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00:00They were the baddest band on the planet.
00:07We just didn't really give a s**t about anything else going on around us.
00:14There was no holds barred.
00:16They looked like outlaws.
00:19The music was like nothing I had ever heard.
00:27So faint and powerful, Guns N' Roses rescued rock and roll with a unique sound built by life on the edge.
00:36It was a 24-hour day party.
00:38Top or worst, full of cocaine.
00:44I'd hear...
00:46I'd look over and Duff would be laid out on the stage, passed out.
00:50Led by mesmerizing frontman Axl Rose, Guns N' Roses could inspire religious devotion.
00:57A riot.
00:58Or both.
01:01I went out to the stage and they're shredding the place.
01:04The whole place just collectively destroyed everything.
01:10It was insane.
01:16And from day one, the Guns' greatest danger was to themselves.
01:20I did everything I possibly could to try and kill myself.
01:25I got a phone call saying Slash is dead.
01:27I mean dead, blue dead.
01:29He had no pulse.
01:34Fueled by non-stop drug abuse and outrageous egos, it took just a few years for the group to turn their guns on each other.
01:47That's the sound of the band breaking up right there.
01:53A band is a marriage and they were bound for divorce court.
01:57Guns N' Roses, the story behind the music.
02:22Slash is dead!
02:25For those of you who don't live in New York, welcome to the jungle.
02:28Ladies and gentlemen, Guns N' Roses!
02:34It's August 2002.
02:37In seven years after the implosion of the world's most dangerous band,
02:41the reclusive Axl Rose finally emerges with Guns N' Roses at the MTV Video Music Awards.
02:47The band's name was familiar, but the faces were not.
02:56A lot of people think it's almost sacrilege, you know, to do it that way, but he doesn't give a hot ****.
03:08Axl's hired guns bore no resemblance to the rock and roll outlaws that had enraged parents and enraptured fans in the 1980s.
03:16A menacing sound fueled by lies of extreme decadence and danger.
03:21Me and Duff were drinking at least a half gallon of vodka with Jack Daniels a day,
03:26just trying to sort of keep ourselves, you know, like on an even keel.
03:35They lived it, and that's why, you know, they were one notch above everybody else.
03:39They were the real deal.
03:43But Guns would ultimately choke on their own excess.
03:58Less than a decade after shocking the rock world with their seminal debut, Appetite for Destruction,
04:03drugs, booze and runaway egos tore the band apart.
04:13Everything was falling apart.
04:16Everything was wrong that was going on there.
04:19I mean, it was trouble after trouble after trouble.
04:23You know, it didn't stop.
04:24You didn't know from one minute if it was going to end because of a drug overdose,
04:29because of a riot, because of it just imploding.
04:34But at the same time, you didn't know if that same day you were going to see the greatest musical performance of all time.
04:45Guns N' Roses' rebellious roots were planted on the grimy streets of Hollywood in 1982
04:53when two local misfits named Stephen Adler and Saul Hudson, a.k.a. Slash, began amping up their hard rock dreams.
05:02Stephen started playing drums, and I started playing guitar, and we started a band.
05:07And that's where Guns starts for me.
05:11In late 84, the struggling musicians checked out a band called Hollywood Rose at an L.A. gig.
05:17The group was fronted by Jeffrey Isabel and Bill Bailey,
05:21who'd renamed themselves Izzy Stradlin and W. Axl Rose.
05:25To Slash and Stephen, Axl's hypnotic performance was nothing short of magic.
05:32After the show, I introduced Axl to Slash, and who knew that that was like history in the making,
05:41but that was the first time Slash met Axl.
05:45I said to Slash, if we get that singer and that guitar player, we'll have a kick-ass band.
05:52By March of 85, Stephen and Slash had joined forces with Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin.
05:58That same month, bassist Michael Duff McKagan cemented the lineup.
06:02They called themselves Guns N' Roses.
06:07We went through so many different people, and this ended up being the people that we most believed in.
