Who Is The Real Guns N' Roses?

With Guns N' Roses being announced for next years Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, everyone has been talking about a possible reunion. So far, all of the original members have RSVP'd except Slash and Axl Rose. Who should be there? What is the cutoff and how is it determined?

When Metallica was inducted in 2009, current bassist Robert Trujillo got up on stage and made an acceptance speech. He had only been in the band for five years and only appeared on a single Metallica album at that point. Should he have been up there accepting? Had he paid his dues or just ridden in on the coattails of other members?

Steven Adler was there from the beginning but was fired in 1990 and replaced with The Cult drummer Matt Sorum. Keyboardist Dizzy Reed joined the band as a touring member and is the second longest running member of the band behind Axl Rose. Should they both be inducted?

Should time with the band determine who gets in? Axl Rose stated in a recent interview with the LA Times that "I don't have an excitement to work with people that joined in the 'Illusion' time. There's behind the scenes that was really, really difficult there with different ones. So it's not really even a full reunion. And these guys have been here a long time, whether the public knows it or not because we haven't done the media like that. Tommy's [Stinson, bass] been on 14 years, Richard's [Fortus, guitar] going on 11. That's as long as Duff was in the band. Chris [Pitman, keyboards] has been in going on 11, Dizzy's [Reed, keyboards] on since 'Illusion', Frank's [Ferrer, drums] going on six, and so's Bumble [Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal, guitar]. These guys have been here. And DJ's [Ashba, guitar] going on three."

Axl makes a fairly valid point that these guys have now been in the band longer than the original lineup. Matt Sorum wasn't part of the classic lineup, nor was he in the band very long, but he has already stated he will be there accepting.

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Tags:  Guns N Roses, gnr, axl rose, hall of fame, slash

Jason Fisher    December 22, 2011