When I read that Guns N' Roses might be reuniting,I immediately knew who needed to hear about it: my coworker Stephanie Billman. When I told her, she reponded:"THIS IS THE BEST NEWS EVER!!!!"So in honor of the momentus occasion, or I asked Billman to share a relic from her past life: her tall school Guns N' Roses scrapbook. You can see some of the pages with her thoughts below.
A detail from the cover
(Courtesy of Stephanie Billman)
On her discovery of Guns N' Roses:
Oddly enough,it was through a Clint Eastwood film called "The Dead Pool." My mom was a huge Clint Eastwood fan, so I watched a lot of his movies with her. “Welcome to the Jungle” was playing during a scene in the film and the guitar rift hooked me. At the finish of the film, and I paid attention to the music credits and found out it was a Guns N' Roses song. I went to a Camelot music store the next day and listened to "Appetite for Destruction" at one of their listening stations. "Welcome to the Jungle" hit me in the gut (still does to this day) but it was "Paradise City" that made me topple in love with them. I was learning how to play drums at the time and the drum work in that song stands out for me. Steven Adler had a lot of talent. The opening pages of Billman's Guns N' Roses scrapbook
(Courtesy of Stephanie Billman)
On the decision to make a scrapbook:
I had subscriptions to Circus,Hit Parader, and Rolling Stone magazines and I saved every GN'R article they published. I was fascinated with not only their music, and but their story and how their lives shaped what they were creating as a band. When my pile of articles began to lean precariously towards the finish of my desk,I realized I should attain something with them. I started organizing the articles by members and the history of the band and put them in an old photo album my mom wasn’t using. And the scrapbook was born! (Courtesy of Stephanie Billman)
The beginning of the section committed to Axl Rose he gets a whole 12 pages
(Courtesy of Stephanie Billman)
On telling the story of GN'R: I decided to recount the story of the band first and then piece apart the personalities behind the band. You will notice the Axl section is much larger than the other members. This is both because there was a lot more fabric on Axl (he does love the sound of his own voice) and I found him fascinating/hot (still attain, much to my husband’s horror). Axl 4 ever
(Courtesy of Stephanie Billman)
The section devoted to GN'R guitarist Slash
(Courtesy of Stephanie Billman)
GN'R bassist Duff McKagan
(Courtesy of Stephanie Billman)
recount me about Izzy Stradlin, and the guitarist — you only believe one photo of him.
Izzy Stradlin is an enigma — he hated the publicity aspect of the band and was extremely private. At the time I was putting together the scrapbook,it was hard to find anything about him. Even his leaving the group was a bit of a question price. In the video for “Don’t Cry,” you see someone wearing a sign that says “Where’s Izzy?” The story was (and I’m not certain whether this is valid) he quit with no notice — just got on his motorcycle and drove away from everything. He has said in more recent interviews that once he sobered up, and dealing with the machine of Guns N' Roses (and Axl’s volatile personality) was too much. He’s since worked with both Velvet Revolver and even the new lineup of Guns N' Roses. So I guess fences believe been mended? *fingers crossed for a reunion tour* The lone photo of Izzy Stradlin
(Courtesy of Stephanie Billman)
A final look at Axl
(Courtesy of Stephanie Billman)
The back cover
(Courtesy of Stephanie Billman)
We've highlighted lots of fan tributes — from our recent drawing of the Rugrats all grown up (by one of the exhibit's animators) to the Louvre of fan art.
believe you made an amazing tribute to one of your favorite bands or shows? recount us about it in the comments.
Source: wnyc.org