06:11We're like a family. We believe in each other.
06:15We were a gang. That's how we thought of ourselves.
06:18We played rock and roll music to kick your ass.
06:22Guns were finally cocked and loaded.
06:26And their combustible on-stage chemistry quickly offered a dangerous alternative
06:30to make-up metal groups like Cinderella and Poison.
06:35Guns N' Roses
06:40All these other bands, you know, they had all these band acts and make-up and crap.
06:44And we didn't. We just went out there and played rock and roll.
06:50They looked like outlaws. That was number one.
06:52The music was, to me, like nothing I had ever heard.
07:00We just didn't really give a shit about anything else going on around us.
07:05We just had this edge.
07:07This sort of unpredictable, scary thing about what it was that we did,
07:11and that there was no holds barred.
07:15And from the beginning, Guns' hunger for success
07:19was matched only by their appetite for excess.
07:23Quite often, it was a 24-hour-a-day party.
07:26Tupperwares full of cocaine.
07:28Literally tupperwares.
07:30Everybody was completely strung out and using ecstasy.
07:33Nobody drank as much as Slash.
07:36And nobody passed out as much as Slash.
07:39We were just following in the footsteps of all the guys that we grew up,
07:43you know, that were our heroes growing up.
07:45And then we just took it that one step further.
07:49Virtually homeless and constantly migrating from one squalid crash pad to another,
07:54Guns were single-minded in their quest for success.
07:57From one crash pad to another,
07:59Guns were single-minded in their pursuit of just two things.
08:02Partying and rock and roll.
08:04These guys were living off of biscuits and gravy from Denny's, you know, from friends.
08:10There was usually at least a few bodies on the floor that you had to step over when you walked in.
08:14There was always a song written on a pizza box and empty liquor bottles everywhere.
08:19We were always scrounging to find a place to practice or find a place to crash.
08:24Back in those days, the best people to know were strippers,
08:27because they were the ones that were empathetic to your needs.
08:33Once on stage, the band served up bludgeoning riffs,
08:36and Axl supplied the menacing lyrics.
08:39The product of an abusive household,
08:41Rose was an explosive frontman who used his songs to tackle his demons.
08:49As volatile as he is,
08:50all the things that you might find complicated or difficult about Axl
08:54is what fuels him to be such an amazing performer and such an amazing songwriter.
09:02You know, it's like I have to, like, balance out, you know,
09:05when can I destroy everything around me to when I have to be nice to everybody.
09:11Axl's volatility was both a blessing and a curse.
09:14By early 86, Guns N' Roses were the hottest band in LA.
09:20But record labels wouldn't touch them.
09:22Nobody wanted to sign us.
09:23I mean, even though the people that wanted to sign us, they didn't want to deal with us.
09:27Nobody wanted to produce us. Nobody wanted to manage us.
09:30And, you know, the club owners were scared of us.
09:34Guns N' Roses were a powder keg that could blow at any moment.
09:41But in the spring of 86,
09:43Geffen Records' exec Tom Zutaut saw the band at an LA club
09:47and thought their hard rock sound was worth almost any headache.
09:52I basically went to David Geffen and I said,
09:54I just saw the biggest rock and roll band in the world.
09:56They're going to sell more records than any band
09:59except for maybe Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.
10:04Guns N' Roses signed a record deal with Geffen,
10:07but few believed they were destined to redefine rock and roll
10:10or even survive at all.
10:12I just want to burn you down.
10:16Next, sweet success, Guns N' Roses style.
10:23There were photo sessions when Slash literally was propped up
10:26so he wouldn't fall down for the photo session.
10:30When Behind the Music continues.
10:38By the summer of 1986,
10:40Guns N' Roses had navigated the thicket of Hollywood hair metal
10:43to bag a multi-album deal with Geffen Records.
10:52But the label was worried that their explosive investment
10:55could combust at any moment.
10:59I was worried about them surviving
11:01because you can't tell junkies or drug addicts to stop taking drugs.
