3 Hair Metal Bands That Shared Crucial Bandmates

When a punk musician named Duff McKagan left Seattle for Los Angeles in 1984, he was surprised by what he found in his adopted city. He encountered countless telephone poles plastered with band flyers. But the overwhelming number of bands became equally overwhelmed by big hair and garish clothing. McKagan had arrived in Los Angeles during the hair metal craze that consumed the local music scene, MTV, and rock culture in the 1980s.

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Soon, he’d meet a guitarist named Slash and Slash’s high school friend, a drummer, Steven Adler. They jammed in the basement of Slash’s mom’s house, but their band didn’t have a singer, so McKagan split. “I wasn’t going to play with some guys who just got out of high school the year before and had a bunch of riffs. Even if they had a f**king guitar player like Slash,” he said.

However, Slash invited McKagan to see L.A. Guns perform at the Troubadour, the iconic West Hollywood nightclub that was once the epicenter of the West Coast folk scene in the 1960s. This night would have a profound impact on the direction of rock history. Watching L.A. Guns, McKagan described the singer as “f**king unhinged.” The singer was Axl Rose.

These three hair metal bands shared crucial bandmates as they emerged from Los Angeles clubs to bring a mix of glam, punk, and hard rock to the masses. All of them undertook many changes, including stints in each other’s bands, on their way to success.

Guns N’ Roses and L.A. Guns

There are a lot of guns and many roses here, so take a deep breath. In 1985, Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin, both from Indiana, formed Guns N’ Roses in Los Angeles. The initial lineup included Tracii Guns, Ole Beich, and Rob Gardner from L.A. Guns, a band Rose briefly fronted. The name, Guns N’ Roses, documents the merging of two bands: Rose (or Hollywood Rose) and L.A. Guns. Slash joined Hollywood Rose in late 1984, replacing guitarist Chris Weber. Stradlin and Adler were part of a revolving door of musicians in Hollywood Rose, too.

When (Tracii) Guns left Guns N’ Roses, it opened the door for Slash to become the band’s new lead guitarist. The renowned lineup of Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin, Slash, Duff McKagan, and Steven Adler, which recorded Appetite For Destruction, was fully formed and playing gigs by June 1985. Guns then reformed L.A. Guns and shared bandmates with our next entry.

L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat

After co-founding and exiting Guns N’ Roses, Tracii Guns resurrected his former band, L.A. Guns. The newly reformed group cycled through many iterations, which included bassist Kelly Nickels from Faster Pussycat. A motorcycle accident left Nickels in the hospital for several months before Faster Pussycat recorded its debut.

Another important connection to several hair metal bands at the time was Vicky Hamilton, a Los Angeles music promoter. She managed Faster Pussycat, Poison, and Guns N’ Roses, helping each sign record deals. Hamilton also helped Mötley Crüe as a promoter in the band’s early years.  

So Nickels recovered from his accident and joined L.A. Guns in 1987. The band found a new singer, British vocalist Phil Lewis, and released its self-titled debut in 1988. (Lewis had fronted the English glam metal band Girl with future Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen.) Before the album’s release, former W.A.S.P. drummer Steve Riley replaced Nickey Alexander, who later played drums for The Cramps. The most popular version of L.A. Guns also featured guitarist Mick Cripps.

L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat occupied a lower commercial tier of hair metal, below the multi-platinum success of Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, and Poison. But without L.A. Guns, Axl Rose and Slash may never have become household names, and rock history might have carried on without songs like “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Paradise City”.

Photo by Marc S Canter/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images