The Band That Time Forgot: The Complete Unauthorised Biography of Guns N' Roses

by Paul Stenning

The personal and musical history of Guns N' Roses is detailed in this revealing band biography. Timed to coincide with the highly anticipated release of Chinese Democracy , their first album in 10 years, this compelling account offers complete, updated information on the band's incredible past and current ambitions. New interviews with ex-band members, including lead guitarist Slash and bass player Duff, provide fresh revelations about the band's key players. Previously unpublished color photographs from the group's early days gathered from ex-members' personal collections offer an intriguing visualization of the band's past.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Rock N Roll

300 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

Paul Stenning is a ghostwriter and author of 30 books. His work has been published in 15 different languages. He is a best-selling author in several countries – from the UK to Brazil and Bulgaria – and has sold over one million books worldwide.

His best-known work is Success – By Those Who’ve Made It (featuring Mario Andretti, Frank Abagnale, DJ Jazzy Jeff and more) as well as best-selling biographies of Robert Pattinson and Guns N' Roses.
In recent years, Stenning has gone beyond celebrity interviewing to writing books focused on service, self-help, and inspiration. He has worked with several of the leading figures in the genre.

Notable recent ghostwriting clients include The World’s Most Travelled Man, Don Parrish, a pioneering physicist and a Philosophy professor.

Since 1997, Paul has also written for numerous major magazines including FHM, Front, Rolling Stone, and Record Collector.

From 2011, until its closure in 2017, he was a regular columnist for the Cyprus Weekly, the top-selling English language newspaper in Cyprus.

Paul has a keen interest in poetry and his first contribution to a book was as a poet, in the 2000 collection Magical Memories, edited by Poetry Now’s Heather Killingray.

Since 2018 he has been the official poet for the tourist board of Guinea-Bissau, combining his love for poetry and travel writing.

Many of his books have been published in foreign languages; from Japanese to Portuguese. Altogether he has works in 15 different languages.

Outside of writing Paul has worked as assistant to the financial advisor for Take That and once worked at a famous comedy club working directly with many high profile comedians including Peter Kay.

Meat Loaf has sung to him in person and he has been kissed by actress Linda Hamilton!

He has also had hundreds of official photographs taken by the Royal Family photographer, Arthur Edwards MBE.

As a rock DJ he has warmed up the crowd prior to concerts by No Doubt, Motörhead and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Based predominantly in Cyprus, he lives with his wife and home schooled daughter and together they enjoy world travel.

Reviews

[Plamena Anova · Rating 1 out of 5]

Имам тази биография от години. Guns N Roses бяха първата ми голяма рок любов в гимназията, когато започнах да слушам този стил музика. През 2020 незнайно защо реших да препрочета книгата. Не си спомнях почти нищо от нея и ми беше интересно да науча повече за бандата, а и не мисля, че изобщо я завърших, когато съм я чела някога.

Уви, трябваше да спра още на предговора, в който Пол Стенинг обяснява, че това не е официална биография и не е успял да се свърже с никой от групата за сведения.
Книгата е една словесна салата, в която доста разхвърляно се говори за създаването на GNR, за някои техни участия, за текстовете на песните, за личния живот и връзките на членовете. Тук - там са нахвърляни извадки от интервюта, дадени пред други медии и изказвания на някои приближени в обкръжението. Няма хронологично представяне на факти и събития. Повтарят се едни и същи общи приказки на различни места в текста. На места дори между отделните абзаци няма никаква логическа връзка. В една глава се говори за параноята на Аксел и как е искал да си купи пистолет, а в следващия абзац се разказва за EP с кавъри и "съзряването" на групата.
На друго място текстът си върви и между два абзаца с по един ред разстояние е изведен цитат с курсив:

"Слаш ми каза: "Не искам да работя толкова много." - Аксел Роуз

Еми мерси! Много информативно...

За никого не е тайна, че GNR са имали проблем с наркотиците и алкохола, а специално Аксел и много сериозни психически травми от детството. Обаче вместо да се хвърли светлина по нормален и логиччен начин върху тези проблеми - как са се породили, до какво са довели, как момчетата са се борили с тях, преборили ли са се изобщо - Пол Стенинг просто създава един лайт мотив в книгата, че това е една сбирщина от наркомани, която не е много ясно как става една от най-великите рок групи през 80те.