11:07They probably laughed when I said,
11:09guys, I mean, be careful, you know,
11:11you're going to be the biggest rock and roll band in the world,
11:13you don't need to destroy it with this crap.
11:16You always kind of thought that, you know,
11:19there would be like the explosion and it would all be over
11:22or one of them would die or something would happen.
11:27We were the bad boys.
11:31In August of 86, Geffen got guns into the studio.
11:36But the band never allowed a rigid recording schedule
11:39to cramp their untamed style.
11:42On any given night...
11:45terrorising Hollywood.
11:48Every morning we'd have to get up
11:50and somehow manage to be in the studio by 12.
11:53They came in many, many times well hungover.
11:58But amid all the chaos,
12:00Guns N' Roses were about to make musical history.
12:05One of the songs that emerged in those early sessions
12:08was a disarmingly sensitive ballad called Sweet Child O' Mine.
12:12Ironically, Slash came up with its classic opening riff as a joke.
12:18We were rehearsing.
12:20We had our guitars in and he started playing like a circus kind of thing.
12:25You know, and I was like, dude, play that again.
12:30What started out as a joke guitar riff for me
12:33turned into a huge anthem for Axl
12:35as far as that relationship that he was in at the time.
12:38So it was a very heartfelt moment in his life.
12:48Axl's unusually affectionate lyrics
12:50were penned as a love letter to his girlfriend Erin Everly,
12:53with whom he had had a tumultuous five-year relationship.
12:57When it was good, it was good,
12:59and when it was bad, it was horrible.
13:07There was a lot of turmoil between those two.
13:10And that's all I want to say.
13:12Erin was a very nice girl.
13:14She was cute as could be.
13:16She was just the opposite as Axl.
13:20But it also shows a side to her
13:24but it also shows a side of Axl, Sweet Child of Mine,
13:27that you wouldn't necessarily
13:29when you hear all these nasty things about him.
13:37But Sweet Child was a rare track of tenderness
13:42on an album dominated by incendiary anthems
13:45like Welcome to the Jungle.
13:48And when Appetite for Destruction
13:50was released in July of 87,
13:52it bombarded fans with a brutal sonic diary
13:55of five musicians hanging on the edge by a thread.
14:01They were, you know,
14:03they were living, you know, hand to mouth,
14:05and they were just all about the rock
14:07and the girls and the drinks,
14:09and that's what they sang about.
14:11That's what they did.
14:17And they lived it.
14:28It's pretty much a storybook
14:30of everything that Axl and the band was going through
14:34from, say, the beginning of the 80s
14:37all the way up until the record was finished.
14:40I'm gonna burn you down!
14:46In August of 87, Guns hit the road
14:48for a world tour to support the album,
14:51taking their never-ending Hollywood party
14:53to inebriated extremes around the globe.
14:58They were just a bunch of crazy kids
15:00that had just been given the key
15:02to every city in the world, you know, basically.
15:05Take me down to the paradise
15:08Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty
15:11I want to bring you to me
15:16There were photo sessions
15:18when Slash literally was propped up,
15:20you know, the head up and somebody behind him
15:22to hold him up so he wouldn't fall down
15:24for the photo session.
15:28Slash was a very dedicated player.
15:30He would go and throw up behind the amp
15:32to come back out and keep playing.
15:35He'd smoke on stage and a cigarette would drop
15:37down in between his pants and his stomach.
15:40And I'm sitting there watching him going,
15:42you know, dude, you're burning up.
15:45And he's just doing this solo in pain.
15:50The Guns' outrageous antics and graphic lyrics
15:53were infuriating parents but delighting fans.
15:58And in July of 88, Appetite for Destruction
16:01climbed to number one on the charts.
16:05It was the right band at the right time
16:08with the right message
16:10and it just happened to hit the youth of America
16:14in a certain way that everybody related to it,
16:17which is f***ing great.
16:26But just as the band reached multi-platinum heights,
16:29tragedy brought them crashing back to earth.
