Use Your Illusion II [PA]

Performer: Guns N' Roses
Artist: Shannon Hoon
Engineer: Jim Mitchell; Mike Clink
Producer: Guns N' Roses; Mike Clink; Axl Rose
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Guns N' Roses: Izzy Stradlin (vocals, acoustic, electric & coral guitars); Axl Rose (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, drums, sound effects); Slash (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo); Duff McKagan (bass, percussion, background vocals); Dizzy Reed (piano, organ); Matt Sorum (drums, percussion, background vocals). Additional personnel: Howard Teman (piano); Johann Langlie (keyboards, drums, sound effects); Steven Adler (drums); Shannon Hoon, The Waters (background vocals). Recorded at A & M Studios, Record Plant, Studio 56 and Image Recording, Hollywood, California; Conway Studios, Los Angeles, California; Metalworks Recording Studios, Toronto, Ontario. Guns N' Roses: Izzy Stradlin (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, coral sitar); Axl Rose (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, drums, sound effects); Slash (acoustic & electric guitars, banjo); Duff McKagan (bass, percussion, background vocals); Dizzy Reed (piano, organ); Matt Sorum (drums, percussion, background vocals). Additional personnel: Howard Teman (piano); Johann Langlie (keyboards, drums, sound effects); Steven Adler (drums); Shannon Hoon, The Waters (background vocals). Recorded at A & M Studios, Record Plant, Studio 56 and Image Recording, Hollywood, California; Conway Studios, Los Angeles, California; Metalworks Recording Studios, Toronto, Ontario. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Personnel: Izzy Stradlin (vocals, guitar, electric guitar, sitar, background vocals); Axl Rose (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, drums, sound effects, background vocals); Duff McKagan (vocals, bass guitar, percussion, background vocals); Shannon Hoon (vocals, background vocals); Alice Cooper (vocals); Slash (guitar, acoustic guitar, dobro, banjo, bass guitar, background vocals); West Arkeen (guitar); Michael Monroe (harmonica, saxophone); Dizzy Reed (piano, Clavinet, organ, background vocals); Howard Teman (piano); Johann Langlie (keyboards, drums, programming, sound effects); Matt Sorum (drums, percussion); Steven Adler (drums); Tim Doyle (tambourine); Bruce Foster (sound effects); Reba Shaw, Stuart Bailey, The Waters (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Bill Price . Recording information: A&M Studios, Hollywood, CA; Conway Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Image Recording, Hollywood, CA; Metalworks Recording Studios, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Record Plant, Hollywood, CA; Studio 56, Hollywood, CA. Editor: Lyn Fey. Illustrators: Mike Staggs; Krik Hughey; Steve Lank; R.K. Sloane. Photographers: William Hames; George Chin; Gene Kirkland; R.K. Sloane; Robert John. Unknown Contributor Roles: Rachel West; Matthew McKagan; Robert Clark; John Trautwein. Four years after becoming an uninvited guest at the party that is the music industry with its seminal debut, APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION, Guns N' Roses detonated a creative blast by releasing USE YOUR ILLUSION I & II. Thanks to a reckless approach toward life and music, G N' R was constantly at the center of controversy and the result was that much of it was chronicled on this two-volume project. By this time, original drummer Steven Adler had been dismissed due to alleged drug dependency problems and was replaced by the Cult's Matt Sorum. Keyboardist Dizzy Reed was also added as a member. ILLUSION II lacks the hits of the first volume and also doesn't overflow with as much bile, aside from a couple of exceptions. Axl Rose howls at the editors of Spin, Kerrang, and Hit Parader magazines on the rollicking "Get in the Ring," and addresses the inherent pitfalls of fame on Izzy Stradlin's scathing "Pretty Tied Up (The Perils of Rock N' Roll Decadence)". Elsewhere, G'N'R tackles an old Dylan nugget ("Knockin' on Heaven's Door"), includes tracks cut for charity and soundtracks ("Civil War," "You Could Be Mine"), and an underrated masterpiece about heartbreak that manages to emote both indignation and sorrow without sounding pathetic ("Estranged").

Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.56) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Rolling Stone - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...the band rewards the loyal legions with fourteen songs, which range from ballad to battle, pretty to vulgar, worldly..." Spin (12/91) - Ranked #19 in Spin's list of the 20 Best Albums Of 1991. Q (1/92) - One of Q Magazine's 50 best albums of 1991. Melody Maker (12/91) - Ranked #10 in Melody Maker's list of the top 30 albums of 1991 - "...rocks like a mutha!" Kerrang (Magazine) (p.53) - "[A]t turns balladic, bluesy, experimental and peppered with genius."

While the 1980s Los Angeles rock scene will forever be associated with pretty-boy glam metal, it also spawned Guns N' Roses, one of the most in-your-face, streetwise, and controversial bands of the era. Axl Rose, Slash, & company's roots lay in The Stones, Aerosmith, and The New York Dolls, with a gentle touch of pop-metal edge. The act ruled critics' minds, the pop charts, and MTV in 1988 with the still revered APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION, which included the oft-covered #1 hit "Sweet Child O' Mine." The double-album USE YOUR ILLUSION continued their reign. The original band was slowly replaced, and by the late '90s only Rose remained to annually promise CHINESE DEMOCRACY, which he delivered in 2008, and while it received some critical raves, the album failed to live up to the almost impossible sales expectations.

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