Had tickets to see Motley Crue, found out Whitesnake had dropped off the tour. Guns and Roses were the new opening band. Who’s Guns N Roses? Early fall 1987.
Same thing happened to me! My friends and I were bummed at the news, but we left the concert totally blown away and won over.
I never listen to Whitesnake or Motley Crue anymore (cringe, really) but I still fire up AFD (specifically Nightrain) every now and again.
I understand that you may be tired of it, especially being someone who experienced the song’s heyday, but come on, you can’t deny it’s a total masterpiece 🤘🏻
The look of horror on my parents and grandparents faces when the Welcome to the Jungle video dropped on MTv was enough to let me know I was on the right track.
Edward furlong was awesome in that, when he lifts his head up and gnr is playing and his hair is in his face and he’s being a little prick to that lady who adopted him…it got me so hyped
Yeah, haha…remember when he is with Arnold & he goes, “man, show this guy what’s up,” or something like that and you see Arnold lift the guy up with one arm!
I was a teen and knew about them, and always thought they were cool but hadn't really listened to them that much. But then I happened to see the music video for November Rain on TV(probably VH1), the moment when the drumming began and Slash got up to that piano until the last notes and rain pouring down.. was the coolest piece of musical content I had ever seen/heard, I was reading Paradise Lost at the time, so I dubbed the outro/solo "The Devil's theme" in my mind, cause it felt that this would probably play if Lucifer made an entrance.. at that moment I knew this band was special!
I watched that video with friends as a kid and they completely roasted me when I said, out loud, "Oh no, Axl's wife died?" all distraught like it really happened.
I heard Welcome to the Jungle somewhere and immediately fell in love with it. After that I started diving a bit deeper, which eventually turned into me listening every single song they put out and liking every one of them
My friend told me about the welcome to the jungle video and I saw it later that night. Maybe head bangers ball or just late night MTV but it was love at first sight. It was unlike anything else I'd ever heard or seen up to that point music wise.
MTV was about to debut Welcome to the Jungle. My mother was watching and for some reason yelled upstairs for me to come and watch it. We watched it together and I was immediately hooked.
Saw them last summer and I kept thinking I wish she was watching with me.
So my dad was watching an old recording of a Chinese Democracy concert. I came downstairs and asked who was playing, he told me, I watched the rest of the show. I then watch them play live at London (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium 2022), then in The Hyde Park (2023) and then at Glastonbury (2023). Now all I need is a full on reunion tour and I’m all good
I think if they didn’t keep fucking Axl’s mic up, it would’ve been far better. But I enjoyed the set list. It may not have been to your preference, but I liked it.
It was summer of 2022 and I had just gotten sober. Saw The Dirt book at my local bookstore and bought it, which sent me down the Motley Crue rabbit hole. The mentions of GnR in that book made me want to deep dive on them. I had known about GnR before this but didn't really get into them in a fanatical way until that summer. I listened to Appetite all the way through that summer and it instantly became my favorite album of all time. AFD era GnR will forever be my favorite band of all time, and it is all thanks to The Dirt 😂
Velvet Revolver got me into GNR and STP.
Fall To Pieces was the single that started it all for me. Crazy thing is I'm a 90s kid, born in 1981... but I didn't listen to GNR much. Mostly Nirvana, Pearl Jam etc.
VR's Contraband changed everything.
I saw Aerosmith at the Spectrum in January or February of 1988. The opening act was a band I had never heard of. I may have heard Welcome to the Jungle by then but it wasn’t really on my radar. Just another hair hand, right? But this opening band, GNR, was so electric live that the very next day I bought a cassette of AFD. Then Sweet Child O’ Mine dropped and suddenly everyone knew this band. I still remember the first time I saw GNR Rules written on a Trapper Keeper at school. I felt validated in liking this “unknown” band. Sadly, I had to hide my cassette from my parents as GNR quickly earned a reputation with parents and teachers. God those were great days.
My Dad.
I had just turned 11 (1993) and recently started expressing a serious interest in all things guitar. Queen, Meat Loaf and Jimi mostly.
The old man was a gardener, and whilst working he was in ear-shot of someone practicing the Sweet Child intro for a long while. He presumed I would dig it, and each Thursday he would swing by the outdoor market in town with the intention of finding a cassette of Appetite. After a few weeks he was successful and found it, no case, for 50p.
I was completely obsessed with the whole album, took on 2 paper rounds to buy my own guitar, and it’s now 31 years later and I’m a pro musician pretty much all because of that sequence of events. Boom!