Изобщо групата има сериозни проблеми с репутацията особено в началото на кариерата им заради скандалното поведение, злоупотребата със субстанции и противоречивите текстове на някои песни. Това е причина медиите, търсещи сензация, често да пускат фалшиви новини или да публикуват изказвания на членове на бандата, изопачени или напълно извадени от контекст. Заради това на по-късен етап GNR избягват инрервюта и всички в обкръжението им са заплашени със съд ако разпространяват информация за групата без разрешение. Та цялата тази книга е олицетворение на всичко, срещу което групата се е борила по отношение на имиджа и медиите. Поне аз с такова усещане останах. Албумче с изрезки от жълти вестници. Абсолютно разочарование. Сега имам нужда да прочета някоя наистина хубаво написана биография.

[Rachel Yuska · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guns N' Roses was named "The most dangerous band in the world". They were Axl Rose, Slash, Duff, Izzy, and Steven, 5 bad boys from Hollywood. Axl and Izzy were high school buddies in Indiana, whereas Slash and Steven played bike and skateboard together. 

They used to play small gigs in many clubs in LA: Troubadour, Whisky A Go-Go, Roxy, and the likes, they became crowds' favorite. 
Paul Stanley of Kiss was interested to produce their album, but the guys declined. Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue was offered to give some commercial touch, but he was so high on drugs, he was f*cked up, then turned it down, even though later GNR and Motley toured together. 

The book was focused on Axl. I don't mind, I've read Slash & Duff's memoir. 

During Appetite for Destruction & Live?! Like A Suicide, they guys were solid and stable. After huge success, some people said Axl started to behave like a superstar. He often came late to the concert, made the crowd angry and caused riots. 

Axl had a complex personality. He was raised in a broken-home family, was sexually and physically abused. He'd been diagnosed manic depressive, then found solace through spiritual teachings. According to the book, Axl brought his own entourage during world tour, including spiritual teachers.

One by one, the original gunners left, either fired or quit. Tommy Lee once said that Axl had an LSD (Lead Singer Disease). 

Axl's antics caught people's attentions, even more interesting than GNR's music itself. The infamous "Chinese Democracy", the full length album after Use Your Illusion, also brought people's attention. Even Moby said the album would never happen. Perhaps, it has set a new record as the longest album in development as well as the most expensive, due to it taking so long to come out, giving Geffen a massive headache.

If you want to know more about Guns N' Roses, you should read this book. Not as good as Duff's "It's So Easy (And Other Lies)" or Motley Crue's "The Dirt", but it's an OK reading to learn about GNR's brief history.

[Warren Truitt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Urgh. Don't even bother. Poorly written, weirdly arranged, and full of spelling errors. Even the photos are crappy.

[Tzeck]

Само първите няколко страници ми бяха достатъчни да обявя тази книга за може би най-ужасяващо зле написаната музикална, а вероятно и всякаква, биография на всички времена. А книгата е скъпа, по оформлението ѝ също са хвърлени сума пари, а за нея разбрах от хвалебствена реклама по телевизията. Ебаси ебасимуто!

[Aurélien Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, published in 2004 (that is, when Axl rose was still working on the 'Chinese Democracy' album) this is supposed to be a biography of the Guns... Well, it failed! In fact, what we've got here is more a biography of the band through Axl Rose only than a proper band history! Now, sure, the approach might make sense since Axl is the only original member left! But, if you dislike the guy it's going to be a problem...

Of course, all the major steps of the Guns N' Roses' career are here (from their formation to the touring with Aerosmith and Metallica), the whole illustrated by crazy stories that truly demonstrates if needed be how 'sex, drugs and rock n' roll' they were. BUT, Paul Stenning has such an admiration for the singer that, he not only screwed his own book by quickly turning it into an 'all about Axl' type of tale, he also dares using bad pop psychology to justify the diva's ridiculous attitude (e.g. delving into his childhood, analysing -badly- his lyrics etc.)! This is more than annoying; it's ridiculous. More, the fact it drags endlessly with pages as useless as they are boring (listing of chronicles and concerts etc.) makes for a disappointing read.

