Guns N' Roses

Guns N' Roses formed in Los Angeles in 1985 out of two earlier bands, L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, emerging from the Sunset Strip club scene with a sound that mixed hard rock, punk attitude and blues-based guitar work. The classic lineup, signed to Geffen Records in 1986, paired vocalist Axl Rose and guitarist Slash with rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steven Adler.

Appetite for Destruction, released in 1987, struggled commercially until the video for 'Welcome to the Jungle' caught on; it went on to sell more than 30 million copies and remains one of the best-selling debut albums in rock. The follow-up, G N' R Lies (1988), mixed earlier material with new acoustic songs, reached number two on the Billboard 200 and sold ten million copies, built around 'Patience' and the controversial 'One in a Million.'

Steven Adler left in 1990 amid drug problems and was replaced by Matt Sorum, while keyboardist Dizzy Reed joined around the same time. The twin 1991 albums Use Your Illusion I and II debuted at numbers two and one on the Billboard 200, selling a combined 35 million copies and backed by the record-setting Use Your Illusion Tour. The band closed the era with a punk covers album, The Spaghetti Incident?, in 1993.

Years of lineup turmoil followed; by 1998 only Rose and Reed remained from the Illusion-era lineup. A rebuilt group featuring Buckethead, Robin Finck and Tommy Stinson spent years working on Chinese Democracy, released in 2008 at a reported cost of about $14 million, the most expensive rock album ever made.

Slash and McKagan rejoined Rose in 2016 for the Not in This Lifetime Tour, among the highest-grossing tours ever staged; the band has toured heavily since, with Richard Fortus on guitar, Isaac Carpenter on drums, and Reed and Melissa Reese on keyboards. Guns N' Roses was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.