A guns n' roses peak of popularity 1991 and 1992 the band was completely broke Axl was sleeping on a mattress in the studio in

GNR was already over the hill in 1991, their best work well behind them and coasting on their reputation. Just keep making records and touring and you won't go broke, unless maybe you suck

I wish Def Leppard would have gone broke by then too.

Great band. Slash single handily caused the price of Les Paul’s to skyrocket

I knew the drummer for Stabbing Westward. When they had their big breakout album and were playing stadiums, the band took home about $35k each for a year's worth of recording and touring (mid 1990s dollars). That is because your earnings on your big album and tour go first to pay back the studio for recording studio costs (very expensive back then), advertising, tour expenses and other promotional stuff the studio paid for. And if the band wanted to stay in the penthouse suite at the local Ritz Carlton and have a huge party after the show with all the groupies drinking $100 a bottle champagne, that also came out of your cut. The big money would then come on the second album. That is when the band could negotiate for a big advance and shift more of the risk back to the studio on whether the album would be a hit. Thereafter, royalties used to be a great moneymaker if your stuff stayed popular for a long time. Every radio play and album sold would result in a royalty to the performers. Digital streaming services like spotify have killed that as performers only get a fraction of a fraction of what they used to get for radio or CD sales. Your only hope would be to get your song on a commercial or used in a movie/TV show to get old school royalties.

If someone is stupid enough to believe it took them 24 years after their big album (Appetite) to start making money because of other deals then you aren't very bright. No way that's true.

I remember reading that Dave Matthews made sure to structure his deal so the studio got very little from his touring. Seems the smarter approach.

Guns N Roses has had one album in the past 32 years, yet is still popular. You'd be delusional to think they didn't earn big money. They got "old school royalties" from games like guitar hero and GTA, and numerous other uses of their songs. Maybe they struggled a little in the 90s financially, but by 2000, they were living like kings.

AXL is a bit of a bonehead, but Slash in particular knows how to make money. Velvet Revolver was really good and Slash's solo career has been alright. With them, Slash had a number 1 single, number 1 album, won a Grammy. Tons of guess appearances.

The other members of GNR made out alright too.

Thats standard now. Album sales used to approach or even dwarf ticket sales for some bands before the internet.

If ever an artist stuck it to The Man, it was Tom Scholz. And he has remained outspoken in his loathing for the music industry ever since.

“Of all the entertainment businesses, including television and movies, the music business is the worst of all them,” he said. “It attracts the lowest form of life in many cases.”

musicradar.com

“The music business attracts the lowest form of life!”: How the leader of a multi-million selling rock band took on the industry and won!

@MusicRadar

If ever an artist stuck it to The Man, it was Boston’s 'mad scientist' Tom Scholz

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Their lifestyle was key to populuarizing the AIDS Epidemic drugs and that really boosted their fame wit Houston Pride and Dallas Pride folks.

Who is GNR? Seriously STOP already with the stupid abbreviations!

What? GNR is in the name of their 2nd album, don't blame me. They can be GNR if they want.

You’re effin crazy.

Boomer here & this is a Boomer band back in the day (saw them live twice in the late 80s/early 90s). We would all watch their videos on "MTV" all the time - which was the go to music channel on cable TV.

I'm surprised they're so popular with the younger generation these days since the younger generations blame the Boomers for everything that's wrong with society these days. Lol

Of course, Axel was the big cheese of the band & became a household name among rock fans back then. But my favorite band member was Duff Mckagan the bass player & co-writer of some of their songs. Considering how much drugs & alchohol he did back then, he looks really good for his age (61). In fact, I wish I had his hair, height & leanness at my old ripe age of 64. Lol.

The best gay band of the 90s.

In the 80s and 90s, any band's first record deal was always heavily in favor of the label. The label's justification was that they fronted a lot of money for recording time, production, marketing, etc... with no guarantee they would ever recoup that money back. The albums that sold for 19.99 mostly went back to the label and tours did not make a ton of money (remember, the average ticket was like 20 or 30 dollars back then). And most bands were so desperate to be signed and unsophisticated about the contracts, that they usually were taken advantage of when they made it huge. Times have changed now that music is sold digitally, for about $1.50 to $2.00 per song (and a good chunk of that goes to Apple before even the label gets to take a cut). So now, touring is where a lot of money has to be recouped. And we pay 5 to 10x the price for a ticket.

For Gn'R, the subsequent record deals in the 90s were a bit more in favor of the band. But, as the video describes, their touring costs were insane. Axl needed to travel with a spiritual healer who would bless the stage before he could go on. They traveled by plane. Wrecked dressing rooms, hotels, venues, and the like because they were all drunk and on drugs.

Eventually Axl gained the rights to master recordings and the band name, which has allowed him to make a ton of money off of the brand. Slash formed other groups and made money from that. Duff, to his credit, had smart family members step in to manage his money. So they were doing ... alright ... individually in the 2000s and beyond. And, if they really needed money, LiveNation openly declared that a 100 million dollar offer remained on the table if they ever wanted to reform.

This is an ill-informed opinion, but the reason some of the original lineup reformed was Slash's divorce. The story goes that Axl did not like Slash's ex-wife, Perla, and that contributed to the two never talking it out in the late 90s/00s. But, Slash also was married without a prenup. Meaning she was going to take half of everything under California law. Low and behold, as soon as the divorce was underway the reunion talks/rumors began surfacing.

And now that they're all sober and aware of the financial ramifications of what they're doing, the band has played tight sets, shown up on time, not caused as much trouble as they did 30 years ago. The only problem for us as fans is that they have aged quite a bit. Axl can't hit the notes with same amount of power.

Straight Outta Compton the movie gave a pretty accurate depiction of how "the industry" screwed artists back then. NWA and GNR were big at the same time.

They were probably my favorite band of the late-80s and early-90s. Probably still top five.

I was at the opening USA show of the Use Your Illusion tour back in 1991 at Alpine Valley, WI. It was one of the sloppiest, bad shows I have ever seen. They were drunk, late, and played a bunch of songs no one had heard yet (the albums didn't come out until months later).

I wish I had seen them in 1988 or 1989.

I saw them in one of those large stadiums back in the 90s. They were making money.

always by the band merch- that's how bands survive. BUY THE TSHIRT.

Majority of bands don't make real money until their third album- if they are lucky to make it that far.