Guns N' Roses: Izzy Stradlin and Axl Rose's Odd Relationship 

He doesn't want to deal with Axl. The quote of the century.

I think Izzy was the best song writer in the band . His songwriting was perfect for Axl and slash to add their elements.

It's been 14 years of silence, it's been 14 years of pain...

Izzy probably has the best life of any GNR alum- enough money from those first few albums, famous enough that he can tour when he wants, low profile enough that he can do things in public without being bothered. Izzy FTW

The quiet, shy guy in the back......such an essential ingredient to the band.

Izzy was the soul of the band. Axl was the superstar but Izzy was the real deal.

I‘m hitting 40 and I‘m a big GNR fan for 30 years now. Izzy has always been my favourite member. I even started playing guitar because of him. But every now and then I get a feeling that he might be the weirdest and craziest of them all.

When I think of Axl and Izzy I like to think of them as the 2 teenagers (Bill and Jeff) in Izzy's room listening to Black Sabbath.

Axl gets a lot of crap but people need to also remember that everyone else in the band had serious alcohol and drug problems, plus you had Izzy doing stuff like urinating in the aisle on an airplane flight! I’m not saying Axl didn’t get megalomaniacal or controlling but at the same time someone had to take charge.

We need an autobiography of him.

Have you heard Izzy's isolated rythm track for welcome to the jungle ? Jesus Christ ! There is just something about the way he plays.

To me there is no GnRs w/o Axl, Slash, Duff, Adler and Izzy. There may be Axl and a group of people that go by the name of GnR but that will never be Guns n Roses. Axl killed GnRs way back in the 90s.

Love the Izzy stories. Sounds like he and Duff were the positive balance in the group.

Izzy Stradlin was Guns n Roses. Him and Axl. You can here it in the early demo tapes from their past bands.

Either in an arena or in a small club, I would put my life on hold and go watch Izzy play live.

I’m taking Izzy’s side on this one. Having recently been the one who stepped out of a band of egos I can relate to pretty much everything he said... except the bits about shit tones on money, strippers and cocaine.

Izzy had been in LA a long time before Axl. Axl went looking for his friend Jeff Isbell, but Izzy had already changed his name to Izzy Stradlin. Took Axl awhile to find him.

I guess he found a million dollars that sumone forgot?

14 years is a love/breakup song by Izzy about Axl nobody can change my mind on this

Izzy was their best songwriter. Major loss for GnR when he left. They never recovered.

Although, (Maybe some people didn't know this) Izzy appeared with GNR - Democracy era on the Chinese Democracy tour concerts (few shows as a special guest).

Izzy wrote3/4 of their songs. Notice that haven't written anything decent since his departure. He was the real reason gnr made it

Fascinating guy Izzy, definitely the most enigmatic member of G'n'R

“I fucking love this weird little guy”

i would like to hear Axl's side of the story

Love this stuff. I´d love to hear an episode about how he got his nickname "Stradlin" , given that his real name is Jeffery Isbell.

I wouldn't paint it black and white, like many people do - Axl was the one who destroyed the band by showing up late to shows and other controversies and megalomaniac things while Izzy and the rest were cool, talented, down to earth guys and so forth. They knew from very early on, Izzy much better than anybody else, that their singer was literally a diagnosed lunatic (a sociopath or whatever) with unpredictable mood swings and flights of temper who stays up at night and then sleeps until 6 p.m. But he had a unique voice, powerful stage presence and was committed to the cause, and they would put up with his "little tyrant" behaviour especially as they indulged their own vices. Axl probably later got a picture on his unhealthy mind that 1) all his friends were alcoholics and junkies, largely uninterested in anything else, and someone would eventually die of an overdose, 2) so it was him who carried the torch (and the stress of doing business and putting out great shows), especially as all the criticism and mockery were always aimed solely at him. The record company and managers were happy to milk the band while they were still functioning, they knew very well too it wasn't meant to last long and didn't do much to intervene. As Duff said in his book, if managers cared about anything else but their own commission money, they would put them all into treatment back in 1988. In my personal opinion, GnR were a beautiful, one of the kind thing that happened against too many odds and was largely doomed from the very start to end up ugly, so no need to heap blame on or whitewash anybody, let's enjoy the stories and the music.