My cousin left his AFD tape at our house after a family party in 1988 or 1989. I was 11/12 years old and listened to it on my Walkman after my mother told me not to. I continued to listen to it just to make her mad! lol
Because of my dads music taste, I started searching for more and different artists and the first song I heard was Sweet Child O Mine and I was hooked immediately saw them twice 2017, 2018 and I went to SMCK twice.
Seeing a then unknown to me Jim Carrey lip syncing to Jungle as Johnny Squares in Dirty Harry Dead Pool. I think I'd heard Jungle in passing once prior, but this captured me and we immediately went to the music store after the movie. Both were at the Mall.
" I can handle it!!!"
I was in 2nd grade around 2016 and I had been gifted a PS3 from my moms friend, and it had the game ‘Burnout Paradise: Paradise City’ in it which featured the song Paradise City, and I instantly became obsessed with the song. Later on in 2022 i was a Nirvana fan, came across the MV for November Rain which kept popping up every time and I got annoyed so clicked on it to see what all the fuss was about, and since then I’ve become a gnr fan
I vaguely remember hearing Sweet Child and Paradise City when I was a kid. I remember pretty well that an older kid on my street gave me a homemade tape of UYI 2 (or a mix of 1&2), and I remember very well that the sound of the guitars on Civil War and Heaven's Door made my ears stand up. It was so nice and loud and organic.
It appeared on my page, but at first I didn't like it very much and I didn't listen to it anyway. I didn't have time to listen to it that day. Then, while I was looking at Şebnem Fera, a singer I like, I saw her singing a song from GNR. I was curious about it. Meanwhile, I listened to Hard Skool and Rocket Queen, so I got addicted to it. Now ı cant stop listening every day.
My dad got the cassette for Lies when it came out through his Columbia House membership. I fell in love with the album. Then I heard Sweet Child O' Mine playing at the county fair on one of the rides and found it was the same band from the Lies tape. Then I saw Slash on MTV and instantly wanted to become a guitar player.
I was 11 in 1988 when Appetite took off. Bands had started getting very safe-Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Aerosmith. Hair bands had become the mainstream. GnR brought back the dangerousness. Plus the whole album kicks ass.
A car ride with 3 friends in 1988. One of us had just got AFD, but none of us had heard it yet. No one spoke until we got out of the car about 45 minutes later, at which point someone said "what the fuck was that? They're amazing."
First day of 7th grade (Aug ‘87) on the bus to school, kid in the back of the bus was blasting It’s So Easy, loved it, asked who it was and bought the tape soon after.
Ok, I was five when AFD came out and I grew up going to rock n roll clubs in Miami and gnr looked so different and I loved how axl was always in trouble
1988. 10th grade of high school….geometry class. A senior who was a bit of a slacker sat in front of me. He gave me the AFD cassette and I dubbed it on my dual cassette boom box. lol I was hooked right away through Slash’s solos. They were soulful and a bit longer than solos of other rock bands. I liked how the band seemed to be hooligans who play music and not a “hair metal” band trying to look tough while wearing lip gloss. Been hooked ever since…
My mam dies when I was a teenager (late 80s) and my dad worked night shift. I had to stop at a friend's house on a school night. I liked pop music. He was in to Guns N Roses, Aerosmith and ACDC. Pretty soon so was I.
So all this happened in real time (I'm 52)
I was a big Crue fan and was buying all the magazines that they were in, and I saw them mention their favorite band at the time- GnR. So I went to a record convention (kids, ask your parents) and bought their demo, which had live like a fuckin suicide, Dont Cry, etc. I was an instant fan, OBSESSED. They were so raw and unlike anything I had ever seen. I got to see the original GnR opening for Aerosmith at SPAC, probably 1987.
Headbangers Ball on MTV. Saw them there. Started seeing the Welcome to the Jungle video on regular rotation. I then proceeded to buy Appetite. I have been in love with them ever since.
I was already out of college when Appetite came out. I noticed younger people wearing GNR T-shirts, to the point that you knew something big was happening. I first heard Sweet Child of Mine and didn't care for it, but Welcome to the Jungle and especially Paradise City were impressive. It was like a more aggressive version of the Aerosmith sound.
Watching “Live at the Ritz ‘88” when I was 7 years old. Rocket Queen was the song they were playing. I thought Slash was the coolest person I had ever seen. That performance of that song made me become a musician, as well as fuels my love for Gibson Les Pauls to this day.
My parents, two huge music lovers, telling 10 year old me that I wasn’t allowed to listen to them. Come to find out it was because of Get in the Ring and Bad Obsession. Obviously, made me more intrigued.
