use your illusion tour milton keynes

Guns N' Roses: No shows and bomb scares on the chaotic Use Your Illusion Tour

Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion tour was one of the most volatile and mysterious to ever hit Europe. Classic Rock got the full inside story

Axl Rose has had enough. It’s June 3, 1992 and we’re in Hannover at the Niedersachsen Stadium. He’s sitting on the drum riser, a sweaty, seething 60,000 strong stadium rock crowd swarming in front of him.

The band tore on to stage (on time, for the first time on their massive Use Your Illusion tour), ripped through three songs, but now something’s not right. The petulant singer doesn’t say one word to the assembled throng, and he’s sitting down. Not the usual behaviour for a man who ordinarily races around like a maniac.

Slash, Duff, Matt and Gilby all share confused glances. They’re running around, doing their best to cover up, galloping around the stage. The monitors are checked. The Teleprompter is checked. And rechecked. Nothing’s wrong. Except the singer’s behaviour. It’s all really strange.

Axl, meanwhile, doesn’t move. Then he does. He just wanders to the front of the stage, climbs into the security pit, looks at the audience, then returns to the drum riser and sits down again. And then starts to sing. But not for long…

Blame Bob Dylan. If he hadn’t written Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door , GN’R would never have covered it, and Axl wouldn’t have berated the edgy Hannover crowd for not singing loudly enough. And then perhaps he wouldn’t have introduced Sweet Child O’ Mine as “a song about getting fucked up the ass by a coke bottle”. But that’s exactly what he does. And then he storms off.

Incidents like these characterised Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion tour. It wasn’t an isolated episode, either. It would get weirder. GN’R were suffering from a media backlash after the massive success of Appetite For Destruction . And Axl was getting more and more paranoid. The GN’R on the Illusion tour wasn’t the same one we’d seen storm the Marquee in ’87 or stun the Donington crowd in ’88.

Think about it, a 12-piece Guns N’ Roses? It doesn’t make sense does it? Even now, when Gun N’ Roses means whatever Axl Rose wants it to mean, he’ll be stretching credulity if he walks on stage at this year’s Download Festival with a dozen musicians in his band.

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But the Guns N’ Roses that assembled in Dublin in mid-May 1992 for the start of a 20-date European tour consisted of 12 musicians. It was the culmination of the band’s transition from hedonistic heroes to stadium rockers.

It had been a traumatic adjustment costing two of the original members: drummer Steven Adler was fired from the band at the end of 1990 because, unlike the others, he did not cure his heroin addiction. A year later guitarist Izzy Stradlin quit because he could no longer cope with a “cleaned-up” Guns N’ Roses – even though he too had cleaned up.

They had been replaced by former Cult drummer Matt Sorum, who had experience of playing big gigs, and guitarist Gilby Clarke who did not have big show experience but had played in various Los Angeles bands like Candy and Kill For Thrills and came out of the same gritty club circuit that had spawned GN’R, Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot and the rest.

To this reconstituted band had been added keyboard player Dizzy Reed, a female brass trio, a couple of backing singers (also girls) and Ted Andreakis who was billed as an “emulator” but also played harmonica and keyboards.

It was Slash who had been mainly responsible for putting together the Guns N’ Roses big band. “Around the time Gilby joined I was looking for some horn players to fill out songs like November Rain and get them to sound a bit more like the record,” he said in a TV interview.

“Axl really got into that idea too. I didn’t want anything corny like three guys in tuxedos all moving in unison, so I got some chicks to do it. But that hasn’t changed the way we play,” he added. “It’s as chaotic as it’s always been.”

Pressed about tensions within the band Slash replied, “This band’s always been tense because, you know, this isn’t like a day job. Most bands these days could go out and do their show in their sleep. We go out there all stirred up. We care about every show we do, so if something happens during a particular show then yeah, it can get pretty tense. The way we treat it is to go out and do the best show we possibly can. It’s not pre-meditated, we just go for it.”

Anyone thinking that a 12-piece band couldn’t “just go for it” was reckoning without Guns N’ Roses attitude. For a start there was no set list. The opening number wasn’t decided until a minute or two before they hit the stage. That kind of spontaneity might be fine and dandy in a small club packed with adoring fans but in front of 50,000-100,000 people? Not to mention the lighting guy controlling 900 lights and half a dozen guys operating follow-spotlights precariously perched above the stage, each waiting for instructions.

And then there was the erratic behaviour of Axl Rose. You couldn’t predict what time he and the band would come on stage – although you could generally guarantee that it wouldn’t be within 30 minutes of the scheduled time. You couldn’t predict what he’d do when he got there either: what he’d say or how he’d react to the music, the audience, anything…

No wonder the road crew were always fully focussed as showtime-plus-30 approached. Most bands leave nothing to chance when he comes to stadium shows – even The Rolling Stones have used backing tapes. But Guns N’ Roses deliberately put their stadium shows on a knife edge. That meant the shows could be stunning. By the same token they could also be shambolic. But then Guns N’ Roses knew no other way.

Not that the critics saw it that way. To them, the band they’d championed had sold out. Even worse, they’d become hugely popular. “Just another stadium act, up there with the fatted turkeys,” according to Melody Maker . “A saddening musical mess,” said Kerrang! .

But then Guns N’ Roses had gone to war with the press and the ‘build-‘em-up, slag-‘em-off’ mentality. Demanding copy approval was guaranteed to rile any journalist, but it was another part of the Guns N’ Roses attitude. They’d spelt it out on Get In The Ring on their Use Your Illusion II album. For the crowds who flocked to see them, however, the air of excitement in the (frequently extended) build-up to the show told its own story.

Security, or Axl’s paranoia, had reached ridiculous heights. He wanted control. He demanded complete control. Legal documents flew about backstage – disclaimers, gag orders, the lot. And these weren’t just for those nearest and dearest to the band. No one escaped unscathed. Not the crew, not the caterers, not the bus drivers, not the support band and their associates. No-one. Nearly a decade and a half later, people who were on the tour only agreed to speak with Classic Rock under the shield of strict anonymity, such was the fear of the wrath of God instilled in them. But it’s time to break the silence.

The Use Your Illusion tour had started in May 1991, four months before the Use Your Illusion albums were released. It would carry on for the next 28 months with 128 shows in 27 countries in front of seven million people.

For the first few weeks the shows ran smoothly, apart from the late starts, but at St Louis, Missouri in early July Axl yelled at security to remove a camera from a fan near the stage and when nothing happened he leapt into the crowd to deal with the offender himself. The resulting riot left 50 people injured and Axl facing assault charges.

Another riot was narrowly avoided a week later in Englewood, Colorado when Axl took exception to a heckler. And later that same month at Inglewood, California police sensibly tore up a traffic ticket they’d issued after Axl’s limousine made an illegal left turn outside the Forum and he threatened to cancel the show with 19,000 people already inside.

In contrast, their Wembley Stadium at the end of August under a baking sun was a relatively restrained affair, although the jobsworths at Brent Council had done their best by demanding that the band desist from swearing on stage. That resulted in posters around London proclaiming ‘Guns N’ Fucking Roses. Wembley Fucking Stadium. Sold Fucking Out’. The language from the stage was equally blunt.

But the joke had worn too thin for Izzy Stradlin who had already taken to travelling separately from the rest of the group. By the time the two separate Use Your Illusion albums were released in September he’d gone AWOL, failing to show up for video shoots. A few weeks later it was confirmed that he was leaving.

Slash made the call to Gilby Clarke. “I knew Gilby before Guns N’ Roses even started,” he explained. “He was playing in the same clubs that Hollywood Rose [Axl’s pre-GN’R group] and bands I was in played at. But I hadn’t seen him in all those years.

“His name was brought up by a couple of people and I thought ‘Yeah’. In fact he was the only person we auditioned. I brought him into the studio with us and we jammed and it worked, just like that.”

Clarke confirmed that story while admitting that he’d surreptitiously put himself in the frame.

“I’d heard rumours that something was up,” he said. “And I’d called a friend of mine who’d worked with the band and said, ‘If these guys are looking for someone then put my name in the pot’. And one day I got home and there was the call.”

But wasn’t he concerned that he could be joining a band on the brink of destruction? “Yeah, but that’s the credit you have to give this band: all the things they’ve been through and still to be doing all this. For the first week I was coming in every day and not knowing if I was coming back tomorrow. I just had to put everything else to one side and concentrate on learning 40-odd songs.”

The 12-piece Guns N’ Roses made their debut at Worcester, Massachusetts, in early December followed by three nights at New York’s Madison Square Garden. They flew to Japan for three shows that were filmed for a video and made their first foray into South America with a concert in Mexico City at the start of April.

