20 Amazing Photos Of A Young And Hot Axl Rose In The 1980s

It’s hard to believe it now, but there was a time when Axl Rose was on top of the world.

Axl Rose was born William Bruce Rose Jr. on February 6, 1962, in Lafayette, Indiana. He eventually moved to California, working odd jobs and playing in bands until the formation of Guns N’ Roses in the mid-1980s. Rose was frequently in trouble with the police and spent time in jail on charges of public intoxication and battery. When the police threatened to charge him as a career criminal, he moved to Los Angeles in 1982. Shortly after, he joined the band AXL. The experience was so all-consuming that he legally changed his name to W. Axl Rose.

And that’s when the magic started. By 1985, he’d started Guns N’ Roses, the combination of he and Tracii Guns’ existing bands, L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. A few months and several line-up changes later the band enlisted Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler. Two years later, Appetite for Destruction came out, and from there, the band, and Axl’s, steady rise and equally sloping decline.

From goatees to corn rows, pimp canes to belly tops, Axl Rose has been through more than a few phases. Some were funny. Some were sad. All were worth remembering.

h/t: vintag.es