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Dec 16, 20229 min read

Guns N’ Roses - Live ?!★@ Like A Suicide (EP) (1986)

𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐒 - 𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 & 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋…



On December 16, 1986, Guns N’ Roses released their four song EP, Live ?!★@ Like A Suicide via the Geffen subsidiary, UZI Suicide label.


When referred to by band members, they have simply called the EP Live Like a Suicide. The record itself was reportedly limited to only 10,000 copies, released only in vinyl and cassette formats.



Introduction:

“Hey, f__kers! Suck on f__kin’ Guns N’ Roses!” Leads off the group’s first-ever release, the Live ?!★@ Like A Suicide EP, released on December 16, 1986. And with that crude and effective admonition, the EP kicks into the lead song Reckless Life, sounding off like a credo, exclaiming to the world that the most dangerous band from L.A.'s Sunset Strip had arrived. With its Punk Rock attitude and incipient Superstar braggadocio, Live ?!★@ Like A Suicide laid the foundation for the punk infused sleaze that would define their would-be multi-platinum debut album the following year.


But, before we go any further into the EP, let’s take a look at the bands beginning…


Hollywood Rose; Izzy Stradlin, Axl Rose & Chris Weber

 

An original Hollywood Rose flyer featuring Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin to promote a performance at Madam Wong's East on March 16, 1984

 

The Beginning of G N’ R:

In 1984, Hollywood Rose member Izzy Stradlin was living with L.A. Guns member Tracii Guns.

When L.A. Guns needed a new vocalist, Stradlin suggested Hollywood Rose singer Axl Rose.


Axl Rose in L.A. Guns, 1984

 
“We had a singer (Mike Jagosz) that our manager didn't like, so we fired him. So then I asked Axl to join L.A. Guns and he was in the band for about six, seven months. The same manager ended up hating Axl and he wanted to fire him. We're all living together at this point and Axl and I sat down and went 'What are we going to do?' So we both said 'Fuck that', and came up with the name Guns N' Roses, which was going to be just a record label that we'd put singles out on.” — Original guitarist Tracii Guns

L.A. Guns' Tracii Guns & Axl Rose, 1984

 

This led to Guns N' Roses being formed in March 1985 by Rose, rhythm guitarist Stradlin, along with L.A. Guns founders lead guitarist Guns, drummer Rob Gardner and bassist Ole Beich. Guns recalled the formation of the band in a 2019 interview, stating:

"That same night he (Axl) got fired we started Guns N' Roses and I called Izzy the next day and said 'Hey, we are gonna start this new band called Guns N' Roses, do you want in?' It was as simple as that, no paint or cocaine involved."

L.A. Guns' Axl Rose & Ole Beich, 1984

 

The band coined its name by combining the names of both previous groups; initially it was the name of a label they were going to release music on. Rejected names for the band included Heads of Amazon and AIDS.


Guns N' Roses; Rob Gardner, Izzy Stradlin, Axl Rose, Tracii Guns, and Ole Beich

 

After the band's first two rehearsals, Beich was fired and replaced by Duff McKagan. The first rehearsal with McKagan was recorded and three songs from it (Don’t Cry, Think About You and Anything Goes) were played during the band's first radio interview, aired two days before their first ever show at the Troubadour on March 26, 1985 (radio interview: https://youtu.be/xbm2nxlO474). Around this time, the band planned to release an EP with the three aforementioned songs and a cover of Heartbreak Hotel. However, Guns left the band after an argument with Rose, and plans for the release fell through.


Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose and Tracii Guns, 1985

 

With respect to how his time ended with Guns N’ Roses, Tracii Guns stated;

“I was 19 when I left and it was a very long time ago. At the time, Axl was kind of going through something because I had never seen him angry. I’d seen him get angry where someone confronts us and we’re about to fight with somebody but between him and I we had a really great best friendship.”
“We were always together and did everything together. It got to the point where we had done these two shows over the weekend: one was at the Waters Club in San Pedro and one was at the Timbers Club in Glendora.”
“They were fine shows but Axl was really separate from the rest of the band. He kinda showed up when he wanted; didn’t say anything; and was mad that at one of the shows a friend of ours wasn’t on the guest list.”
“It didn’t turn me against him or the band but it made it really not fun. It made it like, ‘Man, what a drag. What a bummer.’ The reality of what happened was that I was living with my girlfriend in Covina and we rehearsed in Hollywood. We were supposed to rehearse Thursdays so after that last gig at the Waters Club everybody said, ‘I’ll see you Thursday’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, OK.'”
“I just didn’t call or show up or anything like that. I got a call and they said, ‘What are you doing?’ and I was like, ‘Well, I can’t get there.'”
“I was just having really bad vibes. I blew off Friday’s rehearsal and I knew we had a show coming up at the Troubadour but I knew we’d be fine and I said, ‘Look, man. We’ll be fine. I don’t wanna drive all the way in there and I don’t wanna get in a fight with you.’ Axl was like, ‘No, man. We gotta do this.'”
“He was right. Either you’re all in or you’re not and at that point I just wasn’t. I just went, ‘Man, this is a drag.'”

Guns was replaced by a former Hollywood Rose member, Slash. Gardner, the last remaining L.A. Guns member to remain in the band, quit soon after. Steven Adler, another former Hollywood Rose member, filled Gardner's spot.


Guns N' Roses classic lineup - Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin, Axl Rose, Steven Adler, and Slash posing for a portrait in a booth at Canter's Deli, adjacent to the Kibitz Room bar in Los Angeles in June 1985.

 

The band's "classic" lineup was finalized on June 4, 1985, when Adler and Slash officially joined. After two days of rehearsals, the band played their first show with the lineup on June 6, 1985. Two days later, the band embarked on a short, disorganized tour of the West Coast, from Sacramento, California, to McKagan's hometown of Seattle, Washington. The band drove in a separate van and had to abandon their gear when both vans broke down on the way to Seattle, forcing them to hitchhike up the coast and back home to LA with only their guitars. The so-called Hell Tour settled the band's first stable lineup, with McKagan later commenting, "This trip had set a new benchmark for what we were capable of, what we could and would put ourselves through to achieve our goals as a band." The band then took up residence at a house and rehearsal space dubbed The Hell House.


Axl, Slash, Izzy, Duff, and Steven performing for the first time as Guns N' Roses on June 6, 1985 at the Troubadour in Hollywood, California.

 

Through the band's increasing presence on the Hollywood club scene – playing famed bars such as the Troubadour and the Roxy – Guns N' Roses drew the attention of major record labels. The group signed with Geffen Records in March 1986, receiving a $75,000 ($185,405 in current dollar terms) advance. They had turned down an offer from Chrysalis Records that was nearly double Geffen's, due to Chrysalis wanting to change the band's image and sound and Geffen offering full artistic freedom.


The classic lineup of Guns N' Roses' first performance on June 6, 1985 at the Troubadour in Hollywood, California.

 

Live ?!★@ Like A Suicide:

The group released Live ?!★@ Like A Suicide, to keep interest in the band alive while the group withdrew from the club scene to work in the studio. The EP release was designed to sooth over the label, who felt the band did not have enough songs to record an album. The EP’s release was also about the fans. In the short 12 months since they’d exploded onto the LA music scene with their Punk fueled Rock N’ Roll onslaught, GN’R had become national news, with a ferociously loyal following on the Strip.


Guns N' Roses various live pics from 1986.

 

With Appetite For Destruction still under construction, the group issued the EP in a limited-run – superficially on their own Uzi Suicide label, to preserve their “street-level independent credibility”, though actually released with Geffen’s full backing – to give their earliest converts something to cherish. The fans who supported them “in the streets as well as the stage” (as the dedication on the rear sleeve read) duly snapped up the 10,000 12” copies that snuck into the racks in LA’s record stores.


