Doubletalking - Welcome To The Jungle

Have you ever worked with female singers? Izzy: Um... Axl. Uh, no. [laughs]

Now, Izzy, why would you say this? 😭

“He does a lot of weird shit no one understands but I love the guy. I mean he’s a real sweetheart.”

-Slash about Axl

Rolling Stone Magazine - November 17, 1988

Axl & Slash sexy

Right Next Door to Hell (Ritz ‘91)

The Izzy/Axl trope is my favourite inter band ship… closely followed by sluff. Obviously we can never know but there is a small part of me that believes it was real… at least a little… maybe only at the very beginning …or in Indiana (im insane)

ANYWAYS I was wondering if you had any fun info or interviews on them (izzax)

Also as a side note I love ur ao3 I’m always dying for more stories on there lol xxx

I mean, you never know 🤷🏻‍♀️ When it comes to gnr, I’ve learned to believe anything’s possible. Aw, thank you, that’s so sweet ❤️

I found it cute that in High school, Izzy and Axl were in Driver’s Ed together (Axl is a “fucking horrible driver,” according to Izzy, lol), and Arts and Crafts Pottery class:

It was their sophomore year of high school, and Jeff Isbell and William Bailey (Axl Rose) were drawing in Boswell’s “Arts and Crafts Pottery” class. Izzy was the better illustrator and member of the school’s Art Club. Axl, the better singer, was in the Boys and Girls Ensemble. The two weren't following the lesson plan that particular day. “Gotcha little bastards!” is what Boswell tells me she wanted to say. Instead, she began to admire their drawing.

“They were combing opposing elements into a beautiful whole,” she tells me over the phone. “The whole, it’s funny now that I think about it, was a skull-like figure with guns and roses.” Boswell tells me Izzy and Axl were illustrating their feelings; tormented by the a pall hanging over them resulting from childhood trauma. Following their art class collaboration, the two boys began silkscreening their design onto plain white T-shirts, a logo for some future punk band. “That took courage,” says Boswell. During Izzy's senior year, 1979, as he walked down the halls of Jefferson High, Boswell saw him for one last time. “He told me he was going to California to start a rock & roll band.” Looking back at their history, it's clear why Izzy expects equality. On the schoolyard, they were always on the same level.

(That last paragraph depresses the hell out of me.)

Adding Izzy’s quote from 2008, "See, I’ve known him for so many years, that there is a familiarity between us. We grew up in the same place, the same atmosphere, and I believe that part of our friendship always will be there."

Bonus: Izzy being the stylist for Hollywood Rose:

According ex-Hollywood Rose bassist Steve Darrow, Izzy was even the band’s stylist: ‘He had us meet up at his place, then fix up everybody’s hair and makeup before anyone left the room. Axl, too.’

Which path are you taking? 😈

Reading Slash’s “but I love the guy. I mean he’s a real sweetheart” comment about Axl in their Rolling Stones’ article from ‘88, reminds me that Axl often gets called a sweetheart in particular by the people who know him personally. So, his personality really does exist in extremes, or as Vicky Hamilton affectionately put it, “Axl’s personality is sort of a two-parter: there’s a very sweet little boy personality, and when he’s on edge, there’s sort of the demon dog from hell personality.”

If this isn’t Axl

Axl 🙂‍↕️