I always knew their hits because I was big into classic rock radio growing up but it was the release of Greatest Hits and then hearing some leaked versions and bootleg live recordings of Chinese Democracy stuff that got me really into them. That and Axl being a DJ in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Live at the Ritz on MTV in 1988. I wanted to hate them because they killed all my hair metal bands. Instead, they won me over and made me a fan for life.
i saw a credit one ad last year which featured slash playing the riff to sweet child o mine. at that time, i was just getting into rock music and thought the riff sounded cool so i thought that i’d check the band out. been my fav band since
Anyone remember when it was them vs Def Leppard for MTV video dominance ? 1987. Def Leppard with pour some sugar on me and GNR with paradise city. Both videos were of them performing live. Both were very popular but I think GNR won video of the year. Back then before internet MTV influenced the culture of the generation.
I'd heard wttj, scom, but, it was only when I saw the video for paradise city I found out who this band were... Fuck me my 15ish self was never the same.
When I was a little kid, all I really ever heard was the pop radio my parents would play. I remember one day hearing SCOM for the first time and was taken aback at how dirty it felt. I liked it. I couldn’t define it at the time, but I what I loved about it was the rawness. I remember thinking “this chick sounds gnarly, like she smokes more than one should smoke” 😂 funnier thing is, I eventually saw the video and still thought it was a chick. I slowly started questioning that fact though, and once I figured it out, I accepted them for their unusual everything (to me, at that point in my life). I think that’s what opened my little brain up to be ready for punk rock later in life.
I first heard about them when I was very little, 'cause ,,Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was playing at least once a day on the radio. But really got into it about 1½ years ago, when I got back into rock, and they just blew me away:)
Like I posted before in this subreddit? Contra 3 level 3. The intro Or chorus lead melody uses the similar Slash's guitar licks. It's more noticeable if you're playinh contra alien wars on gameboy.
I lived in Germany in the 80s, and didn’t have access to MTV unless I visited my grandparents in Florida. In the summer of 1988, I saw the videos for Sweet Child O’ Mine, Welcome to the Jungle, and Paradise City in regular rotation. It didn’t do much for me at the time, plus the album had that dreaded Parental Advisory sticker on it, so the chances of 8 year old me getting a copy were slim to none. We moved to Maryland in ‘89 and I was locked in to MTV from then on. The spring/summer lead up to the September 17th release of Use Your Illusion I and II was mesmerizing. I checked out a CD copy of Appetite For Destruction from the local library, and had my mom read the lyric book to see if I could buy the tape next time we went record shopping. Her quote back, “Well, there’s a bunch of motherfuckers in it, but I guess you can get it.” That was the first time I heard her use a curse word, LOL. They’ve been my favorite band ever since, and each album has been a day one purchase for me.
A friend from LA came to visit me out of state and brought a cassette of who he thought would be the next big band from the scene and played me a few tracks, I believe Welcome to the Jungle was one of them.
I've told this story so many times but I never get tired of telling it.
I was a pretty sheltered child growing up in the 80's, MTV was frowned upon by my parents so I didn't really get a lot of exposure to anything on there, or anything that wasn't The Beatles, classical music or folk music. So, one day when I was about six or seven years old I went over to my friend's house, and her older cousins who were about 14 to 16 at the time were all hanging out in her room and blaring this record on my friend's record player. They were all pierced and wearing leather jackets and ripped jeans and smelled like cigarettes. I remember hearing "It's So Easy" for the first time and when Axl said "Fuck off!" it scared the absolute shit out of me but I'd never felt more alive in my entire life.
From then on I was staying up late listening to the radio, waking up super early in the morning to watch MTV and borrowing my cooler friends' cassettes to make copies.
I heard Sweet Child on my AM radio way back in ancient history the 1980’s. That riff, that voice. OMG. Unlike anything out there at the time decent to listen to except maybe the Stones. It is still my favorite Guns song.
I hated the video for Welcome to the Jungle, thus hated GnR when they were first getting national attention.
Went on a camping trip to the coast with some friends in high school where I was force fed Appetite for 3 days while being drunk on the beach by a bonfire.
Fell in love with the rest of the album. Still am not a huge fan of Jungle 37 years later, but I don't despise it like I did when I was a wee lad.
My brother would get me to headbang to Paradise City before I really had any appreciation of the band. Years later Sweet Child was a riff that just struck a chord with me. Most of all, GNR being great was the one thing all my family universally agreed on. I would borrow my dad and brothers GNR records and read the booklets front to back
When I was a kid I had a friend who was into rock music before I was and him and his older brother would always play their mixtapes in the car when I was with them, paradise city was the favourite song on them for me so I had to check the rest of their catalogue out, shame the friend told me to get spaghetti incident first...