Later that month they flew over for the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, an unusual move firstly because the band were not best known for playing tribute shows of any description, and secondly because the gay community had taken umbrage with Axl’s less than sympathetic lyrics on the One In A Million song from the GN’R Lies album.

But this was not about sexual preference, it was about Queen. As Slash explained, “We grew up with Queen. They were one of the main bands we were into at the start. So when they asked us to play we jumped at the chance. Then we had this whole gay activist thing going against us but we just decided to do it anyway.”

The band played Paradise City and Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door before Axl duetted with Elton John on a version of Bohemian Rhapsody that was one of the highlights of the show and then got to front Queen for We Will Rock You . Axl, Slash and Duff then joined in the grand finale, We Are The Champions .

So it was a relatively relaxed-looking band that arrived in Dublin to start the European tour. Axl even managed a smile for the photographer who was brave enough to greet him at the airport.

Faith No More, who’d been frequently named as one of Guns N’ Roses’ favourite bands, were the chosen support band on the tour, along with Soundgarden. “The band felt almost honoured to be asked and it was seen as a great opportunity to play to a whole load of people in Europe,” a member of their road crew (let’s call him Mr X) told Classic Rock .

“But it didn’t really work out that way. Most of the kids had just come to see Guns N’ Roses and didn’t pay any attention to us. And for the amount of time that we were out there we didn’t really play that many gigs. We always seemed to be hanging around, waiting a couple of days or more for the next gig.

“I remember being told that some of the band were still in a fragile condition. But that didn’t surprise me with everything they’d been through in the last couple of years. And then losing Steven Adler and Izzy – that must have been hard for them.

“Slash was fine, though. Thriving on it. He carried a bottle of Jack Daniel’s with him wherever he went. It was his medication. But he was always nice and friendly whenever you came across him.

“Duff was on vodka and I think he was finding it harder. That’s why he had his girlfriend, Linda, with him on the tour. They got engaged midway through the tour and they were really sweet together.

“But we scarcely saw Axl. In fact I don’t think many people saw Axl when he wasn’t on stage. He was closeted away and there was this whole entourage looking after him. He had a personal assistant. And the personal assistant had an assistant. There was also a chiropractor and a hypnotherapist. And then there was his sister, Amy. There were a lot of people around him.”

If Axl was incommunicado, Slash and Duff were happy to talk to the media. And they weren’t hiding behind phrases like “musical differences” when it came to the departure of Steven and Izzy.

“Steven Adler just kept on lying,” Duff explained. “He kept saying he’d given up. I’d already been round to his dealer’s house and threatened to kill him if he sold Steven any more drugs. And one night I went round to Steven’s house and pressed the redial button on his phone. And guess where it went? So that was that.”

Izzy’s departure had also rankled, but in a very different way. “He went too hardcore I think,” said Duff. “He couldn’t just have a couple of beers. He couldn’t be around it at all and that was sad. God bless him, that’s all I’ve got to say.”

It was an 11-piece band that showed up for a two-hour sound check the day before the opening date of the tour at Slane Castle, a picturesque spot on a bend in the river Boyne that provided a natural amphitheatre. No prizes for guessing who didn’t make it.

The 250,000-watt sound of the band could be heard in the nearby village of Slane which was already filling up with fans. Another source remembers passing through the village on the morning of the show.

“This little village had been completely taken over by thousands of kids in headbands and denim jackets,” he recalls. “Every now and again some little makeshift band would start up and people would cluster round. And then suddenly they’d get up and lead this big procession round the village and then down this little country lane towards the castle. Obviously loads of them were carrying cans but it was all really peaceful.”

Meanwhile the Irish tabloids had been doing their best to whip up a controversy, fearing for those good catholic Irish girls who might be induced to bare their breasts for the video cameras, following a growing American tradition that provided pre-show entertainment for the crowd on the giant screens as well as the band watching backstage.

A police chief was quoted as saying that they would be monitoring the situation closely. Of course. In fact there were over 800 policeman being drafted in for breast patrol and other more mundane tasks. Sadly they would see more hairy arses than tits as the crowd amused themselves by building human pyramids in front of the stage with the guy at the top getting the chance for a quick moon before the whole edifice collapsed.

The band arrived at the site by helicopter although Axl’s helicopter had still not left Dublin as showtime approached. Still, the rest of the band could console themselves with the crate of 40-year-old Irish whisky and barrel of Guinness that had been sent by U2 who were currently touring Europe with their Zooropa show.

Just over an hour late, the pent-up energy exploded on both sides of the stage as the band ripped into Nightrain and Mr Brownstone as Axl, clad in tight back shorts and a black jacket with emerald trimmings, raced from side to side of the 160ft-wide stage like a man possessed while Slash, wearing an emerald green shirt, Gilby and Duff checked out the various ramps and walkways around and above Matt’s drumkit.

Maybe the unusual experience of playing in daylight was having a benign effect on them (“Playing in sunshine – it’s a new concept,” remarked Axl); there was definitely a relaxed feel to the show. Axl attempted to make some Irish heritage connections on behalf of the band – “We have a McKagan in the band, in case you hadn’t noticed, and I’m half Irish myself, but you can’t tell, right?”

Later on after Duff had taken over his microphone for a version of the Misfits classic, Attitude , he unravelled a new microphone cover and rolled it on. “Much as I love Duff I would never share a condom with him,” he joked.

But the GN’R attitude was never far below the surface. “Here’s a nice pretty song,” said Axl after an impassioned performance of Don’t Cry . “It’s dedicated to all those who can’t keep their mouths out of your fucking business. Misery likes company so if you know someone like that, call them up and tell them from me that they are DOUBLE TALKIN’ JIVE MOTHERFUCKERS!” Cue the song.

Later on, in a rare moment of irony, Axl stamped his foot repeatedly, petulantly yelling “Gimme piano!” until it became apparent that he was standing on top of the instrument as it rose up from below the stage. He then proceeded to give a short recital, breaking into Black Sabbath’s It’s Alright as Duff sat on the edge of the stage, pummelling his bass with his fists until the song transformed itself into November Rain .

Not to be outdone, Slash topped and tailed Civil War with a blast of Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Child (Slight Return) , allowing Axl the chance to nip down to a tiny dressing room below the drum riser and change into another pair of cycling shorts and jacket. Later on Slash turned the Theme From The Godfather into a solo tour de force as part of an instrumental jam that included a drum solo and, on a good night, a bass solo.

A couple of songs had fixed positions in the set: Mr Brownstone was invariably the second number and Knockin’ On Heavens Door routinely closed the show before the encores which always finished with Paradise City . But you never knew when the others would crop up. This was tough on the road crew who had giant inflatable beasts to blow up for Welcome To The Jungle and fireworks to let off during Live And Let Die . And the brass section would hang around under the stage on permanent stand-by, never knowing if they’d be needed for the next song.

At Slane Castle the band responded to U2’s liquid gift by playing a bit of One as the intro to Sweet Child O’ Mine . As Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door reached its peak Duff was so excited he leapt into the crowd and nearly knocked himself out with his radio pack as he tried to clamber back. As the last strains of Paradise City echoed across the Boyne valley Slash thanked the crowd for “making us so welcome. You’ve been fucking great.”

The band spent another couple of convivial days in Dublin, relaxing in the bars and clubs and watching the girls dressed up in their ball gowns going to the Trinity Ball. Slash in particular was enjoying himself. “I can always tell a drinking town when the people in the bar get drunk before I do,” he told reporters when they finally headed off to the next leg of the tour in Czechoslovakia.

Prague was a sobering contrast. The country was still emerging from 50 years of communist rule and its status as a stag weekend capital was many years away. At the ageing Strahov Stadium the road crew found the stage was only half built and were immediately called upon to put their motto – “make it happen” – into practice.

The Czech media were less interested in the sex and drugs and rock’n’roll than the high cost of tickets – around £15, way above the means of most kids. No wonder there was a market for cut-price forgeries although it was a bit stupid of the forger to advertise his wares on a university noticeboard complete with a phone number.

Meanwhile the hotel booked for the band had cancelled the reservation on discovering their identity. They were forced to relocate to a tourist hotel on the edge of town where such basic amenities as room service and a telephone switchboard were deemed surplus to requirements.

“Fortunately there was a newly opened McDonalds in town which was a lifeline, otherwise the band would have gone crazy,” a crew member recalls. “There was virtually a shuttle service operating.”

And it wasn’t just McD’s that was keeping the band busy. “A couple of the Guns N’ Roses guys found this strip club,” another source reveals. “They were absolutely fascinated by it because the strippers still had pubic hair.”

In the event the show drew a respectable 30,000 crowd. The band opened with It’s So Easy and Axl told the audience, “Some people talk about how hedonistic we are. Well, sometimes we just write songs about how really fucked up we are.”

