Ex-Manager Of Guns ‘N Roses Calls Axl ‘Demon Dog From Hell, A Monster’

Vicky Hamilton was once a cocktail waitress leading a very ordinary life, but soon found herself in a mad whirlwind of hair metal debauchery and wasn’t sure how she got there: She became the first manager of the 1980s iconic glam metal group Guns ‘N Roses.

Before there was money or fame or appearances on MTV, Hamilton said her one bedroom apartment was a trashed, filthy place full of debauchery because she was allowing Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Steven Adler and finally Axl Rose to come live with her. She is preparing to pen a memoir of the rise and fall of the one of the world’s most beloved metal groups, which began in the small apartment that was just up the street from Whiskey A Go Go, a club where many metal artists got their start in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Hamilton said that Slash came to her and asked if Axl could crash on her couch for a few days, and when she asked why, Slash indicated that Axl was in some kind of trouble, “something about a girl.”

Police were actually searching for Axl on a rape charge, though the charge was later dropped. Hamilton said Axl recounted that he “had sex with a girl, threw her out of the studio naked without her clothes, and she got angry” over it. All that should have been a warning that he was a bit callous, but the real trouble began with the endless amount of drugs that were being done on Hamilton’s roof – heroin, marijuana, cocaine. Her apartment was brimming with empty beer bottles, crushed out Marlboro Reds, and slimy blue-black hair tinting in the bathroom from where Slash would dye his hair.

Vicky describes her six months living with the band as like a “having a heart attack every day” with an unbelievable jumble of drinking, drugs, filth, girls, and partying — nonstop, all night, all day until they’d finally crash. The apartment didn’t even have a refrigerator, but Hamilton said it didn’t seem to bother Axl Rose, who downed fifths of Jack Daniels whiskey every day.

Hamilton has said there were two sides to Axl Rose, “a nice guy”, and also “a demon dog from hell, just a monster” that once tried to kill Steven Adler by hitting him over the head with a coffee table. Cops were constantly pounding on the door, and Hamilton said that Axl was wildly unpredictable with violent mood swings.

“It would happen at shows he’d get mad with someone in the audience then stage dive off and beat their ass. If someone heckled or threw something but you never knew what was gonna set him off it could be something very small.”

The band members would eventually have dozens of overdoses and rehab check-ins among them, along with charges on Axl for inciting a riot, and allegations that he beat his then-girlfriend Stephanie Seymour, until all members of the group had quit, leaving Axl to his angry self.

Hamilton said she hasn’t seen the world-known frontman since the early 1990s, but that she has a soft spot for him, despite the traumas, because he’s an honest person.

“He was pretty consistent out of the gate. Axl is very truthful, sometimes you don’t want to hear what he has to say but at least he doesn’t lie.”