What happened to Axel Rose?

Not literally, but I mean, how could he of slipped so far?

I saw Velvet Revolver last night; it was awesome. They played a lot of Guns and Roses songs, which was really appreciated, and it got me thinking.

Do you think it was the fame that brought him down? Inner turmoil? Hard to work with? One album wonder?

What do you think?

I don't think you can just blame the drugs

they all did drugs, I think it was more than that.

Well, Axl was always somewhat troubled, and the drugs and copious amounts of alcohol did him no good. After the first hint of fame his ego swelled, and then his paranoia started to show. He thought 'fame' meant he could behave however he wanted to, which cost him his marriage, relationships, and friends.
He slipped so far because when help was offered he turned his back on it.

the drugs duh! and kicking Slash out of the band

wow that is surprising, that Slash would even think of doing stuff by Guns 'n' Roses I never thought that would happen

Being a total jerk probably. So I'd say hard to work with. Well...it probably has to do with all the things you mentioned with maybe some other crap.

Axl's career went down the drain. I love Guns n Roses (the OLD gnr, not the new one) but I have a strong dislike for him.
I personally think the fame and fortune got to him. And the drugs. And he is a freaken as$hole. Slash is still great. Velvet Revolver is MUCH better than the new "Guns n Roses".
Who knows.

His ego and paranoia were his downfall. Axl wanted complete control over GNR, and he wanted to take their music in a direction that the rest of the band didn't necessarily agree with. He eventually got control by threatening to disband Guns if Slash, Izzy, Duff, and Matt didn't give him all the rights to the band's name and music. They didn't want to end GNR, so they conceded. But eventually, they couldn't take it anymore, and left the band.

When you get right down to it it was jealousy. If you will pay attention to a lot of the Guns n Roses tracts you will hear more of Slash than you will of Axel. The best i can find out Axel was and still is a a-s-s hole.

After the 'Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert' in '92, he and Elton John became very good friends. Rumor has it that Elton offered Axel a salary and a position he couldn't refuse.
Axel's inability to except the fact that he's queer has turned him into some what of a recluse, who at times is prone to sudden outbursts of anger, known as 'hissy fits'.
Today you'll find a very disheveled Mr. Rose polishing Sir Elton's Rolls Royce, amongst other things.

I think his personal attitude doesn't work anymore for him being like 40 something years old. He was a god being a punk and rebel kind of person when he was in his 20s... it just doesn't work anymore for him. Plus now he's just playing with people who are below him. When he was with Slash it was an unmatched dynasty. I am prolly one of Axl's Biggest fans (just look at my room and you'd learn that quickly) but a GN'R show i went to just wasn't anything it could have been.

He got old.

No one really will know for sure what made Axel fire everyone from the bad and claim most of the rights to GNR songs but there are some contributing factors here.

-Axel really got into the hype of the moment and he really got caught up in the fame. After the "Use Your Illusion" tour he really just got lost in everything that was going on. The money, the stress from the tour itself, everything pretty much lead to Axel's breakdown.

-Axel's psychology played a big part in this as well besides everything that was going on with the tour and all. This encompasses his on-stage antics (ex. Helinski show opening up the European leg of the UYI tour) and his antics to just not show up for shows (ex. Toronto, December '93, damage to venue done by rioting GNR fans: $720,000 USD). He did a lot of crazy stuff and of course the drugs could have contributed to it all.

-The whole idea of the UYI tour was insane. It spanned a time period of almost 2 years and included almost 200 shows in almost 30 countries. That could've have been good on anyone in the band for that matter, by the end of that tour everyone was doing lines and passing out on the toilet. Also the pressure to release a follow-up to UYI 1 and 2 was massive and back then was really hard to do.