Slash however got closer to the mark: “I guess you guys don’t know much English so I’ll just say fucking Hi!” Quite what Matt had done to be introduced as “a man made out of all the thick stuff in the bottom of your toilet” was never explained.

In Hungary there was a Hilton Hotel waiting for the band. Unfortunately they arrived at Budapest Airport just 20 minutes before they were due to play, having been held up at Prague Airport for four hours by a bomb scare. A police escort whisked the band’s motorcade to the Nep Stadium where 70,000 fans were waiting.

“It was kinda weird to finish our set and then be told that the headline band wasn’t even in the country,” Mr X tells us. “Still, it was something we’d get used to.”

Scarcely had Guns N’ Roses started their show before they had to compete with a massive thunderstorm that drenched first the crowd and then the band as water poured through the roof of the stage. As roadies frantically wiped the stage with towels between songs Axl remarked, “We’re going to be sponsoring a car wash. And we’ll all be topless.” The only dry place on stage was by Dizzy Reed’s keyboards and Axl called Duff and Gilby “pussies” for trying to take shelter there. Dizzy meanwhile tried to show solidarity with the others by pouring a bottle of beer over his head.

Midway through the show the crowd got an unexpected treat. “This is a song that Freddie Mercury asked us to sing to you,” Axl announced. “He couldn’t be here tonight, he had other plans, so we tried to learn it in the dressing room tonight.” He and Slash then played a Hungarian folk song, Tavasziszel (easier to sing than pronounce) that Queen had performed when they came to Budapest in 1985. As the crowd joined in Axl tossed the microphone at them and let them take over.

Back in the Western European comfort zone in Vienna, Axl was in playful form. “This is kinda tongue in cheek,” he mused, introducing Live And Let Die . “I wonder if Hitler ever sang this song to himself when he was a kid.” Always a bit of a risk, reminding the Viennese of their most infamous son, but he got away with it.

Vienna was where Guns N’ Roses and U2’s paths crossed on their respective European tours. U2 came to the GN’R show and afterwards Axl and Bono spent over an hour locked in conversation in a private backstage area. “They were sharing this private jet that was ferrying each of the bands around from place to place,” recalls a journalist who managed to get backstage.

“There was definitely a bit of a mutual admiration society going on. Both bands were trying to challenge the whole idea of stadium rock. Most bands tend to behave like rock gods when they play stadiums – and with all those adoring masses in front of them it’s not hard to see why. But Axl and Bono were both trying to turn the whole stadium rock rock thing back on the audience, trying to show in their own different ways why it didn’t have to be like that. That’s what they had in common.”

When U2 played the same venue the following night Bono brought out Axl to sing an acoustic version of Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door with him, adding, “This song could be written for him”.

Back in town, Slash and Gilby were so outraged at being charged $300 for a bottle of champagne in a strip club they forgot to notice the state of the strippers’ pubes.

The next part of the tour was focussed on Germany. “The mood seemed to get a little darker at this point,” admits one of the GN’R entourage. “We got to Berlin and when we arrived at the Olympic Stadium where we were playing we could feel the bad vibes there. They were coming out of the walls of the place. Everyone felt it, even the bands. And then we discovered it was the place where [American black athlete] Jesse Owens had won the 100 metres back in 1936 and Hitler had stormed out in disgust.”

Axl caught the mood too. When someone threw a bottle on stage during Civil War , suddenly the spectre of those riotous American shows (and no shows) returned. “Fucking Asshole,” screamed Axl. “We can stop the show you know. It’s no problem. Fucking asshole.” He made to walk off but the band kept playing. Eventually he started singing again and calmed down with the aid of a cigarette and a rose that he wrapped around the microphone. At the end he even managed to incorporate a few lines from Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall into Paradise City .

At Stuttgart there was another incident that typified the Guns N’ Roses attitude. “I standing in the production office and at this point it’s not even an hour late so no one’s panicking,” divulges a source. “Somebody’s asking the sound guy out front what the NWA track he played just before the show a week or so ago was because Axl wants to hear it again. The sound guy says he hasn’t got it with him so what else would Axl like to hear?

“Next thing, there’s a car being organised to go back to the hotel and search the sound guy’s room for the NWA CD. So that takes another hour. But the amazing thing is that the song they played just before the band came on was Sid Vicious’ My Way . I don’t know whether they couldn’t find the CD or whether Axl changed his mind again.”

The tour was heading towards Paris where the show was going to be broadcast live on the American HBO channel. “This meant the show was going to have to start on time because there was no way an HBO audience was going to sit and stare at an empty stage for an hour or so,” another of FNM’s crew told us.

In Paris a day had been set aside to rehearse at the Hippodrome De Vincennes with the special guests who’d come in the bolster the HBO show, people like Steven Tyler and Joe Perry from Aerosmith, Lenny Kravtiz and Jeff Beck.

“I’m a huge Jeff Beck fan so I went down to have a look,” says a member of GNR’s crew. “And I watched Slash, Joe Perry and Jeff Beck jamming away on Train Kept A’ Rolling for nearly half an hour. Can you imagine? That for me was the musical highlight of the whole tour. But the next morning Jeff Beck has gone back to England, complaining of tinnitus.”

As well as Lenny, Joe and Steven, Slash’s girlfriend had also showed up so he was feeling good, but Axl’s girlfriend, model Stephanie Seymour, had not and he had not been sleeping well. In fact he had not been sleeping at all.

To the relief of everyone at HBO the show started on time, Lenny Kravtiz came out to play Mama Said and all went well until Axl, who was wearing his Nobody Knows I’m A Lesbian T-shirt, dedicated Double Talking Jive to Warren Beatty, “a man whose life is so empty he has to fuck around with other people minds and play fucking games.” The fact that Beatty was Stephanie’s previous boyfriend might have had something to do with it.

The rant seemed to clear Axl’s head and apart from describing November Rain as “a song about unrequited love” (Stephanie had of course been in the video) there were no more difficult moments for HBO – apart from the swearing which they’d presumably been warned about. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were saved for the encores and everyone – even Axl – joined in a storming versions of Mama Kin and Train Kept A’ Rolling .

Two free days in Paris before the next show in Manchester should have been enough to clear Axl’s sleepless head but instead things got worse. “I was told that Axl went to see his favourite statue, the Winged Victory, which is in the Louvre,” recalls Mr X. “But he didn’t disguise himself or anything so he ended up getting pestered by all these people.

“And then he agrees to go on a boat trip down the river Seine but on the way to the boat he nods off for a minute or so which is the worst thing that can happen when you haven’t slept for days. After about ten minutes on the boat he wants to get off but there’s nowhere for the boat to pull in. So he’s on the boat for another half hour before he can get off. And by then he’s real mad!”

The Manchester show was postponed the night before it was due to take place. Instead the band flew to London for their third appearance at Wembley Stadium within ten months, and the hottest yet in terms of performance and weather. Three thousand people were treated for heat exhaustion during the course of a very long day.

This time they repaid the favour to Queen, bringing Brian May on for the encores and playing Tie Your Mother Down and We Will Rock You . Earlier in the show they had also played Sail Away Sweet Sister (a May song from The Game ) as an intro for Sweet Child O’ Mine , something they had been doing regularly on the tour.

The next day’s rescheduled Manchester show started nearly two hours late after the band took their time getting there but Gateshead a couple of days later was a lot livelier. After both shows the band flew back to the Conrad Hotel in London’s Chelsea Basin where they ended up staying for ten days.

“It was a real rock’n’roll hotel at that point,” an insider says. “There’s INXS hanging out in the bar with Slash and Duff and Dizzy and Matt and Duff’s planning to go into a studio nearby to do some stuff for his solo album. Axl is nowhere to be seen, obviously, but everyone’s laughing because apparently he’d demanded to be flown by helicopter to the Wembley show but there was nowhere for him to land there and the helicopter ended up dropping him off further away than when he’d started.

“Prince was also staying at the hotel because he was playing concerts at Earls Court nearby, and the hotel staff were saying they’d had to remove every piece of furniture from his suite and he’d had his own bed and everything – even the sheets – flown in from America. They’d also had to black out all the windows so that he wouldn’t see daylight and then he’d demanded that they open up the hair salon for him at two in the morning.”

The Guns N’ Roses tour resumed in Germany and it was a chance for Heathrow Airport customs officials to single out Axl’s luggage for the third degree for the second time in a month. He was so cross he made a statement: “To be singled out by someone who just wants to score a few points and have a story to tell his friends over a beer is really out of order,” he complained.

Their show at Wurzburg was accompanied by the full Wagnerian backdrop of thunder and lightning and the steam rising from the crowd made it hard for those at the back to see the stage. After the next day’s show in Basle, Switzerland, Duff developed flu symptoms and Axl had a sore throat. Copious medication got them both through the next show in Rotterdam, Holland, which started over two hours late. The authorities decided to abandon the curfew after Axl told the crowd, “You have a right to a complete show. You paid for it. If they cut the power, be my guests, do what you want.”

