[4] Possessing a distinctive and powerful wide-ranging voice,[5] Rose has been named one of the greatest singers of all time by various media outlets, including Rolling Stone, NME and Billboard.

Rose's high-profile relationships with Erin Everly and Stephanie Seymour in the late 1980s and early '90s inspired multiple songs, including the number one hit "Sweet Child o' Mine".

However allegations of abuse by Rose caused significant controversy,[11] as did the band's next release G N' R Lies (1988) due to his inclusion of multiple slurs on the song "One in a Million".

[36] At the age of 17, while going through insurance papers in his parents' home, Rose learned of his biological father's existence, and he unofficially readopted his birth name.

[21][27] Following the discovery of his true family origins, Rose became a local juvenile delinquent in Lafayette; he was arrested more than twenty times on charges such as public intoxication and battery, and served jail terms up to three months.

[33][37][39] Shortly after his arrival in Los Angeles, Rose met guitarist Kevin Lawrence outside The Troubadour in West Hollywood in March 1983 and joined his band Rapidfire.

[41][42][43] After parting ways with Lawrence, he formed the band Hollywood Rose with his childhood friend Izzy Stradlin,[44] who had moved to Los Angeles in 1980,[35] and 16-year-old guitarist Chris Weber.

[45] In January 1984, the band recorded a five-song demo featuring the tracks "Anything Goes", "Rocker", "Shadow of Your Love", and "Reckless Life", which was released in 2004 as The Roots of Guns N' Roses.

[45] While struggling to make an impact on the Hollywood music scene, Rose held down a variety of jobs, including the position of night manager at the Tower Records/Video location on Sunset Boulevard.

[50] However, fueled by the band's relentless touring and the mainstream success of the single "Sweet Child o' Mine"—Rose's tribute to his then-girlfriend Erin Everly—the album rose to the No.

[21] From then on, he became known for personally addressing disruptive fans and giving instructions to security personnel from the stage, at times stopping concerts to deal with issues in the crowd.

"[32] In 1992, however, he conceded that the song reflected his initial and impressionable perspective when he first arrived in Los Angeles in his late teens, where he experienced culture shock to a lifestyle very much different from the conservative town he grew up in.

[27] He blamed this attitude on "bad experiences" with gay men, citing an attempted rape in his late teens and the alleged molestation by his biological father.

[27][32][54] The controversy led to Guns N' Roses being dropped from the roster of an AIDS benefit show in New York organized by the Gay Men's Health Crisis.

[57] He was replaced by roadie Doug Goldstein, whom Izzy Stradlin described as "the guy who gets to go over to Axl's at six in the morning after he's smashed his $60,000 grand piano out of the picture window".

[58] In May 1991, still without an album to promote, the band embarked on the two-and-a-half-year Use Your Illusion Tour, which became known for its financial success and myriad controversial incidents that occurred during shows, including late starts, on-stage rantings and even riots.

[61] Prior to Guns N' Roses' appearance, Metallica's set was cut short after singer-guitarist James Hetfield suffered second-degree burns in a pyrotechnics accident.

Nearly an hour into their show, Rose complained of voice problems before walking off stage, following which a riot erupted in downtown Montreal, resulting in an estimated $400,000 in damages.

Rose had included the hidden track "Look at Your Game, Girl", a song written by convicted murderer Charles Manson, which he intended as a personal message to his ex-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour.

A surprise appearance at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards was followed by an incident in November when a riot erupted at Vancouver's General Motors Place after Rose failed to show up for a scheduled concert.

[80][67][81] As the band's lineup continued to evolve, his constant bandmates were guitarist Richard Fortus, bassist Tommy Stinson, and keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman.

During this time, he joined Slash and Duff McKagan in a lawsuit against Geffen Records in an unsuccessful attempt to block the release of the Greatest Hits compilation album,[82] and lent his voice to the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, as the DJ for the radio station, K-DST.

[87] Rose did not contribute to the album's promotion; by December, he had reportedly been missing for at least two months and had not returned phone calls or other requests from his record label.

[98][99] Rose shared a stage with Slash for the first time in nearly 23 years during the group's surprise performance at The Troubadour in April 2016, ahead of its headlining shows at Coachella.

[22] He went public with his "uncovered memories" of being sexually abused by his biological father at the age of two,[20][27][54] which he said had stunted his emotional growth: "When they talk about Axl Rose being a screaming two-year-old, they're right.

That said, I enjoy Freddie Mercury, Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney, Dan McCafferty, Janis Joplin, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Roger Daltrey, Don Henley, Jeff Lynne, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Scott, Etta James, Fiona Apple, Chrissie Hynde, Stevie Wonder, James Brown and a ton of others (predominantly Seventies rock singers) and would rather hear any of them anytime rather than me!

[156][157][158] In a counter-suit, Rose alleged Azoff had deliberately mismanaged the band and sabotaged their record sales to force him to join his former bandmates for a reunion tour.

[169] On November 22, 2023, Rose was sued by former Penthouse Pet, model, and actress Sheila Kennedy, who is claiming that he sexually assaulted her in his hotel room after meeting him in a New York nightclub in 1989.

The suit is being filed in New York under the Adult Survivors Act, state legislation which gives sexual assault victims the ability to sue their alleged abusers even if the statute of limitations have expired.

Kennedy previously mentioned being assaulted by Rose in her 2016 memoir No One's Pet and in the 2021 documentary Look Away, which covered women who claimed to be sexually abused in the music industry.