in their own words

"When we started we wanted to be the coolest, sexiest, meanest, nastiest, loudest, funnest band. There was a group consciousness of rape, pillage, search and destroy!"

-Axl, June 1992


"We didn't have any money, but we had a lot of hangers on and girls we could basically live off. Things were just too easy."

-Izzy, 1987

"For years I was living out of a duffel-bag and I was happy."

-Slash

"We were just making a record. Seriously, we didn't think about if it would sell ten copies, never mind one million copies. We didn't know. We didn't really care. We just recorded the music we'd been playing two years before that."

-Duff, April 1990

"Me, I like to party. I'm like your typical drummer, I guess. Sometimes I go overboard."

-Matt Sorum, September 1991

"There's one song that's kind of like Black Sabbath goes to Ireland ..."

-Axl, June 1987

"We're definitely, positively, absolutely going to start thinking about considering starting work on the album quite soon ... I think."

-Izzy, June 1989

"I'm a complete road dog"

-Slash, July 1991

"He [Axl] ain't EVER going to lose this anger!"

-Duff, May 1988

"I just try to slam the drums as hard as possible,and make the band crunch, as heavy as possible."

-Matt Sorum, September 1991

"I just think it's a really weird job. I'm not saying it's a bad job, I'm not saying it's a great job. But you know, it's just the work that goes into being that athletic. I mean, do you want to go out every night and jump off, like, your car? And have to do that? It's like it becomes your job. That doesn't take away the sincerity or the honesty of it, but it is a job. And sometimes I'd rather be dong something else."

-Axl, April 1992

"Axl isn't really 24, he's a million years old ... he's seen everything."

-Izzy, 1986

"When we get up in the afternoon to do a soundcheck we drink so much that we can't play, because our hands are shaking like windmills. So what happens? We drink! We drink more and more, and then we're fine and we wake up the next day with some floozy ... you don't know her name ... you've got weird shit on your dick ... your bed's all wet from pissing in it, and you go, 'Listen, will you do me a favor and find me some booze and some pizza?'"

-Slash, 1987

"Kids need a band like us."

-Duff, January 1990

"This band is what it is. It ain't no bullshit. It isn't sitting around thinking up ideas for publicity. This stuff really happens! They're just being themselves. So this is it, take it or leave it, love it or hate it, that's why it works."

-Matt Sorum, September 1991