Afterwards Duff was officially declared ill and the following night’s show in Gent, Belgium, was cancelled. The band moved on to Milan, Italy, where Axl’s recovery was aided by the arrival of Stephanie Seymour. Meanwhile Slash and Gilby made a brief extra-curricular trip to Munich to take part in the filming of Michael Jackson’s video for Give In To Me .

After a rousing show in Turin the band and close entourage took a two-day break on a luxury cruiser in the Mediterranean before heading across to Seville in Spain where they could bask in a culture that didn’t bother with words like curfew. This turned out to be the last gig of the tour when the Madrid stadium they were due to play was suddenly closed by the authorities when the concrete structure was found to be at risk from aluminosis.

“By the end of the tour we were spending more time hanging around than working,” confides Mr X. “Faith No More were getting pissed at some of Axl’s antics which they thought were unprofessional.

“But that fact was that whatever it took to get the guy on stage, when he got there it was just mesmerising. You couldn’t take your eyes off him. I’ve never seen any band produce that kind of spontaneous excitement in a stadium before or since.”

Faith No More continued to support Guns N’ Roses on their American stadium tour with Metallica which started later in July although the scheduled was repeatedly interrupted by damage to Axl’s vocals cords and burns to James Hetfield’s arm.

In November Guns N’ Roses headed down to South America for a tour that was buffeted by torrential rain, collapsing stages and a military coup in Venezuela which started just as the band went on stage in a massive parking lot (nobody had been able to find a suitable venue). The band managed to get out but their equipment and half the road crew was left stranded at the airport.

Even Axl couldn’t compete with that.

This article originally appeared in Classic Rock #92 .

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Use Your Illusion Tour

The Use Your Illusion Tour was a concert tour by American rock band Guns N' Roses which ran from January 20, 1991, to July 17, 1993. It was not only the band's longest tour, but one of the longest concert tours in rock history, consisting of 194 shows in 27 countries. [1] It was also a source of much infamy for the band, due to riots , late starts, cancellations and outspoken rantings by Axl Rose .

Notable events

First typical setlist, second typical setlist, third typical setlist, fourth typical setlist, fifth typical setlist, songs played, external links.

The Use Your Illusion Tour was a promotional tour for the albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II . The tour started on May 24, 1991, approximately when the long-awaited follow-up to G N' R Lies was to be released, and ended over two years later. The release date of the album, or albums, since there were now two of them, was pushed back to September but the tour began as originally scheduled. The tour marked a high point in the popularity of Guns N' Roses, with a total of over 7 million [1] fans attending, and accompanied by high worldwide album sales.

Live recordings from the tour would be issued as a two video / DVD set, Use Your Illusion I and II (featuring footage from a 1992 concert in Tokyo, Japan) and provide content for the 2-disc set Live Era: '87-'93 . The tour also provided footage for music videos , including " Dead Horse " and their popular cover of Paul McCartney's " Live and Let Die ". A planned documentary, titled The Perfect Crime , included footage consisted of the band's time on the road, concert clips, and information about the riots and other major events of the tour. It was never released and never spoken about after the tour. Slash mentioned in his biography that Axl Rose controls the footage and that Slash would be interested in viewing it, as he thought it captured "killer moments" from the tour. [ citation needed ]

The conduct of the band, and particularly Axl Rose, during the Use Your Illusion Tour generated negative press, notably from the magazines Spin , Kerrang! , Circus , and Hit Parader . These magazines were mentioned in the song "Get in the Ring" where Axl Rose attacked writers who had written negative articles dealing with Rose's attitude.

The shows were all varied, as a setlist was never chosen by the band. They did, however, usually open with " Welcome to the Jungle ", " It's So Easy ", " Nightrain " or "Perfect Crime" and would shortly after one another play " Mr. Brownstone " or "Live and Let Die", and close with " Paradise City ". Each show featured guitar solos from Slash (including the " Theme From the Godfather ") and a drum solo from drummer Matt Sorum , usually six minutes in length. [ citation needed ]

The tour was massive not just in the number and size of performances, but also in its technical aspects and the size of the crew . A total of 130 working personnel traveled with the band, using two different stages to enable faster setup. [2] The trade magazine Performance named the tour crew "Crew of the Year" for 1991.

Duff McKagan revealed in 2015 that the band didn't make profit on the tour until 1993 due to the extravagant costs. [2]

"The band had such a ball," Slash remarked in 1994. "We managed to tour for two and a half years, against all the fuckin' odds. It really was a fuckin' endurance test of pretty big proportions." [3]

At the June 10, 1991, show, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center , Axl Rose requested that the crowd chant "Get in the ring!" This was recorded for the song of that name on Use Your Illusion II .

On June 13, 1991, during the show in Philadelphia, Rose erupted after a fan fought with Guns N' Roses' photographer Robert John . When the fan kicked the camera out of his hands, Rose cursed him out and challenged him to a fight. After the fan was ejected from the concert, the show continued.

On Tuesday, July 2, 1991, at a show at the Riverport Amphitheatre in Maryland Heights, Missouri , near St. Louis , Rose spotted a spectator recording the concert with a video camera and jumped into the audience after him when concert security failed to respond to his request to apprehend the man. Returning to the stage, Rose declared: "Well, thanks to the lame-ass security, I'm going home!" then slammed the mic on the stage, sparking the infamous Riverport riot . Rose then stormed off the stage; some people thought when he slammed the mic, because of the noise, that he shot someone. Slash told them, "He just slammed his mic on the floor. We're outta here." He proceeded to throw his guitar pick into the crowd and follow Rose. The band followed. The band was looking to come back out and finish the show, but as police and security tried to calm down the audience, a riot broke out. The footage was captured by Robert John who was documenting the entire tour. Sixty fans were injured. The band lost most of their equipment and Rose was charged with inciting a riot. He was acquitted due to lack of evidence. The band would later express their feelings regarding the incident by including the message "fuck you, St. Louis!" in the liner notes of both Use Your Illusion albums. [4]

On August 3, 1991, the day mixing of the Illusion albums was finished, the band played the longest show of the tour at the L.A. Forum . It lasted three and a half hours. [5]

On November 7, 1991, Izzy Stradlin quit the band after the release of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II ; his last show was on August 31, 1991, at Wembley Stadium . On December 5, replacement rhythm guitarist Gilby Clarke made his debut in Worcester, at the first show after the release of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II .

On April 13 and 14, 1992, two concerts had to be canceled when a warrant was issued for Rose's arrest due to his behavior at the St. Louis show.

On April 20, 1992, the band performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert , an effort for AIDS Awareness in London. The band was a controversial addition to the lineup, as many in the gay community were still angry over Rose using a homophobic slur in " One in a Million ." The band opened with "Paradise City" and closed with " Knockin' on Heaven's Door ." During the famous "Paradise City" opening, Axl pointed at protesters in the audience and yelled, "SHOVE IT!" [ citation needed ] [ clarification needed ] He had planned to address the controversy between songs, but was asked not to by the band as it would pull the spotlight from Queen and Freddie Mercury . As Slash concluded a short cover of Alice Cooper 's " Only Women Bleed ", Duff McKagan kept an eye on Rose, who approached the front of the stage. When Slash finished the song, then strummed the beginning of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", McKagan walked over to Rose and shook his hand in appreciation. Later in the show, Slash joined Joe Elliott of Def Leppard and the surviving members of Queen for " Tie Your Mother Down ." Rose sang " We Will Rock You " and finished " Bohemian Rhapsody " with Elton John and Queen. The show was broadcast live around the world via satellite , gathering the largest audience for a music concert in history.

On August 8, 1992, in Montreal , Quebec , during the famously troubled Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour portion, Metallica frontman/guitarist James Hetfield 's left arm was badly burned due to misunderstanding about pyrotechnics added to Metallica's stage setup. Metallica was forced to end their set early. However, Guns N' Roses were not present at the arena to begin before the scheduled time, leaving fans to wait several hours before they took the stage. A few songs into the very late set, audio problems resulted in the band not being able to hear themselves play. Rose stormed off stage due to vocal issues, sparking a riot that spilled into the streets.

On November 25, 1992, the band performed in Caracas , Venezuela, in front of a crowd of 45,000. Just two days later, the Venezuela Air Force launched a failed military coup , making it impossible for half of the band's crew and all of their equipment to leave the country. [ citation needed ]

On November 30, 1992, the band performed for the first time in Bogotá , Colombia. When they started to play " November Rain ", a soft rain fell over the city and stopped right after they finished the song. Rose later stated this was a special moment for him because "November Rain" was #1 in Colombia for 60 weeks. Rose stated that the band were at risk of electrocution and must stop to dry the stage. The band moved backstage and returned to finish with " Don't Cry " and "Paradise City."

