Before the release of *Appetite for Destruction*, Axl Rose was just another glam band singer on the Sunset Strip hoping for a break. But boy, could he sing, as this rare footage from 1986 shows.
Axl Rose (Image credit: Marc S Canter/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Before Guns N’ Roses released their *Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide* EP in December 1986, Axl Rose was relatively unknown outside Los Angeles. On the Sunset Strip, however, the artist, formerly known as William Bruce Rose Jr., was already a familiar face, having fronted Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns before forming Guns N’ Roses. When GN’R signed to Geffen Records in March ’86, many believed the Indiana-born vocalist was destined to become a national star.
One musician closely watching Rose’s rise was Richard Black, frontman of Shark Island, the house band at Gazzarri’s, the Hollywood club where Van Halen famously started. Some insiders suggest that Rose borrowed a few moves from Black. Shark Island’s singer wasn’t oblivious to this, even if he once claimed, “He [Axl] wasn’t able to do anything nearly as good as what I was doing.”
“If you look at it from my perspective, if I say anything at all, it is perceived as sour grapes,” Black admitted in a 2020 interview with the Misplaced Straws website. He revealed that he once visited Rose and saw “8 or 10 VHS tapes, all marked with ‘Shark Island'” on top of his TV.
“My heart sank when I saw that,” Black confessed. “Because I already knew at that time that Guns N’ Roses were getting down with David Geffen and that whole thing. And I knew that the person with the biggest mouthpiece is going to be able to claim whatever, so what can I do?”
Back in 1986, Black and Rose were still friends. On April 26 of that year, Black invited Rose and L.A. Guns leader Tracii Guns to join his band onstage at an LA club to cover Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll.” Although the camcorder footage of the collaboration isn’t the sharpest, Rose’s distinctive vocals unmistakably steal the show. His name wouldn’t be a local secret for much longer.