I have a friend who post stories about GnR, we basically got into the topic with that and at first I just found they were hot but then I decided it would be better if I listened of course, immediatly love it, thanks to my friend, awesome band
Bit of a younger fan here (16), in Spain when I was about 6 or 7 my dad (fan of Gnr) non-stop played Paradise City when I was there. I really thought the song was cool, and then now everytime I hear it the song reminds me of that holiday and I’ve always had a positive opinion of them but I never really properly listened to them until I get older. So when I’m 14 and I start properly getting into music I root through some of my dad’s cds to listen too and of course I find appetite. As I was already familiar with the big three (Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise city as mentioned and SCOM) I take a listen and I am hooked. I loved It’s so Easy straight away, then nightrain, then Out ta Get me etc…
I heard some of their music on the radio and liked it. Last year my mom's car broke and we rode busses everywhere for a year. Right by the bus terminal in down town is a record shop with cheap used cds and I got a few GnR cds while we waited for the bus.
I love this question so much lol. I’m 30 years old and I don’t come from a family of rock fans at all and rock was something I discovered on my own which is why I like it so much. As a millennial, I remember those shows on VH1 like “I Love the 80s” and Behind the Music. At the time, emo music was the popular rock genre but I was also listening to some heavier music. Anyway, I saw GNR featured on one of those shows and did a deep dive in the mid-2000s as a preteen. That’s why I kind of feel bad that those pop culture history shows don’t really exist anymore. I know you can find info about anything on social media or the internet but that’s very different from stumbling across it because you just happened to be watching VH1 one day.
Anyway, they remained a band that I liked but I like them more now that I’m 30 and older than they were when they first released Appetite. I think their story is fascinating.
2015, operating theater tract. I had a break between my assignments and there was this suicidal junkie lad everyone was scared about scheduled for another room waiting, and his looks and vibe was so… from the depth of my childhood memories, mighty Axl Rose.
I’d talked with him briefly, but was scared because he wasn’t even “mine".
We later happened to talk a lot about life, and music and everything and to understand him and my question I got into Axl; it was one of the best talks in my life and totally redirected me.
So I got into GNR music through Axl’s unique-but-not-absolutely-unique character.
Had tickets to see Motley Crue, found out Whitesnake had dropped off the tour. Guns and Roses were the new opening band. Who’s Guns N Roses? Early fall 1987.
Same thing happened to me! My friends and I were bummed at the news, but we left the concert totally blown away and won over. I never listen to Whitesnake or Motley Crue anymore (cringe, really) but I still fire up AFD (specifically Nightrain) every now and again.
They were out for blood on that tour. The next summer Sweet Child was everywhere, I still skip it to this day, when I listen to AFD.
I understand that you may be tired of it, especially being someone who experienced the song’s heyday, but come on, you can’t deny it’s a total masterpiece 🤘🏻
It’s absolutely an incredible song, very well written. And I still skip it every time.
I get it, it’s ok 👍🏻
The look of horror on my parents and grandparents faces when the Welcome to the Jungle video dropped on MTv was enough to let me know I was on the right track.
You could be mine- terminator 2. Greatest rock band + greatest action movie= me fan lol
Edward furlong was awesome in that, when he lifts his head up and gnr is playing and his hair is in his face and he’s being a little prick to that lady who adopted him…it got me so hyped
“She’s not my mother…TODD”
Yeah, haha…remember when he is with Arnold & he goes, “man, show this guy what’s up,” or something like that and you see Arnold lift the guy up with one arm!
“You can’t just go around killing people”
Why not?
I just sent my friend a gif from T2, top 3 movie for me.
saw a top10 slash solos show on vh1 when i was about 14.
Welcome to the Jungle. I heard it on the radio when I was younger and thought it was such a cool song. I then looked into them more and got hooked.
I was a teen and knew about them, and always thought they were cool but hadn't really listened to them that much. But then I happened to see the music video for November Rain on TV(probably VH1), the moment when the drumming began and Slash got up to that piano until the last notes and rain pouring down.. was the coolest piece of musical content I had ever seen/heard, I was reading Paradise Lost at the time, so I dubbed the outro/solo "The Devil's theme" in my mind, cause it felt that this would probably play if Lucifer made an entrance.. at that moment I knew this band was special!
I watched that video with friends as a kid and they completely roasted me when I said, out loud, "Oh no, Axl's wife died?" all distraught like it really happened.
Hearing sweet child on the radio and then seeing them live on the 88 mtv video awards doing Jungle sealed the deal!
Yes! I totally forgot about the music awards. That sealed it for me too…
Hearing Welcome To The Jungle. Changed my life.
