Izzy Stradlin was born as Jeffrey Dean Isbell on April 8, 1962, in Lafayette, Indiana where he grew up. His ancestors were of English, French and Scottish origin.[1] Of Lafayette, Stradlin said, "It was cool growing up there. There's a courthouse (Tippecanoe County Courthouse) and a college (Purdue University), a river (the Wabash) and railroad tracks. It's a small town, so there wasn't much to do. We rode bikes, smoked pot, got into trouble - it was pretty Beavis and Butthead actually."[citation needed]
Stradlin's first musical favorites included Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones, but the biggest influence was his grandmother, who had a band together with her friends. Stradlin talked his parents into buying him a drum kit. He would stay with the drums until 1983, when he chose to switch to guitar, since it was easier to write songs on, and songwriters had a better chance of making money. In high school Stradlin started playing in a band with some friends. One of them was William Bailey, better known as Axl Rose. "We were long-haired guys in high school. You were either a jock or a stoner. We weren't jocks, so we ended up hanging out together. We'd play covers in the garage. There were no clubs to play at, so we never made it out of the garage. Axl was really shy about singing back then. But I always knew he was a singer."
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