A youthful rebellion: why was Axl Rose in jail?
We’ve all watched enough crime documentaries to have accrued enough pseudo-scientific knowledge to know that much of how a person turns out as an adult is traced back to childhood. This certainly can be said for Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose, one of the most controversial men in rock music. However, when you read about his early years, you can’t help but be somewhat empathetic despite some of his later exploits.
He was born in Lafayette, Indiana, in 1962 to Sharon, a 16-year-old still in high school and William Bruce Rose, a 20-year-old known for being a troubled local delinquent. His birth was very of its era in that it was unplanned, setting him up from the outset on an uneven playing field compared to others. When he was just two years old, the pair split, and according to reports, William abducted William Bruce Jr and allegedly molested him before he eventually disappeared for good.
Sharon then married another man and had two more children. Despite this new man in their life, things were all but well. Rose and his siblings were allegedly regularly beaten, with him believing that his stepfather, Stephen L Bailey, was actually his biological father. He never met his real dad again, as he was murdered in Marion, Illinois, in 1984 by a criminal acquaintance. He didn’t find out about it for years.
Alongside the regular lashings, the Bailey household was deeply religious, and they were forced to attend services three to eight times per week. The young Rose would quickly come to see this upbringing as immensely oppressive. He wasn’t allowed to watch television or listen to music and was told women “were evil”. He also later asserted that Bailey sexually abused his sister.
Luckily for Rose, music provided a spiritual sanctuary. He sang in the church choir and learned the piano. In high school, he eventually formed a band with Jeff Isbell, later the rhythm guitarist of Guns N’ Roses, Izzy Stradlin.
Given that Rose was immersing himself in music, it wouldn’t be long before the fuse of rebellion detonated, and he broke the chains of religious and small-town repression for good.
How many times was Axl Rose arrested?
Aged 17, Rose was trawling through insurance papers at home when he learned of William Rose Sr’s existence. Things then clicked, and he unofficially adopted his birthname, only referring to himself as W Rose, as he did not want to share a name with his father.
This was the moment Rose’s life imploded. The fury that had slowly been bubbling in him was tipped over the edge by the discovery about his father, sending him spiralling. Echoing his father’s spirit, he became a local delinquent, and his rebellion would come into contact with the law. During this chapter, he was arrested more than 20 times on charges ranging from battery to public intoxication. He served terms in Lafayette’s notorious Tippecanoe County Jail, which had many terrible stories attached to it in the early 1980s, from inmates sexually assaulting each other to prisoners going on hunger strike to protest the dire conditions.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 1989, Rose looked back on that troublesome time. He recalled: “Me and my friends were always in trouble. We got in trouble for fun. It finally reached a point where I realised I was gonna end up in jail ’cause I kept fucking with the system. This guy and I got into a fight. We became friends afterwards, and he dropped charges against me, but the state kept on pressing charges. Those charges didn’t work, so they tried other ones. I spent three months in jail and finally got out. But once you’ve pissed off a detective, it’s a vengeance rap back there.”
“They tried everything. They busted me illegally in my own backyard for drinking,” he continued. “They tried to get me as a habitual criminal, which can mean a life in prison. My lawyer got the case thrown out of court. I left and came to California. They told me not to leave, but I left anyway. My lawyer took care of it. I just didn’t go back for a long time. Now, when I go back to see my family, I avoid the police there. I try to avoid all police in general.”
When Rose got to Los Angeles, he left the past behind and dived headfirst into the local music scene. His band AXL became so prominent that friends suggested he take the Axl Rose, which he liked the sound of. That was the start of his development into a polarising rock icon, and it’s safe to say there were other brushes with the law on the way. Given his concerted teenage rebellion, there’s also no surprise that The Catcher in the Rye is his favourite book, the ultimate ode to young adult angst. There are eerie parallels between his young self and that of the protagonist, Holden Caulfield.
