Axl Rose is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and musician. He is the lead vocalist of the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses and has also been the band’s sole constant member since its inception. Rose has been named one of the greatest singers of all time by various media outlets, including Rolling Stone and NME. Its full length follow ups, the twin albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, were also widely successful they respectively debuted at No. 2 and No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and have sold a combined 35 million copies worldwide.
Birth Name
William Bruce Rose Jr.
Nickname
W. Axl Rose, William Bruce Bailey, Bill Rose, Bill Bailey
Profession
Singer, Songwriter, Record Producer, Musician
Genre
Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Blues Rock, Industrial Rock
Instruments
Vocals, Piano, Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion
Labels
UMG Recordings Inc., Geffen Records (1986), UZI Suicide (A part of Geffen), Black Frog
Nationality
American
Personal Life
Birthday / Date of Birth
Axl Rose was born on the 6th February 1962, in Lafayette, Indiana, United States.
Age
He is currently 61 years old.
Sun Sign
Aquarius
Ethnicity
White
He is of German, Irish, Scottish, English and Welsh descent.
Religion
In his early years, his parents would take him to a Pentecostal church.
Education
Axl Rose had attended Jefferson High School but he stopped going to the school when he found out about his biological father.
Family Details
- Father – Bruce Rose
- Mother – Sharon Elizabeth
- Siblings – Amy Bailey (Sister), Stuart (Step-Brother)
- Relatives – Dale Owen Rose (Paternal Grandfather), Mary Mae Rittenhouse (Paternal Grandmother), Earl Ray Lintner (Maternal Grandfather), Anna Amelia Rosenbrock (Maternal Grandmother)
Marital Status
Married
Girlfriend / Spouse
Axl Rose has dated –
- Bridgette Monroe – Adult film star Bridget Monroe and Axl Rose had an encounter with each other in the past.
- Gina Sailer (1979-1983) – Astronomer Gina Sailor and Axl Rose dated each other for about 4 years before they separated in 1983.
- Monique Lewis (1985) – Adult and glamour model, Monique Lewis was in a relationship with Axl in 1985 that didn’t last for more than a year.
- Adriana Smith (1985) – P*rnstar Adriana Smith hooked up with Axl that turned out to be quite a part in Axl’s debut album Appetite for Destruction as during the recording in Manhattan, mic’s were set up on the ground to record Rose and Adrianna who were actually having s*x in the studio and those sounds were put into his song.
- Erin Everly (1986-1991) – American model Erin Everly and Axl got married in 1986 and was the successor behind Rose’s famous love song ‘Sweet Child O Mine’. However, in 1994, she accused and sued Axl for assault and sexual mayhem. Erin stated the reason for the couple’s short-lived marriage life was because Axl believed that she had killed their [Erin and Axl] children in her previous life and that was the reason why he was mean to her.
- Stephanie Seymour (1991-1993) – In 1991, Axl got married Stephanie. Rose fell deeply in love with her and became very attached to her three year old son Dylan. Though, later, Stephanie ditched him to marry a multimillion dollar businessman. This left Rose heartbroken and devastated. In November 1993, Axl added a hidden track titled Look at Your Game, Girl in his cover album The Spaghetti Incident? which was written by Charles Mansion, a convicted murderer.
- Deniz Akkaya (2006) – The Turkish model is speculated to have met Axl at the Istanbul G N’ R show in 2006. However, their relationship was short-lived.
Physical Statistics
Height
- In feet – 5 feet 9 inches
- In centimeters – 175 cm
- In meters – 1.75 m
Weight
- In Kilograms – 78 kg
- In Pounds – 172 lbs
Body Measurements
- Measurements – 42-15-38
- Chest – 42 inches
- Biceps – 15 inches
- Waist – 38 inches
Body Build
Average
Eye Color
Blue
Hair Color
Dark Brown (Natural)
He often tends to dye his hair ‘blonde’.
Shoe Size
He wears a size 10 (US) shoe.
Sexuality
Straight
Professional Statistics
Famous For
Being the lead singer of the band Guns N’ Roses. Having a high pitched vocal ability.
Film Debut
In 1988, Axl made his debut theatrical film appearance as a musician at the funeral in The Dead Pool starring Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry), Liam Neeson and Patricia Clarkson.
Album Debut
Guns N Roses released their debut album Appetite for Destruction (1987).
Television Debut
In 1989, Rose made his first TV show appearance in the documentary Arena as himself.
Brand Endorsements
Axl has done endorsement work for several brands such as Dr. Pepper (2008) and Budweiser.
