Guns N Roses

Guns N' Roses came together in Los Angeles in 1985, pieced together from members of L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, and after signing to Geffen in 1986 they settled on the classic lineup: Axl Rose on vocals, Slash on lead guitar, Izzy Stradlin on rhythm guitar, Duff McKagan on bass and Steven Adler on drums. Their mix of punk, blues and metal helped steer late-'80s rock away from glam, and between the volatile shows and the feuds they earned a reputation as the World's Most Dangerous Band.

Appetite for Destruction, in 1987, was slow out of the gate until the video for "Welcome to the Jungle" took off, and then there was no stopping it: it became the best-selling debut album in American history. "Welcome to the Jungle" snarls and sirens, "Paradise City" is a sing-along that turns into a stampede, and "Sweet Child o' Mine" rides a spiraling guitar figure that sounds like it's climbing a staircase. G N' R Lies followed in 1988, mixing early material with new acoustic songs, among them "Patience".

In 1990 Matt Sorum replaced Adler, who was struggling with drugs, and keyboardist Dizzy Reed joined. Then came the grand gesture: Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, released together in 1991, debuting at number two and number one. They are sprawling, ambitious records backed by a string of high-budget videos, and "November Rain", "Don't Cry", "Civil War" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" all come from that moment. Stradlin left in 1991, Gilby Clarke joined on guitar, and the Use Your Illusion Tour rolled on into 1993, setting records along the way.

After the punk covers album "The Spaghetti Incident?" in 1993, the band fell apart piece by piece until, by 1998, only Rose and Reed were left from the Illusion years. The band was rebuilt around players such as Robin Finck, Tommy Stinson and Chris Pitman, who spent years on the endlessly delayed Chinese Democracy, finally released in 2008 at an estimated cost of $14 million. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them in 2012, and in 2016 Slash and McKagan came back for a reunion tour that ranks among the highest-grossing of all time.

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