The Most Expensive Album Never Made

PoorAxl. I shouldn't feel sorry for anyone as rich as he, but I can't help myself. Axl is a miraculous failure. For one perfect moment, Axl crystalized the best and worst of a generation, and the ups and downs of the rock world simultaneously. I said at the time that Gun 'n' Roses started going to hell the minute he stopped teasing his hair. Hell was right. I've known 20 or 30 Axl's, equally gifted and equally disturbed, all of whom would have given anything to have what Axl had and none of whom would have handled it any better than he has. Axl's haunted by the ghost of himself whereever he goes - always a younger, prettier, crazier ghost than he used to be and the obstacle of his utterly unique success to overcome. No one wants to be loved so desperately yet is as incapable of feeling that love as a rock star.