‘Appetite for Destruction’ at 35: Hardy and Adam 12 Reminisce
July 21, 1987: Guns N’ Roses release Appetite for Destruction, their debut album on Geffen Records. It turns 35 this year.
You know the story: it’s GNR’s breakthrough album. It established the band as one of the biggest acts of the late ’80s and early ’90s. And it lives in it’s own musical universe, in between hard rock, heavy metal, and hair metal. Oh, and it’s sold over 30 million copies to date. That makes it one of the best-selling albums, rock or otherwise, of all time.
Appetite for Destruction: Fuzzy Memories
Adam 12 was good enough to get me on the phone to reminisce on the way from my sports show to my rock show. If you’ve been living under a rock since last fall and you haven’t heard yet, I’m not just on the Sports Hub anymore. You can now hear me weekday afternoons from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. right here on ROCK 92.9. Had to get the shameless plug in there. It’s what I do.
So 12 calls me up and he’s asking me what I remember about when Appetite for Destruction dropped in the summer of ’87. Believe it or not, I was already on the radio then. No, I’m not that old. And I’ll thank you for keeping your snide remarks to yourself. I was in high school. My high school had a radio station. And I would host an hour-long morning show weekdays before school. So I told 12 about how I played tracks from the album on my show when it came out. And 12 told me about how he and his buddies would scour the shops at the local mall trying to score a t-shirt with the original, controversial cover art. You know what, why don’t you just listen for yourself.
And here’s that crazy cover art. You can understand why stores wouldn’t carry it. Still gives me the willies 35 years later.
