Biography Axl Rose

W. Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose^[1] on February 6, 1962) is an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist of hard rock band Guns N' Roses.

Rose grew up in Indiana in a troubled family environment. His love of music was fostered by singing in church, participating in school chorus and studying piano, but his numerous run-ins with the police and activities as a teenager led to his leaving home at a young age. After moving to Los Angeles in 1982, Rose fronted various local bands, eventually forming Guns N' Roses with former L.A. Guns bandmate Tracii Guns.

As lead singer for Guns N' Roses, Rose enjoyed tremendous success, recognition, record and concert ticket sales in the late 1980s and early 1990s before dropping out of the public eye for several years. In 2001, he resurfaced with a new line-up of Guns N' Roses, and has since played periodic concert tours, finally releasing the long delayed Chinese Democracy in 2008.

The only original member still part of the band's line-up, Rose still places high in numerous polls as one of hard rock's all-time greatest frontmen, but is also infamous for his onstage antics and high-profile disputes with former bandmates and others in the entertainment business.

Early years

Rose was born as William Bruce Rose, Jr. in Lafayette, Indiana,^[1] the son of Sharon E. Lintner, then 16 years old, and William Bruce Rose, then 20 years old.^[2] His father left the family when Rose was two years old. As an adult, after recovering repressed memories in therapy, Rose publicly stated that he was molested by his biological father.^[1][3]

Rose's mother remarried in 1966. She changed his name to William Bailey, using the last name of her new husband, Stephen L. Bailey. He has two younger half-siblings – sister Amy and brother Stuart. Rose has stated that he, and his siblings were often beaten by Bailey, sometimes for no reason. Growing up, Rose believed that Bailey was his biological father.^[1]

Because of his turbulent upbringing and his mother's reluctance to leave the abusive Bailey, Rose is said to have issues with women. He claimed in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in April 1992, that during his childhood, he was made to believe that women and sexuality were evil and that due to the violent treatment of his mother by his stepfather he witnessed as an impressionable child, he had been led to think that domestic violence was the normal way of doing things.^[1][4]

The Bailey household was deeply religious, and Rose grew up attending a Pentecostal church, where he was required to attend services three to eight times per week.^[4] He sang in church from the age of five, and also performed at services with his brother and sister in the "Bailey Trio".^[5] Rose was so involved with the church that he even taught Sunday School. Later, he spoke of his disillusion with his religious upbringing:

My particular church was filled with self-righteous hypocrites who were child abusers and child molesters. These were people who'd been damaged in their own childhoods and in their lives. These were people who were finding God but still living with their damage and inflicting it upon their children. I had to go to church anywhere from three to eight times a week. l even taught Bible school while l was being beaten and my sister was being molested.^[4]

—Axl Rose

Church did provide an outlet for Rose's musical interests. In addition to singing in church, he also participated in his high school chorus and studied piano.^[6]

Rose speaks in the baritone register, but his singing voice is a tenor^[7] and he can sing parts ranging from bass, to baritone, and to a high falsetto/soprano, and has several different recognized "voices" used in his songs. He has stated that he originally started to develop his range to confuse his chorus teacher in school.^[8][5][9]

He attended Jefferson High School in Lafayette.^[10] At age 17, while going through papers in his parents' home, Rose learned of his biological father's existence and his own origins, and readopted his birth name, William Rose (although he was still legally William Bailey). He referred to himself as W. Rose only, however, as he did not wish to share a name with his biological father.^[1]

After discovering the truth of his background, Rose began "acting out" in earnest. He was in trouble numerous times with the police and was arrested over twenty times on charges such as public drunkenness and assault. At age 16, he was kicked out of his house for not cutting his hair. At this age, Rose also met Izzy Stradlin in a driver's education class.^[11] The two bonded over their love of rock music and eventually started playing in bands together. Stradlin eventually left Rose, and Indiana, to go to Los Angeles and focus on music.

Lafayette authorities threatened to charge Rose as a habitual criminal in his late teenage years.^[6] When he was 17, on the advice of his lawyer, he left Indiana and began hitchhiking and taking buses across the country.^[12] Although he returned to Indiana to visit family from time to time, he left for good in December 1982 and moved to Los Angeles, accompanied by a girlfriend.^[13]

Rose eventually adopted the name W. Axl Rose ("Axl" after a band in which he once played ^[14]), and set out to re-unite with Stradlin. Rose legally changed his name to "W. Axl Rose" in 1986,^[8][15] and had the moniker tattooed on his arm.^[13]