16:35On August 20th, 1988,
16:38during the Guns' set at the Monsters of Rock Festival
16:41in Donington, England,
16:43two fans were crushed and killed by the frenzied audience.
16:46And so we finished the gig,
16:48our manager didn't tell us about it,
16:50so we met up at a pub later on
16:52and I found him in the bar sort of crying
16:54and he told me about that.
16:56It's like that was when the reality kicked in
16:58that you can get to this all-time high,
17:00something that you can't compare to anything,
17:03and then have it go to an all-time low.
17:09It really screws with your head.
17:11He drove to the show with his friends,
17:13they were having a good time,
17:14they got out of their car,
17:16they walked into the gig,
17:18and he didn't walk out.
17:20The deaths at Donington added fuel
17:22to a growing critical fire against the band
17:25and to the sentiment that GNR
17:27were headed for premature destruction.
17:34Next, the guns turn on Steven Adler.
17:38I did everything I possibly could
17:42to try and kill myself.
17:45When Behind the Music continues.
17:53By the end of 1988,
17:55Guns N' Roses had launched a multi-platinum blast
17:58of dirt and grime onto the airbrushed face of rock and roll.
18:04Just one year after the release of their debut album,
18:07they were one of the most popular bands in the world.
18:10They were the baddest thing on the block at the time.
18:13They had a certain genuineness to them
18:15that I think people really attached themselves to.
18:19They were what they were,
18:20and what you saw is what you got.
18:22I had no expectations for it to be such a global event.
18:27One, two, one, two, three, four.
18:32In November of 88, Guns released the EP GNR Lies,
18:37a collection that included four new tracks
18:39knocked out in a single inspired studio session.
18:42There was a time when I wasn't sure
18:45But you set my mind at ease
18:49Driven by the top ten ballad patients,
18:51the record would go on to sell two million copies.
18:55All we need is just a little patient
19:01Basically it was a live session.
19:04I recorded everybody in the same room in a circle,
19:07and they all played together, and it was pretty magical.
19:11We did the Lies record, and it was like a real easy,
19:14quick thing to do, which was really successful,
19:16which was sort of a shock, one day's work,
19:19and it sells like all these copies.
19:22One, two, one, two, three, four.
19:26Despite their success, controversy constantly threatened
19:29to disarm the Young Guns.
19:32Another of the tracks on GNR Lies was One in a Million,
19:36a divisive tune with racially charged lyrics
19:39that put the band under fire.
19:42The word was used on the record,
19:44but that didn't necessarily mean all black people.
19:47It just, you know, it meant basically low-lifes,
19:50people that were, like, stealing, you know,
19:53to supply their drug habits.
19:55It hit home with me on a bad level,
19:57because I'm half black, for one,
19:59so you start saying the word d*** around me,
20:01and it's very unsettling.
20:03But the storm of protest only fueled album sales,
20:06and in February of 89, as GNR Lies joined
20:09Appetite for Destruction in the top five,
20:12the band decided to take a break from recording and the road.
20:18But their downtime quickly became an endless succession
20:21of wanton days and wasted nights.
20:24That's where we really went downhill.
20:26That's where I got lost, Izzy got lost,
20:29Stephen got lost, Duff even got lost,
20:31and Axl disappeared somewhere.
20:34Slash didn't know how to entertain himself,
20:36unless he was on stage or going to a gig or doing something,
20:39you know, so what did he do?
20:41Wake up, drink and drink more?
20:44I love Slash to death, but his drug abuse was out of control,
20:47Stephen's drug abuse was out of control,
20:49you know, Duff's drinking,
20:52and Axl's, you know,
20:55wild-eyed vision of reality was out of control.
21:00In October of 89, Guns got an offer to open four shows
21:04for the Rolling Stones in L.A.
21:07It seemed the perfect opportunity to bring the band back together.
21:11But on opening night, Axl made a shocking announcement on stage.
21:16He implied if certain members don't stop dancing with Mr. Brownstone,
21:20meaning Slash and drugs, you know, the band was over.
