W. Axl Rose (born February 6, 1962) is an American hard rock singer and songwriter, born as William Bruce Rose in Lafayette, Indiana.

According to his account, he had a deeply troubled family life, with abuse at the hands of his father and stepfather. His biological father, William Rose, left the family when Axl was two. His mother later married Stephen Bailey, and his surname was changed to Bailey. The strict discipline and religious Pentecostal education he underwent as a child was followed by numerous brushes with law enforcement as an adolescent. He had a strong interest in music and as a teenager is said to have formed a band named Axl. Around the age of 17 Rose made two important choices. First, he changed his name to W. Rose. Second, he left home and eventually ended up in Los Angeles, California, where he joined childhood friend Izzy Stradlin (born Jeffrey Isbell) to pursue a rock music career.

Guns N' Roses/Musical Influence: The music scene in Los Angeles during the early 1980s featured both punk and hair metal/heavy metal bands. Rose wanted to meld the two styles into a unique musical form. Rose moved through a number of bands, including Hollywood Rose, L.A. Guns, Rapidfire, Axl, and Rose. Then, after bringing in his former L.A. Guns bandmates Tracii Guns (who was soon replaced by Slash) and Rob Gardner (who was soon replaced by Steven Adler), Rose formed Guns N' Roses around 1985. With Rose (vocals), Stradlin (guitar), Slash (real name Saul Hudson/lead guitar), Duff McKagan (bass), and Steven Adler (drums), Guns N' Roses signed a recording contract with Geffen Records in 1986. The band released its first full-length album, Appetite for Destruction, in 1987. Mixing blazing power chords with Rose's shrieking vocals, the album represented a new musical style that took some time to catch on. But catch on it did, and by 1988, Guns N' Roses shot to the top of rock music, helped by the massive popularity (as radio singles and as MTV videos) of the songs "Welcome to the Jungle", "Paradise City" and "Sweet Child O' Mine." 'Child' was written for his then girlfriend (later ex-wife) Erin Everly, daughter of Don Everly of the Everly Brothers; she was also featured in the video for the song.

Famous first for its music, the band soon gained notoriety for a wild lifestyle fueled by prodigious use of drugs. Instability followed, with concert cancellations and rumors of a breakup. In 1988, the band released G N' R Lies, which also was hugely popular. But criticism also came for the song "One in a Million", which was interpreted as insulting to gays, blacks, and immigrants. After a string of delays, the group released two albums called Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II in 1991. These albums were also huge hits, but the band soon ran into trouble. Rose jumped off stage to attack a fan in St. Louis, Missouri during the 28 month-long Use Your Illusion Tour, and sparked a riot. Another riot was spawned on October 8, 1992 at the Montreal Stade Olympique when Rose, late for the band's stage appearance, walked out after playing only a couple songs. These incidents, along with the appearance of a new stripped-down musical style known as grunge, led to a growing impression of Guns N' Roses as a self-indulgent and out-of-date act. Rose himself came to be seen as erratic and strange when he caused long performance delays and challenged Kurt Cobain to a fight during the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, after Cobain and his wife, Courtney Love, egged him on. Axl Rose was a huge Nirvana fan and asked Cobain to have Nirvana open up for GN'R. Kurt turned Axl down and taunted him in the press. This hurt Axl a great deal. Although most people consider the fight between Axl and Kurt to be due to Axl's violent behavior, all evidence points toward Kurt as being the one who "started" the fight. In an interview during the early 1990s, after turning down the opening gig for GN'R (and prior to their backstage squabble), Cobain claimed that GN'R was the most talentless band in the world and a complete waste of music - despite the fact that prior to becoming famous he was photographed wearing numerous Appetite for Destruction T-shirts, and according to his ex-girlfriend, was a massive fan of the band.

Deterioration of the Band: In 1993 Guns N' Roses issued an album of cover tunes, The Spaghetti Incident?, which received mixed reviews. The album is the lowest-selling album of Guns N' Roses' career.

In 1994, Axl ditched guitar player Gilby Clarke and hired an old friend of his named Paul Tobias. Together with the rest of the band (at this point Slash, Duff and Matt), Axl and Paul recorded a cover of the song Sympathy for the Devil for the Interview with the Vampire soundtrack. Unbenownst to Slash, Rose had Tobias re-record some guitar tracks previously played by Slash.

The band returned to the studio and recorded 13 tracks for a new album (which still exist today but have never been heard by anyone apart from Axl and co.). However due to tensions Slash shortly thereafter left the band, followed by Matt and Duff in 1997. (Matt was technically fired, but planned on leaving by his own choice anyway.)

The Comeback: In 2001, the new incarnation of GN'R was unleashed to Rio de Janeiros when Axl and his new band played in front of 250,000 screaming fans at Rock in Rio III. It was here that he introduced new songs such as Chinese Democracy, Madagascar, The Blues, and Silkworms, as well as playing the classics for enthusiastic fans.

In 2002 Axl made a special surprise appearance at the 2002 VMAs. It was here that Axl officially unveiled the new lineup of GN'R to the rest of the world. Although Axl suffered earphone malfunctions and was not able to hear his own voice as he sang (hence his uneven pitch), the overall energy of the performance was great. It was one of the highest rated musical performances in MTV history. Ozzy Osbourne said that just in terms of the energy it was one of the greatest performances ever.

A North American Tour followed, but fell apart halfway through in December of 2002 due to Axl not showing up at the show in Philadelphia.

In September 2004, a new GN'R track, titled "I.R.S.," was leaked onto the internet by an anonymous source. It was defined as being an authentic poor quality demo tape, obtained through the radio program, Friday Night Rocks with Eddie Trunk, a New York City based program airing on Q104.3 Friday nights 11pm-2am. It was on this program where the song originally had aired earlier. Trunk had received a copy of the track from his close friend Mike Piazza, who had received it anonymously in the mail.

As of October 2005, the album Chinese Democracy has cost over $15 million dollars, making it the most expensive album of all-time. Axl has reportedly recorded over 70 tracks with the new band and has enough material to release at least three CDs, which he plans on doing.

In September 2005 the pieces of the puzzle seemed to fall into place, finally, after many years of waiting. Axl met fans in Malibu and told them the album would be out by early 2006 and a song would be featured on the soundtrack for the Tom Hanks/Ron Howard movie The Da Vinci Code. Although this rumor was never 100% verified, GN'R manager Merck refused to comment, indicating it bore some truth. Also, rumblings from an inside source at Sanctuary Music Publishings confirmed that the company was beginning to take the early steps of release for the album and was planning on spreading news to reintroduce the band to the world.