From http://gnrdaily.com/news_detail.asp?id=1188

Tim Brouk of Lafayette's daily newspaper Journal & Courier recently had a chat with British rock journalist Mick Wall who just released his new biography of Axl Rose in the U.S.

Book explores life of Lafayette native Axl Rose

To many, Axl Rose is Lafayette's most famous native son.

Yet for the past 15 years, the Guns N' Roses frontman's music career has been surrounded by mystery and wonder.

A new book, W.A.R.: The Unauthorized Biography of William Axl Rose, by Mick Wall, attempts to reveal the reclusive singer's life and work that is often surrounded by controversy and drama. Is there still a Guns N' Roses? Will Rose's way-too-long anticipated album, Chinese Democracy, ever come out?

"Axl turned 46 last Wednesday (Feb. 6)," said Wall from his country home outside of London. "The last time he released an album of original material he was 29. Now he is closer to 50. The Beatles' career started and was over in half that time."

Published Feb. 7, W.A.R. is available at Borders Books & Music and Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Wall said the book's release near Rose's birthday was a coincidence.

Wall said Rose has "50 or 60 tracks recorded, enough for three or four CDs" and those leaked online or on bootlegs have been well-received from GNR fans.

"Officially put it out all online," Wall suggested. "Here it is. Take it or leave it. Then just move on. Put them out. It's a sign of madness that it has taken this long. It was kind of cool crazy in 2002 when he started to tour again. Now it's uncool crazy.

"The tracks I've heard, a lot of it is really good but the whole mystique is wearing away."
While the current Rose is an enigma, his youth was anything but hidden. Rose exploded on to the Los Angeles rock scene and then the international scene with Guns N' Roses in the late 1980s. The band featured Izzy Stradlin (Jeff Isbell), another Lafayette native.

The first chapter, about 20 pages, focuses on Rose's life in Lafayette. Rose's childhood and teen years are well-documented, but Wall wanted to update it, especially now that his descriptions of Lafayette in Wall's 1991 book Guns N' Roses: The Most Dangerous Band in the World are now out of date.

Throughout the book, Indiana comes up often, whether it is through haunting childhood memories, old friends and even good old-fashioned Hoosier pride.

"When he first got there, he didn't have a good word to say about his hometown," Wall recalled. "Then it changed as years went by as he was becoming famous and successful.

"L.A. being L.A., you don't want to seem you just arrived in town. There's not really any talk about where you come from but where you're going. Everyone comes from somewhere else, and he hated where he came from. But with a little more time and inclination, he was forever inviting people from Lafayette to stay with him. He felt it was important to see people who knew him before he became successful. Some of it was 'I told you so.' "

If Wall's name sounds familiar, it's because he pops up in the infamous "Get in the Ring" song off of Use Your Illusion II. Wall had the inside track on Rose for years. He met the singer when he was a reporter for the British hard rock magazine Kerrang! and Rose would often call Wall -- always in the middle of the night -- when he was ready for an interview. But Rose turned on him soon after he wrote a story on Rose's calling-out of Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil, Wall said. "Get in the Ring" is a combination of a song bassist Duff McKagan wrote, the fiasco with Neil and his battles with rock journalists.

The last time Wall saw Rose was in 1991 when Rose threatened to kill him for writing a book on Guns N' Roses, Wall said. The last time Wall spoke with Rose over the phone was when the singer called him at 2 a.m. to tell him he'd "see him in court" after the GNR book was published. That was 17 years ago.

Still, Wall is among the millions of rock fans who would love to see a reunion of the Guns N' Roses original line-up. While Guns N' Roses toured briefly in 2002 and again in 2006, he and most GNR fans identify with the lineup that has Stradlin, McKagan and guitarist Slash, not the lineups of studio musicians. Wall said Rose is against a reunion but the writer never rules anything out in rock 'n' roll, with Rose or when there are millions of dollars at stake. Wall remembered interviewing Robert Plant and he said there would be a Led Zeppelin reunion "over my dead body." Yet, the surviving members of the epic British rock band reformed on Dec. 10, 2007. Talks of a world tour have occurred as well.

"I never bet against something in this business," Wall said. "Jimmy Page is 64 and he waited 27 years for the reunion."

The West Lafayette Borders had four copies of W.A.R. but had sold none as of Wednesday. Andy Bryant, merchandising manager for Barnes & Noble, said his store has sold "a couple" copies. Bryant said W.A.R. seems better than Most Dangerous Band in the World.

"I would foresee it selling more," Bryant added.

Source:http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080217/LIFE/802170316

Taken from HTGTH