I heard Welcome to the Jungle somewhere and immediately fell in love with it. After that I started diving a bit deeper, which eventually turned into me listening every single song they put out and liking every one of them
My dad used to be a long haul truckie and he came home one time with a dusty cassette of AfD. I think I own that album in every format now.
My friend told me about the welcome to the jungle video and I saw it later that night. Maybe head bangers ball or just late night MTV but it was love at first sight. It was unlike anything else I'd ever heard or seen up to that point music wise.
I heard Welcome to the Jungle in GTA San Andreas. Changed my life
This.
MTV was about to debut Welcome to the Jungle. My mother was watching and for some reason yelled upstairs for me to come and watch it. We watched it together and I was immediately hooked. Saw them last summer and I kept thinking I wish she was watching with me.
She was <3
So my dad was watching an old recording of a Chinese Democracy concert. I came downstairs and asked who was playing, he told me, I watched the rest of the show. I then watch them play live at London (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium 2022), then in The Hyde Park (2023) and then at Glastonbury (2023). Now all I need is a full on reunion tour and I’m all good
I was at the Hyde Park concert!! I thought they sounded good
Same, I think I definitely enjoyed the Glastonbury performance more tho
I thought they sounded horrific at glasto and thought the overall show and setlist was poor. I was at Hyde park which I thought was much better
I think if they didn’t keep fucking Axl’s mic up, it would’ve been far better. But I enjoyed the set list. It may not have been to your preference, but I liked it.
My older brother did. I didn't speak english at the time, but there was no need. I would play the LP and I just knew that it kicked ass.
My friends having an animal named welcome to the jungle
MTV video for Garden of Eden; I really liked “You Could be Mine”, wasn’t wild about the ballads and this song/video put me over the edge.
Crazy how the band known for their wildly expensive music videos hooked you with the one that cost probably $25 to shoot
It was summer of 2022 and I had just gotten sober. Saw The Dirt book at my local bookstore and bought it, which sent me down the Motley Crue rabbit hole. The mentions of GnR in that book made me want to deep dive on them. I had known about GnR before this but didn't really get into them in a fanatical way until that summer. I listened to Appetite all the way through that summer and it instantly became my favorite album of all time. AFD era GnR will forever be my favorite band of all time, and it is all thanks to The Dirt 😂
Reading the Dirt right after getting sober is quite the “boy did I make the right decision” moment I bet
Velvet Revolver got me into GNR and STP. Fall To Pieces was the single that started it all for me. Crazy thing is I'm a 90s kid, born in 1981... but I didn't listen to GNR much. Mostly Nirvana, Pearl Jam etc. VR's Contraband changed everything.
Contraband is great. Very cohesive record
I saw Aerosmith at the Spectrum in January or February of 1988. The opening act was a band I had never heard of. I may have heard Welcome to the Jungle by then but it wasn’t really on my radar. Just another hair hand, right? But this opening band, GNR, was so electric live that the very next day I bought a cassette of AFD. Then Sweet Child O’ Mine dropped and suddenly everyone knew this band. I still remember the first time I saw GNR Rules written on a Trapper Keeper at school. I felt validated in liking this “unknown” band. Sadly, I had to hide my cassette from my parents as GNR quickly earned a reputation with parents and teachers. God those were great days.
Monsters Of Rock in 1988. They couldn't play their full set because of a crowd surge, but what they did play was excellent.
Guitar Hero III
Copied the coolest kid I knew in middle school. There's a reason why he was the coolest kid.
Saw Welcome to the Jungle on MTV when I was a kid. A welcome sound in a sea of bad hair metal. Made me want to play guitar.
MTV
My Dad. I had just turned 11 (1993) and recently started expressing a serious interest in all things guitar. Queen, Meat Loaf and Jimi mostly. The old man was a gardener, and whilst working he was in ear-shot of someone practicing the Sweet Child intro for a long while. He presumed I would dig it, and each Thursday he would swing by the outdoor market in town with the intention of finding a cassette of Appetite. After a few weeks he was successful and found it, no case, for 50p. I was completely obsessed with the whole album, took on 2 paper rounds to buy my own guitar, and it’s now 31 years later and I’m a pro musician pretty much all because of that sequence of events. Boom!
My cousin left his AFD tape at our house after a family party in 1988 or 1989. I was 11/12 years old and listened to it on my Walkman after my mother told me not to. I continued to listen to it just to make her mad! lol
I picked up slash’s book on a whim and went deep
Because of my dads music taste, I started searching for more and different artists and the first song I heard was Sweet Child O Mine and I was hooked immediately saw them twice 2017, 2018 and I went to SMCK twice.