Axl Rose Favorites
- Favorite Band – Queen
- Favorite Singer – Freddie Mercury (Queen)
- Favorite Books – Stand by Stephen King, James Dean: The Mutant King (David Dalton) and Zodiac by Neal Stephenson
Axl Rose Net worth
Axl Rose has an estimated net worth of $200 million dollars as of 2024.
Social Media Profiles
- Twitter – Axl Rose
Some Lesser Known Facts About Axl Rose
- When Axl was born, his mother was 16 and father Bruce was 20 years old. At the time of his birth, Axl’s mother was still a high school student.
- At the age of 2, Axl was kidnapped and molested by his own father after his parents got divorced.
- Rose’s birth was not something his teenage parents had planned off.
- Axl’s stepfather would also physically abuse him, his mother, his step-brother and sexually abuse his step-sister.
- Axl began developing his vocal skills at a very young age at a church that his parents would visit every Sunday. There, it was where his first group started called the “Bailey Trio.”
- In October 1990, Rose was strongly affected due to a miscarriage that Erin Everly had suffered.
- In the early months of the 1990s, Axl started undergoing homeopathic treatment to help him uncover his memories from the past.
- A couple of years after Axl’s father left him and his mother in 1964, his mother married Stephen L. Bailey and his name was changed to William Bruce Bailey.
- Until the age of 17, Axl did not know who was his biological father. However, he never got the chance to meet him as his father was murdered by a criminal friend of his in 1984 in Marion, Illinois and his body was never recovered.
- Due to his band Guns N’ Roses, Axl Rose has associated with legends such as Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan, and Steven Adler.
- After William had found out about his biological father, he decided to change his name to William Rose.
- He later formed a band by the name of AXL and with his friend’s suggestion, he legally changed his name to W. Axl Rose.
- The s*x sounds in Axl’s debut album Appetite for Destruction were real.
- Axl and his childhood friend Izzy Stradlin began smoking cigarettes for a scientific research that was being conducted by UCLA and they were being paid $8 every hour.
- In March 1985, he, along with former band member Tracii Guns, formed the legendary band Guns N’ Roses.
- In 1986, he signed up with Geffen Records.
- In July 1987, the band Guns N’ Roses released their first album titled Appetite for Destruction which charted at #1 spot on the Billboard 200 listing in August 1988 and then again, in the following year, in February 1989.
- In August 1989, Rose had made such a striking image as rock music’s greatest frontman that he got featured on the cover of The Rolling Stones Magazine.
- In 1990, Rose fired his drummer Steven Adler for the abuse of drugs.
- In 1992, the controversy on his song One In a Million about gay men led to his music group not being featured on an AIDS benefit show in New York that was organized by the Gay Men’s Health Crisis.
- Rose was known as one of the finest hard rock singers of the 90s and certainly the most charming.
- In November 1992, Axl was sentenced and put on a probation for 2 years for assault and property damage following his failure to perform at the Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, that led to a property damage of $400,000.
- In November 1993, Rose had featured a secret track called Look at Your Game, Girl which was written by a convicted murderer Charles Manson.
- On July 17, 1993, Rose played his last live show with the band in Buenos Aries and took a break for more than 7 years.
- In 1997, all the original musicians of the group had left due to their indifference to Rose’s decision of hiring his childhood friend Paul Tobias in place of his guitarist Gilby Clarke.
- In 1998, Axl was arrested for threatening airport security for checking his bags.
- In 2004, he did a voiceover work for the hit game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
- Rose had refused to let the director of Black Hawk Down use his song “Welcome to the Jungle”.
- In 2005, Guns N’ Roses band members Slash and Duff McKagan filed a lawsuit against Rose for $1 million claiming that he was the sole owner of the group’s copyrights.
- In 2012, Axl was mugged by thieves, who stole his jewelry worth $200,000 while walking down a street in Paris.
- During his induction to the Hall of Fame, Axl did not attend the ceremony. Instead, he wrote a letter to the studio telling them that he won’t be able to make it.
- In April 2015, Axl Rose sent a letter to the Indonesian President requesting him to stop the execution of the Bali Nine for smuggling A$4 million worth of drugs into Australia.
- In 2016, Axl performed, at the Los Angeles as the band reunified, in a wheelchair as he had broken his foot during a warm-up session for the Guns N’ Roses tour.
- In May 2018, Guns N’ Roses staged the most anticipated live concert of all time and surprisingly, it was their highest grossing tour.
