10. If The World (2008)
After driving off all his original cohorts (and his second wife) in ’93, Rose became a recluse at his mansion in Malibu. Yet, he hung onto the band’s name and announced a forthcoming album called Chinese Democracy. Over the years, the fractious comings and goings of musicians he hired to play on it, including Queen’s Brian May, and the spiralling studio costs, estimated at over $13 million, became the stuff of legend. When it eventually landed 15 years later, not all of it was terrible: this slice of Prince-y funk-pop hinted at an intriguing modernist ambition, and was catchy to boot.
9. New Rose (1993)
If there was one thing for which Gun N’Roses could be relied upon, it was a rousing cover version. “Use Your Illusion” had been padded out with some corkers, including Bob Dylan’s “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”. However, as drug problems and internal beefs set in, a full covers album became the original line-up’s final bequest. There was, at least, one life-changing inclusion: the band ripped through this vintage punk classic by the Damned, as they’d heard that its author, guitarist Brian James, was on death’s door through heroin addiction. The resultant royalties enabled him to go through rehab.
8. You Could Be Mine (1991)
This lead single from the Use Your Illusion blanket-bombing was originally conceived around the time of Appetite for Destruction, which perhaps explains its superior quality. The swingeing lyrics were apparently directed at a departing girlfriend of their rhythm guitarist, Izzy Stradlin. The song was a massive hit, partly thanks to its adoption as a theme tune for the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and an ensuing video, where Arnold Schwarzenegger turned up at a GN’R gig, in full Terminator regalia.