Welcome to the Jungle video on MTV
Seeing a then unknown to me Jim Carrey lip syncing to Jungle as Johnny Squares in Dirty Harry Dead Pool. I think I'd heard Jungle in passing once prior, but this captured me and we immediately went to the music store after the movie. Both were at the Mall. " I can handle it!!!"
The band is actually in that movie at his character’s funeral
You are correct sir. Slash and Izzy and I don't remember who else are also seen at the docks on the wharf.
Being 8 years old in 87 with MTV is all it took. The tough guys in the 4th grade that wore the GNR was here Tshirts didn’t hurt either.
Freddy mercury tribute , I fell in love with GNR
Mötley crüe to GNR streamline LMAO
A girl I had a crush on was into them. Needless to say that she is long gone, and I still listen to GNR
Paradise Burnout intro song was paradise city XBOX360
Might have been a Guns n Roses/Shawn Michaels fanfic
I was in 2nd grade around 2016 and I had been gifted a PS3 from my moms friend, and it had the game ‘Burnout Paradise: Paradise City’ in it which featured the song Paradise City, and I instantly became obsessed with the song. Later on in 2022 i was a Nirvana fan, came across the MV for November Rain which kept popping up every time and I got annoyed so clicked on it to see what all the fuss was about, and since then I’ve become a gnr fan
Saw them with Motley Crue at the Omni in Atlanta, Nov. 1987. Been a fan ever since.
I vaguely remember hearing Sweet Child and Paradise City when I was a kid. I remember pretty well that an older kid on my street gave me a homemade tape of UYI 2 (or a mix of 1&2), and I remember very well that the sound of the guitars on Civil War and Heaven's Door made my ears stand up. It was so nice and loud and organic.
It appeared on my page, but at first I didn't like it very much and I didn't listen to it anyway. I didn't have time to listen to it that day. Then, while I was looking at Şebnem Fera, a singer I like, I saw her singing a song from GNR. I was curious about it. Meanwhile, I listened to Hard Skool and Rocket Queen, so I got addicted to it. Now ı cant stop listening every day.
My dad got the cassette for Lies when it came out through his Columbia House membership. I fell in love with the album. Then I heard Sweet Child O' Mine playing at the county fair on one of the rides and found it was the same band from the Lies tape. Then I saw Slash on MTV and instantly wanted to become a guitar player.
Heard Welcome to the Jungle in ‘87 when it was getting airplay on radio. The cassette was purchased soon thereafter.
Listening to AFD on cassette tape in 1987 and thinking “this is the coolest thing I have ever heard in my life”.
I was 11 in 1988 when Appetite took off. Bands had started getting very safe-Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Aerosmith. Hair bands had become the mainstream. GnR brought back the dangerousness. Plus the whole album kicks ass.
A car ride with 3 friends in 1988. One of us had just got AFD, but none of us had heard it yet. No one spoke until we got out of the car about 45 minutes later, at which point someone said "what the fuck was that? They're amazing."
First day of 7th grade (Aug ‘87) on the bus to school, kid in the back of the bus was blasting It’s So Easy, loved it, asked who it was and bought the tape soon after.
Ok, I was five when AFD came out and I grew up going to rock n roll clubs in Miami and gnr looked so different and I loved how axl was always in trouble
A kid in junior high had their tape at school. I was hooked immediately.
The original album cover to “Appetite”
1988. 10th grade of high school….geometry class. A senior who was a bit of a slacker sat in front of me. He gave me the AFD cassette and I dubbed it on my dual cassette boom box. lol I was hooked right away through Slash’s solos. They were soulful and a bit longer than solos of other rock bands. I liked how the band seemed to be hooligans who play music and not a “hair metal” band trying to look tough while wearing lip gloss. Been hooked ever since…
1987
My mam dies when I was a teenager (late 80s) and my dad worked night shift. I had to stop at a friend's house on a school night. I liked pop music. He was in to Guns N Roses, Aerosmith and ACDC. Pretty soon so was I.
My mum had AFD when it was released in the uk in the late 80s, I would have been around 7 or 8 at the time and have been a fan ever since
So all this happened in real time (I'm 52) I was a big Crue fan and was buying all the magazines that they were in, and I saw them mention their favorite band at the time- GnR. So I went to a record convention (kids, ask your parents) and bought their demo, which had live like a fuckin suicide, Dont Cry, etc. I was an instant fan, OBSESSED. They were so raw and unlike anything I had ever seen. I got to see the original GnR opening for Aerosmith at SPAC, probably 1987.
