Guns N Roses

Axl Rose is wearing a white cotton bathrobe and white tube socks, relaxing on a couch backstage Friday night after a three-hour concert at Seattle's Key Arena, where he'd snaked his way through 34 songs with a version of the band he co-founded a quarter-century ago, Guns N' Roses. It's 3 a.m., and the singer, the sole remaining original member, has shed the bad-ass sunglasses and flat-brimmed Stetson-style hat he wore onstage, pulled off the snakeskin boots and changed out of his faded bell bottoms.

When a flier similar to the bus ad pictured above recently landed in our inbox, a red flag went off: The featured image is famous to many Guns N' Roses fans as the Robert Williams painting printed on the original cover of "Appetite for Destruction. " The image, of a robot appearing to have just committed an act of sexual violence against a woman, prompted Geffen Records to recall the album in 1987 and replace it with a less rape-oriented cover. The image has been resurrected, it turns out, by the Hard Rock Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas in service of the ad campaign promoting its Guns N' Roses residency, and at least one of the Clark County commissioners is none too happy about it. The Las Vegas Sun spoke to Commissioner Mary Beth Scow, who oversaw a recent event temporarily renaming Paradise Road as Paradise City Road.  “I hadn't seen the advertising before the media event,” she told the Sun. “It's clearly inappropriate.

Guns N' Roses may have the Nos. 1 and 2 albums on the Billboard magazine pop chart in the next week or two. Remarkably, the band already has two in the Top 5--"Appetite for Destruction" (No. 2) and "G N' R Lies" (No. 5). Living Colour, the black rock band, has one of the fastest-rising albums on the chart--Vivid (No. 34). Though Tiffany's album, "Hold an Old Friend's Hand" (No. 17) isn't in the Top 10, it's still a big seller. This week it passed the million-units sold mark.

There are things that Slash just doesn't want to talk about. And the timing was definitely not right a few weeks ago as the guitarist was preparing for a trip to Cleveland for his induction with Guns N' Roses into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "I don't even want to talk about that. I don't want to touch it," Slash said in April, his usual friendly demeanor turning cool at the mere mention of GNR. It was during a week of drama and uncertainty about the ceremony, which had peaked days earlier with the arrival of a confrontational open letter to the Hall of Fame from singer Axl Rose.

"The feel-good band of the '90s," is how Guns N' Roses was introduced in its first pay-per-view TV concert on Saturday. And, sure enough, half an hour into the band's set came one of those warm W. Axl Rose Moments, as the singer took time to lay into Warren Beatty in a verbal barrage that to most viewers must have seemed like it was beamed in from Venus instead of the Hippodrome of Paris, where the concert took place.

No one is ever going to confuse Guns N' Roses with the Vienna Boys Choir. The L.A.-based band's debut album has sold more than 6 million copies, despite the fact that many record wholesalers refused to carry it because of a variety of obscene lyrics. Top 40 radio now plays the band's latest hits, despite the fact that lead guitarist Slash was accused by a top rock radio syndicated host earlier this year of being abusive and throwing up in the middle of his interview.

A sold-out concert by Guns 'N Roses and Metallica at Jack Murphy Stadium on Friday has been postponed due to burns suffered in Montreal by Metallica singer-guitarist James Hetfield. Promoter Bill Silva said he expects to reschedule the concert to a date in late September. Shows scheduled for Toronto last Sunday and Denver tonight also were postponed. Several other dates may also have to be changed, although the concert scheduled for Aug.

"Era" is right--not so much because Guns N' Roses was the dominant rock act for most of the designated years, but because these concert recordings sound strangely like relics of bygone days. With just a couple of exceptions, the Hollywood group's songs have not become part of the rock-culture fabric the way the music of, say, Aerosmith and Metallica have. A great live album might have proved that this was a great band, but this two-CD set (due in stores Tuesday) doesn't make that case.

Slash, as Guns N' Roses' lead guitarist Saul Hudson calls himself, is the closest thing to Keith Richards that American rock has produced since Aerosmith's Joe Perry in the '70s--and, at 27, Slash may already have outdistanced Perry's accomplishments. The colorful musician has a feel for the same sensual, seductive, blues-edged notes that Richards introduced with the Rolling Stones. But the similarities with Richards don't end with the music.

This weekend, Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will throw its annual induction ceremony and concert to celebrate its newest members, which include the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Donovan and Guns N' Roses. Make that four-fifths of Guns N' Roses. Singer and co-founder Axl Rose released an open letter to the Rock Hall on Wednesday morning on The Times' Pop & Hiss blog declaring he'd skip the ceremony. He also requested that he not be inducted into the hall. "I won't be attending The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction 2012 Ceremony and I respectfully decline my induction as a member of Guns N' Roses to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame," Rose, 50, wrote in the letter.