On December 2, 1992, the band performed in Santiago , Chile, at Estadio Nacional in front of 85,535 people, breaking an attendance record in the stadium. At their arriving at Chile, Rose attacked some graphic reporters and a cameraman was injured. Before the concert, Rose got drunk and arrived at the stadium two hours late. While the band performed " Civil War " some people threw bottles to the stage, and Rose stopped four minutes into the show. The concert ended with 50 people arrested outside the stadium, and a teenage fan with several injuries, dying two days later.

In February 1993, Gilby Clarke told BBC Radio 1 's Friday Rock Show : "For the last year and a half, we had a film crew with us. They do film every show and things backstage: hotel rooms, everything. And what we're gonna do at the end of the whole tour – which is actually after we're done in Europe – is put it all together, and we are gonna make a movie. It's pretty candid right now, so it's gonna be really great. The difference between ours and Madonna's is that ours isn't scripted. This movie is actually things that are happening around us." He also said Guns N' Roses would record an MTV Unplugged during their stay in Russia. Neither of these plans came to fruition. [6]

Stradlin returned for several shows in 1993, deputizing for an injured Clarke. "It was weird," he recalled. "We toured Greece, Istanbul, London [sic] . I liked that side of it – seeing some places I'd never seen… [But] money was a big sore point. I did the dates just for salary… [At the end] I didn't actually say 'See you', cos they were all fucked up… It was like playing with zombies." [7]

On July 17, 1993, the band performed in Buenos Aires , Argentina at River Plate Stadium in front of 80,000 people. It was their last show with most of the Use Your Illusion -era lineup (Rose, Slash, McKagan, Sorum, Reed, and Clarke). The tour was renamed the "Skin N' Bones Tour" for the last couple of legs and included an unplugged performance in a living room set. A highlight of the night was Cozy Powell dressed as a Domino's Pizza delivery boy playing drums with Sorum.

(Taken from the Inglewood, California Great Western Forum show on August 3, 1991)

• "Perfect Crime"
• " Mr. Brownstone "
• "Right Next Door To Hell"
• "Bad Obsession"
• " Live and Let Die " ( Paul McCartney and Wings cover)
• " It's So Easy "
• " Yesterdays "
• "Dust N' Bones"
• "Double Talkin' Jive"
• " Civil War "
• " Patience "
• " You Could Be Mine "
• " November Rain "
• " My Michelle "
• " 14 Years "
• " Nightrain "
• " Welcome to the Jungle "
• " Pretty Tied Up "
• " Rocket Queen "
• " Don't Cry " (Original lyrics) (with Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon )
• " Knockin' on Heaven's Door " ( Bob Dylan cover)
• "You Ain't the First" (with Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon)
• "Used to Love Her"
• "Move to the City"
• " Sweet Child o' Mine "
• "You're Crazy" (with Sebastian Bach of Skid Row )
• "Locomotive"
• "Out ta Get Me"
• " Dead Horse "
• " Estranged "
• " Paradise City "

(Taken from the Tokyo, Japan Tokyo Dome show on February 22, 1992)

• "Nightrain"
• "Mr. Brownstone"
• "Live and Let Die" (Paul McCartney and Wings cover)
• "It's So Easy"
• "Attitude" (McKagan sang lead vocals) ( Misfits cover)
• "Pretty Tied Up"
• "Welcome to the Jungle"
• "Don't Cry" (Original lyrics)
• "Civil War"
• " Wild Horses " ( The Rolling Stones cover)
• "You Could Be Mine"
• "November Rain"
• "Sweet Child o' Mine"
• "Rocket Queen"
• "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (Bob Dylan cover)
• "Estranged"
• "Paradise City"

(Taken from the Stuttgart, Germany Neckarstadion show on May 28, 1992)

• "Attitude" (McKagan sang lead vocals (Misfits cover)
• "Wild Horses" (The Rolling Stones cover)
• "It's Alright" ( Black Sabbath cover)

(Taken from the Paris, France Hippodrome de Vincennes show on June 6, 1992)

• "Attitude" (McKagan sang lead vocals) (Misfits cover)
• " Always on the Run " ( Lenny Kravitz cover) (with Lenny Kravitz)
• "It's Alright" (originally performed by Black Sabbath)
• " Mama Kin " ( Aerosmith cover) with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith)
• " Train Kept A-Rollin' " ( Tiny Bradshaw cover) (with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith)

(Taken from the Buenos Aires, Argentina River Plate Stadium show on July 17, 1993)

• "Yesterdays"
• " Dead Flowers " (The Rolling Stones cover)
• "You Ain't the First"
• "You're Crazy"
• "Dead Horse"
• W. Axl Rose – lead vocals, piano, whistle, whistling, acoustic guitar, tambourine, backing vocals
• Slash – lead guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals, talkbox, slide guitar
• Izzy Stradlin – rhythm guitar, backing vocals, acoustic guitar, lead vocals (1991; 1993 – five shows)
• Duff McKagan – bass, backing vocals, lead vocals, drum
• Matt Sorum – drums, percussion, backing vocals, drum
• Dizzy Reed – keyboards, piano, backing vocals, percussion, organ, tambourine
• Gilby Clarke – rhythm guitar, backing vocals, drum (1991–1993)
• Teddy Andreadis – keyboards, backing vocals, harmonica, tambourine (1991–1993)
• Roberta Freeman – backing vocals, tambourine (1991–1993)
• Traci Amos – backing vocals, tambourine (1991–1993)
• Diane Jones – backing vocals, tambourine (1991–1993)
• Cece Worrall-Rubin – saxophone (1991–1993)
• Anne King – trumpet (1991–1993)
• Lisa Maxwell – horns (1991–1993)
• Shannon Hoon
• Sebastian Bach
• Lenny Kravitz (June 6, 1992)
• Steven Tyler (June 6, 1992)
• Joe Perry (June 6, 1992)
• Brian May (June 13, 1992)
• Ronnie Wood (January 15, 1993) [8]
• Michael Monroe (May 30, 1993) [9]
• Tyranny of Time
• Soundgarden
• Raging Slab
• Faith No More
• Smashing Pumpkins
• My Little Funhouse
• Blind Melon
• El Conde del Guacharo
• Estadio El Campín
• Nine Inch Nails
• Brian May (some shows with his band)
• Motörhead
• Pearls & Swine
• Rose Tattoo
• Soul Asylum
• Suicidal Tendencies

From Appetite for Destruction :

From G N' R Lies :

• "Reckless Life"
• "Nice Boys"
• " Mama Kin / Train Kept A-Rollin' " (with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith )
• "You're Crazy" (Acoustic)

From Use Your Illusion I :

• " Don't Cry " (Original lyrics)
• "Back Off Bitch" [10]
• " The Garden "
• "Garden Of Eden"
• "Bad Apples"

From Use Your Illusion II :

• "Breakdown"
• "Don't Cry" (Alt. Lyrics)

From "The Spaghetti Incident?" :

• " Since I Don't Have You " (Intro)
• "Attitude" (McKagan sang lead vocals)

Other commonly performed songs:

• " Theme From the Godfather " ( Nino Rota cover) (Guitar Solo)
• " Imagine " ( John Lennon cover) (Intro)
• "Dust In The Wind" ( Todd Rundgren cover) (Intro)
• " It Tastes Good, Don't It? " (Unreleased original) (played during Rocket Queen)
• " I Was Only Joking " ( Rod Stewart cover) (Intro)
• " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds " ( The Beatles cover) (Intro)
• " Only Women Bleed " ( Alice Cooper cover) (Intro)
• " Mother " ( Pink Floyd cover) (Intro)
• " Pinball Wizard " ( The Who cover) (Intro)
• " The One " ( Elton John cover) (Intro)
• " One " ( U2 cover) (Intro)
• "Sail Away Sweet Sister" ( Queen cover) (Intro)
• "Bad Time" ( Grand Funk Railroad cover) (Intro)
• " Voodoo Child (Slight Return) " ( The Jimi Hendrix Experience cover) (Intro)
• " Let It Be " ( The Beatles cover) (Guitar Solo)

Related Research Articles

W. Axl Rose is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known for being the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its inception in 1985. Possessing a distinctive and powerful wide-ranging voice, Rose has been named one of the greatest singers of all time by various media outlets, including Rolling Stone , NME and Billboard .