Maybe Izzy is doing the thing Freddy Mercury used to do, just write a song with completely random lyrics as when it's finished you can go back and work on them. The most famous example is 'One Vision' they didn't have the lyrics worked out so Freddy just started singing about "Fried Chicken"

I wonder if Izzy asking where the money is inspired Duff to go back to school and learn how to manage money for other rockers.

Damn all of them are so weird! All of them- especially Axl Izzy Slash... drove each other crazy yet practically lived them entire career performing songs they created together. Whole ocean of artists around but kept bumping into each other for performing on stage or creating music every now and then. Be it Izzy+Axl, Izzy+Duff, Slash+Duff... sprinkle of good ol steven adler in between.. GnR broke up in prime of their youth..but looks like all these guys never really got over each other! No matter what mad stuff they said at different points of time...

Great video and story. I enjoy hearing about Izzy. You shed alot of light on their up and down relationship. Great job!

I want to hear that song about the dentist

Yes more stories about izzy please. He was the secret sauce to their success.

Izzy and the dentist. 😔🤣

When you're writing songs, it is common to use scratch lyrics or gibberish to figure out the melody and rhythm of the syllables. Scratch lyrics evolve into the final lyrics as you get more comfortable playing and singing the song. For example, “Tooth-pull-er” is 3-syllables like “You're-Cra-zy,” “My-Mich-elle,” or “Reck-less-Life.” The vowel sound in “Tooth” could evolve into “Move” like “Move-to-the-ci-ty.” When you're writing and demoing a new song then the 1st lyrics are frequently placeholders, which get replaced by the final lyrics.

Izzy has released 11 solo albums since he left Guns, that's a very respectable output and most of the material is excellent. I dont think its fair to slag the guy for not releasing new material. Izzy left Guns in the middle of a world tour. I know he was miserable but you cant do that. Luckily the band was able to patch it up and finish but Izzy's exit could have really screwed the band financially and with the fans. Izzy made a mistake leaving like that and Axl could never trust the guy again, its pretty simple. When trust is absent there is no way to have a healthy relationship. Axl has never forgiven him for leaving like that. I wanted to see Izzy in the reunion shows but Fortus is a very good guitar player and he took his job, simple as that. (Also Izzy spilling his guts about Axl in high school is a little much, dude just bite your tongue and keep it to yourself)

Great video. Thanks Sid.

Everybodys hating Axl again. Izzy left without saying goodbye and was a heavy drug user. Thats not a very reliable character. I am glad GNR have Richard Fortus now. he's a rocker, great guitar player but without any attitude. I miss Adler, although he probably would make it professionally anymore but I don't miss Izzy. His solo albums are ok but nothing indicates he alone is the great songwriter. Slash writes massive groovy kickass riffs but lacks the skill of incorperating them into a great rock drama, which is clearly Axls strength. Duff is a little bit in between. Axl is also a great lyricist and singer with a unique voice. Izzy iz an ok singer but no more.

Adler and Izzy were the swing of gnr!!

7:00 sounds like AvPd/PDA were unaddressed symptoms of Axl's manifold inner issues. Everyone talks about the egomania and BP and his acting out, but not the social anxiety and avoidance (especially demand avoidance, in the case of ChiDem).

It should be at least mentioned that Izzy has over 10 complete solo albums. While they may not all be winners, he is definitely the most prolific member of the original GNR. I just checked iTunes. There used to be a few more available but they aren’t there anymore. I really enjoyed this video btw as Izzy is my favorite member.

I was in high school when AFD was released and I LOVED that record. By then "metal" music was played by a bunch of hacks who spent more time with a can of Aqua Net than a guitar. Guns and Roses was a blast of old school fresh air. Then they kept making records...

I think Axl gets a lot of crap for how he was in the ‘90s, and some is probably deserved, but also remember Axl was the only member of GnR at that time without a major drug problem. Could you imagine being in that position and having to deal with your bandmates all seriously messed up on heroin and cocaine?

First post! Love it, great ep. west Arkeen next?

It's totally fucked up that Steve is being treated like an outcast. He IS a part of Guns and IS an Awesome musician AND most DEFINITELY be in the Reunion!! He's being treated like Pete Rose! It's mainly Axl who is the problem. Love from NYC🤘

Love izzy stories. Dude was the best songwriter in the band.

Great channel with some very interesting stories.

