Axl Rose

Axl Rose: When the going gets tough, the tough get an uzi.

Axl Rose: Life sucks, but in a beautiful kind of way.

Axl Rose: (about the song "My Michelle") I know a girl named Michelle and she became a really good friend of the bands' and I was going out with her for a while, It's a true story. Slash and some other members of the band said that's kinda too heavy to say about poor sweet Michelle; she'll freak out. I'd written this nice sweet song about her and then I looked at it and thought that really doesn't touch any basis of reality' so I put down an honest thing. It describes her life. This girl leads such a crazy life with doing drugs, or whatever she's doing at the time, you don't know if she's gonna be there tomorrow. I showed her the lyrics after about three weeks of debating and she was so happy that someone didn't just paint a pretty picture. She loves it.

Axl Rose: I sing in about five or six different voices-that are all part of me, it's not contrived. I'm like a second baritone or something. I used to take choir classes and stuff and I'd always- sit there and since I could read music, I'd try to sing other people's parts and see if I could get away with it. We had this teacher who was pitch perfect, or whatever you call it. He had ears' like a bat, man, like radar. So, in order to get away with singing someone else's part, you'd really have to get it down. Or else, he'd know exactly what corner of the room this person is who's not singing right. So, I guess, I really started working on it then by trying to mess with this guy's head. Like how come he's hearing a soprano in the bass section.

Axl Rose: If you're bored with a song and its one of your songs, you just play it. It's like having a pair of pants. Those pants meant something to you at one timeyou liked them or whatever-but if you just outgrow them and you're tired of wearing them, it's like they're not you anymore. Some songs I re-write cause the verses aren't me anymore. I could come off stage in tears because I was so moved by the music. I want people to feel that too.

Axl Rose: I've really learned to control myself. It used to be that 1 would get mad, break everything in the room, smack somebody in the face and then leave. Now I work real hard at trying to keep things cool and together.

Axl Rose: I'm a big Metallica fanatic. I like the new Queensrÿche record. We listen to everything. Pop, it's hard to say, if you tell someone you like the new Michael Jackson song, everybody thinks you like everything Michael Jackson ever did. So, it's weird to have to say what you like. We usually like to get into a song or even a part of a song of just about anybody. We'll sit down and go 'nah, that sucks, but there's that one bass part that's cool.

Axl Rose: You don't see a lot of that anymore-Queen used to do it, and Zeppelin, but nowadays, people tend to stay in one vein.

Axl Rose: We have pieces of everything in our band and we try and find a way to bring it all out rather than limit ourselves into one frame.

Axl Rose: I'd just like to say that I have a personal disgust for small dogs, like poodles. I have some serious physical problems with them. Everything about them means I must kill them. I must.

Axl Rose: We take it for granted we know the whole story - We judge a book by its cover and read what we want between selected lines.

Axl Rose: I haven't spoken to Slash in ten years. I love the guy; I always wanted everyone to know how great he was.

Axl Rose: (about his religious upbringing) My particular church was filled with self-righteous hypocrites who were child abusers and child molesters. These were people who'd been damaged in their own childhoods and in their lives. These were people who were finding God but still living with their damage and inflicting it upon their children. I had to go to church anywhere from three to eight times a week. l even taught Bible school while l was being beaten and my sister was being molested.

Axl Rose: I discovered I scream the same way whether I'm about to be devoured by a Great White or if a piece of seaweed touches my foot.

Axl Rose: We are made up of two contrasting ideals-Love And Fear. Pick One and Live.

Axl Rose: I'm not a computer-savvy or technical type of person, yet I'm involved with it everyday, so it takes me a while.

Axl Rose: I like to be real private; you don't always want everyone around you, even when they like you.

Axl Rose: I pretty much stay to myself, and that's about it.

Axl Rose: I don't think everybody should be worshiping me 'cause I was around before them.

Axl Rose: It's always different every night. You never know which song is gonna get you excited.

Axl Rose: Guns N' Roses was a big thing. How do you walk away from that? It's a very complicated thing, I think, for everybody involved.

Axl: I regret the way that things went down between me and Stephanie. I really loved her, and her son Dylan. To go back in time, I would treat her like the princess that she is, and never utter a cross word. Tha's what is so screwed, you always look back at the love lost, and think of what could've been, instead of thinking beforehand, how it should be.

Axl: It was an insane night. Tommy Hilfiger, who is the size of a leprechan in high heels, straight slapped me in the face for moving his girlfriend's alcoholic beverage. I was shocked, and a bit amused, but I didn't retaliate, I just watched as his own security guards dragged him out of the club.

Axl: I had a hard time laying off the booze, man. I needed the alcohol and the drugs to escape my reality, and when I figured that it was time to wake up, I went straight to rehab....it was the only way.