Guns N’ Roses Frontman Axl Rose Was Offered $50,000 To Leave The Band Before He Became Famous, He Rejected The Offer

Guns N' Roses frontman was confident that his band would reach great height in its early stages of existence. It was revealed by legendary producer and manager, Kim Fowley who said that Rose once rejected an offer of $50,000 in hard cash to leave the then un-signed band.

Fowley, spoke to Antimusic where he said that a rich manager under whom Fowley was working for wanted Rose to leave the band. They decided to call the then unknown band to the studio and offer them money as the manager was not confident the band will make it not even a platinum.

So the next day Rose himself comes to the studio and the manager says, "Well, you guys are great. I want to be your manager, production company etc. And I want Kim Fowley to record and produce right here in this studio. And to show you how serious I am I'm going to open this suitcase and show you what's inside. And you can walk away with the suitcase. Or call the boys up and drive up and I'll pay for the cab if you don't have enough gas. Go ahead Axl, open the suitcase."

When Rose opens the suitcase he finds $50, 000 in cash. When the manager says, what Rose though about it, Rose replied, "With all due respect sir, whoever you are. That's not enough for Guns N' Roses. We're going to be bigger than that. It's just a matter of time. I'll say no politely and I'll go away and I'll make more money than this on our initial signing with my guys. What don't you help these guys out? They're deserving. They're probably not as great as we are but if you're going to piss it away, you might as well piss it away on them because you're already working with them. I gotta go rehearse. It was nice seeing all of you. Good bye."

They all applauded Rose confidence and dedication to what he was doing.

Fowley who has worked with the likes of Runways, and produced Paul Revere and the Raiders, Soft Machine, the Modern Lovers and Warren Zevon. He has also co-written songs for Kiss, Leon Russell and Alice Cooper. He even made an appearance as a sideman on Frank Zappa's 1966 album Freak Out! according to Ultimateclassicrock.

Fowley said Antimusic that, "I always thought of all the starving musicians I'd ever seen. He [Rose] was the only one who knew exactly how valuable he was, and how not to panic. Because that's a lot of money for anyone, and he just wasn't interested."