Music

Apparently Michael Jackson caused Guns N' Roses to break up

by Tyler Munro

March 27, 2015

Ask anyone why Guns N’ Roses broke up and you’ll get a simple answer: Axl. And you wouldn’t be wrong.

But according to their manager, the rift that officially tore them part actually started when Slash decided to play guitar for Michael Jackson. As Doug Gouldstein explained, Axl Rose was molested when he was a child and felt Slash’s support for Jackson in the wake of his own abuse allegations was a slap in the face.

THe tension only grew when Rose learned that Slash would be paid not in cash, but swag, for the performance.

When Axl found out Slash was going to play with Michael Jackson and that the payment was a big screen TV, he was devastated. He thought Slash would support him and be against all abuse. From Axl’s point of view, that was the only problem. He could ignore the drugs and the alcohol, but never the child abuse.

Slash apparently never apologized, and that’s where the pettiness we’ve come to know Rose for took flight — the incident apparently boiled beneath his bones for so long that it apparently eventually broke them up all together.

Goldstein thinks a reunion is still possible, assuming Slash apologized. And hey, what a coincidence, he thinks he’s the one to make that happen.

“I really believe that for how much I love the band, I’d be the manager to reunite them,” he said. “I don’t think anyone else could do it.”

This isn’t the performance in question, but reading this story did remind us of that time Slash refused to stop soloing with Michael Jackson. So, Guns N’ Roses may be gone forever, but we’ll always have this.