Axl Rose. Get it? Get it? Ha ha ahw haw, har hardee har har. I’m watching Glee right now. Kind of phoning this one in. Is this really Axel Rose? I mean it’s implied that it is, but I’ll be damned if I can reconcile this picture with my hazy memory of the late 80’s and early 90’s. I’m going to take this opportunity to talk about my friend Don Gerard. Picture this: It’s 1987 and there’s a house in a college town that is half filled with students, half filled with dropouts. It’s called “Ten Shitty Guys,” but there are about 14 people living there. My roommate Don walks up to our front porch, where a few of us are sitting next to one of those giant console stereos from the 60’s. We had one on our front porch. It’s where we rocked out. Fresh off of work, Don strolled up and started to slide some vinyl out of a paper bag as he walked up the steps. “Check this out you guys. These guys are going to be HUGE.” And then he slaps Appetite for Destruction on the turntable. And this is early, because these guys are still unknown outside of LA, and it’s the original cover with the controversial Robert Williams painting. At first we were like ” Are you kidding? This is heavy metal bullshit. Nobody is going to give a shit about these guys.” But within a week it was regularly featured on the playlist of the radio station that was our front porch. Don was right about these guys. They did become huge about six months later. As right as he was about Guns and Roses, he was just as wrong about R.E.M.. He was a huge fan, and I was giving him a hard time because at the time it seemed like they were releasing an album every eight months. He replied “These guys have to strike while the iron is hot. An indy band like this is never going to be popular for very long.” OK. Maybe he didn’t actually say “strike while the iron is hot,” but uh, if I had my druthers…. Yeah, so. Axel Rose and a Mike McGill skateboard, plus an official licensed Guns and Roses skateboard that is disappointing, like most licensed band boards. At this point in my rambling I’d liek to mention that Rich from EPM used to actually skate with Axl in Indiana when he (Axl) was known as William.
23 comments
Donnie G
R.E. who?
Pfftttt…
dgp
sorta
dgp
have you seen gerwer’s model on antihero? u can boardslide axl’s face !!!
Sk8 D
I believe this scenario requires a choreographed lip-synch off.
jakeandannoy
Rather, “UNapologetic”. No apologies.
The poster came from “Circus” I’m telling you, its him.
Drunk Andy
I’ll admit it. I like Glee too. Let’s fight!
Axlpoweredembarrassment
I got one word for “Appetite For Destruction”: Insipid.
kilwag
I just realized something about the random picture of Don that I posted, It was taken from our roof, there’s a skateboard in the yard on the edge of the picture.
kilwag
Bobcat… I think I actually enlarged it. I don’t know where a larger version is. I found it on the link. Click on “It’s implied that it is” and ask that guy.
conahan
Two degrees of Bill Bailey. Rich knows the guy.
brad
…and the 6 degrees of Tommy Stinson
curtis
the G-n-R deck should have that McGill shape. that’s got to be Axl, you can see Slash?? in his tat.
my older brother was a glam rocker who also brought this home 6 months before “welcome to the jungle” hit. I don’t ever need to hear that song or sweet child o’mine ever again. but for real, I live on a desert island and that is one of the 10 albums I miss. I could not tell you what their other albums sound like, and they became so stupid in my eyes, but appatite for destruction is a ass kickin’ album. hardcore punk enough for me in ’87
jakeandannoy
It’s there to commemorate 15 years of split-ends.
Should’ve used Pantene Pro-V.
Loo Ganida
That pic is gay! Nice jacket! and what’s up with the plaque sticker on the board? was it presented to him or something?
freakbeatfuzz
That pic is gold! Thanks Randy!
Rich
Here’s an EPM YouTube Tuesday from early last year that goes into in more depth.
Rich
Axl went by Bill during our Levee Plaza Skate Park days. Bill Baily was his name at the time. I haven’t really talked to him since early college days circa 1981.
Bob
Not that they weren’t as influential as the Beatles (when it came to letting pale people let their lame flag fly). Both strike me as watered down drek, championed (as something else entirely) by those who had found the energetic BEAT of actual (fifties) rock and roll, or of punk, to be too exhausting. Not that you were championing them here. I’m just saying they’re not deck-worthy.
bobcat
holee crap i thought that picture of Freddy Krueger with the Vision board was epic but that takes the cake. Is there a larger version? I’m too mobile to google…
Bob
yikes! you liked “endemic diarrhea”? (Not Glee; rather, that’s what New Zealand’s Chris Knox [who did better all by hisself than g AND r] likened them [Guns and Roses] to). Shoulda gone with your first reaction.
Mac
Why was Rich “known as William”?
Sk8 D
yikes! you like Glee?
jakeandannoie-aye-yi-yi-yi-wheredowegonow-oh-oh-oh-oh
Was a GnR fan since the demo-Live like a Suicide and AFD’s release. But then, I was 10.
Had the above photo on my wall, 1989, pin up style, via Circus Magazine. Totally apologetic.