What Axl Rose's Life In Jail Was Really Like

Back in the late 1980s, Axl Rose and the rest of Guns N' Roses were quickly rising to stardom, and their bad boy images helped. Rose especially had a reputation as a hell-raiser that began when he was teen in his hometown of Lafayette, Indiana, and it continued once he became famous (some might say infamous). And while he did spend time in jail in Indiana, he mostly avoided incarceration, even as he racked up more and more arrests, mainly on assault charges.

Rose served at least 10 days in Lafayette's Tippecanoe County Jail between 1980 and 1982 on charges ranging from public intoxication to car theft. Before that, as a juvenile, he spent numerous weekends in youth detention centers. One of Rose's only other stints in jail, albeit only a day long, came in 2006. He spent time in a Swedish drunk cell in Stockholm after biting a hotel security guard trying to break up a fight the singer was having with another guest. With his long list of bad, sometimes criminal behavior, you probably wouldn't want to meet Axl Rose in real life.

Even before Axl Rose became famous and famously belligerent, he'd been arrested more than 20 times in his hometown of Lafayette, Indiana. Rose later claimed in a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone that he'd spent three months in jail and that law enforcement officials were trying to brand him as an "habitual criminal, which can mean life in prison." Back in the early 1980s, Lafayette's Tippecanoe County Jail, where Rose was incarcerated, was pretty miserable. In 1980, a group of inmates went on a hunger strike to protest the jail conditions. A year later, a rat bit an inmate at the jail, which might indicate things hadn't improved much.

That same year, in March 1981, an inmate alleged he'd been sexually assaulted by other prisoners at the jail. Rose, seeing what his future might hold and claiming that police and prosecutors were out to get him, skipped town. While out on bail, he moved to California. "They told me not to leave, but I left anyway," he told Rolling Stone. It wasn't until several years later, in 1986, when Guns N' Roses signed with Geffen Records, that the label's lawyers finally dealt with Rose's outstanding arrest warrants in Indiana. "My lawyer took care of it," he recalled. "I just didn't go back for a long time. ... I try to avoid all police in general." 

While Axl Rose may have claimed in the Rolling Stone interview that he tried to avoid the police, his actions over the years certainly bely that statement. He was accused of statutory rape, inciting riots on a Guns N' Roses tour — just one the controversial moments he will never live down — and assaulting his Los Angeles neighbor with a wine bottle. Through it all he managed to pretty much avoid jail — he did spend 10 hours in a New York City jail on riot charges. Then in June 2006, Rose ended up spending a day in a Swedish facility. After a night of drinking, he became embroiled in a fight with another guest at the hotel where Guns N' Roses was staying. When a security guard tried to intervene, Rose bit and punched the man.

Stockholm police threw him in Kronoberg remand prison where he spent a little less than 12 hours before pleading guilty to charges of violence against a civil servant and vandalism, paid a $5,500 fine, and was released. Like the Tippecanoe County Jail, Kronoberg prison doesn't have the best reputation. In 2019, when rapper ASAP Rocky was held there on assault charges, TMZ reporting (via Yahoo Entertainment) suggested the facility was filthy and the food inedible. By this time, the prison had been renovated, so conditions may have been worse when Rose spent time there.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).