Him and axel are gnr , izzy made their sound what is it was mostly his riffs that shaped their sound and slash was a good bluesy lead player but his riffs were never song makers

Yes, more Izzy. He's my favorite GNR member and quite honestly, my favorite musician/songwriter period. He doesn't get his due; and I could go on and on about why it's likely he didn't end up on the reunion tour... but I won't. I have work to do. Thanks for video!

Always 2 sides to the story, but I think it was a power/control thing with Axl. I would have to blame Mick Jagger and David Bowie for personally putting shit into Axl’s head about business over music first.

listen again; i think you'll realize steven was the real magic ingredient in appetite. it's all about steven.

I saw Izzy play with the Nu-GNR at Download Festival in the UK in 2006, I'd be interested in knowing how that came about. By some luck I saw Duff join Axl on the Chinese Democracy tour in 2009 at the O2 London, the next time I saw them! I've now finally seen all of them in different scenarios thanks to the Not in this lifetime tour (except Steven Adler)

Ya know, this collection of interviews could explain why GN'R (the real one) hasn't recorded original studio material since 1991. Izzy's post-2000 material is very one-note/samey. What if Izzy was the core of the writing team and/or inspiration from 1987-1991. He blew his creative load, and now the current GN'R can't move forward with a true sequel to UYI, because without Izzy, there's no songs. And even if Izzy wanted to write, the same fire just isn't there and wasn't post 10 years after leaving GN'R.

Love his instrumentals !

many riffs i always admired and thought they are slashs, were izzys. he was the foundation to slashs sound ond appetite. like the melody in the intro of jungle, thats him.

Izzy is absolutely priceless. He is also sane lol

Well uh you said this in 1982...

Dude, keep on goin. Dig.

00:56 he's looking like that guy of the movie "Mask".

More Izzy videos please!

So what's Izzy's new album called,This is how i do my dishes? lol

It seems that Izzy just wanted out from GNR when they became too famous, and their lives had become restricted. Izzy was always a free spirit, and didn't want to play massive stadiums, plus his arguments with Axl. In a way I don't blame Axl for making them sign contracts because Izzy was unreliable and just not show up, and they were all deep in the drugs, so Axl could see it all going downhill and was told by his lawyers to secure GNR. Maybe he did it the wrong way, but GNR exists today because of Axl. Izzy seemed to loose his momentum if what Dizzy said is for real

Anything Izzy I love dude. More Izzy stories !

Well my opinion is that Izzy has always been more of a bar fly then a big rocks musician. And to be honest he's almost now I say almost a big drama queen as much as Axl...lol. I could see the guy being paranoid because he honestly looks like that tight but I also think that he keeps running back to axle every couple of years because he want to be needed but at the same time he doesn't want anything to do with them oh, it's kind of weird

Hi Sid, Do you have any Live footage of Izzy interviews as I have never seen one ?

Well, Here Comes the Rain is the great tune by Izzy. If he's found inspiration watching the weather channel on TV,,,good for him, who cares...music is the only important thing since we are talking about the musician :) Izzy always writtes about the real shit happening around....Dehydrated might be a lill bizzare song, but Upside is ultimate ass kicking song....considering everything , it's impossible to put Izzy in negative context. He's personification of a true rocker with all goods and bads that come along with it. Most talented song writter in last 3 decades. Hats off ....he does whatever he wants cos he can afford that life style. And he went long road coming to such position. His solo albums are , by far, the best music that came out from what used to be Gn'R camp.

Izzy was guns silent bullet! You have to have the riff man, without the riff man you have nothing. Yes slash no doubt put his timeless licks on a chemistry that blew up the world, what great fortune to find that chemistry bigger than the sun far as a band, but now how can you top it? Tell me......

He should come back. Axl is a totally different person now. Even his attitude is gone after the reunion (which is fucking sad).

Slash have clamied that Izzy was a better guitarist slash just became more popular because he does the "cool" guitar solo stuffs but izzy actually did the guitar parts the most and was a great writer

So years ago when Axl wanted everyone to sign over their publishing to him. Who out of the band actually did that? After I got up off the floor laughing, I would have told him to stick it. That story has always irritated me.

Shame he never wrote a song about his visit to the proctologist.

Izzy's best solo albums are On Down the Road, & Like a Dog.

Dust N. Bones is the best GnR song, period.

