Guns N' Roses started in 1980.
Guns N ' Roses , often abbreviated as GnR , is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles formed in 1985 . Guns N ' Roses ' debut album , Appetite for Destruction ( 1987 ) , reached number one on the Billboard 200 a year after its release , on the strength of `` Sweet Child o ' Mine '' , the band 's only single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 . Slash (musician) . He is best known as the lead guitarist of the American rock band Guns N ' Roses , with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s . After leaving Guns N ' Roses in 1996 , he co-founded the supergroup Velvet Revolver , which re-established him as a mainstream performer in the mid to late 2000s .