I have learnt from reading much about Guns n' Roses that to blame Axl Rose for the break up of Guns n' Roses is a hasty conclusion. My belief is that most commonly, a break-up is a result not one person can be blamed for, and my claim is thus that while Axl must take his share of the blame, so must the other members of Guns n' Roses.

My belief is that Guns n' Roses started to disintegrate following Izzy Stradlin' departure from the band in 1991. Izzy wrote several of the band's major songs, and "Appetite For Destruction" featured several songs written partly or completely by Izzy, such as "Nightrain", "Think About You", "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Rocket Queen". Izzy has given many reasons for leaving, and one of them was that while he had a role in the band during the 1980s, he was increasingly reduced to a second hand member during the Use Your Illusion recordings. Of course, this can partly be ascribed to Izzy not participating nearly as much as the other members in the recording process.

Another reason Izzy gave was that after he stopped drinking and taking drugs in 1989, he felt he did not fit in. Slash and Duff were always using alcohol or drugs, and Izzy's and Axl's relationship had disintegrated.

With Izzy gone, Axl, Duff and Slash were the only original members left in the band. Axl got the rights of the name signed over to him from Duff and Slash, and thus had the total control over the band. This was obviously a major cause of tension within the band, since Slash and Duff saw no reason to consider themselves any less integral to the band than Axl. The decision can, however, be defended by the fact that Slash and Duff were using substances to a high degree. Axl had been fired from the band previously, and he might have seen it as a way to protect himself.

Regardless of why Axl did what he did, his next move was to fire Gilby Clarke (or technically to not extend his contract). Clarke was replaced with Axl's old friend, Paul Tobias. This was not a popular move in Duff's and Slash's view. While Duff seemingly respected Tobias, Slash certainly did not, and none of them liked the idea that Axl could decide who were to be members of the band.

The band went in studio around 1995, however, and according to drummer Matt Sorum, they recorded several tracks. Sorum said in an interview "[w]e are working on rock songs that last only 4 minutes" and in another interview, Slash said "[i]t's gonna be an angry record, but that's what we were built on." Matt also described the album as being "not as sophisticated as Illusion, but not as wild as Appetite," saying it was in the middle between the two.

Despite this sounding like something Slash could be interested to go along with, he left the band in 1996. Duff decided to stay another year, but eventually left too.

Thus, as much as I agree with other writers that Axl played a major part, Slash and Duff also has to take some of the blame. The fact that they were using drugs was a major reason why Izzy lost interest in the band, and when the band lost a major songwriter, the band slowly began to disintegrate. With Slash and Duff more interested in partying, Axl was left as the person solely heading the band, and he did so without being able to keep Slash and Duff in the band.

Learn more about this author, J. Hoff.
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