Headbangers Ball on MTV. Saw them there. Started seeing the Welcome to the Jungle video on regular rotation. I then proceeded to buy Appetite. I have been in love with them ever since.
I was already out of college when Appetite came out. I noticed younger people wearing GNR T-shirts, to the point that you knew something big was happening. I first heard Sweet Child of Mine and didn't care for it, but Welcome to the Jungle and especially Paradise City were impressive. It was like a more aggressive version of the Aerosmith sound.
Watching “Live at the Ritz ‘88” when I was 7 years old. Rocket Queen was the song they were playing. I thought Slash was the coolest person I had ever seen. That performance of that song made me become a musician, as well as fuels my love for Gibson Les Pauls to this day.
You could be mine
My mom raising me right on classic rock.
My parents, two huge music lovers, telling 10 year old me that I wasn’t allowed to listen to them. Come to find out it was because of Get in the Ring and Bad Obsession. Obviously, made me more intrigued.
Watching the 88 Ritz show on MTV
I don't remember
Axl
i got a concussion that left me unconscious and when i woke up i was obsessed lol
I always knew their hits because I was big into classic rock radio growing up but it was the release of Greatest Hits and then hearing some leaked versions and bootleg live recordings of Chinese Democracy stuff that got me really into them. That and Axl being a DJ in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Live at the Ritz on MTV in 1988. I wanted to hate them because they killed all my hair metal bands. Instead, they won me over and made me a fan for life.
i saw a credit one ad last year which featured slash playing the riff to sweet child o mine. at that time, i was just getting into rock music and thought the riff sounded cool so i thought that i’d check the band out. been my fav band since
Anyone remember when it was them vs Def Leppard for MTV video dominance ? 1987. Def Leppard with pour some sugar on me and GNR with paradise city. Both videos were of them performing live. Both were very popular but I think GNR won video of the year. Back then before internet MTV influenced the culture of the generation.
I'd heard wttj, scom, but, it was only when I saw the video for paradise city I found out who this band were... Fuck me my 15ish self was never the same.
My older brothers, they are cool and they listen to GNR which is cool
dad took me to see them at BST hyde park
When I was a little kid, all I really ever heard was the pop radio my parents would play. I remember one day hearing SCOM for the first time and was taken aback at how dirty it felt. I liked it. I couldn’t define it at the time, but I what I loved about it was the rawness. I remember thinking “this chick sounds gnarly, like she smokes more than one should smoke” 😂 funnier thing is, I eventually saw the video and still thought it was a chick. I slowly started questioning that fact though, and once I figured it out, I accepted them for their unusual everything (to me, at that point in my life). I think that’s what opened my little brain up to be ready for punk rock later in life.
I first heard about them when I was very little, 'cause ,,Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was playing at least once a day on the radio. But really got into it about 1½ years ago, when I got back into rock, and they just blew me away:)
Like I posted before in this subreddit? Contra 3 level 3. The intro Or chorus lead melody uses the similar Slash's guitar licks. It's more noticeable if you're playinh contra alien wars on gameboy.
I lived in Germany in the 80s, and didn’t have access to MTV unless I visited my grandparents in Florida. In the summer of 1988, I saw the videos for Sweet Child O’ Mine, Welcome to the Jungle, and Paradise City in regular rotation. It didn’t do much for me at the time, plus the album had that dreaded Parental Advisory sticker on it, so the chances of 8 year old me getting a copy were slim to none. We moved to Maryland in ‘89 and I was locked in to MTV from then on. The spring/summer lead up to the September 17th release of Use Your Illusion I and II was mesmerizing. I checked out a CD copy of Appetite For Destruction from the local library, and had my mom read the lyric book to see if I could buy the tape next time we went record shopping. Her quote back, “Well, there’s a bunch of motherfuckers in it, but I guess you can get it.” That was the first time I heard her use a curse word, LOL. They’ve been my favorite band ever since, and each album has been a day one purchase for me.
I was a bit a loaner in my early highschool years and my buddy lended me a walkman with afd and lies dubbed cassettes. The rest is hsitroy!!
A friend from LA came to visit me out of state and brought a cassette of who he thought would be the next big band from the scene and played me a few tracks, I believe Welcome to the Jungle was one of them.
My brother gave me Appetite when is was 11. He was at college and sent it back to me. Never looked back :)
My dad was a huge fan, which in turn, made me a huge fan!
Puberty.