I don't want to rate it too harsh though. I like the Guns N' Roses, so a read about them is always pleasant to go through. But, again, if you're not a huge fan nor an admirer of Axl Rose then forget. I sure did.

[Antonis Moras · Rating 1 out of 5]

First 100 pages were amusing, after than that the book was crap. Everything was too poor. Even if u neglect the fact that the title should be "kissing Axl's ass"

[Coyney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was quite informative but would not be in a rush to read again

[Райна Максимова · Rating 4 out of 5]

Четири звезди само защото така и не е одобрена от Аксел. Но пък и не е отхвърлена публично, което значи, че написаното не е купчина простотии. На мен ми беше интересно.

[Ralph Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this sordid crap. It’s just so readable. Axl certainly is a tortured protagonist, all black shades, virtually little redeeming features but entirely human and somewhat sympathetic.

[Емил Антонов · Rating 1 out of 5]

Като се има предвид, че "Групата забравена от времето" трябваше да е историята на една от най-влиятелните банди в рок музиката - Guns N' Roses, съм изключително разочарован. Авторът Пол Стенинг изглежда е просто изключителен фен на Аксел Роуз. Писател като кон с капаци, който отказва да разгледа каквито и да е други гледни точки освен тази на Аксел. Големи периоди от историята на групата изобщо не са засегнати, както и приносът на членове като Изи Страдлин, Стивън Адлър и др. Вместо това Аксел е представен като богоподобно същество, което за разлика от другите прави всичко за всеобщото добро. Взема наркотици, но всъщност е в перфектна физическа и духовна форма. Той е единственият с аналитичен ум и стратегия за бъдещето на бандата, докато другите са просто общи работници...

Друго на ръка - най-слабото издание на издателство Addix. Имам книгите им за Metallica, Iron Maiden и Slayer - нивото не се доближава. Имена на хора - сбъркани масово, кредити към снимки - съсипани и немалко грешки при корекцията на книгата. Разочарован съм, радвам се, че я свърших бързо. Сега ми се чете наистина хубава биография на Guns N' Roses!

[Ahren · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good history of G'N'R's rise, but very Axl-focused, and totally glosses over the "break up" of Guns. The author has the annoying habit of jumping around chronologically, so I kept waiting for a chapter about Slash's departure and it never came, it just jumps from the end of the Use Your Illusion tour in 92/93 to "where are they now" with surprisingly little information or even conjecture about what actually happened (which was the whole reason I wanted to read this book).

[Кремена Михайлова · Rating 3 out of 5]

Axl - intense energy!
Couldn't you manage to leave that pain in the past? Anyway, anger makes you sexy... but lonely...

She's got eyes of the bluest skies
As if they thought of rain
I hate to look into those eyes
And see an ounce of pain
Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place
Where as a child I'd hide
And pray for the thunder
And the rain
To quietly pass me by

[Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lame. I could read this on wikipedia. That said, love the cover picture!

[Timo · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting biography but far from perfect.

[Don Woodman · Rating 1 out of 5]

so poorly written as to be unreadable

[Vladimira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having the love i have for Guns N' Roses, i enjoyed every moment spent with this book in my hands. Every fan needs to read it.

[Soho_Black · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite a few years ago, I read an appalling unauthorised biography of Guns ‘N’ Roses guitarist, Slash, written by Paul Stenning. It was so bad, that I declared I wouldn’t be interested in reading any more of his output. Little did I know until a recent house move unearthed it, but I had another Paul Stenning book in my collection, his equally unauthorised biography of the whole band, “Guns ‘N’ Roses: The Band That Time Forgot” and I can’t bear to throw away a book unread, more’s the pity.

The book tracks the band from their early days, growing up in various parts of the United States and with differing childhoods, but eventually all coming together in Los Angeles playing in bands. Eventually these bands came together in what would become an early version of Guns ‘N’ Roses. It didn’t take long for the band to gain a reputation for misbehaviour and excellent music, both of which would follow them for their entire career. The misbehaviour would cover addiction, occasions of violence both verbal and physical and relationship issues both within the band and without.

