Axl Rose
Piano
64 age
February 6, 1962 Birthday
Lafayette, Indiana, U.S. Birthplace
axlrose.com Website
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About
Axl Rose is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist, best known as the lead vocalist and sole continuous member of Guns N' Roses since the band's formation in 1985. Their debut album Appetite for Destruction, released in 1987, became the best-selling debut album in U.S. history with over thirty million copies sold worldwide. The follow-up Use Your Illusion I and II sold a combined thirty-five million copies. Rose's vocal range has been measured as the widest of any popular singer on record, spanning over five octaves. He also plays piano, contributing keyboard parts to tracks including "November Rain" and "Estranged." After a prolonged absence, he reunited with Slash and Duff McKagan in 2016 for the Not in This Lifetime Tour, which became the third highest-grossing concert tour of all time. Since 2016, he has also performed as lead vocalist for AC/DC.
Trivia
Rose worked as a night manager at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard after moving to Los Angeles. He also earned eight dollars an hour participating in a UCLA study on cigarette smoking. His family was deeply religious — he attended church multiple times a week, sang in the choir, and taught Sunday School. He legally changed his name from William Bruce Bailey to W. Axl Rose before signing with Geffen Records in 1986. During past-life regression therapy in the 1990s, he claimed to have recovered memories of abuse by his biological father at age two.
Early Life
Axl Rose was born William Bruce Rose Jr. on February 6, 1962, in Lafayette, Indiana. His biological father abandoned the family when Axl was two, and his mother married Stephen Bailey, raising him as William Bailey. He did not learn his true parentage until seventeen. The Bailey household was intensely Pentecostal, attending church up to eight times a week. Rose found refuge in music, singing in the church choir from age five and performing with his siblings as the Bailey Trio. At Jefferson High School, he sang in the chorus and studied piano. After more than twenty arrests as a teenager, he moved to Los Angeles in 1982. He and childhood friend Izzy Stradlin formed Hollywood Rose, which merged with L.A. Guns in 1985 to create Guns N' Roses, with Rose on vocals, Slash on lead guitar, Stradlin on rhythm guitar, Duff McKagan on bass, and Steven Adler on drums.
Axl Rose Solos
1991
Piano solo - Estranged - 1991
4/4 rock in B major at 87 BPM