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Del James | |
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| Birth name | Adalberto James Miranda |
| Born | February 5, 1964 |
| Years active | 1985–present |
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Adalberto James Miranda (born February 5, 1964), known professionally as Del James, is an American musician, writer, journalist and artist best known for writing the short story that reportedly inspired the "November Rain" video by hard rock band Guns N' Roses. He is a close friend to Axl Rose and is the road manager for Guns N' Roses.
Del James was raised in Mamaroneck, New York.
He moved to Hollywood, California, in 1985. During his first weekend in Hollywood, Del met West Arkeen and the members of an unsigned group called Guns N' Roses. Del still works with Axl Rose and the current lineup of Guns N' Roses, [1] serving as road manager.
As a journalist, he was a Senior Editor for RIP, a heavy metal magazine and his work has appeared in many publications including Rolling Stone . Nominated for a "Maggy Award", Del has interviewed Keith Richards, Alice Cooper, Ronnie Wood, Kiss, The Cult, Guns N' Roses, and countless others.
Del also released a collection of short horror stories entitled The Language of Fear [2] in 1995 on Dell/Abyss Books and reissued a decade later. The collection features an introduction by Axl Rose and the short story "Without You", said to be the inspiration for the Guns N' Roses video "November Rain".
Del's short story Without You is credited by hard rock band Guns N' Roses as the inspiration for the song November Rain and its music video.
Most of the plot is told in the form of flashbacks. Mayne Mann, aged 28, is a top-selling rock musician. But the suicide of his girlfriend Elizabeth has left him depressive and questioning the meaning behind everything.
Although Elizabeth had been the love of Mayne's life, his frequent infidelity had brought about the end of their relationship. The last straw was when after Mayne's final concert with his previous band, Elizabeth had walked in on a threesome between him and two groupies. In the aftermath, during one of their last dates, Elizabeth had told him, "I can't live with you and I can't live without you." Her words had inspired him to write the ballad Without You, which portrays his view on their breakup and has become a top hit. When his new band went on tour and performed in Elizabeth's hometown L.A., he had sent her backstage passes. When she did not show up, Mayne had been determined not to repeat his past mistake, had skipped the after party and gone straight to her home. As Mayne was on his way up to her apartment, Elizabeth had shot herself in the head, with Without You playing on an endless loop in the background. In a rush, Mayne had taken the revolver from her dead hand and tried to shoot himself, but there had been no more bullets left.
Life in the fast lane has taken his toll on Mayne: he has hearing issues, is a heavy drinker and drug consumer and, presumably as a result of his girlfriend's suicide, on various kinds of medication. He avoids things that bring back memories of Elizabeth, such as the mansion in which they had spent most of their time, or radio stations that might play Without You.
The story begins as Mayne, after a night of heavy drinking and drug consumption, awakes from a recurring nightmare in which he relives Elizabeth's suicide. Still hung over from the previous night, he starts the day with a beer and eventually spends the whole morning with alcohol, drugs and memories of Elizabeth. In a fit of rage he begins to smash the furniture in his apartment and even most of his collection of vintage guitars, suddenly seeing them as the gateway to his fame and his misery. He briefly considers shooting himself but then changes his mind and starts to play, first on his favorite and last remaining guitar, then on the piano. In the meantime, a burning cigarette which has fallen off the edge of a table has set the apartment on fire. Yet Mayne ignores it and continues to play until he dies in the flames.
Del has directed music videos for bands like Guns N' Roses and Soul. He has co-written songs with groups such as Testament, ("So Many Lies", "Return to Serenity", "The Ritual", "Dog Faced Gods", "Eyes of Wrath", "3 Days in Darkness", "Careful What You Wish For", "Sewn Shut Eyes", and "Dark Roots of Earth"), TNT, Ricky Warwick, Stan Lynch, Rhett Forrester, Dizzy Reed, The Almighty and Guns N' Roses, including "The Garden" and "Yesterdays", from the band's Grammy-nominated Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II albums. [2] Del James is credited as the project coordinator for Live Era '87–'93 , the Guns N' Roses live album.
Del James worked for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (Severn v Coleman, UFC 12, on February 7, 1997) as a writer for the live event. The event was supposed to take place in Buffalo, New York, but was moved to Dothan, Alabama, less than 48 hours before the event started.
W. Axl Rose is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known for being the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its inception in 1985. Possessing a distinctive and powerful wide-ranging voice, Rose has been named one of the greatest singers of all time by various media outlets, including Rolling Stone, NME and Billboard.
Use Your Illusion I is the third studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on September 17, 1991, the same day as its counterpart Use Your Illusion II. Both albums were released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts, selling 685,000 copies in its first week, behind Use Your Illusion II's first-week sales of 770,000. Use Your Illusion I has sold 5,502,000 units in the United States as of 2010, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Each of the Use Your Illusion albums have been certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA. It was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1992. This is their first album to feature drummer Matt Sorum, who replaced Steven Adler following Adler's departure in 1990, as well as keyboardist Dizzy Reed. This is their first album to be recorded as a six-piece band.
Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide is an EP by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on December 16, 1986, on the UZI Suicide record label. When referred to by band members, they have simply called the EP Live Like a Suicide. The record itself was reportedly limited to only 10,000 copies, released only in vinyl and cassette formats.
