With the success of "Appetite for Destruction" and "G N' R Lies", Rose found himself lauded as one of rock's most prominent frontmen. By the time he appeared solo on the cover of "Rolling Stone" in August 1989, his celebrity was such that the influential music magazine agreed to his absolute requirement that the interview and accompanying photographs would be provided by two of his friends, writer Del James and photographer Robert John. MTV anchorman Kurt Loder described Rose as "maybe the finest hard rock singer currently on the scene, and certainly the most charismatic".