Just like nobody here feels the need to write their actual name on a niche social network, artists think the same way. Your name might be Marty McFly, but who's stopping you from being Calvin Klein? Rock stars follow the same logic, so why not explore all the principles behind those extravagant names?
Guns N' Roses apparently had a whole nation of human beings behind them, but it's better to start at the beginning, when there were five men whose names didn't match the stars they wanted to become.
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A X L R O S E : William Bruce Bailey was that scrawny figure, hairy to Eddie The Head levels, always with a pedestal in those photographs from '84 to '85. This is a funny story because this guy's stage name doesn't even come close to his birth name, so how did he get that creative? Simple – it wasn't his idea. There's an interview where he explains the origin (thank god!) in which he mentioned a group of friends who used to invent band names. He was having a particularly rough day at home, with his mother and stepfather arguing. His friend called him and he couldn't be bothered to talk. Before Axl could hang up, his friend suggested the band name "Axle". Axl said softly (not really), "Sure." When his friend carried on and asked how he'd spell it, he said angrily: "A-X-L" and slammed the phone down. Apparently, it was Izzy who suggested adopting the name, and supposedly, Axl kept 'Rose' because that was his biological father's name, William Bruce Rose – with an honorary mention to Slash, who said he thought the name looked cooler without the 'E' in 'Axel'. Maybe that was a joke, but I personally want it to be true, because according to what the guitarist recounted, Axl didn't know how to spell 'axel', ended up registering his name wrong on show signings and the like, and only found out about the grammatical error when someone called him out on it. – Did you know his initials spell out 'W.A.R'? Always so passionate.
Axl smiling for the photo. Say "cheese", Axl.
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S L A S H : Saul Hudson is a pretty striking name, don't you think? Try spitting as much as you can while saying his name and you'll realise it's as authentic as it sounds; anyway, let's say young Slash was always around that art crowd because of his designer mother, Ola Hudson. Seymour Cassel was an artist very close to Ola's family, and his son and the designer's son were childhood friends. With that in mind, Seymour affectionately nicknamed Saul 'Slash' – in some contexts, the word can refer to something cut drastically or swiftly; it fit that curly-haired kid perfectly, because the boy couldn't keep still. – In short, it was his way of calling him 'speedy', how cute. In honour of Seymour, Slash started not only being a bolt of lightning, but also throwing one now and then ⚡
Slash and a schoolmate. It looks like they were thrown side by side and said, "Let's take a picture!"
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I Z Z Y S T R A D L I N : For some reason, a lot of fans in the fanfic niche used to refer to Jeffrey Dean Isbell as gypsy or Jewish. Why? Good question, especially since his family have no connection to Judaism. Either way, the affectionate nickname 'Izzy' is also from childhood, back when he was sleeping in stables and smoking cheap weed. 'Straddlin' came after 'Stranded', in a very old fanzine the band published themselves when they first got together, or in a flyer for a show, again from the early days. It's called the GNR Newsletter No.1, published in December 1985; the name that stuck is a pun with a sexual connotation – what a rascal!!
Izzy checking his nails.
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D U F F M C K A G A N : Surprised or not, here's another childhood nickname, for our dear Michael McKagan. Apparently, Michael was a very trendy name in the '60s, believe it! Michael Jordan, Michael Stipe, Michael J. Fox... and the thousands of Michaels in Duff's family. One fine day, his mother commented that someone needed a nickname to avoid more confusion with the kids.
"You’d have five moms yelling for Michael, so my Irish grandfather named me ‘Baby’ when I was seven months old. I had seven older brothers and sisters calling me that nickname, and my mom didn’t want that to stick, so she called me Duff. Nobody has called me Michael since unless it’s a customer or the bank."
(https://www.irishamerica.com/2025/01/guns-n-roses-duff-mckagan/)
Duff with his friends and his hair already dyed. Born to be blonde, wasn't he?
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S T E V E N A D L E R : Yuppie, the fans got this one right! (Michael) Steven Adler is Jewish!!! Actually, it's pretty confusing. Baptised as Michael Coletti, however, the drummer adopted 'Adler' because it was his stepfather's surname – Malvin Adler. Michael changed his name due to family and Jewish traditions. The first name 'Steven' was chosen specifically because the conventions of the Ashkenazi Jewish community forbid naming a child after a living relative (he had been named after his father). – This is the information I found on Wikipedia, because unlike the situation with Axl, it seems nobody was interested enough in Steven to publish an article about his origins. Boo-hoo.
Steven holding a pair of maracas. La Cucaracha!
Right then, so it was in these ways that the rockers managed to drip drops of style and colour into the names they'd adopt years later, as bizarre and eccentric musicians. Swing was essential in the eighties, and they had it in abundance.
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