Beyond the craziness of everybody in the original band, I'm gonna go on a limb and suppose Izzy would bring to the table stuff reminiscent of Appetite - and to me without Axl's vision they would have disbanded after Appetite and we wouldn't have UYI 1&2

I'd love to know which songs he had input into on the VR albums and also Chinese democracy.

I miss Izzy

he was probably the most talented, he wrote most the early songs and slash play lead ? with out izzy there is no guns and dont matter how good the lead guitar is.

Most song writers will write about anything to keep up the skill set. So writing a song about going the dentist is an exercise for a professional song writer.

I mean fair enough, sounds like he just doesn’t want to be famous, lmao when he played at Wembley and the next day was just like “yeaahh that’s enough for me” 😭

4:50 1987-1991 we've been dancing with mr brownstone 1995 I got my tooth ya I got my tooth pulled

you should do a story on Taz Rudd who played in a band with Izzy on drums and word is taught Izzy guitar

He dosn't wnat to be taken advantage of like Syd Barett who wrote all the songs for Pink Floyd. And when he couldnt be used anymore so he was gone.

Izzy looks like he could be your neighbor. Axl looks like he could be your weird neighbor.

0:42 is that Ron Wood on the right?

WAxl also said that Izzy didn't like having to make videos, I suspect Izzy wasn't very 'show businessy' and thought of himself as a pre MTV musician. Music Videos are quite lame, they were ok in the Appetite era, but once you got to the absurd spectacle of Axl at the Altar there was no going back to a pre UYI innocence.

More Izzy!!!!

Man, people analyze this band to death & back! They made 2 albums! (Illusion was full of filler, and could have been one great record).

There's as many sides to a story as there are people involved. And then there's the outsiders trying to interpret it. I take it all with a grain of salt.

I believe Izzy is right Axl is a madman

It's like baking a cake, you need all the ingredients. You can swap Steve & Matt and it still works, it tastes a bit different but it's still tasty. No Izzy, No GN'R. PERIOD.

Most songs aren’t about anything. So it doesn’t matter to me what the song is about, as long as it sounds good. I’d have to hear that tooth pulling song or the weather song. I do know is Izzy wrote “I think about you” and it’s my favorite gnr song.

Well... I guess Izzy was getting jealous about bigger concentration on Axl and Slash like Mick and Keith because he was one of the main songwriters. But who knows?

Don't forget, Izzy DID write Double-Talking Jive. Possibly why Axl dedicated it to him.

Axl Rose is just a selfish guy that wanna control everything, if you're in a band and you're not happy because some band members are doing shit you don't wanna do anymore cause is making sick , you have the right to quit If you wish .. izzy made the right choice , who wants to put up with someone's bullshit anyways. Axl destroyed that Band , because of him they all left him by himself.. no one wanted to deal with axl's bullshit after all. That band lasted way to long in my personal opinion when they were together.. even slash said in an interview that because of axl's attitude he left the band , they all got sick of him ..

I agree with you, Izzy, don't get me wrong, I love Axl, but I feel he's a bit of a user and a narcissist, not to mention his bipolar illness (big ego when manic), he coud get to anyone when he's like that. I feel for you too, I think you're a very gifted song writer, and guitarist, and am crazy over your rythym guitaring in the song "14 years", don't let anyone get you down, or rent space in your head, us fans are still rooting for you, you go Izzy!❤❤

I hope Izzy is still getting royalty money from his creative input into GNR.

Izzy was the best songwriter. GNR never had a good song after his departure. Thanks Sid. More Izzy and Hell House stories

1995 wasn't the last time Izzy played with Axl... sporadically throughout the years, I'm pretty sure in the late 2000's, Izzy and Duff both have joined Axl on stage for a song or 2... not very often, but there's definitely footage on YT.* 2012 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bQLA9NOS_Oo.html

I read about a translated version of a Japanese interview in 2002, the interviewer asked Izzy about rock in rio 2001, Izzy basically said: "Doug Goldstein called,he asked if I can play in rio with Axl.After asking the date, I said OK. But after that he never called again(laugh). Next time when he calls me I'd say"No."(laugh)" The interview is written in Japanese, and I read the CHhinese translation version so maybe what I translate in English is not exactly accurate, but basically it's like this. And interestingly,this is not the same as what he said in the interview you mentioned in the video.

I like Izzy. I think he was the first one to quit drugs he seems like the guy who wanted just to enjoy making music with his friends and the whole thing turned into a totally different thing with success.