The two people I most wanted to see up on stage declined the invitation to appear: Izzy Stradlin and John Frusciante. Those two musicians meant so much to their respective bands, I can't get past the fact that they were not with them. Axl Rose was almost an obvious outcome, the guy just does what he does and that's all there is to the story. I can almost see Izzy's decision as having something to do with Axl, because those two were close with GnR and they were probably the two most prominent members with the songwriting: I still think the band lost a lot of soul when Izzy left. It would have been great to see 4 of the 5 original members playing on stage. Not taking away from what happened, but with the exception of Adler who apparently was very good on drums at the show, it would feel more like one of Slash's solo projects.
John Frusciante is another story: He's a personal favorite, a big influence musically, and it's really hard to see the Peppers playing without him: He was such a musical force in that band. Having two original drummers there was neat, but I understand where John was coming from but still would have liked to see him up there. The band often feels empty without him.
Billy Joe Armstrong's induction speech for GnR hit on a lot of great points about the Appetite album. I remember that time very well and it coincided with when I first got into playing guitar, so it was kind of neat to remember hearing various guitar-slingers in the music stores riffing on Sweet Child so often and me wanting to learn it too. It was a kind of sound that was really different from the other popular songs and styles of the day, and it made an impression on me. The pure rock and roll element of those guitars from Izzy and Slash had an X-Factor appeal that made them stand out from a guitar perspective. I'll go out on a limb and say Guns N Roses could have been inducted based on the years 88-89 alone, and maybe that's exactly what happened...
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