Guns N’ Roses

Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in March 1985 by Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Tracii Guns, and others from L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, whose names the band combined for its own. After early lineup changes, the classic lineup was finalized in June 1985: vocalist Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler. The band signed with Geffen Records in March 1986. Guns N' Roses gained a local following before releasing their debut album Appetite for Destruction (1987), which initially struggled until the breakout success of the "Welcome to the Jungle" music video. The album sold over 30 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling debut album in the U.S., and produced three Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles: "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City", and "Sweet Child o' Mine", the last of which was their only number-one single. Their follow-up, G N' R Lies (1988), reached number two on the Billboard 200 and featured the top-five single "Patience". In 1990, Adler was fired and replaced by Matt Sorum after struggling to perform in the studio due to drug addiction. Their 1991 twin albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II debuted at numbers two and one on the Billboard 200 and sold a combined 35 million copies worldwide. The Illusion albums featured a series of high-budget music videos, including "November Rain", which reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and later became the first 1990s music video to reach one billion YouTube views.

The band embarked on the Use Your Illusion Tour (1991–93), which was marked by incidents including the 1991 Riverport Riot. Stradlin abruptly left during the tour in November 1991 and was replaced by Gilby Clarke, who played on the punk covers album "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993). By 1995, Clarke had been replaced by Rose's childhood friend Paul Tobias, who played on the band's 1994 cover of "Sympathy for the Devil" and whose inclusion caused friction with Slash and Sorum. Slash quit in October 1996 amid tension with Rose, and Sorum and McKagan left in 1997. By 1998, only Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed remained from the Illusion era, and the band was rebuilt with new members. Rose, alongside guitarists Tobias, Robin Finck, Richard Fortus, Buckethead, and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, bassist Tommy Stinson, keyboardists Reed and Chris Pitman, and drummers Josh Freese, Brain, and Frank Ferrer contributed to the long-delayed Chinese Democracy (2008), which reportedly cost $13 million and has been described as the most expensive album ever produced. It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 but undersold industry expectations and was banned in China over its lead single, the title track. The band toured from 2001 to 2011 on the Chinese Democracy Tour, which included canceled dates and riots in 2002. A performance from the group's 2012 Las Vegas residency was filmed in 3D and released as the live video album Appetite for Democracy 3D (2014).

After years of public feuding, Slash and McKagan rejoined the band in 2016 for the reunion Not in This Lifetime... Tour, which grossed $563.3 million, the second-highest-grossing concert tour at the time. Since the reunion, the group has released deluxe editions of Appetite for Destruction (2018) and Use Your Illusion (2022) and a remastered reissue of the live album Live Era '87–'93 (2025). Its first new material since 2008, the singles "Absurd" and "Hard Skool" (2021), was followed by "Perhaps" (2023) and "Nothin'" and "Atlas" (2025). The current lineup consists of Rose, Slash, McKagan, rhythm guitarist Fortus, drummer Isaac Carpenter, and keyboardists Reed and Melissa Reese.

Guns N' Roses is one of the best-selling musical acts of all time, with estimated worldwide sales of over 100 million records. Their 2004 compilation Greatest Hits, released by Geffen without the band's authorization, is one of the longest-charting albums in the history of the Billboard 200. Their early sound fused punk, blues, hard rock, and metal, while the Illusion albums broadened it with progressive and art rock influences, and Chinese Democracy added industrial and electronic elements. The band is regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of its era, with Appetite for Destruction credited with helping end the late-1980s glam metal craze and frequently ranked among the greatest albums of all time; it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2024. "Welcome to the Jungle" is frequently played at sporting events and is considered a sports anthem. Rolling Stone ranked them number 92 on its 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, its first year of eligibility, though Rose, who had asked not to be inducted, declined to attend. Incidents including Rose's 1987 arrest in Atlanta, the deaths of two fans at the 1988 Monsters of Rock festival, and several riots contributed to the band being labeled "the most dangerous band in the world". Their lyrics, notably "One in a Million", drew criticism as racist and homophobic, and a hidden track on "The Spaghetti Incident?", a cover of Charles Manson's "Look at Your Game, Girl", also caused controversy. The band was also criticized for late concert starts and long gaps between albums.