Axl Rose is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer who is perhaps best known as being the lead singer for the rock band Guns N’ Roses. Guns N’ Roses debut album, Appetite for Destruction, reached number one on the Billboard Charts one year after its release; the album is known for the single Sweet Child o’ Mine and has sold over thirty million copies worldwide.  Axl Rose was William Bruce Rose Jr. was born on February 6, 1962, in Lafayette, Indiana. Rose’s parents separated when he was two years old and he never met his biological father, who was murdered in 1984, as an adult. Rose was raised by his mother’s second husband, Stephen Bailey. He found his step father to be oppressive and took solace in music at a young age. Rose was a juvenile delinquent and was arrested more than twenty times in Indiana before moving to Los Angeles.

In 1985, Rose formed Guns N’ Roses by merging two bands, L.A. Guns and Hollywood Roses. The band consisted of Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan, and Steven Adler. The band played the Los Angeles club circuit before signing with Geffen Records in March of 1986. Guns N’ Roses have sold more than one hundred million records worldwide and their Not in This Lifetime…Tour was the second highest grossing of all time, pulling in more than five hundred and sixty two million dollars.