10 Perfect Band Members That Everyone Forgets About

For all of the classic bands that have come and gone in rock music, there's always that one quiet one in the mix. As far back as the early days of rock and roll, the Beatles always had George Harrison keeping the peace and the Stones got by pretty well having Bill Wyman as their anchor. And since Guns N Roses modeled themselves after the dirty rock and roll of their childhood, Izzy Stradlin was the calming force that kept the band thriving.

Though Izzy was known for his cold and callous demeanor a lot of the time among the rest of the band, you tend to forget how many songs in GNR's catalog have his fingerprints all over them. For all of the rock fans that like to call Slash and Axl Rose the real duo behind Guns, the genesis of most of their tunes actually started with Izzy and Axl, who both found their way to LA after coming from the Midwest. Being the rhythm guitarist, Izzy also had a focus on the pulse of the song most of the time, making sure the band is grooving rather than just playing the song straight every single time.

By the time that the band started to get comfortable in their own skin, Izzy even got to pen some of the band's more celebrated hits, like the acoustic ballad Patience and even getting the chance to sing a pseudo duet with Axl on the song Dust N Bones off of Use Your Illusion. Though Steven Adler's dismissal may have been the first time that Guns started to separate, the point of no return was when Izzy decided to walk away.