Guns N' Roses

Guns N' Roses turned a local Los Angeles following into one of hard rock's biggest commercial runs after the 1987 release of Appetite for Destruction. Formed in 1985 from the bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose, the group signed with Geffen Records the following year. Its classic lineup paired vocalist Axl Rose with lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler.

Appetite for Destruction initially struggled, then broke through after the video for “Welcome to the Jungle” gained traction. The album sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, became the best-selling debut album in the United States, and produced “Sweet Child o' Mine” and “Paradise City” alongside “Welcome to the Jungle.” Its mix of punk, blues, metal, and hard rock stood apart from much of late-1980s glam metal, while Rose's vocals and the band's confrontational public image earned Guns N' Roses the nickname “The World's Most Dangerous Band.”

The 1988 follow-up G N' R Lies combined earlier recordings with new acoustic material. It reached number two on the Billboard 200, sold 10 million copies globally, and included “Patience” and the controversial “One in a Million.” Adler was replaced by Matt Sorum in 1990 due to drug issues, and keyboardist Dizzy Reed joined the group that year. In 1991, the twin albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II debuted at numbers two and one on the Billboard 200. Together they sold 35 million copies worldwide and yielded major singles including “You Could Be Mine,” “Don't Cry,” and “November Rain,” supported by a run of high-budget videos.

Following the record-setting 1991 to 1993 Use Your Illusion Tour, the band released the punk covers collection “The Spaghetti Incident?” in 1993. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and sold more than a million copies in the United States. A period of lineup changes followed, and by 1998 Rose and Reed were the only remaining members from the Illusion era. New personnel including Robin Finck, Buckethead, Tommy Stinson, Brain, and Chris Pitman worked on Chinese Democracy, released in 2008 after a lengthy development. The industrial and electronic-influenced album cost an estimated $14 million, debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, and sold 2.6 million copies worldwide.

Slash and McKagan returned in 2016 for the Not in This Lifetime... Tour, one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time. The current lineup consists of Rose, Slash, McKagan, Richard Fortus, Isaac Carpenter, Reed, and Melissa Reese. Guns N' Roses was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 and has sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide.