10 Reasons Guns N' Roses Broke Up

10. Fighting Over Musical Direction

Even early on in the development of Guns N' Roses, musical direction was a sticking point. GN'R were never a band with a "sound" that was easy to identify beyond the distinctive voice of Axl Rose. This was mainly because stylistically, they ran the gamut from rock n' roll to hard rock to heavy metal and even punk (It's So Easy, for example). Axl Rose, who idolized Elton John and Freddie Mercury, wanted plenty of ballads in the mix. Slash, taking over for Tracie Guns, wanted hard rock songs. Duff brought the Punk element, and Izzy Stradlin' the classic rock vibe. While recording for Appetite for Destruction, Slash allegedly wanted nothing to do with the song that would go on to be GN'R's biggest hit, Sweet Child O' Mine. Right out of the gate, there were divisions, probably because, from day one, Guns N' Roses were a band that had endured multiple line-up changes. Guns early records (Appetite and Lies), however, had songs that had been written years earlier, when various members were with other bands. Even when the Use Your Illusion albums came out in 91, many of the songs had been around for years, some before Appetite. Tracks like Don't Cry and November Rain fell into that pile. After those albums, though, the vault ran dry, and the band's taste shifted. Rose was leaning towards ballads and electronic rock influenced by bands like Nine Inch Nails, while Slash wanted a straight rock album. One story has it that the guitarist went as far as tell Rose what words to sing. Yet even when a hard rock approach was a agreed on, nothing could get done, and by 1996, Slash had left the band, leaving just Duff, Dizzy Reed, and Rose as notable members - with Duff leaving shortly after.