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Axl was born on February 6th 1962 in Lafayette Indiana where he grew up. His mother is Sharon E. Bailey. His stepfather was L. Stephen Bailey. Axl's mother always picked him over Axl which left Axl with a sense of rejection. Axl's real dad was no model citizen either. "I remember being sexually abused by this man and watching something horrible happen to my mother when she came to get me. ... I got a lot of violent, abusive thoughts towards women out of watching my mom with this man." "I've always felt this urge to go back and help my mom. I felt obligated to, but I don't anymore. She fed me and put clothes on my back, but she wasn't there for me." Axl isn't completely unforgiving. He sent a stretched limo for his family to bring them to the Indianopolis concert in May '91. Axl's Grandmother is apparently a female version of him and sang along to all the words at the show. There was a family reunion after the gig and apparently something went wrong because Axl trashed his hotel suite that night, which he has almost never done before. At least he tried! Axl's mother died on May 28, 1996. Axl, Amy, and Stuart did visit her before she passed away.
Axl went to Pentecostal Church where he sang and taught Sunday School! The Bible was "shoved down [his] throat, and it really distorted [his] point of view."
"Nothing ever happened to me. I watched my father speak in tongues and people interpret it. I watched him sing in perfect Japanese - and my dad doesn't know Japanese - and sing every note right on key with his eyes closed, driving 100 miles an hour down the freeway and not hitting a car. I don't know how that happened. I've seen people healed... I've seen people with no eyes read. It was very strang, but nothing ever happened to me. I always won all the bible contests. I taught Sunday school. I played piano. I knew more gospel songs than anybody I knew."
"My teacher had ears like a bat, so in order to get away with singing someone else's part, you'd really have to get it down. He used to wonder how come he's hearing a soprano in the bass section."
"When I was in the first grade, I wasn't allowed to cross the street until I sang two Elvis Presley songs. And then, when I was in the third grade, at recess, I would have to get up on top of a trees stump and the teachers would make me sing all the Top-40 Elvis tunes for the younger kids."
"I had to go to church anywhere from three to eight times a week. I even taught Bible school while I was beaten and my sister was being molested. We'd have televisions one week, then my stepdad would throw them out because they were satanic. I wasn't allowed to listen to music. Women were evil. Everything was evil. I had a really distorted view of sexuality and women. I remember the first time I got smacked for looking at a woman. I didn't kow what I was looking at, and I don't remember how old I was, but it was a cigarette advertisement with two girsl coming out of the water in bikinis. I was just staring at the TV - not thinking, just watching - and my dad smacked me in the mouth and I went flying across the floor."
Axl had an abover average IQ and he was a loner in school. He dropped out of Jefferson High School in his junior year. Rolling Stone Magazine revealed that Axl has been prescribed lithium to combat a manic-depressive disorder; but Axl remains dubious about the diagnosis and treatment he's recieved: "I'm very sensitive and emotional and things upset me and make me feel like not functioning or dealing with people... I went to a clinic, thinking it would help my moods. The only thing I did was to take one 500 question test - ya know, filling in the little black dots. All of a sudden I'm diagnosed manic-depressive. ´Let's put Axl on medication.´ Well, the only thing it does is help keep people off my back because they figure I'm on medication."
One of exitable Axl's best teenhood buds was Jeff Isabelle, nicknamed Izzy. Like Axl, guitarist Izzy Stradlin' was a Lafayette native. Izzy remebers that Axl was like a serious lunatic when he met him. He was just really fucking bent on fighting and destroying things. "Somebody'd look at him wrong, and he'd just, like start a fight."
His bad attitude soon became bigger than Indiana could handle. When Axl was 17, he had some troubles with the juevinile officials and decided to get the fuck out of dodge. He left Indiana on a Greyhound, destination L.A.
"When I came to L.A. five years ago [1982] from some hellhole in the Midwest, I was wearing cowboy boots and everyone said I looked like I just came off the boat. All of a sudden, it's become a fashion, so now I guess I drive the boat."
As soon as Axl had thumbed it to L.A., history was in the making. He wasted no time reaching for his dreams, but it wasn't easy. "When I was in Indiana I was labeled a punk... a punk rocker. When I moved to L.A., the punks called me a hippy and didn't want anything to do with me. The Hollywood rock scene was a war-zone back then. I tried out for a punk band and I didn't make it because they said I sounded too much like Robert Plant." He looked for Izzy (who had previously left Indiana) for 2 days but didn't find him right away. But eventually he caught up with Izzy. All of the members of GN'R migrated from band to band before the Fab Five got together. Axl was part of L.A. Guns before fusing with Holly wood Rose to become Guns N' Roses. "I left Hollywood Rose and joined L.A. Guns and the drummer and bass player freaked out and we kinda broke up. In the meantime, Izzy had booked a gig for Hollywood Rose and there was no band left, then Tracii booked a gig for L.A. Guns and there was no band there either. We mixed what was left of the two band together and we got Guns N' Roses. Then Tracii left and went back to L.A. Guns and we got Duff. This line up was finalized on June 6th, 1985."
Axl has written many of Guns world famous hits, just to mention some of them: November Rain, Estranged, Don't Cry, You Could Be Mine, Civil War, etc...
Except for the Guns N' Roses records, Axl appears on Gilby Clarke's record "Pawn Shop guitars", he has also recorded together with Don Henley and is doing the background vocals at The Outpatience (West Arkeen's band) song "Anxious Decease".
In 1996, Axl and Slash had a difference of opinion and Slash left the band. Axl decided he wanted to persue different kinds of music styles. He wanted GN'R to develop more experimental / industrail style. Slash wanted to stick to the roots and left to do his own thing.
Since 1996, Axl has bought the GN'R name and recorded over 70 songs with a lot of various musicians, including Robin Finck and Dave Navarro. Unfortunetly, only one song has been released for now, "Oh My God" which appeared on "The End Of Days" movie soundtrack. It's a industrial influenced hard rock song. Axl said in a interview in 1999 that some news songs are completly experimental and that the old GN'R fans would be shocked to hear them.
Axl remained away from the public eye for almost 6 years until he recently resurfaced with Gilby Clake in West Hollywood's "Cat Club" on June 22, 2000. He completly suprised everyone, Gilby included, when he took the stage and sang a couple of songs. Right now Axl is working on finishing the "Chinese Democarcy" (the new GN'R album) which still does not have a release date.