Axl Rose wasn't the only musician who didn't show up to perform Saturday at the 27th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, but it was illness that kept Rod Stewart from reuniting with the Faces and Adam Yauch from joining with the Beastie Boys. Rose's boycott of the 51/2-hour event generated the most sparks, however, because of his very public shunning of the ceremony and his decision not to join with his former bandmates as they became members of the Hall of Fame, which also inducted singer-songwriters Donovan and Laura Nyro and both incarnations of the British rock group the Small Faces and Faces.

This weekend, Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will throw its annual induction ceremony and concert to celebrate its newest members, which include the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Donovan and Guns N' Roses. Make that four-fifths of Guns N' Roses. Singer and co-founder Axl Rose released an open letter to the Rock Hall on Wednesday morning on The Times' Pop & Hiss blog declaring he'd skip the ceremony. He also requested that he not be inducted into the hall. "I won't be attending The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction 2012 Ceremony and I respectfully decline my induction as a member of Guns N' Roses to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame," Rose, 50, wrote in the letter.

MUSIC Axl Rose and his band Guns N' Roses perform a rare club gig as part of their three-show L.A. Takeover. Although Rose is the only original member playing in the lineup, the band features longtime players Richard Fortus, Tommy Stinson, Bumblefoot and others. Expect to be taken down to the Paradise City more than once during this walk down acid-washed memory lane. Hollywood Palladium, 6215 Sunset Blvd., L.A. 9 p.m. Fri. Ticket prices vary. (323) 962-7600; http://www.livenation.com.

Axl Rose is wearing a white cotton bathrobe and white tube socks, relaxing on a couch backstage Friday night after a three-hour concert at Seattle's Key Arena, where he'd snaked his way through 34 songs with a version of the band he co-founded a quarter-century ago, Guns N' Roses. It's 3 a.m., and the singer, the sole remaining original member, has shed the bad-ass sunglasses and flat-brimmed Stetson-style hat he wore onstage, pulled off the snakeskin boots and changed out of his faded bell bottoms.

A list of upcoming concerts across the Southland, with on-sale dates in parentheses. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Roger Waters, May 19 (Fri.) Staples Center Jay-Z and Kanye West, Dec. 11 (Fri.) The Forum Guns N' Roses, Dec. 21 (Mon.) Gibson Amphitheatre KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas with Blink-182, Dec. 10 (Wed.); Big Time Rush, Feb. 18 (Sat.) Honda Center Rammstein, May 17 (Sat.) The Satellite Just an Animal, Nov. 22; New York Night Train Soul Clap and Dance Off, Dec. 6; Lost Lander, Dec. 8 (now)

Richard Fortus, rhythm and lead guitarist for the rock band Guns N' Roses, has placed his Woodland Hills house on the market at $549,000. Update: This version updates details on the house. The single-story contemporary has an open floor plan, cherry plank flooring and a flat-screen television in the living room. The kitchen features granite countertops and new stainless-steel appliances. There are three bedrooms, 13/4 bathrooms and 1,500 square feet of living space.

The rockin' Axl Rose experience legally known as Guns N' Roses is like the megabucks movie version of some gritty off-Broadway play. It won't make you forget the original, but its gloss and sprawl are not to be despised.

Ever since Guns N' Roses made noisy teen Angst a billion-dollar industry, the streets of Hollywood have coughed up a legion of boogie-fried Guns N' Roses and lipstick-wearing Guns N' Roses and post-industrial Guns N' Roses--the Armenian Guns N' Roses is probably lurking somewhere around the intersection of Selma and Vine even as you read this.

Vanessa Williams is headed to Wisteria Lane next fall on "Desperate Housewives." ABC said Tuesday that she'll play a "wicked new housewife" as the series enters its seventh season. Williams will hit the neighborhood fresh from performing in the Broadway musical "Sondheim on Sondheim," which runs through June. She starred in the recently concluded TV series "Ugly Betty." —Associated Press Guns N' Roses spans media The latest Guns N' Roses project is not an album, a video or a book: It's all three.

The downfall of Soviet Communism took 70 years, but "Chinese Democracy" appears to be in jeopardy after just two weeks. The Guns N' Roses album that was 17 years in the making climbed only as high as No. 3 when it debuted on the national sales chart. It has tumbled to No. 18 in its second week of release. That's a disturbing sign for the most expensive to produce album ever in rock, the cost once estimated at $13 million.