21:24They all were messing around there,
21:26but somebody had a real big problem,
21:28and if they didn't stop doing it, that was the end of Guns N' Roses.
21:32I know it was directed at me
21:34because I was all strung out at the time.
21:38That was one of the things that probably made me hate Axl more than anything,
21:42something I probably never ever forgave him for,
21:44without really even thinking about it.
21:47At the time, the tirade seemed to galvanize the band.
21:51In the spring of 90, Guns entered the studio
21:54to begin work on their most elaborate project yet,
21:57a double album of all-new material.
22:01We all managed to sort of straighten ourselves out,
22:04with the exception of Stephen.
22:08Stephen was so locked up that he just couldn't get it together.
22:12He was so messed up with junk that he couldn't pull off the tracks.
22:19The band had lofty ambitions for the new album,
22:22but Adler's debilitating heroin addiction made him a liability in the studio,
22:27and the sessions came to a grinding halt.
22:30He couldn't play.
22:32He would lie to us,
22:34and we'd go over to his place and find shit behind the toilet
22:37and find stuff underneath the sink.
22:39He couldn't leave his drugs,
22:41but there's other things beside the band
22:44that he was involved in with his drugs
22:47that have been very dangerous and scary,
22:50and I want nothing to do with them.
22:54In July of 1990, frustrated by their lack of progress,
22:58the band fired Stephen Adler,
23:00only worsening the drummer's depression and drug abuse.
23:04He would eventually suffer a cocaine-induced stroke.
23:08I did everything I possibly could
23:12to try and kill myself.
23:15I had nothing left for him.
23:17I mean, everybody that I knew,
23:20that I thought were my friends,
23:23took everything they could from me
23:25and disappeared.
23:30I would drink a whole bottle of vodka just down it
23:33before the sun was coming up so I could pass out.
23:41As Stephen spun into a deadly narcotic abyss,
23:44the band recruited former cult drummer Matt Sorum,
23:47and in September of 1990, Guns began laying down the tracks
23:50that would make up the epic double album
23:53Use Your Illusion I & II.
23:55You know you're all alone
23:57Your friends, they aren't alone
24:00Everybody's gone to the goddamn end
24:05I just want to bury Appetite.
24:07I don't want to live my life through that one album.
24:10I have to bury it.
24:11So rather than just throwing a bunch of songs together
24:14that we think are fun, we're going over it,
24:16you know, with a fine-tooth comb.
24:19His creative idea of moving forward was
24:22we can't remake Appetite.
24:24The next record has to be in another direction.
24:26You can find it all inside
24:29No need to wrestle with your pride
24:32But the impoverished gang of five
24:34who'd lived through the turmoil
24:36that inspired Appetite for Destruction
24:38had drifted apart.
24:40And from the start, sessions were literally phoned in.
24:45Slash and I do a lot of our communication by phone.
24:48You know, what do you think about the end note?
24:50OK, we'll change that to this.
24:51Hold this note a little bit longer.
24:54It was impossible to get us into one room,
24:57all of us, at one time.
24:59It was very dark,
25:01and there was a lot of just
25:04toxic sort of a feeling in the room.
25:07And sightings of Axl Rose were few and far between.
25:13Use Your Illusions was all over the place.
25:15It was sort of like, you know,
25:17the Guns N' Roses version of the White Album, so to speak.
25:20Maybe not quite.
25:21It was like all this material
25:23coming from all different directions.
25:27Despite all the turmoil,
25:28Guns' double album was destined
25:30to become a phenomenal success.
25:32Few could have guessed that it would also serve
25:34as the band's last artistic gasp.
25:42Next, the Guns lose control.
25:45The whole place collectively destroyed.
25:48It was one of the scariest things I've ever seen.
25:52When Behind the Music continues.
26:02By early 1991,
26:04Guns N' Roses were both finishing up
26:06their ambitious double album
26:08and plotting a massive world tour.
