“I was f—ing around with this stupid little riff,” Slash recalled to Q Magazine in 2005, via a Guns N’ Roses fan archive. “Axl said, Hold the f—ing phones! That’s amazing!

Guns N’ Roses came at exactly the right time in rock ‘n’ roll. For the better part of the ‘80s, rock music had become bloated, stagnate and full of itself. Still reeling from the disco and ...