even able to stand up at this stage, hearing Jagger still sounding pretty good delivering ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash while running across the stage makes him look like a rock and roll superhero at that stage of life.
And that kind of dedication wasn’t lost on Rose when he saw Jagger performing, saying, “To me, Mick Jagger is one of the greatest athletes who ever lived, just for how much he puts into it onstage. I went and saw the Stones in Vegas on their last tour and it’s like, how hard they work at it, it’s there. It’s evident.” Granted, it’s not like you can’t see that kind of energy in early Guns N’ Roses shows as well.
Rose was taking more than his fair share of cues from Jagger, and while did hit upon that snake-like dance move, a lot of their shows made him look like a feral animal. He was running wild for those few hours onstage, but over time, it’s hard to say that Rose is exactly keeping up the same energy that Jagger is still doing whenever he’s onstage.
It’s no big secret that he doesn’t necessarily have the same vocal chops that he did back in the day, and a lot of the heavy lifting is being done with the help of the rest of the band, but that’s not even his fault. Whereas Jagger stayed consistent as a performer throughout his career, Rose set the bar so high starting out that there was almost nowhere else to go but down when he got the band back together after Slash and Duff McKagan left.
Still, it’s nice to have someone like Jagger as a benchmark of what rock and roll performing was always supposed to be. Not everyone could be able to play their hearts out like he could, but even after decades in the business, he’s forever going to be the model for what rock stars can be if they decide to take care of themselves and deliver well into their 80s.
