mymichele's Diaryland Diary
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My Axl Disclaimer
Hi there, peoples. There's only one thing on my mind today, so let's start with the spewage, shall we?
So I got another review last night. *sigh* This isn't really a slam at the reviewer, it's a slam at everyone who thinks I talk about Axl so much.
This is going to be my Axl disclaimer, because I really think I need one. I'm going to repeat a lot of the things I've said before, but I think it needs to be said.
Right now, I am watching Guns N Roses play on the friggin VMA's. Do you understand what I am saying? Axl? On the VMA's? There's been mixed reviews about how he did.. they're mostly saying he got winded by the end, and yeah, I agree.. but my god, the guy is 40 years old! Give him a break! This performance is such huge news.. it means that the GN'R Fans everywhere are creaming their panties, because we never thought our hero would ever come back! Let me just give you my Guns N Roses timeline, to show you what I mean:
- December 1991 - My cousin gives me a copy of Use Your Illusion 1 for Christmas. I fall in love with Axl Rose and everything to do with Guns N Roses. I am 12 years old, and for some reason, there's something about Axl that I identify with. A big huge obsession starts, and I make all my family and friends want to strangle me. If you thought I was bad now, well you should have seen me then!
- January 1992 - December 1992 - This is when my obsession was the strongest. There was one day, my family went to this thing at a hotel and there was a piano there, right? I knew that Axl played piano, and for that hour or so we were at that hotel, I wanted Axl to come play it so bad that I was actually aching for it. Hey, I was 12 years old, what can I do? Heh. Guns N Roses go on tour and a lot of other stuff. I win tickets off the radio the day before 7th grade starts. Of course, my mom won't let me go so I have to sell these tickets. My first heartbreak. *sigh*
Summer of 1994 - Their next album comes out, The Spaghetti Incident. This is merely cover songs, and there's not much to sink your teeth into. Most of us are like, "Okay, cover songs, now on with the next album!" Little did we know.
Summer of 1994 - 1998 - All hell breaks loose. Slash leaves, everyone else leaves. Axl gets arrested for stuff. Someone stalks him (and no, it wasn't me!) and he has to go to court. No original material comes out. No apperances. Axl and his Guns N Roses just completely fall off the map. Everyone thinks they won't ever come back, everyone loses hope. This is a bad time in Guns N Roses land.
1998/1999ish - A double live album comes out. I bought it, of course, and it rocked, but still no original material since 1992. I'm thinking at this point that maybe I should get a new favorite band, although even in high school and college, whenever anyone asked what my favorite band was, the answer was "Guns N Roses, babeh."
New Years Eve, 2000 - I was in Las Vegas for the first time, just minding my own business, eating at the buffet and hanging out. I go to California a few days later, and while I'm at a casino playing blackjack, the dealer tells me that he was in Vegas for New Years. I was like, "Really? Me too." ANd then he said "Yeah, I got to see Guns N Roses." I stopped dead. I could not believe he just said that. It took me a while to get over the fact that a. Axl made a triumphant comeback and I could have been there to see it, and b. I could have been there to see it! It took me a while to get over this. A year, in fact.
New Years Eve 2000 - New Years Eve 2001 - Axl plays in a couple of festivals, and people start talking. The GN'R Community starts going crazy, MP3's are traded. We hear new songs like Chinese Democracy and Madagascar(which he sang last night.) and we like them. Everyone is excited. No one really likes the fact that Axl is the only original member left, but we deal with it.
New Years Eve 2001 - I am in Vegas. I see Axl. We all know the story. Words will never really get across what this concert meant to me.
New Years Eve 2001 - now - Axl goes on a World tour, and people the world over are truly excited about this. All us fans are waiting to see how his reception will be.. will people love him or hate him? And so far it seems like it's a mixture of both. But if you saw last night's performance, you know that there was a good number of people who were just totally flipping out and going crazy. Jimmy Fallon, for one.
So yeah. I don't know if that really helps at all, but this is why I talk about Axl so much. I thought he had dissapeared! And right now I'm just so proud of him and everything he has left to accomplish. He could have seen the fall of his band and just said, "Screw this, I have more money than God, I'm just going to live like a hermit in Malibu for the rest of my life." But he didn't. He got a new band together, and now he's going to blow everyone's expectations out of the water.
I don't know why I like him, but you know that feeling you got when you went to the junior high dance and the one person you wanted to dance with wasn't there because he was too rebellious to show up? That's always the guy I was attracted to. Not one person I ever had a crush on ever came to a junior high or high school dance. And I'm still attracted to people like that. Axl is the king of the boys who never went to the dance, you know?
So this is why I talk about him so much. And I'm not going to stop talking about him, even if it is annoying and pointless, because he's a big part of my life. Everyone else on Diaryland has something like that! There's the Buffy people, the emo people, the what have you people! We all have something we know we'll never really catch up to, and that's cool! We need that just to have something to look forward to sometimes!
Okay, now I sound like a complete insane person. I'm gonna go to class now.. I think my newspaper people might have seen the VMA's and I want to see if they're going to say anything about it.
Yay Axl!
7:40 a.m. - August 30, 2002
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