From Hollywood: GNR On Tour

Appetite for Destruction Tour

This 16 month long tour took place between 1987 and 1988 to promote the album. They did not headline any part of the tour, but opened for Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, and the Cult. This is the only tour that featured all five original members as Steven Adler would be replaced before the next one. The only other time that they all appeared on stage together would be in 1989 opening for the Rolling Stones. A couple of substitute musicians filled in temporarily during the tour. Steven Adler had broken his hand punching a street light, so Fred Court from Cinderella would play the drums in his place. Duff McKagan took a few shows off for his wedding, and his replacement was Kid Chaos from the Cult. In August 1988, the band would play the Monsters of Rock Festival in Castle Donington, England. The venue was filled to capacity with over 100,000 fans there to see the band. Despite pleas from Axl Rose, the crowd kept surging forward during their set sadly leading to two people being trampled to death during the show. Media would blame the band for not stopping there set, but the head of security defended them because they were unaware that anyone was in danger. The band immediately stop playing when they realized the extent of the injuries to the people that had been trampled. You can see the band playing at this festival in the “Paradise City” music video. The other concert captured in that video happened at Giants Stadium opening for Aerosmith. The manager of Aerosmith had this to say about Guns N’ Roses on that tour. “By the end of the tour, Guns N' Roses were huge. They basically just exploded. We were all pissed that Rolling Stone Magazine showed up to do a story on Aerosmith, but Guns N' Roses ended up on the cover of the magazine. Suddenly, the opening act was bigger than we were."

Use Your Illusion Tour

This tour would last 2 1/2 years from 1991-1993 equaling the longest tour ever in the history of rock and roll. The tour represented one of the most financially lucrative ones ever, while at the same time equaling the most controversial one as well. They would play 192 shows in 27 countries. In July 1991, the band played a show just outside of St. Louis at the Riverfront Amphitheater. Axl Rose saw that someone was videotaping the show, so he asked security to remove that person. Security failed to do so, so he took it upon himself to jump into the crowd to take away his camera. The singer would be separated from the fan in question, then pulled back onto the stage. At that moment Rose yelled, “Well, thanks to the lame-ass security, I'm going home!" He then walked off the stage. A few minutes later an angry crowd rioted over the fact that the concert had ended prematurely injuring a few fans. Ironically the band said later that they actually had planned to come back out on stage. The police were unable to arrest Axl Rose for the incident until almost a year later because they soon left the country on their worldwide tour. A judge would later rule that the front man had not incited the riot. Another incident occurred in Germany in November 1991, which emerged as Izzy Stradlin’s final show. The band scrambled to find a replacement eventually settling on Gilby Clarke. Dave Navarro of Janes Addiction had been considered, but in the end they decided against it. In 1993 toward the end of the tour, Clarke would break his arm creating the need for someone to play those shows. Izzy Stradlin filled in during that time, but after Clark had healed, Stradlin went back to Indiana. During the second leg of the tour, Axl Rose asked Nirvana to support them, but Kurt Cobain and the rest of the band declined. GNR then began dual tour with Metallica, who was promoting their gigantic self titled black album at the time. They played a show at Olympic Stadium in Montreal in August 1992, where James Hetfield was severely burned by pyrotechnics during their set. This created a three hour delay between sets as well as major technical difficulties. The stage monitors could not be tuned properly, so the band members could not hear anything at all on stage. On top of that, Axl Rose complained that his throat hurt, so he ended his set quite early. Another riot ensued leading to 10 people being injured and multiple arrests. Metallica would later blame Axl Rose for the riot saying if he had put on a great show, then the riot would have never happened. In a documentary about that tour by Metallica, footage was revealed that the two bands absolutely hated one another. Metallica lead singer James Hetfield would later say, “We couldn't relate to Axl and his attitude." The final show took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina in July 1993. This would be the last time that Duff McKagan, Slash, and Matt Sorum appeared on stage with Axl Rose for many years.

Not In This Lifetime Tour

Guns N’ Roses had completed a tour in 2014 with members from the Chinese Democracy album. Following that tour, lead guitarist Bumblebee decided not to play with the band anymore, and bassist Tommy Stinson decided to go back to his original band, The Replacements. Duff McKagan had been filling in on a part-time basis, so now the original member would be on the next tour permanently. The uncertainty over the next lead guitarist caused a great amount of speculation in the press. In May 2015, Slash would talk in an interview on one of the morning shows about him and Axl. “Well, we haven't really talked in a long time. But a lot of the tension that you were talking about has dissipated. We don't have all those issues anymore." In July 2015, the other lead guitarist DJ Ashba came out with a statement that he was leaving as well to work on a project with Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx. The rumor mill now went into overdrive about Slash returning to the band. In August 2015, Slash confirmed to a Swedish newspaper that he and Axl had actually spoken recently. This served as rather monumental news since they had not spoken since 1996. As for a reunion of the full lineup, that scenario was really never in the cards as Steven Adler admitted he had no contact with Axl, while Izzy Stradlin stated to Rolling Stone that he had no plans to be involved whatsoever. On Christmas Day 2015, a 15 second teaser trailer was released and shown before the new Star Wars movie featuring “Welcome To The Jungle.” Two weeks later, the official announcement was made that the group would be appearing at Coachella in 2016. A full tour was announced soon after with a multitude of openers including Skrillex, Wolfmother, Lenny Kravitz, Chris Stapleton, Zach Wylde, and a host of others. The very first show of the tour actually took place at the Troubadour as a secret show in April 2016. Steven Adler appeared at a couple of shows including Cincinnati and Nashville. In 2017, Izzy Stradlin participated in a sound check with the band in a stop near Indiana, but did not appear for the show that night. The tour is still going on as they have scheduled more dates when concerts come back in 2021. I plan to attend the show in Milwaukee. Look to my blog for a report on that.