For a book that claims to be a biography of the band, the telling of the story has more holes than a colander. The only band member whose childhood and younger years are covered in any detail is lead singer Axl Rose’s and even that only as explanation for some of his later actions and what came up in his therapy. The huge number of line-up changes are mentioned and some of the arguments and relationship breakdowns that caused them come up, but only in passing. Much of what happened with the band and was reported in the music press was rumour and hearsay and the same is true here, because Stenning has not been granted access to any of those directly involved. Indeed, his sources become clear quite early on, with frequent references to interviews and articles given to “Terrorizer” magazine which, entirely unsurprisingly, Stenning’s author bio shows he worked for. Stenning also seems to have a total blindspot when it comes to certain bands from the same era, comparing Guns ‘N’ Roses favourably against the likes of Poison and Motley Crue, but barely giving Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, bands who were much closer to matching and beating Guns ‘N’ Roses for sales in their earlier days, a mention. There is also a list of the people that annoyed Axl Rose enough to get a mention in the lyrics to the song “Get in the Ring”, but details about what they did to upset him were conspicuous by their absence.

By contrast, there are parts of the book that are quite comprehensive. The list of concerts that the band played, both as headliners, in earlier incarnations and as guest appearances is impressive. But it’s inclusion in the middle of a chapter that contained effectively reviews of earlier and later gigs was completely incongruous and should ideally have been placed in an appendix with their record releases. This is largely the major failing of the book, in that Stenning manages to find a way of spoiling the few good parts due to poor choices, either in authorship or editing, or poor writing.

The poor writing extends to the sections where Stenning talks about the albums, in particular the “Use Your Illusion” double album set and the “Chinese Democracy” album which, at the point this book was written, was rumoured to have racked up millions of dollars in production costs and was still 4 years away from release. As with the “Slash” book, he goes through albums in the fashion of a consumer review, giving opinion which isn’t in keeping with a proper biography. There are also numerous occasions where Stenning talks down to his readership, using words like “surely” and making sweeping generalisations about what people knew and thought about the band, with the direct implication that others apart from him weren’t aware of this.

The editorial failures seem to involve no-one telling Stenning that his focus was too narrow and his approach incomprehensible. Whilst he was the one band member to give his name to the band, this book was far more about Axl Rose than it was about Guns ‘N’ Roses and apart from brief mentions of the main other members in the early days and the later ones in passing, plus a brief review of the work of Velvet Revolver which he largely re-used in his book about Slash, this could have been an Axl Rose biography without needing to change anything. The non-chronological presentation and the inclusion of quotes and lyrics in sections that didn’t refer to them also smacked of a lack of outside control or decision making and made the book even more of a mess than it would have been with just the poor writing alone.

Another let down came in the fact that this was an unauthorised biography, so there were few direct quotes from anyone in the book, apart from those that could be cobbled together from work already in the public domain, much of which was a decade or more old at the time of writing. Stenning refers on occasion to Axl Rose exerting control over the band’s history as well as its present and threatening to sue people who did not present his version of the truth, but there is nothing here to suggest that Stenning had the bravery to challenge that situation and whilst the lack of direct information suggests this has been written without the co-operation of Axl Rose, it presents such a rose-tinted picture of him that Rose may have well have written it himself.

For more detail of the rest of the band, Slash, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler have all written their own autobiographies which, whilst they are likely to be tilted in their own favour, will at least offer an alternative view to the Axl Rose-tinted spectacles that Stenning was wearing as he wrote this book. It wouldn’t surprise me if, despite the years the band addled their minds and bodies with drugs and alcohol, that they prove to be better writers than Stenning as well. What I can say for sure is that this book, in common with the other Stenning book I’ve read, is not worth the paper it was printed on and isn’t worth spending money on. The one thing this book did remind me, through some of the quoted lyrics, was how much I enjoyed much of the classic Guns ‘N’ Roses music and whilst I will happily listen to that again, reading Stenning again is something I hope to never do.