Robert De Niro’s character in “Bronx Tale” famously told his son “The saddest thing in life is wasted talent”. I’m sure many of us can relate to this, sometimes this applies to ourselves or someone we know in our personal life- but often this is even more apparent when it comes to athletes or artists. There are many stories of people realizing they had wasted their talents and making a comeback, this article is about how one person’s comeback and how it can hopefully inspire others…
The parallels between Axl Rose and Mario Balotelli are pretty evident if you think about it. Just the title of Guns N Roses debut album “Appetite for Destruction” makes it so easy to compare the two, then you look at fact they were both blessed with amazing raw talent and also the self-destructive tendencies that derailed their careers after an amazing start.
Mario Balotelli was blessed in everything you would want in a striker- strong body, ability to shoot with both feet, versatility, cold blood for penalty kicks. By the same token Axl Rose had everything you would want in a front man- insane vocal range, charisma, good looks and the ability to write great lyrics. Both Balotelli and Axl got off to great starts to their careers- Balotelli won the treble at the age of 20 and left Inter for the Premier League with a large trophy case, while Axl Rose’s band had the highest selling debut album of all time.
After the great debuts, both of them started showing signs of decline because of self destructive tendencies- Balotelli became a fixture on the tabloids in England more for his off field antics than his performances on the pitch, while Axl’s erratic behavior on the “Use your Illusion” tours made his band disintegrate as well as causing riots at numerous shows.
Then came a period in which each of them almost became after thoughts. Balotelli struggled at Liverpool until Milan gave him a chance this season, while Axl Rose became such a recluse it that it took him 10 years for him to finish “Chinese Democracy” with a rotating cast of musicians (it’s estimated to be the most expensive album ever produced at a whooping $13 million).
Axl’s voice took a turn for the worse in recent years, partly because of plastic surgery that changed his tone (on the other hand Freddie Mercury, one of Axl’s role models, famously refused to get dental work done as he was terrified of what it would do to his voice). By the same token Balotelli has only scored two goals in the past two seasons in league play, and is not being considered for the Azzurri’s Euro squad.
While the parallels between the two have been mostly negative, now Axl Rose could set a great example for Super Mario. Earlier this year Axl reunited with Slash after a 23 year break up, they have played 4 shows together so far (earning a reported $26 million in the process) and have announced a completely sold out stadium tour of the United States this summer.
I travelled to Las Vegas last April to see Guns N Roses first “official” show of the reunion tour (as my better half likes to point out, it wasn’t really the first since they did a warm up show at the Trobadour in Los Angeles). Even though it cost a small fortune to be there, my expectations were very low- I had seen enough of Axl in recent years to not expect much but I still wanted to be there.
A few hours before the show, I found out that Axl had broken his foot and would need to sit down through out the whole concert (this was reminiscent of Balotelli having to deal with pubalgia almost immediately after returning to Milan). The old Axl would have probably cancelled the show, instead he embraced the challenge and shockingly started the concert almost on time- in another sign that things had really changed, Axl sat on a throne he “borrowed” from David Grohl, who before fronting the Foo Fighters, was the drummer in Nirvana- a band that Axl had a big feud with in the early 90s.
While Axl’s voice tailed off a bit in the second half of the show, he sounded very good for almost all of the 2 and a half hour show. If that wasn’t enough, Axl surprisingly joined Ac/Dc to complete their European tour after singer Brian Johnson suffered a crippling hearing issue that does not allow him to perform live. You can watch it on You Tube for yourself, but Axl has sounded amazing with Ac Dc- his voice sounds almost as good as it did in the 90s and he’s made Ac Dc sound as raw as they did with Bon Scott.
So it looks that Axl Rose made a conscious decision to make up for lost time at the age of 54- his voice is vastly improved, he’s showing up to shows on time, and playing with two huge bands on sold out tours- he’s doing all he can to ensure his legacy isn’t being remembered for being a “waste of talent”.
What can Balotelli learn from this? He has curbed his appetite for self destruction off the pitch since he hasn’t been in the gossip columns, but his future remains uncertain. While he had some flashes in second half of the season, he’s still not a hot commodity on transfer market.
Liverpool tried swapping his rights for Niang, an offer that Milan turned down and his high wages make it hard to move him to a mid table Serie A team where he could play regularly with less pressure. There is a good chance Milan will simply extend his loan, unless he becomes open to a move to China (where he’s extremely popular) or MLS.
Balotelli will turn 26 in August; he’s starting to run out of chances of avoiding being labeled a waste of talent. But there is still hope- Guns N Rose titled their reunion tour “Not in this Lifetime” as just a few years ago it appeared impossible to see Axl and Slash back together- now Axl has made the most of this opportunity, will Balotelli do the same?
This column is dedicated to my idol Bill Simmons who taught me you can blend sports with pop culture as well as my friend Rocco, only person who loves Balotelli and rock music as much as I do. I have always had a soft spot for Super Mario, just like him I also grew up in Italy as a foreigner- I will always support him because of that.