The four songs on the EP were selected from the band's demo tapes: two are cover versions and two are originals. The EP was a faux-live recording with overdubbed crowd noise, but these are in fact studio performances. And while the EP wasn’t actually a live recording, it still captured the potency of Guns N' Roses' chaotic early LA shows. Reckless Life is strengthened by another group original, Move To The City (a quintessential rocker, that does well to describe the streetwise lifestyle the group lived in their early days), both of which were staples of the group’s setlists at the time. Something else to take notice of, is that Move to the City also features a horn section. The EP’s other two songs also turned up in early shows: a furious cover of Nice Boys, originally by Australian rockers Rose Tattoo, and, fittingly, a visceral take on Aerosmith’s Mama Kin. A band Guns N' Roses has cited as one of their major influences, Mama Kin was an ingenious choice, being it was one of Aerosmith’s earliest, written before they themselves were a signed band.


Various live shots from 1986.

 

According to Steven Adler's autobiography, My Appetite for Destruction: Sex & Drugs & Guns N' Roses, the entire EP was recorded at Pasha Studios in Hollywood with pre-recorded audience applause and cheering in the background, as Geffen's engineers told him "it would cost too much to actually record a live record". Duff McKagan says in his autobiography, It's So Easy (and other Lies), that "the crowd noise...is from a 1970's rock festival called the Texxas Jam. We thought it would be funny to put a huge stadium crowd in the background at a time when we were lucky to be playing to a few hundred."


Guns N' Roses at Fenders Ballroom in Long Beach, California on December 21, 1986.

 

As previously mentioned, Reckless Life is the opening track on the EP. It opens with Slash shouting the crude, yet effective line; "Hey fuckers! Suck on Guns N' fuckin' Roses!" This song was originally written by Hollywood Rose, which had included all the members of Guns N' Roses except Duff McKagan at one point or another. It was included in the Hollywood Rose compilation album The Roots of Guns N' Roses.


Guns N' Roses at The Troubadour, February 28, 1986.

 

Though GN’R had their own most dedicated fans in mind for the EP, Live ?!★@ Like A Suicide drew both national and international press, perfectly priming the world for Appetite’s appearance the following year. Circus Magazine praised the “truly manic punk/R&B/glam/metal noise that’s guaranteed to piss off your folks (and half your friends as well)”, while in the UK, legendary rock scribe Mick Wall, writing for Kerrang!, hailed the EP, calling it, “The choicest side of lowlife rock’n’roll roll to emerge out of LA since Mötley Crüe’s Too Fast For Love in 1981.”


Slash relaxing backstage after his performance with Guns N' Roses at the Troubadour on February 28, 1986.

 

Despite being reissued as part of the GN’R Lies collection of 1988, original copies of Live ?!★@ Like A Suicide still command in excess of $200 – though anyone in search of one should beware that bootlegs have long since entered the market.


Axl and Slash during a 10 PM Guns N' Roses performance on March 28, 1986 in Hollywood, California.

 

One song considered for this EP was Shadow of Your Love, which never made it onto the album, and later released on the It’s So Easy/Mr. Brownstone 12" single and the Guns N' Roses EP (aka Live from the Jungle).


It’s So Easy/Mr. Brownstone 12" single and the Guns N' Roses EP (aka Live from the Jungle.

 

The front cover consists of a photograph of two of the band members, Duff McKagan and Axl Rose (from left to right), with an early Guns N' Roses logo, designed by Slash, overhead. The artwork from this EP is also featured in the G N' R Lies album artwork.


To celebrate the release of the EP Guns N' Roses had a release party at Riki Rachtman's World Famous Cathouse. That was the first live performance at the club. It was acoustic and this was before MTV had the unplugged series, so an acoustic set from a heavy metal act was rather obscure in 1986. In 2010, Steven Adler claimed that Guns N' Roses got Rodney on the Roq at KROQ-FM to initially play Reckless Life by giving Rodney one gram of cocaine.


Guns N' Roses release party at Riki Rachtman's World Famous Cathouse, December 23, 1986, the bands first appearance at the club.

 

Noteworthy:

In 2018, the tracks were included as bonus tracks on the reissue of Appetite for Destruction and featured seamless crowd noise between the songs along with a fifth song, Shadow of Your Love.



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