Axl Rose and the late Nirvana leader, Kurt Cobain, were opposing characters. In Guns N’ Roses’ heyday, Rose appeared like a relic of the classic rock period when excess was the aim of the game. Cobain, meanwhile, was the refreshing new breed of musician, in it solely for the love of the craft, underpinned by a righteous punk philosophy that despised everything Rose and his band were about. 

Despite Axl Rose openly being a fan of Nirvana, his offensive lyrics and general attitude would often anger Kurt Cobain. Cobain once expressed frustration, stating, “We’re not your typical Guns N’ Roses type of band that has absolutely nothing to say.” Naturally, this irked the quick-to-temper frontman, who repeatedly showed his admiration for Nirvana.

Furthermore, it is also reported that Rose would repeatedly call Cobain, asking Nirvana to support Guns N’ Roses on tour, but unsurprisingly, he was rejected. Cobain was adamant that Nirvana wouldn’t turn into the ‘Paradise City’ band, so he started trash-talking Rose and his outfit during numerous interviews, which meant the gloves were off. A petulant feud emerged. Rose would later dub Cobain and his wife Courtney Love “junkies” onstage following a news report claiming the Hole vocalist had used heroin while pregnant. Rose told an audience in Orlando: “If the baby is born deformed, I think they both ought to go to prison.”

Things then boiled over at the 1992 MTV Awards. Allegedly, Love taunted Rose by offering to make him the godfather of her baby, Frances Bean Cobain, which led to Rose threatening Cobain, telling him to keep “his woman in line”, before Rose’s then-partner Stephanie Seymour traded vicious words with Love. Later that evening, in retaliation, Cobain would spit all over what he thought was Rose’s keyboard, but it actually turned out to be Elton John’s. For their response, members of Guns N’ Roses and their entourage attempted to tip over Nirvana’s trailer, but they weren’t inside; it was only Frances Bean and her nanny. Thankfully, they stopped upon realisation of the situation.

Later, speaking to the LGBTQ+ publication The Advocate in 1993, Cobain discussed an instance where a fan pleaded with him to patch things up with Rose and his outfit, as they were their two favourite bands. “No, kid, you’re really wrong,” the Nirvana man recalled saying, “Those people are total sexist jerks, and the reason we’re playing this show is to fight homophobia in a [really] small way. The guy is a fucking sexist and a racist and a homophobe, and you can’t be on his side and be on our side.”

One bitter feud would be too much for most of us, but not Axl Rose. One man who absolutely hates him is Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil. You’d be forgiven for thinking he would be good friends with the Guns N’ Roses vocalist, given their Los Angeles background and similar musical styles, but things could not be more different. 

A strange spat commenced in 1989, with Rose finding himself firmly in Neil’s crosshairs. After the Crüe presented ‘Best Group and Best Metal Video’ to Guns N’ Roses at the 1989 MTV Awards, they all left the Universal Amphitheatre, but Neil stayed behind, waiting for Izzy Stradlin, who was claimed to have struck his wife, Sharise, at an earlier date. Waiting for the alleged abuser backstage, Neil sucker-punched Stradlin just as they got off stage from performing with Tom Petty. In response, the red-faced, flame-haired Rose screamed at the top of his lungs and threatened to kill Neil for the attack. No assassination materialised, though.

This eruption made the headlines, and tensions reached fever pitch. In 1990, Rose appeared on MTV and maintained that he was ready to physically sort out Neil once and for all. He got no response, though, and a year passed without a whisper from the other side. Then, all of a sudden, Neil responded, and fans watched with bated breath. Was the veteran rocker about to give the petulant Rose the hiding he’d always deserved?

Neil said: “He said a lot of bad things about me last few years and a lot of threats. Even on one of your guys’ shows before the MTV Awards. He said, ‘Well, any time any place.’ And right now, I wanna put an end to this, and what I want is, Axl, if you are watching this, I want to challenge you to a fight. I’m gonna give you time, and I’m gonna give you the place. There’s no backing out now, buddy. It’s time to put up or shut up.”

He continued: “I’d like to do it at an arena where people can come and see. I’d like to have it televised. I want the whole world to see this fight. I think it’s gonna be great. I’m really psyched for it because I need to put an end to this. It’ll end it once and for all the bad blood between us. So let’s do it. Men should do it”.

Of course, another media frenzy ensued, but perhaps in the greatest distillation of how much of a fallacy the macho hair metal and hard rock of the era was, nothing ever happened. Thankfully, a year later, Kurt Cobain was to change rock music forever and blow away these outdated spectres.