Guns N Roses

Cal texted me tonight to let me know that Guns N Roses held a concert at Wrigley Field today.  I asked him if he went.  He texted back, "No, It's Euchre night.  Plus that's the biggest white trash crowd I've ever seen."  I had to laugh as I had just played their song "One in a Million" for Brett and at the end, he said, "Mom, what was going on with your generation back in the late 1980s, early 1990s."

As much as Doug and I loved Guns N Roses, our passion for the band never won over the Heinisch children.  There were only a few of GNR's songs that ever made the playlist on our long road trips when they were younger.  Everyone liked "Used to Love Her (But I had to Kill Her)" and a few enjoyed "November Rain" and "Knocking On Heavens Door", but other than that we rarely listened to them.  Meg hated "Sweet Child of Mine", another one of Doug and my favorites, and in all honesty most of their songs had too much swearing or negative undertones for us to play for them.

After my conversations with Brett and Cal this week, I thought a lot about the hype surrounding Guns N Roses when Doug and I were in college.  I remembered the first time I heard their song "Welcome to the Jungle."  I was riding in a car with my friend Barb on the way to her Dad's.  She loved the song and instantly I became obsessed.  I had all of their albums, went to their concert and played their songs constantly.  They were edgy and controversial at the time and I thought they were just awesome.  Meg and Cal's History of Rock N Roll professor called them "the poor man's Aerosmith."  Maybe that was why Doug liked them so much as he was a huge fan of both groups.  Just as Cal saw at their current concert, Guns N Roses appealed to the white trash crowd.  Those of us who grew up in the same Northern Indiana area as Axl Rose could totally relate to him.  Even the song Paradise City was rumored to be about Bloomington in the late 1980s - my home from 1987-1992.  

After all of the negativity this week, maybe I should invite my children to "Get in the Ring" as Guns N Roses did to their own haters years ago.  Nah, I know that the Heinisch children will never be fans of Guns N Roses.  Instead I'll just quietly sing along every time I hear the song "Patience"and  enjoy the favorite memories that GNR brings to mind.