Use Your Illusion I by Guns N Roses

Use Your Illusion I hit the racks on Geffen on September 17, 1991, the very same day as its twin, Use Your Illusion II, and this third studio album shows a Guns N' Roses that had grown bigger in every direction. Matt Sorum had taken over the drums after Steven Adler left in 1990, and Dizzy Reed came aboard on keyboards, both making their album debut with the band alongside Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan. Mike Clink produced it with the group.

It's big, sprawling and overstuffed, gloriously so: ballads, bar-room hard rock and heavy metal bluster crammed into one sitting, with the band swinging for the rafters at every turn. "November Rain" is the grand gesture, "Don't Cry" the tender one, and "Live and Let Die" gets the full wrecking-ball treatment.

The road came first. The Use Your Illusion Tour kicked off in May 1991, four months ahead of the records, thanks to the delays in getting them out. When they finally landed, this one debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 685,000 copies in its first week, beaten only by its own sibling. By 2010 Nielsen SoundScan had it at 5,502,000 units in the US, and it drew a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1992.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.