Kindle Price: $13.99

Save $11.00 (44%)

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Audiobook Price: $18.80

Save: $11.31 (60%)

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.

Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Goodbye, Guns N’ Roses: The Crime, Beauty, and Amplified Chaos of America’s Most Polarizing Band Kindle Edition

4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 34 ratings

Goodbye, Guns N’ Roses transports the reader into a mind-altering trip through the colors, scandals, nihilism, and mythology that make Guns N’ Roses so much more than another “hair metal” band.


A valentine and a breakup letter to one of rock’s most controversial bands.


Goodbye, Guns N’ Roses is a genre-rattling attempt to explain the appeal of America’s most divisive rock band. While it includes uncharted history and the self-lacerating connoisseurship of a Guns N’ Roses fetishist, it is not a recycled chronicle — this book is a deconstruction of myth, one that blends high and low art sketches to examine how Guns N’ Roses impacted popular culture. Unlike those who have penned other treatments of what might be considered a clichéd subject, Art Tavana is not writing as a GNR patriot or former employee. His book aims to provide an untethered exploration that machetes through the jungle of propaganda camouflaging GNR’s explosive appeal.


After circling the band’s three-decade plundering of American culture, Goodbye, Guns N’ Roses uncovers a postmodern portrait that persuades its viewer to think differently about their symbolic importance. This is not a rock bio but a biography of taste that treats a former “hair metal” band like a decomposing masterpiece. This is the first Guns N’ Roses book written for everyone; from the Sunset Strip to a hyper-digital generation’s connection to “Woke Axl,” it is a pop investigation that dodges no bullets.

Read more Read less

Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card

From the Publisher

Use Your Illusion

Art Tavana

Look At Your Game, Girl

How Well Do You Know Guns N Roses

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A veteran of stage and screen, Peter Berkrot's career spans four decades. Highlights include feature roles in Caddyshack and Showtime's Brotherhood, and appearances on America's Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries. His voice can be heard on television, radio, video games, documentaries, and industrials. He is a prominent acting coach and a regular contributor to the award-winning news program Frontline produced by WGBH in Boston. Peter served as director of narration for the Emmy-nominated The Truth About Cancer. Peter has recorded over 170 audiobooks, over 100 for children. He has been nominated for an Audie Award and has received a number of AudioFile Earphones Awards and starred reviews. His favorite titles include Toby and the Secrets of the Tree by Timotee de Fombelle, Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith, The Accident by Linwood Barclay, and the Last Policeman trilogy by Ben H. Winters.

Art Tavana is a writer who resides in the suburbs of California. He was previously a columnist at Playboy and LA Weekly, where he procured an L. A. Press Club award for a profile on reclusive guitarist Izzy Stradlin.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08Q2GK3VV
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ a misFit book (April 13, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 13, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4134 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 254 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 34 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Art Tavana
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
34 global ratings
This Author is O.G.
5 Stars
This Author is O.G.
The book is amazing!!! ART TAVANA really knows how to capture any audience. I'm 50 so I came from the era of Guns and Roses playing at The Whisky, The Cat House, The Rainbow. I was also at the Welcome to the Jungle video, at the club then called -Scream. This book literally can be read by anyone because it comes from a perspective of how Guns and Roses help shape really a decade and then some. I highly recommend it and im not a book reader, so this reminds me how great books are and how we (me) need to turn off the "programming "
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2023
This book is INCREDIBLE if you want to get under the hood on GNR. If you ever wondered about the psyche of Axl and all his phases. ( bicycle shorts era ect ) this book raises so many amazing points. It is not another one of the 10000 books on GNR that tell the story of their first tour to Seattle ect. This asks and tells why they hit so hard. Best rock book since Fargo Rock City but if you are looking for a pedestrian GNR picture book you will probably not enjoy it.
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2021
The book is amazing!!! ART TAVANA really knows how to capture any audience. I'm 50 so I came from the era of Guns and Roses playing at The Whisky, The Cat House, The Rainbow. I was also at the Welcome to the Jungle video, at the club then called -Scream. This book literally can be read by anyone because it comes from a perspective of how Guns and Roses help shape really a decade and then some. I highly recommend it and im not a book reader, so this reminds me how great books are and how we (me) need to turn off the "programming "
Customer image
5.0 out of 5 stars This Author is O.G.
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2021
The book is amazing!!! ART TAVANA really knows how to capture any audience. I'm 50 so I came from the era of Guns and Roses playing at The Whisky, The Cat House, The Rainbow. I was also at the Welcome to the Jungle video, at the club then called -Scream. This book literally can be read by anyone because it comes from a perspective of how Guns and Roses help shape really a decade and then some. I highly recommend it and im not a book reader, so this reminds me how great books are and how we (me) need to turn off the "programming "
Images in this review
Customer image Customer image Customer image Customer image
Customer imageCustomer imageCustomer imageCustomer image
One person found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2022
I heard Art Tavana guest on the Appetite for Distortion podcast a hand full of times. I found him throughly unlikable: a self-satisfied blow hard attempting to be edgy and contentious, but couldn’t deny that he had a passion for Guns N’ Roses and had written a fantastic article about Izzy Stradlin. You could pretty much copy and paste these same thoughts into my review of his book.