Use Your Illusion I is the third studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released on September 17, 1991, the same day as its counterpart Use Your Illusion II . It was the band's first album to feature drummer Matt Sorum, who replaced Steven Adler following Adler's departure in 1990, as well as keyboardist Dizzy Reed. Both albums were released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 , selling 685,000 copies in its first week, behind Use Your Illusion II ' s first-week sales of 770,000. Use Your Illusion I has sold 5,502,000 units in the United States as of 2010, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Each of the Use Your Illusion albums have been certified 7× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1992.

Jeffrey Dean Isbell , best known as Izzy Stradlin , is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and backing vocalist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he recorded four studio albums and left at the height of their fame in 1991.

Use Your Illusion II is the fourth studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. The album was released on September 17, 1991, the same day as its counterpart Use Your Illusion I . Both albums were released in conjunction with the Use Your Illusion Tour. Bolstered by the lead single "You Could Be Mine", Use Your Illusion II was the slightly more popular of the two albums, selling a record 770,000 copies its first week and debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 , ahead of Use Your Illusion I' s first-week sales of 685,000. As of 2010, Use Your Illusion II has sold 5,587,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Both albums have since been certified 7× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was also No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart for a single week.

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Use Your Illusion is the name of two releases by American rock band Guns N' Roses: a 1998 compilation album, drawing from the Use Your Illusion I and II studio albums featuring songs without explicit lyrics, and a 2022 box set anniversary edition of both albums.

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" It's So Easy " is a song by the American rock band Guns N' Roses, appearing on their 1987 debut studio album, Appetite for Destruction . The song was released as the band's first single on June 15, 1987, in the UK, where it reached number 84 on the UK Singles Chart as a double A-Side with "Mr. Brownstone". It was also released as a maxi-single in Germany later in the same year.

Use Your Illusion World Tour – 1992 in Tokyo II is a live VHS/DVD by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses. Filmed live at the Tokyo Dome, Japan, on February 22, 1992, during the Japanese leg of the Use Your Illusion Tour, this recording features the second half of the concert, the first half appearing on sister volume Use Your Illusion I . Both VHS titles were distributed by Geffen Home Video in 1992.

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" Civil War " is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses that originally appeared on the 1990 compilation Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal and later on the band's 1991 album Use Your Illusion II . It is a protest song on war, referring to all war as "civil war" and stating that war only "feeds the rich while it buries the poor". In the song, lead singer Axl Rose asks, "What's so civil about war, anyway?"

The discography of Guns N' Roses, an American hard rock band, consists of six studio albums , one live album , two compilation albums , four extended plays (EPs), 24 singles , nine video albums and 26 music videos . Guns N' Roses was formed in Los Angeles, California with an original recording lineup of lead vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steven Adler. After self-releasing the EP Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide in December 1986, the band signed with Geffen Records and released its debut studio album Appetite for Destruction the following July. It topped the US Billboard 200 and went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time, with reported sales over 30 million units worldwide, 18 million of which are in the US. Three singles – "Welcome to the Jungle", "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Paradise City" – reached the US Billboard Hot 100 top ten, with "Sweet Child o' Mine" topping the chart.

The Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour was a co-headlining concert tour by American rock bands Guns N' Roses and Metallica during 1992. It took place in the middle of Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion Tour, promoting their Use Your Illusion I and II albums, and between Metallica's Wherever We May Roam Tour and Nowhere Else to Roam, promoting their eponymous fifth album Metallica . The tour's initial opening act was Faith No More as Axl Rose had originally wanted Seattle rock band Nirvana to be the opening act, but frontman Kurt Cobain refused.

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The Not in This Lifetime... Tour was a concert tour by hard rock band Guns N' Roses, spanning from April 1, 2016, to November 2, 2019. It featured classic lineup members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan, marking the first time since the Use Your Illusion Tour in 1993 that the three performed together. After the previous tour in 2014, guitarists DJ Ashba & Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, bassist Tommy Stinson and keyboardist Chris Pitman left Guns N' Roses, leaving the band with several open spots. Former members Slash and McKagan rejoined the band and Melissa Reese joined as keyboardist. The group embarked on a world tour that spanned all continents except Antarctica. They performed 175 shows making it their third longest tour ever, just behind the Use Your Illusion Tour and the Chinese Democracy Tour. The group welcomed former drummer Steven Adler to the stage for several shows as a guest spot, the first time he had played with the group since 1990. The tour has been a financial success, grossing over $584.2 million, making it the fourth-highest-grossing concert tour of all time. The tour was 2016's highest-earning per-city global concert tour as well as the fourth-highest-grossing overall that year. In 2017, the tour ranked as the second highest grossing worldwide tour. The tour was honored at the Billboard Live Music Awards in November 2017, winning Top Tour/Top Draw and being nominated for Top Boxscore.

" So Fine " is a song by the American rock band Guns N' Roses, released as a promotional single in 1992. It features bassist Duff McKagan on lead vocals, with Axl Rose singing the intro song's verses. The song, written entirely by McKagan, is a tribute to Johnny Thunders.

• 1 2 Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 372
• ↑ Q : 71. March 1994. {{ cite journal }} : Missing or empty | title= ( help )
• ↑ "Axl Rose Tantrum Led to Riverport Riot & "Fuck You, St. Louis" Message on Use Your Illusion" . December 13, 2009.
• ↑ Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York. p. 342
• ↑ Interview after 23 Feb 1993 show in Austin, broadcast 27 Feb 1993, as transcribed in GN'R fanzine Controversy , issue 6
• ↑ Wall, Mick (June 2001). "In too deep". Classic Rock #28 . p.   41.
• ↑ "Guns N' Roses Tour 1991–1992 on SlashParadise" . www.slashparadise.com. November 26, 2012.
• ↑ "Guns N' Roses Tour 1993 on SlashParadise" . www.slashparadise.com. November 26, 2012.
• ↑ 06/07/91 CNE Grandstand, Toronto, Canada http://www.gnrontour.com/setlistalm91.htm
• GNRontour.com
• In depth info and tour diary
• Causes and the riot itself
• Review of Riot Concert Bootleg DVD

• Guns N' Roses
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• Velvet Revolver
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Guns N' Roses Tour 1993 "This jaunt in particular was aimed at making us money, because the production was stripped back to the bare essentials." (Slash)

Skin n' bones tour information.

• Axl Rose: lead vocals, piano on "November Rain", guitar on "Dead Horse"
• Slash: lead & rhythm guitars, backing vocals
• Gilby Clarke: rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Duff McKagan: bass, backing vocals, lead vocals on "So Fine" and "Attitude"
• Matt Sorum: drums, backing vocals
• Dizzy Reed: keyboards, backing vocals
• Izzy Stradlin: rhythm guitar, backing vocals (for 5 concerts in Europe)

Played songs

Guns N' Roses: Welcome To The Jungle / It's So Easy / Nightrain / Mr. Brownstone / Paradise City / My Michelle / Sweet Child O' Mine / Reckless Life / You're Crazy / Patience / Used To Love Her / You Ain't The First / Double Talkin' Jive / November Rain / The Garden / Garden Of Eden / Dead Horse / Coma / Yesterdays / So Fine / Estranged / You Could Be Mine / Don't Cry

Cover songs: Knockin' On Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan) / Live And Let Die (Paul & Linda McCartney) / Attitude (The Misfits) / Nice Boys (Rose Tattoo) / Dead Flowers (The Rolling Stones) / Honky Tonk Women (The Rolling Stones)

Live guests

• Michael Monroe: vocals on "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" (Milton Keynes 1993)
• Ronnie Wood: guitar on "Honky Tonk Women" and "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" (Milton Keynes 1993)
• Brian May: guitar on "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" (Paris 1993)

Opening acts

Concerts & shows.

GUNS N ROSES Use Your Illusion Tour (Official 1993 UK 32 page tour programme which is jam packed with superb photographs of the band, with a silver embossed cover. This example remains in a really nice condition with only light signs or wear or age, and includes a ticket stub for the 30th May show at The National Bowl in Milton Keynes).

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Guns N’ Roses’ 10 Rarest Cover Songs

Guns N' Roses know their way around a killer cover song.

That should be obvious to anybody who's ever listened to the   Use Your Illusion   albums, which spawned massive hits and concert staples in their versions of Wings ' "Live and Let Die" and Bob Dylan 's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." Or anybody who's ever seen GNR in concert, where they've packed their sets over the years with classics by AC/DC , the Who , the Misfits , Soundgarden and Velvet Revolver . Then, of course, there's the  entire  covers album they made in 1993,  "The Spaghetti Incident?"

But Guns N' Roses' covers catalog goes way deeper than that. Since their earliest days, they've honored their rock 'n' roll forebears like the Rolling Stones ,  Queen and Aerosmith , both on record and in concert. Some of these early covers appeared on live albums and reissues in later years, while others endure only through primitive YouTube footage that serves as a time capsule to the late-'80s Sunset Strip scene, when Guns were the hottest ticket in town.

