Rapidfire was a Los Angeles based band led by a UCLA student, the guitarist and songwriter, Kevin Lawrence.

Hanging outside of the Troubadour on Santa Monica Boulevard one night in early 1983, Lawrence met a red haired young man in a white motorcycle jacket named Bill. Lawrence invited him to audition for the lead singer spot in his group.

Bill turned out to be an unexpectedly great find and went on to perform several live shows with Rapidfire and to sing on their demo tape, which would become the 2014 EP release, "Ready to Rumble".

Bill would eventually depart and start his own band, along with changing his name to Axl Rose. 

BELOW: Short documentary Kickstarter video for Rapidfire's 2014 EP, "Ready to Rumble"

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Hollywood Rose

Originally called A.X.L., a name taken from a band Axl Rose had been affiliated with in Lafayette, Indiana, the band was later simply called Rose until they added its locale moniker. Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin and Chris Weber formed Hollywood Rose in 1983. Their first public gig was at HJ's Rock N' Roll Orphanage (which had also been Rapidfire's show debut venue) in North Hollywood in January 1984. The boys recruited Izzy's old band mate, Johnny Kreis, from his previous band Shire to play the drums, as well as another Shire and Pyrrhus (LA Guns' original name) alumnus, Rick Mars, to play the bass.

Izzy, Axl, and Chris composed a wealth of material, some of which were later rerecorded by the original and the classic lineups of Guns N’ Roses to appear on their first three records, Live Like A Suicide, Appetite For Destruction, and GN’R Lies.

Izzy, Chris, Johnny, and Rick (and a few others) would soon leave the band to be replaced by Slash and Steven Adler (who would go on to join Axl and Izzy in their future band, Guns N' Roses) and Steve Darrow.