I remember being in primary school when Guns N’ Roses released their Use Your Illusion I album. One of my friends lent me his cassette and oh boy, that was it. Guns N’ Roses became my favorite band.
But even though i’ve been listening to their music for 2 and a half decades now (!) i recently realized that i’ve never really knew how Guns N’ Roses got their name. And because i’m pretty sure a lot of people are not aware of the story behind it, i decided to look for the story and make this post. After all, it can’t get more useless than that.
So, what’s the origin of the name Guns N’ Roses? (the article continues after the ad)
Back in the 1980s, guitarist Izzy Stradlin and Axl Rose has a band called Hollywood Rose. At the time, Izzy Stradlin was living with Tracii Guns who had a band called L.A. Guns. One day Guns said to Stradlin that they were looking for a lead singer since their manager hated theirs (Mike Jagosz) and wanted to fire him. Stradlin suggested Axl Rose who accepted the invitation and joined the band. The name was still L.A. Guns.
Six months after Axl Rose joining the band, the same manager that fired the previous singer, wanted to fire him as well. This time, instead of Axl, the band decided to let the manager go. But this created a problem as the manager was the one who had the contacts with the record label. That’s why, they had the idea of creating a record label in order to put singles out on. The name of this record label was chosen to be Guns N’ Roses – a mixture of L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose.
The idea for the record label only lasted a couple of minutes, before deciding to keep L.A. Guns and asking Izzy Stradlin to join. This new band was given the name they were suppose to give to the record label company, Guns N’ Roses. In the following months, Tracii Guns had a fight with Axl Rose and was replaced by Slash but the name stuck. Two years after Appetite for Destruction was out and it took the world by storm.
The rest is history.
If you like what you read, then you will definitely love this one: What Does Rammstein Mean?
Main Article Photo: Guns N’ Roses (Fair use)
Photoshop: I’m A Useless Info Junkie
Sources: Guns N’ Roses | Giving It Both Barrels: Dr Rock Takes On Tracii Guns Of The LA Guns
