Guns N’ Roses were already making serious headway back home in LA when they made their maiden voyage to the UK in June, 1987, and their reputation preceded them. No rock’n’roll band at the time worth their spilled-over salt could avoid some tabloid scaremongering, and The Daily Star warned readers of the carnage to come. They reported that these “booze-crazed rockers” had a “dog killer” for a frontman after Axl Rose had displayed a tongue-in-cheek dislike for poodles in an interview. “Everything about them means I must kill them,” he’d said.
The Star did not take this lightly, also sharing news of a police raid on the band’s “sleazy hideout” in LA that had resulted in a “vicious battle” that left the singer in intensive care. As Axl told Classic Rock’s Paul Elliott, there was some truth in the tale. “I got hit on the head by a cop and I guess I just blacked out. Two days later I woke up in hospital with electrodes over me.”
