In 1991, Guns N’ Roses released a pair of albums, “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II.” Both albums have been certified 7x platinum (7 million copies sold) by the Recording Industry Association of America, and the albums spawned GNR classics like “Don’t Cry,” “Live and Let Die,” “November Rain,” “You Could Be Mine,” “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” “Civil War” and “Yesterdays.”
The artwork for the albums, done by artist Mark Kostabi, was a graphic reinterpretation of Raphael’s “School of Athens.” Former Guns N’ Roses manager Alan Niven said that singer Axl Rose paid Kostabi $75,000 for use of the artwork on the album and merchandise. Turns out the images were public domain, and GNR could’ve used them for free. “The biggest giggle I got was Axl paying [Mark] Kostabi $75,000 for the cover paintings without asking me about the idea first,” Niven said in an interview with VWMusic. “He did not understand the images were in the public domain – we didn’t have to pay Kostabi anything for their use on merchandising.”
Niven also said that Rose could be easily taken advantage of. “Look at how… [psychic] Sharon Maynard conned him. Another $75,000 for an ‘exorcism,” Niven said, referring to the psychic adviser to Rose known as “Yoda” in the GNR camp. “The vulnerable being taken advantage of, and [GNR’s next manager Doug] Goldstein not minding the door.”
Niven also spoke about what his initial impressions were when he met Guns ’N’ Roses. “(I thought they were) f*ck-ups,” he said. “But that meant they weren’t your typical, calculating L.A. wannabes who had more ambition than talent. Y’know, throw a demo together, shop it, not get signed, all change, join other musicians. Every three months.“
“A band is something that must be forged in the fire of adversity. Stay together and allow personal chemistry to percolate. Take on impossible odds. F*ck ’em all; it’s us against them. That was Mötley. That was Great White. That was Guns. Us against everything. One for all and all for one. I am raised British – we invented the f*ckin’ underdog and took one-sixth of the planet for empire while being a tiny country no bigger than New Zealand. Keith Richards told Slash he could never leave the band. Keith understood this to the marrow. He may have hated Sir Mick at certain points and thought the knighthood a betrayal of the blue-collar rock ‘n’ roll spirit, but he was Keith’s knight of the realm. So, f*ck ya all.”