From Elvis Presley to Black Sabbath , check out our below list of Guns N' Roses' 10 Rarest Cover Songs.

"Heartbreak Hotel" Original: Elvis Presley

The tumultuous  Appetite for Destruction   sessions included a stint at Sound City Studios in 1986 with Nazareth  guitarist Manny Charlton helming the board. These sessions yielded dozens of demos, B-sides and covers, which were released in 2018 on the  Appetite for Destruction  deluxe reissue . One of the highlights was the band's raucous cover of Elvis Presley's classic "Heartbreak Hotel." The cover begins faithfully, with Slash laying down sensuous guitar leads over a languid waltz, but it quickly revs into a punky onslaught of light-speed solos and Axl Rose 's alley-cat screeches. The singer also tosses a well-placed "fuckin'" into the chorus, a move that would have sent pearl-clutching parents to their graves if the King had done it in 1956.

"Honky Tonk Women" Original: The Rolling Stones

The final shows of Guns N' Roses' two-and-a-half-year Use Your Illusion Tour , aka the Skin N' Bones Tour, were freewheeling affairs that featured, among other things, high-profile guests jamming with them onstage and occasionally delivering pizza in the nude. The band's May 30, 1993, show at the Milton Keynes National Bowl in England was rhythm-guitarist nirvana, as  Ron Wood , Gilby Clarke and Izzy Stradlin (who filled in for Clarke on a handful of shows after Clarke broke his wrist) all joined the band for a swaggering, loose-limbed rendition of the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women." ( Hanoi Rocks frontman Michael Monroe shared vocal duties with Rose, too, for good measure.) "We're gonna try singing a song that even Ronnie doesn't know," Rose said wryly. Without missing a beat, Wood put his arm around Rose's shoulder, cigarette in hand, and chirped, "None of us know it!"

"It's Alright" Original: Black Sabbath

"It's Alright," the plaintive piano ballad written and sung by Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward , was an anomaly when it appeared on the band's seventh album,  Technical Ecstasy , sounding more like a Queen or Elton John outtake than anything from the doom-metal pioneers' catalog. That made it a perfect fit for Rose, who played the song as an intro to "November Rain" during the band's back-to-back Buenos Aires shows in December 1992. The music seemed to pour out of Rose as he sat hunched over the piano, eyes closed, fingers gliding across the keys. It was a startlingly tender and intimate moment on a tour defined by personal excess and musical bombast. It was memorialized on Guns N' Roses'  Live Era '87–'93 , released in 1999.

"Jumpin' Jack Flash" Original: The Rolling Stones

Another outtake from the 1986 Sound City sessions, Guns' souped-up "Jumpin' Jack Flash" cover pays homage to their heroes while updating the Stones' blues-rock tumult for a new generation. Rose is all swagger and sass with his  "sha-na-na-na-na-na-now, honey! " ad-libs, while Steven Adler 's drums threaten to crash and burn under Slash's white-knuckle solos. Grainy live footage from 1986 shows GNR whipping the packed Troubadour crowd into a sweaty frenzy with "Jumpin' Jack Flash," a testament to their primal ferocity onstage and a rock 'n' roll pedigree that went much deeper than most of their Sunset Strip peers. The group also cut a ramshackle acoustic version of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" at Sound City, which would have sounded right at home on Side 2 of  Lies .

"Piece of Me" Original: Skid Row

Before Guns N' Roses took Skid Row on the road during the  Use Your Illusion  Tour and embarked on a calamitous co-headlining stadium trek with Metallica , all three bands shared the stage at the Hollywood Palladium in December 1990 for an anniversary party celebrating RIP  magazine. The makeshift supergroup, charmingly titled the GAK — featuring Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan , Sebastian Bach , James Hetfield , Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich — plowed through a six-song set featuring music from all three bands and a sizzling rendition of Nazareth's "Hair of the Dog." Rose took lead vocals on a furious rendition of Skid Row's "Piece of Me," unleashing his sandpapery howl and shimmying across the stage with a look of steely determination. The GAK may have been a one-off, but the GN'R frontman was still out for blood.

"Salt of the Earth" Original: The Rolling Stones

Two months after Guns N’ Roses spent four nights opening for the Rolling Stones at the L.A. Coliseum in October 1989 (during which Rose gave his notorious onstage ultimatum to his bandmates to stop dancing with “Mr. Goddamn Brownstone”), Rose and Stradlin joined the band onstage during their pay-per-view Atlantic City show to perform Beggars Banquet deep cut "Salt of the Earth." Despite all the drama preceding the show — Rose was nearly a no-show once again — the joint performance was electrifying. Rose did his signature serpentine dance as he traded lines with Mick Jagger (even cracking a smile in the process!), while Stradlin struck an insouciant pose alongside his heroes Keith Richards and Ron Wood. Rose’s god complex was already threatening to tear apart GNR, but for five transfixing minutes all the behind-the-scenes turmoil melted away.

"Tie Your Mother Down" Original: Queen

"This is a song that I listened to for years and never felt right with the sound of my voice singing it," Axl Rose declared before welcoming Queen's Brian May onstage at Wembley Stadium in June 1992. That didn't inhibit the frontman from leading Guns N' Roses through a live-wire rendition of one of Queens' most metallic singles, " Tie Your Mother Down ." Contrary to Rose's belief, his raspy roar fit the song like a glove, while Slash and May delivered a guitar-shredding clinic, trading off volcanic solos. Bounding across the stage in white high-tops and drainpipe jeans, May gave his 15-year juniors a run for their money and reminded fans that his monolithic riffs were a crucial component of Queen's stadium-rock supremacy.

"Train Kept A-Rollin'" Original: Tiny Bradshaw (popularized by Aerosmith)

Fans who attended Guns N' Roses' Paris show in June 1992 got a surprise for the ages when the band welcomed Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry to the stage for two songs during the encore. The rockers ripped through an incendiary version of "Mama Kin," which GNR previously covered on  Lies , but the real highlight was a breathless cover of "Train Kept A-Rollin'," with Slash and Perry trading fretboard-melting solos. Tyler also kept pace with the hyperkinetic Rose, strutting across the stage with his scarf-adorned mic stand and letting rip his trademark falsetto shriek. Aerosmith's sleazy '70s albums helped birth GNR, and in Paris, the revitalized teachers proved they could still effortlessly keep up with their disciples.

"We Will Rock You" Original: Queen

You thought Guns were gonna let May off the stage without playing this one? At the same Wembley 1992 concert where they performed "Tie Your Mother Down," Rose strutted and kicked across the stage as he belted out Queen's a cappella super-hit. But as May broke into his heroic outro solo, they threw fans a curveball, launching into a high-speed, full-band version of the song that once again allowed May and Slash to rip blazing, call-and-response solos. It's one of the most engaging facelifts Guns have ever given to a classic-rock staple, and it's a shame they never worked it into their regular sets.

"Whole Lotta Rosie" Original: AC/DC

Guns N' Roses were putting a ferocious spin on this AC/DC single as early as 1985. They performed it several times over the next two years, including a red-hot rendition at London's Marquee Club in 1987, which they included on their  Appetite for Destruction  deluxe reissue. It would prove portentous for lifelong Bon Scott disciple Axl Rose, who performed the song with AC/DC when he filled in for Brian Johnson  on several of their  2016 tour dates .  Angus Young repaid the favor by barreling through "Whole Lotta Rosie" with GNR at their much-ballyhooed Coachella reunion that same year. Guns continued to include the song in their reunion set lists through 2018.

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Guns N’ Roses ‘Use Your Illusions': 20 Facts Only Superfans Would Know

Appetite for Destruction  may have been the best-selling debut album of all time, but some of Guns N' Roses' best masterpieces were found a few years later when they released the  Use Your Illusion  albums.

The albums, released as two double LPs on Sept. 17, 1991, are seen by many as the beginning of the end of the world's most dangerous band. After going from five guys living in the same loft to absolute superstars within just a few short years, both success and excess started to tear the members apart.

In come the pianos, background vocalists, and million-dollar music videos and you have perhaps the final great work of Guns N' Roses. Though they went on to release the punk-covers album  The Spaghetti Incident?,  the classic lineup of the band dissolved over the next few years.

Axl Rose released  Chinese Democracy  a decade and a half later with a new band behind him, but Duff McKagan and Slash have since returned to the band for the  Not in This Lifetime  tour, and new music is highly anticipated.. As heard in the  Use Your Illusion II  song "Breakdown," " Everything was roses when we held onto the guns. "

On the anniversary of the two albums, here are 17 facts only superfans would know.

1. They sold exceptionally well right off the bat.

According to a New York Times article from 1991, a spokesperson on behalf of Geffen Records said the two albums sold 500,000 copies in the first two hours of their release. That was without the help of major retailers like Kmart and Walmart, who refused to stock the albums due to their levels of profanity.

