The Biggest Benefactor of a Guns 'N' Roses Induction: Fred Durst

Why he's here we can't quite remember.

Somebody tell me the difference between Axl Rose and Fred Durst.

What’s your case? While you think about it, here’s my case.

There is no difference. Both are giant walking egos who believe their fame is deserved – the result of their hard work and their God-given talent. 

Both put forth overwrought chart-topping albums that produced a few songs most of us wish others didn’t still have memorized. 

Neither began or influenced their respective rock genres. Glam rock was around well before Rose doused his head with a can of hairspray. 

White boys were playing guitars and rapping was around before the Florida-born Durst donned a Yankees cap.


Their landmark albums, “Appetite for Destruction” and “Significant Other,” didn’t at all introduce a new style of music. Yet, somehow, those images are considered the faces genres. Seriously, we thought THESE guys were cool looking.

Let’s also look at Durst's guitar work while we’re at it.

Perhaps the biggest thing Rose and Durst have in common is that they were the reasons people got tired of their genre’s music. People got tired of their played-out music, their billboard-sized egos and their full-on diva outbursts. Public opinion ran the furthest distance from them within the rock spectrum – from the make-up and tights of glam rock to the undyed, unwashed hair of grunge; from the homoerotic chauvinism of rap-rock to meek and melodic ways of emo.

In fact, that should be the case against Guns 'n' Roses.

Sure they were the biggest band on Earth for a handful of years. Beyond two big albums (By my count, the “Use Your Illusion” albums count as one.), Guns 'n' Roses' biggest contribution was making people not like the rock and roll that made them famous.The end result of Guns 'n' Roses popularity was Nirvana.

Let's hear it for the Boys.

Matchbox 20 dude will induct them.

The lone difference between the two is that Rose will probably be “enshrined” into the Rock Hall. 

But even that’s debatable. Whatever Fred Durst is doing, he needs to stop and lobby for Guns 'n' Roses.

could be another. 

Even Backstreet Boys have a case now.

Their extent of fame rose and fell around the mushroom clouds that were their two big albums. 

Their subsequent albums were bombs of another nature, and their fame died almost immediately after the first disappointing week of sales.

And now all of them are active, touring and recording music. 

Rock Hall, stop this.