Guns N' Roses
Appetite For Destruction

1985 - Five young rockers with nothing to lose and everything to gain roam the streets of a city, Los Angeles, which in the span of 2 years will change their lives forever.

The first one is named William Bruce Bailey, who will go down in history as Axl Rose. He spends his adolescence in a small town where he starts making his first steps in music by singing in the Church's gospel choir. After being molested by his real father, he is raised by a stepfather Reverend obsessed with discipline. Axl also feels the call, but not the one of the Lord, instead of rock n' roll. Against the will of his fanatic stepfather, he spends entire days secretly listening to CDs of the Rolling Stones, the New York Dolls, and Janis Joplin. After making his grumpy and violence-prone character known to everyone, he is kicked out of the house and leaves with a backpack and a small knife for the city of angels.

The second one, Saul Hudson, known as Slash, gives up a life of well-being to run away with his great love: the guitar. And what could be the natural habitat for a wild aspiring rocker with a bush on his head? Naturally, the jungle of L.A.

The third one is named Izzy Stradlin, legally Jeffrey Dean Isbell. His parents had envisioned a future for him as a 9 to 5 employee. The young man doesn’t agree and decides to follow a dazzling light coming from a fantastic world, made of dreams of glory and illusions, where everything seems so easy. "Mr. Brownstone" will welcome him with open arms.

The other two are Duff Meckegan, who learns to play everything that comes into his hands, rejecting a life that had put in front of him a respectable education, and Steven Adler, who was expelled from school more than once because of his difficult personality. Desiring to educate himself, he resorts to alternative means to Kant’s books, such as the masterpieces of Queen, Kiss, and Who.

Completely different lives but with one common denominator, the love for music, they met as if attracted by a mysterious force, and together they began the ascent to the Rock Olympus. But to earn a place next to the idols of all time, the Guns n' Roses had to fight tooth and nail. Opposed by the police of a Los Angeles full of failed musicians, these five completely "out of control" characters were forced to do all sorts of odd jobs to earn just enough to allow them to perform and survive (a 45-cent soup and a horribly tasting $1 bottle of wine called "Nightrain"). So Axl and Slash offered themselves as guinea pigs, testing cigarettes at $8 an hour (when you say willing to die for music!).

Meanwhile, the Guns began to make a name for themselves, not so much as musicians but as huge partygoers. In their squalid room, without a bathroom and without a kitchen, there were those who would guzzle liters of wine, those who would screw the prostitute of the moment, those who would inject heroin, and those who would do all three things at the same time. Devastated by drugs and alcohol, they alternated spectacular performances with mediocre shows. That was enough to catch the eye of the shrewd Tom Zatuat, convinced he had the greatest rock band on the planet in his hands, who spread the false news that "they sucked" to buy time and means to sign them. In 1987, with the release of their first studio album, they reached the top of the charts and gained a fame comparable only to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

"Appetite For Destruction" is the life of the Guns n' Roses in twelve songs. A life of hate, hunger, punches, drugs, rage, shit, love, which expressed in music became raw and wicked hard rock but also terribly melodic. In it one could find the punk of the Sex Pistols, the glam of Motley Crue, the metal of Iron Maiden, the classic rock of Aerosmith, and even a pop attitude that in the hands of Axl and company became as benevolent as a punch in the eye. Thus, with fists closed against the world, Axl screamed his discomfort and frustration, Slash unleashed his wild instincts in riffs of freedom, while the other three exploded in a rock that slapped you in the face and kicked you in the ass.

This was "Appetite" and these were the Guns: five mad splinters pouring their desire to smash the world into music. There was no desire for change, no fake social commitment, no phony drama to wallow in self-pity, no search for quick ways to get publicity. They were absolutely true.

In the musical context we live in today, where the search is only for easy money and saying what people want to hear, this remains a unique and inimitable masterpiece in the history of rock. Almost no one has the courage to dare as they did before, and certain chords will hardly be played again. Therefore, all we can do is put "Appetite for Destruction" in our hi-fi and regret those magnificent '80s when rock was not a fashion but a lifestyle.