It wasn't just the big hits -- "Sweet Child o' Mine," "Paradise City" and "Welcome to the Jungle" -- that grabbed me and so many other teenagers. It was the songs that never ended up on the radio, the songs that injected adrenaline into our lives, the songs with (gasp!) swear words.

Take "Out ta Get Me." Never mind that the song simply mixes tired Old West outlaw ideas with a guitar-heavy assault of sound. Never mind that it leads directly to Rage Against the Machine's "Fuck you/I won't do what you tell me." And forget the fact that Rose's paranoia may or may not have been justified. Just listen to the words:

"They're out to get me," Rose sings several times. "They won't catch me/I'm fuckin' innocent/They won't break me."

Talk about a contagious chorus. Who hasn't felt such paranoia at some point in his life? Who hasn't felt so wrongly accused that he wanted to scream? Who hasn't wanted to declare, "They won't touch me 'cause I got somethin' I been buildin' up inside"?

And yet, it's not just the content that's magnetic; it's also the development, the performance. Rose, at his best, can rival Robert De Niro playing Jake LaMotta in "Raging Bull," or Al Pacino in "Serpico." Rose draws you in with his sway, his simple wardrobe of jeans, T-shirt and a red bandanna -- and then he makes you watch and listen as he edges closer and closer to the abyss.

It's all the more exciting to experience because Rose moves so quickly between acting enraged and actually doing damage. Seeing Rose live is a "never know" proposition. You might see the best show of your life, or you might get three songs and the middle finger. But Rose will never put on a concert that's merely routine.

The mix of the sinister and the righteous seems too intense for Rose to suppress. The bitches' brew has only grown stronger over the years. "Lies," for example, Guns n' Roses' second album, which came out in 1988, contains several songs that twist contradictory emotions into a rough, intriguing thread. "I Used to Love Her" tells the story of what sounds like a murder, yet it's widely considered a song about Rose's dog -- which he loved but had to euthanize and bury in his backyard. "Patience" preaches virtue in ballad form, but Rose breaks down in the end; and then there's "One in a Million."

The hateful, six-minute rant filled with lines like "immigrants and faggots don't mean much to me" brought hailstorms of criticism. Yet it sounds a lot like a parody of the late-'80s political mood. Once you overlook the sheer offense of what Rose screams, which is no easy task, the song looks more and more like a documentary of discontent, the preface to the white male backlash that we now acknowledge exists thanks in large part to Susan Faludi's book "Stiffed."

Rose's later career seems to support the theory that he's not so much ignorance incarnate as he is perpetually immature. Writing last year in Rolling Stone, critic Peter Wilkinson may have said it best when he noted that Rose is "a complicated man who can be sensitive and funny but who is also controlling and obsessive and troubled."

Fame in particular seems to have changed Rose. By 1990, only three years after "Appetite for Destruction," he burned out. He didn't show up for studio sessions, cut concerts short and tended to be reclusive when he wasn't throwing temper tantrums. He even scared off his wife Erin Everly, who married Rose in April only to divorce him nine months later. She also accused him of beating her, which Rose denies.

Regardless, the music seemed to suffer. "Use Your Illusion I and II," and "The Spaghetti Incident" -- an album of cover songs, including one written by Charles Manson -- lacked the tight mix of sound and fury. There's a bit too much vengeance here, toward the press, toward fans and mostly toward women. Rose and the band spend too much time and energy settling scores. "Oh My God," the only song released by Guns since Rose and Slash parted (while Rose secured the band's trademark), also feels stilted.

But even in the midst of the mess, while Rose went through another rough relationship, this time with model Stephanie Seymour, and then found himself trampled by "alternative" rock, more lawsuits and depression, Guns managed to bang out a few gems. Rose may have been right last New Year's Eve when he told an audience, "I have traversed a treacherous sea of horrors to be with you here tonight," but throughout his rise and fall he has never lost his volatile brilliance.

It's the rawness of Rose that forms the core of his appeal. He may be a lot of things -- a brat, a prima donna, a seriously troubled, violent man -- but one thing he's never been is a fraud. He's always had his own look, his own vocal style, his own attitude and his own agenda. In the rock 'n' roll marketplace of the '80s and of today -- when consumers are given a choice only between overproduced pop and overproduced nü metal -- the sheer honesty of Axl Rose stands out. He's always given the world a piece of his mind. And for that, some of us will be forever grateful.

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