26:10But as they hit the road,
26:11concert crowds discovered
26:12that the little girl was not alone.
26:15We had a horn section and pianos
26:17and all this other kind of crap,
26:19which we didn't necessarily want as a band,
26:21but it's something that Axl still wanted.
26:26I remember feeling a bit like,
26:28I didn't really sign up for this.
26:30I was kind of hoping to join
26:31a badass rock and roll band.
26:33What's with the piano?
26:39I remember feeling a bit like,
26:41I didn't really sign up for this.
26:44I remember feeling a bit like,
26:46I didn't really sign up for this.
26:49It just got bloated.
26:51Plain and simple.
26:55Always the dominant Guns man,
26:57Axl Rose now seemed hellbent
26:59on seizing control of the band.
27:01Soon after the tour began,
27:02he gave Slash, Izzy and Duff an ultimatum.
27:05Sign over the rights to the name Guns N' Roses,
27:08where the group would be history.
27:14In his mind, the name belonged to him.
27:18And if something disintegrated,
27:20you know, he wanted to ensure
27:22Guns N' Roses' ultimate survival,
27:24even if this version of the band broke up.
27:32If we didn't sign it,
27:33the band was going to break up
27:34right then and there.
27:35So we just did what we've always done
27:37and just kept the f***ing thing going.
27:43But as tensions mounted within the group,
27:45the strain began to show on stage.
27:52In July of 91,
27:53a concert in St. Louis spun out of control
27:56after Axl dove into the crowd
27:58and tried to grab a camera
27:59from an over-eager fan.
28:02I jumped off stage
28:03and yeah, things went haywire after that.
28:08And maybe I could have handled it better or whatever,
28:11but no one was really handling anything at that point.
28:16So I took it into my own hands
28:17with what I could do.
28:19Within minutes,
28:20tens of thousands of people
28:21were enveloped in chaos.
28:25The whole place just f***ing
28:27collectively destroyed everything.
28:37It was one of the scariest things I've ever seen.
28:42We were in the dressing room
28:43and I remember opening the door
28:45and being like,
28:46people on stretchers
28:47and they were all bloody
28:48and it was like gnarly.
29:04I'd tell the driver
29:05just to get the quickest way out
29:06to the state line
29:07and get us out
29:08and we drove.
29:09Here's the biggest van in the world
29:10laying down in the back of the van
29:12to escape arrest
29:13to get and drive to Chicago.
29:15It was insane.
29:19As the tour rolled on,
29:20fans could never be sure
29:21what they would get from the guns.
29:24Sometimes Axl walked off stage
29:26or he didn't show up at all.
29:32But at other gigs,
29:33he delivered mesmerizing performances
29:35that all but overpowered the crowd.
29:37He had that way of talking to the audience
29:40and speaking his mind
29:41that they could relate to
29:42but he also had this swagger
29:43like a lizard, you know,
29:45and the girls loved that.
29:47I cannot recall one show I've seen
29:49that he didn't give me goosebumps.
29:51He was like the greatest
29:52rock and roll front man ever.
29:55Guns concerts had become
29:56larger than life spectacles
29:58but even that could not prepare them
30:00for the hysteria
30:01that greeted the release
30:02of their long-awaited double album.
30:04There has been nothing like
30:06the anticipation of Use Your Illusions ever.
30:10They sound scanned
30:11a million six hundred thousand records
30:13the first week
30:14and was just this juggernaut
30:15that had not been seen
30:16since The Beatles, really.
30:19Released in September 91,
30:21Use Your Illusion 1 and 2
30:22was an imperfect masterpiece
30:24running the gamut
30:25from grandly epic ballads
30:27to down and dirty rock.
30:30It just had a lot of everything
30:32and it was the good,
30:33the bad and the ugly
30:34of Guns N' Roses.
30:37This was when we were going
30:38to pull all the stops
30:39everything we could think of to do
30:41that we wanted to do
30:42we were going to do.