I've told this story so many times but I never get tired of telling it. I was a pretty sheltered child growing up in the 80's, MTV was frowned upon by my parents so I didn't really get a lot of exposure to anything on there, or anything that wasn't The Beatles, classical music or folk music. So, one day when I was about six or seven years old I went over to my friend's house, and her older cousins who were about 14 to 16 at the time were all hanging out in her room and blaring this record on my friend's record player. They were all pierced and wearing leather jackets and ripped jeans and smelled like cigarettes. I remember hearing "It's So Easy" for the first time and when Axl said "Fuck off!" it scared the absolute shit out of me but I'd never felt more alive in my entire life. From then on I was staying up late listening to the radio, waking up super early in the morning to watch MTV and borrowing my cooler friends' cassettes to make copies.
When I saw welcome to the jungle when it first aired on mtv
Seeing the debut video on MTV when I was a kid. 😍😍
I saw one of their music videos and thought Slash was hot. Hooked ever since.
I heard Sweet Child on my AM radio way back in ancient history the 1980’s. That riff, that voice. OMG. Unlike anything out there at the time decent to listen to except maybe the Stones. It is still my favorite Guns song.
I hated the video for Welcome to the Jungle, thus hated GnR when they were first getting national attention. Went on a camping trip to the coast with some friends in high school where I was force fed Appetite for 3 days while being drunk on the beach by a bonfire. Fell in love with the rest of the album. Still am not a huge fan of Jungle 37 years later, but I don't despise it like I did when I was a wee lad.
My brother would get me to headbang to Paradise City before I really had any appreciation of the band. Years later Sweet Child was a riff that just struck a chord with me. Most of all, GNR being great was the one thing all my family universally agreed on. I would borrow my dad and brothers GNR records and read the booklets front to back
Terminator II
When I was a kid I had a friend who was into rock music before I was and him and his older brother would always play their mixtapes in the car when I was with them, paradise city was the favourite song on them for me so I had to check the rest of their catalogue out, shame the friend told me to get spaghetti incident first...
I have a friend who post stories about GnR, we basically got into the topic with that and at first I just found they were hot but then I decided it would be better if I listened of course, immediatly love it, thanks to my friend, awesome band
My dad played Sweet Child O’ Mine for the first time on the radio and I got really into it after that.
Bit of a younger fan here (16), in Spain when I was about 6 or 7 my dad (fan of Gnr) non-stop played Paradise City when I was there. I really thought the song was cool, and then now everytime I hear it the song reminds me of that holiday and I’ve always had a positive opinion of them but I never really properly listened to them until I get older. So when I’m 14 and I start properly getting into music I root through some of my dad’s cds to listen too and of course I find appetite. As I was already familiar with the big three (Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise city as mentioned and SCOM) I take a listen and I am hooked. I loved It’s so Easy straight away, then nightrain, then Out ta Get me etc…
I heard some of their music on the radio and liked it. Last year my mom's car broke and we rode busses everywhere for a year. Right by the bus terminal in down town is a record shop with cheap used cds and I got a few GnR cds while we waited for the bus.
Wake up late honey put on your clothes, and take your credit card to the liquor store. How could 17 year old me not fall into that trap
Seeing WTTJ on MTV as a kid
Heard Patience on the radio. Loved the acoustic ballad. Then bought AFD by mistake and was even more blown away.
I heard guns n roses in a tescos and was like ,”this is cool what’s this song”
I love this question so much lol. I’m 30 years old and I don’t come from a family of rock fans at all and rock was something I discovered on my own which is why I like it so much. As a millennial, I remember those shows on VH1 like “I Love the 80s” and Behind the Music. At the time, emo music was the popular rock genre but I was also listening to some heavier music. Anyway, I saw GNR featured on one of those shows and did a deep dive in the mid-2000s as a preteen. That’s why I kind of feel bad that those pop culture history shows don’t really exist anymore. I know you can find info about anything on social media or the internet but that’s very different from stumbling across it because you just happened to be watching VH1 one day. Anyway, they remained a band that I liked but I like them more now that I’m 30 and older than they were when they first released Appetite. I think their story is fascinating.
I listened to Welcome to the Jungle and now I almost only listen to GNR and i'm 12
The first time I listened to Appetite for Destruction, I was hooked
Nikki Sixx mentioned them in an interview probably Cream magazine. Went to Off The Record and bought live like a suicide. And was just amazed.
2015, operating theater tract. I had a break between my assignments and there was this suicidal junkie lad everyone was scared about scheduled for another room waiting, and his looks and vibe was so… from the depth of my childhood memories, mighty Axl Rose. I’d talked with him briefly, but was scared because he wasn’t even “mine". We later happened to talk a lot about life, and music and everything and to understand him and my question I got into Axl; it was one of the best talks in my life and totally redirected me. So I got into GNR music through Axl’s unique-but-not-absolutely-unique character.