Tavana obviously knows his facts when it comes to GN’R. For the die-hards like me, there are some cool tidbits about the various lost “eras” of this band (1994-2000, 2003-2005) and interesting perspectives on the band since Slash and Duff rejoined in 2016. Unfortunately, all of this gets lost among tawdry, flowery prose which reads like something out of a first year college essay or a young songwriter’s attempt to sound serious. I can’t say I do not recommend this book for die hard fans, but man was it a chore to read.
2 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2021
I love to know more about Gun’s N’ Roses story. The author explained in a very excellent way of their life
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2022
I have been reading a lot on 80s and 90s rock bands lately and this may be the worst book I have ever tried to read. Jumps from topic to topic and date to date and back. I don't even think I can finish it.
2 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2021
Great insight into GNR. Probably the most aggravating band to be a fan of in the history of rock and roll. This book is a fun read on one of the biggest names in rock and roll history 🎸🎸
One person found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2021
The author uses excessive metaphors that detract from good storytelling...and good reading. I wanted to read and learn lots of stories about GNR. If that's what you're looking for, find another book.
3 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2021
Well this book was kind of interesting and does look at events from various vantage points. It’s a very long essay that has been patched together from google searches of old interviews that are not entirely accurate. My view is that Art Tavana thinks he is some sort of modern day Ernest Hemingway writing about a band that changed the face of music forever without having ever really experiencing their magic in person except for the shows at the Troubador and Coachella 5 years ago. He would have liked to known them but he was just a kid.
This book is part Goodbye Norma Jean and part Farewell to Arms.
Since my almost 30 year GNR fandom has led to an extraordinary friendship with the woman who said to Axl Rose , Don’t Cry there’s a Heaven above you, words which has literally saved my life on several occasions. I think Art Tavana is a good writer in search of a great story. I think he would be much better suited to writing fiction so I am going to leave this book right here 2 blocks away from Ernest Hemingway’s boyhood home for another literary pilgrim to find. Because I will never say goodbye to Axl Rose and GunsnRoses.
Customer image
2.0 out of 5 stars I’ll Never Say Goodbye
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2021
Well this book was kind of interesting and does look at events from various vantage points. It’s a very long essay that has been patched together from google searches of old interviews that are not entirely accurate. My view is that Art Tavana thinks he is some sort of modern day Ernest Hemingway writing about a band that changed the face of music forever without having ever really experiencing their magic in person except for the shows at the Troubador and Coachella 5 years ago. He would have liked to known them but he was just a kid.
This book is part Goodbye Norma Jean and part Farewell to Arms.
Since my almost 30 year GNR fandom has led to an extraordinary friendship with the woman who said to Axl Rose , Don’t Cry there’s a Heaven above you, words which has literally saved my life on several occasions. I think Art Tavana is a good writer in search of a great story. I think he would be much better suited to writing fiction so I am going to leave this book right here 2 blocks away from Ernest Hemingway’s boyhood home for another literary pilgrim to find. Because I will never say goodbye to Axl Rose and GunsnRoses.
Images in this review
Customer image Customer image
Customer imageCustomer image
7 people found this helpful
Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?