G N' R Lies is the second studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released by Geffen Records on November 29, 1988. It is the band's shortest studio album, running at 33 and a half minutes. The album reached number two on the US Billboard 200, and according to the RIAA, has shipped over five million copies in the United States.
"November Rain" is a song by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. Written by the band's lead vocalist Axl Rose, the power ballad was released in February 1992 as the third single from their third studio album, Use Your Illusion I (1991). The song peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100, and was the longest song to enter the top ten of the chart at the time of its release. Currently, it is the fourth longest song to enter the Hot 100 chart. Additionally, "November Rain" reached number two on the Portuguese Singles Chart, number four on the UK Singles Chart, and the top 10 on several other music charts around the world.
The Use Your Illusion Tour was a concert tour by American rock band Guns N' Roses which ran from January 20, 1991, to July 17, 1993. It was not only the band's longest tour, but one of the longest concert tours in rock history, consisting of 194 shows in 27 countries. It was also a source of much infamy for the band, due to riots, late starts, cancellations and outspoken rantings by Axl Rose.
Steven Adler is an American musician. He is the former drummer and co-songwriter of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s.
"Welcome to the Jungle" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses, featured on their debut album, Appetite for Destruction (1987). It was released as the album's second single initially in the UK in September 1987 then again in October 1988 this time including the US, where it reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 24 on the UK Singles Chart.
"Don't Cry" is a song by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, two versions of which were released simultaneously on different albums. The version with the original lyrics is the fourth track on Use Your Illusion I, while the version with the alternate lyrics is the 13th track on Use Your Illusion II. Only the vocal tracks differ, and even then only in the verses; however, in those verses, not only are the words entirely different, but the meter and melody are also slightly different. There is also a third version, officially released only on the single for the song, which was recorded during Appetite for Destruction sessions in 1986.
Ole Beich was a Danish musician best known as the bass guitarist for the original lineups of L.A. Guns and Guns N' Roses.
Matti Antero Kristian Fagerholm, better known by his stage name Michael Monroe, is a Finnish rock musician who rose to fame as the vocalist and saxophonist for the glam punk band Hanoi Rocks, and has served as the frontman for all-star side projects, such as Demolition 23 and Jerusalem Slim.
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in March 1985 when local bands Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns merged. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic lineup" consisted of vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler. The current lineup consists of Rose, Slash, McKagan, guitarist Richard Fortus, drummer Frank Ferrer and keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese.
"Rocket Queen" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses, featured on their debut studio album, Appetite for Destruction (1987). The song is notable for incorporating moans from a woman, Adriana Smith, who was recorded having sexual intercourse with the band's singer, Axl Rose.
"It's So Easy" is a song by the American rock band Guns N' Roses, appearing on their 1987 debut studio album, Appetite for Destruction. The song was released as the band's first single on June 15, 1987, in the UK, where it reached number 84 on the UK Singles Chart as a double A-Side with "Mr. Brownstone". It was also released as a maxi-single in Germany later in the same year.
The Language of Fear is the first book by author and journalist Del James. It has 339 pages and is a collection of short dark fiction stories, released in 1995 by Dell Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Publishing, part of the "Abyss" line of psychological horror. It features an intro by W. Axl Rose and the short story entitled "Without You," which inspired the Guns N' Roses video "November Rain". The book is long out of print, but copies can sell for a few pounds on online auction sites.
The Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour was a co-headlining concert tour by American rock bands Guns N' Roses and Metallica during 1992. It took place in the middle of Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion Tour, promoting their Use Your Illusion I and II albums, and between Metallica's Wherever We May Roam Tour and Nowhere Else to Roam, promoting their eponymous fifth album Metallica. The tour's initial opening act was Faith No More as Axl Rose had originally wanted Seattle rock band Nirvana to be the opening act, but frontman Kurt Cobain refused.
"Estranged" is a song by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, included on their 1991 album Use Your Illusion II. Described as a ballad, the song was released as a single in January 1994.
The Not in This Lifetime... Tour was a concert tour by hard rock band Guns N' Roses, spanning from April 1, 2016, to November 2, 2019. It featured classic lineup members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan, marking the first time since the Use Your Illusion Tour in 1993 that the three performed together. After the previous tour in 2014, guitarists DJ Ashba & Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, bassist Tommy Stinson and keyboardist Chris Pitman left Guns N' Roses, leaving the band with several open spots. Former members Slash and McKagan rejoined the band and Melissa Reese joined as keyboardist. The group embarked on a world tour that spanned all continents except Antarctica. They performed 175 shows making it their third longest tour ever, just behind the Use Your Illusion Tour and the Chinese Democracy Tour. The group welcomed former drummer Steven Adler to the stage for several shows as a guest spot, the first time he had played with the group since 1990. The tour has been a financial success, grossing over $584.2 million, making it the fourth-highest-grossing concert tour of all time. The tour was 2016's highest-earning per-city global concert tour as well as the fourth-highest-grossing overall that year. In 2017, the tour ranked as the second highest grossing worldwide tour. The tour was honored at the Billboard Live Music Awards in November 2017, winning Top Tour/Top Draw and being nominated for Top Boxscore.
"Shadow of Your Love" is a song by the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, originally released as a B-side in 1987 and then later released in an alternate take as a single in 2018. The song entered at 31 on the Mainstream Rock chart in its May 12 edition, peaking at No. 5 as of June 19. It would later be included in the 2020 re-issue of the band's Greatest Hits album.
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