Product Description

Axl Rose is one of rock's most colourful figures and yet his story has never been properly told until now. Mick Wall knew the original line-up of Guns N' Roses before they were famous and has interviewed them many times. Drawing on exclusive unpublished material he has written a no-holds-barred study of the turbulent life and career of the group's singer and leader.

Wall describes Axl's difficult childhood in Indiana and how, after escaping to LA, he and his fledgling band struggled to survive until they signed up by Geffen in 1986. The first album, Appetite for Destruction, turned them into stars but the band's lurid lifestyle took its toll - they embarked on a two-year tour that sounded the death knell for the original line-up. As their lives slipped out of control, the original members bar Axl all left. Axl himself turned into an increasingly reclusive figure, working on the long-awaited Chinese Democracy album. In 2006 he re-emerged into public view as Guns N' Roses embarked on a world tour.

Scrupulously researched and vividly written, W. Axl Rose is an explosive biography of one of rock's biggest living legends.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69437 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
Mick Wall is qualified to tell this story...he has assembled a catalogue of lawsuits, sackings and all-round appalling behaviour which, taken together, rivals the best moments of the Borgias or certain middle-European dictators. --Daily Telegraph

The Times, Books
'Axl Rose is one of the greatest frontmen that has lived. Mick Wall's Axl Rose explains why.'

About the Author

Mick Wall is one of Britain's best known music journalists. Formerly editor in chief of Classic Rock magazine, he still writes for Mojo. His previous books include the bestselling biography John Peel, the authorized biograpy of Iron Maiden, Run to the Hills, and the official biography of Ozzy Osbourne, Diary of a Madman.

Customer Reviews

Mick Wall beating a dead horse...
Being a big Guns N' Roses fan, I was pleasantly surprised to find this book in my local bookshop. I knew Mick Wall's history with the band and had enjoyed some of the articles he had written for 'Classic Rock' magazine. Unfortunately, this book doesn't seem to be saying anything that isn't already out there. From summaries of interviews from Kerrang!, Rolling Stone, RIP etc. to stage quotes from live shows that can be found on youtube, this book could have been written by anyone. There also seems to be a lot of presumptions about how Axl felt about certain things. Obviously, not many people wanted to be interviewed for this book and it really shows. For nit-pickers like myself, there are a bunch of basic factual inaccuracies e.g. Slane Castle is in Co. Meath, Ireland NOT Co. Dublin. Wikipedia could tell you that...

I'm still waiting on the definitive Guns N Roses book....

Great first half of the book, the second half is very poor
The first half was really interesting as Mick Wall had access to the band and more importantly AXL, resulting in an insiders story to what was going on within the band up to mid/late 1990. Then when Axl fell out with him the second half of the book seemed to be Mick Wall on a mission to slag off anything Guns N Roses and more specifically Axl did from then on.

He seemed to only have one thing in mind and that was slagging off Axl and never attempted to provide a balanced story, the second half of the book was also full of inaccuracies, one example of which was when he talked about their 1991 Rio shows and how the crowd wasn't into new songs such as November Rain (It wasn't played).

I'd recommend reading the first half of the book but from then on I wouldn't bother, I went to the Leeds 2002 show and 2 shows on the 2006 tour and thought they were amazing but Mick Wall made these out to be bland, boring and dull affairs... far from what I remember about it!

Mick Wall is just making money out of bad mouthing Axl
I would rather read a book that was written by Axl Rose himself since Mick Wall's book of him hardly shows the man behind the ego that seemed to have wrested control of Guns n Roses from his one time band mates and penned songs that came with the videos shows the talent and genius of a tortured well traveled frontman.

He may have name checked Mick Wall in the song Get In The Ring but surely the author could have attempted to offer a peace deal and negotiate with him on penning his autobiography instead of making more money out of bad mouthing him and making a number of writing errors in the unauthorised story about him.