Guns N’ Roses are one of the most famous American hard rock groups. Their music (a unique fusion of blues, punk and glam) has been hugely influential and changed the direction of rock. Before the band’s 1987 debut (one a major label) with Appetite for Destruction, glam rock was the dominant sound, but GNR’s grittier, harder music and unique stage shows persuaded fans they were the future of rock.

Appetite for Destruction shifted over twenty million copies and topped the charts. It spawned massively successful and memorable songs like Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O’ Mine and Paradise City, which all charted in the top ten on the Billboard charts. In 2006, Appetite… is still the best-selling debut album of all time.

GNR’s second and third albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II (which were released at the same time and debuted at number two and one on the Billboard chart and tours in support of the releases brought them even more success and fans.

The band were formed in 1985 in Los Angeles by the front man Axl Rose, guitar players Tracii Guns and Izzy Stradlin, bass player Ole Beich, and drummer Rob Gardner (the band since have had line-up changes including the joining of Slash and Steven Adler). GNR’s band name was a contraction of two bands the members had previously performed with: Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns.

At the height of their success, GNR’s personal life attracted as much attention as their music. Their drug and alcohol use attracted negative press coverage and it was revealed that Slash had to be carried to the stage and usually passed out after each gig, due to his drug and booze binges.

Another incident earned Guns the nickname of the “most” dangerous band in the world, after two fans were killed while watching one of their live shows. It happened at the Monsters of Rock concerts when the crowd went wild when Guns took to the stage. GNR were band for their deaths by the media, but they didn’t know anything about the tragedy until after the show.

The band’s international rock god status was cemented even further by the success of their later albums including 1999’s Live Era: ‘7-’93 which went gold and their 2004 Greatest Hits album which went double platinum.

Guns and Roses still hold an important place in the rock and roll history books, credited with bringing the focus back onto real music in the late 1980’s and away from the image-obsessed make-up and spandex-clad glam rock artists who lacked musical substance.

The band’s releases often appear in retrospective television and magazine polls and lists. Q magazine named them one of their “50 Bands to see Before you Die” in 2002, VH1 included them in its “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock” special, and Rolling Stone featured the band’s Appetite for Destruction in its “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”