I like them all right, but I'm not a big fan. What I truly respect about them though is the fact that they were almost perfect for their time. You've got a band with plenty of appeal (glam), but that can also play their instruments and write great songs (as opposed to the lame pop-rock disguised as heavy metal of say, Motley Crue). They can rock the house, but there's also plenty of sensibility on things like Sweet Child O' Mine or Patience. In a way, GnR have a good chance of appealing to anybody - from respected critics to average rock fans and everybody inbetween.
I also feel Axl has become underrated nowadays. All the scandals bullsh*t and the huge Chinese Democracy delay overshadow the fact that he was a really good singer, song-writer and front-man back in his day. Many things on the Use Your Illusion albums I feel are more Axl than the rest of GnR, especially songs like Estranged and November Rain. Some call them pretentious and overblown (the videos surely were), but I really like the direction the band was heading - they were experimenting, trying new things when they could've easily written 3-minutes riff songs.
Just a few thoughts.
