Music

This is what happens when Axl Rose rents your apartment

by Mark Teo

When it comes to property, it’d seem like Axl Rose has an, um, appetite for destruction. After all, the Guns N’ Roses singer is the man who singlehandedly caused the Riverport Riot (which remains to be of the greatest onstage freakouts ever). He’s smashed mirrors, had public altercations, and even bitten staff at hotels. Elsewhere, listicles like “18 reasons why Axl Rose is the biggest douchebag in rock,” don’t exactly speak to Rose’s sterling character.

But when it comes to renting apartments, it turns out that Rose is a model citizen—which led one of his landlords to declare to Vulture that “Axl Rose is the best tenant ever.”

Why? Because, after electing to rent an apartment in the celeb-saturated New York neighbourhood of TriBeCa, he proved to be a hassle-free tenant. According to Vulture, Rose checked out the apartment twice—even playing enthusiastically with the landlord’s dog. After settling in on the apartment—and laughing at people who loved spaces “bathed in light”—he signed a lease and told the landlord, Steve Fishman, he’d be moving in immediately. He didn’t scoff at the neighbourhood’s exorbitant rent prices, even providing six months of rent up front.

Then, moving day finally came. And passed. And Rose never moved in, leaving the space untouched.

Maybe Axl was busy—he was, after all, delivering high-profile interviews with Jimmy Kimmel, declining inductions to the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame, and touring the world. But he never moved in, even staying in fancy hotels when he visited New York.

More puzzlingly still, when it came time to renew the lease with Fishman—with a price increase—Rose agreed, paying rent for another year. He only declined to rent the apartment after three years—and thousands of dollars spent.

As for the apartment, it was left untouched. “People have mixed views of Axl Rose, but as a landlord, I loved him,” Fishman wrote. “If he ever needs a recommendation, I’ll happily write: Quiet, undemanding, and pays his rent.”

See what we mean? Axl Rose is every landlord’s dream.