30:45Guns were both more of
30:46a time travel project
30:47than a show.
30:49The show was a bit more
30:50of a show than a show.
30:52It was a time travel project
30:53that the audience
30:54could see
30:55and hear
30:56and that was the point
30:57Guns were both more popular and more divided than ever.
31:06As the group began shooting videos for the new album,
31:09Axl outlined elaborate, big-budget visions with minimal input from the rest of the band.
31:15Guns N' Roses
31:46And that's where we just sort of completely separated.
31:49This group of guys is here and this other guy is on this page.
31:54By November of 91, Izzy Stradlin had had enough of Axl's iron fist.
31:59Just as Guns was amping up for another tour,
32:02the newly sober guitarist abruptly quit the group.
32:06Guns N' Roses
32:14Izzy felt dictated to and quit.
32:21Everybody wished they could go with him,
32:23but then you're balancing your livelihood with,
32:27do I put up with this crap?
32:30Just weeks before Guns was to hit the road in December 91,
32:35L.A. guitarist Gilby Clark stepped into Izzy's shoes.
32:40He knew he wouldn't be filling them for long.
32:42It's just, you know, here.
32:44Learn the songs, play the songs, here's your paycheck.
32:47I knew from day one that it could end tomorrow, you know.
32:53The Guns got on the road,
32:54but from the beginning the band had little contact with Axl offstage
32:58and even less of a clue when he might turn up for gigs.
33:04Guns N' Roses
33:09It was hard, you know.
33:10We had a lot of cancelled gigs,
33:12we had a lot of gigs where we almost didn't play,
33:14we had a lot of, like, walking off the stage and all of a sudden having...
33:17It was all very trying, you know.
33:20Guns N' Roses
33:26I would be like, come on, you guys, I mean, we gotta deal with this.
33:29Let's be a band.
33:30And every time I'd go out to deal with Axl,
33:33I'd turn around and they'd all gone the other way.
33:35I'd be like, dude, you said you were backing me up.
33:38We would go down to the show and, you know,
33:40you have a cocktail at the show, you have another cocktail.
33:43And by the time he'd show up, we were hammered, you know,
33:46from sitting and drinking so much.
33:50And soon the heavy drinking and drug abuse
33:53began taking a physical toll on the band.
33:57I got a phone call at 5.30, 6 a.m. at my room
34:02from the front desk saying, Mr. Reese,
34:04one of your band members is passed out
34:06in front of the elevator on the 6th or 5th floor.
34:09So I throw on some pants and jump, run out of my room
34:12and Slash is dead.
34:13I mean, dead, blue dead. He had no pulse.
34:20Paramedics show up, bam, the adrenaline right into his heart.
34:27Slash had dodged a bullet.
34:31But Duff was killing himself slowly with booze.
34:34Duff was in terrible shape, terrible shape.
34:37He could barely speak.
34:42I'd be on stage and I'd hear...
34:44When I'd look over and Duff would be laid out.
34:47His bass guitar on the stage and him passed out.
34:57In the summer of 92, despite the off-stage fireworks,
35:01Guns N' Roses joined Metallica for a stadium concert tour.
35:09But on August 8th, at a gig in Montreal,
35:12Metallica frontman James Hetfield was severely burned
35:15in a bizarre pyrotechnic accident,
35:18leaving the Guns to deal with an incident
35:21that could have killed him.
35:24Leaving the Guns to deal with an incendiary crowd.
35:30Axl could have probably saved the day, but his voice was messed up.
35:33He just couldn't hear himself and chose to leave.
35:43I went out to the stage and they're shredding the place.
35:47I saw bonfires and this is an enclosed stadium.
35:53They just looted everything. There were cop cars overturned.
35:56I've never seen anything like it. That was my first riot.
36:00That was a really embarrassing moment for everybody.
36:03It was like, we have no control over this.
36:08The Guns soldiered on until July of 93.
36:11Their final performance was for 70,000 fans in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
36:16It was the last the world would see of the original band.