2. Both albums topped the charts.

Use Your Illusion II  was the slightly more popular of the two albums, debuting at No. 1 with 770,000 sales in its first week.  UYI I  debuted at No. 2 with 685,000 copies. The two albums dominated the top of the chart at the same time the week of Oct. 5, 1991.

3. "Fuck you, St. Louis!"

After Rose's casual stage dive during "Rocket Queen" at their show in St. Louis in July of 1991, "Fuck you, St. Louis!" was included in the liner notes for the albums. The band wouldn't play in the city again until 2017.

4. Some of the songs were written before  Appetite.

"Don't Cry," "Back Off Bitch," "Bad Obsession," "The Garden," "You Could Be Mine" and "November Rain" were all written prior to the release of  Appetite for Destruction,  but were left off for several different reasons. "Don't Cry" was often performed by the band during their early days on the Sunset Strip before they were even signed.

Rose had a skeletal, piano-only version of "November Rain" written years before he was in the band. A piano version and an acoustic version were both recorded during their 1986 Sound City sessions.

5. When "Civil War" led to a civil war.

"Civil War" was the first track recorded for the Illusion  albums, and the last featuring original drummer Steven Adler . He had a longstanding battle with drug addiction, as did several other members of the band, but it affected his work more than it did for the others.

When it came time to record the song, he was nodding out in the studio and could barely play. The engineers had to layer the different segments Adler had recorded into one track. He was fired shortly after.

6. Where's Izzy?

Izzy Stradlin didn't stick around much longer either. He quietly left the band in November of 1991, just two months after the albums were released. The band was no longer the way he saw it during the  Appetite  years, so Gilby Clarke took his place. There's a brief flash of a "Where's Izzy" sign in the "Don't Cry" video.

7. "Without You"

The videos for "Don't Cry," "November Rain" and "Estranged," played in that order, are viewed by Axl Rose as a sort of movie. The treatments for the videos are based on the short story  " Without You"   by Del James, a friend of Axl's, in the book  The Language of Fear.  James wrote the story based on the lyrics to "November Rain," which were written years before the song was completed.

Victoria's Secret model Stephanie Seymour was cast in the "Don't Cry" video, and she and Rose immediately started dating. She also stars in the perplexing "November Rain" video, where her character dies. The couple broke up before the filming of "Estranged," making the videos fit the theme of "Without You" even further.

8. Axl Rose put the pen to the paper.

The energetic, angry number "Don't Damn Me," featured on  UYI I,  is a direct response to the backlash Rose received in the years prior due to the controversial  GN'R Lies  track, "One in a Million." Though the singer has since acknowledged the ferocity of the song, he stood by his beliefs when recording the  Illusions.

" So I send this song to the offended / I said what I meant and I've never pretended / As so many others do intending just to please / If I damned your point of view / Could you turn the other cheek "

9. A synthesized masterpiece.

"November Rain" is the most epic ballad on the records, known for its orchestral and string section. But...they're not real. Rose actually orchestrated the arrangement himself using keyboard tones. The only times a real orchestra played the song with Guns was during the recording of the music video, and the band's performance of the song at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, where Rose was joined by Sir Elton John on the piano.

10. A little help from Hoon.

Blind Melon frontman Shannon Hoon offered guest vocals on "Live and Let Die,” “November Rain,” “The Garden,” “You Ain’t the First” and “Don’t Cry.” He's even featured in the "Don't Cry" video, and performed it live several times with the band. Also hailing from Indiana, Hoon's sister knew Rose, which is how they developed a friendship and eventual collaboration.

11. Hidden message in "Locomotive."

In the  UYI II  "Locomotive," which was one of Slash's personal favorites, Rose sings a set of lyrics that some have speculated were a message in response to the criticism he received when making the albums. Many who have worked with the frontman have admitted that he's an absolute perfectionist, so the albums took much longer to complete than they would have if there weren't so many extravagant elements included.

" You can use your illusion / Let it take you where it may / We live and learn and then sometimes it's best to walk away / Me I'm just here hangin' on / It's my only place to stay at least for now anyway / I've worked too hard for my illusions / Just to throw them all away "

12. Zap him again!

UYI I's  closer, "Coma," is the longest song Guns N' Roses have ever released. The song is personal to both Slash and Rose, who wrote the lyrics based on a time he overdosed. "It's Slash's baby," Rose told MTV in an interview in 1992. "But I started writing about when I OD'd four years ago. The reason I OD'd was because of stress, I couldn't take it. I grabbed this bottle of pills in an argument and just gulped them down, and I ended up in the hospital."

"But I liked that I wasn't in the fight anymore. I was fully conscious that I was leaving," he continues. Apparently, the anticipation of the album coming out and the tour is what forced him awake.

13. "November Rain" broke records.

Clocking in at just under nine minutes, "November Rain" peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the longest song to ever crack the Top 10 of that chart. The video was also the oldest music video on YouTube to hit a billion views until 2019, when Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" beat it.

14. The Godfather of Shock Rock made an appearance.

Alice Cooper himself sang on "The Garden" after Slash mentioned that Rose's vocal style sounded like him on the song. This wasn't the band's first rodeo with Cooper, as they had been invited to open for him in the mid-'80s. Rose never showed up for the show, so McKagan and Stradlin improvised on vocals instead. Luckily, he forgave them.

15. A head and an arm.

" Found a head and an arm in a garbage can " is the opening line of the song "Double Talkin' Jive," and it's based on a true story. Police found body parts in a dumpster near a studio when the band was recording. Stradlin sings that line and the rest of the verses, and Rose is on the choruses.

16. The Perils of Rock N' Roll Decadence.

"Pretty Tied Up" was written by Stradlin after befriending a dominatrix. "She gave us some tequila or something and she goes in the bedroom and we walk in and there's this big fat naked guy with an onion in his mouth. He's wearing women's underwear and high heels and he's tied up with duct tape against the wall," he told Musician .

There's a play-on words later in the song, where "cool and stressing" is actually pronounced "kool ranch dres'ing" — specified in the lyrics.

17. A sociopsychotic state of bliss.

The final track of  UYI II  is the industrial, synth-rap track "My World." The song is credited only to Rose, who apparently was on shrooms when he wrote it. The rest of the band didn't know the song even existed, but the singer went ahead and made sure it was included in the new song catalog.

18. A story of a man.

"So Fine," co-sang by both Rose and McKagan, was written entirely by the bassist as a tribute to New York Dolls guitarist Johnny Thunders. McKagan was heavily influenced by punk, and Thunders was his idol.

19. Axl Rose played a little guitar on it.

Rose wrote and played the opening riff for the song "Dead Horse," which appears on  UYI I.  He's seen playing it in the music video and there is footage of him playing it live as well.

20. Its mission was to "bury  Appetite."

While Appetite for Destruction  was responsible for skyrocketing the band into stardom, they knew they had a lot of work to do to live up to expectations. "I just want to bury Appetite . I like the album, but I'm sick of it. I don't want to live my life through that one album," Rose told MTV in 1988.

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Guns N’ Roses Setlist at Milton Keynes National Bowl, Milton Keynes, England

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• Nightrain Play Video
• Mr. Brownstone Play Video
• Live and Let Die ( Wings  cover) Play Video
• Welcome to the Jungle Play Video
• Attitude ( Misfits  cover) Play Video
• It's So Easy Play Video
• Double Talkin' Jive Play Video
• You Ain't the First Play Video
• You're Crazy Play Video
• Used to Love Her Play Video
• Patience ( with I Was Only Joking (intro) & Imagine ) Play Video
• Knockin' on Heaven's Door ( Bob Dylan  cover) Play Video
• November Rain Play Video
• Dead Horse Play Video
• Drum Solo ( Matt Sorum ) Play Video
• You Could Be Mine Play Video
• Slash Guitar Solo Play Video
• Love Theme from The Godfather ( Nino Rota  cover) ( Godfather Theme ) Play Video
• Sweet Child o' Mine Play Video
• Paradise City ( Pink Floyd's Mother Intro ) Play Video

Note: Izzy Stradlin is filling in for Gilby Clarke on rythm guitar.

Edits and Comments

51 activities (last edit by event_monkey , 20 Jan 2024, 12:17 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• It's So Easy
• Mr. Brownstone
• Paradise City
• Sweet Child o' Mine
• Welcome to the Jungle
• You're Crazy
• Double Talkin' Jive
• November Rain
• You Ain't the First
• Attitude by Misfits
• Knockin' on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan
• Live and Let Die by Wings
• Love Theme from The Godfather by Nino Rota
• Used to Love Her
• Slash Guitar Solo
• You Could Be Mine

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