SO YOU WANNA BE

Everyone who’s spent any time around Guns N’ Roses is convinced rock’s hottest band is wild ‘n’ crazy. The only question-- how crazy? GNR leader Axl Rose fulfills his fans’ wildest fantasies--and parents’ worst nightmares--in a no-holds-barred interview in the new issue of RIP magazine. (That’s Axl on the cover, showing off the latest addition to his gun collection.) Rose explains why he was late to the band’s New York show (“I’d passed out after drinking Night Train”) and denies he’s a manic depressive (“I went to a clinic, thinking it would help my moods--all of a sudden I’m diagnosed manic depressive. The medication doesn’t help me deal with stress. It (just) keeps people off my back”). As for more serious drug use, Rose insists he “doesn’t allow” himself to have a coke habit. “The same with heroin. I did it for three weeks straight and had one of the greatest times in my life, because I was with a girl in this beautiful apartment and we just sat there listening to Led Zeppelin, doing drugs and . . . I stopped on Saturday because I had serious business to attend to on Monday. I felt (terrible), sweated, shook, but on Monday I was able to function.”