There are more than 20 musicians who’ve been in Guns N’ Roses at some point or another.Few bands have had more lineup changes than GN’R. They’ve officially been a band since 1985, and there have been a total of 23 musicians who’ve been members since then.The Appetite for Destruction lineup was the one they became famous for, which consisted of Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan, Izzy Stradlin and Steven Adler. However, there were a handful of musicians who were in the band during its infancy before that quintet was solidified as their lineup.Early on, Tracii Guns was the band’s lead guitarist, and thus they took the last names of him and Rose to create the moniker Guns N’ Roses. Therefore, the “original” lineup actually consisted of Rose, Guns, Stradlin, bassist Ole Beich and drummer Rob Gardner.As fate would have it, Guns, Beich and Gardner all left, and Slash, McKagan and Adler took their places before the band embarked on a brief tour of the Pacific Northwest in 1985. That trip was when Guns N’ Roses we know today were truly born.READ MORE: The 10 Biggest Rock + Metal Bands With the Most Lineup ChangesUnfortunately, that beloved lineup only lasted for a few years, and by the time they started worked on the Use Your Illusion albums, things started to hit the fan. Addiction, the pressures of success and huge egos created cracks in the band’s infrastructure.Adler and Stradlin were the first to go. Slash quit in ’96, and McKagan left the following year. Other musicians were brought in to replace all of them, and to replace the replacements and so on.The band essentially had a revolving door of musicians coming in and out, with W. Axl Rose as the sole original member throughout it all.Slash and McKagan were the last members of the Appetite lineup to leave the band in 1996 and 1997, respectively, so when they reunited with Rose in 2016 for the extremely highly-anticipated Not in This Lifetime tour, it marked the trio’s first time onstage together in 23 years.After reuniting in 2016, the band nearly made it a full decade without a lineup change, until they parted ways with longtime drummer Frank Ferrer in March of 2025.Scroll through the gallery below to learn about all 23 musicians who’ve been official members of Guns N’ Roses.All 23 Musicians Who’ve Been in Guns N’ RosesGuns N’ Roses have had over 20 musicians in the band since they formed in 1985, so we compiled a list of al of them below. Gallery Credit: Lauryn SchaffnerGuns N’ Roses: A Photo Timeline of Their Famed CareerThe story of the jungle.Gallery Credit: Lauryn Schaffner
