Guns&Rose-Biograpy II

The behavior of some members of the group lead their music label to demand the band modify their habits. The members took steps to deal with their addictions after Rose threatened to end the band if they continued with their heavy drug abuse. He also spoke up about them during an opening set for the Rolling Stones in 1989 saying that "if some members don't stop dancing with Mr. Brownstone, Guns N' Roses will end." The band's heavy use and abuse of heroin is referenced throughout Appetite for Destruction; the song Mr. Brownstone is about heroin and its effects. (Brownstone is a slang term for heroin.)

The Use Your Illusion Tour (1991–1993): In 1990 Guns N' Roses returned to the studio to begin recording their most ambitious undertaking yet. During the recording, drummer Steven Adler was unable to perform due to his struggles with his cocaine and heroin addiction. Adler was fired in August 1990, and replaced with the former drummer of The Cult, Matt Sorum. Keyboardist Dizzy Reed joined the band as a full time member. With enough music for a double album, the band instead chose to release Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II as two separate albums on September 17, 1991. The tactic paid off when the albums debuted as #2 and #1 on the Billboard Music charts.

After the release of the albums, Guns N' Roses went on a 28 month long world tour, which was famous for its success and for many controversial incidents along the way. In the summer of 1991, Axl Rose jumped into the audience during a concert in St. Louis, Missouri and hit one of the fans after taking away a video camera, which he was recording the show with. After that, Rose left the stage and the angry crowd began a riot in which dozens of people were injured. Rose was charged with having incited a riot, but the police were unable to arrest him until almost a year later, because the band went overseas to continue the tour. Charges were filed against Rose, but a judge ruled he had not directly incited the riot. During this time, guitarist Izzy Stradlin quit the band due to differences with Rose. He was replaced by Los Angeles based guitarist Gilby Clarke.

The band also appeared at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert that year, and went on a mini-tour with American heavy metal band Metallica. During a show in August 1992 at Montreal's Olympic Stadium, Metallica frontman James Hetfield suffered severe burns after stepping too close to a pyrotechnics machine. Metallica was forced to cancel their part of the show, but asked Rose and Guns N' Roses to continue the concert. After a long delay, Guns N' Roses took the stage. However, Rose claimed he had problems with his voice that night and decided to cancel the band's presentation after just four songs. This led to another riot during a Guns N' Roses concert.

The Use Your Illusion Tour is notable for the many videos the band released to support it, including Don't Cry, November Rain [1] and Estranged - are some of the most expensive ever made.

During this time, the hit ballad November Rain became the most requested video on MTV, eventually winning an MTV Video Music Award for best cinematography. During the awards show, the band performed "November Rain" with singer Elton John.

In May 1993, Gilby Clarke broke his wrist in a motorcycling accident and the band needed a replacement for some shows in Europe. Stradlin briefly returned for a string of five shows.

The historic tour ended in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on July 17, 1993. The tour set attendance records and lasted for twenty eight months in which more than 200 shows were played. The last show in Buenos Aires was also the last for the classic line-up of the band.

In November 1993, Guns N' Roses released a collection of mostly punk covers entitled The Spaghetti Incident?. This album did not match the success of the Illusion albums and tensions continued to increase within the band. In 1994, Rose fired guitarist Gilby Clarke without informing the rest of the group. That same year, a cover version of The Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil was recorded by the band (with Rose's childhood friend Paul Tobias replacing Gilby Clarke), for the movie Interview with the Vampire.

The addition of Tobias seemed to be the spark that set off the final disintegration of the band's original line-up. During the recording of Sympathy for the Devil, Tobias played over the original solo that Slash recorded, and Rose deleted several contributions from the other members. Slash drifted in and out of the band for the next years, beginning a side project called Slash's Snakepit before finally quitting in late 1996. He was quickly replaced by Robin Finck. The next year, Sorum was fired from the group after having a serious verbal dispute with Rose in the studio. In early 1998, McKagan opted out of his contract. This left Axl Rose as the sole original member of the band.