The only lead singer who has yet to challenge the level of star drama between players like David Lee Roth and Van Halen is Guns-n-Roses frontman, Axl Rose. A volatile personality from the start, Rose would cancel a show if someone in the audience displeased him on some level. During a double-bill with Metallica, where James Hetfield was seriously injured in a pyrotechnic accident, Rose ended the show early and the Canadian crowd erupted in violence. This followed a lengthy war-of-words with Motley Crue singer, Vince Neil, where Rose and Neil exchanged threats of bodily violence in the press for some months. Rose additionally got physical with the late Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love at an award show, which launched yet another controversy. In the end, Rose upped the ante and seemed somewhat bent on finding fault with everyone around him in some fashion.
Before long, every original member of Guns-n-Roses (and most of the replacements) ended up in Rose’s cross-hairs. Members of the audience have been expelled from shows if Rose sees someone wearing Slash t-shirts or even requests a song he feels is inappropriate. Rose has said publicly that he has sought certain kinds of help for his volatile personality, even enlisting the aid of an expensive excorcist at one point.
To date, Guns-n-Roses consists of Rose and a revolving cast of hired players who make their way through all the hits with deadly accuracy. While some members of the original band feel a reunion will eventually happen, Rose seems dead-set on shooting down any notion of this, even threatening physical violence to those who suggest it in interviews.
By the by, all this press kept Guns-n-Roses in the public consciousness long after any new material had been released via record, video or in live venues. During a 14 year period where fans waited for the Chinese Democracy album, Rose would fire off vollies at his old bandmates when they formed the very popular Velvet Revolver (with very volatile singer Scott Weiland, but that’s another story), at other stars when they criticized Rose’s performance at the MTV awards, at the lengthy delays that kept Chinese Democracy from reaching fans. The bottom line is, keeping yourself in the press makes for sales. Whether the reason is creative differences or volatile personalities, marketing gurus have still been able to capitalize on the uproar by turning it into dollar signs every single time.