36:24Next, the Guns come undone.
36:26Nobody wanted to come home.
36:28Everybody in the back of their mind thought it was going to be over.
36:36When Behind the Music continues.
36:44On July 17, 1993, Guns N' Roses completed a two and a half year tour
36:50that was the longest in rock history.
36:52But as the band touched down in Los Angeles,
36:54their future was more uncertain than ever.
37:00Even though the family was dysfunctional,
37:03they were still a family on the road.
37:06Nobody wanted to come home. Nobody really wanted to end
37:09because I think everybody in the back of their mind thought it was going to be over.
37:13In November of 93, Guns released a collection of cover tunes
37:17called The Spaghetti Incident.
37:27But as they began working on a new album of original material in early 94,
37:31Axl's dominating demeanor was stifling the rest of the band.
37:37It's not f***ing brain surgery.
37:40It's not f***ing brain surgery.
37:42I mean, I f***ing said it a million times.
37:45Dude, what are you doing over there?
37:46What are you zooming made of doing a 72-piece f***ing, you know,
37:49orchestral masterpiece?
37:52In December of 94, GNR managed to cobble together a cover of the Rolling Stones'
37:56Sympathy for the Devil for a movie soundtrack.
38:00It would prove a sonic farewell for Matt slash Dolphin Axl.
38:10That's the sound of the band breaking up right there.
38:20Slash and Dolphin and them had much less patience
38:25for eating the amount of s*** they had to eat to keep everything going.
38:31A band is a marriage and they were bound for divorce court.
38:35In October of 96, Slash finally quit the guns
38:39and Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan soon followed suit.
38:43In the aftermath, Axl virtually disappeared for half a decade,
38:47attempting to reinvent Guns N' Roses with a brand new cast.
38:51This has taken a long time.
38:52Yeah, but it's also how do you rebuild something that got so big
38:56and replace virtually every person on the crew, every single thing.
39:00Axl took his new guns on the road in 2002,
39:03but the North American tour was fraught with cancellations
39:06and unraveled after only 15 shows.
39:10As for the new album, that's been in the works for nearly a decade.
39:14Well, I think the guy has really fought hard to make Guns N' Roses
39:19relevant to whatever was going on.
39:21But he's waited so long, whatever was going on has changed
39:25I think he just, in his head, wants to achieve
39:28a sort of mythic perfection that may be impossible.
39:33Axl's album, Chinese Democracy, is finally slated for release
39:37in November of 2004.
39:40As for Slash, Duff and Matt Sorum,
39:42they formed the supergroup Velvet Revolver.
39:46The former Stone Towers band,
39:48the band that was founded by Axl McKagan,
39:51and the supergroup Velvet Revolver,
39:54with former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Wiley.
40:09In June of 2004, they released their debut album, Contraband,
40:13touted by critics as a scathing blast of righteous rock.
40:18I'm out on the road, I'm touring, I'm on stage.
40:27I've got some of the greatest musicians around me,
40:29and that's the most important thing.
40:33I've been in enough bands and done enough sessions
40:36and played enough gigs.
40:40After all these years now, I do understand what it is.
40:44To finally have that come around a second time is a real blessing.
40:49Despite these separate projects,
40:51the public's hunger for the original guns remains insatiable.
41:01In April of 2004, a greatest hits collection
41:04debuted at number three on the charts,
41:06but a full-scale reunion seems highly unlikely.
41:14No matter how much money they stick in our face,
41:17there's no reason for us to get together to do anything
41:20unless we have some sort of mutual understanding or respect.
41:24And we're way, way far from that,
41:26so I don't see it any time in the foreseeable future.
41:38Whatever the future holds, the band's legacy will live on.
41:42For six unforgettable years, they pillaged the music world
41:46and remade rock and roll in their own decadent image.
42:07That was a great f***ing experience, a great time.
42:11Will it ever be the same again? No, never.
42:14That kind of s*** will never happen again.
42:42You better watch out
42:48You better watch out